Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

A film is being made focusing on the struggle young people are facing in today’s economy. The Academy Award winning director is looking for truckers in their 20s and 30s who are working to support their families and set aside money for their children’s future.

The website is Your Money Story.Net but if you want to send me your details at our editor address LifeontheRoadBlog@gmail.com I will forward your story directly to the journalist doing some of the scouting for the film.

Doing a good podcast on a consistent schedule takes a lot of work. There are basically two ways to do a podcast, one is to do a lot of editing, add music for intros and outros, it’s a little time consuming, while other podcasts just turn on the mike and start talking, then stop talking and upload. Which way do you prefer? We’re are about to find out. I have a little poll in mind but first I need some nominations. I know which podcasts I would list, but I want to know about podcasts I may have never heard of.

Leave the nominations in the comments, if you see a comment with a podcast you’ve never heard of before, go check it out, because in a little while you’ll be able to vote for your favorite. I was going to turn this into a contest and I still may, depending on the number of nominations and the responses we get. Also with your trucking/trucker podcast/videocast nomination tell the rest of us why you like it so much.

Podcasts also includes video or audio only podcasts. Include podcasts by truckers or even radio shows that podcast their shows about trucking. Let’s see how the big radio stars stack up against the truckers. Podcasts / Videocasts must have an episode with the last month. Shows that don’t produce anymore can’t be eligible.

This post will remain at the top position till we get a bunch of nominations, then I’ll put a poll up so we can vote. If you’re favorite show has already been nominated, either mention it again (it won’t help, but won’t hurt either and may help later in the polls) or mention another. No limit.

As many know, my truck is on the road without me and I’m playing Safety Manager at my current company. I am taking this opportunity and going back to school and one of the rules of higher education is, you must take required classes to fulfill any degree requirements. I suppose they think it will make students well rounded instead of focused only on their chosen fields. Or it could be to get more tuition and textbook money out of the already broke students or it guarantees an opportunity to push an agenda, but that’s probably just my opinion.  Either way, I now know how the population has been brainwashed into believing what people tell them.

Today’s lecture covers weather, the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. The earth has always had natural cycles of climate change, except during the Industrial Revolution when the cycle was clearly man-made,  there have been so many studies the science is now settled that man causes climate change.  We don’t have enough time today to discuss it, just believe me, I know, it’s true. There exists in the world Climate Change Skeptics, but they are like the Flat Earth Society (chuckle, chuckle). Really! Look it up! There are people that truly believe the earth is flat. If you want more details about Climate Change take my other class and anyone that doesn’t believe is a crazy person and shouldn’t be believed.

I was going to mention emails that exposed the phony research, but I just want a grade and to move on with my life. Besides, arguing with these sorts of people is like convincing someone to change religions, facts mean nothing because they are so entrenched in what they already believe. Plus, I’m sure he had more reports and studies off the top of his head than I did, because I have a life and have to work for a living at something besides preaching my beliefs onto others. I also wanted to find out what kind of car he drives, because hybrids have a  bigger carbon footprint than a gas guzzling SUV. Is he vegetarian? and if he enjoys electricity? But today, I’m satisfied making it out of class without my head exploding.

California Air Resources Board

Meanwhile, in California, the Air Resources Board (CARB) is in the process of decimating California’s economy by forcing unrealistic standards for on-road and off-road diesel particulate emissions. This is having horrific consequences on not only California’s trucking industry, but all of the heavy construction equipment, buses, dump trucks, anything with a diesel engine must meet these new unrealistic standards.

The problem is the head of the research falsified his credentials when he was hired he said he had a PhD from UC Davis. I’m sure it was a typo or a misunderstanding because his PhD is really from Thornhill University, which only exists on the Internet and a PO Box and is owned by an accused  serial child molester. Mail in $1000 and you too can have a PhD. Seriously, how can someone lie on their resume and still be employed and anything he has ever done is now suspect. He is still employed and his “research” is unchanged.

How can CARB trust research done by a phony and dishonest researcher they employ? Easy, the research went through a peer review process and was confirmed as valid. The fact that six out of the twelve peer reviewers were involved in the original research and also employed by CARB is not a problem for the Chairwoman, who also hid the fact of the fake credentials from the rest of the board and is the same chairwoman who says since she isn’t an elected official and she doesn’t have to worry about the consequences of any regulations that come out of her office.

The science is settled.

CARB Chairwoman says she is saving lives and these regulations are good for the future of California and she doesn’t care about those businesses anyway. Since her husband was the attorney for Exxon and the Valdez oil spill, seems she is making money from both sides of the environment issue.

The arrogance and hubris of these people is incredible. If you’ve been in California recently, it’s illegal to idle more than a few minutes and even if you have an APU it’s still a fine, unless it’s a CARB approved APU. CARB officials descend on businesses, warehouses and construction companies like SWAT teams looking for running reefer trailers, idling trucks and inspecting engines for violations, while carrying guns pretending like they have a purpose in life besides generating revenue for the state.

Links:
Thornhill University: Where the air board’s diesel expert got his Ph.D.
Still shameful / Air board’s response to scandal is appalling
Research fraud spurs CARB member to call for truck rule suspension
http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/marine2005/portstudy0406.pdf

In case you’ve been busy driving or away from the TV the The Corn Refiners Association has been busy trying to reverse the bad publicity High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has been getting. My opinion is their publicity campaign is going to backfire on them. If you never heard of HFCS before, you have now. Youtube is full of parodies of the commercials and websites and news organizations are now filled with information trying to defend or slam the Corn Refiners. Any search on Google, (try this one High Fructose Corn Syrup )

Arguments in Favor of HFCS

Sweetsurprise.com is the Corn Refiners whose arguments are that HFCS has the same number of calories as sugar, taste the same and is fine in moderation, it’s natural, the body treats it the same as sugar and it’s cheaper than sugar.

Arguments Against HFCS

The calorie count may be the same, but the kind of calories are different. HFCS has been shown to be treated differently than sugar and blocks the signal from your brain telling you’re full, cause you and kids to eat more and is linked to obesity, childhood obesity and diabates in children and all of the other diseases that are caused by being too fat.

It’s fine in moderation, the problem with that is no one knows what a moderate amount of HFCS is. Since HFCS is in almost anything we eat and drink it’s hard to take in any kind of moderation.
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Dan Rather on HDNet has done a few reports on trucking. Mostly about training, trainees and company training programs. This episode, Dan goes straight to a trucking school in Detroit, MI. A place where the economy has hit the hardest and people are desperate for work, any kind of work. This is about a private trucking school that promised students jobs and promised they would be making a lot of money in a recession proof industry.

For most of us, this is nothing new and we’ve heard the horror stories of trucking schools and a rookie’s first year of trucking. This puts it out there for the rest of the public.

More crooks in the trucking industry stealing money from people that just want to work.

THIS IS REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ANYONE THINKING OF GOING TO TRUCKING SCHOOL. For the rest of us it sounds all too familiar and will make most of us sick, again.

I received a call from our comment line about our post reviewing Largo Software’s Nautilus In Cab program. We wrote a couple of posts about it and even had the creators of Nautilus on one of our podcasts.

The Contact form on LargoSoftware doesn’t seem to work as it never submits the form. I do know that Alex of Largo Software has moved on to another job. I downloaded the program and even though there is a 14 day free trial, the license server for even a free trial doesn’t seem to be working either.

I wish I could help out, but if the license server won’t even return a 14 day free trial and the contact form doesn’t seem to work, there isn’t much I could do. Once we get past that hurdle maybe I could help a few if there are installation problems or trying to run the software on Vista or Windows 7,  but until we hear from Largo Software I regret there is nothing else to do.

Our introduction to Nautilus In Cab was back in Sept 2007 and unfortunately, no matter how good a program is, things change, situations change and people move on. Hopefully, this is only a small blip in the Nautilus program and things will get back on track, especially for those that have already purchased the program.

Until we find out more and hear directly from Largo Software, this is where it stands.

One of the sadder stories to come out of the Arrow Trucking shutdown two days before Christmas is the story of John Eischens, who has not been seen since Christmas Day in Butte, MT. An official missing person report has been filed in Texas. With no money, because his last Arrow paycheck bounced, he cleaned out his truck and gave the keys to the manager at the Pilot Truck Stop in Butte.

After that, no one has heard from him. My guess is had his stuff and started looking for a ride. If a truck driver was able to give him a ride from the Pilot, someone would have heard from him by now. He may have started hitchhiking and hitchhiking in Montana in December, can’t be easy. This has the possibility of being a horrible tragedy and it rests on the heads of Arrow Trucking.

Don’t misunderstand me, let me say this again, THIS IS ARROW TRUCKING’S FAULT. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m sure there’s a truck dealership either Freightliner, International or even a Kenworth dealer in Butte that he had enough fuel to get to. If he was able to pack up his stuff enough so he could hitch a ride, his stuff would have fit on a Greyhound Bus. When people are in a position of not knowing what to do and being overwhelmed, they can panic and make bad decisions. Putting a driver in this position is ARROW’s FAULT.

I’m the first one to admit, that I’m the last one to ask for help. If I don’t think I can do something, it doesn’t get done or I give it my best shot. One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help, but it’s one of the easiest things I do is to help someone else. One of the joys of trucking is (unless your company has a short leash and won’t allow you to make any decisions on your own, it didn’t use to be like that. Before cell phones and satellite tracking a truck driver, even a company truck driver was responsible and held accountable for making major decisions in his day to day trucking life, but that’s another rant), one of the joys of trucking is being the lone wolf, in charge of your own life, depending on no one for anything, but sometimes even the most independent macho trucker needs to ask for help.

Before I finish, from the Tulsa World article about John, toward the end:

Missing person report filed on trucker
By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 1/8/2010  2:23 AM
Last Modified: 1/8/2010  4:15 AM

But with the help of the drivers association, trucker message and bulletin boards, 7,500 people across the country became involved with the effort to bring stranded drivers home, said Lisa Philpot, a volunteer with “Support for Stranded Arrow Trucking Drivers” who lives in Baltimore.

“There were a couple of drivers up here (near Baltimore),” Philpot said by telephone late Thursday. “There are 300 to 460 drivers who are not home or (whose whereabouts) we can’t verify.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch where you park in small towns because they need your money and of course they are going to get it from truckers.

Better not park here
By KEVIN LEWIS
Herald Editor
Published: Sunday, January 3, 2010 12:25 AM CST
Alfaro was finishing up some paperwork and about to turn in when he got the news that a towing company, accompanied by Plainview police, had put a lock on his trailer and was ready to start towing — not just him but the five or so other trucks parked there, too.

The man threatening to tow the trucks was Hector Magallanes, manager of A-1 Affording Towing in Tulia. Magallanes said everything Alfaro said is true — and perfectly legal, too.

Magallanes is contracted to tow trucks that are illegally parked there by the owner of the property, which, according to the Hale County Appraisal District, is First Christian Powers, a corporation that owns Christian Manor senior apartment complex. First Christian Powers was given the property by Wal-Mart by Prairie House Living Center when Prairie House went from being non-profit to profit.

Land they were given in the first place and they can’t let a few trucks park there? Earlier in the story, the driver explains there were no truck parking signs in the Wal-Mart and another vacant lot before he chose this one.

In fact, Magallanes added, he gives truck drivers an option to pay the $400 fee for him to release their rigs or he can tow them to Tulia, which would wind up costing a lot more.

“It would probably be double the price” if they were towed, he said.

That’s real neighborly of him, giving the drivers a choice. Anyone else see the irony of the company that owns the lot calls themselves Christian?

Editors note: Apparently the ATA has a few problems with some of the posts that have appeared lately on Life on the Road. I told Mr. Boyce I would put up his response so here it is:

Mr. Weisser, I asked you to call me so we could have a civil conversation. I’m sorry you are not open to that, but I hope you will change your mind.

Nothing you have written below is correct.

Arrow is not a member of ATA.

ATA members have done a lot for Arrow drivers – we have just not bragged about it. I have not commented on Arrow’s failures because I have no direct knowledge of what happened there, or why. I have some suspicions, like everyone does, but no facts, except what the media have published, assuming their reports are accurate.

I have, however, directed the press to the Facebook pages, ATA members helping the drivers, and OOIDA, so that reporters could reach and speak directly with Arrow drivers. Is it deplorable that the company, and/or its creditors, caused drivers to be stranded and jobless on Christmas? Of course! What other response could there possibly be?

But you know the last two years were the worst for the trucking industry, and drivers, since the Depression. Over 3,000 companies with 5 trucks or more went bankrupt in 2008. We are on track to have at least another 1,700 bankrupted in 2009.

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How would like to get beat up while you’re at work and your employer does nothing? Welcome to trucking. Another fine trucking company shows what they really care about.

Aurora trucker unsure what spurred brutal beating
By Tammy VigilKDVR Denver
8:37 AM MST, January 4, 2010

“One of the worst things that could have happened to their employee happened. Danny was abandoned. He was abandoned at the hospital. He had to find his own way home. And to me that’s unheard of. It’s unheard of,” she says.

Not so unheard of after all. How about a trucking company that takes care of their employees, really takes care of them, when it counts, not just when it’s convenient. I’d love to find that story for a change.