Opinion: Respect for the Truck Driver

I recently went on a run with my husband in an 18-wheeler, and it came to my attention that some people look down on truck drivers. They don’t realize what the truck driver has to go through. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain it to you.

Being a truck driver is hard work: long hours; being away from home and the stress this can put on wives and families; the traffic; lack of time for themselves; short delivery times; lack of places to park the tractor-trailer to bed down; high expenses on the road; fines — the list goes on.

A four-wheeler is mainly concerned with getting to his destination. Many of them don’t realize that it’s not easy to stop an 18-wheeler, which can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds. I’ve seen car drivers pull in front of trucks without turning on their signals; change lanes in front of trucks without leaving enough room for safety; hang on the blind side, making it hard for the trucker to see them; and not let other drivers change lanes, to mention a few negative actions.

There are those who assume that all truck drivers are “bad people.” There are good and bad, just as with all people. The good drivers are helpful, courteous, talk nice and are friendly. They will stop to help a four-wheeler or others in distress. For instance, in January my husband saw a lady with two small children stranded at the side of the road, their car broken down. My husband pulled over to take them to the nearest truck stop to call for help.

The bad truck drivers — the ones some people call “cowboys” — have no regard for others. They speed, talk nasty on the CB radio, are obnoxious and don’t help people in distress. But they’ve given all professional drivers a bad name over the last 20 years.

I’d also like to point out that truck drivers aren’t getting rich. Besides the hard work, the pay is low and the expenses are high.

My point is, people seem to have forgotten that without the truck driver and the trucks on the road, they would not be sitting pretty, with nice clothes on their backs, nice automobiles to drive, food in the cupboard, new refrigerators and all the other things they are accustomed to. Without the truck drivers of the world, nothing would be delivered. But so many people in the United States and in other countries take truck drivers for granted, blaming anything and everything on them.

Maybe the people who have closed their eyes to these truths are the real “cowboys.”

After her month-long truck trip, Ms. Richardson, who lives in Covington, Ga., declined her husband’s invitation to get a commercial driver license and join him on the road. But she said she found the experience so revealing that she has joined with other truckers’ wives to raise public consciousness of “the problems and abuse” truck drivers face and to improve public education on sharing the highway. They have organized a campaign centered on green ribbons to symbolize “the appreciation that our truck drivers so much deserve.” The Green Ribbon Web site is www.fortunecity.com/millenium/pluto/47/greenribbon.htm.