But in spite of these improvements in basic driver comforts, the long driving hours and physical demands of unloading cargo can be quite tiring. For long distance truckers, amenities such as televisions, refrigerators, and beds have made many new trucks comfortable homes-away-from-¬home. Their drivers may spend days or weeks on the road, frequently traveling the Interstate highway system to get cargo to their destinations.Īs trucks have become better equipped with ergo-nomically designed cabs and electronic delivery tracking systems, the physical demands of truck driving have decreased. Heavy trucks are used to transport every imaginable type of raw materials and finished products. They often spend as much time loading and unloading as they do driving. Their drivers work on regular routes within a precise area near home. Light trucks are usually used for local routes. Truck drivers fall into two general categories: those who drive light trucks (under 26,000 pounds) and those who drive heavy trucks (more than 26,000 pounds). Ice Road Truckers is a documentary style reality TV series following truck drivers as they drive across frozen lakes in mid-winter Canada, transporting equipment to the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. The fascination with trucking continues with an extremely popular show on the History Channel. The future of truck driving was explored in the 1996 film, Space Truckers, that had truckers transporting interplanetary loads. Trucking became a part of pop culture in the 1970s following the release of White Line Fever and Smokey and the Bandit, the hit song Convoy, and the TV series BJ and the Bear. Hollywood has spurred the fantasy with many popular films. Almost everyone has wondered if life on the open road would suit them better than the ordinary day-to-day lives they have always known. It is also one of the largest occupations, with more than 3.5 million men and women on the job.īecoming a truck driver is something that millions of people have thought about at one time or another. Commercial truck driving is a secure and lucrative career these days.
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