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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Are You The Perfect Trucker?


Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 4/25/13 Are You the Perfect Trucker?

The perfect truck driver, does one exist? For some they believe that they do, that maybe even they are themselves a perfect truck driver.  For others it will never happen that no one could possibly run completely safe and legal one hundred percent of the time.  I know I have been in many conversations where I say I run safe and legal only to find myself being scoffed and ridiculed just for making such a statement. 

 

What is the true definition of a safe and legal truck driver?  Does anyone really know?  I am always saying that about twenty years ago there was nineteen feet of shelf space just on all the regulations to drive a truck on the federal level.  Of course, each state, county, and city has its own thoughts on the matter.  Toss in the EPA with their opinion on the matter then adding each individual's interpretation of those rules and regulations and the true definition of a safe and legal driver becomes something that not even a God could accomplish.

 

Defining a safe and legal driver under such scrutiny is near impossible to do, but it can be done with consideration.  First, we have to realize that we do not live in a perfect world.  Cookie cutter regulations may look great on paper, but out in the real world a driver often finds himself or herself choosing between playing it safe and saving a life, or following the rules and taking a life. Depending on the person looking in and their interpretation of the event, this driver could be called a renegade just as quick as they would be called a hero.  Often I find myself doing the "safe" thing, yet breaking a rule to keep someone alive.  This is because I have chosen life for those I share the highway with over worrying about a ticket.  Does this make me a safe driver?  Perhaps I am the renegade, the answer depends on your interpretation?

 

No driver will ever be one hundred percent considered safe and legal by everyone as long as this world is not perfect.  We will always find ourselves facing situations that make it impossible to do the exact right thing that will please everybody at the same time. In my opinion to consider yourself safe and legal one has to exercise a thought process, let us say a mentality or a life style that leads us up the path of being as safe and legal as we possibly can.  We do this even though we understand the world is not perfect and that we are but human. Then when we find ourselves falling or being forced from this path because life has left us no other choice we know what to do.  We pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off, and we go right back to being that safe and legal truck driver as we humanly can be depending as I said before, how the person looking at us at this moment sees it.  

 

In our hearts though, we know one thing that is very important to ourselves.  We know that our every waken moment spent behind that wheel is spent being as safe and running as legal as we can.  Because quite simply, we are who we are, safe and legal truckers and no one should ever be able to take that away from us.  Why would they even try?

 

God Bless America

Drive Safe Drive Sane

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Snitch


Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 4/21/13 Snitch

Is that what I am, a snitch that is? Some might call me that I guess as I was called this today by a trucker as he caught me snapping pictures of him two feet of the tail of a car at highway speeds. After that he went on to call me all sorts of nice things. What amazed me most here is the fact that at those speeds and that close to a car full of people, why was he looking out his passenger window at me instead of keeping an eye on the only part of the car in front of him that he could see, the top of it.

 

As usual when I see this going on, I ask the driver to please back off before he kills someone. Some do and others like today take it to a third grade level.  His choice I think to myself as he tells me his company will not fire him and actually rants off his truck and company phone number for all to hear over the CB radio. Then actually dares me to make the call and laughs as he tells me that I will just get laughed at. Then of course the usual next, I am to mind my own business and to drive my own truck.

 

 You see though, this is my business and yours to as a safe and legal trucker like most of us are in today's world. When things go wrong in this type of situation, the ramifications fall to every trucker in the nation. First, another killer truck story hits the newsstands and then politicians climb up on their stumps and what comes out of all that is the drivers and decent companies left out on the road now have to deal with the new regulations designed to stop killer truckers. Then of course we also have to deal with the loss of respect from those that we share the highway with. Our jobs as safe and legal truckers is to protect the traveling public as we share the highway with them, not shove them down the road for whatever reason. So you see, when one acts in an unprofessional manner, we all pay. Even if it is just at a company level, we all pay.

 

As for me being that snitch, sure, why not. And let's not forget all the threats of kicking my butt and the occasional death threats I receive from time to time. The thing is that I remember a time when I said nothing one day. I watched as an eighteen wheeler pushed a car through a construction zone. To this day I can remember the sights and sounds as the world went wrong and that truck ended up shoving not one, but two cars down that highway. To this day I can see clearly in my mind the smoke and debris and the bodies. And to this day I wake up at night and can still hear the scream of that little girl as she turned and seen what was left of her mother laying there half way under what used to be a minivan now nothing more than a twisted pile of metal residing under the front end of a truck. A driver by the way that now calls prison home.

 

I made a promise that day to that little girl and myself and a promise I plan to keep. That promise being to do just one more thing to help stop the needless deaths out on the highway. Each and every day I spend behind the wheel of my truck I try my best to keep that promise. If that makes me a snitch or something worse, so be it.

 

As for today's episode, well, off the pictures go with a letter to the company. Of course, copies will go to the proper authorities. One to the state the event took place in and a second to the state the trucking company resides in. Sure the company might laugh at me. But thinking about the proper authorities, well, we will see if they do any laughing as they knock on the door and ask what has become of this so called trucker they hired that likes to shove people down the road with a big truck with their name on the side of it. Judging from past experience, any laughing comes to a very quick stop right about here.

 

God Bless America 

 Drive Safe, Drive Sane

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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Doing It


Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 4/11/13 Doing It

For two days I sat in Cheyenne, WY as winter storm Walda passed over us. I was lucky in a way I guess because just before it struck, my truck needed to go into the shop and I had to get a hotel room.  The Kenworth dealership was nice enough to let my pet bearded dragon Sammy stay in the truck in the shop so that she stayed nice and warm from the freezing blizzard outside. So a really big thank you goes out to them.

 

Yesterday all the restrictions were lifted going west bound so off I go up and over Sherman mountain and out past Laramie, WY. The roads are  still icy and the winds are kicking just a bit but life is manageable. As I get about twenty miles from Rawlings, WY A car passes me on the ice and pulls back in front of me in the right lane and slows down. Many of us truckers knows what is about to happen here, I step out into the left lane to keep my speed up and not have to use my brakes on the ice and the car speeds up not letting me pass. So being a safe and professional trucker, I back out of it so they can go on but the car slows down even more.

 

As luck would have it, the roads dried up about then and I pick up my speed to pass, seventy five miles an hour in this state. Nope, the car is not going to let that happen so I drop my down to forty five and still this car is forcing me to ride two feet off its bumper. Now as a truck driver, it is not my job to know or understand why people do this. Forcing a fully loaded eighteen wheel to stay behind you is crazy especially on a solid sheet of ice. But people will do this and my job at this point is to pull off the highway and let them go about their way.

 

Unfortunately for me, I pull off into a truck stop and right into a two foot snow drift that Walda had left behind. You see out on the road a driver like that will force you to keep your concentration completely on them so that you do not run over them. You end up losing what everyone else is doing and that makes for dangerous driving. When I pulled into that truck stop still muttering under my breath because of this forced unwanted delay, my mind was still on the highway instead of what was going on in that parking lot. People, if you are going  to pass, then pass. Keep moving ahead and do not force the truck you just passed to ride two feet off your bumper. Safe and legal drivers like myself work hard to keep you alive out there and a little help from you would be appreciated. Ok, end of rant but it needed to be said.

 

Anyway, three hours of digging my truck out of the snow drift with help from a flat bedder from Alaska, I was free at last to travel on. I returned the snow shovel to the truck stop that I had borrowed it from and as the driver that had help me refused payment and I was ready for a break anyway, we sat down and I bought him a meal. I figured that was the least I could do.

 

Truckers in today's world are becoming more in tune with safe and legal trucking. We go far out of our way to insure that those highways stay safe for those we share them with. That dedication comes at a price though. Often you hear stories of drivers being fired for refusing to run in an unsafe or illegal fashion. Sometimes the courts will back the driver but all too often they do not. Drivers take a big chance putting their livelihood on the line each and every time they say no when no is the right answer. Yesterday the price to me was three hours of digging my truck out of a snow drift and the aching back that came with it. At least though I can rest easy knowing that my decision to pull off the highway instead of playing stupid head games at seventy five probably saved a life.

 

I wonder sometimes, do people know what us truckers go through sometimes to keep them alive out there? Do they even care? I guess that is not really important though. Recognition is not why we do it. What is important is that we do it and we keep doing it. And personally just from me, a big thank you to all those truckers that believe as I do  and take that extra step every day to keep those highways safe. I know the cost involved in it sometimes can be high. Making that decision though is what keeps people alive and for doing the right thing you deserve to be appreciated for a job well done.  

 

God Bless America

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Going Nuts


Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 4/9/13  Going Nuts

PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become a house hold word these last few years as our veterans return from decades of wars with terrorist. Growing up I watched General Patton slap a soldier suffering from it in a World War Two movie, but we called it battle fatigue back then. Whatever the name, it is defiantly a real thing in many people's lives. We find all too often our police officers and other first responders have dealt with it. Others too like myself a truck driver, after being on the scene of a horrific wreck; found myself with the symptoms of PSTD.

 

Many that come to know PSTD have systems within their work environment to help them deal with the effects. Others like myself as a truck driver find that they are left to deal with it on their own. Understanding this I decided to venture into finding out just what might be available to find help for those that need it. What happen though is I found out what is happening to those that have already received the help they needed.

 

Going on right now the state of New York is revoking gun permits based on the fact that a person is now or in the past used  anti-anxiety medications. Our veterans in other states are having their Constitutional right to carry a fire arm taken away based on the fact that they were in combat and may have problems resulting from that experience. In short, this latest attempt to disarm law abiding Americans of their Constitutional rights has many people running for cover.

 

So what do these two important subjects, our Second Amendment and PSTD have in common, let me try to explain it for you. For years certain profession have needed to get medically qualified to be able to do their jobs. truck drivers for one but also police, pilots and a host of others. Fail to meet the requirements and you no longer have a job. You are left standing their trying to figure out how to feed your family and pay your bills on your own. The outcome of this has been the fact that one does not tell the doctor anything that will get them disqualified. In short, medical conditions go not only undocumented, but untreated as well.

 

With this new reviewing of medical records with the intent of removing firearms from perfectly safe law abiding citizens, why one might ask would anyone seek help not only for PSTD or any other condition for that matter. I have heard about letters to veterans revoking their rights because they lost an arm or a leg in battle and now the government feels that the stress caused by that leaves a person too mentally unstable to be trusted with a fire arm. These people fought for those rights.

 

As we move forward, understanding how the government is now thinking, why would anyone want to admit that they need to talk to someone about anything. Even if what you are dealing with now will not get your rights as a gun owner taken away, a quick swipe of a pen five years from now could place you on that list.

 

So if you need help, you need help. I am not in any way suggesting that you do not seek it out. What I am saying is that the overzealous actions of a government out of control is forcing people to choose between seeking that help at the risk of losing their rights. Already far too many will not tell their doctors their true medical situation. What is going on now will only increase that number tenfold.

 

I would love to see the need for help come available for truckers like myself. We are out there thousands of miles  and weeks away from home behind the wheel of a large truck. The events of a few days ago need an outlet sometimes and there is nothing available to us at this point in time that I am aware of. Keeping our highways safe is our number one job. I wonder though, how many truckers would seek out that help if it became available if they knew that their rights as an American would be stripped away. I know that I would never myself take that chance. I can only write this because my story is already out there in print. Would I have done that knowing what I know today? I am not so sure.

 

Saving lives on our highways has become a top priority for the truckers of today. We demand more and more to run legal and we walk away from companies that would have us do otherwise. And as important as that is, choosing between keeping our highways safe and keep our Country free, the most important of all things, has just been made into one heck of a conundrum for not only truckers, but anyone that might need a little help.

 

Politically correct thinking will be the downfall of this nation. We need to get over it and back to common sense.

 

 

 

God Bless America

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey


Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 4/5/13  Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey

How many drivers are found dead around Dallas, TX? I am not sure because when I looked into it I kept finding story after story of a driver once again found not so alive as they used to be. I think two were beating and robed and another died of unknown causes just last month alone. One thing is for sure, these drivers were forced by the nature of our business to park in areas that were not safe and secure.

 

Over the years I cannot tell you the number of drivers I have personally met or heard about that were robbed because of where they ended up parking for the night. The number of cars that I have seen crammed up underneath a trailer on some ramp next to a over full truck stop. Usually because there was just not enough parking in the area to hold all the truckers that by Federal law had to shut down and take a mandated rest break where there was no place to safely park. It is time that we as an industry stand up and do something about this. It is time that you get involved and here is how you can do it.

 

To  be part of the Jason's Law truck Parking Survey 2013 please email hope.rivenburg@gmail.com and do your part. Hope is once again stepping up to the plate after her great work in getting Jason's Law passed. She as you could expect is not waiting around for the government to get things started. Hope is putting together a survey that will point out to the powers that be just where and when there is a severe lack of safe parking for truckers. Already she has government officials contacting her asking for the outcome of this most important survey. All she needs is truckers like you to take part. What is needed is real world in real time information to make this study as accurate as possible instead of some government dude showing up at a truck stop at three in the afternoon looking at a half empty truck stop wondering what the problem is.

 

Now is the time for all truckers to come to the aid of their industry. Now is the time that you can make a difference. Email Hope at hope.rivenburg@gmail.com and lets us truckers once again lead the way to a safe and legal trucking industry. Let us once again let the world see that we are taking the lead when it comes to keeping our highways safe for all that we share them with. And a special thanks to Hope Rivenburg for given us the opportunity to do so.

hope.rivenburg@gmail.com
 

God Bless America

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