One night, I stopped at a truck stop in Buffalo, NY and sat down to have dinner at the local cafe. Somehow the conversation at the counter shifted to the JFK assassination (yes, 45 years later JFK is still a major subject among many truckers who are rabid conspiracy theorists). Finally after listening to the upteenth conspiracy theory, I foolishly opened my mouth and said, "Isn't it just possible the Warren Commision got it right that Harvey Lee Oswald was just some lonely wingnut who decided he was going to kill the President and unfortunately succeeded?" The silenced that ensued was deafening. People stared at me like an extraterrestial from the Planet X who had just materialized out of the thin air. Finally, one bearded, burly trucker asks me, "How long have you been trucking?" to which I replied,"About 4 months." I was treated with an explosion of shouts: "Fucking new guy!" "You motherfucking dumbass!" "Don't go shooting off your mouth when ya don't know what you're talking about, fucker!" Then, I spent the next hour listening to several truckers correct my considerably profound ignorance about the Kennedy assassination. Sigh.
This is what the life of a liberal Democrat on the road means from a personal perspective. We liberals are pretty much the Lone Rangers of the trucking business. We often find ourselves in the minority on a number of issues. I have faced harassment and at times bodily harm for espousing my political and social views at truck stops and company operating centers. The majority of truckers tend to be conservative, and many have some military background, and are very anti-union. It is no coincidence that a high percentage of truckers live in the southern states.
Trucking is not my prefered profession, but because I am a father of three and have a responsibility to make enough money to raise them and pay child support, trucking is one of the few professions open to me in which I could provide for them adequately. I was actually an aerospace engineering major until circumstances and life intruded (9/11 for one). Ironically, I make more than most plumbers, including our friend Joe, after only four years on the job.
Being an environmentalist, trucking causes a lot of internal conflicts for me. Trucks are by far the worst environmental polluters in the transportation sector. They all run on diesel, one of the dirtiest fuels, and get relatively poor fuel mileage but provide plenty of power which is the prime consideration when hauling 80,000 pounds. Worse, many truckers will idle their trucks during their mandated 10 hour breaks no matter what the weather is like. Don't even bother talking with truckers about how this activity damages the environment, they just don't care. Some states, especially on the Northeastern seaboard, have passed anti-idling laws prohibiting trucks from idling more than 3-10 minutes. But these laws also can cause adverse problems for trucker's health. Pneumonia and heat strokes are some common serious health risks facing many truck drivers when it gets too cold or hot respectively. Even I idle the truck motor when the temperature falls below 15 degrees F. Many trucking companies have given company truckers incentives to reduce idling through monthly or quarterly bonuses. Some have even gone as far to installing bunk heaters and A/C units which run directly off diesel or batteries completely separate from truck motor. However, these systems are still treated as optional equipment on tractors (the more common name for big rigs).
Then there is the 'Haze'. Every where I have driven, and I have been in 47 of the lower 48 states, the haze permeates the air around me. Some days it is not always noticeable, but most days the haze is hard to ignore. And it is very depressing. Especially depressing since I can't seem to get away from it. Once, early in my career, driving westward along I-80 in western Wyoming and eastern Utah toward , I was enjoying the beautiful mountain vistas and scenery when suddenly I was surrounded by this thick putrid yellow fog. I thought there must have been some kind of fire, but I couldn't smell any burning odor. My throat got raspy and I began to cough. I finally descended out of the mountains into Salt Lake City and realized it was the pollution coming from the city. I drove over 100 miles further west and that yellow haze kept pursuing me. That was an eye opener. There doesn't seem to be any escape, and I have have been as far north as Edmonton, Alberta, blessedly out of satellite range of my companies Qualcomm system so my boss couldn't track me, but still surrounded by that damn haze.
Worse still, are the places I have been and seen where there are clear environmental problems affecting the area. I spent several hours driving through endless fields comprising tens of thousand of acres of crushed oil shale in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. You could almost imagine that is what Hell would look like. If you happen to believe in that sort of thing. I frequently delivered or picked up loads to textile mills. I can always tell when I am getting close to a textile mill. It's the smell. God how I have come to despise that smell! And to think I used to haul bulk chemicals to those places for 3 months. Never again! Nope, not when you been up to places like Rumford, Maine and seen the river foaming over with chemical pollution staining the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Try driving through southeastern California and western Arizona sometime where there are tens and thousands of acres of orchard farms and hay farms. Yeah, all the green growing stuff is beautiful right? Then, see all the elaborate water irrigation systems used to maintain these farms. Stop to think, hell, we are in the middle of the desert, where does all the water come from? Try driving along the Salton Sea, itself a manmade reservoir, or along the Colorado River. There is a documentary out that talks about the environmental impact water irrigation has had on the western United States and it is quite depressing. I could go on and on. Talk about states like Florida, Alabama, Lousiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Indiana, Texas, and etc. Heck, I could talk about all 47 states I have driven through. There isn't enough time today for me to go into all of that and it is just too damn depressing.
Having read to this point, some of you might wonder if I suffer from depression. The truth is that I do. Truckdrivers experience some of the highest rates of depression and suicides in the job field. Part of our depression stems from fatigue. From a trucker's view and health, the need to get sleep is paramount to any other consideration. Without adequate rest, the buildup of fatigue leads to unsafe driving and high rates of accidents and fatalities. In February of 2004, the US Dept of Transportation changed the Hours of Service rules, which govern how long we can drive over a certain period of time and how long our breaks have to be. Prior to 2004, we could only drive 10 hours over a 16 hour day before we had to take an 8 hour break and we were limited to working 70 hours in an eight day period. Now, truckers can drive up to 11 hours but only over a 14 hour period and they must take a ten hour break. The rule change has been a major boon for truckdrivers though some of the older truckers complained bitterly. Instead of getting up at completely different times of day and night, we now can get a regular sleep cycle occurring at the same time each day. Now, we have more time to do things on our break like eating, laundry, and recreation and still get plenty of rest. Strangely, organizations like Public Citizens, the Teamsters, and Parents Against Tired Truckers sued the DOT to stop the change of rules. Yet, the decline in fatigued-related truck accidents since 2004 is testament to benefits of the new HOS rules. Personally, I have done much better under the new rules and my health certainly improved.
One of the true ironies in trucking is that the rise in fuel costs have been a benefit for company truckdrivers. As mentioned above, many trucking companies have been installing new climate control systems that are independent of truck motors in order to reduce rising fuel costs. The logistics of the trucking business is also changing due to rising fuel costs. More and more freight are being shipped by intermodal system(train which is often refered to as rail). This trend reduces overall fuel consumption by freight transportation which in turn reduces pollution from truck exhaust. Long haul trucking is actually in decline, but truckers are now more regionally based and are getting home more frequently. I work rail now, and have weekends off which is still a rarity in the trucking business. I am only writing today because my truck is in the shop. There are still a lot of issues which drivers face but it is difficult to convince most truckers or truckdrivers that joining a union would benefit them. I once spent most of the day at a company truck stop in Dallas defending unions and the right of employees to collectively bargain for better pay. In a group of ten drivers, I was the only one supporting unions. Man, that was a lonely endeavor.
Finally, there are some subjects you just cannot talk about on the road. Gay and lesbian rights being one of those issues. Many truckers are fairly tolerant, but there are just too many who are fanatical wingnut zealots when it comes to this issue. While I strongly support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, I cannot voice such sentiment on the road. Otherwise, I would have an 'accident'. And it is tough to not say something. It gets under your skin alot, but unfortunatley the consequences can be severe. That is why blogs like Daily Kos are important to guys like me where there is a forum to discuss and share liberal views without the risk of harm and persecution.
The best moments in trucking for me were when I took the roads less travelled. I have stood on the northern shores of Lake Michigan in Upper Michigan and watched the waves crashed onto the sandy beaches. I have walked through the redwoods of Lassen National Park in northeastern California and wound my way around beautiful snow covered Mount Shasta. I have travelled through the Valley of the Gods in southern Utah. And I have walked along the shores of the state park near Pensacola, Florida. Notice all of these places are somewhat removed from human activities. Yet, even in these places the human handiwork is evident. That is the toughest part of trucking for me, watching the pristineness of the natural world fade from the human touch.