tagged w/ Truckers
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Speeding, dangerous driving, working crazy hours, these heavy goods vehicles can be a menace. Truckers were involved in 413.000 accidents last year alone, killing 4800 people and injuring more than 100.000 others. And their behaviour off the road is just as worrying. Certain drivers indulge in drug dealing to supplement their incomes, and the use of prostitutes at the service stations is common place. Some of these vulnerable women are attacked or even murdered and the truckers' itinerant lifestyle makes them difficult for the police to catch.
Who are these people? What leads some of them to behave in such a way? We follow the progress of novice trucker Leon as he embarks upon a new career as a long-distance driver. He discovers that the solitary life of a trucker comes with a unique set of stresses, strains and temptations.Speeding, dangerous driving, working crazy hours, these heavy goods vehicles can be a... more
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Speeding, dangerous driving, working crazy hours, these heavy goods vehicles can be a menace. Truckers were involved in 413 000 accidents last year alone, killing 4800 people and injuring more than 100 000 others. And their behaviour off the road is just as worrying. Certain drivers indulge in drug dealing to supplement their incomes, and the use of prostitutes at the service stations is common place. Some of these vulnerable women are attacked or even murdered; the truckers' itinerant lifestyle makes them difficult for the police to catch. Who are these people? What leads some of them to behave in such a way? We follow the progress of novice trucker Leon as he embarks upon a new career as a long distance driver. He discovers that the solitary life of a trucker comes with a unique set of stresses, strains and temptations.Speeding, dangerous driving, working crazy hours, these heavy goods vehicles can be a... more
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“Hurry Up and Wait” is a photographic essay by artists James Tribble and Tracey Mancenido-Tribble, a poetic meditation about America’s trucking culture. With the long tradition of road photography in mind, the Tribbles spent over a year driving across the states as truck drivers. Their journey is documented here in photographs that range from portraits of drivers they encountered, to shots from the open road, in a year-long effort to understand the subculture that literally drives America’s consumerism. The photographs illuminate both the openness of the road and it’s lonesome journey, with images that bring new light to the harsh beauty in the world of a truck driver.
This piece includes a number of wonderful high-resolution color photographs, a slide show and Kris Kristofferson's music video, “This Old Road.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/hurry-up-and-wait-the-lonesome-world-of-truck-drivers/“Hurry Up and Wait” is a photographic essay by artists James Tribble and... more
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(CNN) -- Human remains found buried under recently added concrete at a home in Plant City, Florida, are likely those of missing lottery millionaire Abraham Shakespeare, police said Thursday.
Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said the body was slowly being uncovered. They are awaiting positive identification.
However, Gee said their investigation and information specifically led them to the area after they began to believe he might be dead because of "sinister means and motives."(CNN) -- Human remains found buried under recently added concrete at a home in Plant... more
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bellig
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2 years ago
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Part of this week's New York Times Magazine special issue, Saving the World's Women. Come discuss all the articles at current.com/feminism.
In May, I was traveling down a South African highway with a colleague and a driver, headed toward Swaziland. A private foundation had assigned me to assess a health clinic that it set up for truckers and the girls and women who trade sex with them for cash and goods. Truckers are well known to transmit H.I.V. up and down the highways. And Swaziland, a small, landlocked country dependent on its busy trucking corridors, is particularly troublesome. It has the highest H.I.V. rate in the world: one in three people is infected.
When we reached the Osheok border post, the Swazi official welcomed us, inspecting the vehicle efficiently. Apart from a gas station, a dozen roadside vegetable stands and some dingy bars, there was little activity in the little border town. Adjacent to the customs office, there was a small building fashioned from a shipping container with a hand-painted sign outside: “Truckers Wellness Center.” It’s an innovative way to set up a clinic. While papers are processed at customs, truckers use the clinic to obtain medications for “hot urine” and other sexually transmitted diseases.
We watched truckers filing into the clinic throughout the evening, but there were no girls. So I wandered up and chatted with the border official, who said: “You want girls? Then go to Matsapha. They’ll attack your car!” Matsapha is the main overnight hub for truckers. It was well past 11 p.m., but we decided to go there. As we drove, the “majestic mountains, fertile valleys and lush forests” described in Swaziland guidebooks appeared only as shadows.
Matsapha was still, almost abandoned. A lone gas attendant directed us to the edge of town and an old sign on a hill for the Economy Flats motel. The driver slowed, and as the official predicted, about 10 girls in tiny dresses and little shorts swarmed around our vehicle. But when they saw my female colleague and me, they screamed and went off. I sent the driver out to negotiate. “Tell them we just want to talk,” I said. “I’ll buy them dinner.” The lure of food was enough. Three girls got in the car, and we drove down a narrow, beaten track through the trees to a rundown complex of rough cement-block buildings. This was their home. This was where the truckers slept and the girls earned their meals.Part of this week's New York Times Magazine special issue, Saving the... more
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The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association is frustrated with its attempts to lobby the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ease the crippling costs of border administration fees.
Peter Nelson, executive director of the association, said it's costing too much for truckers in the region to cross the American border, and he spent two days in Washington pleading his case
Nelson said the U.S. government maintains that Canada should assume the administrative costs of managing the border instead of U.S. taxpayers. "The Americans are also beneficiaries of the trade with Canada," he said.
"We are their largest trading partner. [It is not appropriate] that we should bear this $1-billion fee which is also subsidizing all of the law enforcement drug enforcement illegal immigration enforcement in the southern border as well."
Nelson said truckers first started seeing an increase in border administration fees after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He said it cost the Canadian trucking industry about a $100 million a year back then, but that has now risen to about a billion dollars a year.
Nelson said those increases will have a devastating effect on the industry and consumers.
"Certainly when you think about Atlantic Canada, all of our fresh produce and fruit comes from Florida, U.S. desert southwest, southern California and Mexico," he said.
"You know this increase in fees will see Atlantic Canadians paying $8 for a head of lettuce in the near future if the Department of Homeland Security continues on its path of heaping fee upon fee."
Nelson said now is the time for the federal government and the Atlantic premiers to get involved in this issue.The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association is frustrated with its attempts to lobby... more
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While documentaries like "Super Size Me" and "The Smartest Guys in the Room" have shown corporate practices in a negative light, now it seems that some companies are trying to do some filmmaking of their own.While documentaries like "Super Size Me" and "The Smartest Guys in the... more
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After 25 years in and out of prison, a retired gang member from Oakland gets back on track with a career in trucking.After 25 years in and out of prison, a retired gang member from Oakland gets back on... more
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Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells behind the wheel that led to deadly crashes on highways. Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.
The problems threatening highway travelers persist despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries blamed on drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheels of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.
The U.S. agency responsible for cracking down on unfit truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, acknowledges it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations that U.S. safety regulators have proposed since 2001.
One would set minimum standards for determining whether truckers are medically safe to drive. Another would prevent truckers from "doctor shopping" to find a physician who might overlook a risky health condition.
Major public safety problem
"We have a major public safety problem, and we haven't corrected it," said Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, whose members include consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies. "You have an agency that is favorably disposed to maintaining the integrity of the industry's economic situation."
Truckers violating federal medical rules have been caught in every state, according to a review by the AP of 7.3 million commercial driver violations compiled by the Transportation Department in 2006, the latest data available.
Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio were states where drivers were sanctioned most frequently for breaking medical rules, such as failing to carry a valid medical certificate. Those 12 states accounted for half of all such violations in the United States.
Consider these cases:
* A Florida bus driver who suffers from lung disease and uses three daily inhalers to control breathing told congressional investigators that he "occasionally blacks out and forgets things." He works as a substitute driver despite not having a medical certificate, and his commercial license expires in 2010. The man has collected Social Security benefits since 1994. He confided to investigators that he "gets winded" walking to his mailbox but has no problem driving a passenger bus.
* A Virginia trucker with a prosthetic leg from a farm accident more than 10 years ago is permitted to drive tanker trucks until at least 2012, even though he doesn't have the proper federal paperwork required for amputees. Virginia revoked the medical license for the official who approved him to drive over charges the official was caught illegally distributing controlled substances.
* George Albright Jr., 61, smashed his 70,000-pound tractor-trailer into congested traffic on Interstate 70 in June 2006, killing four women in a Ford sedan near Columbia, Missouri. Albright's employer agreed earlier this year to pay $18 million in a settlement. A Missouri jury acquitted Albright this month on four counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, after his lawyers argued in court that a diabetic episode "put him in an altered state of consciousness." Albright wasn't injured.
Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States have suffered seizures, heart... more
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Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of fuel Tuesday morning, and the regional government sent an emergency convoy of 20 trucks to replenish their tanks.
Three automotive plants - one each operated by Nissan, Mercedes Benz and SEAT - said they were suspending operations because of a lack of spare parts. Vendors warned of shortages in fruit, vegetables and meat at the sprawling wholesale market in Madrid - Mercamadrid - if the strike continued.
Around major cities Tuesday, traffic continued to crawl behind the so-called "snail protests" of slow-moving trucks.
Television news reports showed ships in the Balearic Islands marooned in port for lack of fuel and cargo. In the northern province of Galicia and southern ports of Andalucía, the truckers' strike, coupled with a fishing strike, left docks and fish stalls barren. Wholesale markets were surrounded by protesters. And shoppers were hoarding staples.
So far the administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has offered a package of measures to ease the impact of higher fuel prices on small businesses, including lower social security contributions and subsidies of €55 million, or $87 million, to older truckers who choose to abandon the industry. But Somoza said the truckers considered those measures insufficient. They are seeking government regulations guaranteeing a minimum price for their services, above fuel costs.
The picture is not supposed to go with this link. Sorry about that.
Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of... more
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A Portuguese driver was killed after he was hit by a truck as he manned a barricade filtering traffic near Alcanena, north of Lisbon.
A police spokesman quoted witnesses as saying the 52-year-old man climbed onto the side of a truck in a bid to stop it and fell off under the wheels, Lusa news agency reported.
Later Tuesday, a truck driver in Spain was run over and killed by a van as he manned a picket line outside a wholesale market in the southern city of Granada, police said.
Road haulage representatives suspended strike negotiations with the Spanish government following the incident.A Portuguese driver was killed after he was hit by a truck as he manned a barricade... more
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