In The News
Social networking becomes more and more common among drivers
There’s a quiet revolution taking place in the way that many people socialize, including drivers.
Once upon a time not that many years ago, truck drivers were able to readily socialize with each other by sitting down at a full-service restaurant counter or hanging out in a driver TV room for hours on end.
Marketplace forces along with increasingly restrictive government regulations have caused trucking to change as never before over the past few years, and the places and opportunities to socialize with each other are vanishing right before our eyes.
One of the biggest changes we face as drivers is that the opportunity to meet and hang out with other drivers is simply going away.
Just-in-time delivery schedules, tightened Hours of Service rules, computer-planned fuel stops, the tendency toward fast-food restaurants and anti-smoking regulations have all conspired to cause drivers to hang out by themselves in their trucks more.
Many sit-down restaurants have simply gone away, replaced by fast-food joints.
The trend toward fast food is spurred on by the fact that everyone is in a hurry, and fast food franchises offer chain truck stops more profit per square foot per employee than do the traditional sit-down restaurant that requires more square footage in which to operate and more employees to keep things humming.
Driver television rooms, once a standard of every self-respecting full service truck stop, have either gone away completely, or have become smaller driver shower waiting areas.
Enter the phenomenon of social networking via the Internet.
Tons of social networking Web sites have popped up in the past couple of years, making it possible to meet and communicate with people who share similar interests all over the country and the world.
Sites such as YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Podshow, TalkShoe and Stickam are rushing in to fill the vacuum created by the diminished opportunity to socialize in traditional ways.
As an over-the-road driver, I’ve made many real-world friends through these new social networking channels.
In fact, I’ve made more friends in the past three years via social networking on the Internet than I had prior to that in my entire life.
There are a number of these sites that are aiming to capture drivers in particular, though I have yet to see any really emerge as a MySpace or a FaceBook for truck drivers.
A number of drivers I’ve met through these sites are using sites such as Stickam.com to spend time to virtually hang out and socialize with each other when they are parked. Stickam is interesting because it allows multiple people with webcams and microphones to see, hear and chat with each other in real time.
With an anywhere, anytime Internet connection such as Sprint PCS, it’s possible for drivers to literally be anywhere in the country, perhaps parked along side a rural road out in the middle of nowhere, yet have instant access to real-world and online friends.
There are plenty of drivers that are now taking part in this online social networking revolution. Quite a number of the other participants either are interested in trucking or are in the process of becoming drivers themselves.
As wireless broadband Internet connections continue to improve, the opportunity for people to use these connections to socialize will also improve. Things that just weren’t possible as little as three years ago are now developing and evolving.