Rodney Morine is an OOIDA alternate board member. He has been in the trucking industry for more than 24 years. He drives a 1996 International 9400 and hauls general freight. Rodney is married and has four daughters.
“Several favorite trucking moments come to mind, too many to actually choose just one” Rodney says. “All my favorite memories revolve around the times when I was a kid riding along with my father or sitting around with the ‘old heads’ doing maintenance or preventative maintenance. I would sit for hours listening to old trucking war stories, what they had to overcome that week, what broke, and how they fixed it.”
What Rodney enjoys about the industry is that trucking is a fraternity that creates bonds (only rivaled by the bonds created by the military). The members of the trucking “fraternity” are worried by one thing and one thing only, and that is getting the load there safe and on time.
He dislikes that everything in the industry seems to have become pay to play. Trucking is about safety. Seemingly, all of the bodies that are actually governing the trucking industry are listening to everyone except the actual truckers.
Rodney says his success has come from all the time he was able to spend with the old time truckers as they passed on the unwritten rules of trucking.
“They express their love of the industry by showing that hard, unrelenting work is what keeps trucks safely on the road,” Rodney says.
He was also taught to drive at least one hour a day without the radio or CB on.
“Listen to your truck so that you can know your truck,” he advises.
He is a member of OOIDA because it supports and fights for the rights of professional truck drivers.
“I’m a member because this is the only organization that truly supports the owner-operators that get the job done on a daily basis,” Rodney says. “OOIDA supports the trucker in the specifics that will keep them in business and allow them to grow in the industry.
“If you’re a trucker that wants to grow in this industry, then join OOIDA. Help us become stronger, so OOIDA can make the industry stronger.”