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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Defining Safety In The Trucking World

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 7/28/12 Defining Safety In The Trucking World

"You be safe now" I hear once again as I turn and walk out the door. A pleasant way to say good-bye to someone but I think that if I hear that just one more time, I'm going to scream. It's not that I do not believe in being safe out here in my big truck. No, that’s not it. It is the fact that no matter how many times I am told that particular phrase, some clown comes along and dang near kills me and them and everyone else around. Guessing no one told "them" to be safe as they turned and walked out the door today.

So, what is safe or maybe, the question should be how do you teach someone to be safe? Can you force safe thinking upon some one? Any trucker worth their salt can tell you that the FMCSA thinks they can sit up there behind a desk and regulate safety by makeing new regulation after new regulation. However, even after all their hard, well-intentioned work; people are still dying out here on the highways. We all know the crazy stuff we see from all kinds of drivers as they interact with each other out here in the real world.

Well, as you may have guessed by now, I have my opinion as to what makes a safe driver. It is something that I picked up from a business article I read somewhere years ago. You can teach and you can preach a job or in this case, safe driving to drivers until their eyes roll back in their heads and all you will accomplish is making them fall asleep in class. It will do absolutely no good at all unless they as an individual want to do the job or be a safe driver. You can force people into many things, but if their heart is not into it, they will simply go through the motions and the outcome will never be the same as a person that has dedicated him or herself to the job at hand.

This is why many believe that there should be a certain criteria as to who can become a truck driver. And why many believe that the FMCSA themselves are actually doing more harm than good with their relentless never-ending regulation after regulation trying to solve the problem. Even companies that give repeated safety class after repeated safety class if you watch as you sit through them, will have drivers that have seen this same out dated material for years, just sitting there rolling their eyes and wishing they were back out there on the road making some miles.

Nope, the way I see it you can educate and regulate until the sun goes down every day. But unless you can figure out how to make people want to be a safer driver, I mean really straight from their heart make it their passion in life to be safe, all we will end up with is a bunch of drivers going through the motions of being safe. They will simply say or do whatever it takes at the moment to get them through and then walk out the door and do what it takes to get the job done.

The answer to all this is realize that with so many different drivers out here, there has to be many different avenues to reach them. To make them actually want to be safe. Some will respond to the heavy handed repeated reminders from safety classes and over regulation. Other will just roll their eyes to these tactics and go about life in their own way. Continued lectures will only serve to make them reject the classes and come to the understanding that they are being treated in a disrespectful way. That their time and effort out on the highway for so many years means nothing to anyone.

I think recognition from the powers that be would work better. These drivers need to know, that after showing years of safe driving; that their efforts have been noticed and appreciated. This I think would work better than sitting them in a class with a person that just entered the industry learning their ABC's like a big dummy once again. I see this as disrespectful and humiliating. Let their time and efforts over the years be put up in a place of honor and you will find that in their hearts, they will want to be a safer driver. That drivers from all categories will have a goal to work for as they gain years in the industry, a standard that they can be proud to meet and a want within themselves to be a safer driver.

Only the want to do the job, to be safe will create a safer environment out on the highway. Keep beating these drivers down and that want will never come.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Gay Chicken People

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 7/24/12 Gay Chicken People
There I am again, yapping as loud as I can up there on my soapbox, about who knows what this time? Well, I guess you just have to laugh at me just a bit sometimes or just learn to love me I guess. Let us see if we can make this a short one anyway. Here we go; Chick Fil A and Gay Marriages. I hope this is not to hot of a topic for you and I bet if you stick around, I will show you a different way of looking at this.

So the fellers at the top of this chicken place do not like gay people getting married. And, if my guess is right, gay people are all up in arms because the chicken people have a different view on life then they do. Go figure here in America, two different groups of people seeing things differently. I'm sure this has never happened before, right?

Anyway, as for me, I'm a straight guy married to my wife, a women and that’s kind of the way I see things. This is the life style I choose t support. However, that in no way means that I think that people of the gay persuasion should not have the same things that married life brings to us as a married couple. I am though; an old fashioned traditional guy and I do believe marriage according to my beliefs should be between a man and a women. And I believe that some way should be found to make things equal for gays on a state level, the federal government has no place in this argument.

I think the biggest rub I see from my viewpoint is this, even though I will stand up for the rights of anyone to be anything they want to be in this country, including the gay life style, the other side seems to think that unless I absolutely drop my beliefs and support theirs, that I should be chastised. This is what they are doing to the chicken people. The chicken people believe in the traditional sense of the word marriage and that is what they support. This is what they should be allowed to support if we are to remain a free nation.

Imagine if you were told what you had to believe in and what activities you would take place in. Is that the America you know? To my knowledge, the chicken people have a right just as the gays do to live, support, and otherwise think for themselves and promote whatever life style they so chose. Just like you and myself do sitting right here reading this. No one should be forced into the beliefs of another, not in this country, not in America.

So the chicken people and the gays disagree with each other. I hope to God that even more groups disagree with even more groups and as long as everyone remains respectable and harms no one, I wish them all the happiness in the world as they chase their own versions of the American dream.
Well, that’s about as short as I can make it. Not too bad I hope.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Results

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 7/17/12 Results

It is always nice when a plan comes together. You do your research; write a nice and respectable letter full of the facts and nothing but the facts. Put together a nice package including my book "Running Legal Blues", a police report, my report and the respectable letter that I wrote and then mail it off. Then the time goes by. Did they get the package? If so, did they actually look at it and understand my points? Is it going to be the talk of the Christmas party this year up there on Capitol Hill? All these things go through your head wondering what has become of your work until one day, like today, the phone rings.

Some of you might remember all this about a month or so ago when I found myself with points on my CSA 2010 score just for being involved in an accident, not being charged in any way or at any fault but points just for being there. Well imagine the fact that I got my dander up and off went that package to all of my representatives and today, yes today I received a call from my Congressman. Well, his representative anyway and that was close enough for me though. We spent about twenty minutes on the phone talking about not only the problems with CSA, but also many different problems in the trucking industry.

One of the first things he said was that before he called me about my problem that he called OOIDA and talked with them about it. I thought that was awesome because now he is doing research and OOIDA filled him in on many different aspects and different cases like mine. So, while we agreed that CSA 2010 does have its good points, this is a problem that does need to be looked into. I was assured that several different congressional representatives are looking to fix this problem. My case will be discussed now and used as an example, and then hopefully help with the final outcome.

Of course, while I have you on the line, we went on to talk about other problems with the CSA 2010 and just dealing with the DOT in general. One point I was able to make was the difference on how different regulations are interpreted state to state. I explained that on any given item, to make Georgia happy would create a problem with the way California interpreted the same law. That even in the same state, from officer to officer, any driver could be written up just on the fact of how each different officer understood what it was they were looking at. Apply this to how CSA 2010 points affect a driver's career and we have a big problem here. I also made it perfectly clear that even though I had many problems with the DOT in general, I would in no way want to do without them. They were very much needed in this industry to keep the shippers and receivers in check. However, we need a balance here, as of now it was to one sided against truckers.

This led us down the path of over regulation of the trucking industry. How it affects drivers that try to run safe and legal. We talked about the cost to safe and legal drivers as opposed to drivers that just ignore the regulations. I helped him understand, I hope, that they could add a thousand new regulations this year alone and all it would do to make the highways safer is to bankrupt the good people. That the renegades will just continue to ignore the regulations and continue without the extra cost and drivers like me end up bankrupt due to the fact that we just cannot compete with the renegades.

We talked about the numbers of deaths out on the highway. I for one found that even one death was too many but given the fact that trucks supply America, that there was just no way possible to do our job and expect zero deaths. As long as there are humans involved, accidents will happen. Again, there has to be middle ground here, that the only way to have zero deaths is to remove all trucks from the highway. Then, as you may well know, America starves this way, that perhaps educating the general public on how to safely drive around trucks might be an option to consider.

As we talked, we covered many different subjects. I think the last one; the most important one for me was the one I drove home I hope. I explained to him all the different drivers out here that are busting their butts to run safe and legal. I explained about all the different ways and avenues that us truckers ourselves are working to better our industry and were demanding more and more each day to run safe and legal. I explained to him I hope successfully, that if they wanted safe and legal drivers out here on the highway to survive, that two things needed to happen. First, was the fact they needed to recognize that safe and legal drivers do exist. Secondly, that they must stand up and support them. Not just behind closed doors but out in the open, out where the public could see also.

Letters do work. I have only said this about a million times. The words I wrote a month ago led to twenty minutes of telephone time with a congressional representative. Who knows where the words I spoke in those twenty minutes will go. What they will accomplish? Imagine if only a small portion of the over three million truck drivers in this country picked up a pen and wrote a respectable, well-informed letter like the ones I have done so many times in the past could accomplish for our industry. It boggles the mind, don't you think?

Oh well, I'm off to finish up my happy dance. I feel like I have once again helped to make a difference. Oh, by the way, I was informed that bills are being drawn up to strip the new highway bill of the EOBR mandate. This day just keeps getting better for me. Awesome.

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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Surfer Dude Trucking

Today's Thoughts 7/14/12 Surfer Dude Trucking
By Jeff Head

Well, as most of you know, I have been out of my truck for a couple of weeks. I found myself out of the real world of trucking and into helping out some kids that needed a truck driver for a while. I really did enjoy meeting all kinds of cool people. Especially the three women that ran the food trailer and kept everyone fed each day. It was awesome helping them out as best I could and if you think about it, very smart on my part. After all, they have control over the food and of course, I like eating so there you go.

The kids themselves were way too cool and I fell in love with their spirit. Of course, we had a full staff of people that worked each and every day to keep things running. I was surprised at the level of professionalism that I found in the bus drivers that transported the kids around. I thought I was a nut about running a legal logbook but these bus drivers, they were defiantly on top of their game. I think we went through about three different groups of them and each group had a firm grasp of what needed to happen to keep themselves legal and the kids safe.

Then there was Surfer Dude as I called him. He was young and full of energy and a heck of a nice person, but everything as a trucker that many of us including myself have been fighting for years asking the FMCSA to get off the road. Instead, as many of us know, they voted in the Electronic On Board Recorders punishing safe and legal drivers once again for the action of drivers like Surfer Dude.

From the very beginning, Surfer Dude was telling me how he wanted to start a trucking company and his plans to run it under the radar of the DOT so that he would not have to follow any of the regulations. As time went on and we talked, his plans would change as I fed him information about how they would end up catching him. I would talk to him for hours about the unsafe way he would drive the truck. To him though, wide open was the only speed to travel, weaving in and out of traffic pushing and shoving his way through. I was afraid of what might happen at any moment with this guy behind the wheel of that truck. I was glad that the director stood behind me though as I demanded to run my truck safe and legal as I always do. That was very cool indeed.

I guess though what really gets me about all this is that while I was watching Surfer Dude terrorize the highways, up on Capitol Hill they once again pushed through more regulations that work towards bankrupting safe and legal drivers like me while Surfer Dude in his own words has no intention of following any regulation. Once again, our government unwittingly supported the bad guy leaving us good guys to foot the bill.

Face it, Surfer Dude will be in business much longer then I will. I simply cannot compete with truckers that will not follow the regulations and if governments only answer to this problem is more regulations, then I am finished. The governments own actions are killing the ability of safe and legal drivers to compete in the open market. They win and I lose.

I guess It is time for me to make a decision. Do I want to comply with the new EOBR rules or is it time for me to walk away from the industry. Leave it to the Surfer Dudes of the trucking industry because as I see it, comply with this mandate and next year will be something new. Another mandate that they have been pushing for for years and that could be CPAP machines or who knows what they will come up with next. All I know is that whatever it is, it will not do a thing to make the highways safer until they finally address the truckers that absolutely refuse to follow the rules. And to that end, now that they have made the rules so tuff to follow, no one can survive if they try. To try means certain bankruptcy. They have created an environment that only a Surfer Dude can survive in. Safe and Legal drivers like me no longer have a chance.

I have some soul searching to do in the next few months. My CDL drivers license is due to expire and I have done nothing towards renewing it. I simply do not have it within me at this point to even try. If the only way I can show a profit is to drive like Surfer Dude, then I would rather walk away from it. I have spent too many years working toward drivers to be able to run safe and legal to let the government revert me back to the renegade I started out as.

Whatever I decide to do, I will never stop working to save lives out on that highway, this I will always find a way to be involved with. Each and every day new drivers enter this industry and they need to know that if they chose to run safe and legal, that they will have the support of drivers like me. That they will eventually be supported by the government, as they should be, not used as political pawns as we are now.

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Taking A Break

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 7/712 Taking A Break

I didn't mean to, take a break that is. I just found myself thrust into one this last week. I was sitting there one night just minding my own business and twenty four hours later I found myself stepping off of an airplane into a whole new world. I went from a hard core over the road truck driver to driving for a drum and bugle marching band. Teal Sound if you want to check out some of their YouTube stuff.

It is kind of wild to me I guess because of after years of training myself to move at a relaxed pace and still show a profit, now it's move at the last moment and make the shows just on time. It's not really that hard to do, nothing that cannot be done legal and all that, I guess it is just the fact that I am no longer the commander of my own truck. Others make the calls as to when and where this truck goes now. I do miss my freedom and will be happy to get back to it next week.

And now of course I find myself moving with a group of people instead of the more reclusive life style I have become used to. Instead of doing everything myself, everyone in the group has their own thing to do before we can move. It gets interesting when one part lags behind but we always seem to get there on time.

And the kids, they are all just wonderful and I really am getting to know some of them. They work very hard rehearsing all day just to put on a show in a different town almost every night. I don't see where they get the energy from. Or is it that I am just no longer a spring chicken anymore.

But I think the best thing I will get out of all this is a two week break from the real world of trucking. I think I was well over due for that. I guess after years of working trucking issues and fighting the good fight, perhaps it was time to step out of my world and into another's for a short bit. Maybe I will be able to relax and gain some new perspectives on life so that when I finally do return, I will be able to see things in a different way, I better way. We shall see. I'm looking forward to it.

I see snack time for the kids is coming up again so I have to run. I will get in line and of course just happen to have an extra clean paper plate for whichever one just happens to be standing next to me needing one. Certain things are hard to come by for the kids and I kind of get a kick out of just happening to have an extra one at just the right time. Oh well, simple pleasures are the best.


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