Trucks at Work Blog

“You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” –Master Oogway, from the DreamWorks movie “Kung Fu Panda”

What a year, eh? On the one hand in 2008, we witness some of the greatest global financial and economic turmoil in decades: the collapse Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers; a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street; oil costing a record $147 then plummeting to $35 a barrel; Jevic Transportation and Alvan Motor Freight going out of business with nearly 2,000 other trucking companies.

Yet on the other: the first African American ever elected President of the United States; Michael Phelps surpassing Mark Spitz as the winner of most individual gold medals at Olympic Summer Games; the U.S. bagging the 1,000th gold medal since it started participating in the Olympics, courtesy of the Women’s soccer team. The list goes on.

All in all, 2008 proved one hell of a year from a trucking journalist’s perspective, too. We witnessed the unveiling of 2010 engine platforms designed not only to clean the air but improve fuel economy as well. A spate of new truck models made an appearance despite the hard times, including Mack’s Titan tractor, Navistar’s one-of-a-kind LoneStar tractor, among others. Work on new technology didn’t stop either: for example, ArvinMeritor introduced OnGuard, a system designed to automatically deploy a truck’s brakes if sensors detect stopped traffic ahead. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

[Just for fun, I compiled a short “musical review” of some of the sights I saw in 2008 below.]

Yet so much of the good news – lower highway fatalities due to truck-car collisions being a big noteworthy item – got drowned out by the bad. The closing of Sterling Truck Corp. by its German parent, Daimler AG, proved a sad mark for it came on the heels of new product introductions aimed at returning some luster to the Sterling brand. But the ongoing slump in U.S. truck sales proved too much of a challenge to overcome for Daimler.

Now, however, all of that is behind us. Ahead lies 2009, cloaked in mystery. What shall the New Year bring? Better days, one hopes. Knowing the can-do spirit that drives America, I am certain we’ll attain them.

“We know this forecast will be a blow to many industry participants.” –Eric Starks, president, FTR Associates, Nashville, IN

The funny thing is, the quote above from Eric Starks came from his FIRST revised outlook for the trucking market back in October, when things only looked bad. NOW, of course, things are decidedly worse – with four full quarters of economic shrinkage branding this downturn as a full-blown recession, highlighted by a 4% annualized fall in U.S. GDP [gross domestic product] during the fourth quarter of (thankfully soon to be over) 2008, according to FTR’s analysis.

All in all, Starks believes the numbers indicate we’re in the midst of a 1982-style recession – definitely a bad place to be. From FTR’s view, here’s what a 1982-like recession would mean to the truck market: Tonnage would fall by 10% year-over-year, followed by a decline trucking margins and in truck equipment utilization rates – probably to below 80%. That would translate into a major slide in equipment purchases next year, perhaps below 75,000 units for U.S. retail Class 8 sales for 2009.

OK, bad karma – we get it. Question is, will all of this necessarily come true? Are there any counter-balancing forces at work? You could argue that if the incoming Obama administration passes its two-year $1 trillion infrastructure upgrade and expansion plan, we’d see a big spike in freight demand from many sectors, especially the construction industry.

Also, despite the big pre-buy in 2006 to get ahead of truck price increases due to the 2007 emission reduction standards, many fleets are still running older trucks. Many experts feel that aging equipment is going to catch up to many fleets in 2009, forcing them to buy replacement vehicles and thus bumping up sales for both the new and used trucks.

Obviously, a lot is going on – good as well as bad – that impacts trucking, making any attempt at prognostication pretty suspect. But I’m going to throw my hat in the ring here all the same – heck, I predicted Obama would be president the last time I did this back in Dec. 2007 and seriously surprised myself with the result on that one.

Yet let me also say this – many predictions I fervently do NOT want to come true, especially a major terrorist attack in Europe or North America. Do I think one is likely? Yes. Do I want it to happen? Absolutely NOT! My hope is that interdiction efforts continue to be successful, preventing horrors such as the Madrid train bombings in Spain back in 2004 and, of course, our own day of darkness – September 11, 2001.

That being said, let’s gaze into the foggy crystal ball before us and see what can be seen …

HOS under fire: Public Citizen has already launched its next round of court challenges to the revised hours of service (HOS) rules put in place back in 2004. This time, though, with the Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress, expect their effort to succeed. I think we’ll see another big revision of HOS rules take place within the next four years, with allowable drive time being cut from 11 hours back to 10, if I was to hazard a guess.

Green light for heavier trucks: We’ll see a 17,000 pound increase in federal highway and bridge truck weight limits, raising the current limit from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds when the Highway bill gets reauthorized by mid-2009. As a result, commercial trailers get a third axle to reduce the impact of that weight on the roadways. I also think heavier truck weights win as part of a bargaining effort with HOS reform; rolling back drive time hours in return for more freight capacity.

Infrastructure plan passes: The Obama administration passes its two-year $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan – expect a lot of highway congestion, though, as repair and expansion efforts shift up into high gear.

Taxes for fuel: Government spending needs money. Getting people to use alternative fuels while reducing energy consumption – especially where oil is concerned – requires incentives. The best way to kill those two birds with one stone are higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels – pushing them back up to $4 a gallon each.

Freight recovers slowly: By the third quarter 2009, freight volumes are going to start increasing again – largely as a result of construction demand from the Obama infrastructure program. By the end of 2009, freight volumes should grow 4% compared to 2008.

Union organizing expands: Organized labor – the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters – were behind Obama from almost day one. In return for that support, they’ll get a far freer hand in organizing efforts in many industries – especially trucking. So expect to see broader unionization efforts underway by mid-2009.

There you have it – the dice are rolled. Let’s see what comes true and what doesn’t as 2009 gets rolling here in a few days.

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.” –Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class, from the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Oh, how I LOVE this movie – a classic in every sense of the word, grounded in what I consider quintessential American values. I really don’t think you can watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” and not relate to the film’s hero, George Bailey, as he struggles not only to provide for his family, but also for his town – Bedford Falls, NY – while standing up in his own small yet larger-than-life way for truth, justice, and above all, fairness.

At its heart, this movie – directed by Frank Capra and released in 1946 – is all about how the little things we do in our lives, things that we don’t really give much thought about, end up having huge repercussions down the road – and I’m talking about GOOD repercussions here. That’s brought home to George Bailey – played by one of the greatest actors of all time, Jimmy Stewart – by Angel Clarence Odbody (winningly portrayed by Henry Travers), who shows George what the world would be like if George never existed.

It’s powerful stuff. We watch Bailey stumble through his town, now reborn as some low-rent Las Vegas dubbed “Pottersville” (named after the richest man in town and George’s nemesis, Henry F. Potter – played by Lionel Barrymore), becoming ever more horrified by what he sees – friends, neighbors, even his mother, subtly twisted into darker, more cynical versions of themselves due to his absence from the world.

Clarence doesn’t stop there, further detailing how far a single person’s actions can reach. For example, George’s brother Harry – saved in childhood by big brother George after falling though the ice when they were kids – grew up to be a war hero; a fighter pilot ace that shoots down a Japanese kamikaze before it hits a packed troop ship. Those thousands of soldiers, though, are dead in George’s new reality – since he was never there to pluck Harry from the icy pond water, Harry could never be there to stop the suicide pilot.

It’s the business ethics, though, that really give the film its moral heft – shown as George and Potter battle against one another time and time again; the former focused on building better lives for his neighbors, the other solely out to make money.

[The classic confrontation in the movie between George and Potter starts about minute three or four into this clip – and it’s sobering to realize how much of their debate is more than applicable to our housing crisis of today.]

“You’re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I’ll never know,” George tells Potter. “But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what’s wrong with that? Why – here, you’re all businessmen here. Doesn’t it make them better citizens? Doesn’t it make them better customers?”

George takes on the same mantle when dealing with a breakdown in the financial system, interrupting his honeymoon to save the institution his father created – and probably the town as well – in the clip below.

Interestingly enough, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – loosely based on the story “The Greatest Gift” by Phillip Van Doren Stern – pretty much flopped when it debuted in 1946. Costing about $3 million to make, the film didn’t even come close to reaching its break-even point (roughly double the production costs, around $6.3 million) during its initial release – putting a huge dent in Capra’s reputation, much less his career. Yet it’s gone on to become a cable television staple during the holidays, recouping its costs (and then some!) in the over 50 years since first being shown on the big screen.

It’s also interesting that this is the first film Jimmy Stewart made after his military service in World War II – which included flying as a command pilot in B-24 Liberator on numerous missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe; missions that went uncounted on Stewart’s orders. In 1944, he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat and was awarded the Croix de Guerre, along with the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters.

Yet here he was, playing very much a non-action hero on the big screen; a guy whose brother gets all the glory, while he remains at home classified as a dreaded “4-F” due to hearing loss. If you ask me, Stewart – who made it a sharp point with Hollywood that he would NOT be exploiting his war record in the movies – intrinsically understood what the George Bailey character stood for; what Bailey represented in terms of the American values Stewart risked his own life countless times over the flak-riddled skies of Europe to protect.

[The movie trailer for “It’s a Wonderful Life” didn’t do the film justice, making it seem more light hearted and romantic than it really was.]

It’s strange, too, how little respect this film gets now. In 2007, some wag wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post dismissing “It’s a Wonderful Life” as corny garbage – pointing out in all-too-snarky fashion that glitzy “Pottersville” sure looked like a more “interesting” place to live than “boring” Bedford Falls.

(Yeah right. YOU go live in a neighborhood packed with bars, flophouses, and strip clubs and see how YOU like it. Sounds fun on paper until you live there 24/7 with your kids.)

It should be noted, though, that this movie is now recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made – ranked number one on their list of the most inspirational American films of all time. It’s nice to know, too, that Frank Capra himself (who suffered from vicious migraine headaches for most of his adult life) lived long enough to see his one-time flop reach such a high pinnacle of enduring success.

“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Capra told the Wall Street Journal in 1984. “The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud … but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.”

He also said he intended his movie to recognize “the individual’s belief in himself,” making it to combat what he called “a modern trend toward atheism.” Heavy stuff for a Christmas film, but appropriate nonetheless.

And on that note, my friends, a very “Merry Christmas” to all of you – and to all of you, a good night.

“The look on the children’s faces is priceless.” –Gary Rappeport, CEO, Donlen Corporation

OK, let’s get this out of the way up front – I’m a total sap for Christmastime. Ever since I’ve been a little kid, I’ve loved every inch of the Christmas season – decorating the tree, the house, watching the days ticking by with growing anticipation until school lets out, the holiday parties with friends and families; basically, the whole smash.

One of the local radio stations in my area – 97.1 WASH FM – actually goes to an all-Christmas music format 24/7 right around Thanksgiving and doesn’t stop until Dec. 26th. Usually, I avoid that particular stop on my (still terrestrial) radio dial because its nominal soft-rock playlist makes we want to rip my ears off … but the minute they go all-Christmas, the car and home radios are tuned to it round the clock. (Scary, I know.)

I even love the admittedly hokey Rankin/Bass holiday-themed stop motion animation films (with the wildly over-the-top plots and musical numbers.) I eagerly awaited them to be shown on broadcast television, scanning the TV Guide endlessly as a kid – now I own most of them on DVD and spin them up every chance I get.

[Here’s the trailer from the ultimate classic of the Rankin/Bass series – “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”]

I even go out and play “Christmas tourist” in my neighborhood in the evening (when it’s not deathly cold, of course) checking out all the decorations and lights fancifully strung up along the homes and businesses where I live. Sure, in the great scheme of the things it’s a great waste of energy – but it does so much to lift the spirits, especially during the tough economic times we’re going through today, with the media (myself included) writing more than our fair share of doom and gloom stories.

[A favorite example of the Christmas spirit is my local Shell filling station. Yes a GAS station, wrapped in high-tech holiday decorations. Just take a look for yourself below …]

Yet this season isn’t all about consumerism – though oft-times the media tries to make it look that way.

The spirit of the season is really about giving – about trying to help your fellow man and make the world a better place. Lots of folks in trucking take that to heart in myriads of ways, and this space isn’t even remotely long enough to do them justice. So I’ll highlight just one example.

That’s courtesy of Northbrook, IL-based Donlen Corp., a fleet management firm that made a company-wide effort to help the holiday wishes come true for a local Chicago elementary school. On Dec. 17, the company literally brought Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and their helpers to deliver gifts to children at Jenner Elementary Academy of the Arts.

“The look on the children’s faces is priceless,” noted Gary Rappeport, Donlen’s CEO. “We all realize how difficult it is for some people right now, [so our] employees stepped up to make this happen. This season really is about the children and we are proud to be part of this exciting day.”

Since 2006, Rappeport added, Donlen has supported a “Letters to Santa” program, in which its employees respond to letters that Jenner students write to Santa. The nearly 400 students, most of who come from families that are living at or near the poverty level, were obviously delighted by the appearance of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, who distributed the gifts to each and every child. The company also treated the children to Boston Market for lunch.

Donlen’s support of Jenner Academy extends beyond Christmastime, too. For the past three years, the company helped with basic needs for the children’s education and quality of living – assisting with an annual school supply drive, hosting a career day, and helping raise money for summer sports camps, said Rappeport

It’s efforts like these that exemplify what the “Christmas spirit” is really all about – not the shopping, not the tacky decorations or even the music (beautiful though it all is). It’s about doing something in our small corner of life to make the world a better place.

“You don’t realize how much a shop relies on its senior technicians until you become one. You feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders at times.” –Michael Willoughby, 14-year veteran technician at Rush Enterprises’ Oklahoma City location

In my estimation, Michael Willoughby is one of those guys you want in the foxhole with you, guarding your back when the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.

A 14-year veteran technician with Rush Truck Centers – a division of San Antonio, TX-based Rush Enterprises – Willoughby is not only exceedingly modest and quick to pass on credit for his skills to the senior technicians that trained him over his career, he always seems calm, cool, and collected during the company’s annual technician skills rodeo – even when he claims he isn’t.

Willoughby is also chock-full of interesting insights into the heavy-duty truck technician’s profession – describing what I know to be an extremely complex job into layman’s terms. “You’re really a full time student,” he told me when we spoke at the 3rd annual Rush technician rodeo. “You never stop learning something new. You’ve got to be willing to do the research, because that’s what it takes to solve vehicle problems today.”

[Willoughby explains his philosophy in this clip shot at Rush’s rodeo last week – he’s the second speaker after Sylvester Chandler, another top-botch technician from Dallas, TX]

A member of what I dubbed the “Oklahoma Crew” at last year’s competition, Willoughby also exemplifies true grit, working his way through adversity that would lay a lot of people low. In terms of his career, he never worked on trucks until he started his job at Rush – starting out in, of all things, a lawn mower repair shop, followed by a five-year stint in the U.S. Army keeping RUSSIAN and Vietnam-era U.S. Sheridan tanks up and running for the “Red Teams” (the soldiers playing the role of “bad guys”) in war maneuvers.

He had to leave the Army, however, to help his wife battle cancer – a battle she fought four separate times, finally losing her life to the disease in May 2008. It took a toll on Willoughby – he lost 17 pounds and practically didn’t sleep for two months straight as he fed her food and medicine until the end. Yet he never wanted to be anywhere else but by her side. You can’t help but admire that in this day and age, when the institution of marriage gets treated like some sort of decorative window dressing you can install or get rid of as the mood takes you.

Willoughby also told me about the support he got from his fellow Oklahoma City technicians – about how they kept trying to transfer their vacation time and sick days to him so he could be home with his wife. That also gives you an idea of what kind of place that shop in Oklahoma City is like – before you start talking about their knowledge and skills.

“There are guys on our shop floor that have forgotten more about engines and trucks than I and several other guys know put together,” Willoughby told me. One of the hardest working techs you’ll find, Willoughby is quick to point to “old timers” as some of the industry’s best – guys that didn’t grow up with the electronics and computers today’s younger techs have, yet are the ones that instinctively know engines and transmissions backwards and forwards.”

[The Oklahoma City Crew for 2008 — Pat Driscoll is in the white cowboy hat in the back, with Ken Carter on the far right standing, with Mike Willoughby kneeling in the front row wearing the black cowboy cover. The other techs are (in no particular order) Mark Dalke, Clyde Henderson, Chuck Selby, and Tom Snyder.]

And they are the guys that trained him – taking the time to make sure he understood every nuance. “I would not be here today if it wasn’t for them.” Willoughby told me.

It’s also interesting to note that Rush’s Oklahoma City shop sent six technicians to the competition this year – double their numbers from 2007, which is no mean feat considering that some 500 out of Rush’s total of 700-plus technicians nationwide were vying for the 54 slots available at the rodeo, up from 300 in 2007.

Pat Driscoll provides a good example of just how seriously these guys take their work. He’s competed in all three Rush rodeos, yet never made the finals. But there he was, observing the 12 finalists bright and early at eight in the morning, even though he had the opportunity to sleep in late and take a tour of the world-famous Jack Daniel’s distillery.

“I want to see what these guys are up against so I can get some insight for next year’s event,” he told me. That attitude speaks volumes about his work ethic and that of his compatriots, I think.

[You’ll see Pat Driscoll in several of these clips quietly observing the finalists in action, hopefully gaining some insights so he, too, can one day join the winner’s circle …]

Ken Carter, their service manager, told me one of the hardest parts about the rodeo is the competition between technicians, as they are far more used to working together to solve problems. “They are a close-knit group – they are used to helping each other out,” he explained to me. “That are not used to competing against one another – it goes against the grain of their daily work life.”

Carter (seen here on the right) has been there, done that, too – literally growing up in the business, starting around age seven helping out in his dad‘s trucking business, followed by vocational school, work for Caterpillar, running his own shop, then joining Rush about nine years ago. He knows how hard the work is and how important it is to get good people in the shop.

“Technicians need to realize how major a cog they are in trucking,” he told me. “It’s hard sometimes, especially in this economy, where customers are hanging on by their fingernails. With the economy so tough, nobody is happy – but we’ve still got a job to do.”

[Carter talked about how complex the technician’s job is today in the clip below. He follows Mike Besson, Rush’s VP of service operations …]

“The evidence does not warrant criminal charges.” – Queen Anne County State’s Attorney Frank Kratovil Jr. on his decision not to criminally prosecute Candy Baldwin, who caused a vehicle crash on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in August that killed truck driver John Short

These are the stories that make doubt if we are really concerned about highway safety in this country of ours.

FACT: Candy Lynn Baldwin, 19, of Millington, MD, is returning to the Eastern Shore from a family wedding in Baltimore on Sunday, Aug. 10, at 4 a.m. Driving at high speed on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Falls asleep at the wheel of her Chevrolet Camaro. Her car crosses the center line of the eastbound span of the bridge (being used at the time for two-way traffic for U.S. Route 50). An oncoming tractor trailer, driven by John Robert Short, 57, swerves to avoid hitting her Camaro, rams the concrete abutments on the side of the bridge, breaks through, crashes into the dark waters below. Short is killed.

FACT: Candy Lynn Baldwin, 19, registers a blood-alcohol level shortly after the crash at .03 – below the legal limit of .07 for impairment and below the .08 threshold to be considered under the influence, certainly – but, as she’s under the age 21, she’s not allowed to have ANY alcohol in her system.

FACT: Candy Lynn Baldwin has a history of speeding offenses. She pleaded guilty in Kent County District Court, MD, in 2006 and 2007 for driving 70 mph in a 50-mph zone and 72 in a 55-mph zone, respectively, receiving probation before judgment in both cases, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper

FACT: Candy Lynn Baldwin will face several traffic charges, including failing to drive right of center and negligent driving. She also faces a charge for violating a license restriction on drivers younger than 21, who are not allowed to have any alcohol in their systems. But she will NOT be criminally prosecuted for this fatal accident. She will serve no jail time.

Now, I’ve said this before in this space and I’ll say it again: If the roles were reversed in this situation – if a truck driver had been up all night at a wedding then got on the highway with alcohol in his system and killed someone in a crash – there would’ve been a huge outcry over this. If the truck driver didn’t get jail time, you can bet your bottom dollar the vitriol would’ve spewed forth long and loud about it.

You would’ve seen press releases from Public Citizen and its offshoot Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), along with Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) condemning the truck driver and the whole industry in broad strokes. Joan Claybrook would’ve been holding a televised press conference near the bridge to denounce such truck driver conduct, condemning spineless law enforcement in the same breath for not throwing the book at him (or her). Politicians of all stripes would’ve been quick to jump into the fray, waving to the flag of highway safety to and fro.

So where is the outcry? The Baltimore Examiner published an opinion piece of on the subject online – and received just one comment. Where are all the so-called highway safety advocates? Alcohol, fatigue, high speed, and a driver with a prior speeding record are all involved here. Where are all the politicians? Why does this incident garner nary a whiff of interest from such quarters?

[I seem to recall Ms. Claybrook recently saying “my work for a just society will never end.” Her silence on this incident is quite deafening.]

Quenn Anne County State’s Attorney Frank Kratovil Jr. said in his three page release on this case that Maryland does not have a law pertaining to sleeping at the wheel, explaining that most fatal accidents – including this one – do not fall within the “gross negligence” requirement for manslaughter.

Oh really? If the case involved a fatality resulting from a truck driver falling asleep at the wheel, you’d find the term “gross negligence” stamped all over the files in big red letters. Why are the rules suddenly different for car drivers?

Now let’s be clear here about something else – I am glad Ms. Baldwin is not being prosecuted. She admitted to her conduct, took responsibility for it, and apologized to the Short family. Doesn’t bring Mr. Short back, but she’s shown remorse. She broke both her kneecaps and bruised her spleen and liver in this accident – she’ll bear the physical and emotional scars of this incident for the rest of her life.

She did NOT deliberately go out and plan to crash. She wasn’t driving recklessly to my knowledge – just too fast with senses dulled by fatigue and alcohol. She should never have gotten behind the wheel … but she’s suffered enough.

I would also say the same about a truck driver, too – though I’d pull their CDL for life.

Yet the question remains – is this a fair decision, given that it’s a fatal accident? More importantly, what does it say about our commitment to improving highway safety?

“We have been strengthened by waves of immigrants throughout our history, and we must keep the door open and the melting pot working. However, in this era of terrorism, we must have far better control of our borders, both to protect ourselves from violence and to protect taxpayers from undue burdens.” –Congressman Ray LaHood, potentially the next Secretary of Transportation, from his 2007 testimony on the need for immigration reform

So here’s a curveball – the selection of Arab-American Congressman Ray LaHood (R-IL) by the incoming Obama administration to run the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Sidestepping the four democratic front runners for the DOT slot highlighted in this space not too long ago, the tapping of LaHood seems to signal several things. For starters, LaHood has long been a supporter of public transit and especially Amtrak, so his choice indicates that a good slice of the $500 billion to $1 trillion super-infrastructure fund the Obama administration is creating could go in the direction of public transit and rail projects.

LaHood is also a strong supporter of immigration reform – a controversial topic of late – and being a second-generation Lebanese immigrant himself (full disclosure here – I’m third-generation immigrant, by way of Ireland and the Ukraine) should give him some standing to pursue reform from the transportation-border security perspective.

“My grandparents came to this country in search of better opportunities, and settled happily alongside fellow Lebanese immigrants in Central Illinois,” LaHood said in testimony before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law in September 2007 to support of the “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy” or STRIVE Act.

“The fact that I am here, testifying before you today as a member of Congress, exemplifies the contributions immigrants are making to the United States,” he stressed. “If this nation is accepting of those who wish to contribute to society with their skills and knowledge, as it has been in the past, it is our duty to provide an appropriate and functional process for the transition and assimilation of immigrants.”

[Congressman LaHood announced his retirement from the House this year after serving for 14 years as an elected official. Watch the video below to get his first-hand impressions of his nearly decade and a half service in Congress.]

First, he said, it is important that we secure our borders and stop the flood of illegal aliens who come into this country every day. “We must remain vigilant in the war on terror, and that includes keeping a close eye on our own borders,” LaHood said. “While it is recognized that most immigrants come to the United States with a desire to improve life for themselves and their families, we cannot ignore the crime generated from some of the illegal aliens living here.”

Yet he also believes a revamped guest worker program and addressing the millions of immigrants currently living and working in the U.S. without a path to citizenship are absolutely essential as well. “Many of the aliens currently here entered the U.S. legally, but have overstayed their visas or gotten lost in the application process,” LaHood said. “These are hard workers who contribute to the economy and call the U.S. home. For those who have been here for several years, they have the option to get in line and apply for permanent residency. After a rigorous process of paying fines, back taxes, providing past documentation, and returning home to their country of origin, many will be considered as candidates for citizenship.”

LaHood (pictured on the right) firmly believes sending all these guest workers and laborers back home immediately would be devastating to our economy. “Finding a good compromise between awarding citizenship and imposing penalties is important,” he explained.

Like I said – LaHood is an interesting choice.

Currently serving 7th term in Congress, he represents the 18th Congressional District of Illinois – a district, coincidentally, that encompasses almost the entire area contained in the Congressional District represented by Abraham Lincoln for his one term (1847-1849) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

LaHood currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee – the all-important group in managing the federal government’s purse strings – and is a ranking member of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, serves on the Subcommittee on Agricultural, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch

(You can click here for more details about his career.)

For a good stretch of his political career, LaHood served on the House’s Transportation Committee so he’s well familiar with all the problems the DOT faces – especially its lack of money. It’s also interesting to note that President Bush also used the DOT as part of an effort to show “bi-partisanship” in his first term, nominating Norman Mineta – a Democrat – to that post. It seems Obama is doing something similar along those lines here.

[Lahood is on the left in this photo below, with Chet Tomczyk of WTVP in Peoria on the right.]

Any way you cut it, Ray LaHood is a surprising, unusual choice in many ways. How he’ll fare as Secretary of Transportation, should he be officially nominated and be confirmed by Coigress, is when the real test of his skills begins.

“I don’t do anything different than anyone else does. I just work it hard.” –Jason Swann, technician from Rush Truck Center Dallas, TX, the Grand Champion of Rush’s 2008 technician skills rodeo

It’s been a packed few days here in Nashville, TN, watching 54 technicians competing in Rush Enterprises’ 3rd annual technician skills rodeo get whittled down to 12 finalists and then down to one Grand Champion.

[Below you can see some of the finalists as they begin their final round. Apologies to Randy Hughes of Texarkana – he’s NOT a first timer at this competition; that’s my error. He’s competed before in this rodeo in several divisions.]

It comes as no surprise to many here that the Grand Champion is a repeat winner from the contest’s inaugural year – Jason Swann, out of Rush’s Dallas, TX, location. A veteran technician, Jason won second place in the Eaton division to qualify for the final round, and then beat the 11 other finalists for the top prize as the top “all-around” technician.

[Plainspoken and humble, you can see Jason’s reaction to his win below – as well as some thoughtful comments from Rusty Rush, president and CEO, and Marvin Rush, chairman, as to why technicians are so critical to the success of Rush Enterprises …]

Both Rusty Rush and Marvin Rush believe this contest is one of the best things their company has ever done in terms of demonstrating the important role technicians play in the trucking business – as well as helping their company hold on to as many of them as possible.

“The proof is in the turnover numbers,” Rusty Rush explained in a roundtable interview with reporters here. “Six years ago our turnover was as a high as 70% to 80%. A technician would leave over a 50 cent per hour raise. Today, turnover is down around 20% to 30% — one of the benefits, we believe, to putting on this rodeo every year.”

Good technicians are hard to find and retain in this business, noted Marvin Rush, but something else is true as well: Good people get to be loyal people and stay with you if you treat them right.

[Jason Swann, center, receives his Grand Champion award from Marvin Rush (left) and Rusty Rush (right).]

“We should have done this 20 years ago; it’s pretty much a no brainer,” Marvin said. “In two years, we’ve doubled the number of our technicians participating in this rodeo. It’s feeding on itself – that’s what we want it to do.”

It also drives Rush Enterprises corps of 700 technicians to keep improving on their knowledge base and skills, Rusty added. “It takes commitment on their part to prepare for this,” he explained. “On average, they spend a minimum of 100 hours a year of their own personal time studying just to get ready for this competition alone.”

The reason for the laser-like focus on technicians, though, is twofold, he notes. “The first is that trucks don’t sell service – service sells trucks. Brands don’t make a difference; service does, and if you can’t service the customer, you don’t have a customer,” Rusty noted.

The second is that today, more of a dealers gross profit comes from the technicians – not the truck sales department. “The average technician makes $65,000 to $70,000 a year, but pulls in $200,000 to $250,000 in gross profit per year,” Rusty said. “That’s another reason we’re making a concerted effort to raise their status in our organization and our industry.”

“That truck owner has a $100,000 rig and his payments roll in every month – and if he’s not rolling, he’s not making any money. That’s their livelihood out there, so you’ve got to come at it from their side of things, too.” –Sylvester Chandler, technician, Rush Truck Center, Dallas TX

Talk with any of the technicians competing here at the third annual Rush Enterprises technician skills rodeo – being held at the Nashville Convention Center in (where else?) downtown Nashville, TN – and you quickly come to understand that to outperform in this line of work, you can’t be focused on just a paycheck.

[Technican William Myers out of Laredo, TX, shares a laugh with Jon Boswell of Cummins, one of the contest’s judges.]

Not that money isn’t a primary concern; far from it. There’s a lot on the line for the 54 technicians culled from Rush’s ranks of 700-plus scattered throughout 48 truck centers nationwide. The top three winners in each of the four divisions – top Caterpillar tech, top Cummins tech, top Eaton tech, and top medium-duty tech – all take home some serious prize money and a big boost in hourly pay.

Third place winners get $3,000 cash and a $1 extra per hour added to their paycheck; second place finishers get $4,000 and a $1.25 extra per hour; and first place winners get $5,000 and $1.50 extra per hour. Then there’s the “best all-around” technician face-off, where the top 12 winners from all four divisions compete for an extra $5,000 and a brand new top-of-the-line tool chest. No slim pickings by any means.

Yet despite the prodigious largess put up by the company for this event, even the most veteran technicians in Rush’s ranks stress that it requires a tremendous amount of focus, hard work, and sheer determination to make a career out of repairing trucks and all of their related components.

“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I still learn something new every day,” explains Sylvester Chandler, one of the senior technicians at Rush’s big Dallas TX dealership (pictured to your left). “You’ve got to like challenges and you need to keep an open mind and be willing to work hard to stay on top in this profession.”

[Hear some of Rush’s veteran techs explain what makes a good technician in their own words …]

You need to listen, too, especially to drivers, who know first-hand what’s going wrong with their truck. “It can be hard when a driver is upset, but I like talking to customers – you are getting first-hand information as to what the problem might be,” Chandler told me. “The best source of information about the truck is the guy driving it. Listening to the customer also makes them a part of the repair process – it shows you value their input.”

A willingness to work hard is also a pre-requisite, despite a wider reliance on computers to make repairs. Daniel Spencer, a technician with 17 years in the business (three of them with Rush), explained that you sometimes need to bull through the physical challenges of the job.

A native of Wisconsin that worked for years in sub-freezing temperatures – nine of them as his own boss providing road call service around Chicago’s busy highways – Spencer (at right) moved to Tucson, AZ, when he joined Rush and found he needed to adapt quickly to the heat.

“I worked under a trailer one day while lying down on the pavement. Later that night I found the heat from the asphalt burned the parking lot’s pattern into my back,” Spencer told me. “I also found you need to bring a bucket of water around with you when you work outside for cooling off your tools.”

Michael Willoughby, a 13-year veteran technician out of Rush’s Oklahoma City center a finalist in last year’s competition, stressed something else to me – that some of the best guys in the business of figuring out and fixing a whole slew of maintenance problems never get a chance to come to competitions like these because they don’t take written tests well.

“There are guys on our shop floor that have forgotten more about engines and trucks than I and several other guys know put together,” he said. One of the hardest working techs you’ll find, Willoughby is quick to point to “old timers” as some of the industry’s best – guys that didn’t grow up with the electronics and computers today’s younger techs have, yet are the ones that instinctively know engines and transmissions backwards and forwards.”

“Don’t get me wrong – the guys competing here are great, some of the best techs you’ll find,” he told me. “But just being able to do well on a written test isn’t all there is to this profession. There’s just so much more involved.”

[And what’s life without a little fun? Below is a music video (of sorts) showing the Rush rodeo competitors in action. Enjoy!]

“This competition is in part designed to help these technicians realize how major a cog in this business they really are. The sales guy may sell the customer a truck the first time, but parts and services sells them the second and third truck in the business. Because, if the service isn’t good, they won’t be back.” –Ken Carter, service manager, Rush Enterprises’ Oklahoma City dealership

The wrenches are already turning and the keyboards are crackling as 54 technicians compete for prizes, raises in their hourly pay, and flat out cash in the third annual Rush Enterprises technician skills rodeo, being held here in Nashville, TN. The competing technicians each get 45 minutes at their particualr station — one of nine heavy-duty trucks, ranging from a Peterbilt Model 387 to the lone black Model 379 tractor, down to one of three medium-duty models.

[Here’s a look at the area where Rush’s technicians are competing, along with a glance at some of the prizes they can win …]

It’s a signature yearly event that Rush and other companies – Peterbilt Motors Co., Caterpillar, Cummins, Eaton, GMC, Mobil Delvac, and Snap-On Tools – spend some big money on to recognize the valuable role technicians play in the trucking industry.

“The technician’s job has changed dramatically over the last 10 years – it’s not even the same job anymore,” Mike Besson, Rush’s VP of service operations, explained to me. “You have to be so smart to do this job – understanding not just mechanically how things work but electronically as well. You need to be completely familiar with laptop computers now just as you are with hand tools. And you can’t just figure out the problem — you’ve got to fix it, too.”

[That’s Mike Besson on the right.]

Besson helped design this signature event for Rush to not only recognize the value technicians bring to the table, but also shine a light on the rigors of the job as well. Over 500 technicians with Rush’s dealership network took written exams to qualify for this event – more than double the number from the first year the competition was held – with 54 top scorers in four divisions attending the rodeo. Over the course of a day, that number gets whittled down to 15 – and those final 15 go on to compete for the big cash prize and boosts to their hourly pay rate.

Many technicians find the competitive atmosphere difficult, Ken Carter, service manager for Rush’s Oklahoma City dealership, told me – largely because they are so used to helping each other out on the shop floor. But once they get here, that all changes, he said. “It’s a big deal and they all get psyched up for it,” he explained.

Carter brought six technicians to the competition this year, four rookies and two “veteran” competitors from the 2007 rodeo – Michael Willoughby and Pat Driscoll, both of whom graced this space before. To Carter, it shows that rodeo is having its intended effect – shining a well-deserved spotlight on the hard work technicians do.

“We’re the dirty end of the business – truck sales tend to get all the attention and glory,” he noted. “So what we’re doing here is giving the technicians appreciation for what they do – to boost their self esteem. With the economy as tough as it is, customers are on edge and that stress gets pushed down to guys repairing their trucks. No matter how fast and thorough they work, it’s never enough, it seems. So this competition helps them understand the key role they play in the dealership.”

[Below, Mike Besson and Ken Carter explain in their own words why technicians are important in the trucking industry today …]