by Willie Higgins

Created on: December 23, 2007   Last Updated: August 03, 2010

Challenging the stereotype of the truck driver. Thirty years ago, the truck driver was the knight of the highway. If your car broke down on the road, the person most likely to stop and help you was the truck driver. If your car couldn't be fixed , he would drop you off in the nearest town. If you didn't have any money, he might give you two dollars to get something to eat. If you were a woman, you were safer with the truck driver than with police. The truck driver was a coffee drinking good old boy, in his cowboy boots and leather vest.

Well, some truck drivers were good old boys. Then you always have some that are a disgrace to the business. They would take road dope and do a California turn around. That is when a driver would pop a few pills and drive to California and back to Tennessee and not sleep. They didn't take baths and would eat off the dash. They would have three or four log books and a hooker in the sleeper. People thought truck driving was life in the fast lane. That life in the fast lane has killed a lot of people over the years. The best thing that ever happened to truck driving was drug testing.

Yes you can make good money driving a truck. There are good companies that have the newest equipment and pay a good wage. Some do pay for your schooling others have their own school. You have to look for the best company for you. There are companies that will lie to you, not pay what they say they will, and come up with every way in the world to beat you out of your bonus. Don't fool yourself into believing you are going to get rich. You will spend a lot of money on food out there. Truck stops jack up the price on everything, because they know you can't park a truck just anywhere.

Lord help you if you try to buy your own big rig. You will go broke fast these days. With fuel price being so high. Do the math. The cost of tires is times eighteen. Then you have insurance, permit's and upkeep on the truck. Oh! Don't forget, you still have to make payments on the truck. You think you don't get enough rest now, just buy one of them big beauties and you'll never sleep again.

There is one other thing I would like to say. Yes women can drive a truck. I have had a class A CDL since 1991. I drove with my husband for a few years. He was one of the good old boys, and had 33 years over the road, when he passed away with cancer. I went back over the road by myself. I worked for a good company, and made good money. I drove all 48 states last year. A lot in the northeast. I didn't hang out in truck stops. It is frighting to walk across a dark parking lot. Some truck driver would look at me like I was a side of meat. I felt safer parking on an off ramp than at a truck stop.

But, I loved driving. I wanted to see our country again, before I got too old. But there also comes a time that you know it is best for you to get off the road. I got to where I couldn't see well at night, and new glasses didn't help much. I went, I saw, and now I'm back home safe. I don't think I live up to the stereotype of the truck drivers of old. But todays drivers come in all shape and sizes. So ladies if you want to work your way across this big country, truck driving is the way to go. Don't think you can't do it. I'm 5 foot 2 inches tall and weigh 135, and 58 years old. May God bless all truck drivers, and keep them safe until they get home.

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