Hang Up The Phone!

By: Heidi O.

I live out here on the road with my husband and have to use the facilities at different travel centers when we stop (and we usually grab a meal at the restaurants). I am not putting anyone down here, but why is it that we can’t seem to put the darn phone DOWN?

On several occasions, I have gone into a ladies room and discovered that some stranger in another stall is having a one-sided conversation behind that closed door. Do I care that your friend is sleeping with your other friend’s husband? NO! Do I care that your child embarrassed you yesterday? NO! Do I care that dispatch hasn’t been giving you the good loads and has been giving them to another? NO!

Why should I have to listen to your conversation while I am trying to use the facilities? Why can’t you put DOWN the phone for not even 10 minutes to let people use the restroom in peace?

Well, let me tell you what I am going to do from now on when I come across someone in the ladies room using their cell phone. I am going to stand in the stall and continuously flush the toilet so that it disrupts your call. I am also going to start grunting so loudly that not only will you hear me, but hopefully the person on the other end of that device attached to your ear will also hear me. Will this get you to end your conversation? – Maybe not, but it certainly will make it known that YOU are in a restroom and not in the comfort of your home or vehicle. Most of the ladies that are doing this are not lady truck drivers, but those drivers in 4 wheelers who “stop in” at the travel plaza to get their soda and apparently to use their phone, because I am starting to highly doubt they are using the facilities themselves.

I have also observed truck drivers, male and female, walking into the truck stops with their headsets placed proudly on their heads and their mouths moving at a mile a minute coming in the door and bee-lining for the restroom or the restaurants. Has this seriously become “normal” behavior for a trucker to have a headset on their head and their phone nearby at every waking minute? Can you NOT be without your phone for 5 minutes to use the restroom? Or even a half an hour to eat a meal? Why can we NOT put these devices DOWN and hold NORMAL conversations with people anymore?

Is your bottom line affected that much by putting down your phone or leaving your headset in your truck for 30 minutes minimum?

I have asked several people WHY and have gotten answers such as, “I might miss a “hot” load if I leave my phone in my truck” to “My dispatcher must be able to reach me at all times.” Are companies not letting you use the restroom or get a meal? I don’t think that either of these excuses are valid. The dispatcher and the load will be there when you get back to your phone.

Please, people, let’s start showing respect for others around us and NOT use our cell phones in the restroom or restaurants. The other people around you seriously do NOT want to hear our one-sided conversations.