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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