18wheelsandwomen

This sad day happens all the time to many in their jobs. Just a fact of life. Today is Aug 4 2009. I was looking forward to a night at home to mourn and sleep. Yesterday I was given the news that my friend Kevin of 38 years may not make it thru the night. So this meant a night on the phone and computer as I and the family stayed connected. Today I find out that Kevin passed away, age 45. After this news I was called to work. I just knew I would be called to work as when everything happens to me, goes “wrong”, that is when I am needed at work or somewhere. This has happened at almost every event in my life for the last 30 years. Don’t know why it happens but it does. I would have preferred staying home but maybe work will help me deal with this loss.

I know I can do the job safely too, otherwise I would have said NO to working. I am so tired of others who know more about trucking/how to drive a truck than those who do it everyday. I will never understand why those in the medical field can work double shifts and no one says anything about it. I don’t want a TIRED nurse/doctor/surgeon working on me. But I guess this is OK with many. Its also OK to buy a 40 foot motor home with air brakes and not be licensed for it. I have to have a license to operate it, so how come others do not. I am tired, but so are many, many others who get behind the wheel. After all, are we all awake when we get up and rush out the door to get to work? I could go on and on with this.

I leave for work and its about 6 when I can leave with my load. I am focused and watching my gauges and mirrors and traffic as I leave town. I’m also listening to the sounds of the truck as we move and all is normal there too. When I leave town and get away from all the traffic, I allow myself to do some remembering of my friend. So much to think about when you are behind the wheel driving. Reminds me of the calls I received from mom when dad was having trouble. I always was in Chicago or near Chicago when these events happened. No time to let your mind wander with that type of traffic. Had to stay focused on always being safe.

I arrive at the receiver safely and check in. I drop the trailer in the drop lot and get my empty trailer and head back to the shipper. As I get closer to town, you are at the point where headlights are needed in places as the sun is getting really close to the horizon. After I drop the trailer and get the new trailer, you do need the headlights now.

Again all is normal and traffic not too bad in town due to the time. This is a enjoyable drive to the receiver as there is a very bright moon out. You can see for miles and you almost need sun glasses, or would that be moon glasses? Its been a long time since I have seen a moon this bright. For me this brightness is because the heavens are rejoicing with the arrival of my friend joining his dad and my dad. Sure wasn’t this bright last night.

I like this type of night driving as its much safer for seeing. I really do not like night driving in a truck or my personal vehicle, but this time its OK. I don’t like the idea of only seeing where the headlights let you see and that really is not much distance for any vehicle. Its even worse in bad weather. I drive slower at night too. Always have. Need to compensate for the lack of visibility we are used to in the daytime. I arrive at the receiver safely and check in again. I go to the lot and drop the trailer and get my empty. Soon I am heading back home.

About halfway back is when I became tired and I did what we all do to stay awake. There are moments you are sleepy and moments when you are wide awake. When I entered town with all the lights, sleep left me and I made it safely to the shipper where I dropped the trailer in the lot and parked the truck for the night. It is 2 hours past my bedtime and soon I will be home and will get a good nights sleep.

Many women truck drivers and I have talked about the problems we face when trying to get served a meal at a truck stop. But the problems don’t seem to stop there. It seems that women in general have problems getting served regardless of whether or not they are truck drivers, even at regular restaurants.One night when I had finished with traffic counts, before I had become a truck driver, I decided to eat at this nice place and have a good sit down, home cooked meal. I walked in and took a table as instructed. For 30 minutes people came in and ordered while the staff kept looking at me, but I never got waited on. Others around me got their food and ate, and still they kept watching me. Finally I had enough and walked to the door. The greeter asked me if everything was ok with the meal. I let her have it and reminded her that she was one of the ones who kept walking by me too. I left without the meal I was looking forward to and ended up at a fast food place again. There are many examples of this being done to me and to others that I have witnessed.

Now on to the trucking part of trying to eat. When I do enter the For Professional Drivers Only section in my uniform and take a table, a waitress almost always comes to me and asks me to leave because it is for Professional Drivers Only. I ask her if she thinks I wear this uniform for kicks and why aren’t you saying anything to those two men who just sat down? They look like they just came out of the barnyard from doing chores? And  sometimes we get a little bit taken off of our bill for being a professional driver, often times it is not done to the woman’s bill. I asked my server about this and was asked “Are you a truck driver?”

“No, I just wear this uniform for pleasure.”

After this is done to you several times you pay attention and watch what happens to others as you sit there and wait. And if you do get waited on ASAP and given your food ASAP, then there is another problem. The server will not come back to see if you need more water or anything else you may want.

On day I decided to stop again at a fast food joint on I80 in Illinois on my way to Chicago. It’s a good place to stop since they have parking for tractor trailers. On this day I followed two other truckers in who had been talking on the CB and the comments they made implied they were new to this area and they decided to stop at the same place. At the counter they placed their order and I placed mine. As I reach for my money so that it was ready when my food arrived, I hear their counter person say, “Here is your order, and with your trucker discount your bill is___.” I looked at my server and asked “Does this price include my trucker discount?” Again I get the “Are you a truck driver?”

“No, I just wear this uniform for everyone’s amusement. Why did you give these 2 strangers a trucker’s discount when you have no proof they drive a truck, and I’m in uniform and you ignore me? And on top of that, I’ve been stopping in here at least 3 times a week!”

While I was having my tantrum, I see that the fry person is bagging my order and she filled that sack half full of fries for me to make up for the treatment I was given. I got my discount, the extra fries, and out the door I went.

I do not understand this kind of treatment. I always wear a clean uniform to be professional and this is the treatment I get? Does the public not understand that women drive trucks too??

One day I pulled up to my shipper and stopped in front of this huge window. The office staff watched me get out of the truck and when I walked in I said hello to all and signed in at the counter where the truckers sign in. One of the staff told me not to do that because it’s for truck drivers only. I was dumbfounded for a few seconds and then I felt my blood pressure starting to go up. I really wanted to say something! I didn’t say what I had wanted to say, but I did say in a very nice tone, “You watched me get out of the truck from the drivers seat. I am here to get my load.”

These are a few examples of what has happened to me in the last 20 years both before I drove truck and after I became a truck driver. I found myself asking other single women drivers if I could join them for a meal so we can get waited on and make new friends. This was never a problem for me when I did this because the women I asked all wanted to eat and be waited on too.  We discovered that groups and/or more than 1 at a table gets the needed attention that you are to get when eating.  In time, after more money started coming in, I bought a lunch box cooker and re-heated the meals I had made at the house because it was cheaper than eating out.

When I did my pre-trip with the CDL examiner back in 2001, It was not easy for me and many others. Even those with mechanical knowledge/vehicle knowledge said it was tough. But it can be passed by people like me. You may like this story and can relate to it.

I chose to go to a driving school to upgrade my Class B CDL to a class A CDL. I did this after talking to trucking companies about the possibility of my job coming to an end. I asked them if I should get my class A CDL through my employer using a dump truck with a trailer or attend a truck driving school? My contacts said it was best to go to a trucking school to get it, so I did.

I had a very tough time with the pre-trip inspection. I am not mechanically inclined and all these terms and parts were a strange language for me. I also could not fathom being failed if you could not tell anyone that you are looking at a _____ and it does_____. They must take in the fact that you are trying and know what you are looking for, right???

I struggled and studied daily on this pre-trip stuff. It was just plain hard for me. I was in a tizzy over this. But all I could do is do my best. Finally the day came for my classmates and I to take the test. When it was my turn for the pre-trip with the examiner, we started off on the left side of the truck. I was doing my speech pretty well and before I could finish, the examiner would say “OK, let’s move on” or something like that and walk to another part of the vehicle when I was not done with the current part. This flustered me but I thought I must really be doing well and I don’t have to suffer through this whole speech thing I was trying to do.

But after another 1 or 2 of these “move on” comments, I was told I failed. What do you mean I failed when I have done what was asked of me? My instructor was told that I was not ready and I was in tears. I told my instructor, “this is what the examiner did”. The three of us talked about it and I was told that those comments were meant to hurry things along - yet finish the pre-trip as I was taught. Now you tell me this??? I was not at all happy with this and the examiner should explain BEFORE the test about their quirks and what to do/expect.

I had to come back the next day, and this time I was ready. I had the same examiner and we started at the same spot and I ignored the “move on” comments and I also did one other thing. I said something like this, “I am not a mechanic and I will soon forget the names of these parts so here is what I am going to do in real life pre-trips. I went thru the rest of the pre-trip pointing at everything we learned and even added a few because I said I am a woman and I would check this or that to be safe because I think I should. Continuing, I said, “This thing here does ____ & we need to check it for_____.” When I finished the pre-trip, I said “I have just shown you that I do know the pre-trip and what to look for, I just do not know the names of the parts. So you can fail me if you feel I did not follow the rules.” But I passed!

So that was my experience with the pre-trip inspection. Now here we are in 2009 and I still check out my vehicle, I look at all of the critical items but I still do not know their names or I get them mixed up. I know I was lucky on my exam and I had an examiner who used common sense after I did prove I could do a pre-trip. But if you get a “by the book” examiner, you will have problems doing it the way I did it. I have 8 years in trucking and a perfect record. My story isn’t meant to tell you that you don’t need to learn the pre-trip the proper way. You do need to learn it. To this day get out my notes and still try to learn those pesky terms! It acts as a nice refresher for me. Never stop learning.