Truckin' Trivia

Now for last week’s Truckin’ Trivia question so you can find out if you got the right answer. From the Trucking Terms Glossary, published by the Truck Writers of North America, came this question: Define the term ‘dunnage.’ And why is it always shown separately on the bill of lading?

‘Dunnage’ is the material used to protect or support freight in trucks. The weight of dunnage is shown separately on the bill of lading because it is part of the products being hauled.

Okay, let’s add the next Truckin’ Trivia question for your listening and puzzling pleasure: again from the Truck Writers of North America Trucking Terms Glossary, Name five examples of the currently-recognized alternative conventional engine fuels.

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Sometimes a life-changing incident takes place with few witnesses, let alone someone to help. On an April day last year, out in the lonely high desert country of New Mexico, an enraged man was trying to kill his pregnant girlfriend by running her down with his pickup truck. Against all odds, there were not only witnesses, but Good Samaritans to help.

Ronnie Greene of Regina, New Mexico, and his co-driver were heading for Albuquerque, driving for A. Passmore & Sons. Near Española, on US 84, they saw a pregnant woman run over by a pickup truck. Greene, a former paramedic and firefighter, stopped his rig and ran to her, helping her get to her feet and start walking towards his truck. As Greene was talking to her, the pickup turned and headed back again, heading straight for the woman and him. Thinking quickly, Greene pushed her into the narrow space between his truck cab and the trailer, protecting her with his own body. Three more times the pickup, now a deadly weapon, came roaring towards them. On the last pass, the pickup driver hit… 

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If Success is the Goal, Communication is Key!

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks.

Let’s face it; communication between you and your fleet is no easy task and it’s hard to squash rumors started over misinformation.  You’ve invested a lot of time and money on equipment & technology to get the job done right, but what about your drivers? 

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks. Call 877.937.7263 for more information and a free demo.

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks.

This edition of Awesome Trucker is presented by
The Driver - The Professional Trucker's Audio Magazine.
S and E Productions' Product Copyright 2008 S and E Productions
SandEProductions.com or call 877.937.7263 for more information

Get your ears on for News in Review. This time we’ll check stories on supply and demand, Con-Way Freight is 25 years old, Layover.com reported an interesting statistic, the driver shortage isn’t over but fewer companies are actively recruiting, hybrid cars, yes; hybrid trucks, maybe; the strike in Spain makes labor problems plain; no more cats under the hood and the Aussies are striking – but announcing it ahead of time so consumers can stock up.

Truckin' Trivia

First, let’s take a quick side trip for the Truckin’ Trivia. Last week’s question was: It has 56 miles of seashore with a famous lighthouse as well. Inland, the state flower is the Flowering Dogwood, and the State Tree is the pine, found of course in the Joyce Kilmer (I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree…) Memorial Forest. We were speaking of – North Carolina.
This Week's Truckin' Trivia

Now here’s your new Truckin’ Trivia question: This state has mountains, rivers and the second-lowest population density in America. It’s known as the Equality State because it was the first state to allow women to vote. What state is it?

And here’s the News in Review.

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Is an organization of trucking professionals interested in learning more about the business of trucking. The purpose of the organization is to help individual truckers (company drivers, lease operators, owner/operators and small motor carriers) to improve their business by  learning, networking  and working together.
         Success through Knowledge, Strength through Information.
Together helping to change the industry to provide greater opportunity and profitability to the small operator is our long range goal.

Truckin' Trivia
First we’ll give you the answer to last week’s Truckin’ Trivia question. The State Tree is the Pecan, which must mean the state dessert should be pecan pie. Its capital is famous for its music and recording stars. It became a state in 1845, and the scene of its most famous battle has been in many movies. What state is it?

Now name this state: It has 56 miles of seashore with a famous lighthouse as well. Inland, the state flower is the Flowering Dogwood, and the state tree is the pine, found of course in the Joyce Kilmer (I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree) Memorial Forest.

Sponsored by:


The P.O.L.A.R. (Professional Operators' Learning And Resource) Club

Is an organization of trucking professionals interested in learning more about the business of trucking. The purpose of the organization is to help individual truckers (company drivers, lease operators, owner/operators and small motor carriers) to improve their business by  learning, networking  and working together.
         Success through Knowledge, Strength through Information.
Together helping to change the industry to provide greater opportunity and profitability to the small operator is our long range goal.

Alcohol and drug use resulted in the arrests of two truckers by Washington state troopers within 48 hours at the scale house near Ridgefield on northbound  I-5. Michael Mengel was driving  an  overweight flatbed. When  a commercial  vehicle officer talked to the trucker, the officer smelled alcohol. Mengel  denied drinking,  but agreed to a  breath test. After he blew into the tester, the machine registered alcohol in  his system.

In the suspected  drug arrest, a trucker  accused of using methamphetamines while driving was caught when a commercial vehicle officer noticed the pintle hitch was open…

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It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon, not unusual for September, and Rick Tower of Yreka, California, was on his way home, hauling a load of wood chips east on Highway 96 near Horse Creek. Suddenly a westbound Lincoln Towncar fish-tailed on the wet, slick pavement and, for a few heart-stopping seconds, became airborne before it plunged into the swift current of the Klamath River.

Tower pulled his Earl Bryant rig over to the side of the highway and stopped as quickly as possible. He leaped out of the cab, and started running across the highway to the river, yelling to the man who’d pulled over in his pickup behind the eighteen-wheeler to call for help.

Tower scrambled down to the river as the heavy car, pushed by the rain-swollen river, slowly turned in the current and then started moving downstream, picking up speed.He could hear screams for help, so Tower jumped into the river and swam to the car. Inside, Dorothy Knudsen, eighty-two years old...

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This edition of Awesome Trucker is presented by
The Driver - The Professional Trucker's Audio Magazine.
S and E Productions' Product Copyright 2008 S and E Productions
SandEProductions.com or call 877.937.7263 for more information

"The Driver" The Professional Trucker's Audio Magazine
If Success is the Goal, Communication is Key!

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks.
 
Let’s face it; communication between you and your fleet is no easy task and it’s hard to squash rumors started over misinformation.  You’ve invested a lot of time and money on equipment & technology to get the job done right, but what about your drivers? 

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks. Call 877.937.7263 for more information and a free demo.

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks.

Most of us are probably guilty of taking our eyesight for granted. A side from our required D.O.T. physicals, we probably don’t give it a second thought. But being truckers we should place a premium on eye care as vision is one of the most-used senses we rely upon in our occupation.          

No one is more aware of that than a former steel hauler who lost his eyesight in a motorcycle accident, which forced him to give up driving because he’s legally blind. But he still loves trucking, so he’s working in operations for a company in Pennsylvania. And has started an education program for the rest of us.

Eyes on the Road was founded by Mark Harter to provide vision care information for truckers.  Along with the Schepens Eye Research Institute, and the trucker’s web site www.truck.net.

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The P.O.L.A.R. (Professional Operators Learning And Resource) Club
Is an organization of trucking professionals interested in learning more about the business of trucking. The purpose of the organization is to help individual truckers (company drivers, lease operators, owner/operators and small motor carriers) to improve their business by  learning, networking  and working together.
         Success through Knowledge, Strength through Information.
Together helping to change the industry to provide greater opportunity and profitability to the small operator is our long range goal.

Success through Knowledge, Strength through Information.

Together helping to change the industry to provide greater opportunity and profitability to the small operator is our long range goal.

Now here’s this week’s question: There’s a huge fireworks celebration in a major city every New Year’s Eve, but it’s not held in the capital. The nickname is “The Old Line State” and it’s figured prominently in naval history What state is it?

Send Us Your Answer

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The week of May 11th is National Transportation week.

Join us now as we check on IdleAire Technologies; what one penny can do to your fuel costs, the unusual market for used trucks, the squeeze on drivers at US seaports, Congressional testimony, a truck hijacking, wildcat strike and razorbacks on the road.

(See our sponsored product or service review below)



STARTING NEXT WEEK:
Truckin’ Trivia from American Rig Radio

Just for something fun and different, American Rig Radio’s “News in Review” will have the answer to ‘Truckin’ Trivia’ every week! And the questions aren’t all that easy. For example, “Its nickname is the ‘First State’ and you’ll see peach blossoms in the capital every spring, while winter’s cold is cheered by American holly. What state is this?” (See the Answer below our sponsored product or service review.)

Tune in to “News in Review” every week to catch up on the headlines and the big news stories, as well as the answer to Truckin’ Trivia.


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5. Setting Routes and Lane Density Setting specific routes and determining lane density in those routes is the best way to find the road to success.
6. Setting Rates by Costs Knowing your Break-Even Point is the number one secret to becoming profitable in the trucking business. These two sessions will help you understand the methods needed to figure your costs, calculate your break-even points, and how to set profitable rates.
7. Marketing and Customer Service This is where the rubber meets the road. Marketing is how you find customers; customer service is how you keep them. In these two sessions we will cover the techniques on how to accomplish these two very important goals.

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Truckin' Trivia answer: The answer is ‘Delaware,’ declared the First State in 1787. 

 

In this roundtable, we will be discussing “Where Have All The Drivers Gone.”  We are joined by author/trucker Jeff Clark who wrote “We’re Dying Out Here – The Truth About The Trucker Shortage.” (see purchase information below)  Also contributing will be an owner of a small motor carrier and truckers from across America.

We will begin with an article I wrote which appeared in American Trucker Magazine last year….

Sponsored by: Hey We're Dying Out Here The Truth Behind the Trucker Shortage
Available from TruckersBookstore.com (A division of Write Up the Road Publishing & Media)
NEW RELEASE

Hey We're Dying Out Here:

The Truth Behind the Trucker Shortage

Author: Jeff Clark

ISBN: 1432718290 

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Paperback 140 pages

 

 

Book Description

Why Truckers are Dying and How to Stop it!
The stereotype is that truckers are lazy. The truth is that truckers are working themselves to death. We spend hours at work everyday not getting paid and not logging it. The result is that the 16 hour day is more common than the 8 hour day. The consequences are that drivers over caffeinate, under exercise, eat on the run, and die about 15 years younger than the general population.
Trucking publications have been encouraging truckers to adopt healthy lifestyle changes. That is great. But it solves less than half the issues. Clark attacks the whole problem. Truckers are being killed by a system that is abusing them. As a veteran trucker Clark has seen the problem. Hey, We're Dying Out Here offers practical solutions. Clark's ideas can save truckers. By saving good drivers we can improve or remove bad ones and make the highways safer for everyone.

 

Order Code 1432718290

$8.95 + S&H

It’s getting almost that bad out on the road and the figures can show you why: both the F.M.C.S.A and the National Transportation Safety Board agree there’s a shortfall of nearly thirty thousand parking spaces for trucks each night. Half of all the private truck stops are filled, and eighty percent of the public rest areas across the nation are filled or in overflow nightly as well.

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Write Up The Road Media - Home of : The P.O.L.A.R. Club, I.C.E. (In-Cab Education), Truckers Bookstore, Truckers' Business Coach and American Rig Radio
Write Up The Road Publishing, a 60 MPH company that began in 2002 aboard an eighteen- wheeler corporate office, working to provide truckers with the information, knowledge and resources to help them be successful. Our years of experience and know-how in trucking and journalism have putus at the forefront of an emerging industry within an industry, Educational Services  and Resources for truckers.

It was on one of those usual runs, just outside Arkansas in the wee hours of the morning, when he saw a car on fire beside the deserted road. At 3 a.m., Stapleton first assumed someone had deliberately set the blaze, but as he slowed down to pass it, he realized the back-up lights were still on, flickering. That told him someone was still in the car. So even though it was illegal for him to stop because of his load of explosive material, he pulled the rig over, parked, and ran back to help.....

Sponsored by:

The Driver - The Professional Truckers' Audio Magazine

How do you keep everyone on the same page?  In these tough times, how can you retain your good drivers and train your...not so good ones?  We can help you do that and more without your drivers leaving the cab of their trucks.

This edition of Awesome Trucker is presented by
The Driver - The Professional Trucker's Audio Magazine.
S and E Productions' Product Copyright 2008 S and E Productions
SandEProductions.com or call 877.937.7263 for more information