While driving the interstates surrounded by giant trucks bearing down on my small vehicle, I've often wondered: Where's the Highway Patrol to nab that trucker going at least 85 mph and endangering motorists? Which trucker weaving in and out of traffic is hopped up on some scary drug and about to crash into me or about to fall asleep? I'm sure I'm not alone with these concerns.
After reading Finn Murphy's memoir, "The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road," I've come to a better understanding of the difficulties faced by truckers on our nation's highways, especially those, like the author, who move our belongings cross country or across town.
During high school, Murphy worked as a gas jockey at a station next door to a shipping company and admired the movers who seemed to take great pride in their work - "tough work for tough men." So, he apprenticed with that company in the summers before enrolling in a prestigious New England college. It took three years for him to determine he was wasting his time in school and ready for other challenges, one being the lure and freedom of the road. His parents were mystified at his decision to drop out of college: "And you want to quit college after you've completed three years to become a truck driver?"
He returned to his old company, starting a career that has now given readers these funny and poignant stories about memorable clients and insightful commentaries on work, social class and a changing America. With his big rig named Cassidy and his CB handle as U-turn, Murphy puts in long days and nights doing hard yet satisfying work.
Forty million Americans move each year and call a shipper to help them with this major life transition. Movers pack stuff of all shapes and sizes and organize that stuff to load into the truck, which requires an excellent spatial sense. They transport thousands of pounds on roads in all kinds of weather and road conditions - from Manhattan's crowded streets to treacherous Rocky Mountain hairpins - and then unpack it all at the destination under the watchful eyes of the client.
Murphy thinks much of what he and his crew pack could have been pitched before clients engaged the movers.
"After more than three thousand moves, I know that everyone has almost the exact same stuff and I certainly know where it's all going to end up. It's going to end up in a yard sale or in a dumpster," he wrote. "It might take a generation, though usually not, but Aunt Tillie's sewing machine is getting tossed. So is your high school yearbook and grandma's needlepoint doily of the Eiffel Tower."
He has sharp words for some of the wealthy clients who treat him and his crew with contempt. One super-rich client followed Murphy's movers from room to room and videotaped their work; this client also made them use a toilet in an outdoor shed instead of the multiple bathrooms in his mansion. Murphy notes it's the rare mover who becomes a collector of anything. "We do not covet your stuff. It's freight."
We learn how weight stations operate and how moving fees are determined, the impact of regulations on the driver and company, a brief history of the interstate highway system, and the lingo of truckers. Murphy is a mover (bedbugger) but not a car hauler (parking lot attendant), an animal transporter (chicken choker) or a refrigerated food hauler (reefer).
In addition to Dr. Cola, his favorite stimulant, audiobooks keep Murphy company on his trips; he's a nonfiction reader with a fondness for Doris Kearns Goodwin's and Jane Austen's works. National Public Radio is also a companion, and his favorite in that medium is Terry Gross and her wide-ranging interviews. Murphy said many truckers listen to NPR.
Murphy has covered millions of miles and met thousands of colorful characters during his years on the road. He considers his job a worthy and responsible occupation and is proud of his truck driving skills. He's a great storyteller who puts us in the passenger seat of "that trucker on the highway."
Madeline Matson is a reference and adult programming librarian at Missouri River Regional Library.