“I am a truck driver and haul chemicals and herbicides. The legal limit is 11 hours of driving a day.”
“Is it hard to stay awake?”
“I try to get a good sleep the night before but sometimes it is a struggle and I have to get the 5-hour energy drinks. I drive in intervals. Make it two hours, then go another two. The harder part is the hours I am not driving. Sometimes I have to go in the plant or mill for 3 or 4 hours, then drive. The waiting eats up the time.”
“What do you see on the road?”
“People burn up the telephones. Most of the times I see someone messing up, they are on the phone or eating.They swerve, speed up or slow down when they are texting and I see people have accidents, it is bad. No matter what happens, people want to blame the truckers. Every billboard and radio commercial is about injuries in an accident with a truck. I have been driving a truck for 20 years and worked offshore for six. I was working offshore when the rig exploded. After that, there was a moratorium on drilling and they cut my pay $10 and then $4 an hour until I was making $13 an hour and I had to go back to driving a truck. But since the oil prices dropped, I only drive one or two routes a week. Sometimes none.”
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