Tag: overdrive: Page 42

Greatwide owner-operator pens one rad read in ‘Collinstown’

Greatwide-leased owner-operator Bob Grantham, based in San Antonio, Texas, calls the evocative writing in his literary Western Collinstown an “unintended consequence of being a truck driver.” At least in part, anyway. Out now from Treble Heart Books, the novel follows the intertwining lives of a current and former Texas Ranger just at the outbreak of the […]

March 18, 2011

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New diesel thieves; ‘American Trucker’ visits the custom shops

High-tech diesel thieves You know fuel prices are bad when you start seeing reports such as the one published yesterday via the website of Central Florida’s WFTV. “Some long-haul truckers found a new way to steal diesel, Marion County deputies said Wednesday,” WFTV reported. Deputies apparently arrested three separate haulers who were passing off a […]

March 17, 2011

‘Deadliest Catch’ star to sign autographs at Louisville trucking show

The “Deadliest Catch” TV show on the Discovery Channel, chronicling the lives of fishers on Alaskan King Crab boats, might seem as far removed from the world of long-haul trucking as it’s possible to be. But in a short couple weeks at the Mid-America Trucking Show at the Chevron Delo booth No. 14140, drivers from around […]

March 16, 2011

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‘Here comes plug-in diesel!’

So gushed the website and weekly update of the group Hybrid Owners of America about several automakers’ concept cars on display at the Geneva Auto Show last week. But in some sense, freight movement by plug-in powertrain is here, if not in the Class 8 realm, without even the diesel. Navistar recently announced expanded service […]

March 15, 2011

Kentucky hauler stars on History Channel w/ Larry the Cable Guy this Tuesday

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15, at 9 p.m. ET Murray, Ky.-based driver Ben Brumley (pictured) will take Larry the Cable Guy part of the way through a tour of the long-haul life at the mammoth Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, Iowa, an episode in Mr. Cable Guy’s “Only in America” series. In it, Larry sets […]

March 14, 2011

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Is large truck lemon law needed?

There’s only a couple effective lemon laws in the country that actually provide protection from “defective” Class 8s for buyers. If you’ve as yet missed my March cover story in Overdrive on the subject, click on the images here to read, or access the text version here. Among sources was Mike Noll, a retired owner-operator […]

March 11, 2011

A few extra horses power rig through snow

Sometimes, the best solutions to problems are the simplest. Or that’s one way of looking at the vid below, posted to YouTube by user roush61799 on Feb. 21 and purporting to come from Amish country in Central Pennsylvania. Four horses and a farmer’s cart tied to the front end of a big Peterbilt pulling a tanker […]

March 10, 2011

News bytes: Diesel prices, Driving sans pants, Willie’s Place to be Petro

Commodities speculation back in the spotlight The commodities futures positions limits problem is back in the TV news via a series on liberal populist host Ed Schultz’ “Ed Show” this week. The first spot in the series distilled the history of the elimination of position limits that I’ve written about some over the years, most […]

March 9, 2011

Happiness; UK producers seek ‘World’s Toughest Trucker’

Happiness There’s no other way to describe this picture, eh? It’s Virginia Kirk, general manager of the TA C-store and fuel islands in Nashville, Tenn., during the location’s grand reopening last week. It’s “awesome” to be back up and running, she told me Friday after being closed for nine months. Kirk’s addition of the “Welcome to […]

March 8, 2011

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FMCSA listens: PSP update clarifies co-driver inspection violations

While I’m on the subject of CSA, I thought I’d share a bit of an update to this month’s Truckers News CSA cover story. In it, during dicussion of the DataQs system and Ed Webb’s case (which I wrote about yesterday), OOIDA’s Joe Rajkovacz raises a very particular problem with Pre-Employment Screening Program driver inspection/crash […]

March 4, 2011

One driver’s war: Taming CSA and the DataQs challenge process

I finally got the the opportunity to meet Boonville, Ind.-based driver Ed Webb (pictured) in person yesterday afternoon at the newly reopened downtown TA here in Nashville (speaking of which, Aaron Tippen’s performing tomorrow morning there at 10 a.m. and 12 noon if you’re headed down Tennessee way today). Webb was a source in my […]

March 3, 2011

Truckstops = Coffeehouses with copious rig parking?

A new index tracking sales of goods and services at highway truckstops, the McLane-NATSO quarterly index, recently tracked an interesting rise in the sale of hot beverages like coffees, cappucinos and teas at truckstops. That category of sales jumped 34 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, suggesting to me at least a little […]

March 2, 2011

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