Tag: Roadside Attractions: Page 36

Channel 19

Auto-texting, safety-minded app available for Android, Blackberry

On the heels of the Department of Transportation’s proposed rule to ban handheld cell phone use by commercial drivers, I’ve been hearing from haulers who object to being singled out on the issue, as seems to be the modus operandi of this department when it comes to driving behavior of late. Given the predominance of […]

December 21, 2010

Channel 19

Three weeks: FOIA turnaround for PSP information

On November 23, I made note of an avenue toward gaining access to crash and inspection information contained on drivers’ Pre-Employment Screening Program reports. Working through the official FMCSA contractor, the fee to obtain a copy of the report to guarantee quality of the information is $10, but in my November 23 “Save $10 on CSA […]

December 20, 2010

Channel 19

Truck stop operators Sapp Bros. pen autobiography

Sapp Bros. Travel Centers’ Bill and Lee Sapp have penned their collective autobiography, out now from Addicus. The book follows from their youth among seven Sapp children in southeastern Nebraska to the near-present, with the Sapp Bros. name a veritable legend among longtime haulers, particularly in the Upper Midwest. In the year 1971, Bill and Lee, […]

December 17, 2010

Channel 19

Positives in trucking dog days in Truckers News — and more

Since I blogged about musician Susanne Spirit’s weekly shows at the TA East in Ontario, Calif., back in March, Spirit has continued to make great strides in combining her trucking-music act with her concern for the welfare of abandoned dogs in kill shelters. Her “Musical Truckin’ Dog Adoption Program,” conducted in concert with the Ramona […]

December 16, 2010

Channel 19

Scenes from the 2010 Rush Tech Skills Rodeo

I’m in San Antonio, Texas, this morning at the site of Rush Truck Centers’ fifth annual Tech Skills Rodeo, which pits 65 (out of more than 700 entering) of the truck dealer/service center network’s best diesel technicians against each other and a set of bugged vehicles. On the heavy-duty side of the competition, 15 techs […]

December 14, 2010

Channel 19

Top road-trip songs at Custom Rigs, from Pioneer

Overdrive custom Class 8 dedicated magazine Custom Rigs recently reported news of Pioneer Electronics’ first-ever poll of its customers that asked for the best “Road Trip” song. Willie Nelson’s “On the road again” took top billing, while Pioneer reported, the guys were more likely to choose the the no. 2 track, “Born to be wild,” […]

December 13, 2010

Channel 19

‘Who’s inefficient?’ Four wheels or 18?

So asks New Cumberland, Pa., resident and owner-operator Tom Bowers in a letter to the editor published in the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News, in response to a letter from another area resident heaping the bulk of energy inefficiencies in the transportation arena on the back of the big rigs of the trucking industry. Bowers’ argument for […]

December 10, 2010

Channel 19

Custom Volvo Class 8 VHD pickup makes splash

Volvo Trucks is offering customers the experience of a lifetime at the company’s New River Valley manufacturing plant in Dublin, Va., a little more interesting with the addition of a severe service model VHD built in modified pickup truck form. The bright orange, one-of-a-kind Volvo VHD chassis has a full-size crew cab and a pickup bed.  The […]

December 9, 2010

Channel 19

Fair or foul? Self-examination via the four-wheeler perspective

We’ve brought it up from time to time here, no doubt — no secret that the large majority of on-highway accidents involving large trucks follow an initial mistake made by the driver of a four-wheeled vehicle of one sort or another. By and large, truck drivers are justified in holding a desultory opinion of the […]

December 8, 2010

Channel 19

Wikileaks offers window into Iranian trucking community

However you feel about the WikiLeaks organization’s recent and ongoing release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables, there’s no doubt that many of the releases offer fascinating windows into the ways of world power — and more. Not least among the latter was the view a series of cables detailed at the Eurasianet.org site, dedicated to […]

December 7, 2010

Channel 19

Tony ‘the truck stop tiger’ — calls from the driver community to uncage him

Nearly two years have passed since I first wrote about efforts by animal-rights activists (post from January 2009 originally on old Channel 19 blog home on Blogger.com) to require Gross Tete, La., Tiger Truck Stop owner Michael Sandlin to relocate the caged Bengal-Siberian tiger on the site of stop. It’s been there as an attraction to […]

December 6, 2010

Channel 19

Over the canyon rim — a grand, prize-winning truck driver’s photo — and more

This stunning view off the U.S. 89 bridge over the Colorado River near Page, Ariz., was shot by Gordon Trucking company driver Ron Nikirk, based in Oakland, Ore. Gordon becomes our fifth winner since we launched the contests in July via The Photographer: Truckers News Photo Group on Flickr.com, a development that followed nearly three […]

December 3, 2010