Word: trucker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Another element of the story, the strike of independent truckers, proved equally elusive. Washington Correspondent Jonathan Beaty knew enough of the arcane ICC regulations to know that, say, raisins are exempt from regulation and any trucker is perfectly free to carry them, unless they happen to be covered with chocolate. Such knowledge helped, but Beaty found that the old rules and conventions are under serious attack. Says he: "The independent truckers are trying to blow apart a time-honored system, and that drives the Teamsters, the trucking industry and various politicians and lobbyists right up the wall-all for different...
...Alabama, one trucker was killed when he was shot in the leg and his rig swerved off the road. The wife of another driver was shot in the chest and critically wounded. Governor Fob James angrily ordered National Guard tankers to transport fuel and considered putting some parts of the state under direct military rule. "The people who commit these crimes are outlaws," he declared. "I hope to put them in the electric chair, and if we had a hanging...
Teamster-baiting, in fact, has become a way of life for I.T.A. President Mike Parkhurst, 46, a burly, boisterous former trucker who started organizing the independents almost a decade ago. His monthly magazine, Overdrive (circ. 51,000), is the main trade publication of the independents. Parkhurst freely admits that one of the goals of the present strike is to weaken the Teamsters. He wants the independents to carry freight at the same rate as the Teamsters, clearly a challenge to the monopoly that has benefited the nation's biggest union for so long...
High on the list of legal horrors is an Arkansas regulation requiring trucks traveling through the state to buy 65 gal. of gas. "You can't realize how ununited the U.S. is unless you drive across it," says Trucker Tom Strampel. The worst regulations, everyone agrees, are those governing the length and weight of tractor trailers. Smack dab in the middle of the U.S. are seven states that allow trucks a gross weight of only 73,280 Ibs. The states on either side permit 80,000 Ibs. Truckers will do anything to avoid the weigh stations ("chicken coops...
...four wheels plan for a two-week vacation. They throw a big party the night before they leave, jump in the car, the wife has the map in her lap and there are three screaming kids in the back seat. The guy is going 70 m.p.h. and looking backwards." Trucker Phyllis Crush, who drives with her husband Ted, describes a recent run-in. "I was driving in the giddyap lane and some broad stopped dead at 65 m.p.h. She was starting to back up at an exit. I slam on my brakes and my trailer hits the guard rail...