Posts Tagged ‘Sep-2008’

I’VE DRIVEN close to 5 million miles. I’ll be 74 in September and still run about 3,000 miles a week. It’s been quite a ride. I guess the thing about trucks that first fascinated me was the air brakes. I loved the sound of them when I was a kid, and it stuck with me. So when I got out of the Air Force I started to ride with a guy who hauled furniture, and I would load and unload, getting paid 25 cents per hundredweight and $7 expense money. I tried and tried to get a job …

I love truck shows like the Mid America Trucking Show and the National Truck Equipment Association’s Work Truck Show. Besides meeting my friends, I get to see some of the most innovative new devices made for our industry. I walk the entire show looking for the fruits of supplier ingenuity. Here are a few of the best new products I found recently. Cleaning upIf you don’t have time to take a shower, but you need one before your next delivery or pick up, do what they do in hospitals. …

MORE AND MORE trucking companies are telling drivers that it’s time to slow down. Literally. As with so much in the industry lately, the need for less speed is all about saving fuel. Schneider Truckload Services lowered cruising speeds on their 10,000 tractors from 63 mph to 60 mph. Although actual savings figures weren’t available, Dan Van Alstine, senior vice president and general manager, says the company expects to use 3.75 million gallons less fuel a year with only a three-mile…