Life of a Truck Driver

Hi all. I have been home nearly a month recovering from emergency eye surgery. Kinda sucks but am enjoying being home.

The attached photo is from Meritor on Twitter and is a accurate representation of our work life.

As accurate as that graphic is there is a whole lot not said, such as the crappy work conditions, the crappy truck stop food, the isolation, bad attitudes, poor relations with significant others due to the long periods of separation. Then there is the other drivers, even other commercial drivers can sometimes be real jerks.

Also, there is the health issues. Long hours sitting, little to no exercise, inconsistent sleep patterns and poor quality foods leading to hypertension, diabetes,and heart disease.

I read recently that the average lifespan of a truck driver is 56.

So why in the world would you want to be a truck driver?

Truth is, if I had known it was going to be like this I would not have singed up, but, now I am trapped unless I am willing to give up all I have and start over, too old for that now.

You might be able to save some one from this horrible and way underpaid lifestyle if you buy a copy of "So, You Want To Be A Truck Driver" and give it to them. 

Keep the rubber side down

Les

Dispatchers - Angels or Demons?

Hi all, havn't been writing much lately since with this new company I don't sit very often. I Love it.

I have been thinking about dispatchers since so far the dispatchers I have had with this new outfit have been wonderful. Problems are addressed quickly, dispatches are nearly simultaneous with empty calls, and all have been thoughtful and respectful. Without a doubt this is the best crew I have worked with in my 20 years of driving.

So, why write about dispatchers on a trucker health blog? Answer, it's hard to want to eat right when your pissed off, that chocolate bar is just the thing to take the edge off, right.

Dispatchers can make life heaven or hell for us out here on the road. They can ignore us, leaving us to hang out at the truck stop when we would rather be working. They can want us to work when we have asked for time off. They can wake us from a dead sleep with dumb questions. They can put us on runs that will make sure we can't get home for that ball game or anniversary we told them about last week. Yes, dispatchers can make life Hell.

I have heard and experienced many horror stories regarding dispatchers. I had one dispatcher that would always deadhead me back to the yard after every load knowing full well that I got paid on loaded miles only, his reasoning "You make more money this way", I had one thing to say to that BULL###T! It didn't take long to straighten him out when I got to talk to the owner.

In listening to many of the horror stories I began to see a come thread. Yes, there are bad dispatchers, no doubt, but are you a good driver? Do you take every load that you can do legally? And if you can't take it are you respectful in your response? Do you inform your dispatcher in plenty of time when you want home time? Do you give respectful reminders concerning home time? Are you argumentative or are you respectful at all times? Are you considerate of the dispatchers time or are you chatty, telling war stories instead of business? When there is a problem do you call with an angry or hostile tone? In nearly all the war stories I have heard the driver had not been professional; at some point he had become hostile or belligerent, forgetting his manners and demanding his way.

Yes it's true we are the backbone of this industry, without us trucks don't roll and dispatchers don't have a job, but, they are people too, with feelings and problems just like the rest of us, so bottom line, if you want your life behind the wheel to be a good one, then treat your dispatcher with the dignity and respect that a professional gives. And if they are still A**holes then talk to someone over there head about changing dispatchers if that don't work, then there is always the next job.

Keep the rubber side down
Les

Please check out my website at http://augerles.wix.com/be-a-truck-driver

Healthy Eating on the Road

Hi all, pictured on the left is my typical lunch. As you can see it's not a small amount of food. Eating this way initially gave me a weight loss of 160 lbs. I got a bit lazy last summer and began adding some foods that weren't on my food plan and put about 60 lbs back on.

The good news is I have gotten back on the plan and have already dropped 15 lbs in about 3 or 4 weeks.

Since I began this journey into healthier eating (Feb. 2011) I have managed to reverse my type 2 diabetes and have not had to take any drugs since July 2011, I still test 2 to 3 times a day and have a A1c test done twice a year. My lowest A1c was last July(2012) at 5.6. This past January even with the weight gain it was 5.8 still well in the normal range. All without any regular exercise, nor have I quit smoking or drinking coffee. If I had perhaps the results would have been better, faster.

I have learned a few new things about eating healthier on the road that I would like to pass on to you.

The first is the importance of eating your meals 4 to 6 hours apart.

I have learned a bit about how our digestive tract works and why this spacing between meals is so important.

Our bodies are much like our trucks in that they require a consistent amount of fuel and raw materials be delivered to the intake manifold, meaning our small intestines. This is done through our stomach where the food is broken down into a slurry and extruded slowly into the small intestines where the different types of fuels are then routed along with minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients to the blood stream. Here they are then sent to where they are needed most.

When the stomach is empty and the fuel requirements are no longer being met, the stomach begins to spasm informing us that we need more fuel. This process keeps our bodies fueled and happy. When we space our meals too close to each other we throw this system into confusion and it doesn't know if it should pull some calories from the warehouse, ie, fat cells or store some. Too far apart and the system thinks we are in a state of famine and therefore when calories are once again present it will delivery some of  them to the fat cells for storage.You can see it's a logistics problem.

Eating on a schedule can be a problem for those of us who make our living driving truck. While the latest HOS rules have made it better, there are still some times when it becomes necessary to flip our schedules, for those times what I do is eat my first meal, breakfast, within the first hour I am up regardless of when my last meal was and start my clock from that point. It's not a great solution and still causes the body some confusion but the impact seems to be minimal. I also use my snacks to fill in those times when it is just not practical to stop and fix a meal, again not a great solution but it does work.

To those people who think "grazing" (eating small bits of food many times a day) is a good solution please hear me, it's not a good solution for many reasons but especially these two. First you really can't keep track of just how many calories you are eating this way. And, second you are short circuiting your bodys normal hungary/full response, hence you never know when you really do need food or when you are full.

There is a third and critical reason, balanced nutrients cannot be obtained when eating like this, therefore some part of your body is always in a state of famine. Eating this way will cause you to fail at any attempt to lose weight.

A practical tip that I learned from my wife and was surprised to find worked so well is that you don't have to have a microwave or stove top to fix wonderfully tasting oatmeal, just put the uncooked oats in a bowel ( I use a closable soup cup) with the proper amount of milk or water, mix and let sit overnight. By morning it will be the same as if you had cooked it, room temperature of course, but still very edible. Also, I now use almond milk in my oatmeal, it adds sweetness without adding as many calories as cow milk and far less than adding sugar or honey.

You can find the food plan I use at this link http://truckershealth.blogspot.com/2012/04/numbers-are-in.html
I did have a Nutritionist go over it with me and she liked it and thought it to be a great way to meet our bodies needs and lose weight. I received it for free so I am passing it on for free.

'Till next time keep the rubber side down and God bless.

Les

Who Represents Us???

I made a disturbing discovery this morning.

Correct me if I am wrong, but, it seems that the three million Commercial Drivers or so here in the good ol' USA are being regulated without due representation.

There seems to be only a few players that have been showing up at the public hearings and that are being heard by the FMCSA and non of them have the company drivers intrest at heart.

Those players are the OOIDA, (Owner/Operator Independent Driver Association) and the ATA, (American Trucking Association).

The OOIDA has a membership of approximately 150,000 or about 15% of all drivers and most of those are small company owners. The ATA has 37000 members who are all corporate size truck company owners. I didn't check any of the roll calls on the various regulatory hearings held by the FMCSA but did do a search for truck driver associations and didn't really find any that appeared to represent the company driver. Of course there is the Teamster who have branched out into other industrial divisions and boasts 1.5 million members but who really believes they are interested in the company driver.

You could say that the OOIDA members interest are similar to ours and in many respects you would be right but, it's still all about profit for their members. Of course the ATA is worse. They don't care about us company drivers trying to make a living, I do believe they are the ones promoting the lie that there is a driver shortage, there is actually far more drivers than the market can support which is part of the reason wages have fallen so far behind inflation.

Non of these organizations as far as I know have ever considered trying to get us reclassified by the government into our own labor class, consequently we are still treated as day labors as far as the labor law is concerned.

Meanwhile our wages have not kept up with inflation and now we are being saddled with Government regulations that makes it even harder for us to meet the demands of our jobs and the needs of our families.

I got no answers.

Wish I could retire.

Please visit my site and consider buying my book by clicking HERE

Death on the road

 A problem occured for a close relative of mine that involed his father dying of natural causes while on the road. 

This problem seems to be fairly common for the family's of truck drivers who die while working. Here is one other example when a driver died working for SRT. 

My family members father was working for CRST. The problem was made even worse by the company as the Sherifs office who had recoverd the body asked if the company wanted them to notify the family, CRST said no, they would. They did, some 24 + hours later. What's up with that? Then they offered no help in recovering the body or his possesions, and no bereavement funds or death insurance.

So, as you can see you really are valued as nothing but property as long as you can drive their truck. But, develop a disqualifying health problem or God forbide, you should dare to die on their time, well that's your problem.

The good news is not all companies are like this but the bad news is far too many of them are.

So, wannabe truck drivers are you sure you want to join us; better read my book first before deciding, it could save you thousands of wasted dollars and untold amounts of time.
Leslie R Auger