Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/36447
ADVOCATE Breaking the Mold In her book, CB Lingo: My Life in a Big Rig, Marilyn Cochrane Hoffman describes busting through driver stereotypes CAROLINE TAYLOR rs. C” was pretty much your ordinary truck driver, with one notable exception: She doesn’t fit the image of a long- distance trucker who has 20 years of driving experience. And that’s what 70-year-old Mar- ilyn Cochrane Hoffman aims to portray in her book CB Lingo: My Life in a Big Rig, where she discusses her experiences on the road. “The whole time that I was driv- ing, I wanted to explain to people that not all truck drivers are like the people in the industry that the media focuses on,” Hoffman says. The book includes cartoons, dia- logue between drivers on the CB radio, CB terminology, a quiz and safety information aimed at ado- lescents. She says the book focuses on the “CB lingo” because it is the language that holds the business together on the road. “The CB radio showed an entirely different world of how we talk to one another,” Hoffman says. “Sentences and words have to be shortened because you only have a few minutes to talk before you lose connection.” “M The book explains comical but essential on-the-road terms that have been tweaked to save time: “city kitty” means local police car, “on your donkey” refers to a driver coming up close on your backside and “safety award” means speed- ing ticket. But, most of all, Hoffman wants to remind others that truck driv- ers are “mothers, daughters, sisters; fathers, sons, and brothers.” “I could ask a stranger on the street what they thought 62 TRUCKERS NEWS AUGUST 2011 my profession was,” Hoff- man says. “Never in a mil- lion years would they expect me to say that I was a truck driver.” She says the key for women to succeed in the indus- try in the 1980s was to remain pro- fessional, even when men didn’t appreciate their roles. “You have to look at it as just another business,” Hoffman says. “You are the business person and you are running the show.” In 1983, Hoffman switched from the medical field to trucking and began hauling cross-country for Mid-Western Distribution in her 1983 Freightliner cabover. “Back in the ’80s, there were very few women driving,” Hoff- man says. “Once the men could see that you were in there, loading and unloading your own trailer, driv- ing the maximum hours per week, A ‘Trucking t’s a modern-day Western, but instead of riding horses, the cow- boys drive big rigs. I “Mother Bear” is a comedic thriller that follows the lives of a they started to accept you.” Before she Marilyn Cochrane Hoffman retired from U.S. Xpress 2003, Hoff- man drove more than 1.5 million accident-free miles, became a cap- tain for America’s Road Team in 1999, Truckload Carriers Associa- tion Company Driver of the Year finalist in 1996 and winner in 2000, a panelist for the National Trans- portation and Safety Board, and a spokeswoman for the American trucking industry. Published in 2007, her book can be purchased at major bookstores, online or for iPad, Kindle and Nook devices. Pulp Fiction’ ’Mother Bear’ ends successful run on Chicago stage CAROLINE TAYLOR gang of truck drivers, the Disciples, from southern Utah who have been suspected of hijacking trucks, mur- der and selling contraband. Chicago’s Mortar Theatre CB Lingo Marilyn Cochrane Hoffman Life in a Big Rig Marilyn’s Trucking Drawings of the Good Guys by Chips