I am a son of the trucking industry. From about age 10, my dad drove a truck – first for a local farmer/grain dealer and then for a family friend that hauled primarily rough cut lumber from local sawmills and seasonally grain. My two brothers were/are also truckers. Although one worked a few other assorted jobs, the other has driven a truck all but about 1 year after high school – over 35 years.

I grew up in and around trucks. I rode the jump seat in many trips with my dad to dozens of places in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky. From furniture companies, steel mills, paper factories, grain terminals, railroad yards and more, I have been on hand to watch the blue collar workers of America load and unload products in the processing of producing the goods and services which drive America’s economy.

When circumstances left me with few employment opportunities, I also drove a truck for a few years. While I had a Class A license, the majority of the work the company I was with was for straight trucks (Class B) and I opted to drive them. While it paid less, there was more (steady) work and I was able to be home nearly every night.

I looked up to truck drivers and respected truck drivers. And I always admired the friendship, cooperation and admiration of truckers toward each other.

I recently completed a 4000+ mile round trip ‘vacation’ from Las Vegas to southern Michigan. The east bound trip was the southern route thru Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, finally into Michigan. The return trip included a diversion down to central Indiana to pick up my brother, then back thru Illinois but up to Iowa (to visit a model trail museum), then Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, the northwest tip of Arizona and finally back into Las Vegas.

As I traveled I watched the interaction of the drivers with each other. We were traveling with out a CB so I could not hear any chatter, but there are still things you can read just by watching. And in my opinion, there is a new bred of truck drivers – the bred that has already taken over the auto driving in America. The “This road was built for me and I would prefer if I did not have to share it with you” drivers.

Truck drivers in the old would assist and advise other truckers when they were being passed with a flicker of head lights to indicate “you are safely around me”. The passing truck would acknowledge this with some form of light flicker (flashers or trailer lights) also. I noted for the most part, passed trucks showed no interest in the advising the passing trucks and the occasional times when the passed truck did so, the passing trucker refused or failed to acknowledge it.

I watched many times when trucks or cars were on the shoulder of the highway, that trucks would go past them in the immediate lane without slowing down or moving over, even when there was no traffic to their left. Almost a “I don’t see you and I don’t care attitude”.

I am not certain where this attitude is coming from – but I am afraid it is in part to the general ‘all about me’ attitude in America today and also impart to the 21 day wonders being cranked out by ‘train here, driver here’ trucking company owned driver’s schools, schools geared not to produce ‘truckers’ but to produce warm bodies to haul freight at minimum wage. I am not faulting the schools directly or completely – but I would love to see a return to the industry of more professionalism, more friendship and more compassion for other truckers and other highway users as well.

And I am afraid that if this trend continues – road rage between big trucks will become a new trend. Trucks and trucker are already excessively regulated and if truckers can not learn to get along with each other and start (or get worse at) disrespecting each other and other motorists, the government may step in with more regulations and higher fines for infractions. The disrespectful way truckers treat ‘cars and auto’ results in those 4-wheelers, who also pay road taxes and have a right to use the roads, to look down on and disrespect truck drivers. And these people vote and write their elected officials – officials who will pass laws farther regulating trucking.

Truckers need to police themselves and trucking schools need to teach respect and cooperation – with all who use America’s roadways.

John Carter/TruckStopReport

I have started the process to try and add facebook, twitter and google+ updates to my blogging. I am not sure how this is going to work out. Facebook is a pain to work with and so far, google plus has proven to be much harder. Twitter is so far the only one that seems to integrate the easiest. It seems to me that the smarter people are at computers, the more they think everyone is equally smart. When Bill Gates released windows, the whole concept was to make computers people friendly – to isolate the user from the ‘machine’. No longer would people have to know computerize to launch programs. Over the past decade, many programs to enhance the quality of the computer user’s experience have also required the computer user to study massive books or huge online instructions to complete anything but the most basic tasks. Some are even worse.

While cell phones have taken over many communications needs for truck drivers, CB radios still play an important part of life on the road. Quality radios are a must for the rugged life in the cab of a truck. Driver’s needing quick information on locations for deliveries and pickups need the flexibility of grabbing the mic and shouting out for help.

 
Other driver’s will respond with the needed information – information that may include critical points about restricted roads, low clearances and other need to know information that only a trucker would know or even care about.

 
The best CB radio in the world has no value if it does not also have a quality antenna and good microphone. So with that in mind, we have carefully selected several each of this important parts of the system to help the driver pick out the right combination to build the best system for his or her situation.

 
Additional accessories have also been selected which include cables, power adapters and external speakers.

 
Of course, if the radios and extras we have reviewed do not fit the needs – the driver has the opportunity to search and review 1000s of CB radios, GPS systems, entertainment systems and other products from Amazon’s extensive selection.

I started Truck Stop Report many years ago. I had conceptualised it may years before that. Initially it was going to be far simpler then it became as I decided to add attional features and services. There are, still in the planning stage, many more features planned for the “final” project. However, there can never truly be a final phase – there will always be new locations to add, existing locations to update and locations that cease operations to be so treated. However, that is the maintenance stage – I am still in the major building state with over 1/2 of the States in the USA and all the Canadian Territories yet to be researched and detailed.

As the this project has grown and as it seems more and more like I will never get closer to providing the information that I want at a minimum on line, I occasionally get depressed. This, literally, has been an ongoing almost 7 years of data research.

On Saturday, June 16, 2012, I was talking to a medical technician. He commented that he was previously a truck driver. He added that, that my scare you it scares some people. He did not phase me at all. I explained that my Dad (deceased) was a truck driver for 30 years and occasionally, my Mom would pull me out of school so that I could go with him on one of his day (out and back same day) runs. I added that I have one brother that has been a driver nearly his entire adult live and nearly all of that with the same company. And I have an additional brother who has been a driver most of his life, but he has been a little more willing to jump companies. And, I also drove (expedite freight in the midwest) for a few years.

I then mentioned TruckStopReport.com has ‘my site’. The gentleman I was talking to looked me in the eye and state: “you cost me a lot of money”. As I inquired into how I cost him money, explained that when his wife was with him (just before he stopped driving a truck and transferred into medical work) she regularly used TruckStopReport.com to find out which truck stops had restaurants and shopping near by and it was those truck stop that they used and visited.

In the end, this person validated that the concept is valid and the product is useful, even if I know at this time it is not as complete as I wish it was.

If anyone would like to add to this thread how they use TruckStopReport I would greatly appreciate knowing your thoughts, even if they are not as flattering as I would like. And feel free to let me know what features I should also add to it, I will consider this along with all the things I have planned or in the works.

Thank you for your support.

John Carter

TruckStopReport.com

I was asked why don’t I include fuel prices on this website.

WHY: Constantly Changing Prices and People Lie!

I will be honest, I will not ad fuel prices because those are so volitile that they are almost never correct. I have looked on line at a couple of the places that list ‘auto gas prices’ and they are showing updated with a few hours and then when I get there they are way off. So either the prices changed 20 cents in a matter of hours, or people are intentionally posting lower prices to get customers to come to their store.

Is that a little rude to say. Yes, but I have no other way to explain why one gas station near my business is always way cheaper (online) then everyone around them yet if you drive around, they are equal to or greater then nearly all the other gas stations in a 1 mile radius. Curious that this is all the time not once in a while.

The only way to maintain accurate fuel pricing is if you have then active engagement of 10,000s of {honest} people reporting what they paid daily. Even then, it can change. Pilot on their website does not ‘guarantee’ prices. If someone was to see a price of  $3 / gallon online and then they get there and it is $3.50, they will be upset. Even if it states the price update was from 3 days ago, they will feel the $3 price is valid and they will either give the fuel desk a hard time, give us a hard time, or both.

We do our best to provide accurate phone numbers for locations. The only way to know the price before you get there – call them and ask.

John Carter

Truck Stop Report