Why do most motorists hate truck drivers? Is it because their big rigs are so intimidating? Or do we think they’re all red-neck cowboys, living the life on the range and we’re secretly jealous?
Jim Cameron
Jim Cameron
I respect truckers and think, for the most part, they are much better drivers than the rest of us. They have stiffer licensing requirements, better safety monitoring and much more experience behind the wheel. And unlike most of us driving solo in our cars, they are driving truly high-occupancy (cargo) vehicles: 22 tons when fully loaded.
For an inside look at the unglamorous life of a trucker, I recommend the new book “Long Haul” by Greenwich native Finn Murphy who’s been driving since he was 18 for the Joyce Moving Co.
Murphy is what truckers call a “bedbugger” because he specializes in high-end corporate relocations. He’s at the top of the trucker food chain, both in income and prestige, far ahead of car haulers (parking lot attendants), animal haulers (chicken chokers) and even Hazmat haulers (suicide jockeys).
While Murphy says a lot of long-haul truckers do the job because they can’t find any other work, his career choice was an educated decision as he left Colby College before graduation, realizing he could easily make $100,000 packing, moving and unpacking executives’ possessions without a degree.
Forty million Americans move each year. They covet their capitalist consumption of furniture and junk (what movers call chowder). It isn’t cheap to move, averaging about $20,000 for a long-distance relocation. But as Murphy sees it, he’s more in the “lifestyle transition” business than simply hauling and is sensitive to clients’ emotional state.
Murphy’s boss nicknamed him “The Great White Mover” since the 59-year-old is one of the last few white drivers. When self-driving trucks hit the road, thousands of minority drivers are going to be out of luck. Robots already do most of the loading and unloading of trucked merchandise bound for big-box stores.
As an independent operator, Murphy incurs all of the expenses. His tractor (the detachable engine part of the truck) costs $125,000. That’s not counting the $35,000 he pays to register it or $10,000 to insure it. A new tire (his rig has 18) costs $400 at a truck stop and maybe double that if he’s stranded on some interstate.
The average rig isn’t just a tractor hauling an empty trailer. Even before loading, that trailer has hundreds of pads (each of which must be neatly folded), plywood planks, dollies, tools, ramps and hundreds of rubber straps for tying things down. Loading his truck is like solving a giant Tetris 3D puzzle.
Murphy’s driving hours are regulated and carefully logged, then checked at every inspection station. But he thinks nothing of driving 700 miles per day, usually parking at a truck stop and sleeping in his on-board bunk equipped with a high-end stereo and 600-count Egyptian cotton sheets.
On the road, he listens to audio books and NPR, which is probably how he learned to write so well (he wrote the book himself). Murphy isn’t the brawniest of movers, but he’s easily among the smartest and most articulate. Even if you have no aspirations of life on the open road, you’ll enjoy this author’s prose.
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More of Jim Cameron’s Road-Related Columns
- Don’t Blame the Trucks for I-95 Congestion: Cameron on Transportation (Nov. 12, 2016)
- Predictions for Planes, Trains & Automobile Traffic in 2017: Cameron on Transportation (Jan. 14)
- How a 10% ConnDOT Cut Would Affect Connecticut: Cameron on Transportation (Jan. 20)
- Looking to Save the State Money? Stop Spending on Sound Barriers: Cameron on Transportation (Jan. 27)
- Less Driving, More Walking — Better Downtown Economies (March 16)
- The Enormous, Beautiful, Amazing George Washington Bridge (March 23)
- State Should Regulate Uber, Lyft, Limo Services & Taxis Uniformly (March 31)
- Why We Should Have Highway Tolls — What State Leaders Aren’t Telling You: Cameron on Transportation (April 14)
- A Vehicle Miles Tax Is Needed to Maintain CT Roads: Cameron on Transportation (June 16)
- What You Can Learn by Riding with a State Trooper on I-95: Cameron on Transportation (June 18)
- Trump Admin Cancels Plan to Test Truck Drivers, RR Engineers for Sleep Apnea: Cameron on Transportation (Aug. 27)
- Adventures in Toll Collecting: From Woodstock’s Zonked to the Malodorous Chicken Truck (Sept. 3)
- Overnight ‘Sleeper’ Bus Service Has Started in California — Is It Coming to the East Coast? (Sept. 18)
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Jim Cameron has been a Darien resident for 25 years. He is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and also serves on the Darien RTM and as program director for Darien TV79. The opinions expressed in this column are only his own. You can reach him at CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com
Republished with permission of Hearst CT Media.