“There’s nothing more productive than that individual owner-operator who has skin in the game. It’s a more productive model – a better way to pay people.”
— Prime Inc. owner-operator Rob Lowe, speaking at the Commercial Carrier Journal Fall Symposium.
Unfair no-idling ticket still a bad memory
The letter about no-idling laws at Hunts Point (October 2010) reminded me of a snowy and windy 18-degree night in Sturbridge, Mass., when township police ticketed me and my partner $500 each for idling my truck longer than three minutes. I had stopped at a Roy Rogers restaurant parking lot to rest for two hours. The officer, who kept the motor on his patrol car running, told me I should pay for a motel for the two hours’ rest.
We were told later that the same officer had written 20 other tickets that same evening at a nearby truck stop. The township most likely increased its revenue that night from the officer who followed to the letter local, crazy idling laws. He wrote the tickets while sitting in his warm cruiser, yet expected drivers to sleep in unheated trucks.
This is America, where laws are supposed to be just. Drivers who work hard to deliver goods in a safe and peaceful manner don’t deserve that kind of harsh treatment.
KENNETH DICE | Romney, W.Va.
“I like this kind of stop because they are more relaxing and comfortable.”
— Trucker Thomas Haggard of Irving, Texas, in the Albany Times Union, protesting the close of a rest area at Exit 12 along I-90 and five others in New York.
How do you feel about the election?
“It was all right. I was hoping the Republicans would take the Senate, too.”
JOHNNY HADDOX
Monroe, La., Owner-operator leased to Will Transportation
“I’m glad the Republicans took back the House. I just wish they would have gotten the Senate. Hopefully they can roll back Obamacare and extend the tax cuts and get this country moving on the right path again.”
DAVID FOUX
Houston, Service Transport Co.
“I’m actually quite pleased. I’d much rather Republicans be in office than Democrats.”
DAVID CRITES
Nashville, Tenn., McElroy Truck Lines
“I know what we’ll have in there now will be better than what we had.”
BOB KIBLER
Nashville, Tenn., Averitt Express