Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/221538
Voices Todd Dills Unless they're passing, why don't trucks stay in the right lane? Overdrive interviewed 2013 tree-tour lead driver Duane Brusseau at the Nashville, Tenn., whistle stop on the Capitol tree's cross-country tour. Schoolchildren and others signed the banners on the main tree trailer. Find video and a photo gallery in the Nov. 21 entry on the Channel 19 blog: OverdriveOnline. com/channel19. Right-lane ruckus Readers responded in force to trucker's son Thom Jansen, who wrote in October: What happened to the credo passed to him by his father of running in the right lane unless passing? Jansen noted rigs "clogging up the middle lane. … Has something changed, or are [drivers] just not as 'professional' as they once were?" "During rush hour, I will stand up for the truck driver," wrote Brad Lambert at OverdriveOnline.com, defending truckers' flexibility in choosing lanes. "We get out there to get out of the way of all the vehicles getting on and off the highway." Jimmy Nevarez responded similarly. "The right lane is the lane with the most resistance and creates an unsafe position for a truck who needs to leave an 'out,' especially in the case of a split-limit state." Here's a highlight from a detailed explanation written by George Anis. He noted that the increased ratio of cars to trucks, as well as the proliferation of work zones and lane closures, creates a "driving environment … not conducive to the 'horse and buggy' mentality" supposed by Jansen: "The so-called truckers that you refer to as 'driving down the middle lane of the highway for miles' are doing so to avoid conflicts with the carefree shopping-mall-cruising four-wheelers who never yield upon entering a highway. "Without so much as a casual glance in their side-mirrors, these highly-skilled car drivers wait until they are at the 'point of no return' on an on-ramp before they realize that they are about to run into an 18-wheeler passing the ramp." You can read the entire post at OverdriveOnline.com by searching "right lane running." Hauling the Capitol Christmas tree Now retired after a career that spanned most of five decades, San Jose, Calif.-based Duane Brusseau has marked his third year with some involvement in the cross-country haul of the 80-foot-tall U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. Brusseau was the lead driver on the 2011 haul that originated in California. Last year, he was co-driver of the second rig – pulling a standard 53-foot van – that accompanied lead Duane Brusseau driver U.S. Sen. Ben Campbell of Colorado, where that tree originated. This year, with the specially wrapped and decorated 2014 Mack Pinnacle and expandable long-load trailer at a total 103 feet in length, he's had his work cut out for him. There were numerous stops after leaving Northeast Washington State, where the tree was cut in Newport. California-based co-driver Galon Baker, who drives for Walmart, drove the second rig this year. In the van were "80 8-foot-tall trees from the Republic, Washington area," Brusseau says. "They will go inside the Capitol offices. Also, there are about six pallets of ornaments made by the schoolchildren of Washington State that will go on the main tree." In addition, two 25-foot trees in the van will go inside the U.S. Forest Service and one other office in D.C. It was a capital – pun intended – haul for the retired driver, Brusseau says, culminating with the annual lighting ceremony in early December. — Todd Dills 4 | Overdrive | December 2013 Voices_1213.indd 4 11/27/13 9:25 AM