Up Front

The secret life of drivers

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Over the Road magazine. We’ve learned a lot of lessons about the trucking industry during the past quarter century, but there’s one thing we’ve known about truck drivers all along. Truckers are people. They’re not ro-bots. They’re not machines. They can’t drive for 20 straight hours just because a load has to be at a certain place at a certain time. Drivers have feelings, family and interests beyond getting from Point A to Point B.

All of this may seem obvious, but we’re always amazed at how many non-drivers in this business seem to forget that drivers are real people with real lives.

In this month’s “Say What” feature, we asked a handful of drivers what they like to do when they’re not on the road. It turns out that drivers like to spend time with their families. They like to go fishing and hunting. They like to relax and watch TV. They like to read, mow the lawn, hang out with friends and go to the movies. Heck, some of them even like to travel. In short, drivers like to do the same kind of things that doctors, lawyers, cops and accountants do when they get some time off.

Go figure.