Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/376180
Voices 4 | Overdrive | September 2014 A July 16 discussion on fuel hauler Allen Smith's "Truth About Trucking" online radio show included Ashley Boeglin, widow of Michael Boeglin, the owner-operator who lost his life in June while parked in Detroit. Ashley's working from her Indiana home to spur anyone with information as to the identities of her husband's assailants to come forward. So is her father, David Clark, who has engaged with the driver community on parking availability. As a former trucker in the 1970s, he remembers the issue well. Also on the call: Hope Rivenburg, widow of Jason Riven- burg, who lost his life in circumstances similar to Boeglin's. The "Jason's Law" language in the 2012 MAP-21 highway bill came in part due to Hope's efforts. The money it makes avail- able for creating truck parking competes at the state level with maintenance and expansion of roads and bridges, Hope noted. Your state's trucking association also could be a good point of contact to raise the parking issue's profile. Find a list of association contacts, and links to state DOT contacts, in the July 17 post on the Channel 19 blog (OverdriveOnline.com/ channel19), where you also can catch a full podcast replay of the "Truth About Trucking" edition. Death reboots parking issue "The hours of service regs as set forth by the FMCSA have endangered every driver out here, as they require us to have parking spaces available. … Why are we being coerced by the government to follow rules that the government has not made it possible for us to follow? Drivers, I'm going home 10/31/14 through 11/7/14 so that I may vote. I would encourage the rest of you to join me as we need to be heard about this and other issues." — Pat Hockaday To introduce a video interview with Dennison Lubricants driver Emily Weymouth, named Overdrive's Most Beautiful and featured on last month's cover, Overdrive editorial director Max Heine wrote this: It's probably a safe bet that there's not too many slender women drivers that ever y day drag around the heavy hoses used in distributing lubricants, getting plenty g reasy in the process – and love the work. Some readers seized on the "slen- der" reference to criticize Heine, the contest and Overdrive. Other complaints centered on Weymouth's tattoos, her routes being local instead of long-haul, and other points. Desiree Wood of the Real Women in Trucking group, com- menting at OverdriveOnline.com, said the contest is a "very weak and inappropriate way to recognize the contribution women truckers make to an industry that rarely gives them any notice except as a token diversity photo opportunity." Mike Gomez wrote: "Honestly, you can't consider an individual who is home daily to be a truck driver. Those ladies and gentlemen who live in the truck, sleep in the truck, eat in the truck own the road." Ira Doss: "Ship her out west, and let's see if she can live through a heavy load off of Donner in Janu- ary. Or a nearly empty trailer across Wyoming in a 70-plus mph wind. She's never done it once, let alone every week like so many real female drivers." Others came to the defense of Weymouth, Heine and Overdrive: Via OverdriveOnline.com C.W. Moore: "Not sure what all the comments about [Weymouth's] clothes are all about. It looks like she wears a t-shirt and blue jeans at work. That's how I dress at work. You guys are too critical; we should be support- ing each other out here, not trying to beat each other down." "Big Mike": Some people happen to like tattoos. If everyone looked alike, the world would look like a big herd of cattle. She may be working local, but she's still driving a truck. Emily Weymouth of Charlton, Mass., hauls motor oil, transmission fluid and other lubricants. 'Most Beautiful' dustup