You've probably noticed a new look at TruckDriver.com. We're coming up on our tenth anniversary in November and thought it was time to spruce the place up a bit. We started out with a small site hoping to find a couple of drivers to fill a couple of trucks we had leased at the time. And here's where we ended up!

Building and maintaining a website over a ten year period is a little like buying a one bedroom house and adding bedrooms on as the family grows. One day you wake up and wonder how come you have to go through the garage to get to the kitchen from the bedroom.

We think you will like the more contemporary look and that you'll find the site easier to navigate. Drop us a line and let us know.

Every now and then we run across a news item we think you might be interested in, here's one we found in a recent issue of Transport Topics.

Carriers, Road Safe, File Speed Limiter Petition With FMCSA

Truckload carrier Schneider National and travel safety group Road Safe America last week filed a petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require electronic speed governors to be set at no more than 68 miles per hour, Schneider said Monday.

The petition, which Schneider and Road Safe filed last Monday, was also signed by eight other motor carriers, including J.B. Hunt Transportation, CR England, Covenant Transportation and Dart Transit Co.

The speed limiter requirement would affect class seven and eight truck manufactured after 1990, Schneider said in a statement.

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Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month

Rod Duncan

Rod “Roadrocker” Duncan was selected to be the September ACS MultiMedia Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month for going above and beyond in furthering the education of the third grade students in Teresa Pellett’s classroom at Robert Frost Elementary School in Kirkland, WA.

“We have the best Trucker Buddy possible!” said Pellett in her nomination from the 2005-06 school year, noting that Duncan is worthy of a Driver of the Year award for his exemplary volunteer work as a Trucker Buddy.

Duncan, a company driver from Venice, FL., uses his correspondence to provide math and geography lessons based on his job with Crete Carrier Corp., Lincoln, Neb. Math problems are created out of the items he delivers, and geography lessons are made fun by following his travels around the United States. For example, Duncan provides the information needed for the students to figure out how many soda cans are on one pallet, and if he has 200 pallets, how many soda cans did he deliver?

Another math question starts with the number of sheets in a roll of paper towels. Based on that number, and using the number of rolls per pallet and number of pallets in the trailer, the third-graders can figure out how many sheets of paper towels he has delivered.

To further engage the students, Duncan has a mascot – Cat in the Hat.

“Cat in the Hat writes letters to the class as well. His creativity is amazing!” Pellett explained. “The really cool thing about those letters is that they are all in rhyme. We even received a letter that we needed a mirror to read. We have a whole section of wall dedicated to his postcards from all the different states as well as a binder full of letters!”

The Roadrocker started a new game with the kids in the 2005-06 school year called “Who Is My Neighbor?”

“He gives us the name of a state he has traveled to, and the third graders find it on the map and try to find the neighboring states as well as their capitals,” Pellett added. “They love to keep track of all the states that he delivers to or passes through.”

Pellett’s students also wrote nomination letters, complete with drawings of him and his truck, for Duncan.

“Our Trucker Buddy rocks!” wrote student Emma. Classmate Alex, who noted the “56 postcards from places like Key West, the Grand Canyon, the Seven-Mile Bridge and Texas” and the math questions, said, “But the best thing he ever did was that he came to our school and we got to see the truck. It was amazing.” Perhaps the most telling comment was from student Carly, who wrote, “When we’re out of school I’m really going to miss you.”

“We are so fortunate that the Roadrocker is continuing with my class this year,” Pellett said upon learning that Duncan had been selected as Trucker Buddy of the Month. “I moved up to teaching third grade and I have 12 of my former students and 10 new ones in my class. Everyone has been so excited to have him send postcards and letters. The students can’t wait to write to him – even the students who struggle with writing are motivated to write to him. Roadrocker answers all their questions, which is again a huge motivator – they want their questions answered. We truly appreciate his time and energy in making math problems out of what he delivers, having ‘The Cat’ write to our class in rhyme and sending us lots of postcards. I can’t thank him enough for his dedication! We think he’s the BEST!”

To Duncan, who sends postcards twice a week and sends e-mails as well, his endeavors pay off more for him.

“Everything I think about during the day is how I can relate what I am seeing and what I am doing for the kids and what can they learn from it,” he said. “It’s an outlet to ease the boredom of driving, and I see things differently now. For example, rest areas have become a source of information, not just a place to stop.”

Duncan, who has started his third year with Pellett, is leaving a legacy behind at Robert Frost Elementary. Pellett’s former students come into her classroom to see the postcards Duncan is sending to the current year students.

“This has evolved into a great thing for me,” said Duncan, who started sending postcards to his cousin’s own children years ago before discovering Trucker Buddy. “I love it! I know the kids do too, but I think I love it more.”

Duncan is among some 3,500 other professional drivers who share their time with elementary classes throughout the world. The only criteria to be a Trucker Buddy is to be a truck driver and willing to send a postcard each week to a class in grades two through eight. Drivers and teachers can find out more about the program by visiting www.truckerbuddy.org or calling 1-800-MY BUDDY.

Trucker Buddy is dependent on corporate sponsors such as ACS MultiMedia Advertising and TruckDriver.com to fund the program.