Today, there is a piece I read in The Wall Street Journal by Jeffrey Ball titled “Firms Put Brakes on Truckers”. Jeff decided to “profile” a company called Titan Transfer, LLC, operating out of Nashville, TN. If the company has a “cloud” site or Facebook presence, I could not find it. The article begins: “Gary Vann pines for the days when he could put the pedal to the metal in his 18-wheeler and hurtle down empty stretches of highway at 100 miles per hour. You talk about fun, man, the 34-year old Tennessean said.”
Jeff opines on:”To truckers across the U.S., the new controls – the industry’s latest attempt to wring better economy from its fleets – spell the end of a romantic age, powered by cheap-diesel, when drivers could pretty much do as they pleased on the open road. Gone are the days of open-throttled hauli9ng made famous by Smokey and the Bandit, the 1977 movie starring a suave Burt Reynolds, in which a tractor-trailer shreds the speed limit on a cross-country beer run.” Ball quotes trucker Terry Anderson, “I used to have three log books”.
The last paragraph states: “Since the trucking company he (trucker John Gilbert) works for recently trimmed its rigs’ top speed to 64 mph from 68 mph, driver John Newcomb has noticed more car drivers getting him with a universal hand signal he calls No. 1. To illustrate, the 52-year old, whose girth and white beard make him look a little like Santa Claus, stuck out his middle finger”. The link to the entire piece is here: WSJ/Stereotype/LOTR/MJG.
Jeff is on an airplane traveling on his next assignment, but I sent him this response:
"Several big companies have tweaked the computerized governors on their trucks’ engines in recent months dialing down the top speed". Which big companies? Titan? Titan who? Why profile them? Speed restrictions, because of increasing fuel prices, have been in effect for years now. The use of APU’s (auxiliary power units) to control idling costs by large carriers is widespread in the industry, but you don’t mention them.
What really irked me about the piece was your talking to unprofessional - unsafe drivers. Is this who the WSJ still believes is behind the wheel of commercial vehicles? You should have included that "your" drivers live in a double wide trailer, are NASCAR fans, can’t afford a membership in the NRA, but owns many guns and are hunters. They love Sara Palin and, of course, drink Bud Lite and use chew’n tobacco. That would have completed the stereotype.
With all due respect, this is a "fluff" piece, more suited to People Magazine or the National Enquirer, than the Wall St. Journal. It should have been, how do you put it in your piece, "snagged" by your superiors.
If your editors need a serious professional piece on trucking, have them contact me.
You to can send you opinion on the piece to Jeffrey Ball at jeffrey.ball@wsj.com
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