Some make the claim that once you pass the test in driver training, you are a professional truck driver. By all job classifications, you'd be correct in stating this. Many close minded only see new truckers as steering wheel holders, not
me.
Yes, I do remember I started somewhere. I was not born with diesel in my blood and a steering wheel in my hand. I am a 10 year rookie, and was taught by old school drivers. I am not saying that my way of training makes me any better than the guy sitting beside me in the truck stop who went through a driving school. I started out in a single screw, 10 speed cabover with no air conditioning. You would be lucky if the heater would work on a mild Iowa day, and had no power steering. I still remember having to use cardboard into spots to keep the wind out, scraping the frost off my window with my CDL, and using moving blankets to keep from frostbitten feet. My training included being slapped in the back of the head for missing a turn, missing a gear, or anything else I might do. My trainer stayed awake the whole time and actually trained. I was taught to have pride, common sense, and sense of values. I consider it old school rules, and believe the new age truck drivers (steering wheel holders) also need to incorporate them. If you think for one second I have any pause in calling a 30 year veteran a steering wheel holder, you're dead to rights wrong. I'll call out old or new if they're acting like one. Without further ado, here goes my thoughts on who fits the description of steering wheel holder.
A steering wheel holder is a driver that insists on tailgating other trucks or cars. He's that driver that has to grab 3 or 4 gears in the truck stop parking lot. The driver that throws his/her trash and piss bottles in the middle of the parking lot. The driver on the phone/with ear plugs and a radio blasting in their ears while not paying enough attention to give an oversized load (OD) room. A steering wheel holder that is only here to collect a paycheck and don't give a d**n about the others out here, only out for themselves. The driver that's got to pass a 64 mph truck with a 65 mph truck in a 70-75 mph speed limit, only to back up traffic for miles to come. (Going one mile an hour slower won't kill you.) It's the driver that lacks the concept of parking it because road conditions are too adverse/dangerous because his dispatcher says he must go (your dispatcher isn't there, can't see what the road looks like, and probably can't drive your truck 5 miles on a straightway).
Basically, my feeling is that a steering wheel holder is a person who lacks common sense, courtesy, and lack of respect for his own life and those lives around him/her in truck stops and on the road.
Please, help cease this growing epidemic. Take a look around at how you act on the road. If you're reflecting yourself in a matter unbecoming, please pop yourself in the back of the head and bring back the professionalism. Video yourself and how you act behind the wheel for a week. Ask yourself "Is this how I want people to see me?" If not, fix the issue. Just remember the person next to you on the highway or in the truck stop is someone's family member. The car you just cut off/tailgated could be the owner of a customer who was already thinking about dropping your company.
me.
Yes, I do remember I started somewhere. I was not born with diesel in my blood and a steering wheel in my hand. I am a 10 year rookie, and was taught by old school drivers. I am not saying that my way of training makes me any better than the guy sitting beside me in the truck stop who went through a driving school. I started out in a single screw, 10 speed cabover with no air conditioning. You would be lucky if the heater would work on a mild Iowa day, and had no power steering. I still remember having to use cardboard into spots to keep the wind out, scraping the frost off my window with my CDL, and using moving blankets to keep from frostbitten feet. My training included being slapped in the back of the head for missing a turn, missing a gear, or anything else I might do. My trainer stayed awake the whole time and actually trained. I was taught to have pride, common sense, and sense of values. I consider it old school rules, and believe the new age truck drivers (steering wheel holders) also need to incorporate them. If you think for one second I have any pause in calling a 30 year veteran a steering wheel holder, you're dead to rights wrong. I'll call out old or new if they're acting like one. Without further ado, here goes my thoughts on who fits the description of steering wheel holder.
A steering wheel holder is a driver that insists on tailgating other trucks or cars. He's that driver that has to grab 3 or 4 gears in the truck stop parking lot. The driver that throws his/her trash and piss bottles in the middle of the parking lot. The driver on the phone/with ear plugs and a radio blasting in their ears while not paying enough attention to give an oversized load (OD) room. A steering wheel holder that is only here to collect a paycheck and don't give a d**n about the others out here, only out for themselves. The driver that's got to pass a 64 mph truck with a 65 mph truck in a 70-75 mph speed limit, only to back up traffic for miles to come. (Going one mile an hour slower won't kill you.) It's the driver that lacks the concept of parking it because road conditions are too adverse/dangerous because his dispatcher says he must go (your dispatcher isn't there, can't see what the road looks like, and probably can't drive your truck 5 miles on a straightway).
Basically, my feeling is that a steering wheel holder is a person who lacks common sense, courtesy, and lack of respect for his own life and those lives around him/her in truck stops and on the road.
Please, help cease this growing epidemic. Take a look around at how you act on the road. If you're reflecting yourself in a matter unbecoming, please pop yourself in the back of the head and bring back the professionalism. Video yourself and how you act behind the wheel for a week. Ask yourself "Is this how I want people to see me?" If not, fix the issue. Just remember the person next to you on the highway or in the truck stop is someone's family member. The car you just cut off/tailgated could be the owner of a customer who was already thinking about dropping your company.
A picture of a tailgater sent by Mike Harahuc on Twitter.
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