Article Helps Save Marriage
By writing the article on truckers’ wives (cover story “Keeping the Home Fires Burning,” February 2005), you have given all of us truckers’ wives the voice we’ve been needing for so long. I can’t thank you enough. You stated loud and clear how difficult it is on the women of trucking but also how important our role is.

I love my trucker with every piece of me, but I was on the brink of walking away from him. We’ve had so many problems in the past eight months, but since he read your article it gave him the insight needed to understand my situation and feelings, too. The lines of communication between us were all but broken until he brought that article home for me to read. We have talked more in the past four days than we talked in the past couple months. It’s such a breakthrough, and now we’ve been talking and working on other parts of our marriage that were failing as well. I feel that not only is our friendship renewed, but our marriage is as strong as it ever was.

I totally understand that neither job (trucker nor the wife) is ever easy, but it’s all worth it in the end. It takes a special kind of person and a special kind of love to make it through those times.
Laci Mulder
Mt. Elgin, Ontario, Canada

Wake Up
For years airline pilots, locomotive engineers and ship captains, all with competent representation, have enjoyed wages in excess of $100,000 per year, full medical benefits and a pension plan with which they could retire with dignity. When was the last time you heard the word “dignity” associated with the trucking industry? Do truck drivers enjoy all the conditions listed above?

If drivers don’t, we should, since truck drivers are the most important part of surface transportation! Everything that moves to and from planes, trains and ships gets loaded onto a truck. Without trucks and truck drivers, neither grocery stores, department stores, hospitals, steel mills nor any other business will receive any goods.

It is time for truck drivers, motor carriers and owner-operators to wake up! All drivers need to start thinking like business people and demand changes. Sign-on bonuses or prizes are not what we need. It is the long-term fix that’s called for now! It is higher freight rates, pay rates that keep up with inflation, fuel prices that make profit part of the business again and working hours that are not a detriment to our safety and health.

Let’s put pride and dignity back in trucking! Demand better! Expect better! Stick together, we’ll get better!
David P. Gaibis Sr.
New Castle, Pa.

Fog Warning
On Jan. 12, 2005, my work day started like any other day. I looked around for a decent tractor and went into the office for my paperwork. It was just past lunch time as I was checking out the truck. There was an eerie feeling when the fog started to form. I finally left the yard in Flat Rock, Mich., and headed toward the west side of the state, north on I-275, then west on I-96. With the snow from a few days earlier and warmer-than-normal temperatures, the fog became really thick in some areas. I was following a car hauler and kept an eye on it while I watched it disappear into the fog. I slowed down and put my flashers on, trying to slow down the westbound traffic. Then came the warnings over the CB to stop and back out of it. But it was too late. There was mile after mile of wreckage, and as I traveled along, I tried to warn the eastbound traffic to stop by using the CB and flashing my lights. The estimates of how many vehicles were involved was 50, then 100, then 200 with a few deaths. Apparently it started when a four-wheeler stopped on the freeway instead of pulling off.

I don’t think those involved in the accident will need a crash course to deal with the fog next time. What I would like to see is a nationwide uniform procedure truckers take to reduce the risk of collisions in fog conditions. An example would be better communications over the CB and slower speeds. The general public would need to be educated also. There are many times when truckers put on their flashers because of a road hazard ahead, yet the four-wheelers just fly on by.
Gary Kujat
Taylor, Mich.

Making a Change
Growing up in the streets of Detroit, my past is filled with me being caught up in trouble, but now that I truly recognize my errors and mistakes I made in life, I now, at the age of 26, want to correct my life and live righteously as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen. Truck driving is one of the keys that will help me make this change successfully.

I hope this letter can maybe inspire others that come across your magazine to become responsible and productive in the trucking industry as well.
Darnell Edwards
Kincheloe, Mich.

Write us
Send your letters to Randy Grider, Truckers News, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406, by fax to (205) 750-8070 or by e-mail to rgrider@eTrucker.com.

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