Finally, "CDL Life" Responds To Mr. Barurh
As for your comment of “sleep deprivation” and “drug use” by truckers…you are sadly mistaken! Legally, a driver in the U.S. is allowed a 14 hour work day consisting of 11 hours of time to drive which in which in the first 8 of those hours they MUST take a half hour break. They must then rest for 10 full hours before they can drive again. I have yet to come across any who have a “drug use” problem…last I check Stacker II or Monster energy drink were not illegal and the drivers I run into daily get their sleep.
Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings --- but not too hard, okay?
My initial response to the CDL Life response to my trucking article was utter fury. Not because of the response itself, but because of the moronic name of the website. I am sick until death of "(insert thing here) Life" and "(insert thing here) Nation". Stance Life. NASCAR Nation. Inked Life. Inked Nation. There is apparently no pursuit so regrettable or embarrassing that it is not entitled to a Life and a Nation. Lot Lizard Life. Needle Sharing Nation. Even when the one percenters do it, there's an air of filth and dirt about it: "Supercar Life" was closely tied to payday-loan kingpin Scott Tucker.
The appearance of "Life" or "Nation", except in the context of one of those bizarre special issues of The Economist where the writers hold their noses and sing the praises of whatever Eastern Bloc industrial region can afford to pay for the thing, trying desperately to fill thirty pages without mentioning that said Eastern Bloc industrial region was used as the filming location for "Hostel", is a virtual guarantee that the content below said appearance of "Life" or "Nation" will be written by the functionally illiterate.
Long sentence there. Maybe I should think twice about my own literacy.
With that said, this "response" article is no different. In the context of a few mid-length paragraphs, "Heidi O" tells us that
She is going to be the Voice Of The American Trucker. I've heard these guys having sex late at night in the bathroom stalls at Pilot stations, I'm pretty sure they have voices of their own.
She is sorry that I have to slow down to get where I are heading because MY improper planning didn’t allow for such things as slow traffic or even two trucks rolling along uphill together.
Trucks pay for American highways.
Truckers have to do everything they are doing because otherwise I would have to wait for toilet paper.
Truckers are really big on Stacker 2 and Monster Energy drink.
Every trucker who runs into her gets plenty of sleep.
Well, allow me to retort!
Since when is proposing rules to make the road more usable for motorists an attack on truckers? If you accept that argument, you also must accept that the current state of affairs is an attack on motorists. What if nobody's attacking anyone, just trying to make the road work better?
Why is my trip less important than the trip being taken by rolls of toilet paper? If a doctor is late to the hospital because of truck racing, does that mean that he should be satisfied to let someone die because Wal-Mart's distribution center got their toilet paper on time? I don't think the people who use this argument have thought about the set of values it represents: profits and product over people.
Trucks do not pay for American highways. Trucks cause more damage than they pay for and this is an absolute universal fact with absolutely no legitimate opposing research. If I pay $20,000 in taxes every year and do ten times that in damage to the roads, I'm not the customer of the highway system --- I'm a parasite upon it.
The assumption that a change in the way that trucks use the roads would lead to shortages of toilet paper is too stupid to be discussed further. I assume that Americans had toilet paper available when commercial tractor-trailers had half the power and speed they do today. I assume this because it's supported by the historical record. There is nothing immutable or sacred about the currently scheduled timelines of the trucking industry. Period, point blank.
If you're using Stacker 2 every day and you are on the American road, you are dangerous. Mega-dosing on caffeine is not illegal and it's frequently done but if you need it to get by every day then you're heading for a fall.
I'd need to see a picture.
The fact is that the trucking industry here and elsewhere in the world has successfully adapted to every regulation and challenge imposed upon it, from "green diesel" to those mandatory 14 hour schedules of which my antagonist is so proud. I knew truckers in the Seventies and Eighties who used to brag, "We run hot (illegally fast), hard (longer without sleep than is safe) and heavy (loaded beyond safe or legal limits)!" It was like a mating call. Twenty years later, that behavior has been largely cut out, thanks to the DOT's decision to treat truckers like mentally handicapped children instead of professional drivers. I'd like to say that truckers didn't need the oversight, but the fact is that many --- #notalltruckers --- did.
A right-lane restriction for trucks would make a positive change in the American lifestyle. I cannot state with certainty that there might not be a mild toilet paper shortage in the first week, however. If that Apocalypse comes upon us, we'll all have to gird our loins for it, alright?