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Turning 30
By Truckers News Staff
The Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse reflects a growing sense of crisis in highway maintenance funding.
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In November 1977, the National Association of Truckstop Operators launched a publication, distributed free to drivers at member locations. NATSO Truckers News, as editor Mark Perry wrote in that first issue, was founded on the premise that “truckers and truckstop operators have a lot more in common with each other than any other people in any other two industries. All they need to do is talk to each other and work together” for change.
Perry was insistent on providing a platform for open communication to and from truckers in Truckers News, a platform that survives to this day.
To celebrate our 30th anniversary, we’ve assembled a long haul through 30 years of trucking history. In some instances, guest columns from industry representatives — from veteran driver R.L. Grant to former Interstate Commerce Commission chairman Dan O’Neal — accompany stories, and we’ve included stories and illustrations from past issues of Truckers News. Enjoy the ride.
Paint by Numbers
Trucking stats show change on numerous fronts
It’s not only Bob Dylan who tells us that the times are a-changing. Numbers tell us, too.
For the 30 years since Truckers News began publication, many of the major changes in our industry are starkly outlined in statistics, from the cost of a gallon of diesel to the money drivers can expect to take home.
They don’t tell the whole story, but these statistics show the sweeping changes the industry has gone through and give us a window into the past.
Fuel
Today a gallon of diesel will cost you nearly three bucks. Way back in 2006 a gallon was only $2.07, excluding taxes. But back in ’78 a gallon of pre-taxed diesel cost you a quarter, a dime and three pennies. Then in 1980 (remember those gas lines?) it leaped to three quarters a nickel and two pennies. A barrel of crude oil in ’78 was just $12.50, but by 2006 it was $60.20 — the average price of a barrel rose by 64 percent between 2000 and 2006. As we prepare this issue of Truckers News, crude is going for more than $80 a barrel, an all-time high.
In 1977 there were 141,000 new Class 8 tractors sold, a figure which had soared to 253,000 by 2005. Between 1970 and 1985 there was an average yearly increase in sales of 2.8 percent, but between 1985 and 2005 the comparative figure was 4.3 percent.
Not all Class 8 trucks are over-the-road haulers. But for what government statisticians call “combination trucks” (which includes trucks designed to pull a trailer) there were 1.24 million registered in 1977 traveling a total of 55.7 billion miles on American roads and using 10.8 billion gallons of fuel. Average fuel economy was 5.1 mpg. In 2005, 2.08 million combination trucks were registered, running 143.7 billion miles and using 24.4 billion gallons of diesel at an average of 5.9 miles per gallon.
The average rig used 9,201 gallons a year in 1980 and 12,289 in 2004. That rig rolled 38,829 miles in 1970, 48,472 in 1980 and by 2004 averaged 72,325 miles a year.
Roads, four-wheelers
Truckers had 41,120 miles of interstate to run in 1980 and 46,837 in 2004, a 14 percent increase. If you think you are seeing more small trucks and vans out there, you’re right. The minivan and SUV revolution shows up in the numbers. In 1977 combination trucks made up 3.8 percent of vehicle miles traveled by vehicle type, with cars at 75.6 percent and two-axle, four-tire trucks (those pickups, vans and SUVs) at 17.1 percent. In 2005 big rigs made up 4.8 percent of all vehicle miles, but cars made up only 56.5 percent — those light trucks more than doubled their share to 35.4 percent. Call it the “soccer mom effect.”
Trucks, trailers, containers
How many older rigs are you seeing out there? The average 1970 model truck over 26,000 pounds was on the road for 20 years, statistically speaking (that is, after 20 years half of them had been scrapped). The 1980 model lasted on average 18.5 years, but half the 1990 models will be around for some time — their average working life is expected to be a stunning 28 years.
With durability comes safety. In 1980 the occupant fatality rate for 10,000-plus-pound trucks was 1.2 per 100 million vehicle miles, but in 2005 that figure was down to 0.4. The fatal crash rate for large trucks per 100 million vehicle miles was 5.0 in 1980 but only 2.2 in 2004.
Rail-truck intermodal haulers will recognize the next trend. In 1980 there were approximately 3 million units being hauled off rail cars behind tractors, but the stats don’t show us the trailer/container breakdown. Starting in 1988 we can see the split — there were approximately one-third more trailers than containers. By 2004 there were approximately 11 million units being hauled — eight million of them containers!
America has almost half of the world’s trucks and buses (including light trucks and minivans). There are approximately 105 million of them on our roads, 43 percent of all trucks and buses in the world. In 1975, that figure was 34 million, 38 percent of the world total.
Pay
The U.S. Department of Labor records your wages under code 53-3032 (“Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer”). In 2006 drivers got a mean hourly wage of $17.46 and a mean annual wage of $36,320. If you were earning $22,460 in 2006, you were in the bottom 10 percent of the profession in terms of wages, but with $52,820 you were in the top 10 percent.
Statistics from 1979 give us some idea of the wages truckers received back then, but they are not so precise — they don’t separate tractor-trailer driver from the “truck driver” category. These ’79 numbers show that drivers earned $289 a week, which, if you took no unpaid vacation, brought you $15,028 a year.
Trucking shows
Trade shows present our industry to the world. Back in 1977 there were only three shows of truly national character. The Mid-America Trucking Show was just four years old in 1977, but this monster event grew dramatically from its beginning as a one-hall fairground show to the biggest in the business today. The International Trucking Show in California was 14 years old in 1977, and at that time it was the country’s premier trucking trade show. The New England Trucking Show of 1977 today is the Boston-based North American Trucking Show.
Two important newcomers (both presented by Truckers News publisher Randall-Reilly Publishing) have arrived: the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, nine years old and booming, and the recently launched Great West Truck Show in Las Vegas, which evolved from the International Trucking Show and the Truck Show Las Vegas.
--John Latta
That’s Entertainment
Hollywood and music industry create popular outlaw image of trucker
Uh, Breaker One-Nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. You got a copy on me, Pig-Pen? C’mon.
—“Convoy,” C.W. McCall
Truckers were never more popular than in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
With movies like White Line Fever, Smokey and the Bandit and Convoy (not to mention the hit song of the same title) the trucking lifestyle was vogue in mainstream entertainment.
Successful non-trucking movies like Walking Tall, which pitted the common man against injustice, set the tone for the decade. It didn’t take entertainment executives long to discover truckers and their lifestyles could fit that mold perfectly.
Hollywood portrayed truckers as rebellious heroes taking on unscrupulous authority figures and as charismatic free spirits who outwitted bumbling law enforcement time and time again.
The Bandit and Sheriff Buford T. Justice became suitable stand-ins for cowboys and Indians, and young boys talked into make-believe citizens-band radio mikes, pretending to be the Rubber Duck. And, of course, it was cool to know all the words so you could sing along with C.W. McCall’s hit “Convoy” whenever it came on the radio.
I sez Pig-Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck an’ I’m about to put the hammer on down.
The song “Convoy” gave wings to the growing CB craze (see “CB Slanguage,” page 28) among trucker wannabes. Trucker lingo dictionaries came with new CB radios, and trucker-speak phrases could be found on everything from drinking glasses to refrigerator magnets.
The popularity of truckers also carried over to the small screen with shows like Movin’ On and B.J. and the Bear.
While the movies and television series were entertaining, realistic they were not. Convoy and White Line Fever hinted at real trucking issues, but the gotta-make-it-go-boom mind-set of Tinseltown overrode credible or practical storylines. (To be fair, Snowman and the Bandit actually managed to deliver a load, if it was illegal.)
“I liked the movies a lot when they first came out,” says 69-year-old Charles McAnelly of Rainsville, Ala., a former owner-operator who now drives a dump truck locally. “You couldn’t do any of that kind of stuff shown in the movies, but I like to watch trucking movies anyway.”
The persona created by Hollywood functioned as a recruiting magnet for many people who craved adventure. But not everyone thinks that was a positive.
“It was the outlaw image, the last cowboy, the Jesse James mentality,” says 44-year-old independent owner-operator Henry Albert of Statesville, N.C., the 2007 Overdrive Trucker of the Year. “It’s what got us a lot of what we have today.”
There have been other trucking movies (Black Dog and Over the Top, for example) and television series (18 Wheels of Justice) since the cancellation of B.J. and the Bear in the early ’80s, but they haven’t been able to recapture what once was a public love affair with truckers. That’s how pop culture works. Today’s fad becomes tomorrow’s nostalgia.
“Every time I hear ‘Convoy,’ it brings back memories,” McAnelly says.
We gonna catch ya on the flip-flop. This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone! Bye, bye …
--Randy Grider
CB Slanguage
By Randy Grider
In Truckers News’ first year of publication the Federal Communications Commission got rid of the licensing requirement for users of the citizens-band radio and also created 17 new channels, resulting in the first 40-channel CB. While some of the trucker lingo made popular during the CB craze has evolved into the mainstream language, most has faded away.
You still hear truckers using 10-4 to affirm a comment or someone mentioning the chicken coops in reference to a weigh station, but it’s doubtful you’ll ever hear someone calling a Volkswagen Beetle a pregnant roller skate.
Below is a partial list of colorful phrases from the 1970s, commonly referred to then as trucker lingo.
A
Alligator tread from a tire Ankle biter small child Antenna farm base station with many antennas strung up in the air Antler alley deer crossing
B
Back door vehicle behind the one who is ahead of it Back ‘em up slow down Bad scene a crowded channel Ballet dancer an antenna that really sways Bear cop Bear bait speeding car Bear cage police station or jail Bear in the air helicopter patrol Bear trap stationary police vehicle with radar Beat the bushes to drive ahead of others and try to lure out the police Better half the other person (wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband) Big Daddy the FCC Big Mama 9-foot whip antenna Big 10-4 hearty agreement Big truck 18-wheeler Bird dog’s barking radar detector’s going off Bit on the seat of the britches got tagged for a speeding ticket Bleeding/bleedover strong signals from a station on another channel interfering with your reception Blessed event a new CB rig Blew my doors off passed with great speed, sometimes referenced to loud or strong signal Box tractor-trailer Breaker-breaker request to use the channel Brown paper bag unmarked police car Brush your teeth and comb your hair radar trap ahead Bubble gum machine flashing lights on top of car Bucket mouth loudmouth, or someone who uses a lot of profanity Bucket of bolts 18-wheeler
C
Camera police radar Candy man FCC Casa house Cash register toll booth Catch ya on the flip-flop talk to you on my return trip Chew ‘n choke restaurant Checking my eyelids for pin holes I’m tired or sleepy Chicken coop weigh station Christmas card speeding ticket Christmas tree 18-wheeler with an excess of running lights City kitty city police Coke stop restroom Colorado Kool-Aid beer Come again repeat your last transmission Come back answer my call Comic book trucker’s log book Concrete blonde hooker Copy receiving a message County Mountie county police Crotch rocket motorcycle
D
Diarrhea of the mouth constant, nonstop talking Dirty Side Eastern seaboard Dixie cup female operator with Southern accent Do you copy? Do you understand? Double nickel 55 mph Down and on the side through talking but listening Drop the hammer go as fast as you can
E
Ears on CB radio turned on Eights or Eighty-eights Love and kisses Eat-‘em-up roadside diner Eyeballs headlights Evil Knievel motorcycle cop
F
Fat load overweight load FCC Federal Communications Commission Feed the bears paying a speeding fine or ticket Fender bender traffic accident Fer sure affirmative/yes/10-4 Flag waver highway repair crew Flip-flop return trip Front door lead truck in a convoy Full throttle traveling at full speed
G
Gator tread from a tire Georgia overdrive coasting out of gear Get horizontal lie down to sleep Girlie bear female cop Go, breaker invitation to break Go-go juice truck fuel Good buddy at one time it meant friend (today it’s a derogatory term for “homosexual”) Got a copy? Can you hear me? Got your ears on? Are you on this frequency? Grease monkey mechanic Greasy spoon bad place to eat Green stamp road toll road Ground clouds fog Gypsy independent trucker
H
Haircut palace bridge or overpass with low clearance Hammer down accelerate Hand fellow truck driver Handle CB nickname Hiding in the bushes hidden police vehicle Hiding in the grass police on a median strip High rise large bridge or overpass Home 20 home location
I
Ice Box refrigerated trailer In a short-short real soon In the pokey with smokey arrested Invitations traffic citations, tickets
J
Jaw Jacking talking, jaw boning Jewelry lights on a rig
K
Keep ‘em between the ditches have a safe trip Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down drive safely Keep your nose between the ditches and smokey out of your britches drive carefully, look out for speed traps Kiddie car school bus Kojak cop Kojak with a Kodak cop with radar
L
Lady bear female police officer Land yacht mobile home or camper Latrine lips one who has a dirty mouth Left coast West coast Load of rocks bricks Load of sticks lumber Local yokel small-town cop Lot lizard truckstop prostitute
M
Magic mile the last mile of any trip Mama girlfriend or wife Marker milepost on highway Meat wagon ambulance Mess-’em-up accident Mobile mattress four-wheeler pulling a camper Motion lotion fuel Muck truck cement truck
N
Negative contact didn’t make contact with the desired station Negatory no
O
On the standby monitoring but not talking Open season cops are everywhere Other half spouse or significant other Outdoor TV drive-in movie Over and out closing the transmission
P
Paper hanger police giving ticket Paperwork speeding ticket Parking lot traffic jam Pavement princess hooker Pedal to the metal running flat out Picture-taking machine radar Plain wrapper unmarked police car Play dead stand by Portable parking lot car hauler Pregnant roller skate VW Beetle Press some sheets sleep
R
Radio check to inquire about strength of radio signal Radio runt child or young person breaking in on a channel Rake the leaves last vehicle in a CB convoy Ratchet-jaw nonstop talker Rebound return trip Rockin’ chair truck in the middle of a convoy Roller skate car Rolling refinery truck hauling gas or oil Rubberneckers onlookers at an accident Rug rats kids
S
Sailboat fuel running on empty Salt shaker highway department salt truck Seat cover attractive female occupant in a car Shaking the windows clear reception of signal Side door passing lane Smile and comb your hair radar trap up ahead Smokey state police Smokey bear state police Smokey report police location report Smokey taking pictures cop with radar Smokey with ears cop with CB in car Somebody stepped on you another person transmitted at the same time with a strong signal Suicide jockey driver hauling explosives Super slab multi-lane highway
T
Taking pictures police radar 10-4 OK message received 10-6 busy, stand by 10-7 out of service, leaving the air 10-8 in service, taking calls 10-9 repeat message 10-10 transmission complete, standing by 10-11 talking too fast 10-12 visitors present 10-13 advise weather conditions 10-16 make pickup at _________ 10-17 urgent business 10-18 Anything for us? 10-19 nothing for you, return to base 10-20 current location 10-32 radio check 10-33 emergency traffic at this station 10-34 confidential information 10-36 Correct time. An overused term that gets more grief than it’s worth. 10-77 negative contact 10-100 restroom stop Tighten up on the rubber band accelerate Toilet mouth foul mouth, someone who uses obscene language Trading stamps money Truck-‘em-up stop truckstop
W
Walked on same as “stepped on” Walking on you someone keyed up and covered your transmission Wall-to-wall and treetop tall strong, clear signal — the loudest Wall-to-wall bears police are everywhere Watch your donkey police are coming up behind you Water hole Truckstop Wiggle wagons double or triple trailers
Y
Yard trucking terminal Yardstick mile marker
In-Cab Evolution
Interiors go from small and noisy to spacious and sophisticated
At least one thing hasn’t changed about big-truck cabs over the past 30 years: You can still tune in to Bill Mack.
Trucks in the latter part of the 1970s generally came with only an AM radio, says Bill Johnson, managing director of the American Truck Historical Society in Kansas City, Mo. “Radio guys like Bill Mack made their name with truckers via the powerful AM stations of the day. FM wasn’t in every truck because FM stations didn’t have the range drivers needed.”
At night, AM had that power, Johnson says, and often risked overpowering smaller stations in nearby cities. “There was a huge station in Nebraska that had to beam its programs west at night to save swamping stations in Omaha and some other places in the east of the state.”
The compact disc was 10 years away, so there in the dash was a cassette player; increasingly, in the mid-to-late ’70s, it was an eight-track player, says Johnson.
The CB radio and its specialized jargon, given nationwide icon status thanks to C.W. McCall’s mega hit “Convoy,” among other things, were at their most popular. But they had a range of less than 10 miles. Unless you were near your home base, talking to a dispatcher meant finding a pay phone. Those same wall phones were how you found loads. The little cell phone most drivers wear on their hips these days did not exist. Screen-based in-cab messaging or alerting systems had not arrived, nor had in-dash maps.
Cabs were smaller and noisier, says Johnson. “Today there’s more leg and shoulder room, and of course in most of them you can stand up when you move back to the sleeper.” Cab engineering has advanced by leaps and bounds, Johnson says, yielding better seals on doors and windows. “And today you have aluminum frames with a composite skin,” Johnson says, “whereas 30 years ago the cab was usually welded steel or riveted aluminum instead of a single cohesive unit. White was bringing out their integral sleeper about that time. And of course now there’s air ride for everything including the cab. In ’77 you didn’t get an air ride cab unless you found some aftermarket system.”
Transmissions have changed dramatically — largely, says Johnson, as manufacturers have responded to bigger engines with more horsepower and especially more torque. “The most gears you found back then were generally 15,” Johnson says. “There were some 20 speeds in the mid-’70s, but they were pretty specialized. It was also in the late ’70s that you saw a big decline in two-stick shifts.”
Though Allison had an automatic back in the ’40s and ’50s, the advance in engine electronics had more to do with the rise of today’s automatic transmission. “The engine determines the shift,” Johnson says.
Electronics, of course, are a major factor in new trucks. Electronic control modules record virtually every engine process and characteristic. You didn’t get an ECM in a Class 8 tractor in 1977.
“A lot of everyday things are so much better, too,” says Johnson. Headlights are far more powerful. “Fog lights and driving lights were usually aftermarket in the late ’70s, but today most models include them.”
In addition to mirrors, camera-and-monitor systems are available to help with backing. “Now you also have multiplex wiring,” Johnson says. “In the late ’70s, one wire went from one place to another carrying full voltage. As a truck aged you faced the risk of fire, even a fire in the dash.” Today, a single wire can carry multiple messages. “Whatever is at the other end of it has to decode the message,” Johnson says. “A rear light has to figure out if the signal is a turn indicator or a brake light.”
Though power-steering was available, some drivers didn’t want it, arguing that with it you wouldn’t feel the road. And 1977 models did not offer cruise control. “Today an 80,000-pound rig has enough power to run most of the day on cruise,” says Johnson. “They used to say back then that if you wanted cruise control like a car, just pull open the hand throttle or find a hammer in the tool box and work it against the accelerator. Back in the ’50s, maybe even into the ’70s, guys running up the old Grapevine in California would move as slow as it was possible to move, grinding up in the lowest gear, sometimes barely moving. Some of those old drivers would jam the throttle open and get out and ride on the running board just to get some air, it was so hot in the cab. Do that today, and you’ll end up not only with a ticket, just like back then, but you’ll also be on YouTube.”
--John Latta
Paying Dues
A successful and happy trucking life comes with a price
By R.L. Grant
R.L. Grant was born in Lima, Ohio, in the mid-1940s, but was transplanted to the Carolinas at an early age. With his wife, Betty, today he resides in Shelby, N.C. He went to college in South Carolina and Virginia and is a veteran of the Vietnam War, a prize-winning author (including a past winner of Truckers News’ Mark Twain Essay Contest), design engineer and the author of several novels as yet unpublished. He drives for Truck Service, Inc., out of Forest City, N.C.
The sun had just sunk behind the tree line. The air had a fresh, clean smell, the perfect time of day. I pulled into the parking lot of a small mom-and-pop truckstop and found myself a spot for the night. As normal, I pulled out all my paperwork and got it caught up for the day. I’ve been in this same routine for years — tonight would be no different.
I looked around the small parking lot and decided to go inside for a cup of coffee and just wind down before going to bed.
Inside I found a small booth in the corner. The waitress smiled as she brought me one of the best cups of coffee in this part of the country. There were a couple other drivers sitting around the counter, talking and laughing. The truck-driving stories were flowing like fine wine. I’ve been out here for the best part of 30 years, and the stories haven’t changed much. The trucks will still all run 100 miles an hour, and the women are all just standing in line waiting for the chance to make it with a good-looking driver. A young man sat at the counter with the drivers, listening.
I laughed softly to myself and took a sip of coffee.
The young man stood up and walked over to my booth. “Mister, you got a few minutes to talk to me?” he said. “I’m thinking about going to truck-driving school.”
“Sure, have a seat,” I said.
He sat down. “I work at the mill on the edge of town. I’ve been there a couple years. It’s all right, but I don’t like being inside all the time. I want to get out and see the world. I want to try something new.”
He was wearing a small gold band on his left ring finger.
“What does your better half think about this?” I said.
He smiled. “I haven’t really talked to her much about it yet.”
“Well,” I said, “the first thing you need to do is talk it over with her. It’s going to be hard for the family at first. Some can’t make it. It’s not an easy life. Being gone all the time will put a lot of strain on your relationship.” I took another sip and continued, “You can’t believe all the stories you hear.”
He smiled again. “I know. I’ve been coming in here a couple nights a week. Believe me, I’ve heard some good ones.”
I turned and pointed through the window. “Everybody doesn’t drive a fancy rig like the ones sitting out there on the fuel line. Most of us drive a fleet wagon. It’s a nice truck, but it’s not going to have all the fancy stuff and it sure won’t run a hundred.”
I began the long talk I give everyone who’s ever asked me this question. The long hours away from home, the cost to live on the road, and most of all the pay. Once you take out what it costs to survive out here and factor in the hours you work, it’s not different from any other job. Sure, there are a few high-paying gigs, but there are more of the average ones.
I warned him not to get caught up in the world of TV and movies.
“That may have been something that happened years ago, when there was a different breed of drivers out here, but not now. Then, we numbered in the thousands — now we’re millions. The small truckstops have given way to supercenters where you get everything from a shoeshine to a lube job.
“There’s more to being a driver than just sitting behind the wheel. It takes years to learn all the tricks and angles. Things you can’t learn in school. Things that come from living the life. I’m still learning and will continue as long as I sit in that seat.
“Before you make a decision, stop and think a long time and consider the disadvantages. When you get out of school, they’ll help you find a job, but you’ll have to pay your dues. Your pay will be lower, you’ll have to stay out two to three weeks at a time, and when you do get home it’ll only be for a couple days and then you’re gone again.
“A young man with a growing family needs to spend as much time as possible at home, and I know he needs to make as much money as he can. I’ve been there, and the life of an over-the-road truck driver comes with a high price tag: missed birthdays, family outings and special things that happen at the spur of the moment, like Junior’s first touchdown or homerun, the baby’s first step.
“But don’t get me wrong — the old truck’s been good to me. I’ve made a good living for a long time, but it came with a price tag. It’s a life like no other. You’ll make it or fall on your face. In time, you’ll have your choice of jobs all over the country. With a good record, you can work the way you want and be in total control. But it takes a lot of work and patience on everybody’s part.
“The key is the record, both your driving and work record. Getting past the first three-to-five years, paying your dues.”
We talked for an hour or so before he stood up. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ve got to do some thinking and talk to the family.”
I stood up and shook his hand. “With that attitude,” I said, “you’re going to make the right decision. Good luck.”
I went back out to my truck and climbed into the sleeper. I’ve spent a lot of nights in here. I’ve paid my dues several times over.
Mixed Blessing
The controversial legacy of trucking deregulation
In a June forum held by Truckers News’ sister industry publication CCJ, National Association of Small Trucking Companies President Dave Owen noted that in the early 1980s, the impending death of the small fleet was much ballyhooed. As rates fell and bankruptcies among small and large carriers alike were legion, consolidation and expansion proceeded unfettered in the now unregulated market.
But the forecasters got it wrong. Department of Transportation stats Owen had then recently seen showed “400 entities a week applying for authority,” he said.
That’s nearly 20,000 new carriers and brokers and other transportation intermediaries a year entering the for-hire business and compounding the central problem for trucking companies and owner-operators after deregulation increased competition for freight.
Today, the feds’ primary role in the business of trucking is in regulating safety. From requiring the CDL back in the early 1990s to an increasing focus on driver health to the speed governor petitions of just last year, the feds are ever focused on safety measures. But it wasn’t always so.
The inefficiencies of the economically regulated trucking industry prior to the Motor Carrier Act, passed during the last days of the Carter administration in 1980, are well-known (see former ICC chair Dan O’Neal’s column on page 40). Interstate freight rates were set by commodity on a point-to-point basis and changed only by application to the federal Interstate Commerce Commission. Any competitive carrier could protest a rate change and typically nix it, thus rate setting among carriers in rate bureaus was the norm.
New carriers applying for authority had to prove there was need for another carrier in the regions he or she wanted to serve, and that could be protested as well. Independent owner-operators typically hauled agricultural and other unregulated commodities, and deadhead miles were high throughout the industry due to the difficulty of obtaining backhaul loads.
“There were a lot of empty trucks running on the highways in those days,” says Automated Transport driver Tim Begle. “If we had route regulation today like it was then, can you imagine the congestion?”
The entry process was likewise difficult. Costly acquisition of an attorney with transportation expertise was virtually a requirement, making it difficult for owner-operators and smaller carriers to expand. More common was the purchase of authority, which is how Helena, Mont.-based Watkins-Shepard got its start.
“But what it is today is more a product of deregulation,” says company CEO Ray Kuntz, who’s currently serving as chairman of the American Trucking Associations.
Kuntz remembers writing an essay on the question of deregulation of the trucking industry for an economics class at Carroll College in 1976. “I came up with the conclusion that trucking should be deregulated,” he says. “It wasn’t a competitive industry. Rates were too high, there weren’t enough players in the industry and the American economy was paying a penalty for a regulated market.”
Though the ICC instituted reforms in a piecemeal fashion, deregulation was still something of a shock to the system, as entry into new markets was made much easier for existing carriers who understood the potential for growth. Likewise, for the first time, an independent trucker could compete directly for freight from shippers of formerly regulated commodities, and many carriers, says Kuntz, got their start this way, by filling a niche need for a single shipper. “Some shipper needed some particular service,” he says, “and somebody else wasn’t getting it done. The shipper went out and talked somebody into doing it and that carrier grew from there.”
A look at CCJ’s top carrier rankings shows that, among those in the 1980 top 100 by gross revenue, only 17 remain today among the highest-grossing companies, with permutations of UPS and Yellow-Roadway making up five of those. Another four are household moving companies like United and Allied van lines, which fall under customer accountability regulations more strenuous than truckload carriers. Deregulation birthed “a brand-new truckload industry,” says Kuntz.
The upshot has been a mixed blessing for drivers. “It was better for the country and the consumer than it was for the American truck driver,” says Begle, adding, however, that sometimes it’s easy to forget that “the good old days weren’t always so great. I remember being happy about deregulation at the time,” happy at the opportunity it represented for his owner-operator business.
Today, owner-operator revenue has begun gaining ground again as a perceived driver shortage has upped demand for quality leased operators and savvy independents have expanded their operations.
But over the long term, price competition has driven rates way down. The rate for carpet being hauled out of Los Angeles to Montana, says Kuntz, “in today’s dollars is half as much as it was in yesterday’s dollars. It was well over $2 a square yard. Now, it depends on where you are, but it’s definitely under $1.”
Companies with a heavy union presence were stressed. Drivers everywhere felt the hurt in stagnant pay as well as their own stress to stay loaded and work longer hours. Even today, truckers’ hours trend slightly upward as average weekly earnings have gained little ground on the inflation rate.
In the transportation sector on the whole, as well as among the general population, hours trend downward, and in the former yearly income is down by nearly 40 percent over the past 30 years.
--Todd Dills
Toward a Healthy Industry
Deregulation casts long shadows
--Dan O’Neal
Dan O’Neal served on the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1973 to 1980. He was chairman of the agency from 1977 to 1980 during federal deregulation of motor carriers and railroads. After years of service in the private sector, including as owner and CEO of a Seattle-based transportation and logistics company, he is now a board member of the Cascade Land Conservancy and a member of the Washington State Transportation Commission.
The year I was appointed chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1977, there were some 18,000 federally regulated motor carriers in the United States. None of them had authority to serve all 48 of the contiguous states. We regulated prices, routes, commodities and finance arrangements. Shortly after arriving on the Commission in 1973, I was summoned to an emergency meeting of the commissioner division. The subject of the meeting: a trucking company had proposed lowering its rate unilaterally, i.e. without going through a Motor Carrier Rate Bureau. The division majority stopped that action in its tracks. The ICC would not tolerate price competition among carriers. The agency also kept high the barriers for both entry into the business and expansion of existing authority.
Carriers’ proposals to obtain authority or to add routes were time-consuming, often taking a year or more, and very expensive: a regulatory lawyer was an absolute necessity. There was the probability of a hearing before an administrative law judge in nearly every case. A carrier attempting to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity (i.e., the right to operate as a regulated trucker) needed to show that there was enough prospective business to support his expansion. The carrier could not argue rates. Promises of improved service, even with the support of shippers, were viewed with suspicion. Consequently, the fastest means to expand was to buy rights from another motor carrier — not the cheapest course, but the most certain.
The entire purpose of motor carrier regulation was to stabilize the industry, to limit competition, guarding against the unfettered competition that was thought to have contributed to the Great Depression in the 1930s. Regulation achieved that objective. By the late 1970s, if you were a trucker who already had operating rights, it was a good system for you.
If you were a small trucker with no authority, or limited authority, your chances of growing larger were very limited, even if you provided excellent service and your shippers loved you. Shippers were frustrated by the system, one reason very large shippers often had their own fleets of private trucks.
Owner-operators, small fleets and shipper groups began to make their frustrations known in the 1960s and especially in the early ’70s. A movement was well underway to reduce the amount of economic regulation when the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired at the time by Sen. Edward Kennedy with the top ranking Republican, Sen. Strom Thurmond, began to take up the issue in the mid-’70s. Carter was elected president. He had personal experience with trucking challenges as a small peanut farmer in Georgia. In 1977, President Carter appointed me ICC Chairman, largely because he expected I would make changes.
The ICC in 1977 and to some extent before that began to ease regulation through changes in its own policies and practices. We began to make it easier to obtain authority. We allowed individual carriers to propose lower rates without going through rate bureaus. It was thought that small truckers would come into the market and provide competition within a looser regulatory framework. As we continued to ease the reins, we found it hard to draw the line.
In late 1979, the established truckers and the Teamsters began to raise their concerns in Congress. The leaders of the respective House and Senate committees told me they wanted the Commission to slow down. The Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Howard Cannon, in asking for a moratorium on any further ICC deregulation, promised with the support of his House counterparts to take up the matter of trucking deregulation in the Congress and to have a bill on the President’s desk by June 1, 1980. The bill arrived on July 1.
Those committees entered the regulatory fray thinking they would restore order and make limited changes. But the cat was out of the bag. The committees found there was overwhelming support for change. The legislation that President Carter signed in July 1980 was a substantial Congressional approval of the actions the ICC had taken administratively.
The result was a continued increase in trucking competition and a huge growth in the number of trucking companies. Many were shocked by the number of carriers that began to go bankrupt starting within a year of the 1980 enactment.
The Teamsters Union was substantially weakened by deregulation. Truckload carriers using owner-operator businesses began to grow rather quickly. The shipping community, i.e. business generally, benefited greatly from the new flexibility a deregulated trucking industry afforded them.
One disappointment has been that more owner-operators have not benefited. The pressure to lower prices and keep them low has fallen on the owner-operator.
But it has been gratifying to me to see that some of the larger trucking companies in recent years have increased compensation to their drivers. The much-talked-about driver shortage is in part a result of the inability or unwillingness of some companies to pay their drivers an adequate wage.
No one should be surprised that less money coming to the operator, coupled with all the other pressures and challenges of driving today, would begin to cause a shortage. If the marketplace works as economists tell us it will, we should see higher payouts to operators across the industry. That will be necessary to bring more drivers into the business so as to maintain a healthy, vibrant trucking industry capable of carrying the nation’s commerce. By --Dan O’Neal
Goodbye, Stereotype
Diversification of driver population makes ‘typical trucker’ harder to define
In June 1980, Truckers News ran a feature story on working mother Kathleen McDaniels because she didn’t fit the stereotypical trucker description in the early years of Truckers News’ existence — white, male, 30-45 and sporting a Burt Reynolds mustache. She was something of a rarity in the trucking industry — a woman.
But times were changing — after all, the story was part of a monthly “Women in Trucking” feature — and so was the driver population. Today, a story like McDaniels’ wouldn’t be so rare.
“Going back just three years, 5 percent of our drivers were women, and now it’s 7.2 percent,” says Rob Reich, vice president of enterprise recruiting at Schneider National. “And that’s just three years.”
And that’s just one company.
The industry as a whole has seen growth in the population of non-typical drivers, including women, who as recently as 2005 made up a small-but-respectable 4.1 percent, according to a 2005 driver shortage report conducted by research firm Global Insight.
The study shows the number of women drivers in the industry stayed fairly steady from 1994 to 2004, but recruiters like Reich say that in just the last few years they’ve boosted efforts to attract more women drivers as part of a plan to stave off predicted driver shortages.
“We’ve done some specific advertising, sending the message through photographs that women work here and can do this job,” Reich says. “This is a job that’s friendly to women. We have a training program, so you don’t have to have your CDL yet. From a female perspective, there was an assumption that you had to be already trained.”
Schneider also provides nice bathrooms and good lighting in parking lots to make women feel safe and comfortable in the workplace, Reich says.
Carriers are making similar efforts to attract other non-traditional drivers — in other words, people other than white males, who in 2004 still made up 66.6 percent of the driver population.
Corresponding to similar changes in the country’s population, the percentage of minorities — especially Hispanics — among truck drivers has shown even more marked growth. The growth shows no signs of slowing. Hispanic males represented 14.6 percent of the driver population in 2004, and Global Insight predicts that number will increase to 18.7 percent by 2014, accounting for most of the growth in the occupation. To accommodate that burgeoning population, Truckers News in 2005 launched a sister publication in Spanish, Transportista.
“When you look at the labor statistics, the Hispanic portion of the labor force is growing much faster than any other portion,” Reich says. “You’re looking at some significant growth there in an otherwise slow-growth labor market.”
Some white male truckers get up in arms about this growth, fearing that Hispanics, women, foreign drivers and other minorities will take their jobs. Recruiters say this growth won’t take white male drivers’ jobs; it will only cover the extra jobs that growing freight numbers — and decreasing numbers of young drivers entering the industry — will demand.
“This labor demographic issue and the whole truck driver shortage is something we have to meet head-on,” Reich says.
In 2000, the slice of the driver pie belonging to new, young (21-24-year-old) drivers was small — 3.4 percent — compared to the numbers of every other 5-year age group but the over-65s. Carriers worry — and economists predict — that when the largest group, the 35-44 age group (at 32.8 percent in 2000) reaches retirement age, the industry will experience an acute shortage.
So while carriers are working to recruit young drivers as always, they also reach out to older drivers — both solo and in married teams.
“We’ve done a good job of attracting empty-nesters, people with a second or third career,” Reich says. “When I started with Schneider, I knew some married teams, but it’s become more of a phenomenon. Our husband-wife teams have gone from about 125 to 200 in the past two years.”
Schneider also partnered with AARP to recruit older drivers.
Today’s driver population is already much more diverse than it was 30 years ago, and it will only get more so, according to Global Insight’s study, which predicts the percentage of white male drivers will decrease by six points between 2004 and 2014, especially in the 35-44 age bracket, leaving room for Hispanics and other minorities to fill in the space. Older drivers — age groups 55-64 and 65-plus — will also see significant growth.
Reich sums up the situation simply: “There’s not an average driver profile today, where 30 years ago, there was.”
--Kristin L. Walters
The More Things Change … The core of the trucking industry always will be the good people behind the wheel
-Wayne Lubner
Wayne Lubner, after starting work with his father’s trucking company when he was 12 years old, has spent his entire career in transportation. He is currently vice president of driver, contractor and mechanic relations at Schneider National. Lubner joined Schneider in 1973 as supervisor of night operations and has held various positions with the company. He also serves on the board of directors for the Greater Green Bay Area YMCA.
A lot has changed since 1977. Considering the fast pace our world — and our industry — is moving at today, we’ll only experience more change in the years to come. Truck drivers have demonstrated their ability to change more easily and earlier than most everyone else. This is just one reason why drivers remain the heart of trucking businesses.
Today, as Schneider’s leader of driver and contractor relations, I get to talk with drivers all the time — and those conversations are the most fun, rewarding part of my job. Why? I enjoy listening to drivers’ views on our industry because their in-depth knowledge translates into a clear picture of what we’re all doing right and what we can improve upon. The quality of character in each driver is to be admired. Day in and day out, drivers demonstrate just how giving they are of their time and talent in order to support their customers, their fellow truck drivers, the business they drive for and the motoring public.
Undoubtedly, drivers are among the best people I have had the pleasure of knowing.
When it comes to customer service, time and again truck drivers have proven they rise to the occasion. When drivers learn that a load is in jeopardy, they go the extra mile to safely ensure the customer’s needs are met. Whether that means switching loads to ensure on-time delivery or helping lost drivers find their way, these folks are ready and willing to help.
Truck drivers who serve as trainers also provide shining examples of driver-to-driver assistance and leadership. Most of us started out in this industry learning to drive a truck through the guidance of someone more experienced than us. In my case, I learned from my father, who imparted 35 years of truck-driving wisdom to me to help me get started. Our experienced truck drivers frequently tell me how rewarding it is to help get new people started, simply because it allows them to help someone else be successful in this demanding industry.
Truck drivers are also real-life heroes. In fact, when I think back over the last 30 years, there’s a vast collection of stories stuck in my mind about the heroic acts of our drivers.
There’s the story about one of our drivers who was traveling I-43 in Wisconsin and saw a car crash into a median and burst into flames. Within moments, the driver was at the car, pulling the passengers out — and saving their lives. Then just last year, I heard a similar tale: a Schneider driver came upon a vehicle that had run off the road and hit a guardrail. He stopped his truck, broke the car’s windows and pulled the passengers to safety. Then he helped them into his truck so they could stay warm until police arrived.
In 2003, one of our truck drivers saved the life of someone who had been deliberately set on fire. The driver didn’t stop there; he then helped police locate and arrest the person who was subsequently charged with the heinous crime.
Not all the tales I hear are as dramatic as these, but they’re no less moving. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there were literally hundreds of Schneider drivers volunteering to move loads of much-needed goods to the storm-ravaged region so that the victims could survive and rebuild. And I am always impressed when I hear about truck drivers stopping to help motorists or fellow drivers whose vehicles are broken down. Whether it’s giving the stranded folks a warm place to wait for help or bringing them to a safe place, these drivers are making a difference as “knights of the highway.”
Thirty years ago, I think truck drivers had a reputation more consistent with the kind, good-hearted, hardworking people they really are. Now, it always seems that the few bad apples in our industry are the only ones who get the mainstream media’s attention.
However, I was encouraged a few years ago when I received a letter from a woman in Indiana. She and her family were en route to a high school basketball game. They still had 10 miles to go when the weather took a terrible turn. When they spotted a Schneider driver, she wrote, they decided to follow the driver all the way to town because they knew they would be safe if they stayed behind that truck.
In essence, they trusted their lives to a driver they didn’t even know. That says a lot about what truck drivers can and should mean to the motoring public — just as much as they’ve meant to the industry’s heart. Thirty years ago, that heart was our drivers. Today, it’s our drivers.
And 30 years from now, the good people behind the wheel will remain the heart of the trucking industry.
At a Crossroads
Amid continuing highway use tax debate, infrastructure crisis looms large
Truckers News’ first issue ran on its front page an explanation of the highway use tax, the per-gallon state and federal taxes on fuel, excise taxes on tires and heavy vehicle use registration fees. It was a complicated explanation, and it’s only gotten more complicated over the years. What was originally established as a tax dedicated to highway expansion and maintenance funding has taken on something of a different character since the 1970s, with truckers and motorists paying down the federal budget deficit and contributing to leaky underground fuel storage tank cleanup, among other things.
Furthermore, while federal taxes have continually increased, the federal share of the funds needed for building and maintaining highways in the states has fallen, particularly in the last 15 years. Priorities likewise have shifted to intermodal transportation projects at the federal level, leaving states to determine the need for new highway capacity but in many cases politically fearful of raising fuel taxes to provide for the necessary funds. Thus, many are turning rapidly to a model that’s almost as old as the nation itself — private build-operate-transfer agreements and other public-private partnerships that rely on private industry to maintain highway infrastructure in exchange for toll revenue.
Many truckers’ strong opposition to the private model means you’re likely to meet a fellow driver who supports a fuel-tax hike. It wasn’t always so. A short five years after Truckers News’ birth, the federal Highway Trust Fund, the account the majority of your federal diesel taxes goes into, was looking at a looming crisis if corrective action wasn’t taken. Richard R. Mudge noted in a 1982 Congressional Budget Office report on the issue that the balance in the Trust Fund was declining rapidly, which he attributed at least partly to “much slower growth in tax receipts as higher fuel prices encouraged more conservation.”
For a large segment of the industry, particularly owner-operators, the proposed doubling of the federal diesel tax (to 8 cents a gallon), imposition of higher taxes on tires and an increased vehicle registration fee were untenable. The now defunct Independent Truckers Association, among others, called for a general strike that resulted in sensational press accounts of trucker violence, some of which was unfortunately very real.
The industry dealt with the extra tax, though, as the uptake in reliability of the fuel surcharge from shippers helped guard against fuel-price spikes. But the volumetric explosion of the industry and the American economy subsequent to deregulation of transportation in the late 1970s and early 1980s increased congestion even while operating procedures were significantly streamlined. A sense of looming crisis in interstate highway funding pervaded throughout.
By 1991, frustration with congestion, road maintenance and taxes led Mississippi-based Keith Taber to write to Truckers News suggesting the very solution the industry is facing down today: “If the government is not going to fix the roads, they should stop charging to use it and turn it over to a private concern who will maintain it.”
Crisis was averted with a series of fuel-tax hikes and further redistributions of fuel-tax funds dedicated to pay the federal deficit down later, the last of them in 1997. Which brings us to the present.
The Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse has thrown highway funding in high relief in the national conversation. Politicians and the industry are responding. The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), proposed in August a temporary fuel-tax increase dedicated to a special bridge account for emergency bridge repairs, one exempt from the legislative earmarking that so marred the last federal highway bill.
This might be a step in a positive direction, but it also reflects a parsing of the fuel tax that’s been a concern of drivers since the mass transit account was created in 1983, to which the use-tax strikes were at least partly a response. “Put the fuel tax where it belongs,” says Tony Hamilton, a Hartselle, Ala.-based 30-year veteran driver, “and that’s on the highways.”
The industry agrees, led by the American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, who argue for redistribution of diesel and gasoline tax funds from the mass transit account to the highway account. The ATA’s research arm recently released preliminary results of a study on how to hold onto the current model for a strong national highway network, locating nearly $1 billion yearly in fuel-tax funds lost to other purposes.
Americans for a Strong National Highway Network, a coalition of highway-user groups of which ATA and OOIDA are both members, says that public-private agreements on the National Highway System will fragment the network, forcing trucks onto non-tolled, alternate routes and making highway and bridge maintenance an even more uncertain issue as companies streamline operating procedures to maximize profit from roads.
“The other side of that coin,” says Hamilton, “is that we might get better roads out of it, because they have to maintain them to get more money. It could happen, though we don’t really want to see more tolls, of course, and we definitely don’t want any more government-managed tolls like we see in New Jersey, where we have to hold our teeth so we don’t lose them going over a bridge we just paid $30 to cross.”
--Todd Dills
Not Your Father’s Highway Oasis
Truckstops and travel plazas offer more services and amenities than ever before
A truckstop was once a place where truckers could get just the basics — fuel, food and perhaps some well-deserved sleep.
While viewed as oases among the tight-knit fraternity, these early truckstops lacked the sophistication of many of today’s facilities. The growing trucking industry began demanding more from its favorite pit stops. In 1960, the National Association of Truckstop Operators (NATSO) was founded to address the issues facing this truckstop industry.
Entrepreneurs soon realized larger truckstops that offered more services and amenities were the wave of the future. Larger facilities with more parking, additional maintenance services, bigger restaurants, private showers and entertainment options soon replaced the smaller establishments.
By the 1970s, the truckstop industry was in the middle of great transition. For more than a decade many mom-and-pop facilities and small oil-company-owned chains were being consolidated. Expanding truckstop chains also saw a need to provide services to the growing motoring public. Travel plazas that serve both truckers and the everyday traveler become more of the norm along major highway arteries.
“Years ago, the fuel industry was fuel-driven,” says DuWayne Bridges, owner of Bridges Travel Center in Cusseta, Ala. “Now, you hardly make any money on fuel. Today it’s more of a belly-driven — by that I mean food-driven — industry along with other business centers in order to stay profitable.”
One of the best examples of the truckstop evolution can be seen in Walcott, Iowa. The Iowa 80 Truckstop, billed as the world’s largest, started in 1964 with just one small building, two diesel pumps, one lube bay and a tiny restaurant. Today, Iowa 80 covers more than 200 acres and offers hundreds of services, including a huge trucker store with more than 75,000 items, a truck museum and even a dentist.
Iowa 80 serves more than 5,000 people a day but still keeps truckers a top priority. The annual Truckers Jamboree draws thousands of truckers as well as locals each summer with a truck beauty contest, exhibits and plenty of entertainment.
The Jubitz Travel Center in Portland, Ore., is another stop popular among truckers. It offers a variety of retail stores, 250-seat restaurant, deli, salon and beauty shop, country music lounge, a chiropractor and an onsite hotel.
In addition to commercial scales like CAT Scale, other truckstop innovations these past three decades include satellite pumps enabling drivers to fuel both tanks at the same time, pay-and-go fuel-pump service, automated truck washes, truckstop electrification, Internet kiosks, Wi-Fi service and customer loyalty programs.
“I like some of the changes in truckstops like pay-and-go at the pumps, so that I don’t have to go inside,” says Crete driver Jim Thomas of Olive Hill, Ky., who drives team with his wife Donnetta Thomas. “I also like driver-friendly truckstops.”
But the basics are still what matter most in the end.
“What I like in a truckstop is good parking, cheap fuel and decent food in a good sit-down restaurant,” Thomas says.
--Randy Grider
Iowa 80 Truckstop Owner Starts CAT Scale
One of the most well-known truckstop innovations started with the late Bill Moon, who turned Iowa 80 into a mega facility.
In 1977, Moon installed the first CAT Scale in South Holland, Ill. By 1988, there were 28 CAT Scales in existence. In the past 20 years, CAT Scale has expanded rapidly, and there are now more than 1,000 CAT brand scales across the United States and Canada, with more opening all the time.
CAT Scale offers an unconditional guarantee to drivers using the service. If a driver receives an overweight fine after weighing legal on a CAT brand scale, the company will either pay the fine or appear in court with the driver as an expert witness in order to get the fine dismissed. In either scenario, the driver is covered by the guarantee and does not have to pay the fine, as long as he weighed on a CAT brand scale prior to receiving the citation.
Serving With Innovation
How Jubitz built the ‘World’s Classiest Truckstop’
--Fred Jubitz
Fred Jubitz is president and CEO of Jubitz Corporation, which owns and operates the Jubitz Travel Center in Portland, Ore. He has served on the NATSO board of directors, as a director and Chairman of America’s Best Truck Stops (AMBEST) and as a board member of the Oregon Restaurant Association.
My father, Monroe A. “Moe” Jubitz, returned to his native Portland, Ore., in 1939 fresh out of Yale University. Instead of pursuing a professional baseball career, he hired on as a clerk for Wilhelm Trucking. Dad was an enterprising young businessman and saw opportunity in the truck leasing business. He started his own company, Fleet Leasing, Inc., in 1952.
By 1958 Moe needed more space for his business and purchased the least expensive land he could find, which was located in a floodplain in North Portland. Fleet Leasing leased trucks from a small cinder-block building with two truck bays and a few tiny offices on two acres of land. He had a knack for understanding which truck would best match the needs of his customers, and his trucks came with a full-service and repair maintenance package, which was innovative for that time.
Dad slowly and carefully built the business, acquiring small parcels of property and adding services to meet the needs of customers, including a small fueling facility, radar range meals and some bunk beds for drivers. Every member of the family pulled a shift in the early years — pumping fuel, washing trucks and generally doing whatever was needed. In 1960, there was enough business for my brother Al and me to work the first 24-hour shift, although it turned out to be a 36-hour shift before we were finished!
Dad had an unending commitment to customer service. He did his own market research, constantly talking with drivers in the lot and at the lunch counter, asking for their comments, criticisms and suggestions. That commitment to customer service continues today, as Jubitz holds monthly breakfast meetings with drivers, asking for their input on how Jubitz can better serve their needs.
Responding to these customer requests, in 2000 Jubitz Corporation reinvested in itself with a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion that doubled the capacity of our hotel, added a banquet facility and additional seating to our Cascade Grill restaurant, and created a retail mini mall where guests could purchase food, gifts and necessities or take in a first-run movie. We also provided space for a shoe, boot and load strap repair shop, postal service, a barber shop, outpatient medical clinic and a chiropractor. This year, we opened our Jubitz AMBEST Service Center to meet customer requests for truck maintenance and to offer retail tire sales.
Listening to customers and developing services that answer their needs builds extraordinary customer loyalty. Our service comes with a customer-friendly attitude and is delivered in a style that led the Fox Travel Channel to name Jubitz Travel Center the “World’s Classiest Truckstop.”
Monroe Jubitz died in 2001, but in an era of multi-location truckstop chains and franchises, Jubitz remains a single-location, family-owned business.
Innovation has been the watchword for Jubitz Truck Stop’s growth and development over the years, particularly with regard to customer service. To compete effectively with larger chains and other truckstops more conveniently located right on the interstate highways, we continually strive to offer more and better services than the competition.
We believe our future looks bright. Truck transportation continues to grow as the top choice for moving freight across the United States. Trucks and the traveling public continue to play an integral part in our economy. Fifty years from now I am sure there will still be a need for places like Jubitz, where trucks and cars can refuel and drivers can refresh in a welcoming and friendly venue that meets their needs on the road.
WOW! TRUCK WEEK PULLS CROWD
November 1977
Truckers, Fleet Owners and Operators and over 10,000 visitors came to Truck Week ’77 in St. Louis, Mo., October 13-15. This was the most successful truckers convention held in years according to a spokesman for Truck Week ’77.
Included in the festivities were business sessions for the truckers including panels on maintenance, merchandising, repair and distribution. The development of workshops and seminars took months of planning but the effort paid off as truckers crowded into sessions to hear about any number of topics.
But the convention wasn’t all work and no play. A special Country and Western Night featured the best in country music. Mel Tillis and Loretta Lynn were voted the best country vocalists in the annual Truck Drivers’ Country Music Awards competition. The awards were made at Country-Western Night, the closing event.
REBELLIOUS INDEPENDENTS UNITE IN ‘CONVOY’
August 1978, by Nancy Broomfield
Sam Peckinpah is at it again, directing films as he views them outside the normal confines of Hollywood. He considers himself independent, so it’s no wonder that eventually Peckinpah would get around to making a movie about independent truckers. As in his past films Peckinpah has attempted to salute the man who is determined to do what is right for him, no matter what society or the law may say against it. Peckinpah’s heroes are wild, strong and very independent and usually his theme revolves around the image of man alone, against himself.
In his latest movie, Convoy, Peckinpah again returns to the mining of this theme. The vehicle for expression this time is the independent trucker, the idiomatic Cowboy of the Highway, the last vestige of the wild west. While the idiom has been mined recently by other movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and Highballin’, it was hoped that this director would give some bite to the problems of the independents, as he had confronted and given life to the lawlessness of Straw Days ….
The plot involves “Rubber Duck” (Kris Kristofferson), the heroic leader of a protesting convoy of discontented truckers, who meets Melissa (Ali MacGraw), a sexy photojournalist who becomes unintentionally involved in the truckers’ revolt. The story in this developmental stage is humorous and potent. There’s a brawl scene at a local truckstop, when Sheriff Lyle R. Wallace tries to threaten Spider Mike (Franklyn Ajaye). This is not the last fight with the law. The outlaws force a confrontation. As spirits mount, the convoy keeps growing ….
Truckers News TO VISIT INTERNATIONAL TRUCKING SHOW
June 1980
Traditionally the showcase of all that’s new in trucking, this year’s International Trucking Show will focus on many new equipment and technical advances all designed to aid truckers to meet the cost crunch in the ’80s. Fuel costs are soaring and operating expenses are rising at alarming rates. If a trucker is going to survive economically he or she is going to have to buy a lot sharper. At this year’s show, visitors will see many exhibits that will talk directly to their wallets.
REBELLIOUS INDEPENDENTS UNITE IN ‘CONVOY’
August 1978, by Nancy Broomfield
Sam Peckinpah is at it again, directing films as he views them outside the normal confines of Hollywood. He considers himself independent, so it’s no wonder that eventually Peckinpah would get around to making a movie about independent truckers. As in his past films Peckinpah has attempted to salute the man who is determined to do what is right for him, no matter what society or the law may say against it. Peckinpah’s heroes are wild, strong and very independent and usually his theme revolves around the image of man alone, against himself.
In his latest movie, Convoy, Peckinpah again returns to the mining of this theme. The vehicle for expression this time is the independent trucker, the idiomatic Cowboy of the Highway, the last vestige of the wild west. While the idiom has been mined recently by other movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and Highballin’, it was hoped that this director would give some bite to the problems of the independents, as he had confronted and given life to the lawlessness of Straw Days ….
The plot involves “Rubber Duck” (Kris Kristofferson), the heroic leader of a protesting convoy of discontented truckers, who meets Melissa (Ali MacGraw), a sexy photojournalist who becomes unintentionally involved in the truckers’ revolt. The story in this developmental stage is humorous and potent. There’s a brawl scene at a local truckstop, when Sheriff Lyle R. Wallace tries to threaten Spider Mike (Franklyn Ajaye). This is not the last fight with the law. The outlaws force a confrontation. As spirits mount, the convoy keeps growing ….
MUSIC AWARDS SIMULCAST
October 1979
Now truckers on the road across the U.S. and Canada can also tune in and turn on to some of their favorite country stars for the “13th Annual Country Music Association Awards Program.” The gala program will be broadcast on CBS-TV and simulcast for trucker fans on radio stations in more than 50 markets in North America October 8th, 9:30-11 p.m. ET. Telecast live from Nashville, the show will be sponsored for the 11th year by Kraft.
This year, award-winning Kenny Rogers will host the outstanding presentation that offers a line-up of stars including Dolly Parton, Larry Gatlin, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell and Don Williams.
As a special feature on the CMA Awards telecast, one of country music’s original “Outlaws,” Willie Nelson, will make a rare television appearance ….
I’LL BET YOU A SPEEDING TICKET*
November 1977, by Pat Behrans
They work, no doubt about it! But will a radar detector really eliminate the need to obey the 55 mph speed limit? Not quite.
For the last ten months you have been hearing quite a bit about radar detectors — every manufacturer telling you that his unit is the best. But who can you believe? Fuzzbuster tells you that they are the largest, Super Snooper tells you that they have the longest range, and of course Centurion tells you that they are the best.
Well, we don’t believe any of them. They run their tests in a scientific laboratory. No trucker has ever gotten a speeding ticket in a scientific laboratory and never will!!!!
So, we took our radar gun, a CMI Speedgun I, out on your highways and tested them all ourselves. As you might have guessed the results proved quite interesting ….
OUR SUGGESTIONS: The best radar detector we can suggest is a Whistler Multiband. It is by far the best detector on the market, and the only way to fly! At $159.95, you’ve never had it so good. It’s your license, and you are well aware that a speeding ticket is about a half day’s work ….
Just one more thing: For those of you who think your CB is all you need … when there is a car driving toward you on a four-lane, no one knows that it is a Bear — especially at night — unless you have a radar detector. And on that, my friend, I’ll bet you a speeding ticket.
*Commercial vehicles were banned from using police radar detectors by the Department of Transportation in February 1995: 49 CFR 392.71 is the rule. Prior to the ban, it was estimated more than 50 percent of trucks utilized detectors.
SKIMMING, DEREGULATION GET CONGRESSIONAL NOTICE; ENFORCEMENT CALLED FORO’Neal: Regulatory changes will benefit owner-operators!
October 1979
Daniel O’Neal, Commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in hearings before the House Committee on Small Business, emphasized the plight of America’s independent owner-operator and called on the federal government to dedicate itself to better enforcement of existing laws. While not committing himself to deregulation across the board, O’Neal did admit that the problems of the owner-operator “are serious.” O’Neal cited many problems — “unequal bargaining power between owner-operators and carriers, confusing and conflicting state requirements relating to license plate, size and weight restrictions and fuel taxes, skimming, and other problems.”
The House Small Business Committee, chaired by Representative Neal Smith (D-Iowa), has been looking into the problems in an attempt to solve some of the problems faced by the most important segment of America’s transportation network. In a series of hearings held by the Subcommittee on Special Small Business Problems, chaired by Representative Marty Russo (D-Illinois), the mammoth set of regulations facing the independent owner-operator have been studied. Testimony has been taken from all segments of the industry, including many truckers themselves. One conclusion has emerged: the choking noose of regulations strangling the nation’s truckers must be cut away. Just how to do so is the question!…
WRITING LETTERS TO CONGRESSMEN & SENATORS
June 1980
Writing an effective letter to your Senators or Representatives is not a difficult task.
Here are a few guidelines to ease you along.
- Write on your personal or business letterhead if possible, and sign your name over your typed signature at the end of your message.
- Be sure your exact return address is on the letter, not just the envelope. Envelopes sometimes get thrown away before the letter is answered.
- Identify your subject clearly. State the name of the legislation you are writing about. Give the House or Senate bill number, if you know it.
- State your reason for writing. Your own personal experience is your best supporting evidence. Explain how the issue would affect you, or your family, business, or profession — or what effect it could have on your state or community.
- Avoid stereotyped phrases and sentences that give the appearance of “form” letters. They tend to identify your message as part of an organized pressure campaign — and produce little or no action.
- Be reasonable. Don’t ask for the impossible. Don’t threaten ….
- Be constructive. If a bill deals with a problem you admit exists, but you believe the bill is the wrong approach, tell what the right approach is.
- Don’t pretend to wield vast political influence …. Unsupported claims to political influence will only cast doubt upon the views you express.
- Don’t become a constant “pen pal.” Quality, rather than quantity, is what counts. Write again and again if you feel like it, but don’t try to instruct your congressman on every issue that comes up ….
- Concentrate on your own delegation. The representative of your district and the Senators of your state cast your votes in the Congress and want to know your views ….
- Ask your legislator to state his or her position on the issue in reply. As a constituent, you’re entitled to know.
- Consider the factor of timing. Try to write your position on a bill while it is in committee. Your Senator and Representative can usually be more responsive to your appeal at that time, rather than later on when the bill has already been approved by a committee ….
MY MOM. . . THE TRUCK DRIVER
June 1980 “Women in Trucking” monthly feature,
By M. Kellam
Kathleen McDaniels is from La Mesa, Calif., and she works for the San Diego Gas & Electric Company. But what makes Kathleen’s profession stand out from the mundane? The fact is that Kathleen is a woman who is a professional truck driver — that’s what. She is not tied down to just one truck, either. One day she may drive a dump truck, another day a semi and still another, a water truck. She has captured her day-to-day experiences in this non-traditional female occupation in a humorous book entitled My Mom, the Truck Driver.
Kathy, whose daughter Karen is now 14, started driving a truck when Karen was only six years old and too embarrassed to let her friends know what her mom did to earn her daily bread. Karen now feels comfortable with her mom’s job, although she has never been able to ride along. For insurance purposes, the company does not allow passengers.
Kathy, with a little help from some friends, is presently building a Baja Bug. Common in Southern California, this machine is a converted Volkswagen with huge tires that can be used on backcountry roads. Flying is another of Kathy’s loves, and she is a licensed pilot.
Before the rising cost of fuel made it cost-prohibitive, she flew frequently in a Cessna 152 ….
MINORITY TRUCKERS WILL HOLD 3RD ANNUAL CONVENTION
August 1978
The Third National Convention, sponsored by the Minority Trucking-Transportation Development Corporation (MTTDC) for minority-owned carriers, bus-line owners and trucking and transportation people will be held at the Shoreham Americana Hotel in Washington, D.C. the week of October 23, 1978.
MTTDC is the national trucking assistance organization. It is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to act as the national spokesperson for minority truckers and to provide assistance to all minority truckers seeking equal participation in the transportation industry. Various workshops have been constructed to impart knowledge about dealing with the government and the private sector.
HOPE ENDS FOR FOUR-YEAR HIGHWAY BILL
August/September 1982, by Jim Fruth
The trucking industry’s Washington observers say they have given up all hope of a four-year highway funding bill during 1982, a bill that carried with it uniform size and weight legislation that would have forced all states to conform to the federal standard.
Further, they say, legislators who supported the four-year bill have also given up hope, and will pass a simple one-year funding bill this month. That action will delay any further action on uniform size and weight measures at least until the funding issue is again addressed next year. The loss of the uniform size and weight effort tied to a number of issues under consideration on Capitol Hill this year, including efforts by the White House to see passage of legislation relative to balancing the budget. Also affecting the issue was the Department of Transportation’s Highway Cost Allocation Study which was delivered to Congress earlier this year and showed the need for a restructuring of trucker taxes....
Truckers knew they would have to go along with increased highway user fees in exchange for [uniform size and weight restrictions]; and since the dwindling Highway Trust Fund would soon demand increased fees; and since the DOT’s study was expected to call for higher truck taxes; and since legislators of both parties showed support for the idea, many were confident of passage during this legislative year. But, as George Mead of the American Trucking Associations’ legislative office said, the support was there with everyone “except the one guy you must have, and that is the President.”
The fate of the size and weight legislation apparently was sealed late in May when President Reagan and other Administration officials met to discuss a proposal by Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis on a possible fuel tax increase. The secretary suggested that the two-decade-old four-cent fuel tax be increased by five cents per gallon as a menas of returning the Highway Trust Fund to a pattern of positive growth. The Administration rejected the idea, however, leaving the Highway Trust Fund in a $1 billion-plus per year negative cash flow posture ....
OPERATORS WORRY ABOUT DEREGULATION
October 1979
The multi-billion dollar truckstop industry, critically hard-pressed by diesel fuel shortages, could be in for even rougher times ahead if the trucking industry is deregulated.
A spot survey of truckstops along the nation’s interstates shows operators are becoming increasingly worried about the impacts current efforts to deregulate the nation’s motor carriers will have on them and their best customers, the independent owner-operators.
“I have just got to believe deregulation will drive a lot of independents right out of business,” worries Bob Pagura, general manager of the Garden State Truck Plaza on Route I-78 in New Jersey. “These guys are my bread and butter and I can’t afford to lose them. I’m afraid we might see a concentration in the trucking industry along the lines of the automobile industry, which is totally dominated today by three manufacturers. Everywhere you look these days, the trend is toward bigger and bigger companies.”
What all this means to the truckstop operator, according to Pagura, can be summed up in two words: “bad news.”
As a small number of motor carriers become bigger and bigger, interstate hauling operations will be increasingly dominated by company-owned and -controlled terminal-to-terminal fuel operations that will bypass the truckstop ….
“What is your favorite Truckstop?”
June 1980, interviews by then-Truckers News field editor Pete Rigney
“I like the Petro in Weatherford west of Dallas-Fort Worth on I-20. They have nice shower facilities and good food, and it is one of the cleanest around. There are enough showers for the size of the truckstop and the price is free. Everything is there — the soap, the hot water and enough of everything to help the trucker clean up after a long haul. If you go to the self-service bays, all the things needed are there for the trucker. One thing that is very important is the wake-up schedule. They will make certain that you get up at the time you requested. Most places forget, but not Petro’s.”
“My favorite truckstop is the TruckStops of America in Knoxville, Tenn. I believe it is at mile marker 374 just before you hit the Manchester scale on I-40. I like their service. They have three setups on the fuel island; if you stay with the truck during the fueling, you get 100 extra Gold Bond Stamps. The full service is just that. They mark it right on your ticket when they have checked your oil, etc. On self-service they still check your oil, but you handle the fuel. On minimum service you do everything yourself, but you still get the 100 extra stamps. Their food is good, too. I like their ham buffet. They use old-fashioned hams, bone and all. The place is one of the cleanest truckstops in the country. I drive coast-to-coast and that truckstop is tops!”
NEW SPECIAL JEANS MADE FOR TRUCKERS
August/September 1982
The professional truck driver is finally getting the attention he deserves in work clothes, according to the people who make Long Haul Jeans. Available since Sept. 1 at truckstop stores throughout the country, they are a new idea in specialized apparel for the trucker.
The jeans are fuller cut, with more room in the seat and thigh, so that they are not confining or binding. They also feature a new fabric, mechanical stretch denim (which is a blend of 69% cotton and 31% Dacron polyester) which actually gives, and stretches with you as you move for maximum comfort fit.
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