Earlier this week, we discussed a CBS News special called “Hauling Danger” which was promoted with a teaser video that made truckers look like serial killers. The preview video highlighted several serious tractor trailer crashes and closed with the line “Will you be next?”
Hundreds of drivers commented on the CBS New York Facebook page to voice their dissatisfaction with the unfair portrayal of the trucking industry. But one response from a Nebraska trucker stood out from the rest and quickly went viral.
Read it below.
Hello I’m Jacob. I live in a small Nebraska farm town. We rely heavily on trucks to ship our cattle, grain and well everything really. We also rely on them to bring supplies and food. With out trucks we’d be in major trouble.
Let me introduce you to my life. I have a newborn baby girl I love very much. A family I can depend upon and friends who offer me nothing but time.
I’m just like you big city news people. Except I get up Sunday and get ready to leave for the week…. this includes going to church, lunch, and grocery shopping. Then packing my weeks worth of clothing. I make time for family and friends before I head out. But before I leave I kiss and hug my fiancé and my little girl. Knowing this could be my last trip. Knowing I might not make it home. I climb up into my cab and drive away. I get ten miles or so away and I pull over and cry, because the thought of my little girl growing up with out her daddy scares me. I cry because it’s the last time they’ll see my tail lights fade away. I cry because I’m leaving to do a job nobody respects, but with out no one would make it.
Now you guys get up Monday morning get dressed, kick kids on to school bus, drink your morning coffee and go to work. Me I’m 600+ miles away from home.
You get off at 5 or 6 and go home to your family. As for me…. well I made my delivery. 800+ miles from home. You get to go to bed in you big comfortable bed with your loved one. As for me I make a phone call to my family. We talk about how the trip is going. Where I’m at and what’s the next load. They don’t ask about how worried I’m am because they know.
You get to go to bed in your home. Behind a door on the second floor in your safe neighborhood. As for me I’m in a strange city in a strange truck stop. Anything could happen to me in my sleep.
It’s time you start reporting about how the truck driver gave his life to save someone else’s. Or how 400+ trucks lined up for a Convoy for the Special Olympics. Or even the truck driver that helped a family in need in the blinding storm.
As for me you can ride with me for a week and see what we deal with. The split second life changing decisions we have to make. I bet by Wednesday you’ll have a different story to report.
Jacob’s post was shared more than 2,200 times in just a few a days. Many drivers praised the well-written post and shared similar feelings.
Hopefully the mainstream media gets the message and accurately portrays the trucking industry for what it is next time — the backbone of the economy, made up of professional, caring, and safe drivers, who leave their families to provide for yours.
