First Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention

Today's Thoughts 9/27/11 First Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention

Well folks, looks like you still have just a few days left to get you tickets to Allen Smith's of "Ask The Trucker" First Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention. As I was lurking through Allen's Face Book wall, I noticed a question asking Allen when the deadline for getting tickets was. October 5th was Allen's answer so it seems to me you had better be getting up off your lazy butt and ordering your tickets now before it's too late to do so.

I could go into all the great things that will be covered at the convention and all the great speakers and entertainment that will be there. But I won't. Just to dang lazy to do it. What I will do though is refer you to Allen Smith on his Face Book page and I'll be leaving a link to the web site for everyone to check it out. My thoughts on the matter are go. I know there are lots of differences out here in the trucking industry. Sooner or later though, if we are to make trucking a better place to live and work not only for truckers of today, but truckers that will follow us in tomorrow's world, we need to come together and start hammering out the direction we need to go on our terms instead of being steered on their terms.

First Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention as I see it is going to be a huge step to truckers themselves regaining control over our own industry. So if you can work it out, be there or be square. Wow, I said "be there or be square". When I start quoting the cast of Happy Day's I'm done. LOL …CYA

http://www.truckingsocialmedia.com/

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

To Hey With It

Today's Thoughts 9/25/11 To Hey With It

Was it worth it? That’s a question that I have been pondering for some time now. All this time and effort that I have spent over the years that is. Working on things like drivers being able to run safe and legal without reprisal and letting the world outside of the trucking industry know that there are lots of drivers within the industry that follow that same line of thinking. That’s a hard thing to do especially when there are forces out there that really do not benefit from such drivers. Whether it is for political reasons, news media selling papers, or a whole host of other factors that make money off of either the image of a renegade truck driver or the actual renegade themselves.

We have come a long way as drivers over the years. Sure we still have a few renegades out there but the majority of truck drivers hitting the road today are way ahead of drivers of the past when it comes to their knowledge base involving all the different trucking issues. The invention of social media outlets like Face Book has made our struggle to be the best we can be as truckers a whole lot easier. Yes I know there are many different opinions on just how it should be done. But never before has so many drivers at one time been involved so deeply in the goings on of every level from the man on the street all the way to the top levels of government.

The question is, what is all this involvement getting us? Not much it seems to me. Our goals as truck drivers has been to make that highway as safe as we can while we go about doing the business of keeping America supplied. Deaths involving trucks keep dropping every year while miles driving by trucks keep going up. One can only conclude that we are if nothing else making one heck of an effort as an industry to do this right. What we seem to be getting back from the powers that be is simply more and more regulations that not only make it harder for us to do our job safely and legally but just about impossible to do the job at all. It just seems that every time we make a suggestion as to what is needed, they take that suggestion and pervert it into a solution that drives drivers right out of the industry.

The thing about this situation is that we as truckers are not alone. Just today I read an article about how the EPA is looking at making hey that a farmer grows and feeds to their livestock a pollutant. Once they have accomplished that then they will impose regulations on farmers to control this pollutant. No weight will be giving in this process as to what the financial cost will be to the farmer or even if it will bankrupt them by the thousands as they try to comply with the newest and greatest effort to make the world safe to live in. Does this process sound familiar?  It's the same process that they use not only on the trucking industry but also every other industry out there. Watch this process long enough and over the entire spectrum of industries that used to be in America and you get the idea that it's not about clean air or safer highways, it's about destroying the ability of America to exist as a free nation.

Face the facts; every industry that they have run out of America is someplace else in this world supplying a different country with jobs and pumping out just as much if not more pollutants as they were here in this country. All that has changed is the location of the pollution and the power that grows a strong nation. So while they have us brain washed into thinking we are building a safer trucking industry, they are actually in the process of shutting down the American trucking industry and soon will allow other nations to cross our boarders and do the job we were regulated out of.

Was working toward safer highways worth the time and effort we put into it over the years worth it? You bet your butt it was. But we can no longer allow ourselves to believe the goal is just safer highways. We have to come to the understanding that the destruction of America through the destruction of her industries ability to operate is their main goal. We must stand up for the farmer in their fight to grow hey without the EPA sticking their nose into the process. We have to stand up for every industry in this country so that they can not only survive in this nation but will also be around to help us stand up in our battle against the tyrannies our government has been slipping in on us one group at a time. Remember folks the words of our forefathers. "Together we stand, divided we fall". It’s time to stand up for our country and bring back the common sense that made us a strong nation.

Now go fight for the farmers and the hey they need to survive, the ditch digger, and the multi million dollar corporations, for if we lose all of them, there will be no one left to fight for us. They will have saved the world and emptied our cupboards at the same time. It's a shame what they have done to our country. The only thing I can see that would be worse then what they did is if we did nothing to stop them in their tracks.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/

Open Letter To Rick Perry

Today's Thoughts 9/24/11 Open Letter To Rick Perry

So I don't have a heart, news to me. But that’s what I was told as I watched the Republican Debates out of Orlando, Florida the other night. Words that came directly out of the mouth of the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, as he explained what he thought of people that did not think it was right to give almost one hundred thousand dollars of tax payers money to illegal immigrants to pay for their college education while We The People are sitting here fourteen trillion dollars in debt. We don't have a heart if we do not agree with him.

Well, it could be that good ole Rick is right. Americans no longer have the heart for such things. But only because of the fact that people like him have given everything but the kitchen sink away to those that do not deserve it while they watched our American families stand in the unemployment and welfare lines while they buy votes with our tax dollars. Let me clue Mr. Perry in on a few things as I see them.

Aiding and abetting law breakers is against the law. I'm not sure what part of that last statement should be a problem for a man that has sworn to uphold the law. A misappropriation of states funds comes to mind. Law abiding citizens that no longer have jobs because you educated illegal's to replace them. You have taken from the pockets of hard working Americans and giving their profits to people that had no right to them. You have neglected your duty to represent the people of the state of Texas and instead represented the people of another nation. And now sir you ask to represent the people of America. Not on my watch. No sir. The last thing we need at this point in time is another misguided politician that thinks rewarding law breakers is in any way shape or form a policy that needs to be continued in this country.

Your actions have shown to at least myself, that you cannot be counted on to do what it takes to put our nation back on its feet. We need politicians that stand for America and only America. Politicians that will send law breakers back to their home countries and let them suck off the teat of some other cow. No longer will I allow myself to be used as slave labor for you to save the rest of the world. If you will not allow me to keep what I earn for my family, I will no longer allow you to steal it to give to those that break the law. I sir, am not responsible for the actions those that do not follow the law. "Period".

I always like to look at the record of a politician before I lend my vote to them. Rick Perry as a candidate for the presidency of the United States Of America by his own action has supported illegal actions thereby leading in a way to our current financial crises as a nation. It’s time to jail politicians like this, not vote for them.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
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http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/

Truckers Reality Check

Well, little lazy about writing today so I decided to watch a old movie ...   Reality set in ...  So I made"Truckers Reality Check" for your enjoyment...   cya next time ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu85PxvpxJY&feature=share

Big Trucks And Cell Phones

Today's Thoughts 9/16/11 Big Trucks And Cell Phones

Let's see here now. The directions say "Step One, draw circle on the wall about the height of your forehead". Ok, easy enough. "Step Two, Draw a "X" in the middle of the circle". That's done, now what's next? "Step Three, repeat banging forehead on the "X" until government thinking actually makes sense". WOW. I'll be back in about a week folks. Why so long? Because if they think taking away one of the greatest safety tools a trucker has like the cell phone is going to make the highway safer, then it's going to take a week of me banging that "X" before I can understand why.

Once again they are back to pushing this issue. Ban cell phones from big trucks so we can save everyone from the killer truck drivers once again. Well, let's talk about that just a little bit today. Let's see if in reality the banning of cell phones will actually make a trucker safer on the highway. I think first we have to know what a trucker uses his phone for. I like to write from my personal experiences so let's go with a couple of things I have used my cell phone for while driving my truck. A couple of years back when the drunk driver of a car was running everyone off the road, I used it to call 911 and talked to the police dispatcher until a patrol car arrived and did his thing. Thinking I might have saved one life there.

A few months ago when the driver of an eighteen wheeler was all over the road I made another call. Another police officer arrived and once again a cell phone call from an eighteen wheeler may have saved another life. A call to the fire department while following a burning truck that was driving down the road was a cool thing. Let me see, I drove my first truck back in nineteen eighty. Do you really want me to go on with a list of how many times I've used that cell phone out on the open highway to save a life? Just a few short years ago congress was giving out grants to Highway Watch because they knew the value of the trucking industry traveling millions of miles across this country every year. That these truck drivers with phones actually were not only defending our nation along side of Homeland security but were saving lives every day as we picked up the phone and reported things that needed reporting ASAP. Not miles and minutes down the road. People die in seconds. Millions of truck drivers with cell phones save more lives than they will ever cause in deaths. The only problem with that last statement is the fact that it is not politically correct. Politicians cannot buy votes with the truth. It's up to you to look past them and learn the truth for yourself.

So let's swap gears here and see what else will happen if they ban cell phones from big trucks. The first thing for me being that I'm a big believer in running safe and legal is the fact that I will go broke. I'll be forced to choose between answering that phone and taking that load or letting it ring and the agent calling the next driver and giving it to them because they answered the phone. Face the facts here. I'm a small business owner. Ask yourself, what small business can stay in business if they do not answer the phone when customers call? The plain fact is that if they pass this into law, no truck driver that demands to run as safe and legal as they can will be able to compete against truck drivers that will simply ignore the law and answer the phone. Again, instead of supporting the good guys, they just force more regulations on us that bankrupt us if we try to follow the law. What they will in fact do here is support the renegades of the trucking industry. Ok, so let's move on.

Ok, let's say the law has passed. I need a load. Normal business hours are from eight in the morning to around five at night. In today's economy I can spend up to a week looking for a load. That means that while I'm traveling west to California, I have about four business days that I need to be moving that truck to make the delivery. With the new cell phone ban, I cannot move that truck during normal business hours while I look for a load. So to keep myself within the law, I will be parked where it's nice and safe and wait until business hours are over so I do not miss a two minute call. Missing that call could cost me a week's worth of sitting while looking for another load.

Now that I have sat all day instead of driving, I still have a delivery appointment to be made out in California. Let's talk reality. After being up all day sitting on the side, I now have to drive all night if I want to stay in business. Reality is that if I do not make my delivery appointment, next load goes to a driver that will. That’s reality. If you take away my ability to make enough money in a reasonable amount of time so I can keep myself operating in a safe mode, then what will happen is a renegade that cares nothing for the law or safety will replace me. Freight is going to be moved by those truckers that can get the job done, period. You can pass rules and regulations out the ying yang and not a one of them will make a difference when it comes time for a shipper to decide which truck to use. The truck that gets the job done despite whatever gets in the way is the truck that will be called the next time a load needs to be moved. Banning cell phones from safe and legal drivers means nothing to the renegade. It's just another law that they will not allow to get in their way. So let's look at it another way.

Let's do a little experiment. A truck driver drives somewhere around one hundred and twenty thousand miles a year over the road. We are allowed to work a seventy hour work week so up to about sixty hours a week is spent behind the wheel. We do this for about fifty weeks out of the year. Sit down in front of your TV and tune it to a station with just white fuzz. Sit on a stool in front of it for ten hours a day for six days straight. Every now and then take a glance at the door to your left and then the window to your right. Basically though, just sit on that stool with absolutely nothing to distract you and watch that TV. Now do this over a thirty year career. Just like a prisoner confined for an extended length of time, you will soon fond yourself going completely bonkers. Try it again but this time with a phone to keep you alert and awake. See the difference?

Now just like the part of the studies that have been done on this subject say but the government will not tell you, truck drivers that use the cell phone in a safe and proper way are safer then truck drivers that do not follow safe phone practices. To fix the problem government has decided to punish safe and legal drivers while they allow the renegades to flourish and take over the industry. Once again the government refuses to listen to our calls for not only a better standard of training for drivers but a better standard for who can become a driver. They choose to pander for your votes by making you think they are promoting safer highways and saving you from killer trucks rather than fix the problem. In short, your vote matters, your death will be used to buy more votes. grrrrr.   I really do not like having to write that last line. The truth sucks sometimes. Be smarter than your government. Tell them to leave the greatest safety tool since sliced bread alone where it should be. That’s being used as a safety tool behind the wheel of a big truck.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/

American Jobs

Today's Thoughts 9/15/11 American Jobs

What are we waiting for? That's what I really want to know. Here we sit as a nation with our thumbs up our rumps while millions of us sit at the house without a job. What in the name of whatever makes the sun rise every morning are we waiting for? Hopefully I would think not the government to finally stop playing politics and fix the problem. Here's a clue, the government is the problem and they have no intent of fixing themselves. The plain fact is that as long as you depend on them, any fix will only lead to you depending on them. It's called buying your vote.

We The People are going to have to fix these problems ourselves. And the faster we realize that fact and start working toward the solution, the better. First, we must realize what the problem or problems are. My guess as usual is that you can find as many different answers to that as you can find people to ask. Ask me and I'll tell you that the number one problem is somewhere along the way someone figured out that if the whole word were as wealthy as those fat Americans were, they would have billions of profit generators (people) instead of just millions of Americans creating profit for them. Whatever the reason, it has led to the downfall of the greatest economy that this world has ever known.

So how do we fix this? Several things have to happen. Let's start with making sure that the people we elect to office are actually going to represent the American people. We look back at their records and make sure that the things they voted for actually had a positive effect on our economy. That the trade deals they made with overseas governments and companies actually worked toward the benefit of America. We make sure that they are working towards making sure that only people legally in this nation work in this nation. They demand that Americans follow the law, but somehow people that break the law have more rights to American jobs then the Americans that are legally here. Like I said, we demand that our representatives represent us, not them.

Another thing we can do to create jobs in America without the help of our government is to buy products made in America. Our government has done everything it could do to put cheap foreign products on the shelves at the store. I'm a little amazed at this because just a few short years ago everybody was running around shouting "Made In America". Some stores only sold products that were made in this country. But as the economy went south and everybody had to start watching their pennies, they soon forgot to buy American made products. So while we saved our pockets books, We The People ourselves helped our government send our jobs overseas. Only we can bring them back.

Wal Mart will sell what you buy. Buy a product from China and you give China a job. That’s one for the Chinese economy. And don't forget, that’s another job for China. If you want a job here in America, then the only way to do that is to unclench your butt cheeks and let a few more pennies fall out and buy the same product with "Made In America" stamped on it instead. It's up to you. Our government can make all the trade deals they want sending our jobs overseas, but those deals will only benefit the other guy if we run down to the store and buy their products. If we refuse to buy them, the jobs will come back to this country.

So you see, it's really up to us. We can choose to continue to back the bad decisions made by our government or we can choose to back our country in spite of our government's bad decisions. Whatever your choice, it's not going to be cheap. Get over that that thought right now. It's going to be a long costly process to bring us back up to where we were just ten years ago. But we can do this. We can do this without and despite the fact that our own government is a big part of the problem. And we can do this despite the fact that We The People forgot that our nation is more important than our own pocketbooks. In the words of a great American, JFK, "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". What you can do in your everyday life is base your decisions on what is good for this country instead of what is good for your pocketbook. It's time to save ourselves before we have no pocketbook to worry about.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/

Do Letters Work

Today's Thoughts
Do letters work….. I'll let you decide …. Once upon a time … In the state of Georgia…. The American Trucking Association was able to convince the state to make it mandatory for every commercial driver to join their Highway Watch program or the driver would not be able to get or renew their CDL license. To me … in a free America that just seemed insane …. Being forced to join a political group or losing my privilege to work…. how freaking dare they …

So …. being the quite person I am when my dander gets up …. I wrote a simple letter to the editor of my local news paper explaining my stance …. Why should I be forced to join the ATA activities when they were on Capitol Hill trying to put owner operators like me out of business and lose my ability to feed my family…. I also sent the same letter to all my representatives….It took about a week … when I was pulling out of a dock and I hear Dave Nemo Talking with a guy from the Georgia Motor Trucking Association about ….. my letter wow….

The guy … I wish I could remember his name … was Telling the world that the gentleman from Gainesville had no clue what he was talking about …. Dave had no clue … because he had not seen the letter either …. So with today's wonderful world of technology ….. I email Dave on air …from my truck…. a copy of my letter … in which he promptly read on air just as the show closed …..
About six months later … Dave announced in a short blurb …. That Georgia no longer required it's CDL drivers to join the activities of the ATA or lose their privilege to a CDL license….

So … I leave it to you to decide ….. Was I the one to get the ATA kicked out ….I know I never received any actual credit for it …. And I'm looking for any now …… It does not matter to me who receives the credit …. only that the job gets done …. Letters do work

How To Make A Truck Driver Mad

Today's Thoughts 9/12/11 How To Make A Truck Driver Mad

You see folks; this is why I never turn on my CB radio any more. All it does is leads to big time fights and sometimes that leads to two CB Rambo's fighting it out on the side of the highway. Personally, I have no intention of doing anything like that.  That’s why I turned the radio off years ago. But today, just for the giggles of it, I decided to turn it on just to see what the truck driver blowing his horn at me while blowing my doors off in the right lane had on his mind. Same old thing, slower traffic keeps to the right. Trucks only allowed in the right two lanes and I was blocking him in due to the fact that once again I was running the speed limit.  

Well, we all know that thing about slower traffic stay to the right; sure that’s an easy one. But he explains this to me as he is about two feet of the tail of the car that is getting on the interstate as he cuts me off about a foot in front of my bumper. That’s about three feet to spare between three moving vehicles at highway speed. I can just about bet you that if he was the one coming off that ramp, he would have been raising holy cane because I did not move over and let him on.

I've learned a little something about some truck drivers over the years. And I want to repeat the word some because there are a lot of great drivers out here. What is considered legal or what is consider courteous is based solely on the fact of what gets you out of their path. When you meet these drivers the best thing to do is get out of their path. Because not only is the law what they see the law to be, but they will basically kill you to prove it. And people wonder why I support a limited version of EOBR's on every truck. And I also support standards for not only training but standards for who they allow behind the wheel.

So how do you make a truck driver like this mad? Simple, just tell him when he starts obeying the speed limit; he won't be having these types of problems behind truck drivers that are obeying the speed limit. I think this will make their head explode faster than any other comment you can make. Their first response is always the same. "Slower traffic keeps right" And you counter with faster traffic keep left" Same argument that has been going on for years.

The next line is "trucks only allowed in the two right lanes" and you counter with "speed limit for trucks is fifty five" It never changes. They expect the safe and legal driver to slow down and run in a crowded right lane so they can speed merrily on their way while you're stuck in a backed up lane. The legal truck must follow all the laws while the renegade gets to pick and choose which laws they feel like following.

It's kind of like this as I see it. I'm a business owner trying to make a living as safe and legal as I possibly can. The rules and regulations only allow us so much time to accomplish this. If there is a legitimate reason for me to step out into that second lane while only doing the posted speed limit, I will do so. I will decide what is legitimate, not them. Traffic entering or exiting is a legitimate reason. Traffic that is traveling below the posted speed limit is also a legitimate reason. There may be other reasons as traffic will do as traffic will do. No one can sit here and explain everything that might happen.

So if I'm in a lane legal for trucks to use and I'm doing the speed limit, that’s too bad for you. You can choose to start running legal yourself or get pissed because I'm going to run as legal as I possibly can. What I will not do is allow you to bully me into an unsafe situation. Nor will I allow you to cause me to lose revenue as you break the laws to make yours.

Now see, I've just went and made a bunch of truck drivers mad. While thousands of truck drivers are out there trying to improve our image, they have to deal with the realities of what's behind the wheel of some trucks. It's a shame it only take a few to tarnish the reputation of the whole.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/

Americain Jobs

Today's Thoughts 9/10/11 American Jobs

I listened on the radio the other night as our present leader of the American Nation stepped up on the his stump and addressed this nation about his plan to save American jobs. I thought it was a beautiful speech, well wrote, well rehearsed and very well delivered. And it really did make me think about the predicament that the American people have been in over the last two and a half years that he has been in office.

Now I'm not really all that great with time lines and exact information. But I do know what is what and what the president has been doing and more importantly, not doing. Like for instance in the first year instead of creating jobs, he pushed his socialist health care agenda. Every time the American people beat it down and told him that we want jobs, he kept pushing it until he finally crammed it down our throats. While he kept pushing it we watched as millions of Americans lost more and more jobs.

We watched as our families starved and we lost our houses as he put people in his administration that were known for their ability to cut American jobs within their own country and sent those same jobs over to China.

We watched as our American families grew the lines at the unemployment office while he fought Arizona over allowing millions of foreign workers come into America and not only take our jobs but add to the over burdening of our health care system.

And for the jobs that he could not figure out how to export out of this country, we watched as he sent Mr. La Hood secretly down to Mexico to sign a deal that would allow Mexican trucks to start running American roads taking the jobs of thousands of American truck Drivers and those that worked in numerous other industries that kept our citizens at work in this country. In short, what jobs he could not export, he imported.

And now he jumps up when it is time for him to start his reelection process. He comes in with just about the greatest speech I think I've ever heard. Very impressive indeed that way he is so upset that our families are now homeless because so many of us are jobless. A man that really cares about us, The American people that for the first part of his administration he forgot as he pushed his socialist agenda. Now we should forget the past few years of slow starvation and stand behind his magnificent arse and let him lead us to salvation.

Well, I, for one, have no interest in following a president that has done so much to destroy this nation. No sir, not at all. All I want now, even before our jobs, is his ass. Plan and simple that’s what I want. We cannot reward what he has done to this nation at any cost. He must go and go now. Then and only then can we as an American people get back to being the strong nation that we used to be, regain in the world the respect as a nation that we used to have, and build the jobs that will feed our family.  

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
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Rules Of The Road

Today's Thoughts 9/5/11 Rules Of The Road

Rules Of The Road

I like the title that I picked for this one because as I think about what it is saying, what it actually means, I get a good laugh. I was watching some congressman on TV a few months back. He was standing there on his stump spouting off about one thing or another when he said something that really hit close to home for me. To know me is to understand why. I have been preaching for truck drivers to run safe and legal and about highway safety for a very long time now. So when this congressman said "There are so many laws in today's world that a person without their knowledge commits an average of three felonies a day".

Wow! What a statement to be made by the people that are supposed to be making the laws for our country. I wish I could remember just who it was but I'm getting to old and feeble to remember much past dinner time. But I do remember the essence of what he was saying, "so many laws".

But of course, that quote reminded me of another quote I heard years back on a radio show. I really should start writing these things down so I can remember who said them and give proper credit. I'll add that to my things to do list, if I can find it. But the quote for that day was this. "On the shelf up there on capitol hill, the rules and regulations regarding the driving of commercial motor vehicles, (trucks) take up almost nineteen feet of shelf space" So I'll throw in another "WOW" right about here. Can you imagine trying to follow all those rules and not breaking a one of them? That’s not all; no we are not finished just yet. That’s just at the federal level. Each state, each county, and city has a slew of their own individual rules and regulations that a truck driver has to follow.

I'm not done yet. The EPA loves to get their kicks in as do a multiple of other agencies with things like IFTA and other permits needed to be able to stay legal. And for the icing on the cake, every group, Tom, Dick, and Harry out there that is suing the government trying to force their version of how a truck should operate out on our nation's highways.

Have you ever looked back at a decision you made years ago and wonder "what the heck was I thinking"? Well, that's me. I thought I would be able to crawl into the cab of that truck and just live a nice quite life supporting my family and leave the office politics to those that like to deal with them. Boy was I wrong. The cab of that truck is so full of people telling me how and when to do everything including when I can stop and pee and if I do, I have to log it properly so Uncles Sam knows not only where I did it, but how long it took me to do it.

Now I have to ask you this. Remember that congressman that made that quote at the beginning of this chapter about so many laws and everyone being an unknowing felon. Was he right? I think so at least as far as the trucking industry is concerned. And my guess is it is also very true about driving a car.

In doing previous research for my earlier work, I had numerous opportunities to talk to different Law Enforcement Officers from all over the country. I was told more than once that there was no need to set up such things a speed traps as far as they were concerned. People in cars broke so many different laws in their everyday driving that they could wear out a ticket book a day and still have people to write up.

And I think that is true. So in today's world, as a truck driver, I have to remember and follow so many laws concerning how it is I'm supposed to drive between all the different entities that regulate me. And that’s just for my truck. I also have to know and understand the differences on how it is that the car will drive from state to state. What is legal and expected in Big City, New Jersey is not something I would expect a car to do in Little Town, Wyoming.

For those of you that have not figured this out yet, here's a little hint about this situation, "NOT" going to happen. All any of us can do is the best we can. That’s one of the biggest reasons for team work between total strangers out on the road. God himself would get a migraine headache trying to follow all those laws without missing a one of them. So we have to fall back to our own basic common sense, follow as many of the laws as we can, and help each other through team work to make sure we survive another trip out on the road.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

Teacher

Today's Thoughts 9/3/11 Teacher

Wherever the blame lies or what the cause is, it will sometimes end up with two drivers trying to teach each other who is the boss.  I'm sure you have seen them, a car speeding down the road with a truck two feet off its tail.  Weaving in and out of traffic trying to prove who can be the biggest idiot I guess.  Well, let's try to make this one short and sweet.

No matter what you are driving, if you see this going on, first and foremost get yourself out of there.  These two drivers have no sense of highway safety and really don't care who they kill to prove it. I know I used a car and a truck in my example but it can be any mixture of vehicles involved. Get away and when it's safe, contact the authorities and let them handle it.

As for the driver of the car, what the frick are you thinking? You have pissed off the

driver of a eighty thousand pound truck. That driver is two feet off your bumper at a high rate of speed so mad that they are spiting spit and snorting snot, and you are doing what? Taking your three thousand pound sardine can and you're going to teach them a lesson. I'm sure the world will thank you for taking this job on as they burry you in a couple of days.

Now let's move on to the truck driver. I'm so glad that your experience has taught you to handle your truck so well, but what the frick are you doing?  You are in an eighty thousand pound vehicle two feet off the bumper of a car that will stop twice as fast as you can. Will you finally realize that everything in your life will come to an end about a year after they burry not only the driver of the car you just flattened, but any other person that was innocently just a few feet away.

Any driver that allows themselves to become this angry in a vehicle especially a large vehicle has no business holding a drivers license. Do the rest of us a favor. Park the car, the truck, the whatever it is your driving and take a bus to the house. The rest of us prefer to live another day.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
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