Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Retention – Why Drivers Leave

James Dawson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:37:41 +0000

Contractor and driver retention is extremely important to the transportation industry. Many factors lead to drivers leaving a company. Certainly one of the first ones that come to mind is the driver is not making enough money. This is one of the major issues which increases driver turnover, but it is not the only significant [...]

Trucker Stories Wanted

Wayne Weisser — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:22:05 +0000

A film is being made focusing on the struggle young people are facing in today’s economy. The Academy Award winning director is looking for truckers in their 20s and 30s who are working to support their families and set aside money for their children’s future. The website is Your Money Story.Net but if you want to [...]

Communication

James Dawson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:25:00 +0000

I had a couple of problems come up last week that could have been easily resolved if the parties involved communicated with one another. Therefore, I wanted to share with you the ‘speech’ I gave concerning communication. I do not necessarily think that the lack of proper communication skills are any more prevalent in the [...]

Nominations for the Best Trucking Podcast

Wayne Weisser — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:25:33 +0000

Doing a good podcast on a consistent schedule takes a lot of work. There are basically two ways to do a podcast, one is to do a lot of editing, add music for intros and outros, it’s a little time consuming, while other podcasts just turn on the mike and start talking, then stop talking [...]

The Science is Settled

Wayne Weisser — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:25:32 +0000

As many know, my truck is on the road without me and I’m playing Safety Manager at my current company. I am taking this opportunity and going back to school and one of the rules of higher education is, you must take required classes to fulfill any degree requirements. I suppose they think it will [...]

Breaking News – Adios IdleAire…

Marshall J. Gruskin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:04:13 +0000

I could have told them so. I’ve been writing for the longest time that it wasn’t going to work. Bad idea. Stupid. Waste of space. Dumb. Shame on T/A and all the other truck stops that erected this junk. Any trucker with an APU, cell phone, laptop or TV just didn’t need IdleAire. The [...]

Who Really Runs The World?

Marshall J. Gruskin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:33:38 +0000

The Big Rig breakfast was good at the T/A the other night. I need some eggs despite the 9 PM hour. There was the usual “special forces in Nam” chatter amongst the older saltier drivers. The waitress decided to chime in and said that if you have a CDL with a HAZMAT endorsement and [...]

Techno Truck Review – iPad

Marshall J. Gruskin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:03:02 +0000

I was hoping Steve Jobs – that’s him in the photo – was going to announce that the iPhone would now be available through Verizon. And better yet, service would be offered on their 4G network. No such luck. I have a Blackberry now and while it’s a useful device, I almost prefer to [...]

2 Owner-Operate or nate, I mean not…

Marshall J. Gruskin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:31:48 +0000

Listen, I read Jimmy Dawson’s well thought out piece on becoming a successful owner-operator. Running the truck as a business, etc. Great advice. But quite frankly, I would rather own and operate a hot dog stand on some corner in NYC than be a owner-operator in the trucking business. A Subway fast food restaurant, [...]

Frozen in Rockford…

Marshall J. Gruskin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:16:48 +0000

No I did not listen to the State of the Union. Why? I don’t care right now because I’ve got a whole bunch of my own problems to deal with. Trucker problems. Problems from being out on the road for four weeks. Problems from not being at home. Am I in the truck right [...]