Don’t Tell Me How to Drive
I am really getting tired of the people on Capitol Hill telling me how to drive a truck when they don’t even know what the inside of a truck looks like. I have been out here since 1968, and I have never seen one of these politicians stopping a Virginia state cop from waking me up while I am in a parking slot at a rest area on my 10 hours off and out of hours to drive, to tell the cop that he is breaking federal law by doing this.

Where are they when I get pulled into a scale and the inspecting officer goes into the pit with a pocket full of tools to inspect my soon-to-be-out-of-service truck?

The trucking CEOs that address Capitol Hill for the most part have never seen the inside of a truck either; the only thing they have seen is the inside of a board room.

I am for all trucks stopping wherever they are for three days. The owner-operators who say they can’t afford to should look at their last vacation and tell us how they afforded that. And the company drivers who are afraid of losing their job, just remember they can’t fire all of us – they are begging for drivers now.
Joseph J. Rehder Sr.
Baltimore

A Special Kind of Woman
My fiancé picked up your February 2005 issue somewhere on the road and brought it home for me to read. At the time I’d been having issues with him being gone so much, so I am guessing the reason he brought that particular issue was for the article, “Keeping the Home Fires Burning.” This article really helped me understand my role at home and inspired me to be more accommodating to his needs and less for my own. Also, it is relieving to hear other women’s struggles with the same issues I battle every week when I kiss him goodbye yet again. Though I cannot say I agree with all of the advice given, I still maintain this article has made both our lives a lot easier. People have always told me it takes a special kind of woman to be a trucker’s wife, and I never really understood why