Sometimes I forget. There is a spirit to our industry. We all share it. Some of us were born gear heads. Some of our families have been in trucking for generations. We were taught to drive by our dads. We were born to truck. I wasn't. I went to business school at night. When the economy got tight and I couldn't get a decent paying job, I went to driving school. Then I discovered how cool it is to drive a truck. I was caught by the spirit.
The natural tendency is for me to get caught up with the business of trucking. That is not completely a bad thing. An owner operator has to manage their business. If they don't they will lose it. Running your truck like a business is important. It allows you to enjoy driving. At Team Run Smart we are about the business. Every day we are trying to figure out better ways to run our businesses. We pass what we learn on to our readers. Sometimes, I think we all forget how much we enjoy driving a truck.
We hear all the bad news about our industry. You rarely hear good news about our business in the mass media. Even the trucking media seems to dwell on the negative. This regulation is coming. That roads are falling apart. Congress can't pass a
highway bill. We fret. We think the public hates us. We get frustrated. The public remembers that one trucker who tail gated them. They don't seem to notice the 1,000 truckers that they passed, who were doing their jobs professionally. Let alone remember how their grocery store shelves our stocked.
We are guilty too. We remember that 4 wheeler who cut us off. We remember that one who flipped us off. We remember the ones who exit from the hammer lane. We don't remember the 1,000 car drivers who interacted with us without incident. Maybe we forget who is buying the groceries that we deliver to the store. We forget how much we love to drive. We get caught up in the negative.
Then people remind me. We have a spirit. Most people admire us or at the least respect us. I left the show in St. Ignace, MI. I was tired. My hotel was 2.5 miles from the show and I was walking. On the way back, I walked past the trucks parked on Main Street. I left my shiny new Cascadia Evolution, I admired the old White Freightliner cabovers. There was a gorgeus 1947 Brockway that caught my eye. Not to mention the B model Macks.
I stopped for dinner. When I came out people were lining the streets. They were setting out the chairs for the truck parade. As I walked up the hill cars were lining up. Pick up trucks were backing in and people were sitting on the tailgates. I was starting to feel the spirit. I had planned on just going back to my room and watching TV. I stopped to watch. I could hear the air horns in the distance. Soon, I could hear the engine brakes. I watched all those trucks go by. I watched how the people reacted to the trucks. Once again, I found the spirit of trucking and I'm glad.