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Inventor Gottlieb Daimler in 1896 converted a horse-drawn cart to be fitted with Phoenix, which was the name he gave to a rear-mounted, four-horsepower, two-cylinder engine he’d designed from a modified passenger car engine. It was the world’s first truck: an automated version of the carts pulled by horse or donkey for millennia.
Luella Bates was born in Wisconsin on October 17, 1897. Very little can be found about her earliest years, but she began working for Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. during World War I.
Bates was the first female licensed commercial truck driver (as well as a mechanic and truck inspector).
The newly created National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ran into trouble when it tried to require trucks to have antilock brakes. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 121 went into effect in January 1975. An award-winning November 1975 HDT cover story, “The Battle of the Brake Law,” covered the resulting debacle. HDT staff talked to hundreds of truck operators.
When it comes to hiring truck drivers, it not just a matter of looking at carriers within the trucking industry itself. National, state, and local government agencies all use trucks and need drivers to operate them. The military trains and uses truck drivers on a constant basis. Independent companies that own their own fleets of trucks hire drivers.
Every career comes with its own unique set of acronyms and terminology that those new to the industry must learn, and trucking is no exception. In fact, The blend of high-tech equipment, regulatory oversight,and driver to driver communication in the trucking industry means there’s an abundance of terms to learn—and getting the hang of the lingo can feel like navigating an entirely new language.
Let’s face it—no matter what your career, you’re likely to experience some sort of stress from time to time. Whether it’s the hours, pace, colleagues, or clients, every job from entry-level to executive will be emotionally and mentally challenging at some point. In fact, a survey from Mental Health America found 85% of employees say that workplace stress affects their mental health and 83% feel emotionally drained from work.
Texting is among the worst driving distractions. It is illegal for a CMV driver to text while driving, and mobile phones must be hands-free and dialed using no more than one button. Eating, drinking, interacting with a navigational device, reading maps, or any other activity that takes the focus off the road can also be distracting. If you must attend to an activity other than driving, exit the highway or pull over – it’s not worth the risk.
At first glance, “work on your skills” might just seem like another way to say “be a better truck driver.” But in this instance we are not talking about simply practicing and gaining experience. Instead, although both are important ways to improve, we are referring to the idea of expanding your knowledge and honing those skills that are not always immediately considered important in driving. So, what are the skills needed to be a good truck driver?
The American trucking industry moves a huge part of the nation’s freight each year. Trucks moved over 10 billion tons of freight in 2020 accounting for 72.5% of domestic tonnage that year, according to the American Trucking Associations. Some drivers during the pandemic saw lucrative pay rises from companies trying to combat supply chain difficulties.
The percentage of female safety professionals in corporations with for-hire or private fleets in the commercial freight transportation industry continues to increase, according to new data highlighted in the WIT Index, which was just released by the Women In Trucking Association (WIT). The WIT Index is the official industry barometer to benchmark.
The current disruption in the supply chain obviously has everyone’s attention. However, the current situation is not permanent, and the pandemic-induced bottlenecks in the system will eventually work themselves out. Hence, it is prudent to contemplate the nature of the market in 2023 and beyond already now, especially since some shippers...
U.S. trucking CEOs expect to maintain pricing power even with volumes softening in the second half of 2022 as retailers, manufacturers and consumers adjust to disruptions from Covid lockdowns, the Russia-Ukraine war and inflation.A recent survey of customers by SAIA, a trucker for Starbucks, Home Depot and Lowe’s, found the majority of companies are still working..
It's critical that a driver knows how long it's going to take to stop a fully loaded truck before they ever step foot inside of it. Stopping a truck of that size is nothing like smaller vehicles. Even the slightest difference in weight or speed can result in a staggering change in stopping distance.
It has been said that truckers are the backbone of the economy. It’s the truckers who get our groceries to the stores and our medicines to the hospitals. Truck drivers are essential workers who also happen to be some of the most monitored workers in America.
Research Summary. The trucking industry is vital to the U.S.’s economy, as just about every necessity and convenience depends on this industry in some form or another. Here are some statistics about the truck driving industry. Trucks move about 72.5% of America’s freight by weight..
Trucks have been around a long time. Truck drivers? Just as long. Trucks came just after automobiles, or “horseless carriages,” arrived in the U.S. in the 1890s. And we aren’t just talking about your run-of-the-mill pickup truck. Semi-trucks have been around just as long.
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