Man quits trucking job after stroke, but it leads to greater advocacy

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gladstoneobserver.com.auOne of Rodney Hopson’s saddest moments came when he realized he’d have to stop doing what he loved.

The Australian man had to give up his trucking job and time spent working on his farm after sustaining a stroke six years ago. He talked to an Australian newspaper about how the experience has changed him.

“As an ex-truck driver and farmer, stroke has completely changed my life,” Hopson said. “I was like most people. I had no idea about stroke until it happened to me.”

Now Hopson is raising awareness of stroke as an ambassador for the Stroke Foundation.

gladstoneobserver.com.auOn Saturday he walked 10km from the Calliope River Bridge to Bunting Park, followed by a big yellow truck, to raise awareness and funds.

“The generosity of the community has been fantastic,” he said.

“This walk is all about raising as much awareness and funds as possible so that fellow locals can go through life without the burden of stroke.

“No matter how big or small your contribution is, every cent will make a difference in the fight against stroke.”

Also walking with Hopson was 10-year-old stroke survivor, Griffith Comrie.

“When I heard about Rodney’s walk I immediately knew our family would want to take part,” Griffith’s dad, Todd Comrie said. “Having Griffith and Rodney walking side by side highlights that stroke can happen to anyone at any age.”

To benefit stroke survivors in the United States, donate to the American Stroke Association.

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Bartender Mom Serves Truck Driver At Night And Is Shocked When She Sees The Tip

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littlethings.comIn a great, heart-warming story on Littlethings.com, a truck driver saves the day for one single mom. We loved reading the story and thought you would, too. Check it out the trucker’s generous deed:

Kari Anthony is a bartender at Quaker Steak and Lube in Grand Island, Nebraska. She’s also a hardworking single mother of three children.

In 2015, Kari was working her evening shift when a rough-and-tumble truck driver bellied up to the bar.

The truck driver had just finished his shift and was spending the night at the truck stop near Kari’s restaurant off Interstate 80. He went to Quaker Steak and Lube for dinner and drinks.

The two began exchanging pleasantries, which led to a conversation about their families.

Kari mentioned she was a single mom, which led to the trucker sharing stories about his own beloved mother.

“I guess we were able to relate a little bit,” Kari said.

The truck driver finished up at the bar and went to pay his bill of $89.72.

Kari expected him to leave a reasonable tip.  The driver, however, left her a tip of $1,000.littlethings.com

Kari learned the truck driver also paid the tabs of the customers he spoke to while seated at the bar. Once reality set in and Kari accepted the tip, the truck driver told the single mother to use the money to do something special for her kids.

Kari remembered she had always wanted to take them to the Nebraska State Fair, but could never afford it.

“They got to go to the fair and play games and all the other stuff,” Kari said. “Normally, because of situations, I would have not been able to do that. But I was able to because of that gentleman. I am just extremely grateful.”

Read the full Little Things story here.

You don’t have to give $1,000 to make a difference. Connect with Drive My Way on Facebook here and become part of our movement to change lives, one small step at a time.

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Celebrating Pakistan’s First Female Truck Driver

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Shamim Akhtar is acclaimed as Pakistan’s first female truck driver. Her journey to CDL truck driving, a job largely relegated to Pakistani men, has not been easy. But, it inspires others, as one publication, Pro Pakistani, writes.

It represents overcoming the various cultural and societal barriers in Pakistan. Shamin Akhtar’s journey proves that some glass ceilings are really meant to be broken.

“Nothing is too difficult if you have the will,” Akhtar says. “However, if women make themselves believe that they can’t do certain tasks, then nothing works.”

.propakistani.pk

Akhtar , a 53-year-old single mother, married at 17 and quickly found that she had to fend for herself and her children.

In the face of considerable financial hardship, she relied on her own intelligence and strength to take care of her children and marry off her eldest daughters. Her husband was never around, and left her for another woman. To earn a decent and respectable livelihood, Akhtar started working.

Akhtar landed a job as an insurance salesperson and eventually moved on to sewing and embroidery. She became a sewing teacher at a local school, but she craved a job that would provide for her family.

She credits the Islamabad Traffic Police training course for showing her the possibilities.

It led her to eventually driving a truck, a task that requires excellent road sense and training. She worked hard and passed the driving tests. She received a public service vehicle license, making her the first Pakistani woman licensed to drive trailers, tractors and trucks.

Her work is grueling. Her journeys involve her transporting 7,000 bricks from a factory in Rawalpindi to AJK, a distance of 200 km between the two destinations. Akhtar also operates a driving school. Her students consider her a a role model and mother. As Akhtar ’s admirers would tell you, she never gives up until she achieves her goal.

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Now’s Your Chance to Vote for the No. 1 Military Rookie Trucker

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military truckerThe presidential election isn’t the only important election happening this fall. The voting booth for America’s top military rookie truck driver is open, writes American Trucker magazine. And it’s up to all of you with CDL trucking jobs to choose your favorite!

Overall, the veteran who acquires the most votes in this contest will win the Transition Trucking Driving for Excellence Award. In addition, the veteran wins the keys to a 2016 Kenworth T680 commercial truck. The truck, valued at $170,000, helps propel the rookie driver’s burgeoning career in the trucking industry.

After a national nomination process, three finalists include:

  • Army veteran Kevin Scott, a driver for TMC Transportation
  • Army and Navy veteran Russell Hardy, a driver for Trimac Transportation
  • Navy veteran Troy Davidson, a driver for Werner Enterprises

How to Vote

Through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, CDL drivers and other members of the public watch videos of the three finalists. In addition, they vote for their favorite up to 25 times per day, writes American Trucker. Vote by visiting: http://bit.ly/TransitionTruckingAward. Also, the voting page, along with more details on the competition, is found through the competition’s primary website, TransitionTrucking.org.

The Transition Trucking Award was created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes Program, Kenworth, and FASTPORT. Overall, it recognizes deserving veterans who made a successful transition from military service to the trucking industry.

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A Trip Through the Blue Ridge Mountains

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Blue Ridge Mountains

Many CDL permit holders know full well the beauty that blooms along the East Coast every fall. As drivers, you probably have your favorite spots to espy vibrant colors along your trucking routes. But there’s perhaps no better place than the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Shanandoah Valley to absorb the beauty of the season.

One Los Angeles Times reporter put fall colors to the test when he drove all 105 miles of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Va., then all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina.

In beautiful prose, reporter Christopher Reynolds captured the majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the fall.

For four days I could almost hear the swelling violins as I zoomed under leafy canopies of red, orange and gold; hiked along creeks, lakes and ridge lines; listened to plenty of bluegrass and blues; and gave thanks to the National Park Service for bringing together so much beauty and so much blacktop.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is America’s most popular national park, with good reason.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, authorized in 1936, has been all about the automobile from Day One.

Both the parkway and Shenandoah National Park were Depression era projects intended to create jobs in a desperately poor region. For the parkway, the idea was to sculpt an epic country road, a black ribbon that would unfurl seamlessly amid the knobs, hollows, notches and gaps of Virginia and North Carolina.

The work took decades, but now the road’s shoulders are graced with overlooks, its straightaways unsullied by billboards or service stations. (There are also plenty of hiking trails along the route, including the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail.)

The parkway speed limit is 45 mph, Reynolds notes.

Which means drivers move slowly enough to notice the region’s nuances and beauty.

For most of the last 50 years, including 2015, the parkway has been the most-visited unit in the park system. Last year its rangers counted 15 million visitors, who spent an estimated $950 million.

The parkway rises, falls, bends and straightens, following the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains with no commercial buildings or truck traffic, cushioned by a buffer zone of landscaping that alternates between narrow and wide, semi-wild and manicured.

The scenes I glided through were not quite natural.

They were more orderly than that. But they were unfailingly pretty.

Now I was heading into the busiest stretch of the parkway, the area around Asheville, N.C., where rangers counted 42,520 vehicles passing through in October, the month of my visit — almost three times the traffic tallied at the Peaks of Otter.

It was easy to see why. I happened to hit this stretch within a few days of peak color. In the hour before sunset, about Milepost 360, the scene turned surreal as the road carried me through tree tunnels of flowing orange and flaming red, then luminous yellow-green.

As CDL permit holders, what are your favorite roads to drive in the fall? We’d love to hear!

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Truck Driver Honored for Driving 2 Million Miles without Accident

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ksl.comTruck driver Kevin Otteson of Reddaway Trucking received honor for driving more than 2 million miles without a single accident.

Otteson holds a CDL trucking job at Reddaway for 23 years.

Overall, throughout his 30-year professional driving career, he drove about 3.5 million miles accident free, he told Salt Lake City’s Deseret News.

Otteson was presented with a ring from Reddaway Trucking Friday to honor the achievement.

Mike Matich, the company’s terminal manager, called it a rare accomplishment.

Otteson said he drives because he likes the solitude. Otteson also makes it part of his normal routine to stop to help drivers whose cars are stuck or need help fixing a flat.

His secret to being accident free for so many miles?

“Pay attention to your surroundings,” he said. “Don’t watch just the vehicle in front of you. Watch two or three cars in front of you. Maintain an even keel out here.”

Read the rest of the Deseret News story here.

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In Nigeria, Women Are in the Driver’s Seat (Seriously)

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While women constitute about 5 percent of truck drivers here in the United States, the numbers are even fewer in foreign countries. That’s why this story out of Nigeria is so unusual, and it’s why it attracted our attention.

According to a feature in thenationonlineng.netThe Nation, Nigerian women are making inroads into all sorts of male-dominated industries, from truck driving to welding. In the story, writer Dorcas Egede highlighted several women who are thriving in Nigerian trucking jobs.

One after the other, motorists moved away from their cars to see the cause of the traffic ahead. On getting close to the cause of the traffic and discovering that it was a truck belonging to the Dangote Group, most of them made to turn back in indignation, cursing under their breath. But they soon stopped in their tracks. A woman behind the wheels of a truck? Surely this was no common sight in this part of the world. In no time, there was a pool of humans, particularly males, all struggling to take a shot of the wonder woman.

Hajiya Gambo Mohammed, a senior driver with the Dangote Group, was a spectacle on this particular day. The sight of her masterfully manning the wheels of a heavy-duty truck wasn’t a common one. In a clime where some men still dread driving cars and small buses on long distance, the sight of Hajia Muhammed was no doubt a spectacle.

Mohammed is just one of many women in Nigeria who has a job considered to be exclusive to men. But that’s starting to change. “Over the years, more females who have become skilled in certain manly jobs have emerged,” the article states. “Among them are female mechanics, painters, commercial bus drivers, conductors and welders.”

Another female driver, who goes by the pseudonym Geraldeen Agbonifo, is a widowed mother of three.

She said she veered into transportation business early this year, exactly two years after her husband’s demise.

Like it is with many widows, Agbonifo revealed that she would do everything within her power to raise her children to the highest level possible. “I’m not thinking remarriage. I just want to train my children to the highest level I can,” she said.

Agbonifo got a trucking job after her textile, shoe and bag business folded.

Asked if she indeed faces the challenge of battling the many wild men in the transport business world every day, Agbonifo smiled and asked, “What do you expect? You saw how that driver tried to bully me at Obalende while we were hustling for passengers. I get a daily dose of that, but it doesn’t bother me.

Before you decide to come and do this kind of work, you must have prepared yourself to tussle with bullies like that.”

Interestingly, there’s also the challenge of certain passengers, particularly males, who would refuse to board her bus once they notice its driver is female. But again she says this does not bother her. “I get a lot of admiring stares. In fact, some people purposely get on my bus when they see who the driver is, so it doesn’t bother me when I see those who despise me.”

Read the rest of the story here.

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How This Trucker Clocked 5 Decades of Safe Driving

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sj-r.com

One truck driver from Springfield has assembled decades of safe driving, spanning an amazing 51 years.

Bob Wyatt, who has held a CDL trucking job at Schneider out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the past 43 years, received an award from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance for his incredible safety record.

Wyatt clocked nearly 6 million miles without a single preventable accident.

The award recognizes commercial vehicle drivers who distinguish themselves through safe operation for an extended period of time. The Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register wrote that Wyatt was “surprised and humbled, to say the least,” by the award.

“You just take it one mile at a time,” Wyatt said of how he stayed safe on the road.

But even with all his success, Wyatt told the newspaper that CDL trucking jobs aren’t easy.

“A million people, they all want to be at the same place at the same time, they don’t want anybody to get in their way,” Wyatt said. “And the fact that they are texting and talking on the phone makes it even worse. I’ve been out here 50 years of my life, and you can’t even imagine what I’ve seen.”

CVSA president Maj. Jay Thompson praised Wyatt and his stellar safety record.

Overall, he serves as the most decorated driver in Schneider history, according to the State Journal-Register.

“We remain so impressed by Bob Wyatt’s spotless record of 51 years of safe driving, his unwavering, long-term commitment to public safety, his proactive approach to growth and learning, and his willingness to engage with leadership to be a catalyst for industry improvement,” he said.

In addition, Wyatt has been married to his wife, Linda, for nearly as long as he’s gone without an accident (49 years).

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Girl Scouts Learn What It’s Like to Have a Trucking Job

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duluthnewstribune.comLast week, the University of Wisconsin-Superior hosted 20 Girl Scouts to teach them about the transportation industry and encourage them to consider careers in the typically male-dominated field. The Duluth News Tribune wrote about the outing, saying the Girl Scouts observed first-hand about five types of transportation jobs, including CDL trucking jobs.

“There’s this perception that the transportation industry is for males,” said Cassie Roemhildt, research associate at UWS. “We want to teach young girls that that isn’t the case, so we got involved with the Girl Scouts.”

Ellen Voie founded the Women in Trucking Association in 2007 and currently serves as the organization’s president.

“There aren’t a lot of role models for young women looking into transportation,” Voie said. “There isn’t a truck driver Barbie yet, but I’m working on it.”

The article says the girls started their day with a conversation with Voie in her capacity as a female truck driver.

“We want to introduce these opportunities before girls make their career decisions,” Voie said. “Otherwise, women don’t tend to think of themselves in a truck.”

The Girl Scouts then toured a retired freighter to learn about the shipping industry and explored the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. They ended their day in the cab of a Halvor Lines semi-truck and learning about aerodynamics with paper airplanes.

By the time the day was ending, the girls were putting transportation into the context of their own lives.

“We’re Girl Scouts, we do Girl Scout cookies,” said Emily Schaefer, 11. “Wheat starts at the farm and travels all the way to the factory. I think that’s cool. If we didn’t get the wheat, we wouldn’t get the Girl Scout cookies.”

Check out other Fun Friday stories from Drive My Way here and here.

Photo courtesy Duluth News Tribune

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Sharpshooters: The Truck Drivers with a Talent for Photography

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Truck driver takes amazing photosIt’s not every day that people think of truck drivers as great photographers. But perhaps it’s time for that to change. From what we’ve seen at Drive My Way, many people with CDL driver jobs have quite an eye for the angles, scenes and life streaming through their windshields every day. It’s inspired us to launch this new monthly series, “Sharpshooters,” where we’ll highlight truck drivers who happen to be great photographers.

To get “Sharpshooters” started, we interviewed one of the best truck drivin’ photographers we know, Tempie Davie. Davie, who teams with her soul mate and best friend, Frank Tucker, is leased to Gulick Trucking out of Vancouver, Wash. In this exclusive Drive My Way interview, she discusses why she shoots, her inspiration, and how others with CDL trucking jobs can take quality shots.

Truck driver takes amazing picturesWhy do you shoot?

Because I love it. Time passes so quickly, I want to remember it all. The sun may never hit that barn the same way again. You may never see a rainbow that big and bright again.

It allows me to hold onto the things that will never happen again. It also allows my friends and family to travel with me, to hopefully feel the excitement of the moment.

What inspires you?

Everything! I love finding beauty in the ordinary. For example, some people see an old barn. However, I see the lines, the light, the stories of generations long gone.

Others see an old pair of doll shoes. However, I see a little girl trying to remember where she left them and crying because her baby’s feet are cold. Furthermore, some people see just a flower. However, I see the elderly widow, wishing for just one more bouquet. Overall, it’s the story, real or imagined, that inspires me.

Truck driver takes amazing pictures

Springtime in the Gorge

What is your favorite subject to shoot?

Oh, how would I ever choose? There is beauty wherever I look. If I have to pick just one, I’d have to say the Columbia River Gorge.

It’s my home, and the beauty is ever changing. Just a shift in the light or a change in season and everything looks different. You have to experience it for yourself.

Truck driver takes amazing picturesHow did you get into photography?

My parents bought me my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, when I was 8 years old. I was hooked! At 10, I got a Polaroid.

How fun was that to see the pictures instantly! My next camera was a Ricoh 35 millimeter, I was in heaven. I took pictures of everything. Then life happened, two kids, an alcoholic husband, work and a drug addiction. Photography took a back seat. I got my life together, raised my children and started thinking about pictures again. Before, I lost my camera to the disease of addiction, so I started taking pictures with my phone. Instantly, I was hooked again. I got my first DSLR camera for Christmas. I’m enjoying learning how to use it!

What worthy tips can you give other drivers who like shooting from the road?

If you are shooting on the fly, a fast shutter speed is your best bet. If you use a cell phone, find the manual settings for the camera on it and play with them. Learn what they do. Learn to read the light and adjust the exposure accordingly. Most importantly, just have fun. Shoot what moves you.

Truck driver takes amazing picturesWhat should a picture do?

A picture should transport the viewers to another place and time. It should convey a feeling, tell a story, record a memory. I want people to feel what I felt, wonder what I wondered and imagine the stories of the people who lived in that old house. I want my pictures to make you smile, cry, think and most of all, experience life through my eyes.

All photos by Tempie Davie. See her photos on Facebook here.

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