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"