Central World Coast
Opinion
"It's Always the Truck Driver's Fault" Squish the Trucker Forum's Troll-Roach
by, Lull Lowe
As years roll by since the crash of 2007 - 2008, the quality of the workplace has declined in multiple folds compared to years before, and the level of abusiveness has reached a point where employees, nationwide, have become all too familiar with the pressure from employers to increase productivity. Employers demand unrealistic deadlines, a quality outcome in a much shorter amount of hours, and more hours spent on the job from its already maxed-out employees.
Truck Drivers are no exception to the rule as they are given tighter schedules, on longer runs that result in working longer hours than ever before, from companies that continue to "rubber stamp" hammer out the same dispatch scheduling policies that lead to over-fatigued drivers who often become marginalized from the responsibility of a company that takes no accountability for the accidents that follow. Then, factor in the increasingly poorly maintained equipment compounded by some of the aging vehicles that drivers are sent over the road with, with a side order of many dispatch offices staffed with kids right out of high school, earning minimum wage, as they ad stress to the system by constantly messing up driver scheduling, customer scheduling, loads, and a general awareness of what they are hired for in the first place.
If a Truck Driver doesn't end up like Kevin Roper at the end of all that, but instead, ends up needing a good therapist, or even better, therapy through blogging the experience on one of the many Truck Driver forums, a shock will come to view, like when you reach for the toilet seat and suddenly spot a big Floridian Cockroach traversing the sit-ring.
After cutting open a vein to the world about how the company you work for, loudly emphasizes obedience to all of the safety rules while softly suggesting the only way to get the job done is to make it clear that the driver will have to break rules in order to be on schedule, the Troll-Roach, being a troll, intervenes.
The "company-man" Cockroach to the rescue (for the corporations of course). The difference between this troll-roach and a common household cockroach, is the impress squish sound the Troll would make for your audio recorder, and graphic effects for you film-makers as the big foot lifts, but at least when you step on a Cockroach you don't have to call the police.
The Troll's job is to try to take you down, on a Junior High suburbs, scale of intellect. It is easy to notice that their replies to a horror story, written about one of the many, increasingly negligent trucking companies, is as reliable as a monkey in a cage in the zoo will pick up and throw his own feces at the others. I picture this blowhard, buffoon, king of the working class heroes, who's daily life is 10 to 12 hours of driving (nothing too hard) followed by fishing through the fridge for week old, meat and potato leftovers to muse over after sunset, before watching quality "reality show" programming. Maybe twice a week you'll see this bonehead riding a kid's bike (or wobbling on an old girl's pink bike, spray painted black, with a rusty metal basket in front), to "Cheap Chug," the local bar, where he may tip up to 11% to any staff member who will make him feel witty, as his blowhard mouth blows out brown witty chunks of gold, "Who ya goin'ta call, GHOST-BUSTERS!!!" (The 73 year old chic who's been a regular at "Cheap Chug" since she was 12, staring at him half the night, really thinks he is).
Most would think the "Troll-Roach" is hired by a company. Maybe, in some cases, but I believe that most of these space-wasting jerks are brainwashed into stepping up voluntarily to defend this New World Order of Tea-Party wannabee, crapmanies that continue to manufacture the policies that lead to catastrophes. He believes that by helping these companies make higher dollars, and escaping responsibility, he will be rewarded for his diligence in bettering the company while helping his great beloved country pay off it's debts (everyone knows that almost 18 trillion in debt means that we're all lazy and don't work hard enough). Helping his company this way means they can be counted on to wash their hands from (as the bosses look for the nearest pant leg to wipe their doodoo covered shoes on), as they head for the adding machines, otherwise known as the "Ca-Ching" sound maker for their company's accountability thwarting, legal loopholes.
On many occasions I have read through these blogs and have found the honest scrutiny of a former employee, chastising unfair, and grossly illegal safety practices in the trucking industry. If you have even had to leave your equipment with no other choice, and then suffered "Equipment Abandonment," on your record. Thanks to the blogging from so many who have been left abandoned on the road, probably as the newest employee who is typically given the crappiest truck, we all know that leaving the vehicle these days is very common. You're not a freak. You WILL work again.
If you feel compelled to write about your experiences on the road from honesty, and continue doing so, I speak on behalf of all those who appreciate your info. You help us avoid making grave mistakes in our career by staying away from these jack-asses who run these bogus trucking companies. My personal thanks for treating the replies from the Corporate Troll, as a Cockroach that so far, we have not figured out a way to step on, and writing them boldly regardless of the petty criticisms out there from these little bugs.
