Dec 6, 2008 -
Tidbits fron the road...
A couple of good articles from the November/December issue of Road King magazine that are worth a look...
Color Me Safe - High visibility seat belts encourage truckers to buckle up - more truck manufacturers are offering, and more operators are installing, brightly colored seat belts.
Trying Times - During some tough years this driver discovered his resolve to succeed - a 25-year veteran of the highway shares his experiences with health, family, and finances.
And of course, it's nice to report that diesel prices have dropped dramatically from this summer, although they have not matched the far steeper drop in the price of gasoline. In July, I paid a staggering $5.179 at my local station for diesel... just 4 months later, the price at the same station is down about 45% (around $2.95), and without too much effort, I can find it for quite a bit less than that - in the $2.60 range.
Thankfully, Vikki and her red Pete 379 have been on the road, although not nearly as much as a year or two ago. She said she was getting bored very quickly at home with the Pete in the driveway, instead of catching some z's in the sleeper at a truck stop. Even though fuel prices have come back down to more sensible levels and shipping rates have dropped the fuel surcharges, the economy means keeping tighter reins on the budget for people who need to get items from point A to point B. And with financing hard to come by, the buyers aren't there for the bigger ticket items that get shipped by 18-wheeler. So the loads aren't quite back up to snuff yet.
And more in line with my thoughts and wants, NAIAS is about a month away, and Chrysler is still scheduled to reveal the 2010 Dodge Ram heavy duty models, a direct replacement to what I have now. Hopefully, the automakers will be solvent enough to actually get to next month.
