Generational Prejudices: Benji's Response Posted by DC Cargo Mall on October 14, 2013

My name is Benji.

I read your last blog article, about breaking generational prejudices in the trucking world and it struck a cord with me.

I grew up in Boise, Idaho on a farm until the age of 16. But by then, I had already learnt to maneuver the tractor and horses and lawn trimming tools and everything else, and familiarity was a huge part of my cozy bubbled in lifestyle. Except that although I don’t remember why, whatever children did know me, were not exactly friends with me. They said it was because I looked scary and big but all I wanted was to have a friend and I couldn't help the way I’d been built.

The bullying only worsened after we’d moved to LA. We called a small 2 bedroom on the 8^th floor of a tall building overlooking the highways home. I used to stare out the windows in wonder all summer long when my parents couldn't afford summer camp. I’ll never forget the moment I made a life changing decision.

It was a Tuesday, I was on my usual perch at the window. The light was green. Then I noticed something. There were two large interior van trucks driving side by side and after rolling down their windows and exchanging a laugh, they slapped five, ignoring the honks around them, and then proceeded on each with their respective duties and zoomed off.

That was when I decided I was going to become a Truck driver. The more I thought about it, the more realistic, and the more exciting it sounded. I did know how to run our tractor after all back in Boise. The Trucker that always came to pick up our potatoes let me have a ride around the farm once also. So I had experience, I reasoned.

Then, this moment of camaraderie between two truckers set it in stone in my mind. Truckers are friends with other truckers, so truckers have the magical key I’d always wished for: FRIENDS. My dreams weren't a phase and by the time I was 18, I was enrolled in the local CDL training course. It was much harder than I thought. Firstly, my parents were unsupportive, so I worked lugging equipment for a store and helped them load trucks to earn the money myself. I convinced myself it was an internship. When I’d finally earned enough to start school, I did. But then lessons were difficult and I failed. I didn't want to give up. So I did it all over again. Then I passed. It was the proudest moment of my life at that point.

I didn't know if I was going to have any friends to slap five down the road, or if any of the truckers would like me because I was younger but towering over them. But I wanted to be a trucker and it didn't matter because I’d gotten my wish. I showed all the older drivers that I was friendly and open to the sage advice they had to offer. I broke prejudices in my own world at least.

Eight years have passed since graduation. I’m almost thirty. I have a couple of close truck buddies and sometimes I drive to Idaho just to give a hitch to bored little farm boys, the kind I used to be. I was able to give lots of advice to a friend who’d been hauling around a tractor and he never forgot it. 

My ‘internship’ turned out to be the biggest advantage of my pre-career in my life. All that time spent pumping ratchets, affixing winches, tightening chains, bolting safety hardware and hooking up rings, not to mention all that muscle building exercise in lugging freight, brought me to the point I am today. That point? I have the safest truck in all of LA, or so I believe. I want to thank DCCargoMall.com. Because if it weren't for your specialty discounts and personal advisory phone calls where you took the time to help me out, I would not have been able to afford, or understand true safe-loading.

Oh, and my parents support me now.

Thank you.