There’s an unfamiliar wind blowing through the hills and valleys of truckingdom. The traditional stereotypes are eroding before our very eyes. The next generation of transport driver will look very different from the generation that precedes the current one. We are the transitional generation. The one that witnessed the paradigm shift from a cash only business to a soon-to-be cashless society. The shift from snail mail to email. From pride to practicality.
It has been the observation of this trucker that there are two distinguishable societal groups entering the over-the-road transportation industry. The first is the immigrant. The non-Canadian if you will. This group consists mainly of far and middle eastern men. They are predominantly non-Christian and very family oriented. They struggle in areas of language and culture and stick to their own kind for the most part. The formerly white male social structure of the trucking community has done a poor job in welcoming these new Canadians to the world of highway living and have by omission caused a parallel culture to emerge in the industry. The immigrant trucking community has been denied the experience of the rich cultural heritage that we have had in N. America since the sixties. This reality is probably beyond repair as we witness a paradigm shift in the trucking culture as we know it.
The second group of trucking inductees is that of the last option brand. The liberally educated. The learned. The ones who were promised the leisure life of the academic and let down by the crowded pushing and shoving on the ladder to the top. In this group we include the female who’s welcome presence is a major contributor to the comfort factor of the OEM considerations when building class 8 trucks. The female trucker is not the harsh, a-feminine character depicted by so many Hollywood stereotypes. She is mom. She is wife. She is daughter. She is God fearing and beautiful. She, like the immigrant, is a welcome addition to the culture of trucking. She may have been forced into it by the harshness of feminism and no fault divorce but she is welcome at any rate.
The final subgroup in the last chance brand of inductee is the “nothing better to do” crowd. The ones, usually guys, who were too unambitious to get a higher education, too lazy to do any heavy labour, and too materialistic to go without money. We should all fear this type of inductee. Their minds are elsewhere and not on the task at hand. They never really get very good at truck driving. It’s nothing more than a stopgap measure until their ship comes in; until they win the lottery or whatever. This really is too serious an endeavour for such frivolity. I would rather drive down the road beside a foreigner with no ability to speak the English language than a Canadian with no ambition to be a great trucker. These things have a way of working themselves out, however. The trucking lifestyle can be a cruel taskmaster. Making money means making few mistakes. Making few mistakes means making an above average commitment to greatness.
As we move into the next generation of trucker we will see a paradigm shift into greater technology and environmental awareness. The drivers who will make the transition successfully will possess the ability to discern and act upon the need to slow down, redeem their downtime with wisdom, and re-introduce a higher level of class that used to exist. Prejudice will be a thing of the past and religion and race will be a topic of interest, not disgust. We will embrace technology with gusto and not fear. We will respect authority and not malign them. Above all we will be professional and courteous at all times without exception. We will get rid of the monster’s teeth on the front of our grill. We will abolish the nudity painted on the sides of trucks and we will stop acting like animals on the airwaves. We will treat ladies with respect and stop abusing them in the evening abomination of woman abuse which is the oldest act of abuse ever perpetrated on the female gender. We are not animals. Our profession is undergoing a seismic sea-change. We embrace it or get left behind. I welcome the change. I welcome the clean, blowing wind, as unfamiliar as it may feel. I encourage you all as well as myself to shake the hand of an unfamiliar voice and say “Welcome”. Most of us are not far removed from immigrants ourselves. We all have mothers and some of us have sisters and daughters. Most of us know someone who trucks because he needs the money but would rather not. Encourage these people. Let’s bless them with our rich heritage. Without truckers, the world grinds to a halt. Let’s do our part to make it a world worth living in.
prosperousindividual