Overdrive : July 2010
Channel 19
Your photo could win
Three letters, rhymes with ‘text’
Latest four-wheeler driving distraction: In late May, as Kansas became the 26th state to enact an antitexting law applicable to all drivers, the folks at hands-free headset-maker Jabra released survey results that heated up the discussion of worrisome activities drivers engage behind the wheel. While 28 percent of the mostly four-wheeler respondents admitted to text-messaging while driving, 15 percent said they “performed sexual intercourse or other sexual acts” behind the wheel. If this behavior is truly that widespread, the drivers engaging in it surely aren’t the only ones being distracted.
This photo, by Denver-based Swift Transportation driver Bill Kast of a hauler he met at a rest stop in Idaho and the driver’s feathered passenger is one of many posted to The Photographer group site for truckers on Flickr.com (flickr. com/groups/truckersnews). Beginning this month, the group will hold monthly contests. The winning photo will be published in Overdrive’s sister magazine Truckers News, which oversees the site, and the winning photographer will receive a photo book. For details, visit the group page, where you’ll find info on the first contest theme: Junked Trucks/Trailers.
He’s rockin’ and really rollin’
Baldwin Distribution Services of Amarillo, Texas, launched its refrigerated operation in 1981 with five tractors and seven trailers. Today, Baldwin boasts more than a dozen times those numbers, and operates nationwide – perfect for country artist Brian Milson (pictured, with Baldwin President and CEO Dudley Baldwin), whose “Saltwater Cowboy” single is being promoted on many Baldwin vans. “We were founded on the idea that connecting with our customers and our drivers helps set us apart,” says Baldwin. “What better way to do that than help spread the word about today’s finest Texas talent.”
For your daily dose of trucking humor, oddities and coverage in the media, visit: OverdriveOnline.com/channel19.
88
OVERDRIVE JULY 2010
Courtesy of Tennessee Department of Transportation