Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

One thing we like to do at Life On The Road is to take a close look at the “other” media that attempts to cover the trucking industry. We recently talked about Pilot Challenge Magazine. In this post we picked up the latest issue – which is hard to find – of NATSO Truckers News. NATSO stands for the National Association of Truck Stop Operators. Whoever designed the boring ATA website must have also had a hand in the Not-So, I mean NATSO, site. The “mission” of NATSO by the way is: “to advance the success of truck stop and travel plaza members. You will NEVER read in the Not-So, I mean, NATSO Truckers News anything about pot-holes, bad food, lousy service, disgusting rest rooms, long line at fuel islands or inefficient truck stop, I mean travel plaza, management. For operators of travel plazas – doesn’t Pilot just about own every truck stop now? -  T/A a few others – to publish a magazine for truckers is kind of presumptuous don’t you think?

Let’s talk about some of the “stuff” inside this latest issue. There’s lots of advertisements – good for them – bad for the reader. C.H. Robinson, in my opinion, probably the most horrible broker on the planet, has an ad that claims “valuing strong relationships and endless options.” What are they talking about? Ever have load from C.H. Robinson? The people that work there are idiots. Howe’s and Diesel Fuel advertise. I like their stuff, even at $18 a bottle. PrePass has an ad. Don’t waste your time getting PrePass – most coops have the system off until the economy improves and the morons who run weigh stations go back to sleep. Overpriced Iowa 80 advertises. I never stop there. CAT scales has a full page, but I don’t know why – every driver knows that’s the only place to weigh your rig. All in all there are 37 pages of nothing but ridiculous advertising. The carrier recruiting ads are the worse. “Don’t just drive – drive Maverick”, “The longer we’re around, the longer we’re admired” says Boyd, “When the going get tough, the tough come to Mercer.” Are these companies kidding?

Randy Grinder is the editor. He is the son of a career trucker and holds a CDL. Wow, I’m sure going to listen to what he has to say. What a resume – whew! Hey, you be the judge, read his stuff – he’s in favor of everything that drivers hate from cross-border trucking to the upcoming CSA 2010 FMCSA legislative safety fun fest. The feedback section has two letters. Yes, 2 letters – that’s it. Todd Dills tells us old news about how “we” are “waddling” out of the recession. He is one of the senior editors. So? He’s not a truck driver, so who cares? Not me. And Todd, I don’t “waddle” anywhere thank you. On page 19, you can read what the big salary safety suits at the ATA have to say. Again, I don’t care. Truckers News likes to quote a lot of “consultants”, who, again in my opinion, should have no standing whatsoever in the trucking media. There is an article about slipping and falling. Say it with me – “who cares.” In exchange for a full page ad, Boyd Bros. is mentioned in the article and photos of them training new drivers is included. I just hope Boyd is not the next Arrow.

And there is my favorite. Are we all not tired of the government and the media telling us how to eat, sleep and drive? I know I am. Well, Misty Bell, who, if you look at her photo could use a few laps around the Not So, I mean NATSO Trucking News office, has the audacity to tell “us” about the “Road to Better Health” and “You Can Do This.” Misty, by the way, also needs a makeover and her editor needs to tell her to write about something else not so annoying. Oh wait, she is the managing editor! OMG. Herein lies the rub, as Shakespeare said, Misty, you also have no standing in this industry to tell drivers ANYTHING, especially how to eat. The rest of the “magazine,” well is horrible. There is the obligatory NASCAR article and some cockamamie one page collage of nonsense by a nobody off the street who I imagine needed a job at a Not-so trucking rag. Yes, I’m being hard, but it’s my time their wasting by presenting this dreck when I walk inside a truck stop, I mean travel center.

Bottom line, I need the “established” trucking media to stop playing around. Get real drivers to write about relevant issues – no more slip and fall fillers. The editors – Foggy, I mean Misty as well -  need to start covering the real problems at truck stops and travel plazas. We’d all like to have 37 pages of advertising, but could you people at least match it with 37 pages of  non-fluff content? And please, stop insulting the few readers you have with this diet and lifestyle crap. You people have no idea what it is to be OTR truck drivers. Stop writing like you do.