Occupation Truck Driver Essay Research Paper My

Occupation: Truck Driver Essay, Research Paper

My Occupation: Truck Driver

Merrian Webster’s Dictionary defines the word trucker as; 1: one whose business is

transporting goods by truck 2: a truck driver. Truckers were 2,900,000 strong in 1994

(Ouellet 11). Most people really do not think about it, but almost everything that we will

use today was at one time or another on a truck. People even say that if the trucks stopped

making deliveries to New York City the city would run out of food and raw materials in

three days. Whether this is exaggerated or not, it shows the importance of the trucking

industry and the truck driver to modern life.

Often times distorted images and ideas are placed into people’s heads. This can be

said as far as the image of the truck driver is concerned. Many people think of a macho,

tattooed, beer guzzling, social guy when they think of a truck driver. That balloon filled

image can be popped. The average truck driver is nothing like the Hollywood truck driver.

Most truck drivers are just average people. They are not big macho guys that are full of

tattoos. State police and troopers are also cutting down on drunk driving, and often times

truck drivers are pulled over and checked over. There is no social life either. To a driver,

business comes first. That means that social life comes second on the priority list. There is

no joining the town baseball league, and a truck driver may even miss some birthdays.

With this in mind it is easy to see why fewer then six out of ten new truck drivers last

more than a month (Scharnberg 15-17).

Another image people often have of a truck driver is that they are not extremely

intelligent. This is another false seed that has been planted. Most truck drivers have at

least graduated high school, and many also hold other college degrees. To become a

trucker there are also specific truck driving bridges that need to be crossed. Most carriers

want their drivers to be experienced. One can go about this two ways. The first way was

common around twenty years ago. A future driver was hired by a more experienced

driver. There he would learn how to drive, take care of the truck, write reports, and

handle cargo. This method of getting experience is very rare in today’s trucking world

(Gilliland 23-27).

The more common way for one to get experience in truck driving is to go to truck

driving school. Often times school will last for six months, and cost several thousand

dollars (Scharnberg 33). An advantage to this is that most truck schools have deals with

carriers. A driver can usually get a job straight out of school with that carrier if they do a

good job. When picking a school one should make sure that they will be able to get a job

when they graduate. They should also talk with students who graduated, and did not

graduate, to find out what the school was like (Ouellet 41-42).

Most of the carriers in the trucking industry want educated, experienced drivers

for several reasons. The main reason is that insurance is expensive. The reason for this

expense is that the carriers have to insure $100,000 trucking rigs, and $40,000 trailers.

This does not even include the insurance on goods which could be worth up to $500,000.

(Scharnberg 67) When all of this comes into play it is obvious why most carriers want

their drivers to be at least 21, maybe 23 or 25 years of age (Marston 38).

Along with the requirements that a certain carrier has there are also several

requirements that the United States of America has. If a prospected driver has had a

moving violation or DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) in the past year they cannot legally

become a truck driver (Scharnberg 72). Also, if a person has epilepsy, diabetes controlled

by insulin and/or vision worse then 20/40 with or without glasses they cannot become a

truck driver. If a person meets with all of these qualifications there is still an exam that

must be passed. This is the DOT Exam, or Department of Transportation Exam (Bradley

96).

There are two main parts to the DOT Exam. The first part is a written exam of

about four pages (Ouellet 114). The person taking the exam is asked questions dealing

with laws and rules concerning truck driving. After someone passes this they are given a

certification card. The second part of the exam is the physical exam. This part is fairly

simple and checks a person’s health to make sure they are physically fit. After this part of

the exam the person is given another certification card. These cards are placed in the

drivers manual and are often asked for at inspection and weigh stations (Scharnberg 84-

85).

Along with having these certification cards at inspection stations a driver must also

have his/her state permits and rights at hand. The system of rights and permits is rather

complicated. A truck has a set of base plates from the state it is working out of. Once the

truck l

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