by Tony Boswell

Created on: April 21, 2007   Last Updated: November 07, 2008

I have been in the Trucking industry for a little over 4 years, and I just can't believe all the injustices, ignorance and arrogance I have seen. I have been following the changes in the fuel surcharge legislation, the hours of service regulations, and now the Bush administration plans to give Mexican domiciled trucking companies the leverage over us hard working men and women out here by allowing an insurgence of cheap wages and freight to just roll across our borders and highways completely unchecked. What the heck is congress doing up there? As if we didn't have it bad enough out here

It is incredible, that no one seems to care what we go through out here. On the hours of service, I have seen a good thing go sour with a group of lobbyists Mothers who are so far gone in their grief they cannot even see the changes they have asked for and received could and eventually will cause more harm than good. The new hours of service force us to drive for long uninterrupted periods in which NOONE escapes white line fever. Before the changes to the split sleeper rule and how it stopped the 14 hour clock, we could take a break when we became fatigued, at our leisure, and not have to worry about our income being affected or our family's welfare because it extended our 14 hour clock. Now, however, we find ourselves constantly forced to drive fatigued, because if we don't, as a result of stopping to rest, our bills get behind, because our income potential for the week has significantly been inhibited, and our load may not get to its destination on time which may cause us to be charged with a "service failure" that will follow us around for the rest of our career on a DAC report. You would think that grieving mothers would understand that the biggest reason for any honest man to "go bad" is his family and his kids. He will do absolutely anything to make sure that they have food on the table and the bills are paid. It's just instinctive. A man's role is to take care of his family.

I have watched as my company performed work on my truck in their shop, say it was fixed, bill me and send me on my way, only to find out, 15 miles down the road while under their load, that the work I had put my truck in the shop for had not actually been done. After realizing this I took my truck somewhere else, got it fixed and brought the bill to my company. I was told by their lead mechanic, after he went through the computer that everything on the bill was rework and the company owed me money.

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