Hey drivers, real quick, tell me whom you think the worst enemy or enemies of the trucking industry are?

Did you say lawmakers? Department of Transportation? Highway Patrol? If you did you are not alone. It is a well known fact that there are many laws written to control us by people who don't have a clue about what they are doing. It is also well known that states like Ohio and California openly despise trucks. In fact a governor of Ohio publicly admitted that Ohio needs and aggressively pursues the revenue they can gain by enforcing the ridiculous laws they make against us. Now while I don't know of them saying so openly, it is obvious that California and many others as well entertain the same crooked agenda.

Perhaps your answer was the four wheelers. We all know and experience daily the devastation and near devastation caused by the sheer ignorance of the average motorist about our limitations. They don't know how to merge properly. They don't know that we keep that space in front of us for a reason. They haven't learned that our large size can make us appear to be moving slower than we actually are and worst of all they don't know how difficult it is for us to slow down and then to speed back up again.

Your answer might have been brokers, management, dispatch, grocery warehouses or possibly even the two largest trucking organizations in the states. All of these at times extract their respective pints of blood and each of them at times is definitely your worst enemy though possibly without realizing it.

At different times throughout my short 23-year-career I have agreed with every one of the above answers and a few others as well. Each group takes their little bites out of you and sometimes it seems as though they all get you at once. Even worse is the fact that some of them take their bites under the guise of safety or what is best for you and it makes you want to stand as close as possible to that person and whisper at the top of your lungs, "BULL S*&T!" But it wouldn't do any good.

I now have a different answer and you may or may not agree with me but I hope you will at least hear me out before you start whispering loud profanities in my ear. In my honest opinion the worst enemy truckers and trucking companies have are truckers and trucking companies.

The reason shippers and brokers don't blush with embarrassment when offering $1.10 per mile or less for transportation is that they know if you won't take it, some other guy will. You now how it is. You are stuck in Miami or Denver or Salt Lake. You've checked all the common freight sources and the few loads that are there got snagged 3 minutes before you called. You play the call and wait game until you are ready to scream and finally you get a bite. The right cargo, the right destination and no stop off or driver unload. It pays $.80 cents per mile and no fuel surcharge. What do you do? You want to laugh in the guy's face and hang up on him but you know if you do, you're probably going to sit another day or longer. Not only that but the next guy after you will take it and the shipper will not even be slightly punished for his insult. What do you do?

The reason some states get away with predatory law enforcement is because we let them or at least not enough of us band together to fight them. The reason many shippers, receivers and trucking companies get away with forcing you to provide free labor and illegal hours is because if you don't do it the next guy will and that means his company gets the freight and your company closes it's doors. So what do you do?

We have all heard the popular hype about the driver shortage but I submit to you that there is no shortage of drivers, only a shortage of new drivers who can be beguiled, intimidated, forced or tricked into doing the things we eventually learn to avoid.

So is there a solution? I used to think so but that was before the fifty or sixtieth time of being slapped in the face with one simple fact. It is impossible to get two drivers or groups of drivers to agree on the time of day let alone solutions to important issues.

Union drivers hate non-union drivers and vice versa. Long haul drivers hate local drivers. Owner Operators hate company drivers. Fast trucks hate slow trucks. The list goes on and on.

The very personality traits that make us want to drive these things in the first place is the tool our detractors use against us. We are proudly independent and for the most part happy in our solitude. The problem is that there are millions of us who feel the same way and that divides us in ways that are not beneficial to any of us. Divided we fall and there is no chance we will ever unite so the best chance any of us has is to find the job that best fits our personality and physical abilities then just let the rest of 'em crash and burn around us. One day, after many progressive steps against us the entire industry will crash and then the government will have to re-regulate it or we will become just another third world has been.

You think I'm exaggerating but do you realize there are some docks now that charge you $30.00 to $50.00 just to drive your truck through the gate? That cost does not cover lumpers or lunch. It just gets you in the gate. The really sad thing is that these docks are full. The truckers and/or companies are paying the fee and even sadder the fact that by paying it, some of these struggling people will lose money on the entire load.

Now you may think that this is all to the good. It will weed out the weaker competition. Realize this, In just the time it took you to read this; hundreds if not thousands of good people with romantic dreams of high finance and big wheels in the moonlight stepped up to the counter. Then signed away their homes, freedom and marriages on that big chance to become the next Schneider National. Many of them buying the same truck that got repossessed from the other guy yesterday.

I always get mad when I hear anyone talking about dumb truckers because it is usually some know-it-all who really has no idea about what it takes to survive out here. Now thinking about it, there is at least one way in which the majority of us do show a lack of intelligence. We let far too many unscrupulous companies, organizations, governments and even individuals use our pride, independence and cherished solitude against us. This is never going to change so if you are just hanging around waiting for that great day then you either need to find a new career or just accept the fact that this is the way it is.

A very few of us with experience and luck eventually find the job as good to them as my current one is to me but it isn't easy. Every company has drivers who hate them and drivers who love them. It is up to you to decide what is the good job for you.

Until next time.