Image via Prairie Publishing

Ron Stencel, a 65-year trucking dynasty, knows the trucking game all too well.

When he was 3, his father took him on a haul to Kansas City from Minnesota Lake. He immediately fell in love with the profession, and has spent his entire adult life dedicated to the industry. Trucking is in his blood.

Sixty-five years later, Stencel hopes pass the family business onto his son and grandson, Ron Adam.

“When school was out for the summer I could not wait to get to ride in the big truck during summer break,” Adam Stencel told Prairie Publishing, which shared the Stencels’ story

Sadly, few young people share Adam’s enthusiasm for a life on the road.

Like so many truckers, Stencel has felt the impact of fewer young people entering the trucking profession. In the article, he says new government mandates about monitoring drivers’ time has negatively affected the industry. As he explains, people often choose this profession due to its flexibility and freedom, but the new rules take a lot of the fun out of driving, Stencel says. With truckers’ every move now being monitored, that freedom and flexibility has begun to fade.

As the former vice president of the Minnesota Truckers Association, Stencel is a long-time advocate of CDL drivers. In fact, to foster a close-knit community among Minnesota drivers, the MTA began holding an annual get-together. The group had its most recent congregation on June 23. “You just don’t know how long these truckers will be around and it is important to maintain the friendships.”

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In a column he wrote for The News-Gazette (Champaign, Ill.), Ray Elliott reflects on moments spent with his father.

A father’s life on the road leaves a lasting impression on his son. An Illinois author, Elliott shares his story in The News-Gazette.

Image via Pexels

A man of simple means, Ray Elliott’s father was a dedicated, hardworking trucker and farmer who taught him lessons on the road that have made his son into the man he is today.

Elliott, who also is a retired high school teacher, penned his story of his father, which was published in (Champaign, Ill.) The News-Gazette.

For the first half of his career, Elliott’s father was a CDL livestock driver. Each day he would rise in the wee hours of the morning to make his rounds around the local farms. A cow here, a lamb there, he’d toss each animal into the back of his truck and drive on.

He never saw his father much. When he did, Eliott writes, “… he didn’t talk much. And when he did, it was about being honest or always paying his bills.” He often would be gone days at a time on various jobs. It was his father’s work ethic, though, Elliott writes, that impressed upon him the idea that a full life is one of hard work and dedication to one’s craft — hauling livestock or teaching school

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Photo courtesy of KRIS TV

A university in Corpus Christi, Texas, developed a free training program for vets exiting the service.

The Skills for Transition Program, a part of the Texas Operation Welcome Home Program, focuses on reintegrating military members into their communities post-deployment. For example, one of its most recent projects is a training program through Del Mar College to help recent veterans become CDL truck drivers.

According to recent findings, the trucking industry has become a good fit for many military personnel after their discharge.

Also, according to Department of Motor Vehicles, their dependability, sense of teamwork, and situational awareness make veterans ideal driving employees. In addition, driving jobs offer some much needed financial and lifestyle consistency that many vets crave after being overseas.

Also, the course consists of four weeks of daytime classes or 10 weeks of night classes. Overall, the goal is to create the marketable students who can be hired upon completion of the course. For example, U.S. Express Inc. offers jobs to veterans who complete this training through their apprenticeship program. In addition, with this training and apprentice opportunity, veterans earn both their CDL A license and make money within weeks of returning home.

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A CDL truck driver and his dog are alive and well after narrowly escaping from a crash.

Tractor trailer crash.

Photo via WWNY TV

As reported by WWNY, the unnamed driver was traveling down New York Route 37 outside Theresa, when a deer ran into the road. The driver swerved, overturning his cab and trailer. And then, both the driver and his dog were trapped for nearly 45 minutes before rescue teams could get to the crash.

Theresa Fire Chief Mark Savage told WWNYC he was surprised that both the driver and the dog sustained minor injuries. Also, he said the driver seemed to be in good spirits as he walked away from the truck. “Lots of cuts and bruises, a little sore,” Savage told the station, “…but other than that, [the driver] is alive and doing well.”

Both the driver and his dog were taken to a local hospital and animal clinic respectively.

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Photo via NPR.org

Step aside, Uber and Google, a career trucker is making history for self-driving tractor trailers.

Jeff Runions, autonomous-truck test driver, prepares the future of the trucking industry. As he told NPR, Runions works for Starsky Robotics. They are a small company developing fully autonomous trucks for the highway. The trucks are driven by professionals once the trucks got off at the exit.

As truck drivers continue to decrease in numbers, Runions hopes autonomous trucks will be a huge opportunity for the industry to keep up with demand. In his interview with NPR, he says automated vehicles would allow drivers to spend less time on the road and more time at home with their families.

This would be a drastic change from the three weeks of on-road time he remembers from working on his own and with a commercial trucking company. In fact, Runions would like to see drivers having a “regular life” with a 40-hour work week. By making drivers’ lives more enjoyable, he hopes to spike interest in the industry from potential drivers.

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How do drivers celebrate Mother’s Day on the road or at home? Drive My Way surveyed some CDL truck drivers to find out how they’re spending the day.

Mark Ryan says he’ll be thinking about his mother in heaven, while Diane Stahr Hess will be on the road, heading from Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City to start her work week. Diane, who teams with her husband, said the two will say a prayer for their mothers in heaven.

A lot of drivers are contributing to Mother’s Day celebrations everywhere. People are expected to spend $23.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation and truck drivers play an integral role in that spending, transporting and delivering the flowers, jewelry or even the ingredients for a big dinner out.

Susie Dorman-Caper is hoping for calls from two of her daughters.

Wendy Trudeau, founder of the Facebook group Trucking Fur Babies, fittingly replied through her dogs, “We have no plans except to give mommy extra loving that day.”

However you spend the Mother’s Day holiday, we hope you have a great one.

annca / Pixabay

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Pennsylvania has recently begun enforcing a winter weather trailer ban on certain empty trailers on Interstate-80.

They hope that this will reduce any chance of a traffic large pile up on the roads. A major concern is that winter weather effects like slick ice and snow will cause more trailers to slip off the roads.

While drivers recognize that these laws are for the benefit of all drivers on the road, many are eager for the spring weather to open up the roads once again. These laws will remain in place until the winter conditions subside.

Tractor-trailer laws differ per state.

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“I’m trained to deal with any type of situation. I thought about it the rest of the day, but it didn’t affect my job. I don’t feel like it was anything special. It was just a natural instinct for me. I try to be a good person.”

A Dupré Logistics driver is being named nothing short of a hero after saving a family of seven. In June of 2017, Fernandez Garner was traveling down I-45 N. He witnessed a large SUV cut off by a tanker, and consequentially, tumble off the road.

Garner saw one of the passengers, a little girl, had been thrown from the car to the middle of the highway. He instantly braked and blocked the road to protect her from incoming cars. Then, after examining her for any wounds, he ran down the side of the road to help the rest of the family.

Inside the vehicle, he found a boy, two girls, and their mother, frantically reaching for her baby. In addition, the driver, presumably the father, seemed to be injured. Garner moved the children back towards the road. He then calmed the mother down, assuring the safety of her children.

For this act of heroism, the Truckload Carriers Association named Garner a Highway Angel. In addition, Dupré Logistics expressed gratitude and pride in Garner for taking such steps to ensure the safety of all drivers.

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Walmart truck driver Carol Nixon shares a special story of determination and generosity. Her story inspires us entering into 2018 and helps us set goals for the year.

Carol Nixon, 48, of St. James, Mo., drove since 1990. Over the past five years, she has worked as an over-the-road driver for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In February of 2015 she met Deb Pollard, a fellow truck driver for Walmart. Fate brought together again in September of that year as roommates at the first annual Accelerate Conference sponsored by the Women in Trucking Association.

In addition, Deb shared that her husband Craig suffered from kidney failure and dialysis. The couple searched tirelessly for a donor, but unfortunately failed to receive a result. Then, Carol offered her kidney without a moment’s hesitation. “I didn’t even think about it,” Carol said. “I told her, ‘please, take it!’”

While both seemed the perfect match for the transplant, their journey included challenges. Carol stopped driving for three months prior to the donation due to dizziness. Doctors initially thought heart problems caused this. However, they realized they were migraines, and she received permission to donate her kidney again. Meanwhile, doctors at the University of Alabama hospital found that Craig suffered from blockage that could have killed him.  Finally, after these hurdles, the transplant took place and completed successfully in November of 2016.

Despite the challenges they faced, Carol never wavered in her decision to donate her kidney.

Even if she failed to match for Craig, she agreed to still donate her kidney to another recipient through the Kidney Paired Donation Pilot Program. The program matches medically compatible pairs of potential living kidney donors with transplant candidates. In cases where the potential donor doesn’t match with his or her original intended recipient.

When asked what drove her to donate despite all the challenges she replied “Perseverance.  When you’re told no, just keep pushing.”

With the transplant behind them, both Carol and Craig are doing well.  Craig immediately came off dialysis after the surgery and remained diligent about following his post-surgery protocol. Carol took six weeks off of work to recover. However, drives again now and stays healthy on the road by preparing meals for the road. She also walks three miles daily, whether at home or on the road.  When she’s home she and her husband spend time restoring their vintage cars and hanging out with her grandson.

Carol now adds raising awareness for organ donation to her growing list of charities that she supports.  At the November 2017 Accelerate Conference, she met the aunt of a young girl whose tissue donation gave two people the gift of sight. She also met the mother of a young girl in her community whose organ donations helped save the lives of five people.

Both of these girls received a floragraph on the Donate Life Float in the Rose Parade on January 1, 2018.

The Donate Life float honors millions of people touched by organ, eye and tissue donation. These include living donors, donor families, transplant recipients and transplant candidates.  The stories of these young girls further inspired Carol to share her own story. Her hope is her story raises awareness for organ donation.

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The MAP-21 bill back in 2012. Since then, Congress enacted more tractor-trailer length limits and weight limit laws in an effort to keep our roads safe.

The problem is that each state’s length regulations are different, especially when it comes to the lengths allowed for a tractor-trailer.  So to help truck drivers crossing state lines and country borders each day, Verduyn Tarps has recently published a handy state-by-state guide for maximum lengths of tractor-trailers (click image to enlarge).

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