Camaraderie Isn't Dead.........Entirely

05/26/2012

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To know Lou is to like Lou. He is laid back, and always smiling. He treats everyone fairly, until they push him past his limit. Basically, if you don't like Lou, it's typically because there's something wrong with you.

Lou never knows a stranger, and talks freely with people. One of his favorite activities was to shoot the crud with the other drivers at the truck stop. Although he had me on the road for the longest time, he remembered the lonely days on the road, and what it means to have someone hold a conversation and smile, letting you know you're not alone.
Lou helped in almost every situation he came across. The exception of the rule came on an early morning run (just after midnight) on I-70 in Indiana, right before Illinois. A suicidal woman stepped out and stopped in front of our truck. He knew it was a situation better handled by another woman, and let me handle it, while he watched from the cab, until the situation between her boyfriend and her required back up from him.

He didn't care what company you're with. He'd call out to every truck on the shoulder, to see if they needed help. Once, one did. He walked back a mile to try and help the guy, to no avail. He still had to be towed off. An old man came up to him in negative temps and a snow storm, asking help sliding his tandems. He helped a Werner driver learn where to put coolant in and what the coolant light meant. He re-routed for several drivers who needed help with break downs. To him, a little extra time or miles was worth it if he could help someone. Two of the things he enjoyed most were Wishes on Wheels Midsouth and Trucking Santas, for he could see the help.
The load above changed something on helping matters. Lou severely damaged his back while transloading it from trailer to trailer. He herniated a disc in two different spots, causing nerve root compression, facet hypertrophy, and pressing the disc into his thecal sac (the sac of fluid protecting your spinal cord). He fought the pain for six months. Then, one day, he couldn't even climb into a truck. Within two weeks, his world had been turned upside down. He no longer drives, for he ended up having issues getting the brake pedal to agree to his leg, for he had issues pushing the brake pedal down hard enough to stop. He is awaiting the doctor to pull his medical card and sign off on disability, and has already secured a disability attorney. We are also a month into waiting for a decision from St. Christopher Trucker Fund. He now has me tend to him around the clock, for he can't move very far before his body is ready to quit, but still tries to be hard headed about it.
The hardest part, though, has been to accept that he needed help. Our friends realized that him being done trucking meant that we were in bad shape. They realized this meant that we didn't have the money for the doctors or even for rent, and they weren't taking no for an answer of being there to help. We literally came off the truck, not even having a place to live. Lou tried to refuse their help, not wanting to have it get in the way of Trucking Santas. Finally, Mitchell Stein told me to make a fundraiser on YouCaring. So, that night, while Lou was asleep, I swallowed my pride, and did just that. The turn out was amazing, and humbling. Many times Lou and I were both left speechless and in tears, realizing how blessed we were to have such great friends. We would like to take a few minutes to thank everyone who helped out, including the anonymous people I can't list on here. We would like to thank those that we know will be continuing to help us as we wait for security and for my work to start paying off. We would also like to thank those that couldn't help, but have been there with tremendous moral support. Having all of you there, and knowing you care have made a huge difference in our lives. It has given Lou a new belief in humanity also.

We would like to thank Todd McCann, who couldn't help himself, but ended up relentlessly pursuing others to get involved, with good results. We would also like to thank Evan Lockridge from The Lockridge Report, for raising awareness of the situation online and on the radio.

We would also like to thank Brenny Transportation, Lone Star Large Cars, Jack Goldstein, Michael Goldstein, Christy Kuppler, Thomas Heatherman, Joel Sims, Gracie Berry, Jana Huolt, Jeremiah Adams (especially for hauling all our heavy stuff for us), Shirie Shipp, Lightning Logistics (Bekins), Riggs & Recruits, Sarge Lewis (he's been our transportation, and forced us to eat out), Brian Peters, Jacquie Vincent, Shane ?, David Beem, Jurgen & Tracy Reid, Matt Grigsby, Michelle Sutton, Mike & Tina DiBartolo, Porter Corn, Everett & Melody Appelt, George Baisden, L. Dawn Tait, Mike Laffey, NosillaCast on Twitter, Deuspenny on Twitter, Good Time Charlie, Todd Neva, Steve & Michelle Piatkowski, Yvonne Mansini, Carrie Marrero, Timothy Boswinkle, Danielle Donnelly, Sheri Olson, Ang Anderson, King (who is King?), Dale Buckley, Peter Toft, Hole in the Head (James Hightower), Bartkomt Overal, Mack & Becca Allison, Roadway Safety Store, Jim Johnson, Tess & Ravin Smith, Frog Truck Escort, Tiffany & Allen Parker, MaidenAmerica on Twitter, Eddie Gudino, Marty Hunt, Lisa Yingling, Mitchell Stein, Mark Fornaro, Bear and T Whiterhurst, Deb Swenson, Tim Nichols, the anons, and the person who threatened to kill me if I ever mentioned his name in so many words. I will adjust this list as more people step up, for they deserve full credit.

Thank you again, everyone, for your full support of whatever kind, while we go through such a hard transition, I'd list the names of everyone who reposted, but that would be enough to fill up an entire book. You've touched us to no end, and we will never forget the love and support.

So that I don't have to answer how to help every time that someone would like to help, I'm including an easy donation button at the bottom of this. Thank yall again! We can never repay yall for what your love has done for us.
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Truckers, Social Media, & You (Based on My Experience)

03/30/2012

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The essence of the human factor. Cale of COTC's wife posted this picture of him doing yoga. I still love her for this embarassing post!
This piece will truly show one thing. I'm not a smart business person. I have seen time and time again companies paying hand over fist to make it to social media conventions for what exactly? To sit there and listen to a bunch of wannabe experts handling their own personal dick measuring contests? I can sit online for free and do it for free, while laughing or rolling my eyes. Let me give you the low down when it comes to truckers. Now, you can pay me if you'd like. My paypal is mrsobadal@yahoo.com. I'll gladly take your money, as much as everyone else does.

Truckers are a breed all their own. This is a true statement. They are irritable after driving 11 hours, and get online with the attention span of a child with ADHD that just overdosed on chocolate cake. I pick on my guys and gals all the time for this. Even on the phone, having a conversation, you'll hear "lights!!!" or "chrome!!!" and the occasional "shiny!!!"

So, while listening to the wannabe experts who've gotten their opinions from actual experts, and chose to scam you out of money by claiming expertness, please understand something: the original experts who the wannabe experts got their ideas from were from basic business people, stay at home wives, retired couples, and teenagers. These people are online because they are bored, and looking for something to peak their interest, so aggressive tactics work. Truckers, although possibly bored online, deal with aggressive tactics by shippers, receivers, companies, DOT, etc all day long, and will become annoyed in no time flat, therefore ignoring you. So, how do you get them to be interested in you?

I enjoy people watching. It has taught me a lot of what to do and not to do. I'm not an expert, but I do better than some of the wannabe experts on keeping a captivated audience. So, pull what you can from me learning the hard way.

Everyone and their dog, it seems, has a Facebook page. Many companies have chosen to utilize Facebook to make an aggressive approach toward advertising for free. They no longer advertise in print or online (I've even felt the effects of this). They move a secretary or some other office member into the "social marketing" or "communications" department. This tactic will do one of two things based on the person online, and only the person online. Let's look at four chains of truck stops for example: TA, Pilot, Love's, and WilcoHess. TA and WilcoHess are the best at this. Pilot actually is not at the bottom; Love's is. TA and WilcoHess address the issues drivers have immediately, and diligently work to resolve the issue as soon as they get a Tweet, Facebook post, email, or phone call. They also talk to you like a human being and will comment on grotesque pictures taken at the competition's facilities. Pilot has shocked me. Lynsay still speaks to me, and will respond to issues, knowing I boycott them. It takes a lot to put differences aside and address issues, but she has excelled at this. Love's makes up excuses or ignores you, showing drivers no true concern on issues. For this, they fail to appease the driver, and fail to get their point across of wanting business in a productive manner online.

Another issue being seen is spam. You see it on Twitter, you see it on Facebook, you see it everywhere, including LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, a nice debate over trucking regulations or rates or freight bases will be taking place, and someone will post stupid comments about where to buy the hottest shoes. Needless to say, in no time flat, the comment is erased, and the person is thrown out of the group. In Facebook groups, it'll be companies posting about completely unrelated topics, hoping to get hits. My groups have these posts, and the people, along with their posts, are thrown out. Recently, Trainers for Better Trucking decided to clean house also. People were wanting you to buy this, listen to that, read this; and none were related to training. Kudos to these guys for taking a stand for this. These posts are an impediment on groups and fan pages, and the truckers are tired of it. Every time I post a reminder of no advertising on my page, the truckers "like" the post for the next three days.

Companies with their own pages and Twitter accounts do a major fail in communication. A perfect example came across Twitter this morning: FreeCDLJobs.com ‏ @FreeCDLJobscom @trkrsvoice Thanks for the MT! We are a Free #Trucking #Job Search! We can help #Truckers find a better Driving Job @suetandt @trkmatters. Now, most of the time, when a company thanks you for a mention, they don't feel the need to spam you again. This is annoying. It's like the people who think they need to retweet every tweet ever sent to them to try to fake an essence of importance. We aren't in school anymore, you don't have to prove your importance to all of us. Some that I must say have celebrated the Twitter and Facebook scene well are Big Truck Driving Jobs, Hiring Truck Drivers, Cale of Central Oregon Trucking Company, and Joyce Brenny of Brenny Transport. They give the human feel to the companies they represent. All four are sweet, goofy, and talkative. You see, truckers want to be able to freely discuss things; whether it be sports, shopping, driving, the idiot that cut them off, their health, or anything in between. If all they see is how you "can help #truckers find a better driving job," you'll be the last one they speak to. They want to speak to a human being, not a robot. If all you do is post glorifications of yourself, they will run, or sit there and watch, waiting for you to fail. I've seen people representing themselves being called the King/Queen of Spam, for all you saw was events, fan pages, etc. I've seen on another profile, a driver asking to be taken off the mailing list, for the Facebook profile looked more like a cold call mailing list that you would do to generate support, not someone's Facebook page. These are critical errors. They'd rather see how Lou was screaming that there was a demon in his mouth after biting into a Wasabi, what irks me with the load while planning it or ordering the permits. That lets them see the human feel. Come see me here, I just got signed to represent them, this place just published me, listen to me on the radio, look what I wrote, and nothing but posts related to this give them a robot feel. Mix it up. There's no harm in being robo-man or woman. Be half human, half robot if you must.

Basically, if you want truckers to follow you on social media, get involved in social media, but get involved in a human aspect. Let them get to know you, and when it comes to their money and their time, it will be you they pick.
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Trucking Wives and Families Appreciation Week

02/16/2012

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You heard it! Truckers have their own appreciation week. I stand fullheartedly for it. The wives and the families are the forgotten ones. They deserve appreciation too. They put countless hours worrying if they stay at home. The ones in the truck put countless hours into the daily grind. The parents, children, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandparents, wives, cousins, etc, need a week also. After all, we all know it isn't easy dealing with this industry day in and day out. Many relatives of drivers sit, waiting for that phone call, email, tweet, and facebook post daily; worried that it may not come.

Brenny Transportation, Inc., Brenny Specialized, Inc., and the crew here at Trucker's Voice are very proud to announce that the week of February 19th – 25th, 2012, will be recognized as the appreciation week for families of over the road truck drivers.

Families of over the road truck drivers make a sacrifice bigger than they get credit! We would like to make a special point and designate your very own week in February as the week we give thanks to the families who support the trucking industry.

We thank the spouse at home who pays the bills and takes care of the children. We are grateful for the family members who show appreciation to their OTR trucker for not only supporting his/her family, but also for your knowledge of the sacrifice they make for our country.

Thank you to the children of truckers who pray for mom or dad while they are away from home. We know you are proud of the occupation that your parent has chosen.

Above all, Brenny we want to say thank you to the families of over the road truck drivers. We want to personally say you count, you matter, and we appreciate your sacrifice! Keep smiling and keep on trucking! You are truly the behind the scenes truckers that our country needs to help the wheels keep rolling.

So, drivers and companies are all encouraged to ensure this is a growing event. Your families, and your wives all deserve the appreciation and consideration!
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