The Big Rig
The Big Rig

Author: Steve Viscelli

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0520962710

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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.

Roll On
Roll On

Author: Fred Afflerbach

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 089733700X

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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.

The Trucker
The Trucker

Author: Barbara Samuels

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2010-07-20

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 0374378045

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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.

A Trucker's Tale
A Trucker's Tale

Author: Ed Miller

Publisher: Apollo Publishers

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1948062399

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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’.

Mother Trucker
Mother Trucker

Author: David Hamel

Publisher:

Published: 2017-09-20

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9781521243848

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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.

Becoming a Truck Driver
Becoming a Truck Driver

Author: Brett Aquila

Publisher:

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9781438217055

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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"

A Survival Guide for Truck Drivers
A Survival Guide for Truck Drivers

Author: Alice Adams

Publisher: Cengage Learning

Published: 2002-10

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781401810627

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An employer’s cost to replace a driver ranges from $5,000 to $8,000. Turnover can be prevented and retention increased by developing a driver with the life skills necessary to be successful in their daily working lives. A Survival Guide for Truck Drivers is the only book written for students or experienced drivers that offers, in a straightforward and nonpatronizing style, the practical tips for making life on the road more stress-free and comfortable – both for the driver and his or her family.Until now, drivers usually entered the transportation industry armed with a Commercial Drivers License and perhaps stories and information from friends and family. This new guide not only provides valuable information and invaluable insights into the life of a professional driver, but also offers resources and encouragement for those who keep North America’s commerce moving down the highway.Topics range from Money Management and Professional Improvement to Staying Healthy and Dealing With Stress – presenting advice to make the driver’s life better and happier. This lifestyle guide has a universal application that will appeal to student drivers, company drivers, owner-operators, and also the drivers’ families.A driving school graduate’s chance of landing a good job partly depends on his or her possession of life skills. Good retention tools are needed for the experienced but problem driver. A Survival Guide for Truck Drivers is the one solution for successful drivers.

The Essential New Truckers' Handbook
The Essential New Truckers' Handbook

Author: Malcolm Green

Publisher:

Published: 2019-05-24

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9781789630466

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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.

Spirit of the Road
Spirit of the Road

Author: Rick L. Huffman

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2013-07-07

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781492252368

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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.