When it comes to transportation, Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) is one of the most powerful leaders on Capitol Hill. He serves as chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which has jurisdiction over America’s surface transportation, freight and passenger rail and the inland waterway system.
Studies show that more than 70 percent of the 3.2 million professional drivers in the U.S. have one or more serious health problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Being on the road and having irregular hours doesn’t help. Drivers tend to let small conditions progress to bigger problems, simply because of cost or time. Minor illnesses become extreme, and can lead to hospitalization and disability. The drivers then may lose their commercial license and become unable to work, w…
Trucking is often a husband and wife enterprise, requiring the full dedication of both to make it a success — whether they drive team or one’s on the road and the other home. As any trucker will attest, the truck decides everything: when you’ll be home, when you have to leave again, whether you have money for the long-awaited vacation or the vacation becomes a new transmission. Trucking takes marriage to a whole new level.One driving, one at homeGail and Paul Morrison have do…
There have been a lot of changes in the trucking industry over the past six decades, but not many drivers got to see all of them firsthand. Hap Ghan, 81, who first got behind the wheel of a big rig when he was 17, has seen them all. “I never thought I’d see cruise control or stuff like that,” he says. “The younger bucks that drive them today have no idea what we went through when we started, compared to what we drive today.”Some of those young bucks include two so…
One thing that draws folks into trucking is the desire for independence — and there is no greater independence for truckers than rolling down a highway with wide-open spaces and blue sky in their windshields. This same drive makes truckers want more than just the independence of the open road. They’re looking for financial independence, a means to support their families and themselves to improve their lives. In order to accomplish this they must become managers of that rolling offi…
