This is a repost of something I submitted to Ozprodrivers forum a good while ago. I think it is still relevent!!!
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I think I might be becoming an endangered species.
What gives me that idea, you may ask?
Hmmmmmmm
Let me first inform you of my level of experience and what I do now, then I will give you a few examples as to why it is that I suspect that I may be endangered.
I have been driving trucks for a living for well over a quarter of a century - most of which time has been on interstate. In fact, I am on interstate at the moment, and probably will be far into the foreseeable future.
I do NOT drive a b-double or a road train as I consider them too much bloody hard work for the return of effort.I don't drive for glory, only money. Having said that, I am not insinuating that those who do drive b-doubles and trains are glory seekers at all - it's just that I guess that I am too bloody lazy to work harder than I need to in order to make a good living as a company driver.
I earn about 31c/Km, plus load and unloading money and the usual living away from home allowances etc. This means that for about 4,000Kms (which is easy to achieve in my side of the industry) I take home about $1200 every week, after tax and all expenses. Oh, and I take the truck home about 160Kms from work, saving me another $50.00 or so a week.So that's me - a doddering old fart who wanders about like an old senior citizen and get paid enough to keep me happy!
Now for the examples.
The other night I was wandering down the Newell Highway (in relatively light traffic conditions at night) and over the space of about 20 Kms I passed 10 trucks going the other way, all well spaced out.
That was the good bit!
Of the 10 trucks, only 3 managed to dip their headlights before they were within a couple of hundred yards of me. As you know, much of the Newell between Narrandera and the Vic border is fairly straight, so these other 7 rocket scientists had all been dazzling me for considerable periods of time. By the way, this was EARLY evening, so tiredness should not have been an excuse, and in any case, if you're so bloody tired you forget to dip your lights, then why the hell are you driving in the first place?
It seems that I can merge from one road onto another, or join a highway from a parking bay on dual carriageway without crashing into any other vehicles AND WITHOUT having to announce my intentions over the 2 way.
Funny that.
In fact, I have never even come close to crashing into anyone in the flow of traffic at all, because I LOOK and merge accordingly rather than yabber on the damned radio! Not only that, the cars (who don't have a radio) and other trucks who may be down a few channels can just continue on without me barging in all over them.
My boss and/or allocator doesn't sit in the passenger seat with a cocked .45 Colt at my head, so I am able to choose when to sleep, according to how fit I am feeling. When I am buggered, I go to sleep and, since I am too bloody deaf to hear an alarm clock, I don't set one! I wake up and if I reckon my body is feeling okay (and I actually know how to read my own body - something to do with experience, I suppose), I drive on.
(Unfortunately the new regulations or HOS in Australia now prevent me from managing my fatigue in this effective manner).I have a genuinely speed limited truck and have no bloody intention of putting a wire on it.
Strueth! My licence hasn't looked so good since limiters have become a reality, so why the hell would I want to pay a heap of fines, lose points and all the rest of it, when I can just poke along and still get enough Kms under the belt to take home a pretty reasonable income? Roll off the hills? Why the hell do that? If you're limited, the bloody thing won't give you any fuel anyway until you've lost your momentum, so that seems pointless.
Oh! And I refer to my previous statement about licences being clean, thus making me a pretty good insurance risk. (Touch wood) I haven't had an incident or damaged gear for years. Again, this makes me a pretty good insurance risk.
Bullbar and his mates that carry on like the brain dead minority that they are on the 2 way don't bother me at all! When they make a row, I turn the bloody thing off! I don't respond to them, as that only gives them an audience. Ignore them and they go away. If you can't ignore them, turn them off! Easy to ignore something you can't hear, wouldn't you reckon?
I have sat down with my accountant and discovered that the "sweet spot" for income Vs effort is somewhere between 3800 and 4500 Kms, depending on the number of loads I do and the number of pick ups and deliveries. (Remember, this is based on MY pay scale and may vary according to what you get paid). Anything OVER that and the taxman gets more benefit than me and anything UNDER that and I am not getting enough return to compensate me for being away all week. Not much point in doing 6000Kms a week and the welfare recipients get more out of the excess above 4500 than I do!
If we are busy and because I happen to have a terrific boss, I will do more to help him out, but my target is about 4200Kms a week. It just so happens that I work for a great mob - that's why I work here. If they weren't, then I would leave and go somewhere else! Pretty simple. Even given that if I were working elsewhere and they started to expect the ridiculous, then I would leave. Simple too, I would have thought.
No jobs for drivers out there?
You're kidding me!
Just look in ANY industry magazine!
In case you aren't aware, drivers are at a premium.
I do NOT take stimulants at all. To my way of thinking there is no need. I can do my "target Kms" without them and, as stated before take home more than the taxman, so why use drugs and endanger my own health, and risk losing insurance for my employer if I did come undone in a big way and the authorities decided to blood test me. Wouldn't do him or me any good, would it? Besides, in the old days, you actually bought your "gear" from a chemist shop, so you had more than a fair idea what was in it and that there were controls as to hygene and quantities in the factory.
I wonder if Bob the Bikie (or whoever) really bothers, or does he just make a brew of whatever he can sell?
Damn! I lied! I do take stimulants! I have about 2 cups of weak coffee a day!
I do take drugs! I take pain killers (Tylanol or Neurophen etc) for tooth aches and back aches and the like, as required!
You know, I can drive around the Ring Road in Melbourne (or the M7 in Sydney) or wherever and not sit up the chuffer of the car in front of me. As a matter of fact, I can actually drive around both these roads (and similar ones) in peak hour traffic and, unless stopped in a jam, never be CLOSER than about 150 yards from the vehicle in front in my lane. Guess what else? It takes me exactly the same time to negotiate one side of the city to the other as the blokes who rip, tear and bust, swapping lanes all day.
Strange that, huh?
Not only that, but I can actually time traffic lights most of the time so that I never have to drop into the bottom box when I am right up on my weight. It uses less fuel, too!I can also travel from one side of the city (any city) and stay in the left hand lane, or the left and middle lanes (if there are 3) without taking longer to do the job than if I were to sit out in the right hand lane and piss off a whole heap of car drivers (who wouldn't progress any further anyway) but that PERCEIVE that the nasty trucks and holding them up.
Remember those car drivers are the MAJORITY of voters out there. There are probably about 15 millions ordinary voters and about 40,000 interstate truck driving voters (referring
specifically to Australia).
Who do you suppose the politicians will listen to when they decide to make a knee jerk reaction to the majority who cry about us?
I might add (and anyone with half a brain would have to accept this) that there are those amongst us that create dramas for the rest of us as a result of their (mis)conduct.
No.
I am NOT making out that I am some sort of a hero.
On the contrary, there are quite a lot of us old farts that just go about our business, quietly and without scaring the living daylights out of the public in general. We are aware that WE are supposed to be the professionals drivers. We should be aware that car drivers are NOT!
It is axiomatic, then, that we drive accordingly so as to make up for their incompetancy, without causing fuss and without letting testosterone create havoc.
Yeah! The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that I am an endangered species.
I dip my lights long before they are actually in line with the approaching vehicle.
I don't drive up the backside of the vehicle in front of me.
I allow "elbow room" in all directions.I don't abuse motorists (read voters here) or frighten the pants off them.
I can actually drive and merge and do all that stuff without needing to use the CB.
I don't actually like the sound of my own voice anyway!I can get 300,000 Kms out of a set of steer tyres.
I make good money and I drive for a reputable company.
Must all be luck, I suppose.
If I am not an endangered species, then where am I going wrong?
It seems that I don't do any of the things that truck drivers are supposed to do, it appears.
Damn! I better get myself off to truck driving school and get retrained!
(Safe travelling)
