Several truckers have spoken out in an interview recently in an attempt to let the public know what the life of a trucker is really like, and how hard the public’s life would be without them.
“It takes a special breed to do this,” said truck driver J J Pugh.
“And for the past 19 years I’ve been trying to figure out if I’m part of that breed… This is what I do — I drive all day long.”
“You want to cripple America? Shut the trucks down. It won’t take but a few days before there is no water, no food and no fuel available,” he pointed out.
“‘I’ve hauled blood, cancer medicine, just about anything you can name,” said truck driver Major Bridges, who team-drives with his wife, Trectia. The two own a truck and contract long-haul deliveries with FedEx.
“And here’s one you won’t believe — California ships oranges to Florida, and Florida ships oranges to California,” Bridges added.
Pugh says that he loves his job, but that trucking comes with certain pressures.
“I can’t stop my truck in 100 feet. So you better believe there is pressure every time I climb behind that steering wheel… I’m driving beside cars with children in them. School buses. I’m always looking for my line of defense in case a car blows a tire. Could I veer off the road to prevent killing somebody? And if somebody got hurt really bad — or worse — I’d have to live with that the rest of my life, even if it wasn’t my fault. I’m constantly checking my mirrors, trying to know where other vehicles are around me.”
Pugh offered two pieces of advice for motorists sharing the road with big rigs.
“One, don’t drive beside an 18-wheeler,” he said. “Either go on around it or fall back behind it. No matter how many mirrors I have, there is a blind spot beside me on both sides where I can’t see a vehicle there. And, two, put down your cellphones. I’m able to look down into cars when they go by me. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I see every day driving 75 miles per hour as they’re passing a big truck and texting. I don’t even ride my motorcycle anymore it’s gotten so bad.”
Despite the pressures of driving, along with government regulations and the country’s dependence on the trucking industry, Pugh says that he loves his job and wouldn’t have his life any other way.
“You won’t get rich doing this,” he said, “but you can make a good living at it. I went to Mississippi State for a little while and figured out real fast college wasn’t for me,” he said.
“My wife is younger than me… she knew what I did for a living before we got married… It takes a special person to drive a truck, I think, but it takes an even more special person to be the one taking care of the home front while you’re gone.”
“Our personalities click — and that’s the only reason it works,” Bridges said of he and his wife driving as a team.
“If we disagree about something, we talk it through. But it makes a world of difference having her out here with me. This can be a lonely job.”
Pugh says he doesn’t know what will happen in the face of the “trucker shortage,” but knows that he will still be out on the road, delivering high-strength steel plates used by the military, mills and mining companies.
“Trucking is literally the lifeblood of our economy,” said the American Truckers’ Association’s vice president of public affairs and press secretary, Sean McNally.
“Long term, our industry needs to recruit roughly 90,000 new drivers a year in order to keep pace with retirements and growth in demand,” McNally added.
The trucking workforce is aging faster than it is recruiting, the average age of a truck driver is currently 52, and the American Trucking Associations says that the industry could be short by as many as 175,000 drivers by the year 2026, reported the Clarion Ledger.
Long term, our industry needs to recruit roughly 90,000 new drivers a year in order to keep pace with retirements and growth in demand,” McNally said.
“We need to do more to recruit younger people into our industry — this includes safely and responsibly lowering the driving age for interstate trucking from 21 to 18, as well as more outreach to minorities and women and our veterans to fill the jobs.”
“This is what I do — I drive all day long. I’ve got my own office and I see the world through a windshield. And I understand the importance of what we — truck drivers — do for our country,” Pugh said.
