But the opposite is also true and don't forget it. Being a truck driver doesn't carry any prestige with it I'm sorry to say, not even inside a trucking company. But being a great worker and a good person does. Make those your priorities and life will be much easier on you most of the time than it would have been otherwise I can assure you. For Example...



I was always an excellent truck driver. I ALWAYS ran hard and ALWAYS on time, ran the lousy loads when they needed me to; I was a given....if you gave me a job to do, you could consider it done. Once I was outside of Bristol, TN on a Wednesday morning. I had just gotten done delivering my load about an hour ago and went up the road to the nearest truck stop to get some breakfast while I waited for my next assignment. Arriving, I noticed that there were a number of NASCAR tractor trailers in the parking lot. Being a huge racing fan I realized that the only two tracks they could be on their way to was Bristol,TN or Fort Worth,TX. I asked somebody and sure enough they were going to Bristol, about an hour up the road.

I was running in a regional fleet and was going to keep running the rest of the week until I got back home on Friday or Saturday. But JEEEZ, would I love to take the rest of the week off and stay in Bristol for NASCAR! I had been with my company for a few years already and had proven myself as a great truck driver so I asked my dispatcher what he thought about letting me stay in Bristol for the races. He told me he didn't have the authority to approve that, which I knew already but I always ran everything by him first (he was the best dispatcher I had ever had).

He told me to talk to his boss, whom I also knew very, very well, and I begged and pleaded with the boss. He said, “what are you going to do with the truck?" I told him I was going to be sleeping in it every night, of course, and it would be safe.

My rationale: “Come on man, you know I kick ass out here. Let me stay in Bristol this weekend. You know I'll take care of the truck and make it up to you." Of course he knew I was right, and he let me stay. There are VERY few drivers that would have been able to pull that one off, but I had proven myself and had gotten to know the right people and that was all it took.

I rocked the weekend at the races and had a blast. Everything went perfectly and Monday morning I called back in, they gave me my next load, and I was off and rolling again. Another great adventure on the road for this truck driver.