4 ms·

Truck driving is a devastating profession. My dad drove trucks for the better part of 2 decades. It hurt his physical health (immobility for hours on end punctu

by zdean 11y ago

Truck driving is a devastating profession. My dad drove trucks for the better part of 2 decades. It hurt his physical health (immobility for hours on end punctuated by the occasional food/rest break)and did ridiculous damage to his psychological and emotional health. In the end, if you account for the number of hours he had to drive to rack up those mile-dollars, he probably made just north of minimum wage. There are lots of professions I would be saddened to see made obsolete by automation. Long haul truck driving would not be anywhere on that list.

mcguire 11y ago
"It hurt his physical health (immobility for hours on end punctuated by the occasional food/rest break)and did ridiculous damage to his psychological and emotional health." You realize you're posting this on a site largely dedicated to computer programmers.
- Vendan 11y ago
  My father-in-law has had his health ruined to the point of having is commercial license revoked, from a multitude of largely immobility caused health issues(including a blood clot that ran literally his entire lower leg). As a programmer/computer person, I do sit a lot, but not in conditions anywhere approaching his. I can stand up and stretch every 45 minutes, I have a standing desk, I can move around in my chair. Not to mention my chair is ridiculously comfortable compared to just about any car/truck seat I've sat in, including his work truck.
- zdean 11y ago
  "You realize you're posting this on a site largely dedicated to computer programmers." Yes I do. And for any programmer (or any other person) who thinks there's even a remote similarity of experience, I invite you to find the most comfortable chair you can and then sit in it 15 hours a day uninterrupted (minus time to run to your local truck stop for a tasty meal) for a month straight watching you tube videos of a highway. And then rest for 1-2 days and repeat. That will give you a not-so-close approximation of the trucker's experience. Having said all of this, there's an immense challenge/opportunity here for smart hackers to improve the experience of these truckers...they're not going to get replaced by robots anytime soon.

by zdean 11y ago

mcguire 11y ago

"It hurt his physical health (immobility for hours on end punctuated by the occasional food/rest break)and did ridiculous damage to his psychological and emotional health." You realize you're posting this on a site largely dedicated to computer programmers.

Vendan 11y ago
My father-in-law has had his health ruined to the point of having is commercial license revoked, from a multitude of largely immobility caused health issues(including a blood clot that ran literally his entire lower leg). As a programmer/computer person, I do sit a lot, but not in conditions anywhere approaching his. I can stand up and stretch every 45 minutes, I have a standing desk, I can move around in my chair. Not to mention my chair is ridiculously comfortable compared to just about any car/truck seat I've sat in, including his work truck.
zdean 11y ago
"You realize you're posting this on a site largely dedicated to computer programmers." Yes I do. And for any programmer (or any other person) who thinks there's even a remote similarity of experience, I invite you to find the most comfortable chair you can and then sit in it 15 hours a day uninterrupted (minus time to run to your local truck stop for a tasty meal) for a month straight watching you tube videos of a highway. And then rest for 1-2 days and repeat. That will give you a not-so-close approximation of the trucker's experience. Having said all of this, there's an immense challenge/opportunity here for smart hackers to improve the experience of these truckers...they're not going to get replaced by robots anytime soon.