Tag: Roadside Attractions: Page 34

Channel 19

Willie’s Place to be Willie’s no more

Perhaps you’ve heard the news. On Jan. 31, the Willie’s Place truckstop in Carl’s Corner, Texas, will reportedly see it’s last day under current ownership. The stop filed for bankruptcy last year, and since then efforts to refinance a large loan with a New Jersey bank have failed, resulting in the impending transfer of ownership to […]

January 27, 2011

Channel 19

Does less mean more? Driver pay in the CSA era

My feature in the January edition of Truckers News investigated a dynamic more and more fleets and their drivers are seeing coming to fruition as freight markets slowly return and, consequently, recruiting staffs expand and fleets begin to hire again. Nothing new there during a recovery, particularly, and the slow pace of this one might […]

January 26, 2011

Channel 19

Whole ‘lot of squealing’ on Missouri highway ramp

Yesterday, reported KMBC TV in Kansas City, Mo., a highway resounded with “a lot of squealing” after a hauler on the ramp from I-435 North to I-35 turned over rounding the curve, spilling a load of live pork. A few of the pigs reportedly perished but a larger number escaped the trailer’s confines. KMBC gave […]

January 25, 2011

Channel 19

Trucking effort in Wash. state to find child

As we know, dry vans have uses ancillary to hauling freight, not least among them their advertisement potential. You need only look to this month’s Overdrive to find evidence of that in a pic of sister mag CCJ‘s yearly Five Flashiest Fleets’ winner. A fleet headquartered in Washington State is using a similar tactic toward […]

January 24, 2011

Channel 19

Making your voice heard on roads, hours

ROADS | The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), a group whose name pretty well describes it, is calling on highway users to add input to their preparations to take highway/transportation funding recommendations to Congress. Yesterday, they began a six-week campaign via their Facebook and YouTube pages to collect ideas/input from “travelers, […]

January 20, 2011

Channel 19

Introducing the ‘American Idol of clean energy’

Not the first time the budding-popstar world of American Idol has crossed paths with trucking in this blog, the singing competition, a veritable reality-television institution now entering its 10th season, has gotten so entrenched in the cultural imagination that it’s already in the business of showcasing the kitsch items marking its history, an area once […]

January 19, 2011

Channel 19

Moving business headed South

That’s not as bad it sounds. Van operators, take heed. Today’s news comes on the heels of a blog post by the folks at Penske Truck Rental, detailing the top 10 moving destinations in the country. Two of them are places I’ve left in the past — Chicago (in 2006) and Charlotte, N.C. (1998). I […]

January 18, 2011

Channel 19

Toll evasion = life sentence for Chinese ag hauler

After public outcry over the severity of the life prison sentence handed down to a hauler of agricultural commodities for evading road tolls in China, the Chinese government is reportedly revisiting the sentence and has put court officials who handed it down under investigation themselves, according to this AP report on the subject. The hauler, […]

January 17, 2011

Channel 19

Michelin Iphone, Android roadside service apps join Blackberry functionality

The further CSA gets in ongoing rollout, the more critical repairing noncritical vehicle defects is going to get for both owner-operators and company drivers, potentially counting as they do against the former’s safety ranking in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC and the latter’s employment history. More and more, service shops and OEM parts manufacturers are making […]

January 14, 2011

Channel 19

Revisiting the oil bubble, as diesel continues up, up, up

In the July 2008 issue of Truckers News, I reported on huge and speculative, long-only investment positions in commodities markets then contributing to the dramatic rise in crude oil and other commodities prices. Oil topped off at an historic high of near $150 a barrel that month, and if you were around trucking then I […]

January 13, 2011

Channel 19

Got snow?

Here in the Southeast (though in Nashville I’m approaching the region’s northern edge), it’s been uncommonly wintry this week, as you can see from this pic, taken at the Love’s on Trinity Lane at I-65. Further South, things have been much worse, though, evidenced in part by Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based driver Vernon Cook’s 24-hour wait […]

January 12, 2011

Channel 19

Fair or foul?: A trucking story on Onion satirical news site

Sandwiched between satirical headlines like “Fully Validated Kanye West Retires to Quiet Farm in Iowa” and “Virgin Mary Statue Crying for No Good Reason” today on TheOnion.com was this one: “Modern-Day Cowboy Rides 18-Wheeler Full of Entenmann’s Products Westward.” Satirical newsmag The Onion has long been known for its lampooning of the mainstream press and, […]

January 11, 2011