we checked in on Overdrive 2007 Trucker of the Year Henry Albert (pictured with his wife, Karen), who’s in a yearlong test-drive of the Freightliner Cascadia and is blogging about his experiences here. Along the way he’s gotten upwards of 7 mpg on certain legs, stopped in at the great Dee’s Diner on route 33 just south of Logan in Hocking County, Ohio, found his freight coming slightly back up from a rotten period, appeared on the Midnight Trucking Radio Network show, and found a 1908 Indian Head Penny given as change at a Nelsonville, Ohio, Burger King (according to this table, that penny’s worth about a buck in today’s money).
He’s also had conversations innumerable about his unique trucking uniform, which includes a dress shirt and a tie. And trust me, he can hear the “>oh-ho” coming from you now. In a recent post, he wrote, “>Just yesterday I was getting ribbed by some of my fellow drivers while we were waiting to get loaded. I listened to all their comments. One of the comments that I heard was ‘I don’t care how much they pay me, I am not going to wear a tie.’ I hear this comment all the time. Then a funny thing happened. A vendor of the customer where I was picking up started a conversation with me. Fortunately, most of the drivers were still there when this happened. This changed the whole dynamic of the conversation I was having with the other drivers.” In short, Albert says, dress for success. An old adage verging on empty cliche in some folks’ minds, independent owner-operator Albert’s seen its truth firsthand. Overdrive addressed the subject in Albert Trucker of the Year profile back in February 2007 here.
Albert was headed in his most recent post for “>one last dip in the [freight] pond” before the holidays. I’ll second what he wrote: “I really feel fortunate to be working while so many people are losing their jobs this year. Hopefully everyone who wants to be home for the holiday is finding that load that takes them home….”
