Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/101364
VOICES I sure could use some new paint right now. Reader Zachary Bell wrote this exchange as part of a request for a caption to this photo taken by Todd Dills at the American Truck Historical Society Music City Chapter truck show in Cookeville, Tenn. Bell���s was but one of nearly 50 responses to the post on Overdrive���s Facebook page. Scan the QR to read the rest and add your own, or visit facebook.com/ OverdriveTrucking and click ���Photos��� to find them. I know you���re a little rusty but , those are some nice aluminum rims. Just think ��� in a few years, all those kids will have bulletnose trucks with too much chrome, automatic transmissions, voice-guided directions and microwave ovens. And the stacks will no longer puff any smoke. So all the real trucks will be gone? Yes. And so will the drivers, because these newfangled things called computers will manage everything, and the drivers will be forced to slow down by the computers so we can���t have any fun. DRIVER HAS HAULED ALL KINDS OF FREIGHT ��� BUT NO TARPING, PLEASE A native of Davenport, Iowa, Neal Ewoldt got his first taste of the road as a kid while accompanying his father and cousin hauling furniture in a 1973 International for Beacon Movers. In the 1980s, while serving in the U.S. Army, Ewoldt drove a recovery vehicle in Germany for 18 months. ���When I got out, I worked in several different jobs for a while, including a landscaping business with my wife,��� he says. Ewoldt later went to driving school and hauled dry van freight for Werner Enterprises for a year. ���I couldn���t get home with Werner enough, though, and I kept seeing Tennant trucks [pulling flatbeds] in and out of the Quad City area,��� Ewoldt says. He got his start with Tennant Truck Lines as a company driver. Six years later, he hauls John Deere equipment for Tennant in a red 2012 International ProStar powered by a 475-hp Mack and 10-speed transmission. ���One of my most interesting hauls was a Veteran Tennant Truck garbage truck Lines company driver Neal Ewoldt offers this ��� they had to tip for new drivers: cut off the top ���Don���t let dispatchers of the truck push you. This job, for and take off the the most part, isn���t life or death. Take your tires to make time, make cautious decisions and keep in it fit [height] mind that others on the requirements,��� road are depending on you to be a safe driver.��� Ewoldt says. What doesn���t he like about flatbedding? Tarping. ���This is my retirement job, so I like to carry easy loads,��� he adds. ���I���ll take on whatever they ask me to, though. It���s always good to be flexible.��� ��� Elizabeth Manning Neal Ewoldt is a finalist in the 2012 Company Driver of the Year contest conducted by Overdrive and the Truckload Carriers Association. The winner and the owner-operator contest winner will be announced at TCA���s annual convention, March 3-6 in Las Vegas. 6 | Overdrive | January 2013 Hawk to DOT: ���Point me to the nearest roadkill��� On Nov. 2, Washington State DOT posted this photo from a traffic camera in Wenatchee to its Twitter feed (@wsdot), asking ���What do you think he wants to tell us?��� The state DOT has been singled out around the net for the sense of humor that its Twitter operators bring to official communications, but in this case, the responses @wsdot followers left were funnier: ��� He���s asking if you can point him to roadkill ��� Probably just verifying the camera works for ya. spare the work crews some angst ;) ��� I���m pretty sure he wants to tell us to #Approve74 cause he supports Marriage equality! :-) SHARE WITH OVERDRIVE OVERDRIVE MAGAZINE TWITTER.COM/OVERDRIVEUPDATE