Archive for March, 2008

Out in the middle of nowhere, late at night, a driver settles in with his laptop to plan out his next day’s route before getting some much-needed shuteye. But there’s no rest for the weary — he can’t get into email. The keys don’t respond, no matter how hard he hits them. The screen is lit up but completely frozen. He got his truck safely to his destination, but his computer? It crashed. “The computer is a lifeline for drivers now,” says Austin …

When Tom Wiles launched his trucking podcast in late 2004, he was just “clowning around,” he says. Three years later, his almost daily dispatches are downloaded as many as 90,000 times a month, and the driver’s three-week runs for Shaffer Trucking typically include at least one meet-up with a devoted listener. “I’ll be 53 in April,” Wiles says. “And I’ve made more friends in the three years I’ve been podcasting than I have in m…

I always drove vans or straight trucks, but didn’t have my CDL to drive the big rigs. That’s what I really wanted to do, so I saved my money, went to a school for commercial driving and in 2000 I got my CDL. It was one of the best decisions I have made. I love driving! I have been accident-free for more than six years, working for Airgas South in Dothan, Ala. It’s definitely different driving this material — medical oxygen, hydrogen, propane, nitrogen and argon.…

Nearly all of us truckers love our shiny chrome! We gotta have a little of it here and there on our rigs. ‘If it don’t shine — it ain’t mine!’ has been a slogan all of us can relate to. But hey, is it all the same? Listen folks, I am gonna try and give you my ‘parts man’ evaluation of the difference between chrome and stainless. Chrome is a treatment or a process that can be applied to steel, brass, copper, cast iron, aluminum and even plastic. The …

For years, I’ve been advising truck operators to summerize their trucks by paying attention to the engine, chassis and running gear. But I never wrote about the inside of the cab. Allow me to right that wrong. Winter takes a toll on the inside of the cab. Extreme cold embrittles plastic and elastomer parts, making them more subject to shock damage. This is not a condition with newer trucks made with more stable polymers. Older plastics are more likely to have plasticizers — che…