Keith A. Hamblin
March 29, 1996
I read an article the other day in one of the magazines that said there are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000,000, That's 3 million truck drivers.. It also said that our numbers are increasing by around 350,000 per year... That is pretty amazing when you think about it.. Imagine if 3 million plus people could stand together and argue for some common goals. Now don't shy away too fast because I am not talking strike here. I am talking democracy at work.. What if all 3 million of us made a list of things we want done then everyone of us got on the phone within the same 1 week period and just hounded the holy bejeeminees out of our Senators and Congressmen. I would have trouble believing that there would not be some radical changes in a fairly short amount of time..
So what is stopping us? As near as I can tell it is only apathy.. We have the power to do many things and it won't require even a day out of the truck let alone a massive strike. Organization is a problem I guess but if you think about it we don't really need any organization or great leader to tell us what is wrong with this industry. I know the price of a gallon of milk and a box of cereal has gone up approximately %18 percent since the last time I got a raise. I won't even mention housing, education and medical costs. Heck you've got kids too you already know...
One of the biggest problems is that there is way too much competition between our companies and everyone is willing to cut a throat to get the freight.. This problem is majorly compounded by the fact that every day there are new competitors signing on and they are so desperate to come up with that new truck payment and start building a name for themselves that they will take just about zero profit to get the load.. Those of you who have been around for a while know as well as I do that these new guys are usually bankrupt in a couple of years but they are very successful at keeping the rates low and getting the rest of us deeper and deeper in debt..
Please understand, I am all for free enterprise and I am not looking to bring back government regulation.. Most of these problems would have probably solved themselves years ago if the government would have never stepped in in the first place but they did and now we are left to deal with the aftermath.
For some the answer has been to join the union and band together that way. I have no problem with that but I can see some serious disadvantages in working for some of the union companies I am familiar with.. The most obvious to me is that it seems that the companies are so mad about the wages they have to pay that they purposely buy the junkiest equipment they can find. I see some of the crap that these poor guys have to drive and it almost makes me feel sorry for them until I consider the fact that they make more money on straight time than I do on overtime.. I personally will trade a few dollars to not have to spend the largest part of my life driving something I would junk if I owned.
I think the solution to this problem is that we are going to have to stick together on a few things.. I know price fixing is illegal and it should be but in all things we must be reasonable.. If the company owners would say enough is enough and just start raising the rates even to match inflation we could all make that stretch a little easier.. Let the new guys come and take it for a while. They will soon be bankrupt and we will get the freight back anyway.. With 3 million drivers standing behind you it is fairly certain you will succeed.. This country does not realize how much they depend on us. When the trucks stop rolling they will soon realize that we are unavoidable no matter what they have to pay..
I have started a list of things that I believe the drivers alone could fix just by ourselves if we will start making the phone calls.. Some of these are listed below.. You may think of others and if you do call about them also, chances are the rest of us will be calling about the same things..
We need a national fishing license. I don't know about you but some of the highest stress I experience on the road is having to pass up those great looking fishing holes we always seem to find just across the border from where we are licensed.. If each of us calls our local lawmakers and convinces him how much safer the roads will be if only we can stop and fish along the way once in a while, we will get it.. Now we don't need a full limit fishing license. I would be happy to release all I catch, well except for one anyway. We are not going to go wipe out their rivers and streams because our trucks don't have 4 wheel drive and we can't get to them anyway. We also don't want to be driving around with a bunch of fish in the sleeper, makes it hard to sleep.. We just want to be able to catch a few, maybe eat one and put the rest back for the next guy..
Also important but not as important as the fishing license ;) would be driver unload.. This is a foolish practice. If the consignee buys his freight F.O.B. his dock then he needs to hire a lumper service and work out the price with the shipper.. This only became our responsibility because a few greedy shippers and consignees figured out a way to profit from our free labor. Then they wonder why we get sleepy on the road... Easy fix.. You unload the freight and wake us up when you are done....
Third would have to be lane and speed restrictions.. Isn't it funny that the most dangerous but most professionally operated vehicles on the road have the most ridiculous and un-safe restrictions? Also the most experienced and safest drivers on the road are consistently punished for the idiots they have no control over.. The heaviest traffic on the road with the tightest time responsibilities are stuffed into the right lane with the on and off ramps in between the slowest drivers.. We are just passing through and are on a tight schedule which is made tighter by the laws we must obey and then the laws also put us where it is the most difficult to make a schedule. You want safe metro roads and freeways? Here is a hint. Put the faster through traffic in the left lane. Put the slower traffic like motorhomes and grandparents in the middle lane.. Keep everyone out of the right lane except for emergencies and on off ramps. Don't believe me? Come ride with me for a day...
I know you could add many things to this list. I could too but I have no power to fix them by myself.. On the other hand 3 million of us screaming in unison can make a whole lotta noise... I will start my scream first thing in the morning.. I am counting on the rest of you hands to scream with me..
In the meantime, be safe, courteous and kind to all you meet! I know but it was worth a try....