Hurricanes Past

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/31/12 Hurricanes Past

I was home the other day, just a few days before Hurricane Sandy struck the North East. I pulled up the weather map on the computer, thought about it for about two seconds; then booked a load as far west as I could get. “No,” I said, talking to my wife. “I just do not want to go through that again.”  I was not even going to write about it and have not for years because of the memories of hurricanes past that both my wife and I worked, Katrina being one of them. But as I was doing a little surfing instead of sleeping, I came across a post saying that Republicans do not even want to stir up this political pot after the bad job Bush did years ago. Years ago, I remember that, we were there, right in the middle of it. The press and the Democrats hammering on President Bush for the lousy job he was doing. Well, here is an account that not many will tell you about how that went.

Janet and I felt so lucky that we were headed to Florida to help out with FEMA and disaster relief, a chance to help those that just had their world blown away. It was not long though before we found out what it was all really about. Our first task was to take food into a shelter, unload, and then wait to be told where to go to next. Easy enough it would seem until they lost us and let us sit there for a week. Call after call we made and no one would move us, they were waiting for FEMA to tell them to bring us back. Or were they?

While we were there, My wife and I helped the locals get water out of a water tanker that was being dropped but no way was left for anyone to get the water. So we made our selves useful. Easy enough until we got back to the fair grounds were we told every one of our good deeds and promptly got our butts chewed out for helping.  You see, by me helping, according to the things I was learning, I was shorting the time that others could get paid thousands of dollars a day. For us it was about helping out the victims of the disaster, for others it was about the cash.

So I watched as time went by, over a year of working the hurricanes being as I spent six months on Katrina alone, as people figured out every way possible to stretch out their task to pad their pockets. Everyone from FEMA personnel to the contractors, few were left out of this big government money grab. And the ones that went in to help, that were more interested in helping those in need, we were the problem child. You see instead of telling them that we could not run our trucks today after six weeks of not doing a thing, we actually did what we were asked to do. We ended up getting destroyed. We were hurting their gravy train. Remember I said form the top all the way down this would happen.

As for Bush and the job he did. I watched as they sent twenty trucks that had been sitting around for weeks doing nothing down to an airport, lined them up in a row, and waited for a helicopter to land behind them while they took a photo op. Then they released us.  From there we found ourselves taking truck loads of good up and down the east coast of Florida. Town after town lining us up and making us turn on all our lights and flashers.  They would convoy us twice around the town square so that even more pictures could be taken. Then we would be set up in the parking lot of an open store just to hand out the very products the store was open and selling.  All the local politicians wanted people to know who to vote for next time. The funny thing about this was the press and the Democrats were hammering Bush for not getting enough stuff in place fast enough. People were starving, or were they?

I remember the longer that this went on, the sillier it got.  We would take in a load of water and the locals would turn it back if It was not a designer brand name on the bottle, they would not drink it.  Food was the same way. Anything we took them after a while had to be the right brand or no sale. All the while Bush was getting hammered for not doing a good job.

I watched trucks by the thousands sit for days at airports and fair grounds waiting to move anything that was needed.  I know one ware house over ten thousand square feet that was abandoned full of plastic, ice being left out to melt, water destroyed because no one would take it. Bush shoved so much into these areas to try to keep the press off his back it was not funny. All that came out of a Bush being forced to cover his butt was a complete waste of tax dollars. And I am here to tell you, there was no shortage of people in there sucking those dollars up. That’s why I can no longer work hurricanes, I go in to help the people, not to drag out the task as long as possible to keep that high dollar paycheck coming in. Once again I found myself singled out standing in front of the crowd demanding to do the work. I just do not have it in me to do it again. It is too dangerous. For months on end I wondered if I would survive, if I would make it home alive.

Not everyone was like this. Not every town. I spent four days in Bon Wier, Tx and to this day I remember the people there. As they would come through the line and we would hand them two meals, they would give one back and say save it for the next guy. Instead of packing their cars with free government stuff, they thought about the needs of others. They took care of each other the way decent human beings should.  A oasis in a world of all for me and lets suck all we can out of this disaster and the government.

This will get political, it has to, no matter what side you’re on the idea is to take out the other. I’m sorry but that is what people do in these situations. It is what I seen with my own eyes. From the little guy on the street all the way up to national politics.  And folks like me that do not know how to play this game, that think we are going to go in there and actually help someone; we  will get destroyed by the pure greed by the real storm that this is about to turn into. That lesson I will never forget.

Be safe peeps.

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Killing Charlie Brown

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/27/12 Killing Charlie Brown

Just too dang mean for today’s kids is what I am being told. Yup, that is what is being said of good old Charlie Brown.  The kids of today are not capable of handling a show full of good natured pranks like yanking a foot ball at the last moment. I bet Charlie has fallen for that little stunt about a gazillion times by now. And of course we have the language, let’s see, words like "stupid," "dumb," and "blockhead." Lord knows we cannot have that being drilled into our children’s head.

Instead of letting them watch a little Charlie Brown every now and then, it must be better to send them to school where they yank out the religion that will teach them morals and ethics. You know, where they teach them how to have sex complete with picture books and drill into their empty little heads what they think sex should be. Where they provide condoms and the school nurse will direct our children to sights where they can be sterilized without the parent’s knowledge.

Instead of letting them watch a little Charlie Brown, let’s let them watch regular TV where every curse word in the book is now allowed including all too often the taken the Lords name in vein.  Where drug addicts, pregnant teens and killing is an everyday experience.  You know where they can learn how to dis-respect authority from their parents all the way up to the cop on the beat and beyond. Need I go on? 

Maybe I am a little old fashioned, but I grew up watching Charlie Brown. I also grew up in an age of classics like the “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Leave It To Beaver.” TV back then taught children family values, not how to feel no remorse after taken out half of a school.

Charlie Brown, that’s the problem with today’s kids and TV. I would rather sit a child in a room with twenty four, seven Charlie then half of the garbage that they are feeding kids in today’s world.  Leave good old Charlie alone and start going after these folks that are ripping just plain every day morals and ethics out of our society. Charlie Brown, on his worst day is better for our kids then the agenda that is being fed to them by all too many modern day TV shows and special interest groups that seem to know better than us parents what is good for our children.

Be safe peeps.

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Tippy Toes

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/23/12 Tippy Toes

There I go again, making some one mad. I’m sorry, but I have to laugh about it.  I think from the very first day that I signed onto Face Book, I walked into the biggest war that I have ever seen.  Of course as you could expect, I found myself presented time and time again with “if you’re their friend, you cannot be my friend.” I did not even know how to navigate Face Book let alone who all these new people were.  That was about three years ago now, and time and situations move on. One would hope that by now things would have changed. Hoped.

So about two weeks ago, I decided to start spot lighting some of the smaller guys out there doing things for truckers and their image. I figured what the heck, Who could possibly have a problem with that?   I found myself just two stories into the feature and with a mailbox full of messages transporting me back to the time I first started Face Book.  “You should not have mentioned them.” “Hey, there against me.” The jest of all these messages is I guess that I’m supposed to pick sides, back my friends, and write only about who and what I am supposed to. (Scratching my head here)

The thing about this is, they, you, are all my friends, I wish everyone well in their endeavors as we are all working toward the same goal. And where pray tell is this rule book of things, subjects and people I am or I am not supposed to write about.  I am not a politician folks. I have no clue as to how to tippy toe through the minefield of what thousands of people think I should or should not write about or whom it is I am allowed to talk to.  On my best day, I could not win this game, not in a million years.

But, I am not going to give up, not just yet. I think I will put off my spot lighting idea for now, maybe forever. I just do not want to deal with the problems of trying to figure out how to let the world know that we are doing great things as truckers without finding myself in the middle of happenings I know nothing about. I figure that’s a good decision. I will just file this idea under things I tried to do but once again managed to screw up. Hey, I am a man, that is what we do, screw things up.

So back to my normal stuff, the world according to me and how I see things from a truckers view. I will play it safe for a while and with any luck, maybe I will come up with the world’s next greatest novels.  Just know that I meant well and not every great idea you ever had was your finest either.

Be safe peeps.

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Trucker Nation

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/21/12 Trucker Nation

I always say to get involved. You have seen me jump in on all sorts of things. Well, here is a chance for you, yourself to get involved. Trucker Nation is looking for a few good truckers to lend a hand with their new way of getting into the mix. A in memory page for truckers that pass. All too often drivers that serve their nations needs are overlooked for their patriot duty.

Anyway, as I find different truckers doing different things for our industry, I think I will start pointing them out. I know some will like the ideas that I will be presenting whiles others will not. That is not the point. The point is to showcase these not so well known truckers and their efforts to better not only our industry, but our image as well. I will leave it up to your discriminating point of view as to jump in or not. So today I present to you “Trucker Nation”   You can find them on face book or just ask me for a link to them.

Trucker Nationwww.facebook.com/InMemoryOf2012..FB Page..will be setting up a website just for "In Memory Of" We are going to apply for 501 Nonprofit Status once we get all the Board Members...We plan on designing a Book and giving it to the Families and a Planter..In the book I want to get everyone on the In Memory Page to sign it...Will be changing the Book every year...Plus we  have a few other things in the works as time goes by...

Be safe peeps.

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In the Shadows

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/17/12 In The Shadows

I was having a conversation today with a friend. We were banging back and forth the pros and cons of EOBR’s (electric on board recorders) when we stumbled into the area of drivers standing their ground and using the whistle blowers act to stop companies from pushing drivers into driving beyond what is safe or legal. “All a driver has to do is turn the company in and all will be just fine” if I understand the position taken by my friend.

So I wondered, is this how most people think whistle blowing goes and standing your ground to run safe and legal goes? One quick phone call and everything is hunky-dory when you wake up in the morning. Well, speaking from experience on this matter, I just wanted to walk you through some of my own experiences with this sort of thing. Try to relate to you, the reader, what you can expect once you have been pushed so far, that you consider picking up that phone or writing that letter or refusing to your boss praying that you still have a job because you decided not to run in a unsafe or illegal fashion.

Walk with me if you will to a time and place a long time ago in my life. The specifics of the situation not as important as to what I went through on a personable level as I decided to stand up and do the right thing. About twenty drivers doing what it took to get the job done and just one, myself, deciding that what we were doing was for too dangerous and illegal to continue on.

First comes the standing up part. You stand there in front of all these people and speak your mind. Looks and then the comments come. You’re fighting to make things safer and the majority of the drivers want you to just shut up. The money is too good for them and the last thing they want is for you to be in there rocking the boat.  As things progress, you start losing friends. You find yourself losing runs and your pay drops. Before long, you find yourself a minority of one, standing alone demanding to be allowed to run safe and legal. They will not fire you because they know lawyers will get involved. But they cannot keep you around rocking that boat so you slowly start seeing a diminished paycheck. They start starving you out. First slowly, and then as they hire the driver that will replace you, at much faster rate.

But you still insist on standing your ground. Your wife at home backs you, your one last remaining friend. But you know she is worried. Bills to pay and feeding children is hard to do with a spouse more interested in running safe and legal than paying the bills.  And with her backing, you decide to not allow this company get away with breaking the laws. Get away with starving out good and decent truckers. Someone somewhere has to start standing up to these guys. So you decide to take it up to the next level. A letter, a phone call, a scream for help from outside authorities.

Then you wait, and you wait, and you endure the looks, the slander, the whispered promises of what is going to happen to you if you do not straighten up or quit. You wait without even a word from anyone letting you know that you letter even reached their desk. Then, one day you walk in and the proper authorities are all over the place and everyone is looking straight at you with death in their eyes.

You squealed they say. It had to be you. You were the only one that was saying anything about this stuff. You just screwed up our paychecks and buddy; let me tell you, do not let us catch you alone out in that parking lot. So now you are afraid for your life. You are afraid for your family’s life. You stood your ground and decided to run safe and legal and not one of those authorities is taking any notice of what is happening to you. You, are all alone.

So you spend the next week looking into the shadows seeking out the slightest movement. You wonder if a bullet will find its way through the wall of your bedroom one night. You watch and wait for them to find the slightest reason to fire you. Your life becomes a living hell. Every time you meet someone out and about where no one can see, you just wait for the fist to come flying your way.

But they are too smart for that. The company tells them that no one, I repeat no one touches him. They know that this will bring on a law suit worth millions. But you are left working at a job that most of your co-workers would just assume see you dead. You find a strange thing here. You do meet some out where no one can see them talking to you. They shake your hand and apologize for being so hard on you in front of the crowd. They tell you that they are proud to know someone that has the guts to stand up for running safe and legal. Then, the next time you see them; they stand with the crowd and kick you down. They have no guts of their own to do the right thing.

The outcome of all this is that you find you cannot stand looking over your shoulder every day at work. You cannot wait for the inevitable firing that is sure to come. You cannot keep searching those shadows, waiting for the few that will eventually connect your head with a baseball bat. You end up quitting before you break, before you completely resign to the nervous breakdown that is sure to come. Then you get to go home and explain to your family just why it is you no longer have a paycheck to pay the rent with, to buy them food with.

Standing your ground and demanding to run safe and legal is not something one should take lightly. Know before you go there that as you fight these battles you will find yourself standing there alone, cold and hungry. No one will openly support you and no one will stand up and help you. Your ability to support your family will be wiped away. You may find as I did that your retirement plan and your medical insurance will become a thing of the past. You may not be able to find another job once the whispers get around that you forced a company to run legal, to run safe. And for years you will meet people that when they see you, they will turn their back on you and walk away.  You will never be able to be comfortable wherever you go. Your past will always find you somehow. You were the one that squealed. You, yes you; did what no other had the guts to do, you stood up for safe and legal trucking and you will pay that price until the day that they burry you.

Whistle blowing, not for wussies

Be safe peeps.

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A Whack Back

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/16/12 A Whack Back

I have often said that the FMCSA is going to keep whacking on us as truck drivers until there is not one driver left out on the open road. That each different government or special interest group in turn will take yet another whack in their zest to make sure not one killer trucker is left regardless of how many safe and legal drivers they remove from the highways. They have what I call a “Whack Whack Whack“ mentality. They put up a change and when it gets knocked down, they just keep whacking at it over and over until finally, they figure a way to slip it through. Usually when they do, nine decent drivers fall for each renegade they remove from the highway.

So what have drivers all over this world been doing about this little plan of theirs? Fighting back is what. Recently I was asked by a friend to take a look at a driver from another country and see what it was I thought about the things he was doing and how maybe I could help him.  What I found was an awesome idea in which the concept I have thought about many of times over the years. Our highways are dangerous and as such hundreds of drivers die each year out there just in America. Thousands all over the world but not one government, not one safety group that I am aware of recognizes this fact.

Just in America along, the last time I looked into it over seven hundred truck drivers die each year in wrecks doing their jobs delivering freight. About eighty percent of those wrecks are caused by someone else. A portion of those wrecks are caused by people committing suicide, a fact that you will never hear anyone talk about. And another small portion of these wrecks are caused by someone trying to teach that truck driver where and how they are supposed to drive that truck while out on the open road. This last one in my view is nothing more than out right murder. Another fact you will not find anyone talking about.

All just things I have contemplated in my mind as I travel through my trucking career. As you well may know, drivers die from many other reasons such as poor health and other factors that our life style contributes to our specific occupation. Just a bad area of town on the right day can end the life of a driver.  In short, truck drivers can expect to die about fifteen years earlier that anyone else.

So as I went and looked at “Truckies Danger Money”, And I learned of not only his petition to get drivers danger pay, but his coffin that he has built to use as a tool to get his message across, I asked myself, what can I do to help? Nothing was my answer. This driver is doing it all by himself. He is doing what I call “Reverse Whacking” all on his own. What I mean by this is as the world whacks at us as killer truckers, we killer truckers need to “Whack Whack Whack” right back. Every time they get one over on us, we need to stand up and knock them right back down. We as safe and legal truckers need to stand our ground not only often but as loudly and proudly as we can.  As for danger pay, I hope he makes some headway with his idea. The highways we drive on to support our families can be very dangerous at times indeed. It would be nice if someone would notice our sacrifices once in a while instead of always pointing out our shortcomings and using them against us.  Truckers all over the world care as much about highway safety as anyone wearing a badge or sitting behind a government desk. I hope one day we can work in unison not only as truckers worldwide, but with governments and special interest groups worldwide as well to make our highways safer.

My complete respect and support goes out to “Truckies Danger Money.” Seek him out on face Book and take a look see. I urge each and every one of you to come up with your own idea and take a whack back, let them know we truckers are here. Stand up and demand to run safe and legal without reprisal. Far too many of us find our careers ending way too soon and for reasons that are not even close to being fair.

Be safe peeps.

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The Board Of Shame

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/13/12 The Board Of Shame

“You really don’t want to be here!” it reads just under the title of the sign.  Interesting I think to myself as I check this sign out attached to the fence just inside the receiving dock door. “THE BOARD OF SHAME” reads the title for all to see the list of trucking companies that did not show up on time for their scheduled delivery.  How wonderful and kind of these folks to make it point, to go out of their way to specifically shame trucking companies and their drivers for not killing half of the people out on the highway just to show up for their itty bitty appointment time at their very special dock.

First on the list is a company with a ten o’clock appointment that showed up two hours late. If I had to guess at it, the shipper held the truck up at their dock and the driver had to break every speed rule in the book just to get it there only two hours late. Next was a no show that the driver probably refused to run while out of hours and then on to another late driver that might have decided to do repairs to their truck instead of taking a chance that a bad tire could blow and cause an accident out on the highway. Not of course to mention the fact the new cell phone regulations for drivers prevent drivers from dialing a complete number while on the road.

The one I like best is the one listed as actually showing up an hour early for their appointment. Lord knows we cannot have drivers just showing up early and screwing up our precious little dock thingy we have going on here, now can we. Yup, I know, I’m being facetious.  I was supposed to deliver Monday morning but showed up the Friday afternoon before. Guess I should be counting my lucky stars that I was not blindfolded and shot for daring such a feat.

And of course let us not forget the upper left corner of the sign with the life time members of the “BOARD OF SHAME.”  Here is where all the special companies get named for really screwing up as they put the safety of the highway before the delivery of the load.  Yes here is where we want to mention all the companies that continually screw up because they decided to follow the federal regulations instead of running illegal out on that highway, for caring more about our families out on the highway then caring for that piece of freight.  Yes, “ THE BOARD OF SHAME” it says. “ You really don’t want to be here.”

Well, screw them. That is the way I see it. I have no clue as to why any of those trucks were late. But I do know my opinion of why that board is there in such a prominent place for all the drivers to see. INTEMIDATION. Yup, that is the way I see it. They are trying their best to let drivers know that they do not care what or why the reason you are late, you had better be there or they will take notice.  They do not care if you were forced out of hours by the shipper or at the last stop. They do not care if the weather is so bad that it is no longer safe to drive the truck. They, in my opinion, probably do not care if you have to run six cars off the road to be at their dock on time. What they do care about is that you, the lowly truck driver do not mess up their precious little day. Do I sound a little pissed? I am.

Well, just a little word from me to them.  By them I mean any shipper, receiver, trucking company, law enforcement or government official. Anyone anywhere that does or perceives that they do have more control over when my trucks moves then I as the driver actually does. Here is what I have to say about this “BOARD OF SHAME.”  “Screw you.”  I will not in any way shape or form run my truck in an illegal or unsafe manner just to satisfy your petty little perception of how the world works.

The people that I share the highway with, the moms and pops, the families that I find myself just inches away from at highway speeds with the weights of a fully loaded truck will always come before your load.  And if you find that an unworkable idea, an unworkably reality that you have to deal with, then I demand to be put at the top of your (trying to find a nice name here, let’s go with “frickin”,) list.

It is my opinion that using such tactics to force drivers to run their rigs so as to not screw up your day while putting at risk the safety of the public is about as low as one could go. I will be forwarding a copy of this article along with a picture of your despicable sign to the proper authorities. I hope for the safety of the traveling public that you reconsider such out dated tactics and bring your company into today’s world of safe and legal truck drivers.  Not one life is worth what you are selling, not a one.

Be safe peeps.

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The Biden Philosophy

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/12/12 The Biden Philosophy

Politics today I guess has been on my mind all day. As most already know, Biden and Ryan hashed it out last night with their national debate. The normal wall to wall coverage all day as you would expect on all the news channels. Ryan won because of this and Biden won because of that and with all that I heard, not one talking head said anything close to what I got out of it.

Biden was talking about Afghanistan and arguing the point that America needs to get out of there and let the Afghan people take over. If I understand his point right, Biden says that as long as the American people stay there and do the job, the Afghan people will never learn to stand on their own two feet. They will always be dependent on the American government to do for them what they should be doing for themselves. So I am thinking to myself, any decent parent knows this. Sometimes you have to tell your child that it is time to stand up and take some responsibility. The only reason not to teach your child this is to keep them dependent upon you.

Moving right along, Biden then goes on to say that the government must step in and make the world equal for the American people. That without the governments help, the children of the American government cannot make it on their own. That we must allow them to redistribute wealth for our benefit, and that we need obamacare forced upon us for our own benefit. That without them, the Democrats, we will never be able to survive out in the wicked world without them there to protect us. We The People, the American public, cannot be trusted to grow up and make proper decisions on our own behalf.  

So for the Afghan people it is pull the rug out from under them and let them grow up to be a strong self dependent society. And for the American people it is generational welfare, unemployment benefits for years, cradle to grave health care, on and on.  All these things provided by them for us to keep us dependent on them. To keep us from growing and becoming a strong society.

Well daddy, your little baby is growing up. It is time to let us go. The American people were never meant to be life time dependents of a over bearing parent government. Not me any way. I am a problem child that demands to be set free. To be allowed to find my own path in life. And like the Afghan people, I want my chance to grow up and stand on my own two feet. A proud American that does not depend on my mommy and my pappy government to powder my butt for me every time life gets just a little bit hard.

Be safe peeps.

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Safe And Legal Truck Drivers

Did something a little different with Today's Thoughts.... Hope you enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb04-iwaGho&feature=plcp