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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Which Direction

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/27/12 Which Direction

Figured I would listen in for a bit on one of the trucking radio shows this morning. Nothing new, another trucker story with the driver blaming their GPS for making them cross a bridge they had no business on. This time it was a covered bridge, destroyed a piece of history built back in eighteen seventy two if I remember right. Of course the guest on the show is talking about different groups wanting to ban GPS systems in trucks or perhaps just coming up with some new regulations for the use of them in commercial vehicles.

About the time I start thinking that you cannot regulate common sense, both the guest and the host relate my very thought in their conversation. But if we are not careful, this is exactly what will end up happening. Some politician somewhere will take it upon themselves to once again save the world from us truck drivers and if you would just vote for them, the world will be a better place. People will buy it of course, history has shown that. And in a year or two we will have new regulations for the use of GPS if we have the GPS in the truck at all.

So on to the fix for this situation. First, understanding that a GPS, a map book, a phone call for directions all have one thing in common, they are nothing but tools to help you get to your destination. None of these things can be counted on to get you to where you are going safely in a big truck. The world is an ever changing place and just because your friend went in that way last week, does not mean that road construction; a wreck or perhaps a change in truck routes has not taken place. When you sit behind the wheel of that big truck, you have to know with some certainty that the roads you are on or that bridge you are about to cross is safe.

Secondly, even knowing that these afore mentioned are only but tools, you have to know that you can only do the best that you can do. Even the best of drivers cannot read the future. They cannot see behind that curve or over that hill. You will eventually find yourself in a place that a big truck has no business being. Drive long enough and this will happen to you. This, my friend, is where we find out if you have enough common sense to be driving a big truck. Get out of this situation that you have unwittingly found yourself in without tearing anything up, without upsetting the locals, without getting a ticket and still make your appointment time. Then, and only then, will we call you a truck driver.

But until this happens, just practice practicing a little common sense and you will do just fine.

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

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Social Media Convention

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/19/12 Social Media Convention
As each year passes, more and more truckers are becoming aware that they do have a choice. Gone are the days where you either broke every rule, every regulation and you put that load through no matter how sleepy you became or else. Not in today’s world, or so you would think. Not quite just yet anyway. We still have a little further down this road to go. But the speed in which we are getting there is faster and faster with each passing day.

In today’s world, most of that speed is coming is coming from Social Media. Drivers all across the country now can take a just few minutes each day and come together sharing information and within seconds, things are being done that used to take years to make happen. We have found our way from the remote areas of the country into the new Social Media Jet Age.

So how do we use this new found freedom? That is where Donna and Allen Smith come in. Each year they put together a “Trucking Social Media” Convention for drivers like you and I to attend. They have lots a great things going on like different awards giving out and a Pride In Your Ride contest. But I think the most important part to me about what is happening here, is the huge amount of information that is given out not only about the trucking industry, but also how to use the tools of Social Media to get our messages as truckers out there.

Our time as truckers is now. No longer can we sit back and allow others to define who and what we are. It is up to use to show through Social Media that truckers will make the difference when it come to such things as keeping our highways safe and demanding to run safe and legal. It is like I always say, truckers are now leading this fight, and it is time the rest of the world knows that.

So here is the link, stop by and check it out. Be there or be square.

October 27th & 28th 2012 in Kansas City, MO at Harrah's
http://www.truckingsocialmedia.com/2012_Guest_Speakers/index.html
Be safe peeps.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Running Legal Blues

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/17/12 Running Legal Blues
“And help us build a more positive public perception of truck drivers and the trucking industry.” (Xata on Face Book} A quote I borrowed from another site and I am all for what they have in mind. They are handing out a reward to a driver that does great things in the trucking world to help get the word out that some truckers actually care. That we are out here by the thousands trying to run legal and with a little help over the continuous stream of obstacles that the world keeps throwing at us, we actually one day might get there.

I remember when I first started down this path, an idea I picked up off of OOIDA about twenty years ago now I think. But even before that, bits and pieces for me were starting to fall into place as the trucking industry started down a path that led us to today’s world of trucking. More and more drivers were not only wanting, but demanding to run safe and legal. So now in today’s world, our industry is full of drivers that do great things and with this reward I see that finally, just maybe, someone might just be starting to recognize what I have been saying for years. We need to get outside of our world and let the real world know what we are up to, that we are trying to run safe and legal. Part of that is making sure that safe and legal drivers are not only recognized, but also protected so that we can survive this industry and remain out on the highways.

I wrote my book, “Running Legal Blues” to do just this. It was a cool tool that I could step outside of trucking and meet with everyday people and in my own way, let the world get a look into our trucking world and see that we are not the killer truckers that they were led to believe. It was awesome the way that the average person would relate to me and as we sat there in a small room somewhere. Together we became friends and I, as much as them; would walk away with a better understanding of our two worlds. We both I always found had just a little more knowledge and respect for each other and now as that lay person listened or talked to their representatives about trucking issues, they knew that at least one trucker out here was not what they were being led to believe. Letting the world know that safe and legal drives do exist is not only a must, but something that I have been working on for years.

As normal though, obstacles to our destinations do from time to time present themselves. Like the obstacle I found when I decided to come to Face Book with my new book. Many slammed me because as they seen it, I was only here to make money off of the drivers. That after years of advocacy fighting for drivers to be able to run safe and legal without reprisal, my only goal was to, to; well let’s just say that some gave me a less then happy welcome. I guess being new to social media I probably broke more than half of the un-written rules and in doing so I was left out in left field. Such is life.

Not being one though that lets life’s little setbacks get in my way, I simply set out with the same goal in a different direction. I started writing “Today’s Thoughts.” In this way I was still taking the day to day world of trucking and putting out stories that could be used to show the world that truckers do care about such things as highway safety and running legal. Not to pat myself on the back, well, ok; to pat myself on the back, the feedback that I received back from both in and outside of the trucking world sometimes would bring a very happy and proud tear to my eye. Drivers themselves would see that they were not alone in their own personal quest to run safe, but they also would feel that they were now safe in speaking out. Now around the truck stops, drivers were having this conversation when years ago you would get laughed out of the truck stop if you mentioned running a legal log book. One of my stories even ended up in Land Line Magazine a few months ago. Ok. I smiled at that one. Point is, my work makes a difference.

And the responses from those outside of the trucking industry, my work has made a difference in the way that many see us as truckers now. I always love to hear back about how my stories have touched their lives and they feel safer in knowing that truckers that think like I do are out here. That they now understand a little more about the life of a trucker. But the responses I think touch me the most are the ones that come from police officers. I feel that these are the most important ones because we as truckers are as much interested in highway safety as any Law Enforcement Officer is. And when one of them takes time out of their day to send me a quick note, I feel both humbled and honored and I also feel that I have made a very important connection towards two groups that should be working together in highway safety.

So what got me to thinking about all this the other day is a friend after I had mention my book, said that he had never knew that I had written it. I realized that why should he. I was kicked and slammed if I even mentioned it for trying to screw drivers over. And now I see that for the same reason that I was taken out, person after person is now using different tactics to draw attention to different products to do what? To get the truck driver to buy their product, Weird

As for me, the last couple of years I have ordered hundreds of these books, paying for them out of my own pocket, and then giving them away to different people that I thought could use the message within. Some went to drivers that I met out on the road. Others went to people like Anne Ferro and other government officials. But a lot of them went to the average every day person that I would meet in my travels. A waitress at a restaurant or maybe a nice couple I would meet at a rest area somewhere. The point is to give the book to people in high places or just the average person on the street. By doing thisI was letting the world know that safe and legal truck drivers are out here. And if you want us to survive, we could use a little protection from the world. My message was getting out.

So for now on, I am not going to let these people shame me into not talking about my book, it’s message or the next book that I am about to finish up. You can either join me in my efforts to spread our message or not. That is up to you. As for me, my books are priced so that every book I sell pays for one book that I can give away. I will take all the help I can get. Running Legal Blues on Amazon is a good place to find it. Also I have a youtube video, stop by and check it out.
Be safe peeps.
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Monday, September 17, 2012

Grrrrr

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/17/12 Grrrrr
It has to be me. I spend the last four days, shop after shop, getting told that they do not have the part I need. I finally get into a freightliner and get told the same thing. I get the part number and go around the corner just to be showed a part that lets me know the part number is wrong.

I talk the parts guy into walking out to my truck, I finally get the right part and I’m off to find a shop to put it on. I walk into the shop, no one there but me and the owner. For twenty minutes he talks on the phone with me sitting there listening to the problem he is having selling his spare house. No, he does not want to rent it out again. That offer was not fair. Yada yada yada for twenty minutes and he has not even said hello to me yet.

So I turn and head out the door and finally, he wants to know if he can help me. I figure sure, there is a sticky spot on my ass you can kiss. Oh well, I’ll get over it in about two weeks. Maybe, this is a big part of the reason why I would rather drag a truck home on knubs then stop out here and try to get something fixed. And they wonder why so many trucks go un-repaired.


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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Birth Rights

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/15/12 Birth Rights
A right, privilege, or possession to which a person is entitled by birth. So what happened to ours as a country? I have been thinking about this a bit lately, as I have been doing my trailer trucking around the states. It seems to me that our birth rights as Americans has either been stolen or giving away. Think about it for a moment. Your parents start out with nothing, they crawl and they climb and they bust their arse and build up a business and stow millions in the bank. Then as time passes, the things your parents created become yours, your birth right so to say. Some are lucky and find themselves in line for a throne somewhere. The thing is though, the things your forefathers created, the things they built, are the birth rights of the generations they leave behind.

Our American Forefathers, they started our country, America, first by fighting to free our country from the tyranny of a far away king. Then they went on to lay the ground work with such things as our Constitution and a Bill Of Rights. To these they added years of dedication and sacrifice and generation after generation doing their part, we found our nation to be the greatest nation on earth. For thousands of years, modern man lived by candle light and worked and rode farm animals to survive. Only recently, with the birth of America, did the world free itself from the old beliefs that kept humanity in the dark ages. The world would hang people as a witch if they even thought about making something work in a scientific way.

We did that, us Americans that is. Over two hundred years ago our forefathers and every generation since has built from scratch a nation, this American nation, to be the most prosperous nation ever know on the face of the earth. This is our birth right. It is ours and somebody either stolen it or giving it away.

No longer are we even able to pay our own bills. We have borrowed trillions from what amounts to be nothing more than third world countries. We cannot even manufacture a simple piece of glass in this country let alone the majority of products need for daily life. Walk down any store aisle and I bet over ninety percent of the products there are made in a foreign lands while our own people sit and wait for a government check at the mail box. Our college graduates protest in the streets for the jobs that they were promised, but yet too lazy to even go build for themselves a path of their own. We do not even produce in our own children the spirit, morals and ethics that it takes to build a strong nation any more.

“Doomed I say, Doomed.” Nope, not by a long shot. Freedom is never free and the good Lord says that those that will help themselves will soon find their own rewards. It is time for us Americans to get up off our arses and start kicking some butt. Our politicians have sold us out. They have stolen our birth rights and given them to the highest bidder in the name of whatever they thought was good for us. Some just did it for the great cause of greed and power. Whatever the reason, I want my country back. I want my birth right as an American back.

As for those that would stand in my way, our way, I would suggest you stand aside. Because if I am right, for the second time in our history, it will soon be said again, “"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Yamamoto

“And so, my fellow Americans I say: Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. “ Kennedy
The time, is now.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Telephone Smiles

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/12/12 Telephone Smiles
Let me see now, when was the last time I was at the house? Wow, I cannot really remember it has been so long. Three weeks, or has it been five? I am not sure. Many things have happened while I have been away. The lawn mower broke along with about what seems to be a million different other things that I cannot do a thing about until I finally see that front door again. Of course the death of my brother was a sad extra event this trip out. A house full of family that we had not seen in years, all came and went without me being able to be there. Life in a big truck leaves a lot to be lost. Sacrifices us as truckers make every day as we go about delivering America.

The only connection home for most of us is the telephone phone. I know that weeks and months for me as a trucker can be long and I can only imagine how our brave soldiers must feel spending years away from home fighting to keep our country free. And with all that goes on in ones daily life, the ups and the downs can really after some time become quite the drag, mainly for me because I want to be there to take care of the things for my family that I am supposed to be taking care of. It is hard enough to do when your there let alone being thousands of miles away trying to help matters along through a telephone. Sometimes, it just does not work.

Other times, like tonight, that telephone call really hits the spot. The world is right, all is good, and the one at home that you long to be with is nothing but smiles. They have had a great day and as they kick back talking a mile a minute to the one they love, you can just see right through that telephone the from ear to ear smile on their face. These are the calls I love to have with the ones I have not seen for so long, the ones I left back home as I go trailer trucking around the country.

It is hard sometimes as I sit here in this sleeper berth, what seems to be a coffin sometimes missing home, wishing I were there. Those telephone calls full of smiles sure do make this lonely trucking life a little bit easier to take. I will be home tomorrow, if only for a few hours. I will get to see in person that smile. And in about twenty-four hours, I will be out that door again on another load with nothing but the memory of that beautiful face, waving goodbye to me once again with that pretty smile on it. Of course, I will once again be looking forward to hearing that smile through that telephone as I once again forget just how long it is that I have been gone again this time.
Life in a big truck, not for wussies, that is for sure.

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Saturday, September 8, 2012

A Truckers Reward

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/8/12 A Truckers Reward
Truckers that run legal. Ok, OK, stop laughing. I have been putting this out there for years. There are thousands of us that bust our butts to run as safe and legal as we possibly can. I myself have been doing it for years and as such, I am finding it harder every day to continue. With the failing economy and a complete over regulation of the trucking industry, it is becoming darn near impossible to do so anymore. But many of us continue to demand to do so. Well at least to the best of our abilities anyway.

And as we do, we often find ourselves having to chose between working and making a payday or walking away putting our whole life at risk because we simply refuse to break the laws or run unsafe. I know the cost that I myself have lost in the past and still to this day, I am paying that price. It is sad to watch as my truck deteriorates because I refuse to run illegal or unsafe loads. I know that for me, there is only so much time left.

What about other drivers though? I am not by a long shot the only trucker out here that demands to run safe and legal. I found out today that a friend of mine walked away from a company that demanded he run in an unsafe or illegal manner. The company I bet covered the load with another driver that was willing to do what needed to be done so no big loss to them. But what about my friend? Car payments, house payments, about fifty grand owed toward his truck and trailer and because he stood his ground, now he has the pleasure of praying like hell that he does not lose everything he has worked for all his life. What a crock.

As I see this, because my friend did the right thing, walked away from a company that demanded he break FMCSA regulations to tend to the needs of a customer. Because he chooses not to put the lives of the families that he shared the highways with at danger, this is his reward. The DOT sees him as no better than a truck driver that just started yesterday. The press and the politicians still label him as a killer truck driver, and the world to include the family that might have been killed still sees him as nothing more than a piece of crap that needs to be removed from the highways before he kills someone.

This man, this safe and legal truck driver just put his whole life, his whole career on the line to remain safe and legal and the world out there both outside of trucking and up there on capitol hill could care less for this valiant act of this trucking hero. To them, he does not even exist.

It is time I think that we found a way to recognize heroes like my friend. No, they may not have pulled someone from a burning car or found a way to be present in front of some news crew TV camera somewhere. However, the fact is, it is the steadfast hard headed attitude that it takes to stand up to outlaw companies that is saving lives out on that highway. It is that willingness of a driver to put their whole life on the line to keep our highways safe, that is saving lives out on that road. Personally, I think it is high time that drivers like my friend start being recognized as Highway Heroes. If you ask me, they are saving lives out there on that highway just like the driver that comes across a wreck and pulls someone out just in a nick of time.

To my friend all I can offer is my prayers and any help that I can give as I see you need it and I can supply. I hope your stand finds you in a more lucrative place in the near future. And I also pray that one day, the world recognizes the sacrifice that so many truckers make each and every day in keeping our highways safe, in keeping our families alive and safe so that they may return home to their loved ones.

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Sammy's Safety Message

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/6/12 Safety Message
I enlisted my trucking pet Sammy to help spread a very important safety message. I hope everyone enjoys our video. See you next time.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qzqObL0FI&feature=youtu.be
Safety Message

Monday, September 3, 2012

Trucking Politics

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 9/3/12 Trucking Politics
Can you tell that I have been involved lately more into the national level politics than just the trucking side of things? Probably so and I just want to let you know that here in a few months, when our national elections are over, I will probably settle back down to just the trucking side of things again. As for now though, right at this moment, I think our attention as truckers needs to be more on the national level. Let me tell you why.

As it is right now, we know from experience that the current administration is adding regulation after regulation to the trucking industry. There have been several times, if not most of the times, we as truckers have stood back after the bad news and wondered just how in the heck did they come up with that from what the studies showed. We know that they are going to continue to come down on every trucker no matter how safe and legal they run and we know that if reelected, we can expect the same for the next four years.

So I know that trucking matters on the trucking level are still very important, but what it is that we have to realize as truckers is that we can help change who will be making those decisions for us in the future. A change of administration at the federal level means a change more then likely at the Federal DOT level. Hopefully, for our sakes, it will be a change to a person that realizes that bankrupting as many drivers as you can is not what needs to happen if you want to keep safe and legal drivers out on the highway. Perhaps with a change, we can go back to the days were a driver could make a living running safe and legal instead of more and more drivers having to make the decision to return to their renegade days.

Whatever your politics are, getting involved now at the Federal level will make the difference over the next four years of new regulations. Not getting involved could find us in even a worse position. We need a candidate that is willing to learn our particular needs and help us help them keep the highways safe. If my predication is right, we will at least start moving in that direction with a change of administration in a couple of months. If you disagree, better get out there and work to nullify my work in that direction. Have to love politics.

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