3 Months In OTR Musings / Observations

Support smaller mom n pop truck stops when you can!

I end up at a lot of Pilot/FJ'S because it's where my company wants me to fuel, ergo, I get free showers, but I hate them. Signs everywhere "Truckers keep America fed" and "Have you hugged a trucker today?" And then they want $8 for a tube of Crest because they know they got you trapped and they can. "Premium parking", "Premium wifi", etc.

Meanwhile, there's a sadly dwindling subset of smaller places with better food, usually better parking, where they just seem to care more about the lifestyle, that you're going to miss because their results on Google searches get pushed out by the 2 big boys.

I can't believe people actually did this job before GPS directions and Google satellite view. Seriously unbelievable. Like you just went in to these tight shippers with some written down directions and no clue what you were getting into? Hats all the way off.

There's a small contingent of us that suck real bad, and gives us all a bad name. Do better. I almost got in a fistfight last week after watching a dude place a bag of his feces on the ground, then proceed to dump out his ashtray next to it at a Pilot in Evanston, WY. The trash can was 10 feet away. I couldn't let it stand. I went and banged on his door and was like "WTF did you just do?" He cleaned it up.

I can't believe people actually did this job before GPS directions and Google satellite view. Seriously unbelievable. Like you just went in to these tight shippers with some written down directions and no clue what you were getting into? Hats all the way off.

If you could afford it, you bought a laminated Rand McNally map. Otherwise you bought paper ones.

You would use a steno notepad to write down your trip info, leaving room to write down directions from the shipper or receiver. You used a pay phone in a phone booth or a phone on the table in a truck stop restaurant.

Mom and Pop truck stops usually had dirt lots with lots of craters in them. Inside it was usually dingy, dirty and the showers were nasty.

At all truck stops, whether they were big ones or little ones, you paid for fuel with a comcheck, or whatever your company used. The fuel desk was always busy and sometimes you had to wait 30 minutes to get your check handed in and your fuel paid for.

There were more weigh stations than there are now and they were open 24 hours a day as a rule. Drivers kept two or three notebooks to keep their logs and if the chicken coop was open, you would see trucks on a ramp or even just parked in the emergency lane catching up their logs.

It was different back then, but really not that different from what we do now.

Laura

Laura,

What a great post! Brings back the memories from the 60's-80's. No computers, no DEF, no E-logs, less traffic. The job may be the same but the conditions we did it in sure was more enjoyable. And while I'm at it how have you been? It's been a couple years since we met at the J in Ft. Chiswell, Va. We are still Rving. Stay safe