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RadioShack catalog angers truckers
By Andy Duncan
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The RadioShack sales catalog mailed to many truckers’ homes around Jan. 1 contained an unwelcome New Year’s greeting. This item appears on Page 2:
“You’re on your wireless, when suddenly an 18-wheeler is in your lane, cutting you off! Good thing you had both hands on the wheel, thanks to the hands-free wireless headset from RadioShack.”
The company recently apologized, but the jab had already angered many truckers, including Charles Delzer of Cascade, Md., an owner-operator leased to Landstar Inway, who says he’ll never buy anything from RadioShack again. “It’s just pathetic,” Delzer says.
A number of people called or e-mailed RadioShack to point out that truckers are among the electronics chain’s best customers and that in most car-truck collisions, the automobile driver, not the trucker, is at fault.
“It is usually the autos that are cutting off the trucks, and frequently the driver is on a cell phone at the time,” says Lynn Strand of Shell Lake, Wis., an owner-operator leased to Knudson Trucking of Hager City, Wis. “Their ad was a cheap shot at truckers for the sake of selling a phone.”
RadioShack issued an apology Jan. 2, which reads in part: “We sincerely apologize to members of the trucking profession . . . In the future we commit to showing more sensitivity.”
The statement continues: “We recognize the vital role the trucking industry plays in the economy of our country and appreciate the role trucking professionals play in helping keep our nation’s roads safer.”
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