A truck driver’s day

In response to Randell L. Berry’s Jan. 21 op-ed column, “Truckers should pay fines”; a little more than a year ago the price of diesel fuel jumped to almost $2 a gallon. This was the final straw in determining whether or not we would continue to run our independent trucking business. With the expense of diesel fuel doubling, and now fines for overweight now doubling, how does the Legislature think truckers in Maine can make a living?

Yes, a truck gets weighed when it pulls into a mill, after it has been loaded in the woods where there are no scales. Yes, a trucker can tell by the pull of the load that he may be overweight, but he cannot know how much. Every load weighs differently, depending on the type of wood. Let’s not forget weather, especially in Maine. With the snow and ice buildup on the road, you have that same buildup on your tractor-trailer which can add to the weight of the load. Also, if a trucker should happen to stop at home for the night, with a load on, and it should rain or snow, there’s more weight.

An overloaded truck can be serious business, but do we offer truckers an alternative? Have there been any proactive options offered to them? How about a few centrally located weigh stations equipped with loaders to accommodate truckers? Do most people know a loaded truck cannot be driven on the interstate if it is within legal weight restrictions; that the trucker must find alternative routes throughout the state, most of which would bring that loaded truck through your own town: This can add hours and miles to a truck driver’s day. How does the driver make up for that? By hauling a little heavier and taking the chance.

Is the state investigating the recent accident on Route 15 as a possible road condition? Was that woman’s life taken because the trucker’s taxpaying dollars are not going back into the roads that they travel? Was the truck driver in question guilty until proven innocent? Did the Department of Transportation go over his truck to determine that the accident was not his fault, or to see if they could find some fault to charge him with?

With Route 15’s condition in consideration, maybe the snowmobiles will be able to travel that when the other land is closed to them. The taxpaying public will not be traveling it much longer, nor the taxpaying truck drivers, if it is not repaired. In a truck driver’s case, the driver pays the fine, the taxes, the fuel prices, the excise tax, the IFTA taxes, and if he is lucky, he will have enough left over to maintain safe equipment and the rest is income.

My husband sometimes misses trucking. I tell him to get another job and work all day and half the night. And if he still misses it, go get yet another job. Then he should give two-thirds of his pay to the above-mentioned. Then he will remember what it was like to own your own trucking business.

Anita Libby-Kain lives in Parkman.