Past Chatter

Speaking of the "No Zone" trailers I mentioned in my post from yesterday, about Con-way Truckload driver Toby Bogard's new Semi Aware book, I encountered this one (pictured) at the Green Bay, Wis., Driver Training Center of Schneider National when I was there in June for the fleet's 75th anniversary celebration. Dan Pearle, Schneider Director of Loss Prevention, told me ...

But it's not just for teens, Toby Bogard says. The Crossville, Tenn., resident and seven-year Con-way Truckload company driver was approached in a truckstop not so long ago by a woman whose question left him at once baffled and moving toward something of an epiphany. She asked him why, if tractor-trailer rigs have 18 wheels, they weren’t able to stop ...

The folks at Avant Garde Gifts, LLC, offer the MotorMouse, a computer mouse of wireless design and in varying colors -- and that looks like a sports car, as you can see (that the Porsche 911 you recognize). As company reps have it, it might well be a "great gift" for car lovers at Christmastime or for a birthday, is "perfect ...

Kerry Anderson may someday be the President of the United States. She's got the educational pedigree, at least, having graduated from Harvard and now contemplating law school -- what's interesting about all this is that according to the feature interview NPR All Things Considered cohost Michele Norris conducted with Kerry Anderson Wednesday, Anderson is the daughter of a long-hauling mother who ...

We couldn't help but chuckle here at Overdrive HQ when we saw a particular press release blast from the U.S. Department of Transportation's halls a couple weeks back now. Its title, "Latest Survey Shows DOT Employee Satisfaction on the Rise," read to our trucking ears like a piece of news full of all manner of comic, satirical potential, given the daily ...

Since Jasmine "Jazzy" Jordan completed her run across the United States to benefit the St. Christopher Truckers Development & Relief Fund, haulers around the nation have used the internet to send out mini-tributes to her historic effort, from posted pictures (such as the one here from Robert Curran, of Jazzy signing his flatbed) and anecdotes on blogs and more; others ...

Check out the latest edition of the DTI, or Defense Technology International, journal, and you'll get an electronic whiff of the latest experiment in a self-driving truck -- this one from Lockheed Martin and steered by the company's Convoy Active Safety Technology, or CAST, being employed on a few prototype U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center trucks ...

Jeffersonville, Ind.-based owner-operator Perry Famularo says he "was one of those guys who said, 'If you make me go to electronic logs, I’m out of here.'" Leased to Dart Transit, though, he was presented with the opportunity a couple years ago to try out one of the PeopleNet eLogs units the mostly owner-operator carrier was beginning to test and offer its contractors. As Famularo tells it, "Dart ...

It was probably only a matter of time before a driver produced one of those viral videos that tickles the funny bones of million of users worldwide -- Paul Vasquez, described as a "former trucker" (according the Vasquez interview in the Merced Sun Star, he drove until about 2004, when his weight forced him off the road) who lives in ...

If you missed it, get over to Overdrive sister magazine Custom Rigs' website for John Riccio's story about the recent Transport for Christ Truck Rally at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center in Lebanon, Pa., which "has rocked Lebanon for the past 29 years," Riccio wrote, himself the proprietor over at SuperShowRigs.com, a veritable treasure of Riccio and fellow photographers' work ...

As the folks with AsktheTrucker.com report a soon-to-be-released musical paean to the truck parking legislation known as Jason's Law, there are at least two new blows to truck parking availability worldwide: The first comes from Arnold, Mo., where state rep and former truck driver Tim Meadows was on record supporting an aggressive local ban on truck parking on on- and off-ramps in ...

It's coming up Oct. 16, 2010, following the success of last year's inaugural U.S. event in Texas. At the TravelCenters of America location in Terrell, Texas, on I-20 at exit 503, the Convoy for a Cure for breast cancer will bring together truck drivers for a good cause, keeping alive and spreading the tradition of the initial 2008 convoy of the same name in Ontario, ...

As I write this, driver attendees and others have no doubt begun to file into the big show, the Walcott Truckers Jamboree, at the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa. After noting this pic from last year's Thursday-night fireworks show and "Lights at Night" custom truck lighting competition, I'm wishing I could be there. As always, the Walcott show is ...

It's been texting for a couple years now, after it was CBs and Qualcomm units and cell phones, and now DOT is reportedly eyeing other in-cab distractions for potential regulation beginning later this year. Then there was that rash of ugly outcomes after haulers either choked on or were otherwise distracted by food -- oh a-and there were those reports of ...

Mobil Delvac isn't the only top diesel oil name you'll see on the tractor-pull circuit this season. Since I blogged about Delvac's involvement as sponsor of the big Tomah, Wis., tractor pull in June, I've taken note of another on-highway oil mainstay's sponsorship of the high-profile Koester Racing team. Pictured are the Shell Rotella-sponsored pullers of father-son team Larry (black) and Adam (white/black) Koester. The Koesters came ...

What's 9 ft. tall, 3 ft. wide and weighs 180 lbs.? We're not talking about the Sasquatch here, but rather the collective dimensions of these three roosters, posted Wednesday on the uShip site needing transport from Hesperia, Calif., to Virginia Beach, Va. The receiver? Well, a little informed guesswork tells me it's none other than the Pollard's Chicken restaurant locations opening this ...

Did you know there once was a trucker who started his career as a showman by hauling the frozen, preserved body of a sperm whale in a reefer around the country? If owner-operator Ken Harris is doing what he sees as his job, you do, and you'll remember him for a long time to come. Tyrone Malone is the man in question, and Harris is ...