A trucker’s eye view of Alaskan history

More than a few trucking books have arrived at Overdrive’s editorial offices over the years, but the most recent I’ve gotten is one of the best. It’s “Eighteen Wheels North to Alaska,” by Cliff Bishop. His long career in the West has included many years of driving truck in Alaska. Now, at 86, he’s published his memoirs “to retain some of the history of trucking in Alaska.”

“A common sight on the Haul Road,” says Cliff Bishop’s new book on Alaska trucking.

And a colorful history it is. Some of the book’s 29 chapter titles give you an idea of the diverse ground he covers: “Earthquakes,” “Avalanches,” “Accidents” and “Alaska’s Inhabitants: Wolves, Bears and Characters.”

The “characters” include a young man who worked with Bishop and turned out to be a serial killer; a mentally ill, trigger-happy trapper; and a murderous would-be terrorist opposed to construction of the oil pipeline along the Haul Road between Prudhoe Bay and Fairbanks. For those who didn’t get enough of the Haul Road (the Dalton Highway) on the last season of the History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers,” there’s a chapter on “Building the Haul Road” and another on “Alaska’s North Slope.”

The book also has dozens of black-and-white photos and an appendix of “Alaskan Drivers and Old-Timers,” listing hundreds of people. And yes, the list includes George Spears of “Ice Road Truckers” fame and, as readers of this space know, the driver with whom I rode in 2006 for a Truckers News feature on the Haul Road.

Bishop's book provides a fascinating look at trucking in a rugged state.

Bishop himself qualifies for the list. He says he’s got his CDL reinstated and is hauling lumber. “It beats the hell out of sitting on my duff and watching TV,” he writes at the book’s conclusion. “I’ve got an old Ford diesel with a 3406 Cat engine with a 53-foot flatbed trailer. I must admit that I am enjoying it a lot. Maybe at age ninety I’ll make a sincere effort to retire. Or not.”

To order the book, visit www.publicationconsultants.com or www.amazon.com. The price is $19.95.

– Max Heine

 

Factories busier in July

Industrial production increased by a half-percent in July, the Federal Reserve announced today. While housing and other indicators with relevance to truck freight have shown twitches of life in recent months, this marked the first monthly increase in this measurement since December 2007 (not counting a hurricane-related rebound in October 2008).

The manufacturing component of the index rose 1.0 percent in July. This was mostly due to a tax-revived auto industry, which saw vehicle assemblies jump from 4.1 million units in June to 5.9 million in July (annualized rates).

Here’s the entire report, which covers other segments, as well.

– Max Heine

 

 

70 years in one minute

I was fortunate to be invited to Peterbilt’s 70^th anniversary celebration at the Denton, Texas, headquarters this week. As part of a presentation to dealers and customers, the company presented this cool little video that shows many of the truck models morphing into each other, reflecting the changes over seven decades.

Also, note the top two photos on the right for a glimpse at a few trucks that stand out in Peterbilt’s history.

And if you haven’t already seen our story, check it for more detail about the company’s history and anniversary celebration.

 – Max Heine

 

A rare roadside attraction on the Dalton

Faithful watchers of “Ice Road Truckers” this season know that there ain’t much between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. There’s a few state highway facilities for maintenance of the Haul Road, a few resort facilities (closed in winter) when you cross the Yukon River, and then Coldfoot Camp at roughly the halfway mark. (See the top four photos on the right.)

It’s considered the world’s northernmost truck stop. There’s food, fuel, lodging and other amenities. When I rode the Haul Road with George Spears, now one of the stars on “Ice Road Truckers,” in 2006, we stopped there. We had a fine meal and chewed the fat with other drivers before traversing the remaining 239 miles of wilderness that ended at Prudhoe Bay.

Coldfoot began around 1898, earning its name when thousands of gold-hungry settlers arrived, then quickly got cold feet about the prospect of wintering there, according to the settlement’s website. Many made like birds and headed south.

“At its height, Coldfoot had one gambling hall, two roadhouses, seven saloons and 10 ‘working girls’ (many of the local creeks are named for these friendly women),” says the website. By 1912 the miners relocated to richer ground 13 miles away in Wiseman, and Coldfoot became a ghost town.

Coldfoot revived in the 1970s when a camp was established during construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. “In 1981 Alaskan dog musher Dick Mackey set up an old school bus here and began selling hamburgers to the truck drivers,” says the website. Truckers, using crates that had held pipeline insulation, began hammering together what grew into what is now Coldfoot Camp.

– Max Heine

 

Landstar shows how to make it work

Anyone who thinks the owner-operator business model can’t rebound from the prolonged downturn, rising costs and other factors should take note of Landstar System. The nation’s largest owner-operator carrier reported its second-quarter earnings Wednesday.

Of course, business was down, as it has been everywhere. Revenue dropped 30 percent from a year ago, and earnings dropped from 56 cents per share to 35 cents per share.

But this isn’t a business model that compels its owners to fly to Washington, D.C., and beg for a few billion or so to tide them over. That 35 cents per share translates to an $18 million profit for the quarter. Furthermore, Landstar’s board declared a 13 percent increase (4.5 cents) in the company’s quarterly dividend.

Shareholders aren’t the only ones profiting. Its 8,000-plus owner-operators are among the highest-earning and safest leased operators in the business. If Landstar wasn’t treating them right, they’d leave in a heartbeat.

And if you want a deeper explanation of the fiscal side, here’s what Landstar President and Chief Executive Officer Henry Gerkens had to say in the company’s prepared statement:

“Irrespective of the current economic environment, Landstar continues to generate outstanding returns. Trailing twelve month return on average shareholders’ equity remained high at 35 percent and trailing 12-month return on invested capital (net income divided by the sum of average equity plus average debt) was 24 percent.

“Landstar’s net revenue margin, defined as revenue less purchased transportation and commissions to agents divided by revenue, was 17.2 percent, up from 15.3 percent in the 2008 second quarter. And, as a direct result of Landstar’s variable cost business model and other cost reduction actions taken in 2009, Landstar was able to generate an operating profit margin of 6.1 percent, despite the revenue decline.”

– Max Heine

 

Expecting the unexpected

Wednesday started with bad news/good news economic reports for trucking. Both involve May numbers.

New orders for durable goods were up by 1.8 percent, says the Commerce Department. That’s better than expected, and a welcome report for any business related to manufacturing.

On the down side, sales of new homes fell, which also wasn’t expected. They were down almost a third from a year ago, reports the Commerce Department.

The market placed more weigh on the durable goods number, and stocks were up at mid-day, particularly those of motor carriers and package shippers.

As Blogger Andrew Leonard says, noting those two reports: “It’s tough out there for an economic forecaster. Everything’s unexpected!”

 – Max Heine

 

In memory of an ice road trucker

A memorial to Dale Harris, shown here at the Hilltop Truckstop, was aired on "Ice Road Truckers."

Those of you who caught the first episode of this season’s “Ice Road Truckers” might recall a part on how some of the truckers who’ve died on Alaska’s Dalton Highway have been memorialized at the Hilltop Truckstop. The Hilltop is between Fairbanks and the start of the Dalton, also known as the Haul Road, which runs up to Prudhoe Bay.

As an example of the tributes, the program showed one on the wall for Dale Harris. Animation explained how the trailer of an approaching truck jackknifed on the icy road to slam into Harris, killing him in 2007.

I met Harris over breakfast at the Hilltop in July 2006 when I rode the Haul Road with George Spears, now one of the star drivers on “Ice Road Truckers.” Like most of the drivers, Harris was full of stories, full of life. He told me how on his first Haul Road trip, as a 19-year-old trainee in 1974, the driver rolled their fuel truck over while descending a 12 percent grade. A pickup driver rescued Harris, only to spin out on a curve and plunge down a long hill. “It was so steep they dropped a fire hose down to me and I climbed out,” he recalled.

I spoke this week with Take’ Hunziker, who drove with Harris and later became his dispatcher at Sourdough Express. “He coached softball and did a bunch of other stuff,” Hunziker says of Harris, whose handle was Spud. “I know he loved horses, did a lot with his family.”

I also spoke with Spears. He remembers that Harris, who had a son and a daughter, was involved with Boy Scouts and high school wrestling, and worked as a volunteer fireman. In a memorial parade, “We had 97 trucks come out of Fairbanks and go up to Hilltop, just for Spud,” Spears recalls.

Perhaps subsequent episodes will prove me wrong, but it will be a shame if the History Channel series, which so far seems obsessed with truck wrecks, doesn’t show that many of these drivers, like Harris, are multi-dimensional people. They can do a lot more than navigate a hazardous road.

You can read my account of riding the Haul Road with Spears here, or view photos from that ride at the top of the gallery on the right.  

 – Max Heine

 

Trucking meets swine flu in a variety of ways

Reports on trucking and swine flu have proliferated this week. Many media outlets picked up the Knoxville, Tenn., newspaper interview with Professional Drivers Medical Depots (cited here earlier), but other angles have followed.

First, two on the lighter side:

Everitt Mickey, one of the writers who contributes to International Trucks’ Life on the Road blog, cautions readers to take the alarmist news accounts with a grain of salt: “The business of the news media, as they practice it, is to spread panic, hate, discontent and unease, while at the same time claiming otherwise.”

This one doesn’t involve trucking, but it does a thorough job of expanding Mickey’s criticism. My colleague Carolyn Magner showed me this on humor site The Gawker, with a label we both wish we’d coined: Aporkalypse now. The story itself, “Five Ways the Swine Flu Story Is Dumb,” takes the media to task.

The Fox affiliate in Memphis, Tenn., interviewed drivers across the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Ark., and found the flu was on the minds of many.  One was Veronica Martinez, who’s based in border city Laredo, Texas.  ”You see this napkin here?” she said. “I don’t even touch the door.” The station’s website also has video of the West Memphis interviews.

 The City Wire of Fort Smith, Ark., is among sources reporting a statement from the American Trucking Associations: “ATA is aware that, depending on how aggressively the Swine Flu continues to spread, certain government actions might be taken which could impact trucking operations, especially cross-border operations with Mexico and Canada, and potentially at a domestic level.”

 The Journal of Commerce notes that work toward a new cross-border trucking program will apparently take a back seat to working on the flu.

– Max Heine

 

Truck maker chiefs buck income trend

Daniel Ustian and Mark Piggott were among a handful of trucking-related CEOs included in the annual Wall Street Journal CEO compensation survey released today.

 

A photo of Ustian, head of Navistar International, made a front-page graphic due to his compensation rising almost five-fold, to $6.5 million, in 2008 – a year when average top CEO compensation fell. One of the stories, quoting a Navistar spokesman, attributed the large hike to Ustian’s “relatively low 2007 compensation and the company’s success reaching its performance targets.”

 

Pigott, head of Kenworth and Peterbilt parent Paccar, had 2008 compensation of $10.8 million, a 15 percent increase from 2007.

 

Having seen their compensation rise in 2008, Ustian and Pigott stood out from the others in the survey of chief executives of the nation’s 200 biggest companies. The Journal found the group’s total direct compensation for the year fell 3.4 percent to a median of $7.6 million.

 

Other leading Class 8 truck makers, having foreign ownership, are not eligible for the survey.

 

– Max Heine

 

 

 

For the newly jobless, driving never looked so good

Recent trucking news has reported the reversal of the driver shortage, which had appeared to be, as Jesus said of the poor, with us forever. Friday’s Wall Street Journal highlights how the competition for drivers is worse than ever partly because of people recently unemployed from car plants or construction and desperate for a paycheck.

 

At Prime Inc., even white collar workers are knocking on the door, a recruiting director told the Journal. The company “now more closely scrutinizes an applicant‘s driving record, number of prior jobs held and other qualifications,” says the Journal.

 

At Con-Way Truckload, “I’ve never seen it like this in 24 years,” says President Herb Schmidt.

 

– Max Heine