Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/893962
Voices 8 | Overdrive | October 2017 Gather 'round, kids. Aunt Wendy's going to spin a tale about how spinning tales can get you kicked in the tail. Stories were invented to pass information from tribe to tribe, alien warlord to ancient human, modern person to modern person, long before the internet was invented. The Bible is a perfect example of stories told to keep people from acting ugly. You act ugly in the Bible, you wake up with a horse head in your bed... No, wait, that's another sto- ry, but the Bible has some pretty tough consequences for jerks, involving vermin and plague, that are equally as unpleasant. The point: People have been telling stories ever since they could articulate enough grunts to describe terror. Evoking emotion is the best part of a story, and scaring the bejeejees out of someone generally makes a lasting impression. That's fine when you're a caveman and don't understand the sun isn't a giant fiery bird that eats the moon on a regular cycle. But when you know the information you're giving people isn't true, and you understand things about your sun they don't, it's not OK. Please stop trying to scare the general public, people who know absolute- ly nothing about trucking, into believing the electronic logging device mandate will force drivers to drive tired. That is inaccurate. All the public knows is that trucks are big, they make a lot of noise, and they get in the way on the highway a lot. They don't know anything about hours of service because they don't care. Rather, you're going to instill more fear and hatred by insinuating in any way that anything can force a professional driver to drive a truck when they don't think they should be driv- ing. Here's what they hear: "Big trucks and the people who drive them are danger- ous." The part about the gubmint mandate for this will be ignored. They don't care. They have their own problems with the gubmint. We all do. Whether you're pro-ELD or are never planning on getting into a truck again if the mandate goes into effect, it is imperative to impart to the public that the driver is in control of that vehicle at all times. Nothing else is going to be beneficial to any stance you have about trucking. It's ridiculous to talk out of one side of your mouth about a shutdown and its impact, then saying a clock is going to force someone to drive tired. That doesn't make sense. Either you have the power to start and stop that truck when you want to or you don't. How about instead of telling people trucks are dangerous, tell them the mandate that will become law was based wholly on theoretical crash risk and other analytical gimmickry, not true safety outcomes from any carrier's ELD use. That's pretty dang scary and happens to be true. Tell them they may not enjoy the quickness of Amazon Prime overnight service. Tell them it may take more than (gasp!) 24 hours to receive their organic rose-scented roach spray from Guatemala. I can assure you that is just as terrifying to modern-day humans as the moon being eaten was to the cavemen. No, the ELD didn't make me do it Wendy Parker chronicles her journey on the road with her owner-operator husband, George, in the George and Wendy Show blog on OverdriveOnline.com. " This has been a major issue with me when it comes to the anti-ELD crowd. The untrue things they are using as arguments only hurt their cause. When people find out, or already know, that what you're saying is false, it makes it less likely they will believe you when you try to say something that is true. I used an ELD for seven years, and I know what is true and what isn't, and I can see what is being left out of the argu- ment by either side. " — Dennis Musselman, via OverdriveOnline.com "One time, in New York City, a cop told me he'd give me a ticket if I didn't hit a car!"