Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/135388
VOICES CHANNEL 19 Courtesy of Big Rig Books And you thought trucking was going to the dogs This killer 2000 Peterbilt 379 and 36-foot bookmobile trailer, holding up to 7,000 books, make things happen for Chicago-area philanthropic organization Big Rig Books. Hauling reads for kids Big Rig Books is a nonprofit founded by Chicago-area-based John C. Gervase. "We distribute free books to underprivileged children to encourage recreational reading," he says. The organization emerged out of a philanthropic effort Gervase founded in 2009 for love of trucking and community called Haulin' for Humanity. It "provided low-cost trucking services to other nonprofits and churches," including food banks, as he writes on bigrigbooks.org. His focus shifted to books when he realized that there was more to encouraging literacy in children than simply sending them to school. "How wrong and naive I was," Gervase says. You can read more about him in the May 2 post on the Channel 19 blog. He's always looking for books and monetary donations to "keep on the road serving." Despite questionable pay, traffic congestion and other problems, the occupation of truck driver moved from 128th in 2012 to 108 this year in favorability rankings compiled by CareerCast.com. It was the second consecutive year of improvement. The ranking takes into account hiring demand, pay and working conditions. My profession, publication editor, plummeted from 118th to 168th. It's now slightly behind janitor and police officer. If you've been thinking about a new career and you're a math whiz, you couldn't do better than taking up work as an actuary. Income is upward of $90,000, and the hiring outlook is among the survey's best. Find CareerCast's full rankings of 200 jobs in the April 29 post. And if you know of a good driving school, drop me a line. 'We've got truckers! 20% off!' "That's not for the short-hauler! I wouldn't have a job if I had that on!" – David Finnell, commenting about this Levi's ad on our Facebook page, facebook.com/OverdriveTrucking "Who's got Truckers?" asked the subject line of a recent e-mail blasted out from the folks at Levi Strauss & Co. They then answered their own question: "We do, with 20% off!" Open the e-mail, and you get a description of the truckers in question that sounds a little too good to be true: "An essential always-in-style object of devotion …" If only. "It has not been too many years ago that the Levi company said that truck drivers were not the market that they were interested in," wrote Kurt Keilhofer under news of the ad for Levi's "Trucker" jacket – their classic Type II denim jacket – posted to the blog. "And now they use them to name a product line?" Find more about the history behind the moniker via the April 18 and March 30 posts. Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. 10 | Overdrive | June 2013 Voices_0613.indd 10 5/28/13 10:42 PM