Archive for March, 2009

I got out of the army in 2001 and was working at a local convenience store in Clarksville, Tenn., when I saw an ad in the newspaper: “Drive a Big Truck. Make Big Money.” So I went to school and got my CDL and have been driving ever since. I love it and have a true passion for what I do.A few years ago, I was at a truckstop where another driver was selling movies to make some extra money. I started talking to him to find out what was going on and he told me he was not earning enough…

It used to be a trucker could rely only on his CB, his radio and his road map to get through a haul, but technology goes so far beyond that now. Today’s drivers have access to the most cutting-edge, on-demand technology that provides them with current information through their phones. And whether they need to find the nearest Cat Scale or want to listen to live streaming of The Midnight Trucking Radio Network (MTRN), they have the means to do it — and the content is available…

Where do you spend more time than anywhere else? If you drive your maximum 70 hours in eight days and add  an hour a day in your seat doing paperwork, you’ll spend more than 36 percent of your time in your driver’s seat. If yours is one of the new swivel types that let you pivot around and recline the back to watch TV, read or otherwise relax, you can legally add up to three hours a day. In practical terms, that will be closer to just one hour, but it will still bring your sea…

They sit parked along two sides of River Street in Hillsborough, New Hampshire — dozens of vintage Macks and International Harvesters and Sterlings and Caterpillars, holding their own against the harsh winter Nor’easters that can rip a stone face off the side of a mountain. What began in 1952, with Richard Kemp saving a 1930 Mack Bulldog from the scrap heap, has grown into a fleet of bulldozers, haulers, bread trucks, snowplows and pavers, the width and breadth of which becam…

When a four-wheeler sits in the driver’s seat and turns the key, you just know there could be trouble.” So says Detroit-based driver James Tremblay, tapping into a mindset that is extremely common among truckers. If only their big rigs could have the highways all to themselves. No doubt, those driving four-wheel cars and trucks may very well wish for the same thing — but there’s no getting around the fact that the two groups have to share the road with each other. Though…