Nightmares

Today's Thoughts 6/30/11 Nightmares

Scary indeed. I guess everyone out there has them. Your mind while in a deep sleep works itself into a state where all your deepest fears come to life. Although only a figment of your imagination, they can seem very real at the time and take a while to work through the feelings that can be left behind. Well, my baby had one last night. My baby for those of you that do not know is my beautiful wife of twenty seven years. Her dream had me just up and deciding that after so many years of blissful marriage, I just decided that I wanted something different, and just walked out. A nightmare indeed. Even the thought of leaving my baby scares the heck out of me.

How could she even think such a thing? Well, after a few minutes of talking with her this morning about her dream, it was not hard to understand. Looking back over the years at some of our friends and people we know including some long term relationships we have been close to and watching them break up. Sometimes even over the silliest things and other times some of the, well, "let not go there things". Ladies, I'm here to tell you, men can be stupid and I'm on your side.

Let's get back to my baby though. Seems like I knew who she was long before I actually met her. We went to the same school and rode the bus together. But it was years later when we finally got together. We started dating in August of eighty three. Two weeks after that first date I ask her to marry me and by October we were married. That was twenty seven years ago.

Being young and broke at the time, we soon found ourselves fighting to build our lives together. She would clean out trailers at a trailer park and trim the grass around them for just a few dollars to help make ends meet while I found myself walking ten miles each way to work to do my part. But thats what you did as we seen things to make a family grow. Especially with a young two year old son that needed to be fed.

Now speaking about our son. Together we fought to bring him up the best we could considering his health issues. Together as a team we went from professional to professional and choose a path we thought best for him even though we could not find two professionals that agreed on what that path should have been. And when family destroyed us because we did not pick the path that they thought was right, we held each other in our arms and cried together, We became stronger as a couple. And our son, he is becoming the man we both knew he could be. We did that, together as a team.

When I crushed the disc in my back and was laid out not able to move, both times you held down a job and took care of our son and myself. When I decided to run my truck legal, you stood beside me time after time as I had to give up good paying jobs and had to move along to the next. You done this because as a couple we decided that we would do that which is right in this life. Together we decided that this was how we wanted to be as people and through the years we have fought as a team to make this happen.

We have trust in each other because as I was traveling the open highways talking to women from all over this nation you knew I would never do anything wrong.  And you were right. Just as I knew that as you worked in those lawyers offices you would always go home to our home by yourself. We both knew and still know these things because we believe in being honest with each in the things we feel as humans and we can trust that we will always find our way back to each other no matter how far this world separates us. And because we know that communication along with both honesty and trust is the key to our success, we will always remain strong as a couple.

Leave you. Not on my life. God on his best day has never put together two people that were more meant for each other then you and I. the Devil himself could not tear us apart. And besides, for twenty five years I have been picking on you about that green and yellow thing you cooked for dinner that night. I'm not going to let you off that easy. You got at least another twenty five years coming.

Peeps, I love my wife. Now go love yours. Drive safe while you're at it.

Jeff Head.
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Chapter Two ... The Pain

Chapter Two ... The Pain

There are certain events in a person's life that change their perspective on life. The pain, and then the pain again, is for me one of those life lessons that brought to me a whole new way of looking at life.  It is the number one reason I went from a renegade trucker to one that ran legal.

Drivers are out there thousands of miles from home, and when things go wrong, are for the most part on their own. Sure, there are phone calls to the company and mechanics to call out.  Help can be found for just about any situation that comes up. Flat tires and mechanical break downs are just part of the business.  But when the drivers themselves break down, when they get sick or injured,  or perhaps  there is a death in the family, for a lot of them there is nothing that can or will be done to relieve them of their trucks and the loads that have to be picked up or delivered.  I've heard of some companies that will take up to six weeks to bring a driver in when his personal life falls apart. I've also seen them charge a driver with abandoning a truck and load because they had a family emergency and the company refused to send another truck or driver to continue on with the freight.  In this business, the only thing that matters is that it gets picked up and it gets delivered; end of conversation.

I've run into this twice in my career, with two different companies.  The first time, I was on a dock that I had visited many times before.  I would normally hire a lumper for twenty bucks to unload my truck while I got some sleep to make the return trip.  It seems, if the rumors were right, that the owner of the company had started a new business, a lumper service.  (A lumper is a person who will load and unload for the driver the freight on his truck.)  Up until now, it was just a few local boys who worked under the table for a few extra bucks. But now we could not use outside help. We had to use their lumper service (at a cost of seventy five dollars) or do the work by ourselves. Well it's not my truck at this time. Not my freight. And no way as a company driver, was I going to pay that much to unload somebody else's freight.

So, on the dock I go, and run into more new rules.  You cannot use the power jacks to unload with now.  Only qualified lumpers can use them.  It did not take long to realize that yet another company had gone the way of forcing either free labor or cold hard cash out of the drivers.  So being as I really had no other choice at this point, I did the unloading with a hand jack myself.  The first two pallets, sitting right at the tail of the truck, had to be rolled up onto the dock platform from a dead stand still.  Two thousand pounds each, I pulled them off.  I also destroyed the L3, L4, and L5 discs in my lower back.  I knew I had done something. But the pain had really not hit me just yet.

My return trip to the house was about fifty miles south of where I was.  So I told my boss at the time that I thought I had pulled something but would be okay to come on home.  Fifty miles later, with tears in my eyes, I'm telling my boss that when I get home, I'm dropping the load on the yard and going to the emergency room. Everything as far as the plan was okay at that time.  I picked up my freight and headed south through Florence, South Carolina and turned west on Interstate Twenty towards Columbia, South Carolina. I stopped at the rest area and made a check call. Cell phones at that time were not heard of just yet, so it was phone booth to phone booth.

Boss man had a surprise for me.  It seemed he had over-booked and needed me to make another run before I went to the doctor's office.  I told him how much pain I was in.  I explained that with every pot hole, the seat was knocking the breath out of me.  But all he could offer was to have someone meet me just south of Greenville, South Carolina and turn me around.  Looking back at this, I must have been either really dedicated or completely stupid.  So with three ruptured discs in my lower back, I headed back to North Carolina with another load that just could not wait.

The next morning found me at the same dock as yesterday morning.  I was in so much pain that it took me fifteen minutes just to get out of the truck.  I paid quite readily this time for the unloading.  A few hours later and I arrived at the dock for the return load.  This is where I get the great news.  Here I am; I had just stumbled to the pay phone in so much pain that tears were rolling out of my eyes, and what does the boss man tell me? The load has to go through Atlanta, Georgia before it comes home.  My heart just dropped.  I can just barely stand up.  I'm walking like, well, you really can't call it walking.  And still, they won't bring me home.

The next morning found me in downtown Atlanta.  I'm in so much traffic, with this eighty thousand pound truck, and I'm in so much pain that I have to use my hands to grab under my knees to pick my legs up off the floor.  Then I would set my foot up on the pedal and push on my knee to apply the fuel or brake.  I never knew that so much pain could be applied to the human body.  I was crying like a little baby.  Later, as I looked at my MRI at the doctor’s office, I could see why.  My spinal cord had been crushed to the point that it could not be distinguished from the disc.

So I manage, without any help, but lots of stares and people laughing at this three hundred and fifty seven pound man crying, to open the doors to bring them the freight to keep their company going.  And my luck was still not going to be with me.  When I tried to move the truck to go home, I found that a brake chamber was blown. It had the brakes locked up tight, so I called the boss. I'm just fifty miles away, one freaking hour of driving, and he would not send help. So, I had to crawl under that trailer and back off the brakes and put a dime in the air line so the truck would move.  Moving a truck like this is not only illegal, but unsafe as all get out.  But, I was ready to get home.

When I got back on the interstate in down town Atlanta, I put my foot down. I went north on Interstate Eighty Five, past the Seventy Five split, north past Two Eighty Five and Jimmy Carter, then north to the house. The speedometer on that truck went to ninety-five, and I left that way behind.  I just did not care anymore.  I had gone way beyond what any one should have been asked to go.  I should have been taken out of that truck minutes after the accident days before.  But the load had to go.  If I stop, I lose my job or get reported for abandoning the truck.  I remember praying that a cop would pull me over.  At least that way he could call an ambulance or shoot me, one of the two.  I really did not care at this point.

My wife met me at the shop.  I fell out of the seat into the car, and for the next nine months, I did surgery and rehab.  I lived off of workman's comp, which does not pay nearly what my regular check would pay from the company.  Well, the company never missed a lick.  They had another driver in my truck before I made the emergency room.  Oh, and the reason (as it was told to me later) that they could not bring me straight home the first day I got hurt?  Well, I guess it was a good one.  The relief driver wanted to take his wife out to dinner.

It was the pain again part, same thing just a different company.  I had done it again.  I told them I was hurt and they tried to get me to pull another load.  I flatly refused.  Told them the only place I was going was the emergency room.  I was in York, Pennsylvania at the time and needed to drop my trailer so I could go. Driver after driver refused to help, so I had to do that funky walking thing again and get it done.  By the time I unloaded and got the trailer dropped, then drove myself to the emergency room, I was hurting as bad as I was just a few years earlier.  As you can imagine, you just don't park a large truck at the front door of a hospital, so I had to park in the rear away from any door.  I stepped out of the truck and started my wobble towards the Emergency room doors.

Now, talk about pain. No way was I ever going to make this.  The only thing that kept me on my feet was the thought of the pain that picking myself off the ground would cause. Seeing as I had only made it about twenty feet, I just went back to my truck. And there I stood, leaning against the fender unable to move.  I stood there for I don't know how long.  Finally a nurse came by, and I guess the tears in my eyes caught her attention.  In just a few short minutes, I was in a wheel chair on a journey across the parking lot to the pain meds.  I wasn't shy about asking for a second dose either.

As you could expect, the next day they needed the truck to move.  The load I was promised straight home actually picked up three hours the other way.  I took that load, full of pain meds.  I delivered that load, and then I let that one thousand dollar piece of equipment sit in my front yard for months before I let them make arrangements to get it back.

That was it, enough, no more.
Never again was I going to let anyone push me so far for a piece of freight.  Little did I know at this time that making the decision to run legal was going to cost me any type of retirement.  It would cost me jobs and cause people to hate me.  It would bring me death threats and cost me well over one hundred thousand dollars in lost revenue.  Life was fixing to get fun.

Trucking Tea Party

Today's Thoughts 6/25/11 Trucking Tea Party

Again today I hear the calls. STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE! I'm sitting at the table eating my breakfast within ear shot of the counter. As normal there is a group a driver's that has never seen each other before and very likely will never see each other again. They are having the same old conversation about what we need to do about this trucking industry. I guess its only one's right to sit around and complain and throw out one's version of how the world would be a better place if only they would listen to me. Not me of course, no way. I would never do such a thing. I'm the perfect guy who would never get involved in such discussions. You believe me, right? Surely you do. Oh well. Guess I'm busted now. As long as I am, you might as well hear my version of this hot topic that if my guess is right is talked about, and will be talked about for a long time to come from one end of this country to the other on a daily bases.  Here goes.

Never going to happen. I think I can say that with some certainty. Not in today's world anyway. Tomorrow, in the next generation maybe it might be a thing. Just not in today's climate. The strikers of years ago lived and worked in a different world. Laws were different back then and so was the makeup of the industry. Back then you could find a leader and people would follow. Not in today's world. If you can find a leader today, they are more often torn down then followed. Even the big associations or talk shows will not dare mention that they would be behind a strike. Partly I believe because the laws have changed so that the leader of any such movement would be in violation of laws designed to stop strikes just like the one's many are calling for in the trucking industry. They have in fact effectively made striking out of the question.

So next in line comes growing organizations so that we can all join and let our voice be heard this way. A great idea in concept I believe but it is doomed to fail form the onset. Don't get me wrong now. I believe one should join and grow these organizations like OOIDA. I think they add a very important voice to the ends we are trying to meet. The problem with them as I see it is the drivers themselves. If OOIDA does ninety percent of what a particular drivers thinks it should be doing, and ten percent what that driver thinks it should not be doing, then often times that driver will not join. I find this hard to understand myself. For me at least anyway, if a person or group is headed in the same general direction as I am, then I figure that to be a good thing. It is a pipe dream to believe that you will ever find anyone that agrees with everything you believe. If you do come across such a person, run. Surely they are cozying up to you for some particular reason and that might not be a good thing.

So where does that leave us? We are thousands and thousands of individuals all with the same belief that this industry can be better. Most of us do I think anyway. There are still those that want things to remain the same. They like the old ways of trucking and are not soon to let them go. But the movement towards safe and legal trucking is well on its way.  Twenty odd years ago when I first seen the light I can remember having to be very discreet about who and where I voiced my opinions about such things. Today, drivers are very open and they freely discuss topics that once would get you run off the road if you were brave enough to voice them. Thats a big change. A good change I think and one well over due.

So where do we go from here? How do we achieve our goal of a perfect trucking industry? For starters, I think we first have to realize that perfect will never happen. Not because it cannot be achieved. More so because with so many people involved with so many different opinions on what perfect is, I do not see a perfect industry ever happening. But I do believe we can get close. We just have to understand that things that head in our general direction are a good thing. Not something to shut down because they are not perfect.

The other thing we need to understand as I see it is the fact that we will never have just one leader or just one opinion and maybe thats a good thing. So here's where I think understanding how the Tea Party works in our national political ring and how that relates to what we as safe and legal truck drivers have to do. We will never be able to come together as one large group all in agreement as to what and how things need to be done. But as thousands of small groups and individuals, we as the Trucking Tea Party can at least agree on the direction we need to move and together bring about positive change to this industry.

Thats my thoughts on it anyway. Back a person or a group going in your direction even if ten percent of what they are doing is not quite what you would do. Al least they are doing something, which in my book is better than nothing.

Be safe peeps

Jeff Head.
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Misconceptions

Today's Thoughts 6/23/11 Misconceptions

In my travels a little ways back I met a driver and had a conversation with him as I usually do from time to time. One of the perks of being a trucker I think is the wide spectrum of people you meet out on the road. Most certainly you will hear opinions on any given subject coming from the far left to the far right. But sometimes, the opinion you hear is just so far out it will amaze even the most open minded of us.

Take for instance a driver I met while I was pulled in over a shop pit getting my truck serviced. He was a middle aged man claiming to have a few years of trucking under his belt. We walked around and talked about some of the extras I have on my truck like my by-pass oil filter and my wheel balancers. Looking at my wheel balancers I was discussing how the tires wore and was going to compare them to the tires on his truck. Thats when I noticed that he was getting some truly awesome tire life out of his drive tires. They were smooth all the way around. I could see no side wear and in fact looked to be taken care of really well. The only obvious defect that I could see in them was the fact that the deepest part of the tread left on the tires could have been no more than one thirty second deep. That is where the tires had any tread at all you see.

So being the inquisitive person that I am I had to ask? "Driver, did you notice that your drive tires are basically bald?"

He did of course and I ask him if he was worried about the DOT pulling him over if they were to spot that. But he was not too concerned you see. According to my friend today, this was not his problem. He had protected himself from getting a ticket if he was to get caught.

mmmm.  I wondered. How does one protect themselves from getting a ticket when they are riding around in a big truck with eight bald drive tires? So I ask him to explain this to me. Now according to the way he thinks, and you're going to love this, when he fills out his log book, he writes up in the inspection section any defects the truck has. For over a month he has written up eight bald drive tires and his company still has not replaced them.

So not wanting to be the bearer of bad news but feel I have some sort of duty here, I explain to him that just because he wrote these tires up as being bald did not relieve him of the responsibility of driving an unsafe big truck out on the open highway. I told him that by marking those tires down as needing replaced, the only thing he did is gave proof to some high priced lawyer that he knew the truck was unsafe before the accident happened and he still chose to drive it out on the open highway. But according to the owner of the truck that trained this guy, his responsibility ended with him noting the defect on the inspection form.

Of course I did not know what I was talking about. He paid his bill and drove out past the rack of brand new truck tires. Oh well. I did my best. All I can do now is hope he gets pulled over before someone gets hurt. And I guess I can tell the rest of my friends what I'm sure they already know. You as the driver have the ultimate say as to your truck being driving on the highway in a safe and legal fashion. I know that sometimes you might find yourself being told to drive it or we will find a driver that will. I know, I've been there before myself. Thats when you have to dig deep down inside yourself and just do the right thing. You can always replace a job. Just try replacing a human.

Drive safe peeps.    CYA next time.

Jeff Head.
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Somethings Wrong

Today's Thoughts 6/18/11 Somethings Wrong

"Somethings wrong with the word today, I don't know what it is." Or so goes the song sung by Aerosmith. I guess I've been thinking about this for a while now. Well. I guess since about the Memorial Day weekend. On holidays that are set aside to specifically honor our war veterans, I always like to find an old vet are two that are stuck out on the highway like I am and sit down close to them and strike up a conversation.  I guess mostly to get a chance to throw in a thank you or two but also just to find a little human interaction for myself also.

The thing about this visit that I remembered most were about this guy was that the old vet that had one of those tubes in his throat that he had to talk through. I have no idea what they are called but he was holding his own just the same. We were watching the TV that was propped up high in the corner so everyone in the restaurant could see it. On it was a news story about how the state of California was forcing someone to take down the American flag. Seems it was against some rule or regulation to fly it. I recounted a story that I heard a few weeks back that California was not allowing the American flag to be flown at a Park and Ride location.

As I was both apologizing and thanking him for his service, another guy walks in and sits across from me. Everyone has this weird look on their faces and he is wondering what he has done to cause that. So we explain the news story and the old vet leaves and I continue to talk with the new guy about the state of the world today. We talk about the flag and the state of our country today. How too many people are just taking advantage of the system and how we need to fix that problem before we can move on to all the other problems that we as a country have to fix.

Along about this time a lady truck driver walks in and sits down between us. She says hello and we add her into our little group. She is on her way home and her boss is letting her go out of route so she can stop in at the house on Sunday for the holiday. Even though she is a truck driver, she has no map book and is upset because the store told her that they were not a library and she could not borrow new books and put them back on the shelf when she was done.

I've been thinking about these people over the last few weeks and how they viewed the world when yesterday morning about five I started my trip and met another driver out on the road. I had not even got up to highway speed yet when I found myself blocked in behind him on level ground in a blinding rain storm. I figured he had slowed down for the rain being it was extremely hard and I decided to pass him because he was moving to slow to be safe from my point of view.

As I get about even with him, we start down a hill and the next thing I know we are doing about seventy and he will not let me pass. So I back out of it. But so does this truck I'm trying to pass. Traffic behind us is getting inpatient so I slow down enough to get in behind him and let the other traffic move along. But this guy in his big truck slows all the way down to less than fifty miles an hour and now I'm blocked in tailgating him in a heavy rain storm. So I try to pass again when traffic clears. He does the same thing. Pouring down rain and every time I try to pass he picks up speed and we end up running side by side in a pitch black heavy rain. Finally though, I get around him. And I mentioned how unprofessional and unsafe I thought his action were.

So I find myself wondering, is there something wrong with the world today? Or is it just me?

I both apologized and thanked the old Veteran for his service. Thanked him for fighting for our freedoms and apologized for those that are trying to destroy them.

The other guy that walks in and sits down enjoys a double bacon cheese burger with fries and a soda pop. Then he gets up and runs out without paying.

The lady truck driver is aghast at my point of view that people that produce books and sell them have just as much right to get paid for the hard work as she a truck driver does for the work she does.

And the driver that was racing me in such unsafe conditions blamed me for the situation because I did not ask him to find out that his truck was not running right and I should be more considerate of his problems. The fact that he was even out in those weather condition with a truck that had no pulling power and I'm guessing his flashers were broke too because he was not using them, really did not have anything to do with the situation. Weird.

I don't know. Maybe I just have a weird sense of what's right and what's wrong. Or maybe there really is something wrong with the world today. Well, whatever the answer is, I'm still going to do that which is right even if it does piss some people off. It just seems to me that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to think about how your actions affect those around you. Kind of makes for a better world, don't you think?

Jeff Head.
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Right Lane Closed 6/12/11

Today's Thoughts 6/12/11 Right Lane Closed

Ah yes, the all unavoidable backups caused accident scenes or construction zones. Seems like our nation's highways are just littered with them come spring time every year. No matter how hard you try, sooner or later you are going to have to deal with them in one way or another. Unless of course you have a CB radio and find out far enough in advance and want to chance the directions given over the radio to miss all the delays. But I've found here lately that the information coming over that CB to be more misleading and time consuming then just sitting through the average backup. So I usually just wait through it unless I know the area enough to go around with comfort.

As I was sitting in a backup the other day and I was watching a big truck play that game where he the driver decided that no one was going to pass him. He was using his truck as a road block going so far as to run vehicles that did not want to wait off into the grass or using guard rails to help stop the flow of traffic. Anyway, watching him reminded me of a time before everyone had cell phones and I was coming up out of Atlanta, GA and was planning to stop at the old Speedway that used to be there. The right lane was closed one mile ahead and most people were lining up in the left lane. But a few of us stayed in the right lane looking to jump off at the exit so we could travel down that road or stop in at the truck stop.

Back then our problem was that this driver of a big truck decided that the right lane was closed right where he was. All the signs put out for the construction zone said "Right lane closed one mile ahead". But this gentleman in this big truck decided different. Just like the driver was doing today. Forcing all the other drivers on the highway to do as he decided they should do or he was going to use his eighteen wheeler to shove them off the highway in an effort to keep them from getting ahead of him. Needless to say, after being delayed by this driver for over forty five minutes, by the time I got to the pay phone, the load I was looking for was booked out to a driver that was able to get to a phone.

Now there are lots of different ways to look at this. One being that the right lane is closing and the polite thing to do is to line up in the left lane behind the drivers that were there first. The legal way to look at it is that the state decides exactly where that lane is closed and it is perfectly legal to use that lane all the way to that point. Some states have even gone so far as to put out "Merge Here" signs or use actual Law enforcement officers to line up the traffic. With all that I've seen go on in these backups, I'm all for the use of actual law enforcement being on sight. Not because I think everyone should line up where I think they should line up. But more to the fact that these highway heroes will use their eighty thousands pound big trucks as weapons against the general public in an attempt to force them to drive as they decide they should drive. Little clue here, with today's technology, your actions are being videoed and emailed to your safety department as you play your game. No waiting at all. (-:

Ok. So maybe you don't like what it was I just said. So be it. But here's the thing. No matter how bad someone else's driving is. No matter how unethical or a complete lack of morals they show. No matter how far outside of the law they are or how long they make your delay. It simply is not your job as a driver of any vehicle to force another driver to conform to your demands. That is of course taking into consideration the fact that no one has issued you cute little flashy blue lights to put on top of your truck and the fact that your not carrying a badge and a gun and have sworn an oath the uphold the laws of whatever state you happen to be in that day.

Thats just the way I see it. Our image as truck drivers should not be one of using our trucks as weapons to force the general public to wait in line as we see fit. Besides that is the fact that you never know just who it is that you're blocking or if there is t an emergency that is trying to get to a hospital like a sick or injured child. No one to my knowledge has given a normal everyday trucker the right or ability to make these types of decisions out on the open highway. It simply is not part of our job.

Well, thats my gripe for today.  For all you safe drivers out there, Keep on keeping safe.

Jeff Head.
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A Question For Us Truck Drivers

Today's Thoughts 6/3/11 A Question For Us Truck Drivers.

I received a question from a friend of mine the other day. He works in law enforcement and was just trying to understand if there was a good reason behind what he witnessed two trucks traveling out on the highway were doing. I never really know how to answer questions like this. Trying to understand the thinking of some people is not always the easiest thing to do. But I always try to give them something to go on. I just wish we as drivers did not have to answer questions like this.
The Question:

"Can you help me understand something that bugs the crap out if me? It never fails that when traveling on the open road 2 trucks will pull along side of each other and run that way for 15-20 miles. As you can understand the traffic behind them is backed up forever. What is the reason for this? Is it just their way of messing with drivers or what? If it were to happen in my town we could have a nice roadside chat. Just trying to get to the bottom of things."

Several reasons....

Governed trucks could be one reason. If they were running around 60 to 65 miles an hour, that's all they can do. The drivers of this type of truck will set their cruise and the whole world can kiss their butt. The thinking is that if this is how fast they will allow me to run, then I'm going to do it come heck or high water. Even through slower speed limits, construction zones whatever; they will not back out of it for any reason. Being castrated like that saves the company on fuel money, but the psychology of the drivers makes them some of the rudest and most dangerous drivers out there.

Other reasons are the log book rules. They are only allowed so much time in a day and must shut down. It used to be that you could just redraw you log book to make up the difference. But now that Electronic On Board Recorders are being mandated more and more by the government and different companies, the driver can no longer afford to be courteous. It could cost him having to shut down just minutes from his destination or face penalties from being over on his time.

The number one reason in my book is that both drivers involved are, well, let just say less then professional. The one passing knew before he started that his truck would not pass in a timely manner. And even if he did not, should have been courteous enough to back out of it instead of blocking traffic.

The one being passed if for nothing else but for safety reasons, should have backed out of it and let the discourteous driver move ahead. Truth be known, other truckers do not view these drivers in any better of a light then you do. If you get a chance, explain that to them please.

And while you're at it, explain the fact that after being held up for so long, other drivers will start to act erratic and do whatever it takes to get around them putting everybody in an extremely unsafe situation. That they as professional truck drivers need to take into account that how they drive effects how others drive and that relates directly to the safety of the highway.

Anyway, what could I say? As hard as some drivers try to project a safe and legal image for the trucking industry, we still have those that do their best to project an "F you, I'm first" type image. All we can do as individuals is to keep on doing our part to clean up our image as truckers and make our part of the highway safer for those we share it with. Maybe someday the powers that be will actually listen to the drivers that are trying to do this right and the world will be a better place. Ok. I know, time to wake up from my nap. See you next time.

Jeff Head.
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