Each week we run across many stories in the mainstream media that are about trucking or related to trucking in some way -- more than we can report on. Here are some of the most interesting from this week, including an article on trucker apps in the New York Times.
Move over, CB radio: Trucker apps are helping to haul the load
If you’re old enough to remember 1970s trucker films like “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Convoy” and “White Line Fever,” you may think of truck drivers as free-spirited individuals tethered to the world by nothing more than citizens band airwaves. That depiction was a stretch even then, but today’s truckers are often as Web-connected as the technophiles occupying the local Starbucks. Even on the loneliest stretches of the Interstates, smartphones and tablet apps provide diversions and lend a helping hand.
The sharp increase in heavy traffic from a historic oil boom has damaged many farm-to-market roads in South and East Texas. The damage related to energy development has become so extensive that state and local authorities lack the funding to make all the repairs. Last month, the Texas Department of Transportation announced plans to convert more than 80 miles of paved roads to gravel. ... But the plan has been met with criticism from lawmakers and some of the farmers and ranchers who live near those roads.
"How ironic it is that just as the Legislature comes to the rescue of county roads, TxDOT is turning its back on some of the paved highways that also lead to the oil patch — the very place that harbors so much of Texas' future prosperity," write State Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio), who portions of Converse, Kirby, Universal City and unincorporated Bexar County, in an opinion piece on My San Antonio website.
Gary Shade was driving north along Interstate 5 to Grants Pass early one morning, dreading his workday ahead as a stockbroker at Smith Barney, when he glanced at a man in a white 18-wheeler alongside him.
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At that moment, a light came on for Shade. He later discovered expediting was just the escape he and his wife needed.
TaaS. Does that mean trucks as a service, trailers as a service, or tires as a service? HDT's Deborah Lockridge has another takeaway from the Technology & Maintenance Council meeting in her blog.
HDT Editor and Associate Publisher Deborah Lockridge is a longtime Girl Scout leader and loves to connect her passion for inspiring girls with her love of the trucking industry.
No matter who wins the election, trucking continues to work to educate the people who pass the laws and make the rules that affect the industry. HDT's Deborah Lockridge shares insights from two major trucking associations in her All That's Trucking blog.
Skimping on vacation may be the worst thing you can do for your business, your career, and your mental health. In her All That's Trucking blog, Deborah Lockridge writes about the importance of giving your brain what it needs to be innovative.
Read Deborah Lockridge's picks for the most significant stories we covered at HDT in 2023: freight recession, zero-emission trucks, drivers and marijuana, and more.
HDT's Deborah Lockridge talks about key themes that emerged during sessions, conversations, and on the show floor during the American Trucking Associations' annual management conference.
In her All That's Trucking blog, Deborah Lockridge shares a follow-up to last year's story about a FedEx Ground contractor who was very publicly challenging the company about alleged unfair treatment of its contractors.
Curiosity about how Girl Scout cookies get from the factory to the customer drove the development of a supply patch program. HDT's Deborah Lockridge, a Girl Scout herself, writes about it in her All That's Trucking blog.
