Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/52522
EXIT ONLY TODD DILLS esperate people sometimes take desperate measures. That maxim was never more evi- dent than in mid-November when owner-operator Henry Albert was fueling his Freightliner at a Pilot Flying J location in Lar- edo, Texas, and was approached by one of his fellow haulers. The driver urgently asked Albert ques- tions in an attempt to determine the whereabouts of a U.S. Xpress driver parked in the fuel line adja- cent to Albert. Unbeknownst to the U.S. Xpress driver, a young man and woman were crouched on top of his sleeper in the small cavity behind the tractor's high roof fair- ing (see Albert's picture here) in an attempt to stow away on the U.S. interior-bound rig. A testa- ment to the value of drivers look- ing out for each other, Albert posted the story to his blog after one of his regular runs from the Charlotte, N.C., area, where he lives, to the border zone and back. POSTED 'Real Steel' rig auctioned Joyce Smith, co-owner of Ron Smith Trucking of Breck- enridge, Mich., shuttered the company about a year ago, a month after her husband passed away. At press time, the small fleet's equipment was set to be auctioned Dec. 8. Among the 17 tractors on offer (among livestock, flat- bed and other trailers as well as other equipment) was the pictured 1994 Freightliner cabover, which holds the distinction of not only being a fine-looking, long-running piece of iron from a long- lived livestock hauling opera- tion — it was an extra in the opening scene of "Real Steel," this summer's block- buster about a boxer (Hugh Jackman) turned robot-fight promoter. To film the scene, says Smith, they took "five of our 82 TRUCKERS NEWS JANUARY 2012 trailers and three of our trac- tors" to Detroit, where the film was made. In the scene in the finished film, she adds, "the trucks are set up as an arena around some wres- tling robots." Separate, not equal That separation could be diminishing when it comes to U.S. and Mexican tuck- ing, now that a new pilot program for cross-border long haul is under way. In the wake of the Oct. 21 border ceremony at Laredo, when the first Mexican truck crossed as part of the new cross-border pilot program, J.E. Dyer wrote at the Hot Air Green Room website that the job-creation rhetoric so prominent in Washington these days has been revealed for what it is. Namely, that is, bunk that has no basis in the way we all think about jobs, as ulti- mately an active culmination of individual skill, need and desire. The politicians view jobs as constituency-building opportunities, as tools in an arsenal of favor-influencing widgets, Dyer says. And just as expensive emissions regulations keep coming from California — and D.C., with the announce- ments of new fuel-mileage standards for heavy trucks within the last year — the cross-border trucking pilot program, take two ("copilot program," anyone?), revives. Dyer likens it to a sort of piling on to the backs of the independents. Regulations, in general (and these in par- ticular), Dyer notes, "tilt the playing field on behalf of favored constituencies … Regulations inherently cre- ate artificial advantages and disadvantages." Renewed vigilance D Keep situational awareness high for stowaways along the border I can't imagine a more uncom- fortable spot anywhere else on a tractor but straddled atop the trailer landing gear, as unrealistic as that might be. (Though the cir- cumstances are very different, the whole episode does bring to mind the hauler who, in an effort to foil a theft of his tractor, running bobtail, ended up on its deck- plate during a dramatic hour-long police-chase ride outside Atlanta I wrote about in 2009.) The truck's driver, Albert said, did the smart thing and decided to let the authorities handle the situation, calling police. "Also, he contacted his company to make them aware of what was happen- ing," Albert wrote in his blog post about it. And as he and other driv- ers went about their business wait- ing for the cops to show up, "the two individuals realized the truck was sitting for too long and they climbed out and ran away." When police came, they gathered details of the incident from Albert and Truckers News Senior Editor Todd Dills blogs daily from Nashville, Tenn., via www. overdriveonline.com/channel19. Follow him at http://twitter.com/ channel19todd. To read Todd's blog on your smartphone, scan this QR code using a decoder, which can be found in your phone's app store. other witnesses before beginning their search. If you're hauling regularly to the border zone, best to keep extra-vigilant awareness about you during stops, Albert says. Miss something like this happen- ing and you'd have quite a prob- lem on your hands at the check- points at the end of the border commercial zone. Stopping to fuel in Laredo anytime soon? Look up – there may be a stowaway in the space behind your roof fairing, atop your cab, as in this photo captured at the Flying J there by owner-operator Henry Albert. COURTESY JOYCE SMITH