Category: trucking

Ice Road Trucker Star Darrell Ward killed in plane crash

This story hits me particularly hard, because I have a CDL-A and I was supposed to be a truck driver myself.  Here is the official announcement:

I know that Darrell had a son, who he loved dearly and kept a picture on his dash of him.

Here is the official story via Fox News:

“Ice Road Truckers” star Darrell Ward died in a plane crash Sunday, a rep for the show told FOX411. He was 52.

“We are saddened by the tragic loss of Darrell Ward, a beloved member of the HISTORY family. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”

According to Ward’s Facebook page, the reality star was headed back to Missoula, Montana, after meeting with fans at The Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas.

Ward was set to begin filming a pilot for a new documentary-style TV show about plane wreck recoveries. Ward and his co-pilot died.

“An investigation is ongoing and more information will be made available at a later time as the National Transportation Safety Board will be handling the investigation,” a statement on his Facebook page said. “[The] things Darrell loved most were his family, including his kids and grand-kids & trucking.”

Ward became a fan favorite over the past four seasons of the History Channel’s docu-series. His motto was “any road, any load” and he was a self-proclaimed “adrenaline junkie.”

“When Darrell wasn’t hitting the Ice Roads he would be back in Montana doing what Darrel loved best as a log hauler and occasionally helped local authorities fight forest fires,” the statement read. “In his free time, you could usually find Darrell giving back to the community any chance he got, he had promoted the most recent food drive to help victims in the Louisiana Floods.”

There is more info here:

 The Cessna 182-D  crashed on the edge of interstate as it appeared to be attempting to land at the Rock Creek Airport south of Clinton.

Missoula County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Bill Burt said witnesses said the plane appeared to be attempting to land at the south end of the runway.

“Something went drastically wrong,’’ he said. “The plane was trying to climb and appeared to have stalled.’’

To say that this incident here has hit the trucking World very hard, would be the understatement of the century.

The trucking industry has been reeling recently by the shooting death of a terminal manager in Texas. Everybody had just recently gotten over that and now this.

The sad part about it is Darrell Ward was at the Great American truck show in Dallas Texas and a few people who I have communications with actually took pictures with and made video with Darrell Ward before he left the show.

So, needless to say there are a lot of people right now who are truck drivers who are absolutely numb right now with unbelief and grief.

My heart goes out to Darrell’s son and the rest of his family God only knows what they’re going through right now so my thoughts and prayers go to Darrell’s son and everybody in his family.

I think the important thing to remember is this right here: people like Darrell Ward and the others from Ice Road Truckers; to us people on the outside they are television stars: famous people who we just see on a TV screen.

But in reality, they’re real people, with families, children and grandchildren and when something like this happens; it hits hard and it’s hard on everybody. So, I think everybody should probably just say a small prayer tonight for this Man’s family. 😔🙁😟

The Government is hell-bent on killing the trucking industry

The corporatization of America is happening and it is killing small business. Patrick J. Buchanan has talked about it; and it sadly is happening.

I give you a prime example of this, in an industry that I know very much about —- trucking.

The story via National Review:

John Benning painstakingly saved for 15 years to launch his business, a small Reno-based firm that connected manufacturers with truckers who could move their goods. But a big change to an obscure bonding requirement, tucked into Congress’s 2012 transportation bill, “just completely drove me out of business,” Benning says. “I’m back at a job, and my American dream got squashed. I just don’t know what else to say. It’s just really, really, really disappointing.”

Benning isn’t alone; in the past six months, the new bonding requirement has forced the closure of more than 8,000 similar small-scale independent freight brokers and forwarders, according to the Association of Independent Property Brokers and Agents (AIPBA), a trade group that represents small and midsized brokers.

Before Congress rushed through the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), independent freight brokers and forwarders were required to have available at least $10,000, money that was used as a guarantee for both the manufacturers and truckers. The new legislation raised that bonding requirement to a steep $75,000 — more than many businesses could possibly raise. But without that capital available, they lost their licenses beginning December 1.

James Lamb, president of AIPBA, estimates 38 percent of small-scale brokers and 73 percent of small-scale freight forwarders “were knocked out.” Furthermore, he says, “We believe there was collusion by the other trade groups to eliminate competition,” adding that trade groups representing bigger companies performing the same services lobbied hard to raise the bonding requirement.

“The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) purports this would fight fraud, but in essence, this was an attempt to remove the small players from the industry,” Lamb says. “And they’ve accomplished what we believe they set out to do.”

Of course, the do-gooder statists say:

Robert A. Voltmann, the president of TIA, tells National Review Online by e-mail that his trade group “pushed for a comprehensive set of reforms designed to combat fraud,” working alongside the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

“The only entities being harmed are would-be scammers and those too undercapitalized to qualify for the bond,” Voltmann says. “An entrepreneur needs to be properly capitalized to start any business, but one that handles other people’s money needs to be even more prepared for the [rigors] of the market.”

The result:

By AIPBA’s estimates, as many as 17,000 small businesses could end up going under because of the new bonding requirement. A December 2013 news release claimed that “consumer prices will likely rise as competition is diminished and a few large companies dictate the cost of moving goods.”

AIPBA has applied to the Department of Transportation for an exemption, which would allow some small businesses to keep their licenses despite failure to meet the $75,000 bond.

The group has also filed suit, claiming that although Congress required the Department of Transportation to set a minimum bond at $75,000, the agency failed to follow proper rulemaking procedures. If the correct process had been followed, Lamb says, the agency could have explicitly stated that the $75,000 minimum was sufficient. “That’s important to us because we’ve heard there are future attempts to increase the bond amount,” Lamb says.

However, for one man — it is all too little, too late:

For former entrepreneurs like Benning, such efforts come too late, though.

“You can’t be a small-business man anymore and do brokerage,” Benning says. “The economy was already tanked, and it was really, really, really difficult. [The new requirement] just put the knife all the way in.”

This is what happens when corporate special interest and Government work hand in hand. You get fascism, you crony capitalism, and you get honest small time businessmen being run out of business. This is what Pat Buchanan and myself are always talking about, when it comes to stuff like this here.

If Republicans don’t stop acting like Democrats; this one fine industry, might actually find itself snuffed out. What with immigration at the levels that it is at, you get these immigrants who will work for nothing and getting a CDL with green card is easy. Real Americans cannot even get jobs anymore. At least not any the pay any sort of a living wage. Between that, and the situation quoted above, it is a wonder anyone is even involved in the industry anymore.

I would like to share a video with you all; actually, it is a movie. It is about the trucking world and the industry. Much has been made about the truck industry. It is been romanticized, made fun of and downright misrepresented in Hollywood. This movie tells the real story. This is “Big Rig” from 2007:

Enjoy.

 

Tragic News from the trucking industry

This is so sad:

A former employee at Pritchett Trucking Inc. based out of Lake Butler, FL went on a rampage on Saturday the 24th killing three people and wounding another before turning the gun on himself. His victims were his boss and coworkers at the trucking company.

The gunman, 72-year old Herbert Allen Jr, had retired from his job at Pritchett Trucking only a few days prior to the shooting for unknown reasons. Before he started his rampage, he left a note in his home with a list of five names on it and wrote that “these people deserve to die.” He traveled around the small town of about 1,500 people, tracking down the people on the list and shooting them.

He first went to a location owned by his former boss where he shot and killed 80-year old Marvin Pritchett who founded the company back in 1980. While he was there he also shot and killed 28-year old former co-worker Rolando Gonzalez-Delgado. He then drove to where another former coworker was driving a farm tractor on the road, had an argument with him and then shot him in the arm and side with a shotgun. The victim, 66-year old Lewis Mabrey Jr. is in good condition at the hospital.  His last stop was at his old company headquarters where he shot and fatally wounded 44-year old David Griffis.

After shooting Griffis, Allen returned home where police found his body after an apparent suicide. Authorities have not revealed who the fifth intended victim was.

Locals, including members of his family and the local police department were shocked by Allen’s actions. He had never been in trouble with the police before and he was described by a sheriff’s deputy as “laid back” and “law abiding.” The deputy also said that in such a small town, everyone knew each other.

via Shooting At Trucking Company Leaves Four Dead.

So sad. 😥 Prayers for the families of all involved.

My career was derailed by political correctness and black racism

 

I am not sure how to start this blog posting. Needless to say, it is not the triumphant return home blog posting that I was hoping that I would be writing about my return to the work force.

So, I will just write the truth and tell you all what happened.

Basically, I was screwed out of a chance to work for a rather nice trucking company.

Why, you say?

Because of a baseless and vicious accusation by a black lesbian woman.

As most of you know by now, for the last three weeks, I have been in Indianapolis, Indiana; going for what I called a “long refresher” with Celadon Trucking Group. I was at their in-house school called “Quality Drivers.” I had been down there for 3 weeks. It was nice to get away from this house and my family for what I thought was the start of a new career driving truck again, after 9 years of being away from it all.

My skills were a bit rusty, but after about a week, I was really catching back on to driving part. My shifting, double clutching and even my 90 degree backing was improving by the day. I pretty much was told that I could pass the driver evaluation with no problems at all.

Then, yesterday, out of nowhere — it all came to a screeching halt and I was sent home on a bus.

In order for me to tell you this story and get the entire story, including my side — out there. I am going to have to share with you my side of this story; the side that I never got the chance to share with Celadon, because Celadon Trucking is a slave to the political correctness mentality and is more interested in protecting themselves from a frivolous lawsuit, than they are interesting in hiring employees that would actually do a good job for them.

While I was in Indiana, I was provided lodging at a very nice hotel in Greenville, Indiana. It was called the Quality Inn. They provided free breakfast, which by the way, was decent. The hotel staff there were incredibly nice, considering the fact that some of the people from Celadon trucking or I should say, Quality Drivers; were complete and utter idiots —- so much to the point of some of them getting kicked out of the hotel for various infractions. Much of which involved the excessive use of alcohol. (Please Note: All of this happened BEFORE their new driving school building was built, that building was still being constructed at that time.) (Also too, I believe that the Quality Inn in Greenville, Indiana has now changed hands and is under a new brand.)

Anyhow, my supposed infraction of the politically correct code was basically this:

I supposedly called this black lesbian woman and I quote, “A Beautiful Black Bitch.” I do not know this woman’s real name; I think I might have heard it once, but I do not recall what it is now. However, I do know what everyone called her: Nico.

Update September 29, 2013: Since there seems to be some who have a problem with reading comprehension skills; I will publicly state that I never, ever, said anything of the sort to this woman at all. Period, End of Story, anyone who says anything other than this, is full of it. 

The truth is, I hardly ever had any sort of interaction with her at all. I can’t say that I never saw her; I did. But, I never said anything out of line near her or in her presence.

Well, thanks to Nico and her playing of the race card and of the frightened black woman card — I am now out of Celadon’s trucking school and my prospects of getting another driving job are not looking that great. All that effort; getting my medical card, finding out I have diabetes and high blood pressure, all that money spent down there, all that money spent by Celadon trucking feeding me, providing me a hotel for three weeks, paying all of their staff to see to it that I made it down there and training me to get back out on the road —- wasted. All because some black lesbian woman supposedly felt uncomfortable around me. 🙄

Surprisingly, I took all of it quite well. My Mother on the other hand —- is damned furious. I cannot repeat on here all the stuff that she said about it.  It is mainly, because ALL of the money spent on my part, while I was down there was hers. So, you would expect her not to be happy about this at all.

However, there is more to the story as well. I was, in fact, set up. I was set up by some of the idiots, who I referred to earlier in this blog posting. Who were, in fact, black.

Basically, the story is this here: There were a group of blacks down at that school who liked to, as it is commonly called, “talk shit about people.” (My apologies in advance to the Christians who read this blog for the use of the profanity) Well, of course, they decided to do this with me. When they did this, by basically asking me a question, which was if I froze while I was out with my “road trainer.” I simply replied to them, that the fifth rule of the contract with Quality Drivers stated that no harassment of ANY sort would be tolerated; and that they should keep in this in mind.

This, I believe, was when the plan to set me up, to be tossed out of the program was put into place. Because it would be a matter of days before I was tossed out of the program.

I firmly believe that the same people who did the “shit talking” with me, put Nico up to complaining to the Human Resources department at Celadon that I had made “racist and threatening remarks” to her.  Which, in fact, was totally untrue at all.

I was told by several people to get a lawyer and sue them. But, honestly, what good would it do me? It would be my word against theirs. Plus too, I do not have the cash money to spend on the lawyer. So, basically, what can I do? Nothing really. 🙁

I will say this, I have a very different attitude towards blacks than I did, when I left here three weeks ago. I used to try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Not anymore. My resentment towards blacks after the killing my cousin in 1994 is even more so now.

As for my plans. At the moment, I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do. I do know that I now have a cellphone, that I cannot pay for. My Mother will most likely end up confiscating it, as she was the one who fronted the cash for the thing in the first place. As for my job situation;  I really just do not know.

I end this with the words of the apostle Paul from 1 Thessalonians 5:25, “Brethren, pray for us.” in this case, Pray for me. Because the next few weeks, days, months are going to be a rough one for me and my family.

Thanks for reading,

-Charles Patrick Adkins

(Cross posted at Buzzfeed)

Some housekeeping….

Tomorrow I leave out for 9 weeks of training in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am, as I have noted, going “over the road” to drive truck once again. Because I do not have any verifiable work experience available; I will have to go through the full trucking school again. I am not complaining as I need to really brush up on my skills a bit. I’ve been away from driving truck for 9 years.

I will not be taking my laptop, due to baggage concerns. I will have my Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. I really wanted to take the laptop; but Greyhound’s baggage policy is just too restrictive.

So, until I am able to return for my laptop, I will be putting the blog in full moderation mode.

Posting will be limited, mostly to pictures of my travels across the Country. I might try and sneak in a link or two to something that catches my eye.

For now, I will be going silent. Wish me luck and your prayers are much appreciated.

Tomorrow is a new dawn and a new chapter is this old fogey’s life.

 

It is official: I leave for 9 weeks of training for new job

I wrote about this the other day, but it is now official.

On the 15’th of this month, I will be shipping off to Indianapolis, Indiana for 9 weeks (!) of training to become an over the road truck driver.

I know, it sounds like forever, but really, it is simply 3 weeks in Indy for classroom and maneuvers practice.  Then it’s off with a trainer for 6 weeks of simply driving with a trainer. I will be doing, hopefully most of the 48 states and maybe Canada.

I will be taking the laptop and checking in via wifi at the truck stops each night. I also, once I go solo, will be buying a phone, trucker gps, and a decent freezer cooler. Once get the phone, I will be posting video updates here and over on the youtube channel that I created. I am also thinking of creating a separate blog dedicated solely to trucking. I have a name and a URL for that picked out; stay tuned for further updates on that one.

It feels so good to be finally doing the right thing with my career and more than anything else; getting back to work — after 9 years of being unemployed.  😀

In happier news

I figure if I am going to do a grumpy post, I might as well do a happy post. 😀

In the next few days or so, or maybe even weeks; I will be finally heading down to Indiana to start my refresher for trucking again. I wrote awhile back that first I had health issues, and then, my Dad’s health kinda went bad. So, I had to put things on hold for a bit, to make sure Dad was going to be okay. Well, he went today and found out that his back is the problem, officially. No surgery for now; shots and therapy for now and if that does not help; he will need to get screws and such in his back. I pray the shots and the therapy help him.

As for me, at first, I will not be sharing much of anything, while I am training. Once I get my truck and get the important stuff: GPS, Phone, cooler, healthy food for truck — then, I will be investing in a little camera for doing Vlogs on the road. I may start doing them with the camera on the phone that I am getting. (Samsung Galaxy S4 with Sprint)  I have a trucking channel all set up and I also have a Ustream TV channel for possibly streaming my trips in the truck. All of that is coming soon. Right away, I will be investing in wi-fi for the truck stops; so that I can get on and check e-mails. I will also wrote the occasional blog posting as well; because I am not totally going away.

Anyhow, please, pray for me and my family — or if you like, wish me luck, send good thoughts — all of that stuff!

Stay tuned.

 

Health Update

I wrote about this already once. But, I thought I would give my readers an update on my situation.

It is officially official: I have diabetes and high blood pressure. 😥

Here is the picture that officially declares my days of ” Work Hard, Live Fast, Die Hard and Leave a good looking corpse.” over for good:

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On a more positive note: I have been cleared by my doctor to go drive truck. I will just have to eat three square, sensible meals a day. I have to, of course, cut down on portions. ( 🙁  ) I already drink diet soda; so, I am covered there. I will be going on Tuesday, after the holiday here and getting my note to take back to the clinic, which will get me my DOT card; and then, I have to go down to the Secretary of State and get my license switched back to Interstate from Intrastate. THEN, I will be, hopefully, calling this company and getting a bus ticket out to the training school/main terminal.

Then, I will be there for a week of classroom and driver orientation and then a driving evaluation; and then out with a trainer for 4-5 weeks. Could be more, could be less, depending on how I do. I am, needless to say, praying that I do well and get my truck quickly. I am not naming the company for some very obvious reasons. I still have political enemies and because of a particular group of internet trolls who like to get people fired from jobs.  I will not elaborate on that bunch, except to say that, seeing I am getting back to work; I am going to be speaking with a lawyer and getting that posting about me taken down. I hope they’re reading here; because I am very serious about that.

Also too, and I was thinking of doing another posting, but I will just say it here. After this weekend, this blog will be going silent for a few weeks. I will not have a smartphone to post from. There is a boost phone that I want to buy, but at this time, I cannot afford it, and the only phone I will be taking, is a cheap phone that my mom used to use, before she got her new one. She offered to activate that one, until I can afford to buy my cellphone. I will be taking my laptop and might look into buying WiFi service from the truck stops that I will be stopping at. But, for the first few weeks, internet access won’t be happening, unless I get lucky and it is offered for free at the motel where I will be staying. I would like to get an Galaxy S4, which is a really nice phone. However, I do not want to get locked into a stupid two year contract. So, I am most likely getting this one here, because of the “hotspot” feature.

In conclusion: Pray for me, much. I just want to make it, and do well in life; like my Father did back in 1967 — when he left Middlesboro, Kentucky and came to Detroit looking for a better life.  I want to prove the naysayers wrong. I want to prove to myself, my family and my enemies that I can truly do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

Pictures and video will come. Soon. I do promise you all that. But, for now. I have to go silent.

 

 

Health issues preventing me from going back to work

Believe it not….

Yes, I had to do this today….

As I wrote awhile back, I have wanted to go back into driving truck for a living. Well, I went today for my DOT physical and I got a bit of a surprise. I had sugar in my urine. So, I had to stab my finger and check my blood. My blood sugar was 275, DOT rules say nothing over 200. My Blood pressure was 160 over 100. For DOT regs, it must be no more than 140/90.

I was wondering why I was having headaches here as of late. I found my answer —- blood pressure. 🙄

Needless to say, I have a doctor’s appointment coming up next Wednesday at 2:00pm. As I have to see what on earth is going on here. I guess sitting around for 10 years doing nothing but writing has taken its toll on the ol’ body here. One thing I will mention, Diabetes does run on both sides of my family. I was hoping it would skip over me; I guess it is what they say, hope floats. 🙄

So, my DOT thing is on hold, till I can either get this under control or something.

Also too, full disclosure with me here: I went online today and applied for STATE medical insurance help.  I won’t take federal, unless I absolutely HAVE TO do it. But, now; I will be blunt with everyone: This sugar in the blood and high blood pressure stuff is NOT anything to play around with and I am not getting any younger.

So, honestly, I do not give two flips where it is coming from. I want to live and be healthy. So, at the point, politics is not in my realm of view at the moment. Sorry, but I am not dying young, just so I can say, “Screw the Government!” Why I see it, if the Republicans think that my dying young is somehow or another preserving some sort of freedom, then they can just go jump in the lake and I will call myself a Democrat again. I did not like Obama, for many reasons. His wanting to help people, like me, be taken care of, was not one of them. I am not much into “Mob Rule” at all, but I am not dying so some wealthy Republican can feel good about himself. If you know what I mean and I think you do! 😀

Anyhow, I will everyone posted on this. Needless to say, this was a huge shock to me. The last time I took a DOT physical, I passed with flying colors —- this was in 2003, 10 years later and now this; it sickens me a bit. For years, I was the epitome of health and now….this. 🙁 It was not the way I thought my life would turn out, that is for sure.

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