Pins and needles, daggers and spears. That’s what truckers do when a RV pulls in a truck stop or parks next to them at a rest area. The ironic thing is that those RV owners might have turned in their truck and just retired from trucking. So, in the spirit of friendship and our “yearning” to return to the days of truckers being knights of the road, let’s share, not stare.
I never have understood why there is such a difference in the interior design of an RV versus a road tractor. Truckers need refrigeration and yet, carriers are too cheap to factory install a decent unit in their equipment. Sure, there is a hell of lot more room in an RV, but it’s a refrigerator, not a damn recliner. The DOT and ATA want their drivers to be healthy and have a perfect BMI, yet they constantly fall short of giving drivers the tools to achieve those goals.
The refrigerator also, must have, a freezer. No, not to put that deer you ran over, but to be able to buy at least a week’s worth of meat, chicken and fish purchased at (one example) Sam’s Club to prepare on the road. I’ve never had a truck where their wasn’t room for an efficient refrigerator. The “closet” in one of my KW’s, designed perfectly for little girl’s Sunday church dresses, was utterly useless to anyone.
Just like the trucking press, truck manufacturers don’t want to recognize or listen to what “we” recommend. If they did, all that empty space above the bunk in the typical single sleeper would be designed with shelves, compartments – overall a far more efficient space to live on the road. Staying out for weeks on end would be a whole lot easier if the average truck was organized to do so.
The truckers best friend is having a double bunk and “converting” that upper area modeling how an RV is designed. And for the record, I’m not a big fan of high tractors with those huge skylights and windows everywhere. They’re inefficient, requiring to much time and energy to cool or heat them. They’re also a pain to make deliveries in areas with low clearances. There are double bunk trucks that are designed to get through Chicago and still enable you to stand to put your pants on.
The driver that receives a new truck from his company today is essentially SOL. You have to go buy an inverter, a cooler or small refrigerator with no freezer, a CB, extra electrical cords, a television, a DVD player, a satellite radio, a GPS and maybe a long piece of wood to put above the single bunk to store your clothes. Yeah, there are exceptions – those carriers that provide some of the items on that list. I love the plug-in Igloo cooler in the cigarette lighter on the front passenger seat of a 2012 Pete. Quite the fashion statement, ey?
I challenge manufacturers like International – NAVISTAR – to put an Airstream RV next to one of their new road tractors. Send their designers to Sam’s Club to purchase food for a week, some DVD’s and CD’s – don’t forget the milk and juice – and then on over to Target for all the clothes a driver is going to need for Winter – head back to where the two vehicles are parked side by side, and show me where to put everything. Lots “ah” luck.
The average RV spends LESS time on the road than a commercial road vehicle does. Why does the RV driver get more of a life on the road, than the CDL trucker? A OTR trucker should be able to use a pressure cooker, crock-pot (slow cooker), toaster, coffee maker, stove and oven just as much as an RV owner, yet that $125,000 is not equipped or designed for it. It amounts to every choice available for the RV’er and no choice for the trucker – other than fast food at McDonald’s or the buffet at T/A.
I was sent a recipe book by a trucker that cooks pot roast and other good stuff in her engine or on the floor of her Freightliner. One driver has a “kitchen” jerry-rigged beneath his pull-up bunk - wires, three inverters and power strips running everywhere. Another driver had so many accessories in her tractors cigarette lighters, using those 3 in 1 adapters, that when she plugged in a heated blanket just bought with her fuel bonus points, she blew out the circuit board and the truck died in the dead of winter. Yes, smart drivers always carry extra fuses.
Nobody in trucking wants to hear this, but the revolution for “better” for the driver continues. Improved EVERYTHING for a better life on the road. I always compare the current state of trucking to an unbalanced and uncomfortable office chair. You’re expected to sit there and be a good productive camper for 10-14 hours a day. Treat the customers nicely, don’t get angry, smile and be a politician my mother-in-law used to say and NEVER complain. Do what you’re told and be happy you have a job and get that meager paycheck every two weeks.
I say no way. The least “you” – the DOT, OSHA, ATA and OOIDA can do is get “us” a freak’n new chair. Then work on that paycheck.
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