Greetings from RoadKing.com
Newsletter for 2/28/2002
This Week: Road King Salutes Grammy-Winning Trucker, Robert Lee Castleman!; Economy Picks Up a Few RPMs; Web Extra: "Mostly Scientific" Atlas Van Lines Driver Survey Asks: "Do Truck Drivers Still Help Motorists?" And Other Pretty Good Questions.; Mid-America Trucking Show, March 21-23; A Horse Tale; Missing Trucker
Road King Salutes Grammy-Winning Trucker, Robert Lee Castleman!
I'd bet few of you watched the Grammy Awards Wednesday night, but there was one trucker who was ecstatic with the results. Robert Lee Castleman of Nashville won a Grammy for writing "The Lucky One," recorded by Alison Krauss and Union Station.
This kind of recognition has been a long time coming for Castleman, as you can see in this article from the Feb. 24 Nashville Tennessean.
Road King congratulates "Cass" on his win, and I gotta say, we loved what he told the Tennessean he'd do with the award: "It'd make a good hood ornament."
Back to top
Economy Picks Up a Few RPMs
It wasn't an award-winning performance, but with a month to go in the first quarter of 2002, the economy has picked up a few rpms, strengthening predictions from late last year that things will improve later this year.
Durable goods orders and shipments have ticked upward. Durable goods orders rose $4.6 billion, or 2.6 percent, to $179.1 billion in January, after a 0.9 percent rise in December, the Commerce Department announced. Durable goods shipments went up $5.3 billion in January (2.9 percent), a good boost over the 0.8 percent increase in December.
Wholesale prices, housing markets and other indicators have been brightening, although consumer confidence has slipped again.
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's somewhat optimistic, although he apparently doesn't see a fast climb back up to the dizzying heights we got used to in the 1990s. Like an ex-smoker's last cigarette, it may be a long time before we experience something close to what we recall as the good old days.
Back to top
Mid-America Trucking Show, March 21-23
The economy will make an interesting background for the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville. The largest annual truck show in North America, MATS drew strong attendance last year despite 2001's glum times for trucking. Organizers expect the show to do very well again this year.
For more details, visit www.truckingshow.com.
Back to top
A Horse Tale
More than likely, quite a few of you have seen an e-mail that begins something like this:
"The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Modern organizations (education, government, military, etc.) often employ a whole range of far more advanced strategies, such as:
- Buying a stronger whip.
- Changing riders.
- Threatening the horse with termination.
- Appointing a committee to study the horse.
- Arranging to visit other countries to see how others ride dead horses.
- Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
- Re-classifying the dead horse as "living, impaired".
- Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
- Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed.
- Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
- Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
- Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
- Re-writing the expected performance requirements for all horses.
- Promoting the dead horse to a management position.
Funny, and we've all seen it happen. But it says a lot about human nature. Too often we're the ones with a death grip on the reins of some situation, unable to see that it's time to get off and do something else. We let the circumstances dictate our response, which is to stay with the horse - ultimately, no matter how trying that may be, it's usually the easiest decision to make.
Or maybe the horse isn't dead, just really, really tired. That could be - but you still have to get off to check and see, and then address the situation.
Back to top
Missing Trucker
"My cousin, Michael C. Wray, is missing," writes reader Mary Riggin. "Mike was driving a "First Choice Logistics Truck," 1999 Gray Kenworth 18 Wheeler and was last seen at the Travel Center of America in Baltimore on O'Donnell Street. Mike has brown hair, hazel eyes is 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighs between 165 and 175 lbs. He was headed to Florida. Mike and his truck have disappeared and the family has not heard from him in four weeks and neither has the trucking company he was working for."
A photo and other details are at www.mispers.com/wray.html
Back to top
Until next time, be safe, make money and get home often.
Bill Hudgins, Editor-in-Chief, Road King Magazine
