Over The Road Truck Driver

As a former over-the-road truck driver for nine years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to each of the lower forty-eight states and parts of Canada. I got the chance to experience what most people only read about. Driving down the road in a vehicle that is literally the size of a small house is an exhilarating experience. Sitting in the driver’s seat with one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the gearshift, and having over four hundred horse power under your foot to pull that heavy load through a mountain pass is euphoric. Fact: the average car has between 110-150 horse power. Over-the-road drivers experience some of the most beautiful country in the world, like Maine and the Pacific northwest, to some of the most desolate areas,

For example, I had just crossed the Canadian border coming back into the United States. Driving down I-15 in Montana, I began my assent into the mountains. The higher into the mountains I drove, the harder the snow began to fall. By the time I had reached the peak, about a foot of snow covered the road making the white lines impossible to see so I had no idea if I was in my own lane. I feared that my tires would not get enough traction to continue the climb and my truck would become stuck in the middle of the road. My defroster was unable to keep the windshield clear and my wipers were completely iced over. The snow kept coming down with flakes the size of dinner plates. I was driving blind. All these conditions make for an unsafe and undesirable situation though drivers are often forced to keep going because there is no place to

Many of the mom and pop, or private truck stops that once dotted the two-lane highways of America that lead to the smaller communities where freight is delivered, are closing because of competition from the corporate truck stops that have more amenities for the drivers such as showers, laundry facilities, trucker’s lounges, barbers, dentists, and full-service fueling. One of the newer truck stops to open in South Carolina even has a bowling alley. With every new corporate truck stop that opens, two or three private truck stops are forced to close, which means fewer parking spots.

According to Tyson Fisher with Land Line Magazine, when writing about private truck stops says, “Most facilities have fewer than 100 spaces available. Nearly 80 percent of private truck stops had fewer than 100 truck parking spaces, with nearly 40 percent having fewer than 25. More than half of all private truck stops surveyed did not have any showers available, which could drive up traffic for the minority of truck stops that