Keep on trucking!
The above statement isn't only a 60's salutation of encouragement, but the basic tenet of one of America's most important industries - you got it!
The widely disliked, but very necessary (and payers of road use taxes), trucking industry.
Lately, big rigs have not only fallen on hard times with high fuel costs, loss of business, etc., but have harvested the wrath of a slightly miffed (and biased) non-truck oriented public. Perhaps the following will help lessen the hostility.
• Firstly, to use a worn-out, but precise cliche, “If you got it, a truck brought it!” Look around you. What hasn't a truck gotten to you - now and then in the nick of time? Even your monthly bills (and tax return checks) are delivered courtesy the trucking industry.
• There is also the matter of what trucks take from you - such as trash. It has to go somewhere, ergo, the trucks carrying it must get from point A (your trash can) to point B (the landfill). Perhaps if we Americans weren't such gluttonous generators of waste, there wouldn't be so many trash trucks rolling through pristine areas.
• Trucks make noise! (But then, so does your leaf blower.) It is the nature of the beast. Technology, however, is bowing to light sleepers and making progress in noise reduction, although some less-than-professional drivers need to be educated in “Jake Brake” etiquette.
• And, no! Trucks can't stop on a dime, cars don't have the right-of-way over trucks, and that sign on the back that reads, “If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you,” should be heeded.
So you, the skeptic should perhaps spend some time up front as an observer high up and above it all. You may be pleasantly surprised, not to mention a bit more educated.
Paul N. Luziani
Union Springs
The widely disliked, but very necessary (and payers of road use taxes), trucking industry.
Lately, big rigs have not only fallen on hard times with high fuel costs, loss of business, etc., but have harvested the wrath of a slightly miffed (and biased) non-truck oriented public. Perhaps the following will help lessen the hostility.
• Firstly, to use a worn-out, but precise cliche, “If you got it, a truck brought it!” Look around you. What hasn't a truck gotten to you - now and then in the nick of time? Even your monthly bills (and tax return checks) are delivered courtesy the trucking industry.
• There is also the matter of what trucks take from you - such as trash. It has to go somewhere, ergo, the trucks carrying it must get from point A (your trash can) to point B (the landfill). Perhaps if we Americans weren't such gluttonous generators of waste, there wouldn't be so many trash trucks rolling through pristine areas.
• Trucks make noise! (But then, so does your leaf blower.) It is the nature of the beast. Technology, however, is bowing to light sleepers and making progress in noise reduction, although some less-than-professional drivers need to be educated in “Jake Brake” etiquette.
• And, no! Trucks can't stop on a dime, cars don't have the right-of-way over trucks, and that sign on the back that reads, “If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you,” should be heeded.
So you, the skeptic should perhaps spend some time up front as an observer high up and above it all. You may be pleasantly surprised, not to mention a bit more educated.
Paul N. Luziani
Union Springs
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Unknown... wrote on Dec 16, 2008 8:40 PM:
Unknown... wrote on Dec 16, 2008 7:42 PM:
You must have just fallen off one of those trucks to be wasting your time with that crap. The main thing is that I want to cut down on the truck traffic in my neighborhood. I could give two hoots about a highway. My street is always full of cracks & potholes. Highways were designed to handle that sort of traffic. Not these little city streets. And by the way, why do we need to take over more private land for trains?? Seems the rail infrastructure (meaning what is in place, existing) would pretty much do the job. But that means that you just lost one of your points!! OH!!! Bottom line here, Casual, it that "
Farmer's Gal wrote on Dec 16, 2008 6:45 PM:
Of course cars don't pay the same taxes as heavy trucks - they don't cause nearly as much wear and tear on the roads.
Goods were shipped by rail for generations before there even WERE trucks and they worked just fine. Reinvest in the infrastructure and save everybody a lot of money, non-renewable energy and damage to the environment.
The money coming back here locally into a very few pockets is not worth the long-term damage or the aggravation to all of us upstate. Sorry, I don't put profit for the few ahead of a safe and healthy environment, so your argument on that score holds no water with me. "
casualobserver wrote on Dec 16, 2008 4:43 PM:
Farmer's Gal wrote on Dec 16, 2008 10:20 AM:
Perhaps if people had to dispose of waste near their own homes, then they wouldn't generate so much. Let those downstaters deal with their own trash locally instead of polluting our "backyards." Of course, we have the community in which Seneca Meadows is located for allowing the haulers to import waste into our community. Selfish and greedy! "
Unknown... wrote on Dec 16, 2008 8:12 AM: