ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The American Trucking Associations (ATA) will once again roll out its “phone home” campaign to help America’s truck drivers celebrate National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW) August 20-26. ATA and its state affiliates will mark the celebration by handing out free 60-minute telephone calling cards to truck drivers at local weigh stations, rest stops, and travel plazas all across the country.

See? Even industry insiders don't get it. Show me a trucker who doesn't have a cell phone and I'll show you a trucker who left his cell phone in the truck. What truckers don't have is home time, layover pay, detention pay, adequate legal protection ... I could go on and on, but others before me have, and nobody listened to them either.

"The trucking industry is the backbone of America’s economy and the hard working drivers who haul the loads and make those just-in-time deliveries deserve our nation’s thanks," said Bill Graves, ATA president and CEO. "At a time when the need for deliveries is in such high demand that it’s tough to find enough drivers to fill the seats, I think it’s especially important for us to take a few extra steps to thank those hard working men and women who are keeping this industry rolling."

You're welcome, Bill. That's part of the reason I do it. Another part is because I got tired of seeing my family's eyes sink whenever they needed or wanted something and we didn't have the money. So how about actually pushing for legislation on, say, detention pay? I sat at a dock on Friday from 8 am until just after 5 pm and never did get unloaded! I could've - hell, should have - been unloaded by 9 am, gone to another shipper, reloaded, and heading for home well before noon. Instead, I had to sit all day. For free, no less. That's fucked up. And nobody's doing anything about it because nobody gives a shit. Not even you, Bill.

Motor carriers, state trucking associations and trucking industry manufacturers and suppliers will join ATA by honoring truck drivers in various ways. Examples include million-mile and safety awards, cash bonuses or gifts, an extra paid day off, a cup of coffee or windshield cleaning at truck stops and loads of company picnics--some lasting all week until every driver cycles through company headquarters.

I appreciate the gesture, but that's mostly token bullshit. And it'll end by August 26th too. After that, we'll be back to 100 hour weeks, hostile shippers, hostile receivers, hostile law enforcement bordering on - and often crossing - harrassment lines, car drivers that shouldn't be allowed to leave the house let alone drive, bad weather, no overnight parking, lying brokers ... you know.

President Bush and most of the Nation’s governors will join the occasion, too, issuing official proclamations designating August 20-26 as Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

Now you're talkin'! That's what the industry needs! Proclamations.

THE U.S. TRUCKING INDUSTRY: KEEPING SAFETY FIRST

• Over the past 20 years (1984 to 2004) there has been a 51 percent increase in registered large trucks and an 84 percent increase in miles traveled by large trucks.
  
• Over the same time period, the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes has declined by 5 percent, and the vehicle involvement rate for large trucks in fatal crashes has declined by 49 percent.
  
• In 2004, the fatal crash rate was 1.96 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with 4.58 in 1975, the first year the USDOT began keeping records.
  
• Over the past decade alone, the large truck fatal crash rate dropped by 29 percent.
  
• The trucking industry has a zero tolerance standard in place for drug and alcohol use. The latest violation rate for alcohol use on the job, based on random alcohol testing of truck drivers, is just one-tenth of one percent (0.1 percent).

PROFESSIONAL TRUCK DRIVERS AND THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY

• Professional truck drivers drove 338 billion miles in 2004, most individual long haul drivers average from 100,000 to 110,000 miles driving per year; regional and city drivers will put in an average 48,000 miles behind the wheel; the average daily run for an over the road driver is nearly 500 miles.
  
• The trucking industry averages $7,000 to $8,000 in taxes and fees per truck.
  
• The trucking industry uses 51.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline annually.
  
• There are more than 2.7 million large tractor trailers on the road in the U.S.
  
• There are 3.276 million truck drivers in the U.S.
  
• There are more than 600,000 trucking companies in the U.S.; 96 percent of them have fewer than 20 trucks.
  
• In 2005, the trucking industry hauled 10.7 billion tons of freight, or 68.9 percent of total U.S. freight tonnage. Rail was the next busiest mode, moving 13.2 percent.
  
• Over 80 percent of U.S. communities depend solely on trucking for delivery of their goods and commodities.
  
• New trucks emit only one eighth the pollution of heavy duty diesel trucks built 15 years ago.

In other words, we're working our asses off. Then how come driver pay hasn't made any significant increase since the 1970's? Because nobody gives a shit. Truckers are disposable and replaceable. And that's why you can't keep the seats filled.

I love my job, despite the fact that the industry hates me and my fellow drivers. Hell, the public loved truckers in the 70's, now they can't stand us. What up wit' dat, homey? Think about it.

People don't know
'bout the things I say and do
They don't understand about the shit
that I've been through
It's been so long since I've been home
I've been gone,
I've been gone for way too long

Maybe I forgot all the things I miss
Oh somehow I know
there's more to life than this
I said it too many times
And I still stand firm
You get what you put in
And people get what they deserve

Still I ain't seen mine
No I ain't seen mine
I've been giving just ain't been gettin
I've been walking that there line

So I think I'll keep on walking truckin'
With my head held high
I'll keep moving on and
Only God Knows Why

Kid Rock, "Only God Knows Why"

ATA Thanks Truck Drivers Who Keep the Trucking Industry Rolling