Brotherhood
Linda Caffee wrote a blog on real truck drivers. It was an interesting blog. It was fun to read. My favorite part of the blog was about how truck drivers try to one up each other. OH YEAH-You're not a real truck driver if-Your truck does not bend in the middle. Your truck shifts itself. You don't do over weight. You don't stay out for months at a time. You have not done oversize. You don't chain up. Somehow if you have not completed the list, you are not a real truck driver.
That attitude needs to end. We can not advance as a profession by belittling other sectors of the profession. You do not build yourself up by tearing down others. You build yourself up by building up others. Drivers say
that there used to be a brotherhood out here. We would stop and help a brother trucker who was broken down. Things have changed. Back then, we did not have satellites to communicate with a mechanic. I remember one time. There was a truck broken down by the side of the road. The driver gave me his company phone number and his truck information. I drove up to the truck stop and called his company. They sent a service truck. I went back out to my truck and called the driver back via CB to tell him that help was on the way. Times have changed. The brotherhood has too.
Somehow we lost the sense of brotherhood. Disagree with a “brother” trucker on a forum and you may get 
personally attacked. He may say that you're not a real trucker. Ouch! The new insult of all insults. Then the attacker will go on to comment about how there used to be a brotherhood. Wait, I am confused. So, if I disagree with you, I am not a real trucker? Then you go on about how the brotherhood was so great. At the same time you are breaking up the brotherhood. Then perhaps you post a video of an inexperienced driver doing something stupid. You post it on Face book and call that driver a steering wheel holder. You do nothing when you see a “steering wheel holder” struggle. The other day I backed into a dock. The dock had nothing to line up against to see that you hit it square. It took me 3 shots. I got it. There was a sign on the inside of the door. It read 45. I asked what it stood for. The forklift driver told me that it was the record for the longest time that it took a trucker to hit the dock square.
That got me to do a little pondering. What kind of brother am I? Am I the kind of brother who helps his brother? Am I the kind of brother who belittles his brother? If I believe in the brotherhood of truckers, is it not my obligation to help my brother trucker? Would I be the brother who helped that driver back into the crooked dock? Would I be the type of brother who just watched? Or worse, would I be the type of brother who recorded it and put it up on Face book? Would I be the type of brother who shared it on Face book? I believe that I am the type of brother who would help that driver. What kind of brother are you? Would the ones who taught you be proud of the way you teach the next generation? You can't say that you believe in a brotherhood and then not act like a brother.