Of Two Videos

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 12/21/14 Of Two Videos

I shared two videos today on Facebook. One was the dash cam video of a truck driver minding his business traveling down the road when a vehicle stopped at a stop sign decides to just pull out in front of his truck at the last moment.  The second video was also of a vehicle pulling out in front of a truck travel down the highway at the last moment.  In both videos, the truck being pulled in front of acted professionally and saved the life of the person that pulled out in front of them.  What was the difference between the two videos you might ask, the driver that messed up?  In one video, it was the driver of a car while in the second video it was the driver of a truck.

All too often, I will hear stories of how car drivers are doing this in front of me.  Then from the other side how truck drivers are doing that.  What I have come to understand from all of this is no matter what we drive from tricycle to super hauler, be it a man or a women, we all have one thing in common, we are human.  Each and every one of us at some point in our driving life will eventually make a mistake.  We will run into the kitchen table and bump our head or we might find ourselves sitting in what used to be our vehicle wondering what in the heck just happened.  Not the first one of us will ever be picture perfect their entire driving career.

 

So where does that leave us, what can we do?  Every day we share the highways with thousands of drivers just as imperfect as we ourselves are and understanding that fact is the first step to keeping our highways safe for everybody.  You see if we adopt the attitude that I am always going to be prepared for when that driver does pull out in front of me.  I am not going to tailgate because that driver in front of me might get pulled out in front of.  I am going to slow down here because a child might lose control of their tricycle and come out from those parked cars.  In short, drive in such a manner that of all the things I think could simply never happen right now, that I am prepared to handle when they do without warning.  Then just as the professional truckers in the videos I shared this morning, I will find that once again I saved the life of another person that simply made a mistake and almost took mine.

 

It is all about attitude.  It is all about our willingness to keep those we share the highways with safe and alive, just doing our number one jobs as truckers.  At this time of year with everyone traveling around thinking about having their Merry Christmas, keeping our minds on the road is more important than ever.

Keep it safe folks.  Have a Merry Christmas.

 

 

God Bless America

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Bullwhip And Chair

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 12/6/14 Bullwhip And Chair

I remember a story I heard many years back about a man paid a million dollars to run a steel plant.  The reason he was paid this amount was not so much that he knew all that much about steel, but more so because he knew how to handle people.  One day as he was walking through the plant he noticed three employees standing inside under the no smoking sign smoking their cigarettes.  As he walks up to them, he asks how their day is going, about their families and their favorite sports team.  After he chats with them for a bit, never saying one word about the rule they were breaking, he reaches into his pocket and hands them each a cigar.  He then tells them that he would appreciate it if they would smoke them outside in the designated smoking area and walks off.  He never seen those employees smoking inside again and they maintained a great working relationship as time went on.

Where I work now, with a company at a company, I see many bosses and their employee's interact with each other all day long.  Many contractors come onto the property with their employees as well as many truck drivers delivering and picking up loads. My job as a spotter has me interacting with many of these people, some just occasionally, others many times each day.  The one thing I have noticed about all of this is just how true the story of the man who was paid a million dollars to run that plant.

It does not take long to figure out just whom it is you want to approach when a problem arises. Those that demand respect, then crack that whip are generally ignored and receive very little respect.  People hide their mistakes from them, problems go unsolved and the work and relationships suffer.  On the other hand, those I see taking the time to talk, ask questions and then bring the other person in on the solution are looked up to.  People seek them out when a problem arises instead of hiding in fear of a crack from the whip. 

As truckers we often find ourselves meeting and working with people all of the time.  The people we work with on a daily bases or those we meet and never see again in just a few minutes all  have a affect on how our day goes.  Building a respectful and trusting relationship is essential for us to be able to do our jobs as safely and legally as we can. 

I always found that lending a sympatric ear to my long time friends went a long way while with those I will only know for a few short minutes making them laugh would usually do the trick.  What I always loved was a rude trucker in front of me so that when they stormed off, I could side with the other person and they would tend to my needs first letting the rude trucker sit and steam.  I learned early on in my career that handing out cigars was a lot better way of dealing with people then picking up a bullwhip and chair.

 

 

God Bless America

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Starvation

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 11/8/14 Starvation

Starvation as many safe and legal truckers have found out is a very wicked weapon used by some companies.  You see they force such drivers from their ranks simply by letting them sit without pay rather than to fire them risking legal action for refusing loads or equipment  that are unsafe or illegal to run.  I know from an experience I had a few years back just how this works and why I decided to move my truck to a company where I had the options to select which agents I would work for as I seen fit. 

Still today though many company drivers are locked into working for one company or the other hoping that they never have to take a chance and just say no.  Because each time they do, they never really know if they will be placed on the "starve out" list because they are no longer considered team players.

For me, as the years went by in my trucking career I found myself moving from company to company then finally becoming an Owner Operator in the hopes of finally finding a place in the trucking industry where I as a safe and legal driver could survive without having to risk the lives of the people I share the highway with.  I thought I had found home with one of the largest companies in America and for several years, I made a good living supporting both my family and my truck.  Always demanding to run safe and always demanding to run legal.

In fact, so much was I able to do this that in fifteen years my company never once had a problem with me.  I received my Million Mile Safe Driving Award and my record shows no preventable accidents.  Not one time in all those years can you even find a load that I was late on and to my knowledge, as perfect a record as a driver could have.  In the end though, I found myself driving a truck that was lacking in funds to do even simple repairs and my family wondering if dad was going to be able to pay the rent this month.

How could this happen you might ask?  Simple, while I built my reputation as a safe and legal driver working for a company that demands safe and legal drivers work for them, agents, brokers, shippers, and receivers demanded drivers that could get the job done.  Yes, they all claimed safety as their company motto, but when it came down to it, drivers like me were set aside while they used drivers that would get the job done. 

Even inside the safety net of a major company, there simply was not enough protection for this safe and legal driver to survive the unwritten rules of the trucking industry.  Move the freight regardless or go sit on the sidelines and starve.

Perhaps one day this dream of mine for drivers to be able to run safe and legal without reprisal will come true.  As for now though, I do believe we are heading in the right direction but still have a long way to go.  Knowing that a driver will make a safe and legal decision with a load should not be a reason to starve that driver from your drivers list.  It has to become the number one reason to put that driver at the top of your list.  Until that day comes, our highways will stay littered with the bodies of those that will pay the ultimate price because way to many times truckers are forced to choose between starvation or feeding their families.

If you want safe and legal truckers on the highways, first you must understand that we do exist.  Then you must support us or just as I have found out myself, we are simply be starved out of the industry.

 

God Bless America

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Just Thanks

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 10/19/14 Just Thanks

For about three weeks now, I have been hanging around the house instead of motivating around the country in my big truck.  Sammy my lizard sidekick and I have been enjoying the home life while we work out a few of life's problems.  During my stay home, I have been able to do things that many truckers just never have the time to do like fix the wife's car instead of sending it out to a shop and paying out of the nose to get it fixed right.

Hanging around the house I have found myself doing many such chores like fixing the lawn mower, cleaning out some storage space and of course Sammy needed a safe place form the new kittens so I took some old fish tanks apart and made him a new lizard pad complete with reptile lighting and a second story to boot.

I have come to enjoy planning shopping trips with the wife and me sitting down and eating meals with my family.  I like being able to attend church every Sunday and believe it or not, I even had a short date with my wife.  You know, just her and I alone sitting down having a burger, just spending a little time without the rush of me leaving again for who knows how long this time.

Home time, having a life able to do all the things that many truckers miss out of being able to do because their job keeps them away from home so much of the time.  At the drop of a hat, I could if I wanted to go to a city council meeting or a local school ball game. I could if I decided to plan a party just to have a party or grab the family and meet a friend's family just for ice cream.  A walk to the bottom of the hill to my favorite spot on my favorite lake is just a moment away instead a weeks of hoping that when I finally get home, I have the time to do it instead of rushing out on my next trip.

Home time is reminding me of all the things that I as a trucker have missed over the years.  Reminding me of the things that I will never be able to go back and see or do.  But most of all it is reminding me that while I am sitting here enjoying my home time that some trucker somewhere is sitting out there missing out on their home time.  Because they are, I am able to go shopping with my wife and sit down with my family for a meal because some trucker somewhere delivered the world to me on the back of their truck.

I just wanted to take a moment tonight and thank them for the tough job they do and the time they spend away from their home and wish for them a good day as they travel our nation's highways.  I pray that they stay safe out there and that all the miles they travel for me and my family be safe miles. 

I hope for them that soon, they will find the home time that not only they, but their loved ones as well deserve so that they might enjoy a little bit of the life they sacrifice giving the rest of us a normal life.  Truckers, where would we be without them?  Thanks for all you do for our families and our country.

God Bless America

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Proctology Exams

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 9/28/14 Proctology Exams

Looks can be deceiving I have always heard and in a courtroom, well, they can hang your butt quicker than just about anything else there is.  I have been flipping around Face book this fine Sunday morning and as I did, I came across a couple of different post that had one thing in common.  The common thing being what happens when those on the outside look inside to the cab of your truck and just what it is you are doing in there.  One post I seen was a news story where a million dollars was awarded simply on the fact that a driver took pictures while driving and another was asking about safe and legal sleep aids for truckers.

 

Now I know we are all safe drivers and we do everything thing we can to run legal.  Simple fact is though many of the folks that we share the highway with are not let us say as professional minded as we try to be and will from time to time bump into us.  When this happens, injuries sometimes occur or God forbid a death. Of course the fact that we just happen to drive a truck means big bucks even if nothing happens beyond a little scratched paint. 

 

To win these big awards all they have to do is prove a pattern of you doing unsafe things while driving your truck.  They do not have to prove that you were actually engaging in an unsafe practice at the time of the accident.  In the case above with the million dollar award, the driver had posted pictures taken while driving down the road.  This showed a pattern of distracted driving so, the case settled simply on the fact that at some point in time, the driver had driven while distracted taking a picture. 

 

As for the question about safe and legal sleep aids for truckers, what do you think some high priced lawyer would do with a bottle of sleep aids, even the natural not one whiff of drugs contained  within kind?  Right off the bat you were sleepy due to misuse of the product and now their client is deformed and for life will have to live with the outcome of some unsafe trucker that was not properly rested and doped up on sleep aids.  Do they have to prove this, not in any way shape or form.  All they have to do is bring it up and the insurance company and your attorney will cave because basically when this fact hits the jury, your done.  Cheaper to settle out of court and the driver walks away looking for a new career even though at the time of the accident, the driver was completely safe and legal in their actions.

 

Keep in mind, anything in your truck from simple cold medication to an empty soda pop bottle lying around will be used to show you in a very dim light in front of a jury.  Anything you post in public can and will be scrutinized and used against you when the time comes.  These settlements are worth millions and they will stop at nothing to show you for the unsafe common thug truck driver that everyone knows us truckers to be to win them.

 

My advice, live like you have a camera designed for a proctology exam following you around every moment of the day.  Because if you should ever be unlucky enough and they think the reward will be big enough, you are going to feel each inch of that camera as they use it without grease to probe where no one wants them to be probing.  And you thought you loved trucking.  Well, trucking is still fun, what they are doing to us, not so much.

 

BTW.  How much you want to bet that this post could or would be warped into I intentionally hide the proof of my wrongdoing and unsafe driving habits?  Oh well, if they really want me, they will find some screwed up way to get me.

 

God Bless America

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What Difference Does It Make

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 9/16/14 What Difference Does It Make

Today, I did what I normally do not do.  When I went inside to get a little something for breakfast instead of walking past the counter up front I actually sat down at it.   Now everyone knows where the bull flows at a truck stop restaurant and sure enough, I sat right down into a big pile of it this morning.  One particular conversation I found myself into really got me caught up into it.  "You see driver" I said, " When a driver takes a loaded eighteen wheeler and follows less than two feet behind a family at highways speeds. I think that is dangerous and someone needs to speak out about the problem."

As luck would have it my new found friend believed that even though it might be dangerous,  we should simply let the drivers company and the police do their job and stay out of it.  To each their own I say but I had to ask.  So If someone took  a loaded pistol and started waving it around in front of a group of people, you are saying that that is perfectly fine and that you should say or do nothing, just walk away and mind your own business.  My friend said"well no, it is a gun and no one should be waving around such a dangerous thing in front of people, someone might get killed by accident."

So I ask my friend, "What difference does it make if it is some clown with a loaded gun or a truck driver in a eighty thousand pound truck endangering the lives within just feet of them?  Think about I said, What is the difference in the kind of danger that makes you say one I should speak up and ask that the gun be put down while on the other hand you would look the other way because you do not want to rat out another driver?"  

A perfect deer in the head lights glare.   So I ask you, what is the difference?  We would not stand idly by while some one plays with a loaded gun around people.  We would not stand there and watch Granny get bullied by some punk would we.  Then why do so many truckers just sit there while some bully in a big truck endangers the life of who could be our own loved ones and say absolutely  nothing.  I have to ask, what difference does it make the weapon used that some truckers feel it is ok for a truck to be used to bully their way through traffic?   

What difference does it make, to me none at all.  If you are a bully behind the wheel of whatever you drive it is time for your to stop it.  Our jobs a s professional truckers is to keep that highway safe for those we share them with. If you are not up to the challenge, go sit on the porch with the puppies until up can learn to play nice with others out on the highway. 

God Bless America

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Dirty Word

Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 8/31/14 Dirty Word

I set my camera up about a week ago, just for a trail run.  I stood in front of it and spoke from my heart the things I think about such things as tailgating and our number one jobs as truckers keeping the highway safe.  I spoke of the value of human life and I spoke of a family I watched die one day as a trucker tailgated them through a construction zone.  Just as I finished, the phone rang.  As I spoke with my wife, I watched the practice video I had just made and when done, I asked her what I should change to make it better.  "Nothing" was her answer, use it just as it is.  Being the smart man I am, I listened to her and with all the fuzziness and background noise, I posted it.  Much to my surprise, that YouTube video, "It Will Never Happen To Me"  has produced thousands of positive responses from truckers agreeing that truckers that tailgate, is a bad thing.  I feel very blessed that my message was so well received by so many in the trucking industry. 

I want to thank everyone for caring and sharing the video and I want to thank my friend Robin from the Face Book group "Give Truckers Room".  You see Robin asked a question to her group about what they could do as a group to help bring this tailgating issue in the trucking industry to the attention of drivers and companies and try to make a difference.  I thought about that as I was driving this morning and it came to me that Robin had already taken the first step to making a difference by simply raising the subject. 

It is like this, the video no matter how good it is will be like any other video as time goes on and will simply be replaced by the next greatest video and then the one after that.  However, by Robin keeping the conversation going, the tailgating issue continues.  So if I ask how can we as the trucking industry help bring this tailgating issue in the trucking industry to the attention of drivers and companies and try to make a difference, what would the answer be?  Simply to keep the conversation going.  If we as drivers bring this topic up as many times as we can in as many different places as we can, sooner or later someone might just get the idea that we mean business and this tailgating must stop. 

Personally, in these conversations I think we should let them know that "Tailgater" in the trucking industry is the dirtiest word you could ever call a trucker.  These drivers are destroying our image and endangering our families.  I think it is about time we stood up to these bullies not only in a safe and legal way so that we do not become the danger ourselves, but in a very public way so that the world can see that the majority of truckers are really just a group of hard working family minded folks just like they are.  

So be like Robin or even stop by on Face Book and join her in getting the conversation out there, who knows, the idea your group comes up with might just be the one that gets the job done.

God Bless America

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