The War of the Roads: Act One

Sherwood Park, Alberta

We woke up nose-to-nose with another trucker. In Kansas.

This menage a trucker is a daily dirty dance....

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The Secret Story of Two-Day Delivery

Scottsdale, Arizona

It’s all up to the Old Man now. We did our part. We traveled 19,600 miles EXPEDITED -- meaning go, go, go -- for four weeks setting up Santa for his final run. In the retail world, it’s called two-day delivery.

While consumers delight in this service, it’s a tough business for drivers. So tough that, literally, hours after we completed our final run, I was down with a cough and sore throat, worn out by the four weeks.

It’s a pace, a corporate policy, set by what we call, the evil-MBA department to maximize profits.

We have run team expedited freight before this Christmas, for a year and a half we were owner operators at Forward Air. Their running times were based on a blended speed limit, between 48 mph in California where the truck speed limit is 55 mph and as high as 56 when crossing the country because speed limits are 75 in Texas, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. I think its significant that some of the we-hate-government-rules states like Idaho and Arkansas, have a 70 mph speed limit and a 65 mph TRUCK limit.

Many of the states with high speed limits have terrible roads...

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Exposing the Driver Shortage Myth

San Mateo, California

If big trucking has its way, taxpayers will feel something worse than government in their back pocket. Big trucking will have its hand in the front pocket -- squeezing.

Beware of the campaign launched by the American Trucking Association last week. A white paper detailing projections for a driver shortage that they predict will reach 250,000 drivers in a decade, largely blaming retiring company drivers and owner operators.

A private pilot, MacGyver was thrilled by the unsanctioned parking he found in Gander, Newfoundland at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. Big and empty, Canada has a ridiculous shortage of big truck parking. The sanctioned parking, we discovered the next morning, is on the west side of Gander, at Goose's restaurant at the Irving fuel stop. It, we're told, takes up to 50 trucks. But I don't know where. We left a donation for our overnight stay.We have come to see this annual story, the driver shortage, as more than a myth. If there is a driver shortage, it is an industry-designed strategy to flatten wages...

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It's the Signs Schumer

New York, New York

New York transportation authorities and the State’s incomprehensible system for marking height clearance, not the GPS, are to blame when big trucks hit bridges in and around New York State.
A big truck, 13 foot 6 inches high, passes the MUST exit sign on I-278 in Brooklyn, NY, but has no fear, despite the low clearance sign, the road will accommodate the truck height.
We were jolted to attention by a Road Dog radio report that New York’s Senior Senator, Charles Schumer, is demanding an investigation into big trucks hitting bridges. Schumer blamed driver misuse of GPSs....

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America's Pavement Dwellers

Oak Grove, Missouri

In San Juan Capistrano, California the residents eat, wear clothing, drive cars, sit on chairs, sleep in beds, and partake in the great American pastime, and economic pursuit, of consuming.

While a big truck brings everything they hold dear, the good people of this hamlet are anti-driver and anti-safety.
Dawn at the Pilot truckstop lot on I-10 in Phoenix, AZ. Drivers must get moving early to make it to the next stop before parking fills up.
It’s not just little towns that plaster their streets with No Truck Parking signs, it’s States too. The Rest Area on I-475 westbound in Georgia has some 75 big truck parking spots and almost as many NO Overnight Parking signs.

Politicians make it sound like they have done drivers a favor...

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