It’s not just about toll roads. If a state were to build a new road, use tolls and bonds to build it, and then drop the tolls when the bonds are paid off, few would object.

However, keep those tolls on forever, long after the bonds are paid, and you get some pissed-off people.

Take a free interstate, one paid for by the people through their fuel taxes, and put tolls on it, and those people get even more pissed off.

Sell it to a private company and give them the right to raise those tolls indefinitely – and to prohibit any other road from going in nearby – and you could end up with open warfare.

So how do you address it?

This trucker has a suggestion.

OOIDA member Steve Jennings says make it law that money raised on a toll road be spent on a toll road.

Well, that’s a good idea. In fact, that’s actually how it’s supposed to work.

The law allowing just a few states to put tolls on existing roads says the road must need significant repair and rehabilitation, and the states must have a need for more money than they have.

And most toll roads were set up with the idea that the tolls would be spent there.

So what Steve is asking for is, basically, what they already promised to do.

So, of course, they break those promises over and over.

So how do we fight this trend?

I know it sounds like a broken record, but folks, you really, really do need to call your lawmakers.

Let your elected officials know that you expect them to return to properly spending highway money.

Let them know eternal tolls are no longer acceptable.

Let them know that we won’t simply allow an open spigot to be attached to our wallets, just so they can continue misspending what we already gave them.

If we don’t tell them what we want, they won’t know. And if we do tell them, then we have a right to expect results.

However, our troops are already doing just that kind of work. We heard from one of the teams doing agricultural work in this thank-you letter, sent to us by members of our military who received care packages through Truckers for Troops.

Thank you very much for the package that was sent to our team. We all appreciate the hard work and support from your organization.

ADT II is the second team that has come to the Nangarhar Province to assist in the agriculture mission.

ADT I was from Missouri as well, and the Missouri National Guard leaders are in the process of selecting ADT III personnel. It is the intent of the Missouri National Guard to send a team to this province year after year until our mission is complete.

So next year ADT III will be here to receive a package from you.

I have attached a copy of our last newsletter to better acquaint you with the members of our team. We included a thank you to the OOIDA, as well as the Saint Thomas More School, Appleton, WI, which included cards and letters in the package you all sent.

Again, thank you so much,

Maj. Denise L. Wilkinson

TC Executive Officer Missouri Agri-Business Team

And it not only involves the tendency in the mainstream media to blame big bad evil trucks for everything wrong on the highways, but it also involves the way some out there seem to value truckers’ lives less than other peoples’.

An OOIDA member by the name of Vern Shore called with one such example.

It happened in Canada. A woman with a child in the car suddenly pulled a U-turn – right in front of a truck.

The trucker ditched his vehicle, saving the woman from her own actions.

Vern points out a truth we all already know. If the woman and child had been killed – even though ultimately, they caused the collision – it would have been labeled a tragedy, and used to promote further legislation against and bad publicity about truckers.

Yet in the wake of the incident, no one is calling for better training for four-wheelers. No one is even chiding this woman for endangering her own child, for putting time convenience ahead of her life, and the life of both the child and trucker.

In fact, it was the trucker who suffered, and according to Vern, the incident received no coverage at all.

So how do we get something good out of this? I have a suggestion.

Write a letter to the editor, not only to the local newspaper, but to area TV stations, news radio stations and others. Post it as a comment on their Web sites as well.

Ask why they value that truckers’ life less.

Point out that he is a person, a family man, a father, a brother. Yes, if a woman and child were killed, that would be a tragedy. But why is it any less a tragedy if the trucker is killed?

Don’t be accusatory, don’t be profane. Be respectful. Ask them the question, put the ball in their court, and ask them to explain why they chose to cover one and not the other.

If you do that, you’ll be asking legitimate questions that deserve an answer.

Maybe you’ll get one, maybe you won’t. But no matter what, you will have planted the seed, to start them thinking about the way they cover things and how they treat different types of news.

That’s a valuable service, and if we do it again and again, eventually we will start the process of changing how news is covered.

I’ve said it before about this and other situations. Doing this right will take a long time. But important things done right often do.

And important things are worth the effort.

I first heard about Val when I got a call from OOIDA member Amy Spry wanting to nominate her friend and fellow OOIDA member Bob Garten for a ROSE. As Amy told me the story of Bob and his months-long effort to rescue a stray dog from a Valero truck stop in Texas, I thought to myself there’s more than just a ROSE here.

Bob spent a little over a year working to earn the trust of that dog, who had made a field near the truck stop her home. He and Amy nicknamed her “Val” after the Valero and, although she seemed to recognize Bob every time he stopped by, she wouldn’t come anywhere near him.

Thirteen months of patience and dog treats later, that all changed. Bob finally caught up with Val and was able to take her home to begin the long process of acclimating her to a new life. Sadly, Val had some puppies she lost just before Bob was able to coax her into his life.

In spite of that, this story does have a happy ending. Amy e-mailed me the other day to let me know that Bob and Val – and Bob’s other dog, Bubby – are getting along just fine. More than fine, actually.

Amy said, “Bob is having the time of his life, but Val more so.” Val has gotten attached to Bob and enjoys running around in his back yard. She has also become something of a thief. She’s stolen Bob’s hat, his shoes, and even $2 off his desk. But more than that, Amy said, Val has stolen Bob’s heart.

Bob took Val for a ride in his truck and she sat there on the floor with her head in his lap the whole time. He stopped by the Valero where she used to live and she started to shake, apparently fearing that Bob was going to leave her there. I don’t think Val has anything to worry about.

In fact, I’d say she’s found a home.

One is that police and other law-enforcement lights have become smaller and smaller, making police vehicles look more and more like every other car out there.

The second is that while police lights get smaller, tow truck lights and similar lights on other vehicles get bigger and more numerous, and even come in more colors that they used to.

It’s left a lot of folks wondering whether it’s really legal for tow trucks especially to have the wild, flashing red and blue lights so often associated only with law enforcement or fire protection.

The answer, unfortunately, is that it depends.

Some states have allowed tow trucks to use red lights. Others actually specify that those vehicles use blue lights. Others still restrict them to amber flashing lights.

So it really depends on where you are. And in looking over several states’ laws, the variations are about as broad as the number of states.

One of the reasons that some states allow the red lights is the part tow trucks play in accident scenes, working with emergency personnel.

Another is because tow trucks are covered under many move-over laws, and the red lights seem to more readily get people to do that. So in that case, it’s for the safety of the tow truck driver, and the person they’re helping.

The best policy – if you see those lights, slow down. Whoever it is, it’s a life worth saving.

It’s a long list – probably far too long to print here. But here’s the main point for us: When truckers pay for a care package, we want it to be filled with things soldiers want and need – not what someone else says they want or need.

We ask the troops – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines – what they want in those boxes.

And from this letter – a thank you sent to OOIDA Truckers for Troops – it sounds like we hit the nail on the head.

We received another box from OOIDA, and I wanted to let you know the box made it over in good shape.

Whoever put the box together did an excellent job, as there seemed to be something for everyone.

The two large bottles of hot sauce were a big hit. A lot of times, we get our dinner to go from the mess hall and eat at the office. I have a feeling the hot sauce will not last long around here.

The bottles of body soap seemed to be a big hit too; everyone was grabbing a bottle. I think the PX here at the base overcharges on that kind of stuff, and we appreciate the savings.

Thank you again and God Bless,

Keith Rosewaren

PS. We also received the scroll that was signed at the truck show in Louisville, and it is proudly hanging along the hallway of our office!

To me, the worst part of waiting in those situations is not knowing what’s going on. When you sit in your airplane seat while the plane doesn’t move for over an hour, I think the least they could do is give you periodic updates. Even if they don’t know anything. Fine by me. Just tell me what it is that you don’t know. I just want to know that you haven’t forgotten about me.

Same with waiting in the doctor’s office. You sit in the waiting room for a time and then you hear your name called. It feels like you won the lottery. Great! I’m next! I’m finally going to see the doctor! Only you’re not. You’re going to go and sit in another, smaller, room and wait some more. And you’re trapped in this room with the door closed. Nobody can see you in there, which always worries me. I worry that they’ve forgotten I’m in there. Any more than a half an hour goes by and I stick my head out the door and look around, just to let them know I’m still there.

So you see why I would make a lousy truck driver. Truck drivers spend hours upon hours waiting –whether it’s waiting in traffic, waiting at the scales, waiting for an inspection or waiting at the loading dock. Sure, the open road would be great. But hurry up and wait? That I couldn’t deal with.

I got to thinking about that amid the series of listening sessions the FMCSA is currently having about hours of service. I listened to one the other day and heard stories of how drivers will show up at a loading dock and be told to “park over there and wait; we’ll let you know when we’re ready for you.”

Those waits, as I’m sure everyone reading this knows better than I do, can last for hours on end without so much as a peep from anyone on the loading dock. That would drive me crazy. I would be up there bugging someone every half an hour. “Are you ready for me now? How about now? Is now good?”

And as if the wait itself wasn’t bad enough, top that off with the fact that a) you don’t get compensated for it; b) the shipper doesn’t give a damn how long you had to wait, and c) nobody is going to hold him responsible even if it was more than a whole day and you’ve got yourself the makings of a big Screw You Sandwich.

That’s kind of like waiting for an hour in your doctor’s office and he finally comes in, doesn’t bother to apologize, and tells you that he didn’t have time to sterilize before beginning your prostate exam. But that’s not his problem, he’s a busy man. Oh, he’s out of rubber gloves too and did he mention this isn’t covered by your insurance?

Bend over and smile!