3 out of 4 stars
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Trucking While Black, by Brian E. Scott, is an autobiographical account of a boy who dreamt of being a truck driver, and had those dreams dashed when he experienced the reality of truck driving: unsafe conditions, disrespect from his bosses, and racism. He sets out to “shine a light on the cockroaches of the trucking world” and by sharing his experiences, hopes to improve driver safety.
Born after the glory days when truckers were heroes of the road, the author lands his first job as a “Billy Big rigger”, also known as a long haul truck driver. The driver training is dangerously inadequate and everyone passes, no matter how many accidents they have had. He describes the 70 hour plus weeks, the poorly maintained trucks, and the personality clashes between himself and his co-drivers. The citizen’s band (CB) radio with its steady stream of racist and sexist filth is a constant sound track to the author’s life and the degrading treatment he suffers from those around him adds to his disappointment and frustration.
He changes trucking companies frequently, searching for the seemingly unreachable paradise of safe and fair driving conditions. Does it exist? Can he find it? Maybe… if he doesn’t run out of fuel or get his truck wedged in a parking lot.
Trucking While Black was an enjoyable read full of hard truths and hilarious stories about life as a “Billy Big rigger”. As a truck driver I liked the descriptions of driving techniques such as double-clutching, and as a reader I found the stories so captivating I didn’t want to put the book down. I felt the author’s fear when he described a difficult, foggy mountain descent and wanted to cheer for him when he did have wins. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t like, though I too am a little disappointed that the trucking industry as presented by the author doesn’t live up to my dreams either.
I recommend the book to anyone with an interest in trucks and autobiographies. Readers will learn a lot about the trucking industry and how to safely share the road with trucks.
The book could have used a professional edit as there were several spelling and grammar errors like “form” instead of “from”. The table of contents was empty and the chapters were long. Really loooooong. They would be better sorted into a part or section for each trucking company the author worked with, and incident based chapters within these. These errors and the need for a better chapter structure reduced my rating by one star.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
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Trucking While Black
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