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Did you know that even if a
Truck Driver has their spouse or even their 5 year old child
in the truck,
it is against the law in some states to have heat or air
conditioning in that truck if they have to idle their engine?
I don't know if
I'm fired up, or just fed up. Maybe it's a little of both, but
if drivers today are so
gutless they'll let some trucking company or some state treat
their spouse or their child worse than a dog,
I guess they'll put up with anything.
Drivers, you had better start joining
together, forming groups and organizations with other drivers in
your company or in your area, and start working together RIGHT
NOW!
Unfortunately I do not have the time, the money, or the
resources to try and bring all of the drivers or anyone else in
this country together on my own, so I'm not going to do it for
you, and neither is anyone else.
I don't care what union or trucking organization you belong to,
how much you pay in dues or membership fees, or if you drive a
triple digit large car with your name on the title, or you drive
a Swift, Schneider, J.B. Hunt truck, or any other company truck.
Every Trucker has to put aside their differences and start
working with each other.
You can send all the money you want to any group or
organization there is, but until each and every one of you start
standing up, talking to each other like adults on the C.B., at
the truck stops, at your terminals, your yards, at the docks,
and anywhere else you're at, and you start forming your own
small groups at your company or in your area, and then start
getting those groups to start working together, I will guarantee
you that things are only going to get worse.
I know I've fought tooth and nail for over 20 years now to try
and get drivers to start working together before it's too late,
and I've had no problem stating my opinion and either cleaning
out a company truck or walking away if the company I was with
introduced a new policy that I didn't think was fair or
equitable to the drivers, but now I'm on the verge of hanging it
up and saying to hell with the whole industry.
I was talking to a friend of mine
on the phone when I got home from my last run,
and he told me another Driver friend of his had called him
asking for help. This Driver told my friend that the company he
drives for had enacted a new policy stating that if Drivers idle
their trucks to have heat in the winter or air conditioning in
the summer, they would be charged for the fuel the truck used.
My friend did what he could, and that was to remind the other
driver that there is strength in numbers, and he should talk to
the other drivers that worked for that company and rally
together to take a stand and refuse to drive the companies
trucks until the company changed the new policy. While the
company may not like this, they would have to choose between
firing every driver they had on the spot (and try to explain to
all of their customers why their freight wasn't being delivered)
and try to hire new drivers A.S.A.P., or agree that the new
policy was unfair and revoke it.
So did it work? I'm sure it would have, but the driver told my
friend he didn't think he could do that, hung up, and that was
the end of it.
This is getting ridiculous. Do office workers get deductions
taken out of their paychecks if they want to have heat and AC in
their office? Do warehouse and dock workers have to take a pay
cut if they have fans running to help keep the temperature
inside the warehouse tolerable? Is Wal Mart going to start
charging their employees for the cost of each stores utility
bill? That truck is the Driver's workplace, not their home. I
don't care if diesel reaches $20 a gallon, these no idling rules
and laws are getting out of hand.
No wonder the big trucking companies would rather hire someone
fresh out of driving school than hire me. If they tell me I have
to freeze to death or sweat my butt off when I'm trying to sleep
or relax, and all for the privilege of driving their truck, I'll
make it very clear what part of their anatomy they can stick
their truck in. I guess the driving school graduates or drivers
with minimal experience might actually think this is how
Trucking is suppose to be and put up with that crap.
I don't care how much experience you
do or don't have, TRUCKERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS, AND WE DESERVE TO
BE TREATED WITH A LITTLE BIT OF COMMON DECENCY! WHEN IS ENOUGH
GOING TO BE ENOUGH!?
The average turnover rate in the trucking industry is around
140%, second only to the waitress industry. Most drivers would
rather bounce from one company to another looking for that
greener grass on the other side of the fence than take a stand
and try to improve the conditions where they're at.
There is no greener grass any longer. Accept that fact and
start working together to make things better where you're at!
Many of the people that have only been driving a few years have
no idea that while Truckers may never have been treated with a
high level of respect, at least there was a time we were treated
like human beings.
A lot of trucking companies won't let the driver idle their
truck for heat and air conditioning at all, but I'll bet that
the companies office building has heat and air conditioning.
I've pointed that out to a few people in a management position
at some companies, and asked them if it was because the company
thinks a dispatcher or anyone else is somehow better than the
Trucker Drivers that work for them. Their response? They said of
course not, but they have to keep the offices temperature
controlled because of the computers. So in other words,
they feel Truckers are more worthless than a computer.
Did you know that
now a dog has more rights than a Truck Driver does?
It is illegal to idle your truck in some
states. Regardless of the outside temperature, or whether or not
there are any facilities like IdleAire available that offer
these services (when's the last time you saw an IdleAire hook up
at a dock you were sitting at?), and it doesn't matter if it's
just the driver in the truck, or they have their spouse
or even their 5 year old child in the
truck, it is against the law to have heat or air conditioning in
that truck if they have to idle their engine for
it. I've heard that California is even trying to make it illegal
to use an APU, and these units were designed exclusively to
reduce idling.
But don't worry, if you have a dog, a pet mouse, a pet rat or
any other animal, the ASPCA says that it's cruel to make that
animal suffer without heat or air conditioning, so you had
better idle that truck and keep it comfortable inside for that
animal. This is the REAL reason so many companies still allow
riders, but no longer allow pets.
Think about that. As a Trucker,
these states, shippers and receivers (Wal Mart for example), and
even the trucking companies you're working for are telling you
that not only you, but YOUR SPOUSE AND YOUR KIDS are a lower
form of life than a dog, a mouse, or even a rat!
Driver, it's bad enough you're letting your company tell
you that you're a worthless piece of trash that's lower than any
other animal on this planet, and worth less than a lousy piece
of computer equipment. It's sad that you'll stand by and be told
you're so worthless you don't deserve to have heat or air
conditioning when you're parked trying to relax or sleep, and
that the money it cost in fuel to idle that truck is more
important than your health, your comfort, your safety, and you
as a person.
But if you run for a company that tells you that you can take
your wife/husband or your kids with you, but you can't idle your
truck to provide them with heat or cool air when you're stopped,
that company is telling you that your wife/husband, and your
kids are as worthless as you are.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but you can call me what you want and I
might put up with it. Insult my wife and I don't care how big
you are, how tough you are, and whether or not you can beat the
tar out of me, you'd better have God on your side, because He's
about the only one that's going to stop me from tearing into
you.
Driver, I'm going
to tell you plain and simple, and I'm going to say it straight
up. It's no wonder so many of you
won't stand together and fight back. If you're so gutless you'll
put up with that, then you really will put up with anything. |
