Trucking Info

Blogs

On the Road

Straight talk on trucking from a driver turned award-winning journalist.

Do Your Brain a Favor, Ditch the GPS

The Rand NcNally Motor Carriers' Road Atlas has been the preferred navigation tool for truckers...

GPS is clearly the navigation method of choice in trucking, and amongst the general population, but chronic GPS users might be doing their brains a disservice, and missing out on a lot of excitement by getting lost once in a while, says Equipment Editor Jim Park in his latest blog.

Thoughts on Achieving 11 MPG

Keeping the tractor-trailer gap as tight as possible helps, as does the trailer-mounted gap...

It's easy to get excited and stay excited about fuel economy when you can see positive change coming from your efforts. When I saw the numbers creeping up into the 10s on a recent test drive in a Peterbilt 579 EPIQ, I started pushing for 11. And it worked.

What Went Wrong in Colorado's Deadly Truck Crash?

The burnt-out remains of Aguilera-Mederos' truck.

Each day, thousands of truck drivers in places like western Pennsylvania and California and Montana and West Virginia manage to get their trucks down similarly dangerous mountain grades. What went so horribly wrong in Lakewood? HDT's Jim Park, who was a driver for 20 years, digs into the possibilities in his On the Road blog.

2019: The Future in Truck Technology Begins

Nikola's April launch of the next generation of its hydrogen-electric truck is just one of the...

This year hasn't yet faded from the rear-view mirror, and HDT's Jim Park is already looking forward to 2019. The technology advances we have been watching over the past few years look finally to be coming to fruition, and some of those new bits will be hitting the street in 2019, some within the first few months of the New Year.

On the Road to Cracking 10

The Mack Performance Tour 2018 fleet at the end of Day 2 in Memphis.

Rarely do editors get to evaluate fuel economy on test drives. On a recent three-day "Performance Tour" trip in a Mack Anthem, Equipment Editor Jim Park turned in a trip average of 9.5 mpg, with a high of 10.4 on the second leg of the trip. Read how Mack's new engine technology made that possible.

Tire Blowouts Don't Have to Be Deadly

Authorities suspect a steer-tire blowout was the root cause of a spectacular and deadly...

A fatal accident in New Mexico is a sobering reminder that proper reaction and proven driving techniques are key to ensuring that a truck remains under the driver's control in the event of a tire blowout — even a steer tire failure.

Of Course Trucking Should Pay for Parking

Publicly funded rest areas amount to a government subsidy of a for-profit industry. Trucking...

Nobody likes having to pay for something that once came free, but we now face a crisis-level shortage of truck parking spaces in this country. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the days of free parking are over, says Equipment Editor Jim Park in his blog.

Terror by Truck: It's Happened Again

Unattended trucks could become instruments of destruction. Photo by Jim Park

Someone in Stockholm, Sweden, crashed a delivery truck into a crowded department store, killing at least three. It's been described as an act of terror, but it may also have been a crime of opportunity. In his On the Road blog, Equipment Editor Jim Park asks: Are we ready to prevent or defend against such an attack?

Do You Have a Will?

It's far easier to get your will in order than it will be for your family to figure out your...

Without a clear statement of your intentions in the form of a will, the state might make these decisions for you, or decide how to divvy up your assets – possibly including your truck if you're an owner-operator. Jim Park blogs about why drivers (and others) need to give this some thought.

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