2012 - A preview

I am absolutely tired of year in review stories that come out this time of year so I thought that I would do a year in preview of 2012 just to be a little different. Let me use this disclaimer, I am a truck driver, not a psychic, and as such will have to wait to find out what happens just like you will. This is just kind of a wish list so to speak. It is also going to be heavily political with a little NASCAR and trucking thrown in with a healthy dose of humor. So kick back with your favorite New Years beverage and see what is in store.

2012 in politics will be a wild ride. President Obama will announce that he has decided that this whole presidency thing is way too tough and that he has decided to resign and take a job in northern Alaska counting polar bears on ice floes. This infuriates Michelle Obama who becoming used having everything that she has being paid for by the public immediately files for divorce and goes on welfare, stating “You don't expect me to actually WORK for a living do you?” Vice President Biden upon hearing the news curses up a storm and is heard screaming “That f*%#ing son-of a b^#@& is not going to lay this on me!” Biden abruptly resigns as well and is last seen boarding a fishing trawler. This leaves us with President John Boehner. As his first act as president he signs the “National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act” and then sets to work disassembling Obamacare.

The new year will continue to see a rise in the popularity of NASCAR. The racing series decides to make it's all star race in Charlotte, NC in May a “run what you brung” event with teams allowed to make unlimited modifications to the drive-train of the cars. The safety systems of the cars are not allowed to be touched however. Dale Earnhardt Jr wins the race with an average speed of 225.689 mph with the race never being slowed by a single caution. When asked after the race why things went so smoothly out on the track second place driver Carl Edwards states “Are you kidding me? Going that fast if someone made a mistake they would have went THROUGH the turn 3 wall!

In entertainment we will see a popularity comeback for rock music. Van Halen reunite with BOTH David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. AC/DC and a rejuvenated Journey go on tour. And Fleetwood Mac sell out several dates despite Mick Fleetwood having to take a wheelchair to his drum kit. In movies the world will be shocked when Hollywood fails to release any re-makes or adaptations of old television shows! All movies are truly new movies and in appreciation the public races back to the theaters creating a banner year for the industry with one exception. Unfortunately Michael Moore decides to make a film about the occupy protests of 2011. Moore sinks his entire personal fortune into the film, certain that it is going to be his biggest financial success ever. He however has the audacity to actually charge admission for the film, and the occupy protesters have a fit. They demonstrate at theaters and eventually the total take for the film is $22.50, the entirety of which is from a family in Sheboygan, Wisconsin who thought that they were buying tickets for a Three Stooges retrospective showing at the theater. When asked what he thought of the film as the family walked out of the theater half way through the film the father, who asked not to be named out of fear that his young son would be ridiculed said “We thought initially that they made a mistake and were showing “Free Willy”, but the whale would not shut up! We finally decided to leave when Junior told me that wales can't really talk.”

The trucking industry booms in 2012 and has a tough time keeping up with the explosive growth of the economy that followed the exodus of the Obama administration from Washington. In an unprecedented move the FMCSA decides to scrap the hours of service regulations that were to take effect in July. The agency came to the conclusion that since the current regulations were working as they were there was no need to fix what wasn't broken. With so much freight needing to move and a limited supply of trucks and drivers, freight rates skyrocket and drivers reap big financial rewards. Shippers and receivers finally commit to getting trucks in and out of their facilities quickly when they are repeatedly hit with large detention bills after trucking companies figure out that they make more money when the trucks are moving rather than sitting.

That is it. I know pretty much for certain that nothing that I have written will happen, although it was kind of fun to imagine it. I sincerely hope that everyone that reads this has an absolutely blessed and wonderful year in 2012.

As usual, thanks for your time, and I'll see you down the road.

Can I do it?

I officially became a truck driver 9 1/2 years ago. The reason why initially was simple. I needed money and a good friend said that I could make a lot of it driving truck. At the time I was 33 and considered myself a very good driver, little did I know.

In the intervening years I have driven many different makes and models, pulled mostly dry van and reefer trailers and have been able to provide a decent paycheck for the family. I have traveled through 48 of the 50 states and have seen sights that struck me with awe at their beauty and brought nightmares to me from their terror.

I am very proud of what I do and who I am. Not everyone who decides that they are going to drive truck for a living is able to do it. Driving a truck is difficult, and most people who enter school will not be driving truck 1 year after entering school. I can only speak from my experience and what I have seen, but in talking with a lot of other divers who train the averages to seem to bear out. About ½ of the people that start driving school finish and get a CDL (the license that allows you to drive a tractor/trailer). After getting your CDL you drive with a trainer for a period of time, and only 2/3 of those that start training qualify to drive solo. Of those that do only about 2/3 are still driving for the same company after a year.

The reason that the year with the same company is significant is that with the company that I drive for if you leave before 1 year you have to pay for the schooling that you took. I do not know what the current rate is, but when I signed up it was $1500.

Having been a trainer, (I quit counting at 50 students) I have helped a lot of people get started in trucking and have had students that ranged from a 21 year old headstrong young man that thought that he knew everything about trucking to a 68 year old grandmother that had a very tough time learning how to shift. I swear if I had a dollar for every time I had to say “watch the tach” I could retire to a nice little 20 room mansion in the Bahamas!

So, let's get into some of the realities of learning to drive and driving truck. I will tell you that if you are of average intelligence and physical coordination you can be taught the mechanics of driving and shifting. It is a fairly simple process to get in a truck and make it go forward down the interstate, It is 10 times harder to back up than it is to go forward, and the laws and regulations that you have to follow are enough to make an accountant start tearing at his hair and run home crying to his mama!

The single biggest challenge and reward to the job is the lifestyle. To be a successful over the road driver you need to be out on the road for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. To be honest I have seen more marriages ripped apart by trucking than those that have survived it. Every once in a blue moon a marriage will thrive. I am extremely blessed to say that I have one of those marriages.

The job itself can tear your body apart, my back is probably never going to be the same after an incident unloading a trailer a few years ago. You sit behind the wheel of a truck that bounces down the road for 8 to 11 hours a day, you get next to no exercise. It is hard to eat healthy things on the road. Most of what is available at truck stops these days is fast food, and time pressures do not allow a lot of time for lunch. Diabetes and obesity are rampant in our industry.

The stress levels of the job can be massive at times. You are responsible for sometimes extremely expensive loads that have a delivery schedule that you need to do everything within reason to meet. We are paid to be on time and while there are exceptions (I cannot control the weather or if the state shuts down a roadway) the shippers and receivers do not want to hear excuses. Traffic in and around the larger cities can be hellish, and winter in the northern states can slap you upside the head whenever she feels that you are becoming complacent.

Driving is a lonely job. A little less so now since the ever present cell phone, but still lonely. You are alone in the cab rolling down the interstate at 65 mph for hours and hours at a time. Most drivers have a CB radio, but if you rode down the road with me it is on, but turned all the way down 80 to 90 percent of the time. The terrible language and idiots are thick on the CB. I call my wife several times a day, and from time to time talk with others on the phone, but there is only so much to say.

So after reading all of that why would anyone in their right mind want to drive a truck for a living? Well to be quite frank I believe that the rewards far outweigh all of the challanges.

The freedom that you get from driving is amazing. Some companies are cracking down on this a bit, but I happen to drive for one of the better ones. For the most part I set my own schedule. I can be home when I want and leave when I want. My schedule on the road is flexible as well. I usually start driving when I feel like it is time to start driving and stop when I feel like it is time to stop. Keep in mind here that there are deadlines that I have to meet, and I average 8 to 11 hours driving a day.

Another benefit to driving is that I have first hand knowledge of most of the lower 48 states. I have seen some of the most beautiful things that there is to see in our country from the drivers seat of my truck. I cannot describe the beauty of descending into North Carolina on I 77 in the fall, the fantastic vistas of I 70 in Western Colorado, or the amazing view from the summit as you descend on I 15 from the north at night and Las Vegas, NV slowly emerges below you and expands showing you shimmering lights that fill the night. Stopping for the night at a parking area in Wyoming 20 miles from the nearest town, getting out of the truck and looking up to see a sky so filled with stars that it is as if God himself is sending you a reminder that he made all of this.

There is a pride in doing a job and doing it well. I like to think that I am a good driver and I truly do learn new things every day. Also there is a “brotherhood” among drivers. I put that in quotes because there are a lot more ladies driving now, yet when you are at a truck stop eating dinner, you can sit at the counter and feel like you are at home with the people there. Some of the conversations there are a bit over the top and the bragging and story telling are a bit much at times, but there is a feeling that you are among your own. This is true no matter where you are in the country.

So can you do it? Yes, you probably can. Learning to drive is not easy and as I stated earlier there are a lot of challenges that face our industry, but I have trained enough people to know that most people that can stick to the training can learn to drive. Should you do it? That is a question I will leave up to you.

I will part with this, almost every driver that has been at it for more than a few years will tell you that they find they are unable to do anything else for a career. I tried myself. Last year at Christmastime I tried leaving trucking and drove a taxicab for 6 months. The job was fun, and although the pay was not as good as I would have liked I was good at it. I would be lying to you if I told you that the open road was not calling to me on a weekly if not daily basis during that time.

Perhaps these lines from Ronnie Milsap's song “Prisoner of the Highway” sums it up the best. “I got a wife living back in Tennessee, and she tries to understand the way I feel. I could give my hands to another line of work, but my heart would always be behind the wheel”

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy the ride!

An interview with Chaz of the Roadgunner Podcast

Ever since I got my most recent phone I have fallen in love with podcasts again. I downloaded an app that downloads and sorts podcasts and RSS feeds automatically at night so that they are ready for me to listen to the next day as I drive. I currently have between 6 and 8 hours of shows that download on Monday through Friday and several on the weekend. If any of you are interested in the app it is called BeyondPod, and is in the Android Market.

One of the Podcasts that I have really enjoyed listening to is The Roadgunner Podcast. It is put together by Chaz (not giving his last name for reasons that soon will become obvious). On the show he goes by the name “The Un-named Trucker” You see there are trucking companies that could cause problems for a driver or owner-operator as some carriers have a policy of no guns in the truck. I detest these policies and will go into why in another post.

If you have been reading my blog recently you know that I wrote a piece a few weeks ago about security around vehicles and in it touched briefly on firearms. I thought Chaz, as a professional driver, podcaster, concealed weapons permit holder, and handgun enthusiast would make a good interview. I asked and he agreed, and what follows is the “interview” which was conducted over a few emails.

Please tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been a professional driver and what brought you to the industry?

I have been an over the road driver for 13 years now. I had been a cook at The Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. My pay there wasn't great and I was going through a divorce. My wife took our 3 year old to Georgia with her when she left. My job was very stressful, with long hours, a varied schedule and little reward. Two of the cooks that had worked with me in the restaurant I was working in left to become truck drivers. They returned to visit the kitchen a few months later and made truck driving seem like a worker's paradise. With a career in cooking seeming to get me nowhere and my son so far away from Orlando, I decided that I would go to truck driving school. About a year later I was driving for a now defunct company, Dick Simon Trucking out of Salt Lake City.

Fast forward ten years past a second failed marriage to a crazy lady who let a drug pusher move into our house and we get to my experience with guns.

How long have you been a firearms owner?

In December of 2008 my current wife got me a $100 gift card to use at a gun range in Hot Springs, AR called On Target Firing Range. I had expressed to my wife an interest in firearms and she obliged my interest by getting me that gift card. That first 100 bucks led to many thousands more spent in the following months. I got around to using the card in February of 2009 and I was hooked from the moment I fired my first handgun, a rented Ruger Mk II in .22LR. That wonderful day in February I also fired a Springfield XD's in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. A few months later I took The Arkansas Concealed Handgun Carry License and received my permit in October of 2009 followed by my Utah Concealed Firearms Permit in November of 2009.

What types of firearms training have you had?

I felt empowered by having the legal ability to protect myself with a gun, but I felt like I needed more than just the right to carry. I felt like I needed training in the proper techniques, tactics and legal repercussions of the use of the handgun I had chosen to carry: a Springfield XD45 service model.

When an indoor range opened closer to where I live, I became a member and enrolled in their Defensive Pistol class, which the instructor bases on the training methods used in Rob Pincus' Combat Focus Shooting. I am a member of that range, Shoothouse USA in Conway, AR and have taken at least 2 refresher courses for the Defensive Pistol class as well as Low Light/No Light shooting and a beginner's Krav Maga class.

In addition to the Defensive Shooting class I have twice attended and graduated from the Massad Ayoob Group's MAG-40 class which combines 20 hours of classroom time on 'citizens judicious use of deadly force and 20 hours of marksmanship on a range.

In your opinion how necessary is weapons training?

I believe that any citizen responsible enough to obtain deadly weapons to protect him/herself and family would naturally want to get the training necessary to use that deadly weapon safely and effectively. You could hand me a chainsaw, but that wouldn't make me a lumberjack. I have no clue as to how to operate a chainsaw, and if I were shown how to turn the thing on, I still couldn't safely fell a tree with it. I have the right to go into any Husqvarna dealer and buy a chainsaw without a permit or training. I believe the same should be true of firearms. No permit or training should be required. The Second Amendment makes no mention of permits or training being needed. That said, you are a fool if you believe that a CCW class constitutes training and you are a danger to yourself and family if you don't get at least some minimal training. Going to a basic pistol class will prove that to you.

Do you treat security with an 18 wheeler differently than security with a personal vehicle?

Now that I carry a gun, I carry it everywhere and all the time, where the law allows. I do not travel to States where my gun is not allowed to at least be taken with me unloaded in a case. I do not travel to Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey or Maryland for legal reasons. Not traveling to New York blocks off Northern New England where my Arkansas permit is honored but so be it. I do not go to Canada.

I treat vehicle security exactly the same whether the vehicle is car or a semi truck. I carry a gun. Period. When I am permitted to carry concealed with my Arkansas, Utah or Florida permits I wear a Concealment Solutions CE IWB holster containing either a Glock 26 or a Sig Sauer 1911 C3 dependeing on my mood. I wear the holster at the 3:30 position on my body and conceal the holster with an untucked shirt.

I like having more room to move around in my semi and the higher vantage point to view my surroundings, and the seat position grants me better access to my sidearm. That said, I don't do anything differently in my car as far as security goes. I pay attention to my surroundings,and I don't go to stupid places with stupid people to do stupid things.

You referred to the 3:30 position, I am assuming that that means the holster is slightly behind your right hip?

By 3:30 I do indeed mean slightly behind my right hip. I use this position for driving any vehicle. If I lose some girth I will try carrying in the appendix position for ease and speed of draw. I find that 4:00 or farther back cocks my elbow into an awkward and slightly uncomfortable angle when drawing my gun. But to each his/her own.

Are there any types of firearms that you would specifically recommend for vehicle security?

A firearm is the great equalizer. It eliminates disparity of force of numbers, gender, or disability. It is an essential piece of your security kit.

Any simple to use, reliable, polymer framed semiautomatic pistol in a major caliber (9mm, .357 sig, 40 S&W, .45 ACP, 10mm) is to me, an ideal vehicle security weapon. The pistol is mobile, and handheld. A revolver would also do well at the "point and shoot" distances you would expect to engage an attacker assaulting you in your vehicle. If you aren't at very close range from an attacker, your primary weapon should be the vehicle itself. If it isn't mechanically disabled, DRIVE AWAY! Curbs, fire hydrants, other vehicles be damned. The only exception to that is you must never hit an innocent bystander with your vehicle. That goes for bullets too, obviously; but that's why you need training.

As a driver of a vehicle you are in a seated position, what is your opinion of using an ankle holster, or in the winter months a shoulder holster under a jacket or coat?

I think ankle carry for vehicle use us a good idea with 9mm or up. In the winter, I think a shoulder holster would be an excellent option but I don't have a shoulder rig...yet.

What about using the vehicle itself as a weapon? Can you envision a circumstance where this would be justified?

I think that using the vehicle itself as a weapon should be considered before using a firearm. If your vehicle is not disabled, attempt to drive away from an attacker, avoid hitting innocents, but a 3000 lb car or 80000 lb semi tractor trailer has a hell of a lot more stopping power than a 9 gram bullet. And the car is a guided freaking missile! I believe most road rage killings happen because both parties stop on the side of the road and present stationary targets. If your vehicle can move than you need to move it. Car jackings occur because the driver is in condition white, and car jackers spot that. Victims get jacked because they aren't willing to drive over sidewalks, curbs, road signs or other vehicles. Create a huge scene with noise and chaos and I bet the jacker will move on unless he REALLY wants your car. You also have to be ready to give up the car if you do get caught unaware and you are alone. If you have a wife and kids in the car, I'm fighting no matter what.

Final Question, have you encountered problems carrying your weapon in regards to weigh stations and contact with DOT in the various states that we as truckers travel through?

I have not had any problems with DOT at weigh stations. I don't travel to the four fascist states of NJ, NY, MD, or MA and if I get pulled around for inspection I lock the gun up before I report inside.

I really want to thank Chaz for agreeing to the interview and for offering his insights. I encourage everyone to check out his podcast at http://roadgunnerpodcast.com/ .

Thanks again for reading everyone! Stay safe and I hope do see you down the road!