Download or read book The Long Haul A Trucker s Tales of Life on the Road written by Finn Murphy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “There’s nothing semi about Finn Murphy’s trucking tales of The Long Haul.”—Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair More than thirty years ago, Finn Murphy dropped out of college to become a long-haul trucker. Since then he’s covered more than a million miles as a mover, packing, loading, hauling people’s belongings all over America. In The Long Haul, Murphy recounts with wit, candor, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades and the poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job.

Download or read book The Big Rig written by Steve Viscelli and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long-haul trucks have been described as sweatshops on wheels. The typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs, often for little more than minimum wage. But it wasn’t always this way. Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States. The Big Rig explains how this massive degradation in the quality of work has occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six months training and working as a long-haul trucker, Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He then shows how inexperienced workers are convinced to lease a truck and to work as independent contractors. He explains how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed trucking’s labor markets--once dominated by the largest and most powerful union in US history--into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.

Download or read book Roll On written by Fred Afflerbach and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roll On celebrates the freedom of the open road. The reader rides shotgun in an aging yet durable Peterbilt diesel rig on an interstate odyssey with longtime independent truck driver, Ubi Sunt. Traversing the Painted Desert, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and through the nation's breadbasket into the gritty northeast, you will meet misfits, wayfarers and dreamers . In the literary tradition of escape and return, and journey to enlightenment, Ubi faces tough choices. The highway is home but the road is changing. And his only daughter offers an ultimatum: Settle down or else.

Download or read book A Trucker s Tale written by Ed Miller and published by Apollo Publishers. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wit, wisdom, adventure, and revelations from sixty years on the road. They say that only truck drivers experience the true grandeur and landscape of America: the winding mountainsides at sunrise, the first frosts of winter descending on apple orchards, the call of the rising roosters. In A Trucker's Tale, Ed Miller gives an inside look at the allure of the work and the colorful characters who haul our goods on the open road. He shares what it was like to grow up in a boisterous trucking family, his experience as an equipment officer in Vietnam, the wide range of vehicles he's mounted, and the daily trials, tribulations, risks, and exploits that define life as a trucker. Ed's vibrant, no-holds-barred tales are hilarious and heartwarming, sometimes cringeworthy or unbelievable—recollections of heroic feels as well as the “fishing stories” that have stretched and shifted from CB radio to CB radio. Many are the results of what he calls, “just plain stupidity.” Others bring to light the small acts of kindness and grand gestures that these Knights of the Highway perform each day, as well as the safety risks and continual danger that these essential workers endure. Together they paint a compelling portrait of one of the most important, but least-known industries, and reveal why Ed, and so many like him, just kept on truckin’.

Download or read book Mother Trucker written by David Hamel and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A true story of how a middle-aged married couple abandon lucrative white-collar professional careers to become long-haul truck drivers for Schneider National in Green Bay, WI. David Hamel, a mechanical engineer, and Shelley Hamel, past Director of Product Development for the American Girl doll company, decide to ditch their urban life and go to truck-driving school. For David, driving school was a piece of cake. For Shelley, it was murder. Nearly flunking out of truck driving school, Shelley successfully faces her twin demons of double-clutching and ten nasty gears, and with her talented mechanical engineer husband, David, launches a 3-year experiment in alternative living before retirement. For all those people who long to quit their office jobs, team driving offers an escape not unlike full-time RVing, except you get paid to do it. This how-to guide examines life on the open road, the upside as well as the danger, with many day-to-day details of ways to maximize the freedom of exploration in this non-traditional life. Driving a semi with a 52' trailer coast to coast gives you a view of America like no other, and this book brings you right into the sleeper cab with the Hamels to share stories, tips, and firsthand experience.

Download or read book The Trucker written by Barbara Samuels and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-07-20 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A boy who loves trucks is disappointed when he receives a cat named Lola instead of a toy fire truck, but Lola proves to be a "trucker" after all.

Download or read book Becoming a Truck Driver written by Brett Aquila and published by . This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: www.truckingtruth.com Trucking schools can teach you to drive, but nobody's there to teach you everything else.This book is a no-holds-barred, call 'em as I see 'em account of what I went through when I decided to become a truck driver. I hope to shed some light on what the trucking industry is REALLY like, with no hidden agendas and no regrets.I have absolutely loved my years on the road. The experiences, the friends, the money, the challenges, and the freedom. "There are so many things to know if you want to be successful on the road and they take years to learn.I'm talking about things they don't teach in truck driving schools and things companies don't talk about..at least not honestly. There are "grey areas" and "unwritten rules" in the trucking industry that have a major impact on your life and your career - and only time on the road will reveal the reailtiesof becoming a truck driver......"- Brett Aquila, Author - "Becoming A Truck Driver:The Raw Truth About Trucking"

Download or read book The Secret Life of Groceries written by Benjamin Lorr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store What does it take to run the American supermarket? How do products get to shelves? Who sets the price? And who suffers the consequences of increased convenience end efficiency? In this alarming exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and compulsively readable prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation in which we learn: • The secrets of Trader Joe’s success from Trader Joe himself • Why truckers call their job “sharecropping on wheels” • What it takes for a product to earn certification labels like “organic” and “fair trade” • The struggles entrepreneurs face as they fight for shelf space, including essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business • The truth behind the alarming slave trade in the shrimp industry The result is a page-turning portrait of an industry in flux, filled with the passion, ingenuity, and exploitation required to make this everyday miracle continue to function. The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries delivers powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and the social costs therein.

Download or read book Spirit of the Road written by Rick L. Huffman and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-07-07 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spirit of the Road: The Life of an American Trucker...and his cat embarks on a one-year journey across the United States in an eighteen-wheeler. It runs the gambit from a wide-eyed rookie in Commercial Driving school to the eventual embracing of a new lifestyle at a dusty little truck stop in Crab Orchard, Tennessee.Having made the transition to trucking after spending 20 years in television broadcasting, the author sets a comical tone from the very first chapter in a “fish-out-of-water” story. However, the dangers and challenges of life in a big truck are very real, and the book takes on a more somber tone to describe this aspect of road life. The reader is also introduced to little-known, funny, or unusual historical facts about some of the places visited while they are along for the ride. The objective of this book is to give the reader an entertaining, yet candid, picture of the life of a long haul trucker with a little slice of Americana on the side. This book always keeps the reader in mind, and strives to both inform and entertain. Another unique feature is the inclusion of a traveling cat in the story. The comical and, sometimes, poignant adventures of “Kitty” are interwoven throughout the book and promises to hold appeal for pet lovers. The trucking lifestyle has been depicted in various television series and movies and, as with any job that holds a degree of adventure and danger, it sparks the interest of the general public. The life of the American trucker still holds a bit of the rugged explorer's lifestyle. The trucker is usually far from home and uncertain what lies around the next bend. Curiosity about the unknown is an attractive feature to the general reader. Spirit of the Road: The Life of an American Trucker is a book that touches into a cornerstone of a lifestyle that few people know about, but that hides a passionate group that bears further study, namely, truck drivers.

Download or read book The Essential New Truckers Handbook written by Malcolm Green and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Up-to-date guide to truck driving in the UK and Europe to help get newly qualified and returning drivers confidently and safely into work.

Download or read book Mothertrucker written by Amy Butcher and published by Little A. This book was released on 2021-11 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of two women who found meaning, strength, and friendship in one of the most punishing and magnificent landscapes on earth. Amy Butcher was an accomplished college professor, mentor, and writer, but in her own home, she was embarrassed and emotionally burdened by an increasingly abusive relationship. Exhausted and terrified of the ways her partner's behavior could escalate, Amy reached out to Instagram celebrity Joy "Mothertrucker" Wiebe. Joy was a fifty-year-old wife and mother and the nation's only female ice road trucker, a woman who maneuvered big rigs through the Alaskan wilderness along the deadliest road in America. Joy was everything Amy wanted to be: independent, fearless, and in charge of her life in a landscape dominated by men. Invited by Joy to ride shotgun, Amy found her escape on a road that was treacherous, beautiful, and exhilarating--an adventurous ride through the Alaskan wilderness that was profoundly life changing. Mothertrucker is the story of that bracing four-hundred-mile journey navigating snow-glazed overpasses, ice-blue curves, and near plummets. It's also the stories that led them both to Alaska--an interrogation of the reality of female fear, domestic violence, and how to overcome--and an exploration into just how galvanizing friendships between women can be.

Download or read book The Trucker s World written by Rothe, J. Peter (John Peter) and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about truck driver's lives, risks, and views on safety. As "a "group, truckers represent a significant population of road users whose high-exposure driving creates a major challenge for safety. Research into the larger social, political, and economic forces that affect trucker's safety problems has been scarce. "The Trucker's World "comes to terms with the socioeconomic environment that contributes to breakdown in trucker safety and chronicles the lives and times of truckers as they try to make ends meet. It analyzes driver risk by exploring the reasons, reactions, and consequences of risk. The author approaches his task with a research question: Why is the average trucker continuously placed in conditions that, according to truckers, demand risky driving? As a result of direct experience with truckers and trucking, Rothe observes that truck drivers act as they do to gain autonomy over their work, freedom from control of others, and assurance of a reasonable livelihood. In order to maintain a sufficient income in the transportation market, even the most serious drivers perform tasks that often impinge on lethality and safety, not as blatant radicals or daredevils fighting the system, but as persons responding to the fear that they may lose their livelihood in trucking. The thrust in trucker safety has followed a victimization philosophy in which emphasis on interventions has been aimed directly at truckers. Rothe contends that safety programs would work better if they emphasized what influences, motivates, or encourages truckers to take chances on the road. With this in mind, he analyzes driver risk, vehicle maintenance, owner-operator, company driver, policing, home life, drugs and alcohol, government regulations, and hours of service as they are seen by truckers, industry officials, and others. Expanding our vision to encompass essential factors in the socioeconomic reality of the truck-driving culture. Rothe elucidates the far-reaching consequences that safety issues have for truckers, other road users, policymakers, and traffic safety educators.

Download or read book Trucker written by Jane Stern and published by McGraw-Hill Companies. This book was released on 1975 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MPD - No Info

Download or read book Life Is a Journey Drive On written by Nasandra Wright and published by Innovo Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life Is A Journey, Drive On... is a tribute to the truck drivers of America who have long been the economic backbone of our country. It is a window into the lives of truckers as well as their dreams and aspirations. In short, Life Is A Journey, Drive On... celebrates the lives and contributions of American truckers who keep the economy rolling despite the global recession and current financial hardships. If you have ever longed for the open road or wondered what the life of a trucker might be like, this book is for you. It is packed full of stories and personal experiences of truckers and their families, and it highlights several benefits of choosing trucking as a career. The book also provides tips and suggestions on how to get started in the trucking business, while pointing out interesting statistics and often-overlooked contributions of truckers and the trucking industry in the United States. "Some of the hardest working people I have ever met drive trucks. They are in fact out there working while most of us are sleeping and comfortable in our beds. Nasandra Wright has captured the spirit of how important these people are to our country and in this book I am reminded of that importance." Tim Fitterer Vice President Truck one

Download or read book Trucker written by Jamie Schlosser and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-07-14 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ANGEL I know what you're whispering in the car as you pass me by. Hitchhiker. When you see me walking along the side of the road with my thumb out, you'll probably keep driving without giving me a second glance. You probably think I'm foolish. Naïve. You might assume I've made some bad decisions. You might think I'm too young to be on my own. You might be right. TRAVIS I love my job, but driving an eighteen-wheeler comes with a certain stereotype. When you hear I'm a trucker, a specific image might come to mind. Uneducated. Dirty. Perverted. Rough around the edges and a little bit dangerous. But the truth is, I'm not any of those things. In fact, I'm pretty far from it. You'd be surprised to find out I'm one of the good guys.Trucker is a standalone novel. Due to language and sexual content, this book is intended for readers 18 and older.

Download or read book My Life Above the Clouds written by Benjamin M. Scribner and published by Sunstone Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who hasn’t dreamed of escaping a humdrum existence, shredding unrelenting debts, thumbing a nose at ravenous utility behemoths, and fleeing to some remote mountain hideaway? Ben did! Pull up a chair, pour a pleasing beverage, and follow his journey as he strives to exist off the grid, on ten magnificent acres atop an Idaho mountain. In that isolated setting, as he labors to convert its tiny cabin into a self-sufficient abode, he began to imagine that he was evolving into a modern-day Henry David Thoreau. His story chronicles, with humor and wisdom, his first year with his struggles, trials, errors, lessons learned, blunders made, friends acquired, and curious encounters with neighborhood wildlife. It is informative, enlightening, funny, and inspirational. Military yarns, trucker’s tales, and anecdotes abound, and liberally laced with the wit and wisdom of Henry David.

Download or read book Vietnam Convoy Trucker written by William E. (Bill) Patterson and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vietnam Convoy Trucker recounts the story of Specialist Five William (Bill) Patterson, as he and his fellow truck drivers delivered supplies to American combat troops battling the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong. The men experienced moments of fear, boredom and humor during their almost year-long tour during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. The Lord watched over them and brought all but one back safely. Various members of the company took the photographs that accompany many of the incidents he describes. Author Bio: William E. ("Bill") Patterson was born in Augusta, GA in 1943, one of seven children. He has lived all his life within ten miles of the Augusta National Golf Course. No, he has never played there! He attended public schools, and used his G.I. Bill benefit and graduated from Augusta College (now Georgia Regents University) with a Bachelor Of Business Administration (emphasis Management) degree. He was awarded the U.S. Army Commendation Medal for his Vietnam War service. Bill was a Georgia State Bowling Championship Team member as a youth and as an adult. He was awarded the U.S. Army Major Command Outstanding Program (Bowling) Managers Award in 1988 and 1989. After nearly forty years' employment with bowling centers he is now retired. He and wife Shelley are Christians and very active in their Warren Baptist Church. His priorities now are God, Family, Country and "Other" in that order of importance. He hopes his fellow Vietnam War Veterans and others will find this book worth reading.