The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Perception is Reality

I posted this over on our personal site, but began thinking it might belong over here. It’s all about the rates we’re getting lately as we head for the home stretch toward Christmas and hopefully Christmas at home.

Perception is reality, even though it shouldn’t be. Last week I was fueling my truck on the fuel island (fueling on the fuel island, what a concept!), anyway, I watch as the driver ahead of me climbs into his truck wearing a black suit. No tie, but a suit, with a dress shirt and what used to be nice shoes. Thirty seconds later another driver walks by in a black sweat suit and black flip-flops. It was weird like a dream kind of weird. One of the parts I like about this job is the lack of a dress code, but I also go with moderation and dress for the occasion.

There’s an attitude some drivers have about other drivers. We should dress respectively, maybe it’s just me, but a crappy, dirty suit, still makes you look as crappy as the guy walking around in sweats and flip-flops, but it also makes you look out of place.

Granted, drivers in general have an image problem, but wearing suits isn’t the answer. I believe the answer is not trashing yourself or the space around you.

He’s on my blogroll on the side and I’ve listened to his podcast more than a few times and I’m sure he’s a good guy, but he’s a good guy that reminds me of Robert DeNiro’s character in Taxi Driver during the psycho shoot-out part when Travis has his head shaved. With tattoos on his neck and all the way down his arm, this guy gets on radio and even a local TV news broadcast about pod and video casting from his truck. 

I’m still undecided if it’s a good image or not. Or maybe it’s just neutral. I’m definitely happy for him, that’s great publicity and we need all the good publicity we can get.  It’s kind of a stereotype, not a bad stereotype, but still… that a lot of truckers are bikers and they carry the dress into their trucks, which isn’t a bad thing, but bikers have an image problem as well. And it’s not just the tattoos, I’ve got tattoos, they just don’t show when I have a shirt on. There’s a time and a place for everything and if I ever had to go back into a corporate environment or even in trucking, meeting customers and executives, the "biker-trucker" image isn’t the one I want to convey. But that’s just me.

Originally posted 2005-12-20 12:51:59.