99% Invisible - 391- Over the Road

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

At the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, drivers from all over the country converge each year to show off their chrome and exchange stories, tips and gripes. One thing unites most in attendance this year: concerns about the steady march of technology, especially the recently imposed, mandatory electronic logging device, or ELD, which records every detail of a driver’s working hours. Over the Road is an eight-part series that gives voice to the trials and triumphs of America’s long haul truckers. Host “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer, a musician, storyteller and trucker for nearly 40 years, takes you behind the wheel to explore a devoted community and a world that’s changing amidst new technologies and regulations. Listen to more episodes at OvertheRoad.fm.

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Rowan Mars. One of the missions of 99PI is to give you the tools to decode the built world in cities, in the country, and the highways in between. It's those highways and the truckers that drive the American economy, that is the subject, of the new radio-topia show called Over the Road. The podcast is a window into a world that you pass by at 65 miles an hour without giving much thought, but it is so fascinating you will never see a semi-truck

the same way again. Every 9-9 PI beautiful merchant to describe it is run up here alley. Here's the first episode of Over the Road, hosted by Long Hall Paul. Four years ago, I was northbound on I-75 and Knoxville, Tennessee. My cargo, a load of imported watermelons. They had sailed on a container ship from Guatemala to South Florida, where they were transferred

by forklift on the big trucks driven by folks like me. These were those tiny, seedless, designer types they call personal watermelons. I always wondered about the marketing cat who came up with that one. Personal watermelons. It's like a water melon trailer back then, a reaper as we call them. A reaper is a heavily insulated box trailer equipped with a giant diesel-powered temperature control unit. It's actually got the capacity to maintain more than 40,000 pounds of perishable freight at temperatures as cold as 20 below. It was rush hour in Knoxville, or K-town and trucker code.

Traffic came to a screeching halt at the junction of I-75 and I-640. I got stopped in time, but the trucker behind me. Well, not so much. Boom! Shoot! Rear-ended. I took a minute to collect myself and walked to the back of the trailer to check first on the other driver.

He said he was okay. Then I opened the vent hatch to check my load. What seconds before had been a perfectly picked personal watermelon was now prolapsing through its ruptured rind, down the crumpled exterior of what had once been the trailer's stainless steel door and on to my trembling hand. Sorry, friend. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this baptism in the puree of a personal watermelon would come to be my own creative big bang. Strangely, as a result of this event, I would come to be a part-time recording artist, a contributor for Overdrive magazine, and now even a card carrying podcast-producing radio-tobion.

I'm Long Hall Paul. You're listening to Over the Road. I got that Lucy, you're Lucy off on Mulpio, come on baby, let's truck it up, do it baby. Now I'm on the top of this mountain and I know I still got to get down the other side somehow and I'm so scared I'm shaking. But I know quite a few drivers that swear by roasting salmon over their engine. We were willing to take a pot-bellied peg, we tried to even pick up a 60 pound tortoise. I love you guys, I have times of change and I need that one anymore, but why shouldn't it be that way?

I love you guys, I have times of change and ain't that way anymore. But why shouldn't it be that way? Here's how this is going to work. We've been traveling all over the country, down the highways and the hedges, collecting the real stories of real people who live and work over the road. We've got eight episodes for you, and each one we explore how tracking is changing today. And along the way, I'll tell you a few of my own stories, heck.

I might even sing you a few songs. Let's start out at a place called the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, home to the Mid-America Trucking Show, or Mats for short. Think of a home depot, about 12 times it's normal size, then fill it with trucks, truck drivers, and every possible thing anyone has ever thought of to make a buck off a trucker. It's an automatic snow chain system, it works good on it. So what we're selling is bedbook heaters for truckers that have cabs. Throw in 90,000 people with some concerts and swag, and you've got the Min America trucking show. You've got your air freshener dudes.

Older eliminated products for the powwow professional. I love those guys. We say three sprays last for days. Tell me about this beef jerky. You've got those old boys who make the beef jerky. You'll ever eat. You'll have that. That's really tender. I actually love those guys too.

We are an insurance company that specializes in owner operators. They are the international vendors hoping to land that big contract. I'm so glad. Shonkai was so far. Big truck makers are here, like Kenworth and Peter Bell. We have our new 579 Ultra Loft and it's black. So model truck makers. I'm proud to tell people I can't afford a real one,

but I can hook you up with a real nice toy like. But for many long time, gear jamammers, that signifies something more. It's a hobo convention of sorts, a chance to see old trucking buddies and swap stories, and that's why we're here. If you want to know what's going on in the trucking world, this is a good place to start. But first, let's cover some basics. This is a good place to start. But first, let's cover some basics. There are 4.2 million Americans who hold a CDL. That's a commercial driver's license.

A CDL allows us to drive a vehicle weighing over 26,000 pounds. Together, we move 70% of all domestic freight. Think of it. Everything you see at the store, everything you buy online, moves by truck at some point. At it all up, we're talking about a $700 billion industry, moving literally 55 billion pounds of stuff every day. At that rate, American truckers could haul off the great pyramid of Giza, stone by stone,

about five times a day. Of course, there are lots of different types of truckers and trucks out there. We refrigerated freight trucks that call a refit for us. You know, like what I drive. Flat beds, we should call them skateboards. Those big flat trailers with loads of lumber and steel. Call out to the Column Parker Lines. Bedbucker is a furniture hauler.

A tanker truck, we call a tanker-yanker. I drive one of those sometimes too. Talk to the hauler boy they call them boah haulers. I mean there's all kinds of terminology for them. As you can imagine, we have our own factions, cliques and hierarchies. Flatbedders don't usually associate with the rougher guys like me, and the ball-halmers could never see themselves as freight-halmers, or door-swingers as they call them. Because all a door-swinger does is back up to the dock and swing the doors open

and shut. Or so they say. But here, for three days at least, none of that matters. We're all just drivers, and not a one of us came here to have a bad time. Volvo Dynamic Steering with Stability Assist is a new innovation from Volvo Trucks. A lot of the target mats this year is about new technology. When Trucks. Along with the target maths this year, there's about new technology. When a truck starts to skid. It seems every part of the truck has got a computer in it now. Yeah, the suspension seat is turned on.

Even the seat. Notice how much of the bouncing is eliminated by the active suspension seat's computer controlled motor. And there's a feeling the technology is not just changing the truck, but it's changing us and the way we do business That the codes and culture of trucking are eroding before our eyes I bump into a Facebook friend on the show floor named Greg Murphy who now works for Uber Facebook friend on the show floor named Greg Murphy, who now works for Uber. Through an arreza man, I figured, oh this is never gonna happen. Yes, the rideshare company Uber.

And here I am. Now Greg, you have a unique story because you are a long-time truck driver. Right, exactly. Who has become like the public relations liaison for Uber, is that? Exactly, kind of the interpreter, I would call it between the trucking community and Uber freight. Greg is affable, middle-aged, with a salt and pepper beard and a cool fedora. More truck driver than computer person, that's for sure. All around him is a variable failings of Uber's black shirted millennials. But Greg speaks fluent trucker, Black shirted millennials. But Greg speaks fluent trucker. And so he pulls out his phone and shows me Okay, another middle-aged guy and yet another fedora. So here it is opens up. How to use the Uber Freight app

And it knows that I'm in Louisville today, so now it's thinking about it and so it has these little cards for each load, right? So instead of connecting cars with riders, freight is connecting trucks with loads so read that off to us Greg if you would so this one is from Walton, Kentucky to Los Alamos California for 3,070 that's the price for this load. It's 1800 miles. It has a type of trailer, the load number and all that. What it is, the weight. All I have to do is tap that card and the load is mine. No phone calls, no haggling. Technology is coming and we need to embrace it and be part of the conversation.

I have to wonder though, at 3,000 bucks on a state of distance of 1800 miles, does it no haggle simply mean take it or leave it? You have no choice. I'm just going to confess to you, there is a primal fear about the power of a company like this. I think change overall is just difficult for people to embrace. It's unfamiliar. We don't know what it's going to look like Change overall is just difficult for people to embrace. It's unfamiliar. We don't know what it's gonna look like

and that creates anxiety. That said, truckers are embracing new technology and using it for their own benefit. I got the team. You've got quite a hat collection. Well, way back when I gave myself heatstroke by being stupid. Take Sandra Goshi. Basically, you tell them how the people treated you if you were professional, if there was

a bathroom that you could use because there's a lot of places that don't allow truckers to use their bathroom. She's telling me about Doc 411. It's a reading app basically like Yelp for loading docs. You kind of help the trucker after you or the person after you. They've surveyed over 10,000 truckers about their experiences. Sunder here is doc 411's number one reviewer. If they have four clips that you use four clips, what are some of the other attributes Stephen that you can rethink of?

If there's overnight parking, if you can sleep there and the overnight parking, Sunder drives as a team with their husband, Steven. That's right, journalism, how you were treated professional. If I was to read the review that I put in for this one doc, I would never take freight into this doc. We went in there the first time and we waited three hours to get unloaded, which that's okay. Second time we went in there, we waited 13 hours.

No bathrooms, no facilities, and couldn't leave the truck. If you used like that or add it up and turned into a scorecard for every dock they do business with. Doc 411, it's one of those things that it's like, it's never going to be complete because there's always going to be new docs, but it's going to be a big relief to all of us truckers. But there's still another technology on trucker's minds that mats this year. Right now, that e-log.

Something much more consequential than a new app. Electronic log situations become a pretty big issue. It's called an ELD. The new ELD mandate has electronic logging device. We're still needing e-log versus e-log. Most of the time, we didn't have e-log. That's the biggest thing. Take the sea log and shoot. And ain't right with me no more.

This e-log issue is all playing out right now. And it's pretty much the biggest change that's come to our culture. At least since I started trucking. And ain't right with me no more. Hundreds of big rigs to go for highway 99. At least since I started trucking. Hundreds of big rigs to go over highway 99 in protest today creating a show. Some truckers have even put on protests about EODs. Right here guys, 95 southbound is shut down. It's one of those things that just keeps coming up in our conversations with drivers.

So on our first day at Mance, we find ourselves at the vintage Maroon Peter Bell. I'll sit down, I guess that'll work, is that all right? Someone who's been at the center and of so much of the protest. Yeah, so my name's Mike Landis from Littitz, Pennsylvania, a little Amherst Country Town, a Lancaster County. I got into trucking right out of high school pretty much. I got my CDL after I graduated. First time I got behind the wheel at the driving school

at the local vote tech, it was all downhill from there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Elogs are all about how truckers record their driving and working hours. So yeah, we have what they call our hours of service, which is once you come on duty, you're allowed 14 hours of working time. 11 of that 14 can be driving, but then you have to take 10 hours off before you can go back to work. So every day you get 14 hours on duty and you have to take 10 hours off. Problem with that is, is that once you start your day,

your clock for the day doesn't stop. Now in the past, those hours were recorded in paper logbooks. Every driver kept a set of books in the cab, recorded their time with a pen on a four-line grid, and made that log available to inspectors and state patrol. Basically, you regulated yourself. So to me, that's important because I was taught the old way of trucking. You do what you got to do to get the job done, but you sleep when you're tired, and you

know, you truck when you're awake. If you took a quick nap in your shift or ran a little over the time limit, you could juggle that. Clarically I mean. You don't turn into a zombie just because your five minutes passed your time and fall asleep and drive off side of the road. That is, you could juggle it until the electronic logging device. And basically what that does is it hooks into the computer on the motor of the truck. And basically what that does is it hooks into the computer on the motor of the truck and it records everything you do You know how hard you're on a throttle how hard you're on the brake if you're moving if you're stopped your speed the whole nine yards

It counts down every second of your day So whereas before on a paper logbook if you're five minutes past your time pulling a truck stop Nobody knew the difference, no harm, no foul. But now, I mean, I've seen people back halfway in a parking spot and trucks stops already because if they finish backing up, they're yielding, I'll put them in violation

to go another 50 feet back to truck up in no parking spot. Yeah, you hear stories like this all the time. Truck speaks like whales in the most god awful places because their drivers ran out of hours. You've probably seen those trucks yourself. That's because in December 2017, a new mandate came into effect requiring virtually all trucks on the road to run an electronic log.

And to me, it's a slap in the face. Driving a truck at 18 years old, I'm now 33, closing them on 2 million miles, I have a clean driving record. To me, that all comes down to the way I was taught. That comes down to the responsibility of knowing you're operating an 80,000 pound machine. The fact that they're going to tell me that I need this thing in my truck to keep me safe on the road doesn't sit well with me at all. Well, I hear you loud and clear.

We do these Texas, Ohio, Texas, Florida triangles a lot. Denise's stepmother is dying. She's in a Louisiana nursing home. And we want to see her. She's days away from dying, literally days away from dying. And I'm on the NLD. We stopped to see her. And essentially, we've got to say our goodbyes to her

in about 45 minutes because our 14 hour clock is ticking. And I just have this moment of complete clarity that something's got to give. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that will say, Hey, that's not true. They don't force you to drive tired. They don't force you to not take a shower. Yada, yada, yada. Well, I mean, you're right. The thing doesn't reach up and grab me and tell me I need to keep trucking, but the sad reality is, is they kind of do. Now I should say here that Mike does not run a knee log. The reason my truck don't need one is because the cutoff date

is 2000 and newer need them and 99 in order do not. So it's 99 Peter Belt is just too old to connect to a computer, but Mike has done more than just avoid the new regulation. It's actually fighting it. So we started the United States Transportation Alliance and the unique thing about us is that all of us are drivers that met through doing protest type stuff for the industry. And nobody out here that is making these rules or regulations or pushing for rules or regulations have ever sat behind the wheel for any amount of time and definitely not any time recently. So, you know, when we go to DC and we go every month right now, you know, we park our trucks,

we meet with congressmen and senators and FMCSA. That's the federal motor carrier safety administration. Truckload carriers, we've met with the teamsters. It's been a pretty good thing and we were fortunate enough to Help with the hours of service that are supposed to be changed. I'm actually expecting an announcement here at mats for that In fact the keynote speaker for the weekend is none other than a lane chow the United States secretary of transportation So we're hoping that it has to do something with that. I realize things change with the times and technology goes and the snap the other thing,

but trucking is still trucking. And I chose me personally. I chose to drive a truck because I grew up around trucks and I love trucks. And for me, you know, it sounds kind of corny, but the other week I was invited to a concert by someone that we know backstage and stuff afterwards were hanging out. And like watching this guy up on stage, you could tell he was just in his zone. And I said, the best way I could describe watching you on stage is like me riding across the California Arizona desert with a truck pressed out in the moon lit and a chicken lights on it's pipe singing and dry, you know cruising and some people are like what I don't get it

You're just driving a truck down the road and I'm like yeah, but to me it's more than just driving a truck down the road You know It's the freedom of it and that's kind of being taken away. It's what the bad part is. You know, if we don't do anything to help fight this stuff, guys like me are going to be gone. After the break, we'll hear that big announcement from Elaine Chao. But first we venture out onto the parking lot at Matt's. We'll hear why this e-log thing is such a big deal, and I'll tell you what gave for me.

And how ELD's led, at least indirectly, to the making of this podcast. You're listening to Over the Road on 99% of us. Here again is Over the Road. Hey folks Todd Dills here. I'm the senior editor with Overdrive Magazine, which is helping to produce this podcast. For those of you who are new to this trucking world, Overdrive is basically a trade publication for independent truckers, ones who own the rigs they haul with. For many years, we've called ourselves the voice of the American trucker, and so part of what we wanted to do with this podcast was to actually build a little bridge between the highway haulers who read overdrive and well, they initiated among you.

So I'm going to be hosting a special series of mini episodes where I'll take questions from those of you outside the business and put them directly to our trucking listeners. We're calling it the channel one nine special after the CB radio channel used for trucker to trucker information sharing. The first channel 1-9 episode will show up in your feed next week, but I'm dropping in now to ask a quick favor. If you've got questions about trucking seriously, about anything at all, having to do with it,

no question is too simple or too strange. Give us a call at 765-245-4844, and leave us a call at 765-245-4844 and leave us a message. Again, 765-245-4844. Be sure to state your name and location with your question and thanks. Okay, so back to the Mid-America trucking show. I want to pick things up the next morning outside in the parking lot where drivers are busy polishing their trucks. I love trucking though. It's a lifestyle. It's not a job.

It's a lifestyle. There are actually two parking lots of trucks at each with its own vibe. There's the show lot and the Papa John's lot. We'll explain why it's called that in a minute. But the show lot is home to the Paul K. Young Truck Beauty Championship. And that's where we start our day. My name is Debra Jones. I'm working on excessive behavior. Number one. My name is Eric Turner. Name of my truck is Showtime.

Get your boots fresher down here for your turbo. No, you want to check out my scrap boot? Check this out. This is a place where trucks have names. The goose is a 1996 freight liner classic exhale. It's this part of the family. The goose is my big girl, filises my little girl. They're fastened with those little amber bulbs

we call chicken lights. Every truck driver wants chicken lights, and they won't crawl. White carpeting, wood floors. It's actually just a wooden floor that you get it from a home deeper. Really? Yes, sir. It's actually just a wooden floor that you get it from a home depot. Really?

Yes, sir. For the competition itself, trucks are organized into different sections marked off with plastic rows. There are categories like antique custom, limited mileage bob tail, working class bob tail, and working combo. Meaning, I put miles on my truck. My favorite? The Antique Original.

I cut my teeth on one of these trucks. This is a transstar international. There's nothing like the AM radial reception on an all steel-made old school western start. The Old school western style. There are teams who work an entire year to prep a truck for this show. I've seen guys polish on it for a day and a half and they're still rubbing now. You gotta live it, love it, breathe it, bleed it.

If you believe, as I do, that a truck can be a work of art, then this is the Guggenheim. There's a lot of history there, a lot of our life has been spent in it, under it, over it. Everything in the squirrel, no to a cherry, we've done it this trouble. How much would you have to have for this truck right now? 200 green. What sort of installment plan would you consider? No, we can do that. Thanks for your time, that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm more of a Papa John's type. This lot serves the University of Louisville football stadium, formerly known as the Papa John Stadium. The university dropped that name after the pizza magnaid found himself in hot water, but for truckers, the shorthand stuck. In any case, picture a stadium parking lot with rows upon rows of tractor trailers.

Only thing is, these aren't show trucks. These are just the trucks people drove here to attend. They're all out here now with their camping chairs, gas grills, and coolers walking their dogs in the Kentucky spring air. It's maybe the biggest tailgate in all of trucking big enough that you can actually lose your truck in it. At the show lot I didn't see a single person I knew, but down here in Stereage, it's different. How are you doing, Debbie? I'm digging that new chrome bumper.

I won't tell you what happened to the last one. Was it a deer? No, it was a fence. I bet. Why remember that? I bet it jumped out. It was just a bit annoying. You know what, no promise being us in the back of my head.

Later that night, there's even an impromptu concert. Let's get back to it now. And guess who gets invited to sing? I got any flat betters out there, any flat betters, okay great. Yeah, and yet another side gig, I'm a singer-songwriter. When we had a friend, he felt deeply in love with a female flatbedder. But when she learned that he pulled a reaper, she rejected him, because he didn't know how, you know,

the chains and the binders. And it's called, I'll never run that back door anymore. Well, she dollied down and dropped me low. I've been like a nascar porn took her tin and put it in the wind. Since you couldn't live with the guilt of what we done in that Peter building, I'll never run that back dog in. In a way, conscious like this or a reenactment of a bygone age. And drivers would be laid over at some truck stop. Someone would bring out a grill. Someone would contribute a case of beer.

Someone might commandeer a chicken or two off their load. And someone, I'd just have a guitar. She said, Paul, it ain't no use. You're a door-sweaker. I ain't going to live this life. Maybe that's why this e-log thing is such a big deal. Because there just doesn't seem to be time for those encounters anymore.

And maybe that's why I still come back here to hear the stories, the stories that seduced me into this life so long ago. Yeah, I started driving in 88, all out of Mississippi furniture. That same night we talked to a guy named Tim. And they would tell you right quick life. If you cannot turn 5,000 miles a week, we don't need you. We've got a stack of applications over here this day. We can replace you tomorrow.

And of course, then you take note. I would take a gram of good crank note and I would do a line every three or four hundred miles. And for some there really was this dark side to the old days. I mean, taking whatever drugs you could take to stay awake. Stories like this of trucking's wilder days really aren't that hard to come by around here. We would stop exit 30 and Tennessee, exit 200, and for some reason, now, more than ever, I think.

We've been heard it onto the digital reservation of the E-Log. It's like we have to tell these stories. I remember one time, I went all the way to Boston. I'm trying to get through traffic, trying to get back. Massachusetts State Police pulls me over. He passed my pockets. I had on cargo paths. The bottle was down at the bottom of it. He missed it. I could have got years in the penitentiary then. So I go down to the restaurant in Rhode Island and I celebrate not doing me two lines of note just to get on back. But then it wasn't to get high. It was to do a job.

It was for your work. It wasn't recreational. Turned it miles. Turn it burned, man. How did you get off of that stuff? There's three ways you get off a crank. Math. Jail, the grave, or Jesus. I was in Amarillo and I'd been up two or three days and I prayed God you know help me. I'd been up two or three days and I prayed God you know help me and he spoke to me He said it's up to you It's through the grace of God that I got off of it So You're now you're off the crank. Yes. We've prayed God's intervened

What do you tell your boss that needs 5,000 miles a week out from you? Tell them I can't do it anymore, I work for myself. I'm an owner operator now. You owner operator now. Thank God he delivered me from that aspect too. Now, I work when I want to. Thank God I've been delivered. I got my first ELD back in 2016. A few months after that watermelon rack I told you about in Knoxville, the fleet I worked

for announced that we would roll out an e-log pilot program. Guinea pigs were needed. Something about Knoxville jared me more than it should have. For years I had pushed myself to the limit as a produce hauler and had never been bothered by the what-ifs. But after Knoxville it just seemed like my nine lives were up. At that time, the e-log felt like kind of a way out of all that. So I let Brenda our safety officer know I would give it a try.

Yep, that's right folks. I volunteered. When the day came, they trained me on how to operate the e-log, which recorded the truck's data straight onto a basic Samsung tablet. The company told me not to go crazy on Netflix, and all I went. Since I was now carting around this brand new tablet and I started recording some of my songs and posting them on YouTube. The song came to me in a dream. You know something like this. I also began writing about my experience of being an old trucker who had to make the

e-log switch. I mostly did this as a cathartic exercise, but on a whim I sent some of these ramblings to an editor at Overdrive Magazine named Todd Dills. You heard from Todd earlier. I can't make it to the next day. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy.

I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy.

I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to be a good guy. I'm not going to E-Logs. But enough about me.

All weekend, drivers are waiting for that big update that Mike was telling us about on the new rules for e-logs. What we call, hours of service. Yeah, we've had a few people sign up to be members and stuff so far while we've been here. Mike Landis even has a booth set up on the showroom floor of Matt. He dropped a couple thousand dollars out of my own company to build the booth and we trucked it here and stuff like that. floor of mats. He's got a whole crew here dressed in their matching black shirts. You know, to get the word out there and show people who we are and what we're doing and what better place to do it where there's thousands of truck drivers at one spot, you know. It's been a year now since the ELD mandate went into effect and we're all feeling it in one way or the other. into effect and we're all feeling it in one way or the other. So we sit through long seminars by government administrators. But no news. Then on our last day at Matt's,

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chow gets up to give us the keynote address. If the DOT has something to say this would be the time but right away the power goes out. Eventually the power comes back. Welcome to my home town. I hope you really love your stay, and the wine is fed lots and lots of money. And she gets to what we're all waiting to hear. So I'm pleased to announce today that the department is moving forward with the next step, which is a known certificate for the role-making regarding our service of rule.

So I can't go into the details, but let me note that the department understands. Still nothing, no news. It's the flexibility and is getting into serious consideration. Just then, an alarm sounds. Someone trying to tell us something. Instead, the speech turns to the usual pleasure. Tell us something. Hey, don't wanna let me tell you this good news! I'm not gonna hear you. I'm not gonna hear you. Instead, the speech turns to the usual platitudes.

You are the lifeblood, what makes our commerce work. I'm so tired of that line. You enable bread to appear on our own sweet shells. Blah, blah, blah. And we want to thank you, Ford, America, for coming to us. And without really seeing much of anything at all, Elaine Chow, Bidzah Saul, farewell. We're going to see her back for the rest of us.

Thank you so much. The Minimeraque Trucking Show closed the next day. The show trucks drove out in formation while the Papa John's lot gradually disbanded. Matt's was done. But we're just getting started. We're going to keep following this ELD issue across the series. We'll hear how Mike Landis brought his fight to the streets of Washington, D.C. and found unlikely allies in the process. Where some context will go deep into the history of trucking with one of my favorite writers.

We'll hang out at truck stops and meet the families of truckers to understand how this business affects the people around us and will peer into a future where the trucks may just drive themselves. But first we're going to Grand Island Nebraska to find out why anyone would want to drive a truck in the first place. I was intrigued and so I called her up and I said no. Now come again about the truck driving. Now what did you say? Thanks to everyone who entrusted us with their stories. We'll catch you again over the road.

Mama said to me, son, you know you can become whatever you want to be. So by my old graze with brown, it hurts me somehow. For her to see what became of me. See it, 19 years old, I was restless and bold in the highway. Call me one day. Now it's down on my blood and it rolls like a flood. And it takes everything, it's way. Now I'm working blood and it rose like a flood and it takes everything that's way Now I'm working on over the road

Over the road Working on over the road Over the road It takes a lot of people to make a podcast And I'm going to tell you about all of them Our Our Over the Road Pick Crew includes producer and sound designer Ian Koss and contributing producer Lacey Roberts at Transmitter Media. Our editor for Overdrive Magazine is Todd Dills. Our digital producer is Erin Wade.

Our project manager is Audrey Mardovitch and our executive producer for Radiootopia is Julie Shapiro. I'm Long Homopall. All the music on the show is by Ian Koss and myself, featuring performances by Travis the Snakeman Womack, Terry Tussox Richardson, the late great Roger Clark, Jan Gullet, Jim Whitehead, and Andrew Marshall, additional engineering by Donny Gullet and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Special thanks to these drivers and vendors whose voices you heard throughout, JD Howard of the Ohio Great Lakes Regions, Atlanta-based small fleet owner operator Eric Turner,

Daniel and Phyllis Snow of the Goose Freightliner Classic, Chad Boblin from Kentucky Horse Country, Robert Pong, creator of truckersfinalmile.org, Christopher Burnett of Burnett Farm toys, and Debbie Dingo Deserado. They also heard from Devery Jones, Jason Earlywine, James Reigns, Bobba Davis, fellow singing truckers, Brad James, Taylor Barker, and the Jake Break Chunky himself, Terence Mathis. Over the road is made possible by support from the folks I've worked for for a really long time. Moller trucking. Now celebrating over 30 years of safe and reliable transportation for the food industry. Report from the folks I've worked for for a really long time. Molar trucking.

Now celebrating over 30 years of safe and reliable transportation for the food industry. For more information check out molartrucking.com. Over the road is a collaboration between Overdrive Magazine and PRX's radio topio, a collection of the best independent podcasts around. I've turned a lot of overnight reefer loads listening to shows like the Memory Palace and Criminal. Seriously, find out more about the whole network at Radiotopia.fn. www.patreonline.com Be sure to follow us on all those usual platforms too, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and

over-the-road pod. You can see some of my videos on YouTube by looking for long haul, haul music. Thanks for listening, and hanging in till the end of the run. We'll be back next week with a channel 1.9 special, then in 2 two weeks with morein' over the road Over the road, workin' over the road Over the road, workin' over the road Over the road, workin' over the road It's like a watermelon. You can have as a friend. It's like a watermelon. You can have as a friend. You can have as a friend. You can have as a friend. No, no, that's great. You can have as a friend.

No, no, no, no, no. Go watermelon. You can have as a friend. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,