Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85450
VOICES Happy Halloween: Highway haunts Fans of Overdrive's Facebook page had no shortage of sarcasm for a question editors posed in August about haunted truck stops. "I bought fuel today for $4.08. Scares the **** out of me every time," wrote Lee Rexroad. Others noted a former stop on I-77 in Charlotte, N.C. – Jake's Red Ball. It's "now an empty lot … with weeds growing up from the cracks in the pavement," said Ronnie Southerland, and Michael Duffey added that drivers were known to have been murdered there. Libby Kerans Clayton: "I can say I didn't enjoy having a vintage-style hearse slow and run along beside me at 2 a.m. on I-65 near Evergreen, Ala. Found out later that stretch of highway is supposed to be haunted." Brian Schuetz: "There's a fuel stop at the junction of U.S. 278 and 5 [in Natural Bridge, Ala.], where a lady was run over by a truck. When you go through the intersection on a stormy night she jumps on your running board and looks in to see if you're the one that hit her." Anybody else just get the chills? Spooky trucker legends live on. The grass doesn't get any greener I am a 44-year-old driver with 20 years' experience and have had my share of driving jobs. Straight out of truck driving school I was hired by Benny Whitehead Inc. in Eufaula, Ala., in 1993 and, for vari- ous reasons, switched jobs – I'm currently (the third time) working with Benny again! He has grown to about 70 trucks hauling produce for Publix grocery. He is best known for how he specs and operates his equipment to get what I think is amazing fuel economy. Of course, governed speed has dropped to 62 mph, but these days with high fuel prices I think a lot of people are following suit. I was hired in December with my fiancée, who was fresh out of school. We were given a new ProStar Eagle loaded with everything. With our truck having only 135K, it was sold and we were given a 2013 International LoneStar (pictured) with more chrome than your typical chrome shop! And from the ProStar to the more bulky long-nose- type LoneStar, fuel mileage still increased from 7.5 to 8 mpg initially. Now we're doing better than that, at 8 to 9.5 on mileage loaded. Benny continues to grow and stay way in the black – and pays his drivers very well when mileage numbers are achieved. I average $1,200 to $1,500 a week. Benny can often be found hang- ing around the terminal talking to drivers, making sure they are treat- ed right. A good place to work! – Richard Hearn, Panama City, Fla. Best driver appreciator in the trucking game? "We are constantly approached by people wanting to look at our truck and take pic- tures," writes Richard Hearn, driver for Ala.-based Benny Whitehead Trucking. "We feel like we are famous with the attention we receive." 10 | Overdrive | October 2012 We asked Overdrive Facebook fans to put a shout out to the trucking company owner (other than them- selves) who did driver appreciation the right way. Among the salutes were Billy Fannin's to Frontier Transport of Indianapolis — "Always great," Fannin said — and Rebecca Allison's kudos for her husband's current carrier, Tim Ables Trucking of Gladewater, Texas. "But," Allison said, "he will be forever grateful to the man who gave him his start — 'Big Daddy' Dwaine Easley of Canton, Texas, who treated him like a favored son." Among the perks with Easley's outfit were top, well-maintained equipment, maintenance bonuses for drivers and more. "May he rest in peace."