Letters From Readers

I am now in Kuwait/Iraq doing what I love most, driving trucks.

DRIVING FOR HIS COUNTRY

I’m 20 years old, and I’ve been reading your magazine for as far back as I can remember. My dad, an owner-operator, was in your magazine once in a story about keeping track of paperwork.

Since I was a little boy I’ve always wanted to drive trucks and start my own trucking business. When I graduated from high school in 2001, I would have loved nothing more than to start driving over the road, but because I wasn’t 21, I decided I would go into the Army and drive trucks.

I am now in Kuwait/Iraq doing what I love most, driving trucks. The trucks my unit drives are 915A4s or modified daycab Freightliner FLDs with camouflage paint jobs.
I really enjoy what I do, and it is an honor to serve the best nation in the world with the finest army in the world. I’ve been here since January, and this has been an eye-opening, life-changing event.

I am glad to be a part of it, though I still wish that I would have had the option to become an OTR trucker at 18. If I’m old enough to die for my country, then I’m old enough to drive 18-wheelers in my country.

Spc. Niven Williams
594th Trans Company


SAFE URBAN DRIVERS WORTH HONORING

Having read Overdrive since the 1970s, I’ve always noticed that companies pay special attention to the million-mile-plus driver. How about the refined fuel haulers who work for 30 years and never drive a million miles? They get through traffic, snow and ice in the city with three or four loads a day, so when people are at the convenience store, they can get gas. And the dump truck and beverage haulers may drive a little over a million miles in their career, but they do it with a lot of stop and go, shifting and backing.

It takes a lot of people to make the world go round. It is an honor to be a safe driver, knowing you delivered something that will feed or shelter someone or in other ways make life better for others – even if you don’t get to run coast to coast.

Mike Shearer
Boone, Iowa


FUELRITE DIFFERS FROM OTHER CARDS

Partner Insights
Information to advance your business from industry suppliers

The Dollars & Sense article in the April issue, “Play Your Cards Right,” was critical of fuel cards and their charges.

Fuel cards play a vital role in the transportation industry. The features of fuel cards are constantly being enhanced to add value for the customer. Because the cards have distinct advantages and disadvantages, customers should find the card best suited for them.

The Fuelrite Card handles the purchases of many owner-operators and trucking companies through a network of truck stops and stations in 10 Northeastern states, and the network is expanding. With your article’s criticism focusing upon illegitimate and unusual transaction fees, the photograph of a Fuelrite Card shouldn’t have been included because Fuelrite has no transaction fees or minimums, is free and provides discounts. This clearly differentiates Fuelrite from other cards.

David W. Gustafson
Fuelrite

Showcase your workhorse
Add a photo of your rig to our Reader Rigs collection to share it with your peers and the world. Tell us the story behind the truck and your business to help build its story.
Submit Your Rig
Reader Rig Submission