Trucking driving: a great job for people who hate people

TORONTO, Ont. -- "Trucking driving: a great job for people who hate people." While you probably won't see this slogan included on the cover of a trucking company's recruitment brochure any time soon, this was the argument made in a recent article on a US-based online careers site, which provided a collection of the "perfect careers for misanthropes, introverts, and curmudgeons." Appearing on the list, nestled comfortably between Software Analyst and Zookeeper, was none other than Trucker. "Spend your days - and even your nights - alone in your truck," the article quips.

While a few of the occupations mentioned, and indeed the article itself, were obviously intended for laughs, (ie. Undertaker, because "dead people don't give boring PowerPoint presentations or talk loudly on their cell phones all day"), truckers seemed oddly out of place.

For a group that - allegedly - hates people, truckers can be a remarkably social bunch. Despite their longstanding fondness for the CB, truckers of late have been immersing themselves in what is, perhaps, a more unlikely social network: social media.

For the novice, the term "social media" refers to the use of Web-based technologies for social interaction. Some of the more familiar (and popular) examples include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube - though the list continues to grow and diversify by the day.

On the surface, the use of social media may seem like an activity more suited for techno-geeks and 14-year-olds, and truckers, for their part, may not seem likely followers of technological trends. But a quick search on Twitter provides ample evidence to the contrary. Trucking companies, manufacturers and truckers alike have all found their niche on the social networking site, which encourages its users to answer the question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less.