Posts Tagged ‘Mar-2008’

I don’t even recall where I started, but a couple of months ago, during a bout of Web-surfing I landed on a YouTube.com post by a fellow named Rogertrucker. When I clicked on “Trucking in Louisiana,” the zippy Garth Brooks hit “Callin’ Baton Rouge” played over scenes of the road from Calgary to New Orleans. It was the very same view that the driver saw through his windshield and mirrors as he hauled his freight, and without any narration said everything it n…

Ever since they first formed that impossible-to-ignore bulge in population statistics, the baby boom generation has been a driving force in making and breaking trends. The trucking industry is feeling their pain now, as aging drivers find getting around to be a bit trickier than it once was, at the same time that carrier recruitment efforts are targeting retirees to fill their emptying drivers’ seats. According to Jonathan Cagan, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie …

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…