Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/718143
Feature 26 September 2016 BestDriverJOBS www.bestdriverjobs.com I meet Donald Norton at the Boyd Brothers Transporta on terminal in Birmingham, Alabama. He's on his way to Knoxville with a load of lumber, and I'm hitching a ride with him to Cha anooga. A er more than a decade in trucking and over a million safe miles with Boyd Brothers, Norton has plenty of things to say about the industry, and the experience to back it up. "This time of day is always fun trying to get out of Birmingham," Norton says jokingly as we pull out of the terminal and approach rush-hour traffic. Within minutes of merging onto the congested interstate, Donald starts point- ing out why four-wheel drivers are his biggest safety concern on the road and why most others share his view. "We've got an exit ramp coming up," says Norton. "You will have a car over in the left lane that's going to get off up there, and instead of falling back and going to the right behind you, they're going to run up and cut straight across you." From the shotgun position of Don- ald's cab, the reason for his frustration becomes clear. What may seem like a safe passing distance to a four-wheel driver is actually forcing Norton to quickly apply his brakes in order to avoid risking a collision. This happens several times in the first half hour of our trip, either from cars cutting across him to exit or from vehicles merging onto the highway without speeding up. "It's not that we feel like we own the road," Norton explains. "It's just that we're pushing 80,000 pounds, and we can't stop or take off as fast as a car." As we leave Birmingham and traf- fic starts to dissolve, our conversation moves to e-logs and other regulation concerns. Norton has a cautiously optimistic view of trucking's future. He still uses paper logs, and unless he gets By Ian Palmer On the Road: A view of the trucking industry from the cab of a veteran driver