Truck Driver – A Vagabonds Job
It is rightly said ‘truck drivers are present days’ vagabond’. With green fields on both sides of them, a straight long path in front of them, they take on the challenge to do what no one else dares… that of a vagabond. When I speak of a vagabond here I mean not his financial condition but the willingness to be free at heart and to achieve eternal happiness by being one with the sense of oneness with the nature at large. Truck drivers became largely popular also, thanks to Hollywood.They have been the subject of many films such as They Drive By Night (1940), but they became an especially popular topic in pop culture, after the release of White Line Fever, and hit songs like “Convoy” by C.W. McCall (both in 1975). In fact in 1996, Space Truckers took them to interplanetary tours. Recently also, in July 2007, the History Channel started a reality television show on the life of truck drivers transporting machines etc to diamond mines is Canada with the name ‘Ice Road Truckers’. Another thing common to some truck drivers across the world is the use of drugs, medicines, and alcohol and sex workers.
India for example has one of the largest road networks in the world, with an estimated 2 million truck drivers in the country. During their journeys these drivers stop at various road-side hotels which provide food, drugs alcohol and sex workers. They pick them up, use them and leave them at other road side hotels for other drivers, which has spread the HIV problem in India. This problem is acute in other developing countries too.
Apart from such risks, their employment hazards include stiff backs, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetics. There are certain regulations for truck drivers in different countries for rest after certain hours of travel but most of such laws are violated for money needs. Truck drivers will be required in large numbers in future, and their health issues are a prime concern for us.