~~~ THE T.W.N.A. DISPATCH ~~~
for Spring 2000
Published by the Truck Writers of North America
[Opinions expressed herein
are those of individual writers, who
speak neither for their employers/clients nor for TWNA.]
___________________________________________________________
TWNA Officers and Directors...
President: Rolf Lockwood
(Today's Trucking, Etobicoke, Ont.,
Canada), 416-614-2200 or rolftruck@aol.com.
Vice President: Bill Hudgins
(Hammock Publishing/Road King)
Nashville, Tenn.), 615-385-9745 or bhudgins@hammock.com
Secretary-Treasurer: Bob
Deierlein (freelancer/Beverage World,
Fleet Equipment; White Plains, N.Y.), 914-946-1297 or
gyrenebob@aol.com
Director and Dispatch Editor:
Tom Berg (Super Scribe/Road King,
Construction Equipment, etc.; Bonsall, Calif.), 760-631-7101 or
monzair@compuserve.com
Director: Ruth Jones (OOIDA/Land
Line, Grain Valley, Mo.), 816-
229-5791 or trknruth@aol.com
Director: Deborah Lockridge
(Newport Communications/Heavy Duty
Trucking, roadStar; Birmingham, Ala.), 205-989-6467 or
dlockridge@heavytruck.com
***
Event Clearing House Co-ordinator:
Tom Gelinas (Maple
Publishing/Fleet Equipment, Palatine, Ill.), 847-359-6100 or
tgelinas@truklink.com
Roster Keeper: Frank Conte
(Cahners Publishing/Owner Operator,
Radnor, Pa.), 610-964-4263 or fconte@cahners.com
____________________________________________________________
GOING TO I.T.S.? ATTEND T.W.N.A.'S MEETING ON THURSDAY
The group's annual International
Trucking Show meeting is
scheduled for 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 29, in Room N264
at the Las Vegas Convention Center. See you there?
***
THE DISPATCH GOES E-MAIL
This is the first edition
of TWNA's Dispatch that is going out
via e-mail instead of by regular old-style mail. Ease of
production and speed of distribution are the reasons your editor
proposed the change to officers and directors. They readily
okayed it. E-mailing also allows quick zapping of updates to
members as needed.
Fast and frequent communications
should bind together members who
are otherwise out of touch between TWNA's twice-a-year meetings.
In this case, no news is not good news, and perhaps this will
change as we dispatch information whenever we need to, instead of
waiting for the next printed and snail-mailed issue of The
Dispatch.
Your new officers and directors
have begun communicating by e-
mail and it works great. We can discuss matters without playing
telephone tag and make decisions almost right now.
For now, The Hecklectronic
Dispatch's format is simple and
without photos. Things may get fancier later as your editor
learns more about the mechanics of an e-mailed newsletter. I may
also get this posted on our web page (www.TWNA.org, set up and
maintained, last I heard, by Randall Publishing). If you know of
software and hardware that can help, please let me know. --Tom
Berg, Editor and Director
YOU GOTTA HAVE E-MAIL CAPABILITY!
Of course, only those whose
virtual whereabouts we know can get
this version of the Dispatch. Frank Conte, who has maintained
TWNA's membership roster almost since the group's founding more
than 11 years ago, has the e-mail addresses of 127 of the
approximately 145 members now on our list. Here are names of 18
members whose e-mail addresses we don't know...
Kyle Eggert, American Trucker
Buck Luetscher (retired)
Robert Crump
Eric Descarries, Echo du Transport/Constructo
Ed Shea, retired from Chilton Publishing
Paula Golubski, Fleet Equipment
GC Skipper
Marvin Gordon
George Stanton, Truck Blue Book
Shari McCullough, Arfons, McCullough PR
Karen Knoecny, Peterbilt Motors
Larry Polas, Transport Publishing Co.
Ron Beld, Holland Hitch
Harold Brink, Smith, Stevens, Reed & Phillips, Inc.
Peter Powell, Air Weigh
Chris Visser, National Automobile Dealers Assn.
Julie Sasaki, Denso International America
Don R. Taylor, Taylor Network Int'l
If you know any of those
folks' e-mail addresses, would you
kindly forward this Dispatch to them? And please ask them to send
their e-mail info to Frank (fconte@cahners.com) and/or me
(monzair@compuserve.com).
Anybody involved in communications
today ought to have e-mail
capability. But as a last resort I will run off a paper copy of
The Dispatch and mail or fax one to any member who really does
not have access to e-mail and cannot get it. That member must ask
for a hard copy by contacting me by phone (760-631-7101) or fax
(760-758-4066). --Tom Berg
***
BERG'S BLITHERINGS: LET'S JUST DO IT
TWNA needs to get things
done between meetings, as I was
pointedly told several times when I was president. It's still
true. There is a lot of enthusiasm and many ideas expressed
during meetings, but then people return home and to their daily
routines, and TWNA projects languish.
Yes, some things were accomplished
under the spirited leadership
of David Kolman (notably, the Recommended Practices for Press
Conferences, Glossary of Trucking Terms, the membership survey,
and setting up of the web page). But too much remains undone. If
this group is to remain meaningful and influential, we have to
stay off our cans year-round.
For instance, we're sitting
on a lot of money (which Bob
Deierlein, our Secretary-Treasurer For Life, has so often noted).
What are we going to do with it? One seemingly worthy idea is a
scholarship program. We discussed this at our annual meeting in
Louisville, but there are so many opinions on whom to subsidize
(budding journalists vs. technicians in training, etc.) that no
one could agree.
We have a scholarship committee
that is supposed to come up with
solid recommendations, but none have been forthcoming. Everyone
gets too busy, one meeting rolls into another, the months go by
and there's no progress. Now that I have control of The Dispatch
and the bull (as opposed to bully) pulpit it provides (and spend
the time required to do the newsletter), I can righteously rant
and rave and urge people to Just Do It!
***
BERG'S BLITHERINGS 2: LEAVE YOUR EMPLOYER OUT OF IT!
John Bendel, who identified
himself as an employee of a certain
communications firm when he wrote that now infamous (in some
minds) op-ed piece for the Washington Post, no doubt now realizes
that he should have signed his name and that's all. The Truckload
Carriers Association and its members have chastised him and his
company for the "anti-trucking" piece, and his company doesn't
deserve it (something that TCA's chairman belatedly acknowledged
in an editorial in the organization's newsletter).
Bendel doesn't deserve the
bashing, either, in my opinion,
because he described conditions commonly faced by truck drivers.
I've seen some of them myself while truckin' for articles (and
I've also seen very good treatment). I can assure the TCA that
the "code of ethics" it hammered out with a shippers' group will
probably solve little. Bad treatment comes from people on the
docks and in lowly offices who don't subscribe to common
courtesy, much less ethics.
I have heard that some execs
are jaw-boning shippers to try to
get better treatment for drivers, not to mention more utilization
out of their trucks. A lot of execs and some shippers really do
care. But what will help even more is for motor carrier
executives to refuse to haul from or to places identified by
drivers as abusive -- something advocated more than a decade ago
by Terry Turner, who then ran TCA's predecessor group. To him,
and me, the solution is simple: No courtesy, no trucks!
What do you (but not your employer!) think?
[NOTE: The above is MY opinion,
NOT that of any of the publishers
who are kind enough to grace me with their writing business!]
***
HECKLECTRONIC ARTICLES ENCOURAGED
All you've seen in the way
of bylines thus far in this Dispatch
is "Tom Berg." That's got to be tiring! You can see your name in
hecklectronic print, as well, if you'll send in articles and
opinion pieces (even if -- gasp! -- you disagree with me). Got
some thoughts on our profession, what's going on in trucking,
etc. etc.? Bat 'em out and e-mail them to me: Tom Berg,
monzair@compuserve.com. I promise to go easy on the editing.
***
DELINQUENT MEMBERS BECOME NON-MEMBERS
Members who have not paid
their TWNA Y2000 membership dues either
just forgot, or are telling us that they no longer wish to be
members. Dues of US$30 are payable by the First of each year
(e.g., January 1), or US$35 thereafter. After a reasonable period
(e.g., by now), delinquent members are taken off the roster and
considered non-members.
Secretary-Treasurer Bob
Deierlein reports that as of May 2, 58
TWNA members have not paid their Y2000 dues and have been
stripped from the roster. The "deadbeats" (as he good-naturedly
terms them) are:
Leslie Adair, Jim Bald,
Jim Beech, Jim Bianche, Jacqueline
Biddle, Karen Bowman, Chris Brandt, Greg Brooke, Steve Calitri,
Kurt Condra, Brian Crenshaw, David Cullen, John Curran, Steve
Davis, Joseph Dondaro, Tom Duke, Kim Ehrenshaft, Foss Farrar,
John Fowle, Scott Fowler, Don Freeman and James Fulton.
Also: Jeff Glatus, Carl
Goeb, Robert Harrington, Mike Hedge, Amy
Hockey, David Jacobs, Scott Jacobs, Mike Kelly, Wayne Leistra,
Linda Longton, Jim McNamarra, Mike Minnick, Tom Moore, M.D.
Morgan, Norm Norville, Debra Nicholson, Jeff Patterson, Robert
Randle, and Phil Romba.
Finally: Ron Seide, Doug
Seifkas, Lou Smyrlis, David Sparkman,
Jennifer Stofko, Don Teffoer, Kim Thomas, Pat Trice, Marlene
Tsoreff, Ryan Voarsi, Avery Vise, Tom Wetzel, Doug Wilson, Venlo
Wolfsohn, Jennifer Zojac, David Zaritz, and Neal Zipser.
So... If you talk with any
of these folks in the near future,
please alert them to their professionally precarious situation
(how can any truck writer or p.r. person function without being a
member of TWNA?) and ask them to remit their Y2000 dues
immediately.
Notices go out toward the
end of each year announcing that dues
for the coming year are due. When you get the notice, drop
everything (or else you'll forget!) and write a check for US$30
(drawn on a US bank, please), made out to Robert Deierlein/TWNA,
and mail it to him 41 Preston Ave., White Plains, NY 10604.
Questions? Contact him directly at gyrenebob@aol.com, or phone or
fax 914-946-1297.
WE DO HAVE PEOPLE AND MONEY
As of May 1, TWNA has 137
dues-paying members, according to Mr.
Deierlein's count. And notwithstanding the large number of
delinquencies, TWNA is in sound financial shape. He reports that
as of May 1, we have $7,513.77 in our bank account.
***
KUDOS TO SHELL FOR THE NO-ZONE ADS
Most truckers and truck
writers like Shell Oil's latest public
service TV commercials and print ads which warn motorists of a
big rig's blind spots. They show a nicely painted and chromed K-
whopper pulling a box trailer; it's being shadowed alongside, in
the trucker's no-zone, by an appreciative driver ("It's a
beauty," he comments to his kids).
But the motorist is shocked
when the rig begins moving into his
lane. "He can't see you!" the motorist's daughter warns, and the
man hits his brakes. We also get a glimpse of the clean-cut
trucker whose expression shows a man-that-was-close concern.
All in all, it's a really
positive look at the industry and
provides some useful advice to motorists. ('Course, if the
tractor had a fender-mounted spot mirror, its driver could've
seen the car).
***
GREG BERG BATTLING HEART PROBLEMS
TWNA member Greg Berg (who
works with brother Tom on research and
writing projects) is fighting serious congestive heart problems,
which are being treated with medication and a strict diet (no
salt or alcohol). The main problem now is a blood clot inside the
heart, which suffered irreparable damage in an attack about 15
years ago. He is weak and has lost a lot of weight, but still
gets around. The upside is that he's quit smoking. His family
would appreciate your prayers, and he would enjoy hearing words
of good cheer at 262-473-7968 or grberg@idcnet.com.
***
MID-AMERICA MEETING REPORT
[EDITOR'S NOTE: David Kolman
wrote the following report shortly
after the annual meeting during MATS in Louisville. The report
then became trapped in his crashed PC, and was resurrected a few
weeks before The Dispatch got on track.]
As usual, TWNA's Annual Meeting during the Mid-America Trucking
Show in Louisville was well attended. This year's gathering was
even more eventful, as the new officers were installed and a new
direction for the association begun. Once again, Peterbilt Motors
sponsored the two-hour meeting.
A summary of what occurred during the meeting follows:
Open-- Following opening
remarks, outgoing president David A.
Kolman (Truck Sales & Leasing), noted that he had decided not to
run for a fourth consecutive term. "I've had the honor and
privilege of serving as president of TWNA for the past 6 years,"
he said, "and I sincerely thank each of you for that confidence
in me."
Answering queries about
what he'd be doing once he was no longer
"El President-For-Life," Kolman said he'd remain "an active
member of our association, but for the immediate future, I'll be
devoting my efforts to raising funds to create the David A.
Kolman Presidential Library." He said donations would be
welcomed.
Introductions-- Kolman then
introduced and thanked the fellow
officers he served with over the past two years: Vice President
Rolf Lockwood (Today's Trucking); Secretary-Treasurer Bob
Deierlein (contributor to Beverage World and Fleet Equipment);
directors Paul Abelson (Super Driver), Jim Mele (Fleet Owner), D.
Mike Pennington (Meritor Automotive), and Denise Rondini
(Successful Dealer and Truck Parts & Service).
Kolman recognized Tom Gelinas
(Fleet Equipment), who handles
TWNA's press event clearing house, and Frank Conte (Owner
Operator), who maintains TWNA's membership roster.
As was his practice, Kolman
then had attendees stand and
introduce themselves. Some of the introductions were quite
amusing, including one by Jim Bald (Fleet Maintenance
Supervisor), who explained that he'd taken a job as Kolman's
security advisor because, "It's not unusual for the
bullet-riddled bodies of ex-presidents-for-life to end up lying
around somewhere."
Bald suggested banishing
Kolman to a small country that doesn't
have diplomatic relations with the U.S. Another option, he said,
would be to put Kolman into the federal witness protection
program, and asked attendees to come up with a new identity for
him. Bald closed by recommending to Kolman that he never sit with
his back to the door and always have an escape route planed.
Election Results-- This
being an election year (officers serve
for two years), Kolman announced the results of the balloting.
Ballots were mailed out in February to our 97 Full
members and 97 Allied members. Of those, 37% of the Full Members
and 16% of the Allied members cast their votes. The newly elected
officers are:
* Rolf Lockwood (Today's
Trucking), President; he ran
unopposed.
* Bill Hudgins (Hammock
Publishing/Road King), was elected Vice
President in a close balloting with Carol Birkland (Fleet
Equipment and Transport
Technology Today). Hudgins edged out Birkland by two votes.
* Bob Deierlein (freelance
contributor to Beverage World and
Fleet Equipment), Secretary-Treasurer. He ran unopposed.
Elected as Full Directors from a slate of five were:
* Tom Berg (Super Scribe/Road King, Construction Equipment, etc.)
* Ruth Jones (OOIDA/LandLine).
* Deborah Lockridge (Newport
Communications/Heavy Duty Trucking,
roadStar)
D. Mike Pennington (Meritor
Automotive) was re-elected Allied
director. He ran unopposed.
State of the Group-- Secretary-Treasurer
Bob Deierlein reported
that as of March 20, 2000, TWNA had 189 members on its roster,
although only 129 had renewed their memberships for 2000. TWNA's
treasury had a balance of $7,636.
Deierlein said a committee
had been formed to recommend ways to
best spend the abundance of money in the treasury.
Technical Achievement Award--
Lockwood, who is chairman of the
Awards Selection Committee, said that the winner of the award for
calendar-year 1999 was the Silent Partner muffler from Donaldson
Company. Lockwood made the award presentation during The
Maintenance Council's March meeting.
A TWNA news release on the
award went out to nearly 100 truck
trade and related publications. (That release is contained
elsewhere in this newsletter.)
TWNA Clearing House-- Gelinas
reviewed its purpose: to help avoid
event scheduling conflicts by advising callers of events already
on the calendar. (Suppliers and other groups wishing to hold a
press conference, aside from those at trade shows, should call
Tom Gelinas at 847-359-6100.)
Scholarship Program-- Pennington,
who chairs this committee, told
meeting attendees that there has been very little response to
TWNA's proposed scholarship program. Ideas and suggestions on
developing such a program, along with deciding how the
scholarship would be organized, were discussed. It was
decided that the effort would continue.
Change of Administrations--
Prior to Kolman's turning things over
to the new officers, Abelson officially retired Kolman by tagging
him with a red "Out Of Service" flag, the kind used by roadside
inspectors to red-line equipment.
Before leaving the lectern,
Kolman commented: "I believe our
association has made some real progress over the past six years.
And I believe there's plenty of opportunities ahead for our
association, and I know your new administration is excited about
the possibilities.
"I am deeply proud
of the confidence you've had in me, and I have
constantly worked hard to merit it. There is no way to express
the extraordinary privilege it has been to be president of this
great association. My sincerest thanks.
"And with that,"
concluded Kolman, "I will now turn the program
over to your new president, Rolf Lockwood."
Lockwood responded with
his first official greeting: "Hello,
flock." Clearly, it's a new administration.
He went on to outline his
priorities. Among these: Expand the
capabilities of TWNA's web site, work better with the general
media, explore the possibility of bringing in speakers to TWNA
functions, and increase TWNA's effectiveness through greater
membership participation.
[The press release on TWNA's
Tech Award, mentioned in Kolman's
report, follows...]
For Immediate Release
For Details, Contact:
Rolf Lockwood
Today's Trucking
(416) 614-2200
Donaldson Wins Writers' Award
TWNA Honors Engineering
Excellence with the
10th Annual Technical Achievement Award
Nashville, TN, March 2000:
The Silent Partner muffler made by
Donaldson Company has won the 10th annual Truck Writers of North
America (TWNA) Technical Achievement Award for calendar-year
1999.
Introduced a year ago, the
Silent Partner is a bolt-in
replacement for standard vertical truck mufflers, but it has the
ability to minimize the staccato bark of an engine brake. It
reduces that noise sufficiently that Donaldson's long warranty
includes the promise to pay any fines relating to excessive noise
if the truck is equipped with its product.
The award announcement was
made at The Maintenance Council's
Awards Luncheon, held during its annual meeting in Nashville, TN,
in early March. Rolf Lockwood, editorial director of Today's
Trucking and Highway STAR magazines and chairman of the TWNA
Technical Achievement Award selection committee, presented the
winner's trophy to Rod Kunkel. He is director of global
transportation at Donaldson.
The TWNA Technical Achievement
Award celebrates engineering or
design excellence in a new product or service that improves
business life for the truck operators of North America. It must
be something with the potential to have a broad effect on the
industry. Whole trucks are not eligible.
Past winners include Grote
Industries, which has since sponsored
the award, plus Cummins and Navistar (twice each), Goodyear,
Caterpillar, Meritor and Eaton. Last year's winner was the
Cummins Signature 600 engine.
All TWNA members are free
to nominate candidates for the award,
but the winner is ultimately chosen by a committee, comprised
this year of trucking journalists Paul Abelson, Super Driver
audio tape magazine; John Baxter, Owner Operator magazine; Tom
Berg, Super Scribe, Inc.; Carol Birkland, Fleet Equipment
magazine; Bill Hudgins, Road King magazine; Jim Mele, Fleet Owner
magazine; Paul Richards, Commercial Carrier Journal; Andrew
Ryder, Heavy Duty Trucking magazine, and Steve Sturgess, roadStar
magazine.
Tied for second place were
the side-by-side cooling system of the
Peterbilt 387 tractor and the Eaton Fuller Lightning
transmission. Also in the running this year was Air-Weigh's
AW5600 on-board scale.
Founded in November 1988,
the Truck Writers of North America is
an organization of professionals who are involved in the business
of producing information and news about trucks, trucking and the
trucking industry. TWNA has members in the U.S., Canada, Mexico
and Europe.
The TWNA's objectives include:
improve the quality of trucking
journalism; serve as an information source and referral service
for the non-truck trade media as it reports on the trucking
industry; function as a watchdog over the non-truck trade media
and respond to inaccurate, incorrect or biased reporting on
trucking industry-related matters, and promote a positive image
of the trucking industry.
***
Laugh It Off...
WHEN 'MACK TRUCK' AIN'T BIG ENOUGH:
"Los Alamos was hit
by an 18-wheeler, and the government was
driving the 18-wheeler." --New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson,
commenting on the National Park Service's controlled burn on May
4 that blew into a devastating wildfire. [From wire service
reports]
ANOTHER REASON TO KICK THE HABIT [From wire service reports]
A mother and her infant
son were killed on May 19 by a freight
train she apparently didn't see. Police in North Sacramento,
Calif., said the woman, 22, had bought cigarettes at a store and
was walking across the tracks with her baby, 5 months, when the
train, moving about 40 mph, hit her.
IN OTHER MOTORING EVENTS
IN RECENT MONTHS [from News of the
Weird]...
Why bother?-- A mother in
Englewood, Fla., had just scolded her
teenage son for not taking better care of his '95 Mercury Cougar
when a small Cessna, its engine sputtering, cleared some nearby
trees and plunged nose-first into the car. Both vehicles were
heavily damaged, but the plane's pilot was not hurt.
Aha!-- Suspicious police
in Spokane, Wash., decided to arrest a
32-year-old motorist they had stopped when the only way he could
turn off the car's ignition was with a pliers and screwdriver.
Sure enough, the car had been stolen.
Size matters-- A 30-year-old
motorcyclist was crushed to death
near Phoenix after an apparent incident of road rage involving
the driver of a pickup truck. The motorcyclist sped up quickly to
overtake the pickup, swerved in front of it and then deliberately
slammed on the brakes. The end.
***
GOT NEWS? DISPATCH IT TO THE DISPATCH!
###