Comments By John Douglas Barrow

I will not discourage him from at least trying, however. The felony might have been for aggravated assault. But the punk who was caught trespassing on private property and stealing got what he had coming to him. The thieving punk was lucky to not have been shot. This is Constitutional Carry Iowa after all. I have an Iowa concealed carry permit, myself, by the way. But I digress. The fact, mitigating circumstances, that he was defending private property might bring him some sympathy from prospective hirers particularly in Iowa. This is Red state Iowa too. I don't know what the nature of his fines are to be quite frank. I have not yet asked him about any moving violations. It seems that in Red states liars and thieves are hated much more than any property owner who is defending his property against thieving punks. Doing some quick Google research is showing that companies are being forced to be laxer on hiring policy because they are so desperate to get steering wheel holders now more than ever before. I'm sure there are drivers out there with worse criminal records than merely beating up thieving punks.

What is a freight drought? How could it be? I keep hearing about how super short we are on drivers. Why do we need even more drivers if loads are becoming fewer? America's population seems to keep growing and growing. People seem to be getting fatter and fatter. Products, often dirt poor, made in China fail more and more frequently and there seems to be more and more need to replace this short-lived crap shelved in Walmart stores and amazon.com warehouses sooner and sooner. I can only see the reduced demands for loads if overall consumption is diminished. Is more and more overland freight going from road to rail and air?

I noticed trucking companies are dropping their pays. One company that paid 65cpm last year is now starting at 58cpm.

So much for perks to lure more drivers.

Congressman Nunn, Iowa 3rd District, has just informed me that the United States of America is now about 80,000 CDL drivers short, and that number is expected to double over the next five years according to him. I suspect that motor carrier companies will get very desperate and therefore feel the need to have to lower the standards and/or offer more and more perks and favorable working conditions to fill those huge numbers of vacant slots. Or, autonomous trucking technology in earnest will have to go full bore.

Nobody gives a hoot about the motor freight trade, but everybody buys some product from milk to women's shoes to TV sets to tablets to dog food that rode on a big rig at one time or another. I love food when I get hungry. During the pandemic, food shelves were empty in supermarkets. A year later, there was no bread at Walmart because winter conditions held up the trucks for about a week in Oklahoma. I asked the manager about it and that was what she had told me. Truckers need some kind of lobby like the NRA and Gun Owners of America is for law-abiding gun owners. We Americans need some kind of program in public schools that makes children highly aware and appreciative of big-rig drivers and how vital they are to our nation's economy.

Right now, he, age 35, is in a program, a sobriety home. He has had some issues with alcohol in the past. He also tells me he has at least one felony on his record for beating up some punks who were actually on his property stealing his things. I don't know if he has any drug issues on his record. He tells me he has no DUI/DWI on his driving record nor any accidents on his record. He owes about $1,250 in fines in the state of Iowa to get his revoked driver license returned. I don't know yet if those fines are related to any moving violations. Is a speeding ticket a deal-breaker to become a truck driver? I understand many drivers do have one or more felonies on their records. CDL is probably the best paying job for convicted felons out there. His drinking problem began when he injured his foot badly on the job as a construction worker about 5 years ago. He fell 20 feet while working on a building, landed upright and virtually shattered every bone in his right foot. He has had pins/plates for foot surgery about three times already. The chronic pain has been murder, and he still might need another foot operation. Right now, he is working full time in then cellular telephone business and seems to be doing well but it barely nets $2K a month and he has child support to pay. He has told me time and time again about his interests in driving. I'm sure he can do much better than $2K a month. His biggest struggle now is getting whatever fines paid off to get back his driver license.

Are the cards badly stacked against him for landing a driving job? Is it still feasible to try to pursue this if he is really serious about it?

I have never had Garmin fail me to get to a destination whenever exact latitude/longitude coordinates were punched in. Streets change names and shapes but coordinates never change. A driver in theory could get the map coordinates for a customer on Google Earth if he has a laptop. He can also use that Google Earth birds eye aerial to study for his approach and landing.

We need clearly-defined national truck routes and big-rig-specific GPS applications. Each and every motor road bridge in North America should be put into a database with its defined clearances so GPS systems can accurately calculate a logical truck route and weed out any bridges and tunnels lacking adequate clearance. America should be a nation of exact standards.

Hello all. I started driving in January. The company I was hired with, had me go through their training..then they put me with their local TEs..for 2 weeks(a week each). Now, I was OTR..I don't see how running with locals would help me with anything I might run into on the road. My first week out after that training (alone), I was sent to PA..I inevitably got stuck following my gps. Mind you I have never been to PA, so I was not familiar. I got stuck and had to call the authorities to get me out. It ended up being a preventable (fine, I get it) no citations. In the month and a half following. I got stuck in the mud a few times and needed a tow. 3 more preventables. Then my last one I hit a customers pole and knocked it sideways. I feel like I didn't get the adequate training I needed. I'm sorry this is so long winded. But I feel wronged by the company. Am I justified to fight these preventables? They let me go and now I have 5 on my record.. no one wants to hire someone with these on their record. I don't know what to do now. Someone please give me some insight. TYIA

The importance of thorough trip planning cannot be understated. Relying on something like Google maps to route you to your destination will get you into trouble eventually... and it usually won't take very long for it to happen. Follow Google maps and you will get "stuck". It is a 100% certainty. It'll take you into a residential area, down a "trucks prohibited" road, into a 12 foot bridge... it doesn't know that you are in a semi.

I never learned route planning during my training, either, but still understood that getting the truck into a bad situation would be my own fault. I've been driving for about a year and a half now and I can say that my biggest fear is taking my truck down a road that I am not 100% sure a truck should go down.

Paper maps are old hat in the 21st century. There is no damn excuse why GPS technology can't be up to speed with the special needs of and special considerations for large, lowly, humble earthbound commercial vehicles. GPS tech is used to guide multi-million-dollar jet airplanes and humongous sea ships.

I thought I might share it with you. Additionally, I think America's infrastructure as well as GPS navigation technology also needs much improvement to make your daily life less heck. Here is what Congressman (R) of Iowa, 3rd District, had to say to me and his other constituents:

"Hi John, It’s time we start telling the truth: a four-year degree doesn’t guarantee success and it’s not the only pathway to succeed. Across the country, there’s a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers and if this trend continues, that number is expected to double in the next five years. Drivers are critical for many industries – including agriculture. Farmers rely on drivers to help transport their animals and their crops. Skilled workers are in high demand and promoting other avenues to success is good for employees, good for business, and good for our country. Apprenticeships and training programs are critical to addressing this crisis and opening doors for Iowans to good-paying jobs. I’m committed to investing in these critical programs and expanding opportunities for Iowans. That’s why I joined DMACC (Des Moines Area Community College) to announce a $1 million federal investment in their new Transportation Institute Education Center. With this funding and private-public partnerships, DMACC will build a new education center for CDL drivers and double the number of students they can educate at one time. This key investment will help boost the workforce in Iowa and support our economy. As always, please reach out to our offices with any concerns, comments, or requests. Please also consider signing up for our weekly newsletter to get more updates on news relevant to our community. In Service, Signature Zach Nunn"

Speaking of GPS, my Garmin 1350 Model Nuvi (purchased new in 2011) couldn't even find the police station in my hometown of Pleasant Hill, Polk County, IA. That was even after a fresh lifetime maps and firmware update yesterday. This was my voting precinct for the Iowa June 4 primary. I had to use Google Maps on my phone to get me there. So, later on, I had to use Google Earth Pro to find the lat/long map coordinates of my local police station and program them into my Garmin unit by hand that way. That Google Earth aerial birds eye map was even dated way back to 1985! My hometown police station is on 6875 Martha L Miller Drive, but Garmin doesn't recognize any street name with "Martha" in it for the city of Pleasant Hill, Iowa at all. This street is even shown on the old 1985 Google Earth birds eye map. It's very seldom my Garmin GPS doesn't recognize street names in America, and this is one notable exception. The only street name beginning with "Mar-" for Pleasant Hill, IA that Garmin could find was "Martin". It is handy for Garmin to at least feature map coordinates capability for my car GPS. My current position can also be found in lat/long with the "Where Am I?" function. God forbid, I may someday need to report my location by coordinates in an emergency where no street name is known or I'm off-road somewhere. Then again, I might not even have cellular service in that spot.

We had manuals.. but keep in mind.. carriers put different options in that may not be in the manual. That can be frustrating... "what is that scale guage? What is that red switch?" Etc

Are drivers even trained by employers for any aftermarket equipment added on fleet trucks? I should hope a biggie like JB Hunt or Schneider should not ever leave its vehicle operators befuddled by anything weird on the dash. On these new-fangled automobiles with these tombstone things sticking up outta the dash, it might come as no surprise that I might have to thumb through the book in the glove compartment just to figure out how to set the clock, pair the phone or some piddling thing like that. I have not owned a car any newer than a 1995 model to date. I cannot even find an OEM-spec owner's guide for the 1995 Corolla I own. I have to get some tech info outta the Hayne's manual I bought like changing fuses, bulbs or whatnot. Whenever I drive something new or unfamiliar, I want to get to know what I'm driving very well. A messy dashboard loaded with a bunch of unfamiliar crap can be quite distracting and dangerous while underway. Hunting safety instructors have taught us to "know our gun". Please know your truck as any pilot should know his airplane and you should know your own right hand and be safe!

Thank you, sir. I'm glad to know motor carrier outfits supply manuals to drivers. Penske put a crapload of manuals in the International 26' truck I rented not long ago. Yes, there were two cubbies these several books were in over the windshield. I had to use one to figure out how to get the clock time set correctly and another to figure out how to stream phone music to the Bluetooth radio. I hated the a/c in this thing. It would blow cold and warm air intermittently. It also had that stupid lane departure thing I had to get even another manual to try to figure out how to make the damn thing stop beeping for good. I could only get the thing to shut up for only about 10 minutes then it would eventually kick back in again. I would then have to press some button to make it quit again. The stupid thing bothered me if the truck was merely riding along the white line on the shoulder, as most big trucks do, or hugging the center line on a tight turn on an undivided back road. Do your modern commercial trucks these days have this bothersome lane departure thing too? Older Penske International trucks I've rented before had good cold a/c and none of this noisy crap to get in the way.