Trucks at Work Blog

“Ptolemy was an amazing cat. Terri and I estimate he had an understanding vocabulary of over 300 words. And we would both swear he knew our names and would try and pronounce them whenever we returned to the truck. He just was amazing.” –Tim Brady, author, consultant, and business editor of American Trucker magazine, on his one-time travelling companion back in his days as an owner-operator in the moving & storage industry.

I’m going off on a feline tangent today for, frankly, I need a break from the steady drumbeat of horrible news offered up on cable television and online. [The Fort Hood, TX, shootings that left 13 dead is one that stands forth – a tragedy show that drove the news cycle for days on end. I still can’t believe something this awful actually happened.]

When the gloom starts piling up on me, one of the curatives I turn to is our pet cat Woody. As a child, the curatives were dogs – lots of dogs, of all breeds. To some ears, it may sound strange, but I’ve always found interacting with my pets to be a soothing stress reliever; uncomplicated by the realities of our often chaotic human existence.

The author John Grogan in his best seller Marley & Me really hit the nail on the head when he described the importance of his bond with his crazy Labrador Marley:

“Was it possible for a dog to point humans to the things that really mattered in life? Things like loyalty, courage, and devotion. And the things that did not matter, too? A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by how they look but by who they are inside. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, smart or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple.”

Though cats are VERY different creates than dogs, they most definitely share those virtues of loyalty, courage and devotion. That’s why it’s no surprise to me that many truckers have cats and dogs as travelling companions on the road; they offer, in my view, a friend that is always there for them, that looks out for them, that never leaves them in the lurch.

Some such “road pets,” if you will, also serve as inspiration – especially the twelve-pound Applehead Siamese trucker cat Ptolemy, the travelling companion of my editorial compatriot Tim Brady and his wife Terri Jenkins-Brady.

Though Ptolemy passed on over four and half years ago, he’s come back to life as a character in a Christmas tale Terri co-wrote with fellow author Harold Konstantelos (also someone with trucking in his background) called Three Wise Cats: A Christmas Story.”

It’s a lovely book (I had the privilege to read an advanced draft – and oh what an antidote it is for the negative news cycle!) about how the wise old Ptolemy sends forth three cats – Abishag, Kezia, and Ira – on a quest to “follow a star of unusual brightness that was seen in the heavens, indicating an event of earth-shaking importance.”

I am sure you can see the plot similarities to another story that has three humans following a certain star to a certain town with a certain stable. But this version adds a fourth traveler to the mix; a rat by the name of Asmodeus, who can hear of no glorious thing without wanting to spoil it. Thus the stage is set for a long journey fraught with peril and dangerous adventures.

Though Ptolemy in this Christmas tale does not join this band of felines on the road for their adventure, the antics of his real-life namesake – who travelled with co-author Terri Jenkins-Brady in her husband’s tractor-trailer for years on the road – influenced the characters in this story to a high degree.

[As an aside: I LOVE the name Ptolemy, which is pronounced “Tall-oh-me” where the “P” is silent. There are TWO great figures in history that bear this name, by the way. The first Ptolemy was a general under Alexander the Great and went on to found the Ptolemaic empire in Egypt as well as the great library in Alexandria. The second Ptolemy was a Roman mathematician and astronomer. I’ll let you decide which one the Bradys named their cat after!]

One of the greatest things about the real-life Ptolemy, Tim Brady told me, was his protectiveness. He would hiss and snarl at anyone that approached the truck unless it was Tim or Terri. Consequently, when getting the truck serviced or washed, Ptolemy got placed in his cat carrier and stowed in the sleeper. Yet though some might look down on what they’d describe as an “unfriendly cat,” to a trucker out on the road in unfamiliar places, such behavior can be a boon.

“Once we were parked overnight at a truck stop with both Terri and I sacked out in the sleeper,” Tim told me. “Then, at about 3 a.m. Ptolemy came from his nightly post on the right side dashboard and started lightly tapping me on the check. Of course, at 3 a.m. in the morning I found this to be a great annoyance so I shooed him away.”

But being a typical feline, commands such as “no” and “shoo” are routinely ignored – sometimes for the best. “Ptolemy continued to run from the dashboard to the sleeper to tap me on the cheek and then back to the windshield. After this had happened five or six times I finally got up to see what was going on,” Tim said. “Lo and behold, when I looked in the right mirror, two men were running off with my trailer top-hat hubcaps.”

Another time, Tim recalled, he were parked his rig overnight at a high security facility waiting to make a delivery the next morning. As was his routine Ptolemy, would sit or pace across the dashboard like a vigilant guard, always watchful. “The next morning the supervisor of the guards of the facility told us that the cat should have high security surveillance clearance,” Tim said. “The guards who had watch duty overnight indicated in their reports ‘the cat was alert and aware of our every move, any time we drove or walked by the truck.’ I was very pleased, to say the least.”

Tim also noted that when he ordered a new custom sleeper, they had a special vented compartment with and outside access door for the cat box to be placed.

A lot of karma swirled around Ptolemy, too. “He was born on July 12, 1994 on the one year anniversary of Terri’s mother’s death, and the 19th anniversary of my father’s death,” Tim said. “Terri and I estimate he had a vocabulary of over 300 words. And we would both swear he knew our names and would try and pronounce them whenever we returned to the truck. He called Terri ‘Erri’ and me ‘Im.’ He did this the first time when we had been shopping for groceries at a Big Y in Sutton, MA. I think he was a little ticked because we had taken longer than he thought we should have. From that point forward each time we returned he would yowl, ‘Erri, Im.’ Or if he wanted Terri he would yowl, ‘Erri, Erri, Erri.’

Ptolemy passed away on July 14, 2005, two days into his 11th year of life from a perforated intestine caused by cancer. “Terri and I were covering the Walcott Jamboree truck show at the time when this happened,” Tim told me. “It was a tough time.”

Yet here the venerable Ptolemy is again, brought back to life in a Christmas tale, with his trademark guff on display for the world to see; a fitting tribute, I think, to a trucking cat.

“The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.” –Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, in his speech before Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor

It’s raining out right now; a steady, cold drizzle from a sky as grey as gunmetal – appropriate weather for this day of days.

It’s hard to believe the terrorist attacks upon our nation on September 11, 2001, are now eight years past – and that such a day of sorrow and suffering has become a political football in many respects. It’s also strange to see how many try to sweep the events of that terrible day under the proverbial rug. Footage of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers is now rarely seen.

Indeed, today marks the culmination of the marketing campaign for the movie “Whiteout,” a schlock murder mystery set in the Antarctic. One would think the denizens of Hollywood, at the very least, would withhold the release of such cinematic fluff on days like this, out of respect for such a grievous moment in our nation’s history – like that other day when destruction rained down from the heavens on our soil, shattering the quiet of the Hawaiian Islands.

I often think about Dec. 7, 1941, on this day; the only other time in modern history when the U.S. nation itself was attacked. I remember how my grandmother talked about it; how that event irrevocably changed her world as a child and as an adult.

To me, however, it seemed so very remote; because, of course, I hadn’t been there when it happened. I hadn’t seen the huge changes in U.S. society as the nation geared up for a world war on two fronts – in Europe and in the Pacific. I hadn’t seen neighbors leave for the armed forces in droves … and watch silently as not all of them came back.

That all changed on Sept. 11 and the days that followed; perhaps even more so, as the horror was channeled live and in living color through the television and the computer screen right into my home. The events of Dec. 7 played out on radio, then later on news reel footage in the big movie houses, though that did not lessen the anguish one iota.

There are other more painful similarities between Dec. 7 and Sept. 11 as well; the most prominent being that, in both instances, our government knew something was coming, but lacked the final few pieces to put the picture together. The U.S. already suspected Japan might be up to something; all of our aircraft carriers had put to sea and planes at Pearl Harbor airstrips parked wingtip to wingtip for better protection against sabotage. But key red flags were missed and Japan’s naval forces gave us a tremendous pounding, not only at Pearl but across the Pacific; invading the Philippines, Wake Island, and other spots.

Sept. 11 proved no different; more heartbreakingly so because various U.S. agencies – from the FBI to the CIA – had foiled the so-called “Millennium plot” to crash jetliners into buildings across the world just a year or so prior to Sept. 11. Indeed, many law enforcement agents were hot on the trail several Sept. 11 plotters – even public citizens knew something was amiss, with several flight school instructors reporting that they had students who paid cash to learn to fly big jets … but had no interest in landing them. In the end, such efforts were in vain.

Of course, the end results from these two days now past are very different. By Dec. 8, the U.S. had officially declared war on Japan … and Nazi Germany declared war on us. Soon, millions of Americans armed to the teeth and backed by booming factories fanned out across the globe in ships, tanks, bombers and fighter aircraft and helped bring down those two evil empires in four years – at great cost in lives for our nation’s citizens and the entire world.

The legacy of Sept. 11, however, is murkier; no doubt in part because the enemies that hatched the Sept. 11 plot are murky. They hide in caves yet have access to great sums of money stashed in the financial underworld; their beliefs are so radical and strange all but a bare handful flock to their banner. They have no armies, no government, no organized structure to speak of – and that lack of form makes them hard to find and to stop.

“It is hard to overstate the differences between the 20th and the 21st centuries … in retrospect, life was simpler then. It was certainly more organized. It was certainly more symmetric. Threats were ‘conventional,’” noted National Security Adviser James L. Jones in a speech last February at the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy held in Munich, Germany.

“But to move forward, we must understand the terms national security and international security are no longer limited to the ministries of defense and foreign ministries; in fact, it encompasses the economic aspects of our societies,” he added. “It encompasses energy. It encompasses new threats, asymmetric threats involving proliferation, involving the illegal shipment of arms and narco-terrorism, and the like. Borders are no longer recognized and the simultaneity of the threats that face us are occurring at a more rapid pace.”

Jones – a 40-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, rising from a platoon leader in Vietnam to achieve the rank of four-star General and Commandant of the USMC – stressed that the challenges that we face are broader and more diverse than we ever imagined, even after the terrible events of Sept. 11.

“And our capacity to meet these challenges in my view does not yet match the urgency of what is required,” he stated. “To be blunt, the institutions and approaches that we forged together through the 20th century are still adjusting to meet the realities of the 21st century. And the world has definitely changed, but we have not changed with it. But it is not too late, and this is the good news.”

Jones (at left) said we face more nimble adversaries today as well as more fast-moving crises – from conflict and terrorism to new diseases and environmental disasters. To keep pace, we will have to move faster in developing policy and priorities than did our predecessors.

“The world is a smaller place. Communications is more rapid. And therefore our reactions must be swifter,” he said. “There is no fixed model that can capture the world in all of its complexity. What’s right today will have to be different four years from now or eight years from now. [But] I have no doubt that we are at another crossroads in history. I know that we can meet the challenges of this moment in history if we have the courage and the commitment to change with the times.”

Well said, General – and I for one have no doubt we as Americans can surmount those challenges.

“When business or industry terms become overused, people stop paying attention to them. The best communicators use clear and straightforward language that directly illustrates their points.” –Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps

In a lighthearted vein, as we’ve waded through so much bad news this year, let’s take a look at one firm’s ranking of the most “overused business buzzwords” in use at the moment – the kind of stuff I find peppering press releases from all comers day in and day out. You may have your own pet “buzzword” peeve, too, or funny variation thereof, so please feel free to send them along to me and we’ll add them to the list.

The survey was developed by Accountemps, a big staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance, and conducted by an independent research firm based on telephone interviews with 150 senior executives from some of the country’s largest companies. These executives were asked, “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?” And frankly, their responses should surprise no one:

Leverage: As in, “We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure across multiple business units to drive profits.”

Reach out: As in, “Remember to reach out to customers impacted by the change.”

It is what it is: As in, “The server is down today, and clients are irate. It is what it is.”

Viral: As in, “Our video has gone viral.”

Game changer: As in, “Transitioning from products to solutions was a game changer for our company.”

Disconnect: As in, “There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what the product provides.”

Value-add: As in, “We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it.”

Circle back: As in, “I’m heading out of the office now, but I will circle back with you later.”

Socialize: As in, “We need to socialize this concept with our key stakeholders.”

Interface: As in, “My job requires me to interface with all levels of the organization.”

Cutting edge: As in, “Our cutting-edge technology gives us a competitive advantage.”

Accountemps conducted a similar survey in 2004 and found several overused buzzwords and phrases are still in vogue five years later:

At the end of the day

Synergy

Solution

Think outside the box

On the same page

Customer-centric

Hoo boy! So much for the complexity and depth of the English language! With a plethora of terminology at our fingertips, these words and phrases are the ones getting used over and over … and over! … again?? Ouch! It’s enough to make one fall asleep from mental boredom …

“Awesome stomach-churning jumps frequently hide bends over the crests, so accuracy and delivery of pace notes must be exact and selecting the correct line before ‘take-off’ ensures maximum pace through the following curves.” –From Auto Racing Daily about the challenges facing World Rally Championship drivers and navigators.

To me, World Rally Championship (WRC) racing looks very much like insanity distilled and packed into a very small and very fast place.

The types of roads these drivers and navigators go barreling around at warp speed are rarely paved and hide all kinds of dangers, such as trees, boulders, wicked curves, even buildings; dangers much more common and familiar to everyday motorists like me when compared to the smooth high-speed ovals piloted by NASCAR’s finest.

And if you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably wondering what the heck WRC racing is doing in a trucking blog anyways. That’s easy, though – for if you really want a vivid, in-living-color definition as to why speeding is dangerous, look no farther than the WRC for your answer.

Just watch the video below [and many props to AdamYYZ for putting together this awesome show – set to the music of one of my all-time favorite bands, Rush] and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll get the traditional exterior view of crashes along with the unique “gun camera” view of the type of racing that WRC offers up – truly frightening shots with people, trees, walls, and even houses flying by in a frenzy.

Fort me, it’s heart-stopping to watch these rally car crashes happening from inside the vehicle – and I’ll admit to breaking out in a cold sweat at times, being a silent witness to the drivers and navigators being banged about inside these compact car frames. Because rally cars race on “normal” roads, the view from the glass is far more real and meaningful compared to what one typically sees during a NASCAR event.

I’m sharing all of this simply because there’s no better way to illustrate the gut-wrenching horror of a high speed crash. One minute you’re flying along, and the very next … WHAM! The car is violently corkscrewing through the air, pitching into a ditch or trees, or nose-diving off a badly-navigated crest in the roadway.

The night shots gives one a clear idea just how dangerous it is to overdrive one’s headlights – with the breakneck speed WRC drivers attain, there is simply no margin for error. Sometimes, there’s literally not even a split-second for the driver to react.

[Here’s a longer video that shows some of the worst rally car crashes ever – again, with a lot of “gun camera” footage. In this one, you’ll get the driver’s view of a head-on crash with a farmer’s tractor, as well as a heart-stopping near miss as an elderly spectator tries to cross the roadway.]

Spectators are all over the course, too – usually WAY too close for comfort. In the video above there are a ton of (thankfully) close calls, showing how just mere inches can spell the difference between life and death for a pedestrian inadvertently put in the crosshairs of a motor vehicle.

According to the WRC, rally cars are based on production-level two-liter four-cylinder vehicles, but while they look similar to the ones you might see in a dealership, just about everything about them is different – especially the price. A WRC car will set you back around $1 million, the group says – and that doesn’t include spares. A set of competition tires will last only about 100 kilometers – which is just a hair over 62 miles – and you’re going to have to budget for several engine and gearbox rebuilds during a season, too.

A WRC season, by the by, is made up of 12 races in 12 different countries – plowing through the snowy forest roads of Finland in the frigid winter, then winding along the boulder-strewn hills of Greece in the blistering hot summer – with each race split into anywhere from 15 to 25 stages. Each race also takes about four days to complete in total – two days for the driver and navigator to ‘map’ the course, with the navigator recording precise roadway details so the driver can hit the road at high speed, with a ‘shakedown’ day followed by race day.

Rally cars are stripped to the bare metal and then completely rebuilt – a process usually taking 700 hours, start to finish – with unnecessary brackets and mounting plates removed to save weight, largely to offset the added pounds from a welded-in tubular steel roll-cage. Strangely enough, this rebuilding process doesn’t make them weaker, as the safety cage and other modifications enable WRC rally cars to support the weight of 10 regular road cars of the same size and shape.

All WRC cars have four wheel drive and six-speed semi-automatic gearboxes, notes the WRC, with electronically controlled shifting systems allowing the driver to make clutchless gear changes in around four hundredths of a second – as fast as on a Formula One car. Most cars also use a launch control system to help them get away from a standing start as quickly as possible and though the cars have a clutch, the driver tends to only use it to move off from a standing start.

The engine in this little monsters produce a massive amount of torque – 600 newton meters (nM) worth, which I believe equals 442.5 ft-lbs., if I’ve done the math right – allowing it to accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour (kph) or just over 62 miles per hour (mph) on all surface types, be it gravel, dirt, pavement, whatever. It’s not unusual though, to see drivers reach 220 kph in some of these events; that’s up near NASCAR speed, around 140 mph, on roads where driving 20 mph would scare the you-know-what out of me.

Those speeds are just one reason you see all kinds of spoilers and other aerodynamic devices on rally cars – not just to help direct airflow to help cool brakes and engine components but also keep these little rockets firmly planted on the ground, or at least level while flying through the air.

Special mention, though, must be given to the mechanics that keep these puppies up and running during the race. The WRC says that because the conditions are so varied and unforgiving, cars visit a ’service park’ at pre-determined times during each event.

Besides gleaning data from the on-board data systems, changing tires and making running adjustments, the WRC says the four-man “pit crews” only get a small window of time to perform mechanical work on each car – either 10, 30 or 45 minutes depending on the itinerary. As a result, these guys can twist a suspension upright, swap hub and brake units in around five minutes, and change a gear box in about 10 minutes – skills that no doubt would translate well to the trucking community on this side of the pond.

It’s a crazy world these rally car drivers navigate – one where high speed and instant destruction are separated by the thinnest of margins. And they provide an awesome reminder why taking the “slow and steady” approach to everyday driving is the right course to follow.

Here’s one for the fun file!

In sifting through the news wires this morning, I came across a study conducted by TomTom Inc., a company that provides what it calls “navigation solutions” and digital maps – basically, a routing system to help drivers find where they are going while avoiding major traffic bottlenecks.

TomTom hired a firm to conduct a survey of seven major U.S. cities – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York – to discern the “driving personalities” inhabiting each locale, polling 200 folks in each city to uncover common driving habits and roadway behaviors.

“We thought the survey would be a fun way to discover each city’s unique culture on the road; we have after all a natural interest in driving patterns and behaviors,” Karen Drake, TomTom’s corporate communications manager told me via email. “Greater awareness about our own driving tendencies helps us take the necessary measures to overcome the challenges we all face on the road, including dense traffic, breakdowns and high gas prices.”

[Here’s a little video showing how TomTom’s product offering works — just in case you were wondering …]

OK, sounds a bit humdrum, I know – until I started reading the survey’s results. Of all the cities listed above, I felt sure – smugly confident, even – that New York, Los Angeles, Boston, or maybe even Chicago would be home to drivers with some of the worst habits. But ATLANTA? No way … I just couldn’t believe it. Yet the drivers polled in Atlanta admitted to some interesting behaviors while out of the road. Just look:

• Extrapolating from TomTom’s survey data, roughly 61.3% of Americans travel five to 10 miles over the speed limit. Atlanta’s drivers, however, bagged the top slot, with 66.2% of them admitting to going over the speed limit by five to 10 mph.

• Some 10.7% of Americans curse or gesture crudely when someone cuts them off; Yet, again, Atlanta’s drivers do it the most – some 14.4% of them.

• Roughly 21.6% of Americans slam on their brakes or slow down when being tailgated. Then there are Atlanta’s drivers, slamming on the brakes the most – some 26.4% of the time.

• And then to the coup de grace: while 2% of Americans pick their nose behind the wheel … some 3% of Atlanta’s drivers admit to this unsavory practice. Oh no!

At least Boston stayed true to form: while 19.8% of Americans lean on their horns when someone cuts them off, Boston is the city where they do it the most, some 27.6% of the time.

“Nationwide, 58.1% of Americans surveyed have a daily commute that lasts 45 minutes to an hour. With so much time spent in the car, it comes as no surprise that some interesting, and in some cases, even embarrassing behaviors and occurrences have resulted,” said Kendra Thornton, travel expert and industry publicist, in comments about this survey.

You’re telling me – and most of them occurring in ATLANTA of all places! Needless to say, once word of these survey results get out, I think you’ll find Atlanta’s drivers being a lot more circumspect in terms of what conduct they’ll admit to when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle!

“I may not have a brain … but I have an idea.” –B.O.B., short for “Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzonate,” from the movie Monsters vs. Aliens

I usually cringe when I take my kids to the movies, watching the lowbrow, scatological humor they’re served up – oft-times laced with a big dollop of mean-spirited insults hurled between many of the characters considered “friends” in the film. I expected as much when I took them to see the new DreamWorks film “Monsters vs. Aliens” this past weekend – but instead got a very refreshing surprise for a change.

[We pause here to inform my good friend Jim McNamara at Volvo Trucks North America of the following: No, I’ve not run out of trucking items to talk about; I am talking about this movie because there IS a trucking tie in — if you’ll bear with me — and, frankly, there’s so much depressing news in the trucking business right now that I needed a break from it.]

The movie follows the adventures of five “monsters” and their handler General W.R. Monger as they attempt to repel an invasion by the alien head-case Gallaxar – Susan Murphy, a.k.a. “Ginormica,” a woman made 50 stories tall by exposure to radioactive “quantonium” from a meteor; B.O.B., a brainless, indestructible gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., a mad scientist with the head and abilities of a cockroach; the Missing Link, an amphibious fish-ape hybrid; and Insectosaurus, a colossal grub made even larger than Susan by exposure to “traditional” radiation from a nuclear bomb test.

[You can see all the monsters in action by watching the movie’s trailer below.]

It’s goofy and funny, yes, with plenty of the aforementioned lowbrow humor, but what really struck me about this film are the true friendships between the monsters. There’s no trading of insults, no mean-spirited laughs at the expense of others. B.O.B. is utterly clueless, yet he’s not made the butt of jokes by his comrades, unlike many recent films (such as “Tropic Thunder”) that revel in the verbal abuse of “retards.”

They aren’t mean to one another and gradually become friends by the end of the film – they ARE friends, right from the start, and in the best way possible. In a scene near the end, three of the monsters – Dr. Cockroach, the Missing Link, and B.O.B. – are trapped on Gallaxar’s self-destructing space ship. Link and Dr. C. know they are going to die (they don’t, of course, but that comes later) and instead of the standard hysterical running around, Link calmly puts out his hand to Dr. C. and says simply, “Doc, it’s been a real pleasure.”

Doc does the same, whereupon B.O.B. chimes in, “Right, then … lunch tomorrow guys?” Yet instead of some darkly ironic comment or cutting sarcasm, Link simply says, “Absolutely B.O.B.; I wouldn’t miss it.” And Dr. C. adds in sincerely, “And we’re going to have balloons and cake, just for you.” B.O.B. of course thinks that is the greatest and hugs them both, saying “Wow! I LOVE you guys!”

The scene is done with real honest feeling, as anyone would do in the real world – making sure a friend is comfortable, happy even, despite being on the brink of disaster. It’s not what you expect from a film like this.

It reminded me of a similar theme sounded in that classic trucking “ghost story” told by the great Red Sovine: “Phantom 309.” The typical ghost stories you read/watch today are all about malevolent spirits seeking to rip humans into pieces – usually with as much gore and screaming as possible.

That’s why the story of “Big Joe” and his “Phantom 309” Mack truck always delighted me – it plays against type.

Big Joe gives highway hitchhikers a lift from the rainy crossroads where he died to the truck stop down the road, flipping them a dime when they part for a “hot one on old Joe” without any spooky nonsense – he’s still out to do his best to leave the world a little better than he found it; even if he’s not alive anymore.

[Take a listen to the classic of classics – Red Sovine’s “Phantom 309” – and you’ll see what I mean.]

Watching “Monsters vs. Aliens” reminded me of Sovine’s tale for that reason – so what if the characters in each story are monsters or phantom spirits? That doesn’t mean they can’t be decent friends to each other or to strangers on the road for that matter. And it’s refreshing to see such a classic value come back into a mainstream movie for a change. I’m sure it would bring a smile to the face of “Big Joe” if he could see it.

“Fancy cutting down all those beautiful trees to make pulp for those bloody newspapers … and calling it civilization.” –Winston S. Churchill

Unless you live under a rock (and there are very few such dwellers in the world of trucking) you know the newspaper business – and, by extension, the profession of journalism – is undergoing some seriously painful change right now.

Stalwart icons such as the Seattle Post Intelligencer are no longer printed – living in a much reduced state online – while the Chicago Tribune languishes in bankruptcy (and may yet expire there) due to heavy loads of debt. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking these are but several of the death rattles emanating from the traditional news-gathering business. Some think the very foundations of democracy are being threatened by this collapse of traditional media titans.

That’s the furthest thing from the truth, though – for in my humble opinion, what’s going on is an at times searing evolution of journalism and the information gathering and dispersing process it manages. No longer are there such sharply defined lines between “print” and “television” journalism, or even between print and photo journalists – we’re doing it all nowadays, from writing the stories, to taking the photographs plus shooting and editing video as well.

That even applies to the audio world, too, where satellite radio and Internet podcasts – such as the new Trucking Business Insights program my fellow editor Tim Brady is putting together – are changing the pathways through which trucking companies large and small, as well as drivers and owner-operators, get the information they need to be a success in this tough industry.

[Veteran newsman Evan Lockridge, host of “The Lockridge Report” on Sirius XM channel 147, talks about how these new mediums are creating closer connections between trucking journalists and the market we cover.]

Is any of this a “bad” thing when it comes to providing you, the digester of trucking news? I surely don’t think so. I think it actually opens up more opportunities for us, as trucking reporters, to bring you more useful information while helping us formerly ink-stained wretches craft better stories across many more mediums than before.

Indeed, while YouTube and the Internet can often times disseminate more than their fair share of rumors and outright inaccurate garbage, they are also demolishing barriers to news – providing channels outside the control of heretofore omnipotent news barons and government censors, giving everyone a chance to hear more sides of stories than before.

Take Daniel Hannan, for instance – a member of the European Union’s Parliament that’s been taking copious notes on how “blogging” is changing the face of political discourse

“The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever,” he noted in a recent post on his own blog. “I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown [Prime Minister of Great Britain]. I tipped off the BBC [British Broadcasting Company] and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly, they ignored me: I am, after all, simply a backbench MEP.”

He did, however, disseminate his comments to the public via YouTube – and that changed everything. The next day, he found his phone clogged with texts, his email inbox stuffed with messages, with the YouTube clip of his remarks had attracted over 36,000 hits.

“How did it happen, in the absence of any media coverage? The answer is that political reporters no longer get to decide what’s news,” Hannan said. “The days when a minister gave briefings to a dozen lobby correspondents, and thereby dictated the next day’s headlines, are over. Now, a thousand bloggers decide for themselves what is interesting. If enough of them are tickled then, bingo, you’re news. And jumbo thanks to all the American bloggers: you chaps are way ahead of us in this regard.”

Hannan’s own example below of how a short video speech can lay out a new line of political debate – in this case, how the European Union’s financial arm is spraying money everywhere – illustrates the power the new media channels have today.

“Breaking the press monopoly is one thing. But the internet has also broken the political monopoly,” Hannan said. “Ten or even five years ago, when the Minister for Widgets put out a press release, the mere fact of his position guaranteed a measure of coverage. Nowadays, a politician must compel attention by virtue of what he is saying, not his position. It’s all a bit unsettling for professional journalists and politicians. But it’s good news for libertarians of every stripe.”

And good news for truckers, too, as hopefully this will provide wider access to more useful information in real-time than ever before.

It’s been quite a week here in Orlando at the annual Technology & Maintenance Council, with a ton of interesting stuff going on – some I’ve written about already, more yet to come (hey, my brain can only process information just so fast, you know – despite the beefed up coffee intake!)

Obviously, the down economy and how to survive it from a trucker industry perspective dominated the conversations here among both fleet managers and suppliers. Yet that didn’t crowd out other important issues, such as dealing with the impending 2010 emission standards, safety technology advantages vs. costs, the viability of biodiesel, corporate environmental sustainability programs, plus a long overdue debate between fleets and dealers over vehicle maintenance and repair services.

That hot topic – co-hosted by longtime industry veteran Darry Stuart – brought a lot of long-simmering issues out into the open and you’ll read about it a little later on in this space.

For now, though, I think I’ll take a break and leave you with some of the sights from this year’s show – set to music, of course – sights that include several of the ride and drive opportunities made available to the cabal of trucking reporters (myself included) covering the event. And an extra special thanks to Richard “The Dude” White, general manager for FleetOwner’s sister publication American Trucker (of which I’m the editor). He graciously agreed to serve as the ‘master of ceremonies’ for this week’s musical tribute to TMC (brief as those duties are).

Until next time!

“I used to listen to these songs when I drove a truck for a living and always imagined myself singing them. This album is something I’ve always wanted to do – and, with my own label, no one could tell me ‘no’ anymore.” –Aaron Tippin, former trucker turned country music superstar

OK, point of full and honest disclosure here – I’m a country music fan in addition to my love for heavy metal (I know, I know – I am violating a lot of good taste melding those two) and one of my favorite country artists is Aaron Tippin. So needless to say I jumped at the chance to talk with him by phone from his 500-acre farm in Tennessee about his new album “In Overdrive” – an album of classic trucking songs that he’s put his own unique stamp upon.

Tippin isn’t your average music star, by the way. Raised as a farmer, he’s also a pilot (owning four planes stored in a hanger on his own private airstrip), winemaker, outdoorsman (he owns two hunting supply stores), and competitive bodybuilder (it’s true – I’ve met Tippin in person and the dude is in phenomenal shape). Married for nearly 14 years, with two sons (Tom and Ted), Tippin still identifies deeply with his roots – a fancy way of saying musical fame and fortune hasn’t gone to his head.

“First and foremost I’m a farmer,” he told me. Born in Pensacola, Florida, back in 1958, Tippin grew up on a farm in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. “But as part of growing up on a farm, I learned to drive trucks from a young age. I started driving hay trucks, then dump trucks, and then started hauling heavy equipment,” he said.

He started driving commercial trucks to help pay the bills as he tried to make a living as a country western singer and songwriter, piling up the miles on the highway while singing in countless bars and honkytonks. “I started driving local routes, then moved on to truckload teams on the west coast,” Tippin recalled. “I wrote a lot of songs with my driving partner back in those days – none of which ever went anywhere, and all of them mostly love songs.”

But he listened over and over to the staples of trucking music on the road – especially the late Jerry Reed’s “East Down and Bound” – always wondering if he’d ever catch a break. Eventually he did – competing on The Nashville Network’s (TNN) You Can Be a Star talent contest in 1986, which landed him a song publishing contract. He moved to Nashville, TN, in 1987 and began penning tunes for the likes of The Kingsmen, Charley Pride, and others.

That hard work paid off in 1990, when Tippin performed his first Nashville nightclub show and bagged a contract with RCA Records as a result. His first single – “You’ve Got to Stand for Something,” released in 1991 – became hugely popular with the U.S. servicemen and women fighting in the Gulf War; so much so that Bob Hope invited Tippin to come along as Hope toured the Mideast to entertain the troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.

One of his biggest hits, however, came just after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001: “Where The Stars And Stripes And The Eagle Fly,” which reached number two on the country billboard charts. [You can watch the music video for it below – it’s a classic “anthem” devoted to the American working man and woman.]

Like all musicians, though, Tippin’s career has seen a lot of ebbs and flows. After five albums and a greatest hits package with RCA, he switched to Lyric Records in 1998, where he released two more albums and a number one single “Kiss This,” co-written with his wife, Thea. But in 2006, Tippin and Lyric parted ways, leading him to form his own label – Nippit Records – and helping him get back to appreciating what to his mind is a critical constituency of country music: truckers.

“Seems like somewhere along the line trucking music got shoved off the country music plate,” he observed. “I don’t understand exactly why. The trucks are still out there. And they’re busier than ever keeping America rolling. I know the folks who work and live in the trucking world still love this music—and so do most fans of real country music. This album launches my crusade to bring that music back.”

He told me that every time he plays the “trucking classics” at his live shows – Alabama’s “Prisoner of the Highway” and “Roll on,” plus “Truck Drivin’ Man” by Terry Fell and “Six Days on the Road” originally made famous by Dave Dudley back in 1963 – the fans “just go ballistic” in his words. “People still love this music, but country music doesn’t always seem proud of it,” Tippin told me. “It’s still great music.”

He broached the idea of putting together an album of trucking music to Jerry Reed – with Reed’s classic hit “East Bound and Down” at the top of the list – and got an enthusiastic response. Though Tippin kept in touch with Reed as the album “In Overdrive” came together, Reed’s failing health prevented him from playing a bigger role in the project (though Reed’s grandson plays the drums on Tippin’s version of “East Down and Bound.”)

“I got to spend a lot of time with him before he passed on – a guy that, in many ways, never really got recognized by Nashville for all he did for country music,” Tippin told me. “To my mind, his accomplishments got overlooked – especially all the work he did for veterans at the end of his life. But now he’s getting his glory.”

And Tippin also hopes this album brings a little “glory” back to truckers – a group of men and women that perform a vital job in this country of ours, yet who remain largely ignored. “I have a lot of respect for truckers and job they do – it’s important for them and their contributions to our country to be recognized,” Tippin told me. “Everything you get today comes by truck. Folks need to remember that.”

Amen to that.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.” – From the inaugural address of President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States

And so it begins – perhaps the most awaited U.S. Presidential term in recent memory. What does it hold for our nation and for we as a people? Mired as we are in an economic recession, burdened by trillions in debt, and facing an ever-shadowy global network of terrorists and evil-doers, the road before us seems rockier than ever. Yet the first speech by President Obama lays out a plan that he believes shall help us deal with – if not overcome — all of these obstacles before us.

“Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet,” Obama said after taking the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

“These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics,” he noted. “Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights. [Yet] the time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

Obama stressed that “greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor – who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.”

So what does this mean for the country over the next four years, and for trucking?

Well, for starters, expect a heavy focus on alternative energy. President Obama laid out an over-arching strategy to get America to embrace a variety of alternatives to petroleum for both environmental and national security reasons. “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories,” he stated.

Expect, too, an massive rebuilding an expansion of our infrastructure – a major tenet of his campaign he still plans to carry forward with vigor.

“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth,” Obama said. “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”

Obama noted in speech Jan. 8 at George Mason University that everyone in America must share in the task ahead as well as shoulder some of the blame for how we got here. “This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle, and we won’t get out of it by simply waiting for a better day to come, or relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past,” he noted in his talk at the school.

“We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC. For years, too many Wall Street executives made imprudent and dangerous decisions, seeking profits with too little regard for risk, too little regulatory scrutiny, and too little accountability,” Obama said. “Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them, and some borrowers took advantage of cheap credit to take on debt they couldn’t afford. Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of the problems they were sent here to solve.”

He also stressed that instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where the government invests will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. “Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent,” Obama said.

“We will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children’s future than it is right now,” he noted. “We have to make tough choices and smart investments today so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. We cannot have a solid recovery if our people and our businesses don’t have confidence that we’re getting our fiscal house in order. That’s why our goal is not to create a slew of new government programs, but a foundation for long-term economic growth.”

Will Obama’s efforts be successful? Surely, they are ambitious. But as he noted shortly after taking the oath of office, President Obama believes American and its people are more than capable of achieving all of this.

“There are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage,” he said.

“This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began,” Obama stressed. “Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

Good luck to you Mr. President.