Tag: Roadside Attractions: Page 30

Channel 19

Truckster app ‘by and for drivers’

From the Maine Morning Sentinel newspaper comes news of the former hauler, 42-year-old Leigh Gagnon, who created and launched in 2009 the Truckster app for the iPhone and Android phones. Available for $3.99 in the Android market and iTune App Store, the multifunction app provides a searchable platform to the majority of truckstops the nation […]

April 19, 2011

Channel 19

TA Petro: ‘For drivers by design’

Last week when I wrote about my brief meet-up with expediters Phil and Diane Madsen, I mentioned the pair’s assessment of updated showers at TravelCenters of American locations systemwide, with particularly high marks for the La Vergne, Tenn., location where we met. As I noted in that post, the improvements were begun last year, as […]

April 18, 2011

Channel 19

Rhetoric on Tony the Truckstop Tiger boils over into truckstop villification

It’s been a little while since I checked in on the efforts by animal-rights activists and others — including a large coterie of truck drivers — to force owners of the Tiger Truck Stop in Gross Tete, La., to give up their caged Bengal tiger, Tony. The latest efforts including a lawsuit filed this week […]

April 15, 2011

Channel 19

‘Something new every day’: Meeting Phil and Diane Madsen

Phil and Diane Madsen haul expedited in this 2006 Volvo with 132-inch ARI sleeper and 16-foot box. Over the past several years, I’ve called on the pair several different times for perspective on all manner of topics, from truck maintenance/warranty issues to unique hauls to examples of the many owner-operators out there taking to the […]

April 14, 2011

Channel 19

UPDATE: ‘Hats for heroes’ special delivery, take two

You will recall my story here about the genesis and progress of Marten Transport driver Candy Bass’ “Hats for Heroes” program of providing an outlet for a wide array of trucking industry participants to honor the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers. Well, the past year’s volume of hats was significant enough to require more than just […]

April 11, 2011

Channel 19

Back to the past: $4 diesel returns

Well it’s official, folks. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly diesel report this week showed the national average with 3 cents of the $4 mark, reaching the highest point yet in the now near nine-month run-up in price we’ve seen since last August, by now oh-so eerily reminiscent of the 2007-08 run (an Overdrive headline in April 2008 […]

April 6, 2011

Channel 19

‘Truck spotting’ takes off in England to industry image benefit

Remember the oft-described “good ol’ days” of the 1970s? When truck drivers were portrayed by the movie stars of the day and lionized by the public as hardworking heroes of the American way? The image of drivers and public interest in trucking may never have been higher on this side of the pond, it’s certain, […]

April 5, 2011

Channel 19

Outside the truck: Ultrarunner to tame the ice roads

Starting Wednesday, reports the Toronto Sun, ultrarunner Alicja Barahona will attempt a 240-mile round-trip haul between Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle, and Tuktoyaktuk on the shore of the Arctic Ocean on the ice road that is the frozen McKenzie river in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Made well-known for the truck travel there when the History Channel […]

April 4, 2011

Channel 19

Owner-operator Jerry Kissinger named to new Shell ‘Million-Mile’ club

His is a familiar face — to me, anyway. At MATS this week, Jerry Kissinger was named to Shell Rotella’s new Million Mile Haul of Fame, introduced to honor drivers who respect their rig and its engine, and take pride in a job well done. Kissinger, owner-operator of a 1991 Mack Superliner, was honored as the […]

April 1, 2011

Channel 19

Kenworth T700 on Speed

We’re talking the Speed Channel, of course. The aerodynamic Kenworth T700 (pictured), equipped with the fuel-efficient MX engine, will be featured at 9 p.m. Eastern on April 14, a Thursday, on the new Speedmakers television series on the Speed Channel. The one-hour program was filmed at the Kenworth plant in Chillicothe, Ohio, where Kenworth trucks […]

March 31, 2011

Channel 19

Blood drive joins health walk among driver-led initiatives at MATS

“Give so that others may live” runs the tagline for the Friday blood drive (11 a.m. to 4 p.m., booth #91470 outdoors) to be held at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville this week. It’s an initiative led by the Driver Health Council of the Trucking Solutions Group, a crew of owner-operators initiating dialogue about […]

March 30, 2011

Channel 19

Vids of the new Caterpillar truck — the CT660

“No one knows heavy-duty like Caterpillar,” says the official promo vid for the new Class 8 from Caterpillar, the CT660. Long-awaited in the wake of Cat’s announcement that the company was getting out of the on-highway engine market, and entering the truck market, the new truck is here (pictured), built in partnership with Navistar. For […]

March 29, 2011