Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

July 4th weekend. I’m under a load from a steel manufacturer in Elizabethton, TN. 3 days to drive about 600 miles, but at least I’m moving. I look at the trip info. A new church out on Long Island? Typically I’m delivering Southbound. My last load for this shipper was to a tiny Baptist church somewhere in Alabama.

I decide to rock ‘n roll early. I check Google satellite and see the final is an MT lot on a tight corner. The land there must be worth millions. Not much left on the Island. Turns out I’m headed to Baldwin NY. That’s a "hamlet" in the town of Hempstead. In 2007, CNN/Money Magazine ranked Baldwin as the 25th best place to live in the country.

I got the pre-loaded trailer Thursday. Braving the Goethals Bridge, Atlantic Avenue in Queens, and remembering to stay off the "parkways", I got to the job site Saturday afternoon. I opened the gate as instructed by the contractor and backed my rig into the small space next to the concrete foundation. Across the street is the "old" church – a perfect looking small white modern building with a simple cross on the front.

Soon after I arrived a car drove up to the gate, which I had shut and made sure to replace the warning flags and cone. This woman looked at me. I looked at her. She came over to the fence and yelled: "Is that our steel?" Yes ma’am it is. "Oh my, praise the lord. We didn’t expect you so early!" She squeezed through the fence to come and shake my hand and introduce herself as the secretary of the church. "I work with the Pastor", she said.

Are you going to leave it here?" No ma’am, I’ll be under the trailer until we offload on Monday. "You’re going to stay in the truck?" Yes ma’am. "Will you be alright?" Yes ma’am, do it all the time. I knew from the look on her face she had more questions. I took the initiative and explained how I was "self-contained." It’s kinda like my 2nd home on wheels, I said. Potty, TV, microwave, refrigerator, etc. "Ohhh, she replied."

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Special Report – Coney Island NY – July 4th – 5 PM this report live from the “famous” Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. 25 year-old Joey Chestnut “consumes” 68 hot dogs (yes, the buns too) in 10 minutes beating Takeru Kobayashi of Japan who lost by only 4 franks. Chestnut claims the new World Record -collects $20,000 and wins the coveted Mustard Belt.

And, he’s certainly not going to stop at a mere 68 dogs – his goal is 70! You go Joey, have a few on us truckers. I’m on a diet. I’ll raise my protein shake to your success!

PS/We really need to have some sort of truck stop buffet eating contest. Why should Chestnut and Kobayahsi have all the fun. Ya hear that Flying J, Pilot, Love’s and T/A – let’s get with it people. Maybe even, oh I don’t know, a truck manufacturer might want a “piece” of this action. Whatta ya think? And no, I’ll cover it, but not participate in it.

Photo credit: http://images.smarter.com/blogs/chestnut.jpg and the story from: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/07/04/2009-07-04_nathans_.html

The photo is by the talented Flickr photographer – april-jane in Maine. Yes, you got it right: april-jane in Maine.

So in case you don’t know – you might have been asleep in school – the legal separation of the colonies (that was us) from England happened on July 2nd 1776. The 2nd Continental Congress voted on and approved a resolution by Richard Lee of the great, but rest-area-less State of Virginia to separate the “colonies” from England.

John Adams wrote: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Big deal, he was a couple days off. Soon after, our Founding Fathers – you know – Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson – those guys – approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. That’s them in the picture. By the way, I asked a “kid” today, here in NY, what was July 4th all about? He said: “Fireworks.” What else? “Hot dogs and ice cream!” Anything else? “Yeah, Will Smith save the earth!” Ohhhh – k.

Happy Birthday America! No doubt ’bout it – we live in the greatest country on Earth. Loud and proud truckers – loud and proud! Be safe out there today. God Bless the United States of America!

Photo credits: www.flickr.com/photos/7565780@N08/2636849383/, home.sprintmail.com/~robertajohnson ChapterIX121303only.html

Back more years ago than I care to remember I’d pull into just about any truckstop, and pull into the fuel island.  Normally anywhere from two to three guys, sometimes more, would walk out and meet me.  THEY would take care of fueling the truck, and usually other courtesy items such as checking tires and  cleaning my lights and windows, some would even “pop the hood” and check my oil and other fluids.  All I had to do was walk in to the Fuel Desk and pay.

All TruckStops back then had diners or at least a cafe.  I’d sit down and the waitress would walk up and we’d chat a bit and I’d order food.

When it came time to wash up I’d go back to the fuel desk, (or a customer service desk at the huge truckstops) and chat with an attendant while I was assigned a shower.

If I broke down on the road I’d call up the nearest truckstop and they’d send out a service truck.

Times were good.

Times pretty much suck now.

Just today I walked into the Petro in Weatherford Texas.  I wanted a shower.  It was over a hundred outside and I’d been working some and I needed to clean up.  The lady at the convenience store check out (where I’d been getting showers there for years) said that showers were no longer available here, not from her.  TA, having bought out Petro, had changed things.  I had to go to a machine.

Machines.

I drive a machine.  I tell IT what to do.  Something inside me rebels when Machines tell ME what to do.

I don’t like it.

More years ago than I care to remember I pulled into a Flying J and there was nobody to come “get my fueling information”.  Instead there was a new fangled thing called a card reader.  You all know what that is.

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July 1st. New regulations day. And usually, they’re nothing to perk up your day. But, this time, we  got a good one. Today’s the day the law raising the truck speed limit in Ohio goes into effect. Starting today, you can actually drive a truck sixty-five miles per hour on rural and suburban interstates. I was going to say you could drive as fast as everybody else but that wouldn’t be true. . . cars will still be going fifteen over the speed limit and I wouldn’t try that if I were you. Because you know ‘they’ will be watching.

When the Ohio Turnpike raised the truck speed limit, the Ohio State Police went on a propaganda campaign to say that it would surely increase the accident rate. Sure enough, after the first year, they declared there had been more accidents caused by  65mph trucks than under the 55mph limit. I have no way to find out if that is really true, they have the statistics, not me. But I’m old enough to know a skilled interpretation can make statistics say anything they want them to say and they wanted to prove the 65mph truck speed was dangerous.

Anybody with a lick of common sense and a little road experience quickly realizes that traffic flows better at a uniform speed. And, with good traffic flow, drivers are less likely to attempt stupid stunts to get ahead of someone else, causing accidents. Still, traffic incident statistics are like ballots: it matters more who counts the vote. And, truckers wont be the ones counting, so I think we’re going to hear, once again, that accidents have gone up simply because we’re no longer rolling roadblocks. You don’t need a crystal ball to figure out that we can expect some very heavy enforcement of the new speed limit and every thing else truck related.

We’ve been seeing a lot of enforcement of all truck related regulations for some time now. I have friends who are complaining bitterly about being subjected to one inspection after another in certain states.  As Everett said in his post the other day in “Its a jungle out there. . “ motor carrier and police are finding the pickings quite a bit slimmer as there are so many fewer trucks on the road. That’s one reason. But, a friend of mine who runs through North Dakota regularly was sick of getting DOT inspections up to twice a day there for awhile. He finally asked the officer why he was being targeted so often and the guy confided that, with fewer trucks, they were doing fewer inspections and were hearing scuttlebutt that they might be laid off. So they unofficially upped their inspections to make it look like they weren’t under-worked in hopes of keeping their jobs. Instead of every tenth truck, they brought it down to every third or fourth truck being pulled in for inspection.

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While everybody – well almost everybody – is standing around water coolers (pallets of bottled water?) everywhere talking about the untimely death of “thrilla” pop star & odd-ball Michael Jackson or Johnny Carson’s side kick Ed McMann or even poster queen Charlie’s Angel’s blond bombshell Farah Fawcett – the real tragedy is the passing of our beloved television pitchman Billy Mays, a favorite of truck drivers everywhere.

“Hi,Billy Mays here!” Yes friends, Billy Mays, pitchman extraordinaire, died this weekend in Tampa FL of heart failure. He was only 50 years old. Mighty Putty, What Odor, Flies Away, the Awesome Auger, Green Now, Simonize Fix It, the Grater Plater, Tool Band-It, Mighty Mend-It, the Quick Chop, GrabIt, Impact Gel Souls, Shuffles, the Spin Gym, Jupiter Jack, the Heel Stick, iCan Benefit Insurance, the Dual Saw, Orange Glo, Kaboom and of course, Oxy Clean! are some of the products he “hawked” on television.  Mays told Portfolio magazine recently that he felt that “the magic price for his products on infomercials was $19.95.” He said, “The best things in life are free and $19.95."

Wikipedia tells us that Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc. His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse "AS SEEN ON TELEVISION" products.  Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted. In February 2009, Mays publicly challenged Vince Offer to a "pitch-off" between their respective products, the Zorbeez and Shamwow. Popular Mechanics compared the absorbency of two towel products and declared Shamwow the clear winner.”

According to a PR release – “the Discovery Channel has decided to devote its airwaves to the legendary pitchman this Wednesday, July 1. A marathon of Mays show – Pitchman – episodes 1-11 airs from 11AM ET/PT through 10PM ET/PT culminating in the never-before-seen season finale at 10PM ET/PT. To celebrate a man who was larger than life, the network will run tribute promos honoring Billy Mays and never-before-aired moments throughout the day.

A slate will also be added to the end of the season finale in his remembrance. In addition, a special tribute show is being planned. No decision has been made regarding season two of Pitchman. The network is focused on supporting Mays’ family and friends during this time of incredible loss.” As the Discovery Channel website says: “We’ll miss his voice – We’ll miss his style.” And in every truck stop in every town in TV rooms everywhere, drivers are wearing blue (the guy in the photo in red told me he’s gonna change soon) in honor of Mays and with a tear in their eyes saying: “we luv’d ya Billy!

Photo credits: http://www.asseenontv.com/, www.mirror.co.uk/…/ AND the official Billy Mays website – where you can his infomercials, outtakes, etc. is at http://www.asseenontvvideo.com/Billy-Mays.html

Highway infrastructure cost is a continuing problem. Now we’re facing the next big Transportation bill. We’ve been watching individual states bandy around the idea of raising fuel taxes and also watched these same legislators sneak around in the dark of night and move those earmarked tax dollars to someplace other than where they’re supposed to go. Then, they immediately start crying poverty and try for yet another tax to fill a pothole.

Every few years, we get another Transportation bill that’s supposed to solve all of our problems-temporarily. Every time, within months, everybody’s crying there isn’t enough money, or somebody got more than their share. Usually, they’re right-somebody DID get more than their share, and it usually isn’t to pay for roads. With the current big push to build out mass transit, I think we can be pretty sure that, no matter how much is earmarked for transportation, our roads wont get fixed and our bridges will still be falling down. In the current political climate, we’ll all be trying to move freight on high-speed rail because that’s the only thing that’ll get paid for. That is, if they can even get a bill passed in these tough times. Obama just wants an extension of the current bill. DeFazio doesn’t.

DeFazio’s Great idea!

You remember Pete DeFazio: he’s the Democratic congressman from Oregon that  is currently the head of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. I’ve suddenly decided the man is an un-sung genius!

His idea is that, instead of more taxes at the pump, we should be taxing oil speculators! If you remember last year’s price-gouging increases, you probably remember that most experts finally decided that the price increases were more because of speculators buying oil futures than any shortage or delivery problem. It turned out that, although many transportation-related companies such as trucking, rail and airlines buy oil futures as a hedge against future price increases, much of the speculation was being done by big banks-the same banks we just ended up bailing out with the TARP funds! They never take possession of the fuel-what they want to do is hold the rights to it at one price and sell those rights when the price goes up. If they do enough of it, the price goes up simply because they bought enough of the supply that it appears there is more demand or a shortage. All the while folks were blaming the War in Iraq, the oil companies and assorted sheiks in the Middle East, it was greedy bankers right here in our country that were putting honest truckers out of business and causing a  major meltdown of the economy. Our own dear banksters did more than nearly any other thing to plunge this country into a serious recession. Making sure they get the payback they have coming just seems like poetic justice.

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……and the bears are getting hungry.

In nature the predator follows the herd and generally preys on the weak, the old or the sick.  In bad times, however, those animals die off and the predators are left with no other prey than healthy strong animals.

The same thing appears to be happening in trucking.  The herd (trucks) has been thinnned.  The weak, the sick, and the old have been dropping like flies.  Twenty to thirty THOUSAND bankruptcies  among trucking companies just recently.   More to follow.

That leaves mostly first class carriers on the road.  The fly by nights have gone.   This presents a problem for the bears (Smokies).  If everyone follows the rules who do you ticket?

So they’re getting inventive.

Just recently:

Trucks in Texas have been cited for having torn mudflaps (not missing…just torn)

Trucks have been cited for having low air pressure in their tires.

During the recent nationwide  trucker harassment flatbedders have been ticketed for having straps misplaced by one inch or less.  The rule says “a strap every ten foot”.  The bears were using tape measures and, you guessed it, if the straps were ten foot one inch,  GOTCHA!

According to an article in LandLine trucks in Minnesota have been put out of service for “messy sleepers” and “improperly made beds”.

And my favorite.

Recently a driver pulling an oversize load in Maryland was cited because his provision sheet wasn’t firmly attached to his permit.  He had it paper clipped and the officer thought a staple would have been more appropriate.

Apparently it’s getting HUNGRY out there, for the bears.  The carriers that are left are “the good ones” who follow the rules.  Used to be there were enough “outlaws” that the bears  could find a good meal.

Not any more.

So the bears are getting creative.

Watch yourselves out there.

Ok so I gave in. I said I wouldn’t do it. Twitter that is. But after reading the incredible post by the "Smeltz" (aka) Terry Smelser, I just had to try it. And boy oh boy what an experience. Only after a few hours I was following 5000 people and at last count 1 person was following me. That "other" person was actually me at my other e-mail address. I "twerped" or "twitted" that I was fueling. I was so excited. A follower. I read that I was fueling. I responded back to myself that I don’t care. And that ended what could have been a beautiful Tweety relationship. Oh well.

I like listening to Rascal Flatts. I don’t have Sirius (satellite radio) anymore, so I was in quite a pickle. But then I had Twitter. And after the pressing of a few buttons found out that in about 5 minutes there would be a Flatts #1 song on a local radio station close to where I was. 150 other truck drivers were about to go through that same place and so began a flutter of twits about Rascal Flatts, local radio, country music. I was — enthralled.

By the way, did you know Twitter (ing) is great for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Why? Well someone with OCD is always worrying about something bad happening and trying to do something to stop it somehow. But with all the thousands of Twits coming in on your phone from millions of other people around world watching and worrying about EVERYTHING from dollars to donuts for you, OCD symptoms go away. With the twits coming in your face 24/7 you just don’t have the time to think about anything else. I suffer from OCD and it sure worked for me.

I got short brief (badly spelled) tweets from people experiencing White Castle hamburgers for the first time; lots of folks really bummed out about Jon and Kate divorcing – who are they anyway? I got twits from some guy claiming he was the Governor of South Carolina whining about some affair – yeah right, like the Governor of South Carolina would just up and disappear and have an affair with some gal from Argentina. That must be what the "Smeltz" was warning us about- weirdo’s. I also got job offers from Swift and JB Hunt. Hey thanks, but no thanks.

But the really cool part was the 3 tweets – remember the "Smeltz" said he was tweeted about that jet that had to land in the Hudson River in NYC just as it was happening? -well, I knew, moments before they took their last breaths, that Farah Fawcett, Ed McMann and "Peter Pan" pop king, Michael Jackson were about to die. Twitter is that good. And I felt so superior to everyone else in the truck stop that I had this information. Wow. Awesome.

Seems St. Peter up at the "Pearly Gates" had decided to try Twitter too. And that’s just way too much for me to handle. I’m going back to reading the newspaper. And the first thing I’m going to worry about are all those fools driving and twittering at the same time.

Photo credits: houseabcs.blogspot.com/2008/06/ed-mcmann-abou.., http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01379/fawcett_1379311c.jpg, http://www.hiphoprx.com/content/uploads/2008/11/michael-jackson.jpg

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge folks whose words make your blood boil, who stand center stage advocating at the top of their lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. There are some that are interested in two things and two things only: making average people afraid of it and telling them who’s to blame for it. That is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. You throw out words like socialism, terrorism and the “homeland” while referring to the President as “Hussein” because talk is cheap and you know people are scared and don’t understand what is happening right now.

Then, you can stand up and sing about the “land of the free.” Americans want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” And in absence of genuine leadership by their elected representatives, Americans will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.” That was an edited quote from a movie called “The American President.” The movie was written by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin back in 1994 and starred Michael Douglas and Annette Bening.

America is stuck. Americans are afraid of change. It citizens have been VERY slow to act whether the issue at hand involved civil rights, national health care, infrastructure development or energy policy. It is time to let go of the reins a bit – maybe even a lot, In a smaller arena, I know I could reform the entire trucking and distribution industry. All would benefit – shippers, carriers and the drivers. Technology would play a large role.  But, there are many that would put up a serious fight to stop “change”  because it involves doing something – anything – different, no matter how good it is.

You know folks would fight just the thought of any change because it is just easier than agreeing to it, implementing it and waking up to do something different – and – better. That’s just too scary for many. It’s a kind of a mass “cops” mentality that has prevailed in this country for many years. It bureaucratic to the core. The knee jerk response is always: ” Well, we’ve always done it that way – why change it – it’s too much trouble and this and that might happen. It’s socialism! OMG! We’re all going to go broke and die! Gimme a break!

Change. Would you feel better if Ronald Reagan was advocating it rather than Barack Obama? Former President Reagan said: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It doesn’t matter to me who says it. There are still more walls to tear down – more gates to open. In health care, banking, credit & mortgages, trucking and foreign relations. Embrace it – don’t be afraid of it. Bertram Russell said “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

Photo credit: http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w110/monika7777/Peace/change-1.jpg,, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/c41247-10.jpg and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112346/