A long line
Workhorse Custom Chassis recently produced the 50,000th “P-Chassis,” three-and-a-half years after the Union City, IN-based company acquired the rights from General Motors to the chassis line for motor homes, buses and walk-in trucks. “Our strategy was to add value by being 100% focused on underserved niche markets,” notes chairman & CEO Andrew Taitz, seen here rolling the milestone off the Workhorse assembly line.
Economy and security
“The U.S. imports 55% of its oil today — up from 35% at the height of the 1973 oil embargo… that costs the U.S. an extra $2 billion a week. But 80% of the freight in the U.S. is carried by trucks — so to improve our country's energy security, we must improve truck fuel economy.”
— Tom Gross, Deputy Asst. Secretary, Office of Transportation Technologies, Department of Energy
LETTER OF THE MONTH
You are correct about honesty (see Editor's Page, 9/02, pg. 6.) No one on the trucking side can publicly be “honest.” If we are we honest we are portrayed as not being interested in safety, which is not the case… the issue could be fixed easily and safety could be improved but no one will honestly look at the real safety issue, which is fatigue. All it would take is new, very simple rules with guidelines giving flexibility to the driver to make the decision [on] what part of the day to drive and when not to drive. In conjunction [with that], enforcement needs to be more flexible and concentrate on safety not penalties.
Danny Sanger, Sanger Trucking
[email protected]
Trucking's loss
I was thrilled to read your article on women drivers (see “Driver's Lounge, 9/02, pg. 12)….In 1989 I purchased a motor coach so I could drive. I now have a fair business and own seven motor coaches. We are beginning to see a few more women drivers, but I would like to see many more…I remember one trip when an elderly woman climbed on the bus and looked at me and said “Are you the driver?” When I responded “Yes,” she said “I hope we do not have a flat tire.” Of course, I would have called a repairman — just as a male driver would have.
Katrina Waddington
Williamsburg, PA
Sweet smell of…
A recent plot by Welsh citizens to cheat the United Kingdom out of a few pounds really takes the cake. According to The New York Times (October 15), more than a dozen scoundrels in Burry Port, Wales were recently pinched for fueling their cars with a batch of diesel fuel “consisting mostly of cut-price vegetable oil from the local supermarket.” The report goes on to note the cheats were caught thanks to the telltale odor-”cooking oil in fuel tanks is said to smell like used French fry grease.” Not only did Her Majesty's nosy tax collectors not appreciate this venture, a trade group here in the States told the newspaper it too was not amused, fearing the story would besmirch legitimate bio-diesel programs.
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