Comments By Tim M.

Okay. This one might require some of the people who've been running for many moons. How many remember the pain in the arse organization ICC? You remember,the trucks that had 50 billion numbers splattered on the side of them. Back then you had to obtain ICC authority if you had a company (or even if you were just a true independent). In order to get the authority,you had to prove there was a need for your service . How does that work today? I know after deregulation International Transport (for those of you around awhile,you'll remember that was the company Dave Hodgman was leased to. You know. The guy who now owns Southern Pride.)sold out to Schneider(I think it was them). I heard Schneider bought them so they would have operating rights to their territory (some crap like that). So who do you plead your case to,today if you want operating authority,or has that gone into extinction too? The letters on trucks I see today that stick out,are DOT. They're concerned with safety more than anything. Back then,ICCMC ,was plastered on the truck. ICC was more concerned with the economics . So if it's more DOT today,who handles operating authority,or does that even still exist? Has it been renamed and called something else today? Thanks guys.

I don't trust scale tenders.

"Save the world". thank God. I thought you were gonna bring up global warming

Just starting out,good advice from these men. Don't try lease purchase or become an O/O. You get years and mikes behind you,I say go for O/O if you want. That's all I ever did. I did okay before I retired. I remember back in the 70's and early 80's,truck manufactures geared their ads towards O/O. One of Kenworth ads read,"an operator can't afford any less". Freightliner had a ad in the very early 80'a. "If a man has the guts to go it alone,build him a truck tough enough to take it". If being an O/O is not a good idea,then I don't understand why the truck manufacturers would come up with ads directed at O/O. Like I said,I was always an O/O. Nerve wracking and sleepless nights at times,but the good times always outweighed that. If you do go O/O in the future. Keep rolling. I've seen a lot of guys sitting in the coffee stop. Drinking coffee,smoking cigarettes and telling lies. Then they start crying about not being able to make this months truck payment. Good luck with your future.

Hey Papa. That reminds me of the 76 Parking lot (well when 76 was still around). Lot lizards would start prowling out there around 1 AM. They'd go trough the lot banging on drivers doors. I was sitting in the truck getting my lies straight in my log book. There was a truck next to me. Lot lizard bangs on his door. I guess the driver wanted to see the "merchandise" first. She pulls up her shirt. Gravity had not been kind to her . I don't see how she walked without tripping over those puppies. Ahhhh! My eyeballs are melting. I'm surprised I didn't need a therapist after that. I guess lot lizards are extinct now. If I'm out on the road going somewhere at that time of the night,I might stop at a loves or pilot for a sofa or something. I've never seen any lot lizards there.

I found out,"nothing is as it seems" in this industry. I heard Hill and Hill were needing a lot of drivers for the Alaska Pipeline. Great money! I'm there. Talk about getting bit in the arse. I talked to driver that ran the Dalton Highway. Heard the horror stories. Hey I survived Nam. I've got some years driving behind me. How hard can this be. Found out I wasn't super trucker. I ended up eating a bit of crow. I stuck it out (kinda had to. Truck payments). Talk about stupid. I figured,I'd been up Loveland,Wolf Creek and Centenial passes. How hard can Dalton be? Those passes eventually had an ending. Dalton seemed to go on forever (not to mention,talk about a "white knuckle drive).Dalton was a nightmare for the first few months. Couple times I had to have help getting over a hill (what they call a hill). I eventually got confidence in running the highway,although I never lost respect for it ,or forgot where I was at. The money was great (typical oilfield story,"make the money while it's there"). My whole point to new drivers is,even if you get miles and highway and weather conditions behind you,examine something real close if you're gonna switch to another kind of hauling.

'77 352H

Watch out for buzzards feeding on a dead animal. This happened ages ago. I was hauling drill pipe to west Texas . Came up upon a flock feeding on a dead animal in the road. I figured they'd get outta they way in time. I guess they like to play chicken. Three of them lost.

Dalton Highway. After that everything was easier than I thought .

NAVL (North American Van Lines) pulled this crap in the 70's. No experience needed. Come up with 2500 to 3000 and you too can be an O/O (oddly enough the ad was in owner/operator magazine. Very misleading title for the mag. They were right opposite of Mike Parkhurst's Overdrive magazine). They went on to tell you,you'd get 2 whole weeks of trading at home office in Ft. Wayne. After that,you'd get your truck. A pile of junk Transtar 4070 cabover or an even worse junky White cabover. You'd run for a couple months okay,then they'd starve you out. I'm hearing same thing about these lease purchase programs today.