We hope you had a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend and that you were able to spend some quality time with family and friends. We also hope you didn't eat too much Fat and Happy Pumpkin Bread! Sure was good, wasn't it?
Mail Call
From: Jerry
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 10:20 AM
To: jobs@truckdriver.com
Subject: fuel consumption
As I drive my truck down the road to a destination and see the prices
of fuel and gasoline rising, I wonder just how concerned the government is
about conserving energy. But the bad part is that it doesn't end there. We see it in every aspect of our lives. The pump price is just the start of a nation headed for disaster.
Why can't someone just use common sense and come up with a plan to equip trucks with a frame mounted generator. Some trucks do have them.
I work for a company out of PA and before they ordered my new tractor, they asked me about specs and I told them to get the generator but they said the cost was too high.
When a generator uses around .51 gallons per hour to run and a tractor uses around 1.25 gallons, just think of the savings per hour per truck.
.74 gallon per hour times for 300,000 trucks comes out to around 222,000 gallon of diesel fuel per hour.
I don't work weekends, only weekdays but I know the difference in MPG when I sleep in the truck for 1 or 2 days per tank full.
Can't someone get it through their head that sponsoring the generators (even
if the government helped finance with a tax break) could save about 7,881,000 gallons per year. Although this is just an estimate, it gives you a good idea of one way that energy can be conserved and pollution cut back.
Thanks for reading.
Jerry
Editor: Thanks for writing, Jerry. Anyone want to comment?
ACS MultiMedia
Trucker Buddys of the Month
Sandy and Ken Cook
Long-term service to children’s education through their volunteer work and selfless dedication earned Trucker Buddies Ken and Sandy Cook
the ACS MultiMedia Driver of the Month award for November. Matched with Sandy Zambotti’s fourth-grade students at East Side Elementary School for more than a decade, they began their 11 th year in the program by taking time during a two-week vacation in Europe to continue sending postcards.
“They are still as faithful as ever,” said Zambotti, noting that, “The class received several postcards from all over Europe. Besides the cards from the USA the students receive every week, they had an added history lesson from several countries thanks to Ken and Sandy.”
The Cooks, drivers for FedEx National LTL out of Middletown, Pa., joined the Trucker Buddy program 12 years ago this month. The couple, who live in Yellow Spring, W.V., take time at the beginning of each school year to visit the school in Johnstown, Pa., to meet the students, and they go back in the late spring to say goodbye.
“I have been Trucker Buddies with Sandy and Ken for 10 years now. They are the most wonderful people I have ever met,” wrote Zambotti in her nomination.
“From one year to the next the one thing my students loved most about the school year has been the Trucker Buddy program with Ken and Sandy,” she said. “When I run into former students (already in high school), they will ask if Ken and Sandy are still my Trucker Buddies. They’ll tell me to tell Ken and Sandy ‘hi’ from them.”
Letters from the students show first-hand the positive impact the Cooks have had on them. “I think Ken and Sandy should be Trucker Buddies of the Month because they sent us post cards that help us with social studies,” said student Taoma.
“Sandy was in charge of our spelling bee. They are one awesome team,” said student Martaijo.
“Ken and Sandy are very special to us,” wrote Ashley, making sure her point was made clear by bolding and underlining “very special.”
Many of the students referenced the annual spelling bee the Cooks hold for the students, and the fact that their Trucker Buddies always encourage them to do their best and do well in school.
“Ken and Sandy make a difference in the lives of so many children. They send postcards like clockwork…they care about each student and they encourage them to do their best and always make good choices,” Zambotti said. “I would love to see Ken and Sandy honored for their selfless dedication over the past 10 years.”
Each Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month receives a personalized jacket, along with a check for $300 to spend on the class and $200 in Trucker Buddy merchandise, compliments of program sponsor ACS MultiMedia Advertising ( www.tmi-multimedia.com), the advertising agency of choice for the trucking industry. They also receive an IdleAire window adaptor and a free Gold Membership ( www.IdleAire.com), a Koolatron cooler and a complete set of Airtabs for their tractor or trailer ( www.airtab.com). Five owner operators have received a set of steer tires from Continental Tire. The class will receive a CrossCountry USA game from Ingenuity Works ( www.ingenuityworks.com), which will help them learn more about how trucks move freight across the continent.
The Cooks are 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 professional truck driver with a CDL who is 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.
According to The TruckDriver.com Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Survey II - The Sequel, around 25 % of you never watch the parade, and nearly another 25% of you said you hadn't seen the parade in over ten years or since you were a child. That can only mean one of two things, you are either late sleepers or you are the cook!
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we have Christmas to look forward to, and even though Christmas is not supposed to be about the money, somehow it's the money and how much that is spent that always makes the news. So, how much will you spend this year? Take
the TruckDriver.com I'll Be Broke for Christmas Survey and let us know.
Remember, it isn’t the Christmas shopping that gets you, it's the Christmas buying.
Until next time, keep on truckin' and please drive safely.
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