During Richie Henderson's keynote address May 20 at the ALK Technology Conference in New Jersey, he focused on new drivers and retention problems. Henderson, J.B. Hunt Transport's senior vice president of administration and technology, also discussed wages and the new hours-of-service rules and regulations.

He admitted that driver retention rates — or the so-called driver shortage problem — may stem directly from low wages and the new hours-of-service changes, among other things.

This keynote address may have been bold, but it is a message that should have been delivered many years ago. Having said that, it is welcome and it has some excellent suggestions for implementing improvement in the industry.

I do not subscribe, however, to the negative attitude toward the industry that many of our retiring drivers share. With many years and miles under our belt, haven't we seen the trucking industry in both good times and bad? We assume that it is lost to the new drivers who will not pick up the mantle of being considered professional truck drivers.

Drivers, it is no time to slack off and hope things improve. Instead, try being positive and lending a hand in teaching or training. Give these new drivers the tools necessary to be good representatives of the industry — even under these difficult circumstances of drivers wages, home time and logistical problems. This is more important than anything else that needs reform.

If a retiring "professional" trucker will not lend support to an industry that probably at one time served him well, then maybe he was never the professional he claims to be. It stands to reason that complainers are really sharing insight about what is truly inside them.

You've likely heard the terms "Can a leopard change its spots?" or "Can a zebra change its stripes?" This attitude of walking away, closing your eyes, and at the same time yelling out negative comments, or "I told you so," will cause you to trip over your own tongue.

It takes a professional to mold a professional. If implemented changes come down the pike — like we all should hope and pray for — then the well-trained and knowledge-based professional drivers who stick around will be equipped already to carry those benefits and build upon them.

Call me a dreamer of pipes and paraphernalia. But like many long-time truckers, what have we been filling our minds with while traveling those millions of miles? Information should be the answer.

Our education should be deeper than any CEO of any large trucking company, or even a university graduate who perhaps holds multiple degrees on the subject of logistical transportation and the commercial complexities of an ever-changing commerce and business.

At least this is my implementation on how to solve a few problems. If it never works, at least my blood pressure will have remained at an optimal range.