Dispatch Me Home – stories from the road

We are loaded down with acronyms like FMCSA, NAFTA, NHTSA, CSA, ATA and HOS to name a few. Going to the websites of these can provide useful information, but you will also find stuff that you don’t want to hear and that makes you wonder “what are these people thinking?”Some sites are more enjoyable and provide the latest news, regs, etc. – in fact, everything trucking. I’m partial to

Farewell to Willie’s Place

On Sirius XM, the “Willie’s Place” channel is advertised as “The honky tonk that never closes.” But the entertainment and truck stop mecca an hour south of Dallas that bears the same Willie’s Place moniker is taking its final bow under that name.The last day of operation for the fuel stop, restaurant, entertainment venue and saloon at Carl’s Corner in Hillsborough County is Monday, Jan. 31. New

Jack LaLanne, wellness pioneer

At the start of the new year, many are motivated to start a fitness regimen. It can be difficult to adhere to a routine on the road, but Land Line’s February issue will feature a workout designed specifically for truckers to do in-cab. The magazine is now on the press and should be in the mail later this week.Part of the inspiration for that article was a man who pioneered personal fitness. When

Hanging iron

Although I’m a card-carrying straw hat driver these days, I did pay my dues in winter driving.The tank line I was leased to had a nice contract for about three years. There was a run from Chicago to Sacramento that was almost always available, especially in the winter, and I ended up running 50 of them over the three years.There was a steady stream of loads going west, maybe a day apart, and

White paper?

Dictionary.com lists 42 different definitions for the word white.There might be just as many forms of the term “white paper.”White papers are sometimes academic, though quite often they’re little more than marketing tools printed on white paper – used to help pitch a product or lobby for an idea.Which brings us to a recent “white paper,” and I use that term loosely, regarding sleep apnea and a

Warrantless phone searches troublesome

In a world where some people make their living pouring grease onto Teflon slopes, how long will it be until we see law enforcement playing “gotcha” with truckers by searching their cell phones without a warrant?The question bears asking.In 2010, the feds banned texting while driving for commercial operators, but everyone knows that enforcing such a ban is nearly impossible without warrants,

LL’s hottest online stories of 2010

With everyone taking stock of the past 12 months and analyzing various pieces of end-of-year data, we decided to do a little number crunching of our own to see which stories got the majority of our Web traffic on the Land Line Magazine website in 2010.The top stories earned their spots by collecting the most accumulative hits.The story that so far is owning the number one spot was a combination

It’s on you

The New Year is typically viewed as an opportunity at a fresh start. It can be used to build and improve relationships, and better one’s economic outlook. How committed we are to taking the initiative to make improvements can have long-lasting effects.This principle can also be applied to improving the trucking industry. More specifically, it is on you to open the line of communication with