Driver Dynamics, Part I

I’ve already mentioned about the Solos, and how many of them take issue with the whole idea of Ghost Drivers. But drivers in general have come back to the original idea of a brotherhood, like it used to be in the early days. Like you might remember from classic movies like Smokey and the Bandit, and Convoy.

You know for a while there, in the ‘90s through the early ‘10s, things got spread out, and there wasn’t anything like a brotherhood among drivers. All the foreigners coming across the borders from Mexico and Canada, underbidding American drivers. The unregulated brokers setting drivers against each other to fight for the table scraps of cheap rates....

The best thing to come out of the Regs of 2018 was the reinstatement of regulation for brokers, reigning in their rampant greed, forcing them back to transparency and restricting their take to 10%. This paved the way for the collapse of the independent broker system altogether. Who wants to go through the hassle of brokering loads if you can’t rob all the profits you can carry? Now brokers are insiders, working for the Companies. Still not the best scenario, but at least the screw job is consistent.

Then in 2020, the government finally caved in to the Right, killed NAFTA and threw up the Walls. They completely cut relations with Mexico, and told Canada they were on their own. No more cakewalks across the border. If either country wants to export to America, cross-docking is the only way. Bring your goods to a border yard and an American driver will deliver it.

And things got better, at least for the Industry. Almost overnight there were only Americans behind the wheel of big rigs on the highways, and for a while we had more freight than we could carry.

The public, used to the instant gratification of getting what they want when they wanted it, started seeing empty shelves in stores. People were freaking out. Some were even accosting trucks on the highway, trying to get first crack at the goods.

Suddenly drivers had to work together to get shit done. There was no time to squabble and dick around. We were all running our asses off, and Ghosts were hopping from truck to truck like rabbits, leaping in to save the day.

I’m convinced it was no accident that the launch of the Co-Driver program coincided with the death of NAFTA. The Companies became heroes, praised for taking quick, decisive action. There was barely a hiccup in the supply chain—just enough to make a lasting impression on the consumer nation.

And drivers found we all had something in common again. We were doing our patriotic duty to provide for our fellow Americans. As the equipment got more expensive and the pay stayed shamefully cheap, people stopped trying to get rich by becoming truck drivers. It hadn’t been a lucrative occupation for a long while, and the last shreds of the “easy money” myth were finally falling away.

Next week: Driver Dynamics, Part II
© 2013 Kristi Cramer