Is Trucking In Your Blood?

Would you drive a truck if the trucking company you worked for only paid you enough to cover your bills at home and your meals, but nothing more after that? For me the answer would be yes. I love driving and I would do it for free. Trucking is in my blood. Do you love driving a truck? Really love it? If so, then trucking is in your blood. To me, there is a difference between liking your job and loving it. Liking your job means you enjoy going to work, you enjoy the people you work with, you enjoy doing your job. Loving your job means you would do it for free! For me, trucking fits the bill.

Nothing In Trucking Is Easy

There are plenty of tough circumstances to deal with as a driver.

• Being away from home for long periods at a time
• Bad attitudes from customers, the general public, and from other drivers
• Being held up at the dock
• Outrageous lumper fees
• High prices at the truck stops
• Crowded highways and backed-up construction zones
• Roads covered in snow and ice
• Ignorant truck drivers and 4 wheelers
• Dealing with the DOT and all the rules and regulations

Anyway you slice it, there's nothing easy about trucking. So why do I put up with these things on a constant basis? Why????

I Really Love Driving Truck

Because I love my job. I love seeing our country. It's always a new place every day. Meeting new people, seeing new things, and in my case (I'm an owner-operator) being my own boss. I enjoy making the best decisions I can, knowing that I made them, and no one else but me. I love learning new things all the time. At times I'll have a frustrating situation present itself and after making the right choices to overcome it I know I can take pride in myself for having gotten through it on my own.

I also love things like waking up in a rest area in Washington State and seeing a doe (female deer) walk out of the woods with two little fawns following close behind. It's incredible knowing that they are still exploring the new world as it opens up to them. Or stopping on the side of the road and helping an elderly lady change a flat tire because she couldn't do it herself, and accepting no money in return because it made me feel good to help someone out. It is these things and many, many more that are too numerous to mention that are the reasons why I love doing my job. I can honestly say without a doubt that I would do my job for free. It's the unique, interesting, and often times amazing things that come with driving a truck that get me out of the sleeper each day and going down the road.

A Freedom Few Will Ever Know

I have a freedom unlike any other in the world. I am an American Truck Driver. Trucking will take you so many places you would likely never see if you had a normal job at home. I drive down the road because there are unseen parts of this great country of ours that are calling my name. They are beckoning to me from around that next curve and over that distant mountain range. Whether it's sunny and beautiful, or snowy with ice packed roads, I continue driving because something inside me tells me I must.

The Knights Of The Road

I also love the challenges the job presents. My load must be delivered. My truck must make it to the next stop. People are depending on me to do my job so they can do theirs. I have a lot of responsibility. I am a professional driver and I take my job seriously. Though truck drivers have gotten a bad name out here in recent years, I know I can hold my head high because I have done my best to show the world that not all truck drivers are a$$holes.

Can you do the same? Can you do your part to show "Joe Public" that we are still The Knights of the Road? I know it's dangerous to stop on the side of the road nowadays but there are different ways to show we still care about our fellow drivers out here on the road, both 4-wheelers and truck drivers alike. Don't tailgate. Slow down in parking lots and construction zones. Show courteously to everyone on the road no matter how badly you would like to see what your truck grill would look like as a part of the car in front of you because you were cut off. Drivers, and to those considering becoming a truck driver, please remember that the person driving the vehicle in front of you is someone's son, daughter, mom, dad, brother, sister or it may even be your own family. Slow down. No load is so hot that you have to lay the truck on its side to cool it down. Going a little faster will not help you gain much if you get pulled over and get a ticket or get into a wreck. Well I think I will close for now. Be safe out there, drive with pride, and keep the rubber side down.

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