Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/87831
VOICES CHANNEL 19 BIDEN'S CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH TRUCKS During the early 1970s, Joe Biden experienced a truck wreck and later a truck ride. Both produced interesting responses from him. In 2008, when Vice President Biden and President Obama were running, we called out the circumstances of an old item Biden occasionally included in speeches about a supposed drunk trucker whose rig killed his wife and young daughter in the 1970s. It turns out the Bidens had just not seen the truck and pulled out in front of the most definitely sober driver, leaving little time for evasive maneuvers. In September, Andrew Kacynski with Buzzfeed unearthed a Biden editorial from shortly after the 1972 crash that sug- gested a bit more empathy with truckers. During the early '70s fuel crisis, Biden rode with a trucker, stopping often to talk to drivers. "Dominating the entire discussion was the feeling … that the federal government isn't listening. Sound familiar? " While the show and process of outreach from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been great in recent years, on the back end we all could use a little more of what Biden seems to have had as a young senator in 1973 – a willingness to get out of the office to see the realities where the rubber hits the road. Find links to the old Biden editorial in the Sept. 10 entry on the Channel 19 blog. The ultimate disincentive Mustang galloping toward 3 million miles – in one truck Overdrive 2010 Trucker of the Year Mike "Mustang" Crawford, of Long Lane, Mo., first steered his 1994 Freightliner brand-new as a company driver with Prime. The now inde- pendent owner-operator was just 37,000 miles shy of 3 million safe miles in early September, all of it logged in the same rig. Ever quick with a joke, Crawford describes his reasoning for staying in the truck: "I don't feel like cleaning it out – it'd take me a month and a half." More seriously, he attributes the truck's lon- Think $2,750 for violating the ban on hand- held cellphone use while driving is hefty? Administrative officials in Scotland have upped the ante on their own anti-cell- phone laws already on the books, giv- ing Scotland's Traffic Commissioner the ability to cherry-pick phone-use violators for full license suspension. Given our federal government's occasional inclination to follow their European brethren on regs, penalties and technology, watch out! Sound off in the comments on the Sept. 17 blog post. For more of the interesting and odd parts of trucking, visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' 8 | Overdrive | November 2012 gevity to three things: 20,000 miles. Lucas oil treatment… I got almost a million-sev- en on the [Detroit] engine before the one engine rebuild – and that was just an in-frame rebuild." right lane's real rough, I'll ride in the left lane. I don't have to reach the finish line ahead of Jeff Gordon." Find more about Crawford's long run in the Sept. 6 blog entry. How many people can you squeeze into a truck cab? Volvo set out to illustrate the answer (pictured) during its live gala for the European release of its new FH cabover. For the answer, and more from the event, check out the Sept. 4 and 9 entries on the blog. CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19. Todd Dills