Comments By The Highlight Reel

Today's "Most Satisfying Video Ever" is brought to you by the Oregon Department Of Transportation.

A 12-foot, 200-ton rock fell onto HWY 138 east of Glide, in western Oregon last Thursday, along with several other small rocks, weighing in at only 50- to 100-tons. The rockslide completely blocked the road for several hours, and delays will continue while repairs are being done.

The large rocks were turned into a tamed pile of rubble in a surprisingly controlled explosion, with most debris not straying very far from the blast zone.

The blast was handled by a local blasting service, presumably staffed with people who jump out of bed every morning "ready to blow stuff up".

External Links:

Boulder cleared from Oregon highway using explosives

The image of the Pony Express rider flying over the prairies, mountains, and deserts of the Old West has always occupied a legendary and nostalgic place in American history, though its actual existence only encompassed about a year and a half. Officially beginning operations on April 3, 1860, it was technically the first coast-to-coast rapid delivery service, mainly to support post-Gold Rush California and it's growing population, and cutting mail delivery times from a month or more to 10 days.

Until then, and long before the Interstate Highway System, and even the transcontinental railroad, mail traveled by stagecoach, puttering along the Butterfield Express overland route, over the recently completed Panama Railway, or by slow-boat, taking the long way around.

This being the days before telephones, radio, or any other speedy communication to the young state of California, from Missouri to California, over 150 individual relay stations were established The Pony Express Company, to switch out horses every 10-15 miles, and riders every 75-100. Previously California was mostly separated from the rest of the U.S. by 1,800 miles of mostly unsettled and uninhabited land. Wild West icon William Cody (Buffalo Bill) was one of the better-known young riders for the Pony Express.

By October, 1861, the Pony Express was rendered obsolete, upon the completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line. Being fairly expensive, the service had not yet turned a profit, as the company was hoping to land a government contract to deliver mail, which never materialized. Regular snail mail continued its snailiness until the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869.

Incidentally, the first recorded instance of electronic spam was recorded in London in June, 1864, and addressed in a letter the the editor of The Times:

External Links:

History - 1860 Pony Express debuts

Wikipedia - The Pony Express

Telegraph Spam

From nationally-recognized college swimmer to world traveler to rookie truck driver, fitness has always been Siphiwe Baleka's "thing". After retiring from a successful amateur swimming career that led to a state swimming championship, a spot on the Yale swimming team, and being named to the First Team All-Ivy League Swim Team, Baleka eventually found himself signing up for Prime Inc.'s Student Driver program in 2008.

Within 2 months, he found his weight had gone from his usual 140 lbs to 155 lbs, which doesn't really sound like a lot until you math it out and it becomes a 10% gain. Over the next 3 years, and realizing that nobody had come up with a workable fitness and nutrition plan targeted specifically at the estimated 86% of truck drivers who are overweight, Baleka, through trial and error, developed the Fitness Trucking program.

Implemented at Prime in 2012, Fitness Trucking's 13-Week Basic Program was an instant success.

How much exercise is enough? Well, if your body can handle, pretty much all you can get. Realizing that most drivers, if they're doing it right, are constantly pressed for time, it really takes a surprisingly small amount of time daily to get the exercise you need. It will really help if you can get put aside any feelings of self-consciousness when it comes to others watching you work out, as you'll see in the video Baleka gets in a pretty good 1-minute workout at the fuel island. Of course any fitness program should be coupled with a reasonable, balanced, diet.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

Aerobic Exercise: At least 150 minutes of moderate activity (about 20 minutes a day), or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity (about 10 minutes a day).

Strength training: Work all major muscle groups twice a week, with enough weight or resistance to tire your muscles after 12-15 repetitions.

Another fun fact:

More From TruckingTruth:

TruckingTruth Wiki: Getting Exercise As A Truck Driver

Truck Driver's Career Guide: Stress, Health, & Exercise

From the Web:

Siphiwe Baleka Official Site

How much should the average adult exercise every day?

YouTube - Powerful Engines Starting Compilation

This may be the most satisfying video that you see all day, if you're a fan of big, loud, engines. Literally, a bunch of folks just playing with their big toys.

Admittedly, some of the clips featuring people in loose clothing standing next to the spinning parts of a running engine make us kind of uncomfortable.

March 29th is National "Mom and Pop Business Owners Day", a day to support and celebrate the many "mom and pop" organizations, and small businesses in general, that drive most of the U.S. economy. You would typically picture a "mom and pop" to mean a small store or business, but really could take into account any small, owner-operated outfit.

The term "Mom-and-Pop" conjures images of a largely bygone era, in which the businesses that most people frequented were owned locally, or family-run, or otherwise small and personalized on a level that many of us, especially when we're already so familiar with the Walmart-type big boxes and need to get in and get out in a hurry, don't really get to experience or appreciate, anymore.

In reality, as of 2012, the 27 million small businesses in the United States (those with fewer than 500 employees) accounted for 99.7% of the U.S. economy, with 73% of those being sole-proprietor. 64 percent of the net new jobs created between 1993 and 2011 were at small businesses. There is a heavy churn in turnover among small business, however, with 50% surviving 5 years or more, and only 33% making it to the 10-year mark.

A full 90% of the trucking industry is also made up of companies with less than 10 trucks.

On a more personal, local level, one of the more interesting and popular, true mom and pop shops in the Western New York region is a classic "5-and-dime" in East Aurora, NY, named "Vidler's". Established in 1930, it has grown to a 2-story cornucopia of knick-knackery, cheap toys, and a whole bunch of stuff you might not expect to find. "5 and 10 cent stores" had their heyday in the 1920's and 30's, carrying a wide variety of goods, most of which cost either 5 or 10 cents.

It's honestly kind of like a flea market inside, and is a riot to chase small, easily-distracted, children around in. But if you need to re-supply your candy stash, pick up yarn for that scarf you're knitting, find a new harmonica in the key of "G", and replace your old rolling pin, Vidler's is the place to do all of that, and more:

Technically being one of these mom and pops, we here at TruckingTruth can appreciate the hard work, dedication, and countless hours that it takes just to survive, much less thrive, in a competitive economy.

We also appreciate the time that all of you take to come by and make us what we are, so Thank You, for helping us to carve out a niche in a world where reliance on automation and impersonal interaction with robots and phone menus seems to be moving forward more rapidly, despite the actualities of technology's limitations.

Small Business Administration FAQ

Vidler's 5 & 10 Official Site

Sometimes when you're performing a task that you've done a million times, whose steps you can recite in your sleep, you suddenly realize that you've payed no attention to the last few moments, as you were daydreaming about puppies or tacos or a day on the beach, or something. Generally letting your mind wander over something that may have become mundane. Any act that we repeatedly perform can sometimes lull us into a certain complacency when we're simply running through a checklist, big or small, inside of our own heads. We are all human, and it happens to the best of us.

The Japanese have been using a method for reducing mistakes on the job involving pointing at an object, and confirming its compliance or function, or at least its existence, out loud. They've deployed it across their national rail system, and companies like Toyota have picked up on it, as well. This is part of their "Zero-accident Campaign", whose theory states that:

The act of "pointing and calling" helps to bring the activity "out of your head" and into an actual realm of worldly existence, requiring that you physically pay closer attention to whatever it is you are doing. In other words, it creates an increased awareness through physical reinforcement. A 1994 study by the Japan Railway Technical Research Institute found that human errors were reduced by 85% when a task was accompanied by both pointing and calling, as opposed to doing neither.

A more scientifically-detailed explanation of Finger Pointing and Calling (FPC, yes it really has a name) can be found at the link below:

Finger-Pointing to Reduce Accidents - Research using body sensors suggests gesturing may increase driver attention.

The idea has never been implemented on a wide scale in the West, however, and one theory suggest that English and U.S. workers are just too self-conscious to be pointing and yelling at things in public, and would feel "silly". Hard to believe given the cultural norms in Japan regarding humility and not calling an undue amount of attention to oneself. Our take is that you do what needs to be done to get the job done safely, and dance like there's nobody watching.

Either way, you can see how a system like this could be applied in many different ways, driving a truck or otherwise. Many of us already do it, though sometimes probably subconsciously, talking to the traffic around us, or the ingredients for the cake we're baking, or the cabinet we're building, or running through driving directions when we don't have a GPS lady ordering us around.

External Links:

Why Japan’s Rail Workers Can’t Stop Pointing at Things

Concept of “Zero-accident Total Participation Campaign”

A portion of I-85 in Atlanta, inside the 285 beltway close to Midtown, caught fire and collapsed Thursday during rush hour. There were no reported injuries.

While most through traffic will not necessarily be affected, an estimated 250,000 vehicles travel through that area per day. If you happen to be one of them, even occasionally, be prepared to find an alternate route for the foreseeable future, until this is fixed.

The area in red is the 85 where it meets the GA400.

Outside Links:

Atlanta Interstate 85 update: Fire causes I-85 bridge to collapse

How the I-85 closure will affect your commute

A portion of I-85 in Atlanta, inside the 285 beltway close to Midtown, caught fire and collapsed Thursday during rush hour. There were no reported injuries.

While most through traffic will not necessarily be affected, an estimated 250,000 vehicles travel through that area per day. If you happen to be one of them, even occasionally, be prepared to find an alternate route for the foreseeable future, until this is fixed.

The area in red is the 85 where it meets the GA400.

Outside Links:

Atlanta Interstate 85 update: Fire causes I-85 bridge to collapse

How the I-85 closure will affect your commute

Sometimes when you're performing a task that you've done a million times, whose steps you can recite in your sleep, you suddenly realize that you've payed no attention to the last few moments, as you were daydreaming about puppies or tacos or a day on the beach, or something. Generally letting your mind wander over something that may have become mundane. Any act that we repeatedly perform can sometimes lull us into a certain complacency when we're simply running through a checklist, big or small, inside of our own heads. We are all human, and it happens to the best of us.

The Japanese have been using a method for reducing mistakes on the job involving pointing at an object, and confirming its compliance or function, or at least its existence, out loud. They've deployed it across their national rail system, and companies like Toyota have picked up on it, as well. This is part of their "Zero-accident Campaign", whose theory states that:

The act of "pointing and calling" helps to bring the activity "out of your head" and into an actual realm of worldly existence, requiring that you physically pay closer attention to whatever it is you are doing. In other words, it creates an increased awareness through physical reinforcement. A 1994 study by the Japan Railway Technical Research Institute found that human errors were reduced by 85% when a task was accompanied by both pointing and calling, as opposed to doing neither.

A more scientifically-detailed explanation of Finger Pointing and Calling (FPC, yes it really has a name) can be found at the link below:

Finger-Pointing to Reduce Accidents - Research using body sensors suggests gesturing may increase driver attention.

The idea has never been implemented on a wide scale in the West, however, and one theory suggest that English and U.S. workers are just too self-conscious to be pointing and yelling at things in public, and would feel "silly". Hard to believe given the cultural norms in Japan regarding humility and not calling an undue amount of attention to oneself. Our take is that you do what needs to be done to get the job done safely, and dance like there's nobody watching.

Either way, you can see how a system like this could be applied in many different ways, driving a truck or otherwise. Many of us already do it, though sometimes probably subconsciously, talking to the traffic around us, or the ingredients for the cake we're baking, or the cabinet we're building, or running through driving directions when we don't have a GPS lady ordering us around.

External Links:

Why Japan’s Rail Workers Can’t Stop Pointing at Things

Concept of “Zero-accident Total Participation Campaign”

March 29th is National "Mom and Pop Business Owners Day", a day to support and celebrate the many "mom and pop" organizations, and small businesses in general, that drive most of the U.S. economy. You would typically picture a "mom and pop" to mean a small store or business, but really could take into account any small, owner-operated outfit.

The term "Mom-and-Pop" conjures images of a largely bygone era, in which the businesses that most people frequented were owned locally, or family-run, or otherwise small and personalized on a level that many of us, especially when we're already so familiar with the Walmart-type big boxes and need to get in and get out in a hurry, don't really get to experience or appreciate, anymore.

In reality, as of 2012, the 27 million small businesses in the United States (those with fewer than 500 employees) accounted for 99.7% of the U.S. economy, with 73% of those being sole-proprietor. 64 percent of the net new jobs created between 1993 and 2011 were at small businesses. There is a heavy churn in turnover among small business, however, with 50% surviving 5 years or more, and only 33% making it to the 10-year mark.

A full 90% of the trucking industry is also made up of companies with less than 10 trucks.

On a more personal, local level, one of the more interesting and popular, true mom and pop shops in the Western New York region is a classic "5-and-dime" in East Aurora, NY, named "Vidler's". Established in 1930, it has grown to a 2-story cornucopia of knick-knackery, cheap toys, and a whole bunch of stuff you might not expect to find. "5 and 10 cent stores" had their heyday in the 1920's and 30's, carrying a wide variety of goods, most of which cost either 5 or 10 cents.

It's honestly kind of like a flea market inside, and is a riot to chase small, easily-distracted, children around in. But if you need to re-supply your candy stash, pick up yarn for that scarf you're knitting, find a new harmonica in the key of "G", and replace your old rolling pin, Vidler's is the place to do all of that, and more:

Technically being one of these mom and pops, we here at TruckingTruth can appreciate the hard work, dedication, and countless hours that it takes just to survive, much less thrive, in a competitive economy.

We also appreciate the time that all of you take to come by and make us what we are, so Thank You, for helping us to carve out a niche in a world where reliance on automation and impersonal interaction with robots and phone menus seems to be moving forward more rapidly, despite the actualities of technology's limitations.

Small Business Administration FAQ

Vidler's 5 & 10 Official Site