Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

There are several ways to take your favorite TV shows in the cab with you. From VCR tapes to creating DVD’s from your TiVo. If you have a good wifi connection you can view shows online at most of the major network websites ( nbc.com cbs.com etc…) Not every show is a full episode and only a limited number of shows are available. Hit the “jump” for your Christmas gift!
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The Tappan Zee Bridge crossing the Hudson River in New York State on InterState 287 also known as the New York ThruWay. It’s being rebuilt, not just resurfaced, it’s being replaced a piece at a time. With what we call “Bridge panels”, there are two types of bridge panels, the “C” section is just a straight piece lane (including the white stripes) of reinforced concrete with the underlaying structural steel, it’s next to the outside lane. The other piece, the “D” section is the outside lane complete with guard rail. Each piece is fifty feet long and about twelve wide, sometimes up to sixteen wide if there’s a lamp post and four to eight foot tall. And heavy, call it a hundred thousand pounds each give or take a few thousand.

Oh, did I mention we’re doing it at night? There’s eight of us doing the job. Eight truck and drivers and quite a few more trailers.

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In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, October 4th, Sirius revealed the fact that shareholders for both Sirius and XM Satellite radio will be voting, November 13th, on a proposed merger of the two companies. The merger, if approved by shareholders of both companies, would result in Sirius issuing 4.6 shares of stock for each XM share and XM would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius; current shareholders of each company would be getting a roughly 50/50 share in the combined company. XM shareholders will be voting on whether or not to approve the buyout while Sirius shareholders will be voting on the issuance of stock to use for the purchase.

Even if the deal is approved by both company’s shareholders, though, there’s still one huge hurdle to clear before a merger can occur; FCC approval. So…what does all this mean for people like you and me; the subscribers? Read the rest of this entry »

A New Hampshire man was busted yesterday for trying to make a living on the road. Unfortunately his chosen method was to grow pot on the right-of-way of I-89 near Concord. If anyone noticed someone working at night along the roadside lately in that area, it was probably this guy weeding his crop by flashlight!
Check out the video from Fox-Boston here.
Police arrested 37-year-old Frank Drake around 1:40 yesterday morning as he watered the plants. Troopers say he was carrying a .357 handgun at the time.
Not a good way to make a living on the road!

I’ll listen to these guys once in awhile. They were on Sirius and terrestrial before this.

XM Becomes New Satellite Radio Home to “The Midnight Trucking Radio Network”
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 — Washington D.C. and Dallas, Texas — XM announced today it is now the satellite radio home to the Midnight Trucking Radio Network. Hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, the popular program featuring news and entertainment for truckers can be heard from 1-6a.m. ET seven days a week on XM’s Open Road channel (XM 171), beginning October 8.

Most of the Trucking Shows on satellite and even on AM long before XM came along, are basically the same format. Country and Western between or during the show or sometimes, just a C&W music show. Which I’m sure dates back before Satellite when a lot of the drivers were C&W fans and had to memorize the AM Superstations to keep their favorite late night show tuned in.
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Yeah…YOU! Moron!

I’m talking about the nitwits that this guy is talking about. You know who you are.

You’re the fool who’s tries to pass me in construction when I’m (a heavy hauler, usually wide) barely, just barely narrow enough to fit in one lane, it’s two narrow lanes and you try to pass. I had an extended mirror knocked off the other day because of you. It was almost a disaster if one of us, either one had rubbed a jersey barrier it would have been….bad.

You’re the fool who comes up behind another truck. You’re going maybe one, maybe two miles per hour faster and try to pass. You take two or three MILES to pass. You incompetent. You disgrace your profession. Holding up traffic backing it up for miles is no way to win points with the public.

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I read a LOT, like some people like to watch TV , I like to read. If I’m not doing something that I can NOT be reading while doing it (like driving, sleeping or taking a shower) and I’m alone (sitting by myself at a table in a crowded restaurant is “alone”) , then I’m reading. I usually read while I eat. I read on my computer(s). A PDA (Palm Tungsten) is a computer as is a SmartPhone (Blackberry Curve) It’s easier to carry a hundred or so e-books on a SDCard for a PDA or smartphone or even on a hard drive on the laptop than it is in the paper version. Can you imagine how much room a thousand books, even paperbacks, would take up?

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Howdy, guys and gals on the Interstate and points in between - hope your road’s smooth and the load aboard pays twice what you thought it was goin’ to! This here’s Nadine again, the Oldest Right Seat Cover in the world, with a thought or two.

Seems I hear people complainin’ that the driving is getting worse and worse all the time. Well, I kinda thought it was myself, but then, I don’t have a CDL so I figured it wasn’t up to me to say anything. Traffic sure has gotten thicker - why, when Miles was first in a truck, we’d honk and wave like crazy whenever we saw anyone on the road with us, because another vehicle was such a rare sight. Now we’ve got millions of folks on the road with us, an’ everbody’s in a flurry of hurry. I guess I could say that bein’ polite will help ease the road situation some, but I know at times you get cut off or someone salutes you with just one finger, an’ it’s real hard to keep your temper. Yep, we’ve been there, too. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t call Miles an old coot. Now, that makes me mad. He may be an older driver, but nobody calls my Miles an old coot except me.

So I guess today Nadine doesn’t have any answers for you, except to say that I am so proud of all of you who are professional drivers, an’ you just let insults, idiots and imbeciles go on by. Road rage has no place in a trucker’s tool box or even his belly box. An’ that’s what I say. So long from Nadine for now, an’ remember to turn off your turn signal after you’ve made your lane change.

As truck drivers we spend literally thousands of hours looking out a windshield. Most of that time is spent just listening to the radio or CB, generally wasted. With XM and Sirius we have a much broader entertainment selection but for the most part it is still just mindless banter. All of this wasted time can be spent in expanding your mind and learning. It has been shown that an active mind delays the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s. I have always enjoyed reading but that is really hard to do while going down the road, but a few years ago I discovered Audible.com. Audible is a great source for audiobooks on-line, just download the book to your iPod or other MP3 style player and it gives you access to a world of great stories. Audible offers a subscription deal of 2 books a month for about $22, I find this is more than enough to keep you listening for a month. Some of the recordings are quite long, Truman is over 50 hours by itself. They do have abridged versions of most of their books if you are looking for a short read. Check them out for yourself.
I’m always looking for ways to pass the time behind the wheel, audiobooks are just one way that I have found to keep my mind busy and learning while going down the road. I also listen to podcast and will go in to them more in another post.
Stay Safe out there;
Don Rogers

Hi to all you guys and gals out on the highway! This is Nadine Wheeler, the Oldest Right Seat Cover in the world, still watching for alligators on the zippers and warning Miles about little red sports cars coming up on the right side. (I’ll admit to being 108 years old, and Miles is a little older at 110. Talk about your personal odometer clicking over - whew!) Anyway, some of you may have seen another blog of mine, Driver’s Blogbook, but this one’s going to be more like me - short and snappy!

I’m going to be talking about trucking, of course, and telling you ideas for making your life a little easier in the sleeper and from the cab. I talk to a lot of truckers while they’re at the docks or behind the wheel, and Miles and I know what the life’s like out there. (We ought to, after all this time. Miles’ first freight hauler was a real hay-burner. And I mean a hay-burner - he began truckin’ when his team was four-footed and snortin.’ So just remember if you see us on the road, honk and wave - and we’ll do the same. You stay safe - click off that turn signal once you’re in your lane, sweetie - and I’ll be back soon. Great loads and easy roads, all!

Most sincerely, Nadine