Posts Tagged ‘Nov-2009’

I’m about to celebrate 10 years  as a truck driver. It’s pretty simple how I got into the business. I needed a job, and I thought this was something that I could do. So I called a truck driving school, they said come on in and that’s what I did. I have been driving since — I have no complaints. When I came into the industry, I did what I’m sure a lot of people do. I got every CD of trucking songs I co…

I’m still trying to grasp why National Truck Driver Appreciation Week has moved from August to November. No matter, it’s nice to have a special designated time for companies, customers and the public to show their appreciation and honor professional truck drivers. Sadly, I’ve come to realize that today’s truckers are often lacking in their appreciation of each other, much less demonstrating it. When did it become the norm for truckers to be so disrespectful of themselves…

As you must know by now, Nov. 1-7 has been designated National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. It’s when America takes time to honor the efforts of more than 3.5 million professional truck drivers who deliver almost 70 percent of the nation’s freight. While most of the country sets aside one week, one community in South Central Wisconsin works on recognizing drivers almost all year long. The people of Waupun have been honoring truckers and the trucking industry for two decades. This…

Audiences for International’s film Drive and Deliver remember Steve Donaldson buying two stuffed toys, giving them to the children who’d admired them while their mom shopped at a truckstop grocery, and knew that for many drivers that was a common gesture. Each day, some trucker goes out of his or her way for another human being. Individual acts like giving a spot in line to a fellow driver in a rush, to commitments like writing to and visiting with schoolchildren through Trucker Bu…

In late June, the Shell Rotella SuperRigs event rolled into Oak Grove, Mo., a hamlet just east of Kansas City, and pitched its gigantic blue and white tent at a sprawling truckstop along I-70. The event, now in its 27th year, drew truckers from across the nation and Canada who were intent on (1) winning one or more of the numerous truck-beauty trophies or (2) being chosen for a page in the 2010 SuperRigs calendar. Despite the $10,000 top prize, it’s likely that all serious participants w…