SpeakOut
8 OVERDRIVE APRIL 2009 Speak Out The Voice of the American Trucker My father was a long-haul trucker, back before trucks had air-conditioning and were as luxurious as country stars' tour buses. He came home with some weird tans. Always the left arm was tanned like a Rawling's catcher's mitt. Houston Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman, blogging in response to a reader, March 21, 2008. E-mail your letter to the editor or Reflections sub-mission to LCoulter@rrpub.com or mail them to Overdrive , P.O. Box 3187, Tuscaloosa, AL 35403. Include a photo of yourself (digital or print), if you can. We'll return it. Published Reflections sub-missions will receive a keychain pocketknife and Overdrive hat, license plate and T-shirt. SHARE WITH OVERDRIVE I'm not trading. The EPA and the tree huggers in this country are going to be our demise. I understand you have to have laws, but the global warming stuff is killing us. WARREN CALDER Greensburg, Pa. Oakley Trucking I traded a truck that got 6½ mpg for one that's getting 4½ mpg. If I was to trade right now, I'd go back to an '03 or '02 model. JERRY JACKSON Moulton, Ala. Oakley Trucking Until I know for sure what the govern-ment's going to do, I'm going to hold off on trading. MICHAEL REID Covington, Va. William Edwards Inc. A lot of guys who own their own trucks are holding on just to make payments on their houses, trucks they already have and other bills they've got coming in. JOE GARCIA Houston, Texas Bayou City Environmental I had to get rid of mine about five years ago. The maintenance and fuel prices got too much. ROBERT CARTWRIGHT Southfield, Mich. Titan Transfer How has the economic downturn affected your trade cycle? As a 46-year-old owner-operator, my life would have been drastically differ-ent if, in 1986, on only my second load, I hadn't turned south toward Illinois hauling a tanker of milk. What I really wanted to do was turn north and back to my home only 15 miles away. At the house earlier that morning, tears welled up in my young wife's and son's eyes when they found out that after only two hours home from the first load of my career, I had to go deliver another one and pick up a newly plated 1984 Pete cabover. I was too inexperienced to refuse my com-pany's request and the load. I was tired and heartsick when I made the turn to Illinois. It was the hardest thing I ever did in trucking. Over the years, I've missed birthdays and family events, including the day my father died. I've seen dads in their yards playing catch with their kids as I drove by, and I wished I could be home with my family. My career has had rewards, also. My early job as a sawmill laborer making $200 a week never could have matched my weekly gross of up to $3,200 as an owner-operator. My on-road experi-ence landed me jobs later as a driving instructor and as a used truck manager at a Peterbilt dealership. I returned to trucking as an owner-operator after our children were grown, and now I'm home most evenings. If I'd hung it up that day 23 years ago, I would have missed out on a comfort-able salary and a view of the nation's countryside from the seat of my truck. RANDY MUNSON La Crescent, Minn. The road not taken