Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

As you may, or may not know, there are laws in Indiana requiring that you slow down or move over when you see someone on the side of the road with flashing lights on. The slow down “part” is in case you cannot get over of course, but if you can, by law you are required to move over if someone is on the side of the road (this includes vehicles that may be on the side with emergency flashers going). This was passed in order to provide safety for both the police, emergency workers, people who are broke down, etc.

A new law was recently signed by Governor Mitch Daniels to make construction zones even safer. Already, there are speed limit restrictions. If you have not been around Indianapolis on I-465 recently, there is every kind of construction going on that you can think of and the police ARE present (especially around the airport) . Also, on I-70 from Terre Haute to Exit 4 where there is bridge reconstruction and traffic is two lanes.

The new law calls for fines up to $1000 for people who break the law in construction zones three times within three years.  There are also fines up to $5000 for driving recklessly/aggressively in construction zones.  Drivers who injure or kill a highway worker could end up paying a $10,000 fine and serving a maximum of eight years behind bars if convicted.

There will be signs posted to warn motorists of the consequences of violating the laws.

If you have computer access while on the road and need to know about the Indianapolis area (more particularly I-465) you can go to: http://pws.trafficwise.org/ipws/ci/ for traffic updates, road conditions, and to find out where those lovely orange barrels are.

This link will not only offer you access to the above mentioned website, but also to Louisville, Northwest Indiana, and general statewide information: http://www.in.gov/indot/2351.htm.

Yes, I know you drink it. I’ve seen you buy it at truck stops. I know it’s in your truck. It shouldn’t be, but it is. We know alcohol and driving don’t mix. But, it is part of trucking. Truck drivers drink beer. There are many truckers with huge beer bellies. Many look like they’re just about to give birth to a baby gorilla. Drinking beer is one of those “unspoken” things about trucking like jock itch, depression, marijuana, sex and selling stuff that “falls” off your truck.

I’ve never understood why “travel centers” sell beer. But then I don’t understand why they sell cigarettes or boat loads of candy and two day old hot dogs. I see truckers parked in a truck stop – travel center – walking to and from the “store” with a twelve pack of Bud and a carton of Merits. That driver and his rig are gone the next morning. Where did all that alcohol go? Am I being naive?

I can’t drink anything because of all the meds I take. When I did drink, and I wasn’t a big beer drinker, it just didn’t agree with me. Before I finished a glass of wine, I perspired so much I need to change my shirt. I looked like I was having a heart attack. After sharing a pitcher of sangria, I would get angry and want to fight anyone and everyone. I was OK with mixed drinks, but could never consume more than two a day, actually two a week. Beer would just bloat me up big time. I couldn’t drink beer without wearing pants with an elastic waist. Straight liquor was out. I could never develop a taste for vodka, scotch or Jim Beam whiskey. I once had moon shine and thought parts of my face were falling off.

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Why does a women’s bathing suit cost $225? Why does a nicely equipped GMC pick up cost $34,000? Why does a 17 foot Boston Whaler cost $45,000? Why does a bottle of water at a concert cost $9 Who the heck is LeBron James? Oops, sorry that doesn’t belong there. How can a black watch cost $87,500? Why the heck does a razor cost $11 and the cost of eight replacement blades – $32.44. There is no charge for the Duracell battery needed to operate, I mean, vibrate the razor.

So in preparation for leaving to go back on the road, I need stuff. I mentioned in an earlier post that I get sticker shock every time I go just about anywhere to buy anything. The only exception to that are the various dollar stores we have in the area and Subway, where I order a 6 inch wheat turkey sub for $5.25. That includes the tax.

I also want to restate something – I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. Down in Laredo, they kicked all the truckers to the street. They have erected those yellow height restrictors at many of their locations so trucks can’t park in their lots. The Wal-Mart security clowns harass truckers nationwide favoring RV’s who many times don’t even shop in their stores. Every time I got home, I would seem to spend an inordinate amount of time inside one of the 15 Wal-Marts in our area, spending, at times, hundreds of dollars. No more. I’m watching every cent and what little money I do have is spent elsewhere. I seem to be getting some good bargains at Walgreen’s, CVS and as I said, at the dollars stores.

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This has been a long day. The long and the short of it is that I’ve been given a new lease on life – a new start, reborn, chapter 2. I have gone from a 100% chance of having a stoke or heart attack to less than 1%. My heart, arteries and just about everything else that works to keep me alive are now functioning “normally.” Short of suicide, being shot in a drive-by shooting or some other disaster, my life expectancy has increased from 24-48 hours to 30+ years, God willing. My cardiologist said that I just might live long enough to see the Tampa Bay Bucs win the Super Bowl again. What a sense of humor. If I eat right, take my army of pills, exercise and limit the A-type behavior, trucking just might not kill me. The reality of that remains to be seen.

At about 2:30 pm, I passed the &%$#@ DOT physical, the details of which shall remain top secret for a while. I’m way too close to what has happened over the past 53 days from my time in the emergency room until today. I will say that the letter I wrote to the clinic complaining about the way I was treated was taken seriously and changes made. Today there was new head nurse who finally signed off on the physical. And, with complete support from my cardiologist, I am sitting here with my DOT med card valid for 1 year. Tomorrow I’ll go laminate it, then stick it in my wallet and forget about it. The entire DOT physical “process” was nothing more than an $80 exercise in futility, a FMCSA ruse to waste my time and jump through unnecessary bureaucratic hoops. It did not make me healthier, did not make me safer, did not improve any aspect of my job and in fact caused me to lose weeks of pay.

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Everyone has heard that right? It’s about the most offensive thing a driver can hear. It’s degrading and mostly untrue. Being on the other side of the desk for about a year, I still don’t agree with it, but I do agree with Bad Driver’s are a Dime a Dozen, Good drivers are few and far between. While  at the Safety desk, the company has been audited by FMCSA (DOT) and IFTA (the fuel tax people). Thankfully, we’re still in business, any fine from either of those agencies and a small trucking company would be history. As a company, before the economy blew up, we had a warehouse, a brokerage and a much larger trucking company. Now we concentrate on the trucking company, the brokerage is dissolved and the warehouse has an “arrangement” with the neighbors.

Ever wonder why your company harasses you about doing your logs and fuel info correctly? Fines can run in the thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Owner operators have as much impact on a company’s safety rating as company drivers. The other day I was involved in a meeting with the company’s owner and an owner operator. The short version went like this – If you want to keep driving for us, you must do your logs the right way. We don’t make the rules for logs, the government does. If you don’t do your logs the way the government tells you how to do your logs, we get fined out of existence. If you don’t fix your logs, we can’t allow you to put the company at risk.

Part of being a leased owner operator instead of an independent owner operator is the company ensures your paperwork is in compliance with the government. You don’t have to file your fuel taxes every quarter, your drug paperwork is taken care of, most places allow some sort of advance or breaks on maintenance and the biggest reason why I was always leased is that you get paid for a load right away and it doesn’t matter if the company gets paid 30 or 90 days out, six months plus or if they don’t get paid at all. I don’t know how we can make it easier or any more open for our drivers. The company will pay for your Driver’s Daily Log every year, the books are completely open. Want to know how much a customer / broker paid the company for a load? Just ask and we show you the real invoice.  The only punishment we have handed out is taken everyone’s Prepass until they can pass an inspection without any violations.

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We live in a world of pin numbers, passwords, excessive fees, anti-depressants and Cialis, iPhones and Droids, divorce, unfairness, discrimination, incivility, excessive complacency, international uncertainty and bureaucratic stupidity. Today on Oprah, her guest was a high school quarterback that decided to become a transsexual and then a lesbian. Last night on the Discovery Channel a three year old girl with no face was profiled. That is what we’re watching on television.

We exist as part of a global piss contest between little boys with big toys consistently trying to control how we all live and what freedoms we have. We don’t see people, we don’t shake their hands or look in their eyes. We text, E-mail, tweet and Facebook trite little messages about what everyone else is doing, but nobody really communicates. CNN today terminated its senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, a 20-year veteran of the network, Octavia Nasr, after she posted a Twitter message saying that she respected a Shiite cleric that died on Sunday. He had routinely denounced the United States and supported suicide bombings against Israel. We all need to be extremely mindful of what we say because the First Amendment not longer exists. Facebook, FYI, is illegal in China.

So drivers, with that said, and to deal with all that and what truck’n OTR entails, you better start taking care of yourself. I’m not going to tell you how or what to do, what to eat or how much to exercise. That’s totally up to you. If you want to buy cheap toxic cigarettes at the truck stop, please be my guest. There is nothing I can do or say that can stop you. If you don’t start taking little breaks every few hours while trying to meet those ridiculous deadlines to get those pallets of widgets delivered on time so they can sit in the warehouse for the next five years, go ahead.

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8PM Eastern Time – I read that it is blazingly hot up in the Northeast, reportedly in the 100′s. Driving up there is God awful even in the best of weather. I’ve operated a flatbed there for many years, for more years I drove a straight job delivering HAZMAT all over NYC, CT, NJ, Maryland and Delaware. For all I know, I could be back there next week. There is no place, not Los Angeles, not Chicago, not Miami that is truly horrible as the Northeast. If you are in your truck tonight trying to cool down and deal with all the nonsense, I am with you brothers and sisters, I’ve been there and you deserve all the best.

Here in Tampa Bay, if your interested, we’re on the 7th day of rain and it’s kind of cool, compared to what it normally is. Florida natives or those who moved here from the Northeast and have lived here a long time avoid the beach and the pool right now because we find it too cold. No, I’m not kidding.

Chris just got off the phone trying to call the IRS out in Denver. I told you, in yesterday’s post, we just got another absurd letter from the idiots of the evil empire, I mean the IRS. There is a phone number in the letter to call, a contact name and it says “they” keep late hours. This is about the fifth or sixth “official” letter we have received – some by certified mail. As usual, the telephone number listed – the number to this contact person at the IRS in Denver CO – has been disconnected you’re told to call the main number. At this number the automated message says they are only open business hours. No one ever answers the main number. And, the contact person is no longer there and her fax number number is no longer valid. We are not dealing with the IRS, we are trying to contact the CIA.

Now here this. Anne S. Ferro, the new head of the FMCSA – the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – speaking before the National Industrial Traffic League on June 10th of this year – said:

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Well drivers, the IRS has ruled. Despite what the “experts” at HR Block say and the letter from my employer and a ton of logs and other paperwork to prove it, the IRS says “we” did not prove that I was OTR for 285 days in 2006. What I was doing, if not driving a truck, is irrelevant. The fact that I was, in fact, driving a truck OTR, is irrelevant. The per diem deduction is “dis-allowed” and we owe the IRS about $3000, not including future interest and penalties.

The steel toe work boots that are a “standard” job related deduction was also not allowed. Not even “work” pants or shirts. It seems that they don’t have my carriers logo or name on it, so the IRS feels that I could use them to walk around the mall on the weekend or go to dinner in them. The deduction has been “dis-allowed.” The laptop that I use in the truck, according to the IRS, should have been depreciated over time, not all at once, so that deduction has also been “dis-allowed.”

HR Block, who I strongly recommend that drivers NOT use, was very supportive at the beginning, vowing to fight this with us to the end, pacifying us that we would prevail, dropped the ball and totally screwed the pooch, so to speak. Their ineptness caused us to lose valuable time while the IRS ruled against us. The last message my wife received from HR Block was that: “it might be better if we pursued the IRS on our own.” Isn’t that just special.

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Happy July 4th. It’s been raining here in the Tampa Bay area now for the past three days. Actually rain is too gentle a meteorological term for what is occurring – it’s pouring – you can go outside with your bar of soap and shampoo and take a great shower. The “rain” is nice and warm. The dogs are not happy about going outside, and I’m getting a great workout chasing them around the house.

Last year in Life On The Road, I posted one of my most popular pieces – “The Other Side of Trucking.” I went back and read it to remind me where I was last year. I believe this is one of the few July 4th weekends that I’ve been home. Two years ago I was delivering to a new VW facility in Alabama. For all of you drivers OTR away from home, thank you for the work you’re doing to keep this country moving. You’re all the best.

I have mentioned to you in the past that Maureen Dowd is one of my favorite writers. She is a columnist for The New York Times. This post was inspired by her latest column.

I wanted to go to the movies this weekend since my time home is now sadly limited. But everything it seems is about vampires. In the bookstore, there are books, magazines, videos and games about vampires everywhere. Girls want vampire tats and wear vampire makeup. There is vampire candy and vampire inspired desserts. I’ve never seen it, but people are “all” talking about some HBO show called “True Blood.” I also never saw “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” which many people seem to all know about. Vampires, vampires, vampires – everyone seems to just love vampires. “Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a vampire.”  What?

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The answer is no. One minute we’re in a recovery, the next we’re not. "Our" government was providing tax incentives to buy new homes and the real estate market seemed to be on the upswing. They scraped the tax breaks and real estate sales came tumbling down. The stock market was inching toward 11,000 and even I was thinking about starting to put money back in my 401K and then I had my heart issues. The market is now somewhere in the 9000′s. The employment numbers, actually I should say the unemployment numbers stink. And Congress has gone on recess and ignored the hundreds of thousands of folks without a job and no unemployment checks since "they" didn’t extend their benefits. The so-called experts can’t figure out not only how to plug a hole in the Gulf leaking million gallons oil but have no clue as to how to get the economy back on track.

Today, while I was taking a 5 hour nuclear stress test to see if I’m able to pass the DOT physical and return to work, there was an elderly man sitting near me. Interesting and current magazines are hard to come by these days in doctors offices with everybody cutting back. So this man took five older issues of various magazines, rolled them up and put them in a bag he was carrying. An Asian woman who was waiting for a test with us asked what the heck he was doing. He told her that he loves reading magazines, but he just cannot afford to buy or subscribe to them anymore.

All his social security and meager retirement pay goes for rent, food and drugs. He went on to say what I clearly know now – that two drugs in particular along with so many others – Plavix and Bystolic – are priced so high that even physicians are telling patients they’re too expensive and to find alternative generics if available. A thirty day supply of Plavix, which is an "anti-platelet" drug that I know for a fact a lot of truck drivers are on, cost over $200 if you don’t have insurance – $48.62 if you do, depending on the coverage. Bottom line, that’s why this old gentleman is taking magazines home to read. He added that since he is here at this doctor a lot, when he’s done reading them, he returns the magazines for other to read – or – take home. I believe him.

By the way, as a quick aside, a few groups here where I live, organize bus trips to Canada for the specific purpose of buying needed prescription drugs, which are 1/3 or more less expensive there than here. There are other bus groups going to Mexico where you can get a quality surgical procedure for less than 1/2 the price. A lap band "procedure" over the border down in Mexico will cost you $5000 – here in the US – same procedure – same implant from a US manufacturer – $15,000. As I’ve told you Blue Cross/Blue Shield will not pay for it considering it "cosmetic" surgery – Medicare pays 100% – go figure.

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