Russell M. Middleton - Examples of Trucks I've Driven
This site originally published in MICHIGAN.

Russell M. Middleton Click to go Home

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Examples of the trucks (not the actual vehicles) I drove in the USA. (Hover over each image to open a text box with the Model, Engine, Transmission and Suspension of the truck I drove.) The beginning: 1976 - 1978 Sun Prairie Wisconsin Truck Driving School Marquette Fabricators (building trusses) Sparta, Michigan Spring Air Mattress Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan OJ Trucking over the road, subcontracted to CDB Inc. Kentwood, Michigan Dave Steggerda over the road, subcontracted to CDB Inc. Kentwood, Michigan Over the road trucking for CDB Inc. meant delivering dry freight from the Amway World Headquarters, Ada, Michigan to distribution facilities in Jamesburg(?), New Jersey; Atlanta, Georgia; Arlington, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Santa Ana, California. Examples of tractor rear tandem suspensions. Progressive Heat Treating: 1978 - 1994 Grand Rapids, Michigan I was hired primarily to do the 140 mile roundtrip to the former Lindell Drop Forge in Lansing, Michigan, carrying nearly 25 tons of forgings each way. By the early '80s when the '73 White/Freightliner's reliability diminished, we purchased the Freightliner, a lighter tractor, I could legally scale a full 25 tons. Business picked up to where I was making 9 trips per week keeping the furnace operating 24/7. Note: With exception of the first White/Freightliner on the left, I was consulted as to the type of tractor I thought would be most efficient for Progressive Heat Treating. The owner of Progressive wishing to avoid the substantial depreciation on new trucks only bought used. I chose COE because of manoeuvrability and visibility. As the lead and often the only driver, I was responsible for driving, record keeping (miles travelled & fuel used per state), truck maintenance, and filing 'road tax' forms in four states quarterly. To facilitate the record keeping and tax payment, I designed and implemented a data collection application using Lotus123(dos) spreadsheet running on an IBM PC AT. Whether this had any impact on the corporate bottom line I may never know. A comparison of technique required by the different engines by Brad Nelson "Tales of a Hay Hauler: ‘Old Iron’" published 16 September 2009. For a brief period during the 1980s and 1990s American truck drivers enjoyed truck-tractors with maneuverability and visibility comparable to European trucks. After the full effect of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA 1982), removing over-all length restrictions for combination vehicles on the "National Network" (which is comprised of the Interstate system plus the non-Interstate Federal-aid Primary System), worked its way through the transportation industry most American truck manufactures withdrew their line haul Cab Over Engine (COE) models. Trucking: Cabovers, back when trucking was trucking (by trucker5933). To the song "Prisoner of the Highway" written by Mike Reid, and recorded by Ronnie Milsap. Great Cabovers of the Past (by John Rutledge) Tribute to The International 9700 and 9800 COE (by Gear_Jammer24). Pictures of American made International/Navistar 9700 set-back axle COE. Thanks to Google Images. Note: many 9700s where sold abroad after being taken out of service in North America. Progressive Heat Treating Co, 341 Grant St SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, specialised in the heat treating of carbon steels, using the austempering, martempering and normalizing processes. Progressive was founded by David Gaylord in 1976, and he served as its president until the company was sold in 1999. Since Progressive was a small shop it was able to stay non-union and paid approximately 75% of the prevailing union wage. Progressive operated 24/7, manned by less than 20 employees, with seldom more than one truck on the road. "On 15 April 1999, the Bodycote Group the Worlds leading supplier of specialist metallurgical services acquired the entire issued share capital of Progressive Heat Treatment Company ("Progressive") of Grand Rapids Michigan for a total consideration of US$3.9 million (£2.4 million) which was paid in cash. Progressive was founded in 1976 and provides austemper continuous furnace heat treatment for a range of automotive, furniture and stamping industry customers throughout the Great Lakes area. Profits before tax for the year ended 30 November 1998 were $1.1 million (£683,000) on turnover of $3.2 million (£2 million). The net assets acquired amounted to $766,000 (£476,000)." After the sale of Progressive, David and his wife Mary gifted $1.5 million to Michigan Technological University were he had earned a B.S. in metallurgical engineering in 1964. (In December 1999 the Bodycote Group also bought T&D Heat Treatment Inc., of Cadillac, Michigan, for $1.40 million of which Dave was part owner when I left Progressive in 1994.) An aside: Heat treatment, the worlds oldest industrial process. My decision to leave Progressive in early 1994 was driven by several factors: A change in working conditions. (specifically the addition of driving on weekends) If I wasn't willing to work weekends, the hiring of a part-time driver to operate (my?) truck. After sixteen years I wasn't thrilled about sharing my "office" space. (representation of "my" office) Press the 'ENGINE START' button to hear the sound I heard over 10,000 times. Since my late wife, Gail, and I had moved closer to her job in Lansing, Michigan in 1988, I had been commuting 110 miles per day plus upwards of 400 miles in the truck. Working weekends really wasn't an option. Upon my departure from Progressive Heat Treating in early 1994 I started pursuing, part-time, an Associate Business Degree, which I accomplished in December of 2002, graduating Summa Cum Laude from Lansing Community College.(in the top 1% of my class) My studies in Microcomputer Support encouraged me to go online just as the World Wide Web was beginning to take off. As I used the Web more and more for research into my many and varied interests I discovered some disquieting data about my life's career as a truck driver. Truckers are not included under the Fair Labor Standards Act, therefore carriers are not compelled to pay them an hourly wage. "Truck drivers were fatally injured on the job more than any other individual occupation." ~ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor - NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2000. "The Lodge Freeway was closed for more than five hours Monday just outside downtown Detroit following an accident that killed the driver of a semi-tractor trailer. The driver, whose name was not released, was thrown from the truck and hit a Grand Trunk Railroad bridge abutment on the Lodge near the ramp from westbound Interstate 94. The driver of the empty steel hauling truck was trying to merge onto the Lodge about 4:15 p.m. when "he was cut off by a white Chevy," said Trooper Calvin Hart, of the Michigan State Police Detroit Post. Troopers said the white Chevrolet did not stop." (emphasis added) ~ The Detroit News, Tuesday, April 14, 1998 "Tractor-trailers have a higher fatal crash rate than passenger vehicles, even though they travel mostly on interstates - the safest roads." ~ Insurance Institute for Highway Safety "Truckers are at fault in 29 percent of all fatal crashes involving big rigs, compared to 67 percent for passenger vehicle drivers." ~ Federal Highway Administration In the article Driver Retention: Truckers try to stop the exodus by Sarah Stone, published in TRANSPORTATION TRUCKING REPORT 1999. "Another thorny issue is the long waits some drivers have at loading docks, for which they are usually not paid. Often they are faced with either doing the unloading themselves or having to hire laborers to unload for them. When former American Trucking Associations chairman Edward Trout talked personally to truckers, they all said that was one of their two biggest gripes (along with lack of respect)." (emphasis added) Atmosphere Annealing: 1994 - 2001 Lansing, Michigan Starting in a truck of 80,000 lbs. Gross Combined Weight. Ending in a truck of 121,000 lbs. Gross Combined Weight. This transition to larger capacity equipment occurred as the result of extensive lobbying on my part to allow us (the company) to keep one of our larger customers by increasing transportation productivity as opposed to a rate decrease proposed by the customer. As a result of my efforts I suffered ostracism by the other company drivers for 6 months. And even though I was moving 50% more freight each day and had a perfect work attendance record, my employer could not see any reason to increase my salary. Even a stubborn truck driver eventually knows when his services are no longer appreciated. Thanks to Google Street View, here is the actual truck. AAA study reveals car drivers cause most fatal crashes with big trucks Canadian Driver July 24, 2002 Deadliest Jobs in the U.S. in 2018

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Truck Image Sources:
http://www.rockleatruckparts.com.au/photos/108.jpg
http://www.supplyline.com/equ_gifs/22389.jpg
http://digilander.libero.it/dodgeram/Gmc_Astro_95_6x4t.jpg
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/loeb/gmc80001_sml.jpg
http://zoom.sandhills.com/truck/70452677.fpx?WID=908&HEI=600&RGN=0.000000,0.000000,1.513514,1.000000&cache=1&CVT=jpeg
http://www.tristatetrailer.com/images/models/full/dry_freight_vans.jpg
http://www.truckcentersinc.com/images/FLC112.JPG
http://www.selectrucksofsacramento.com/thumbnails/71035639.jpg
http://www.macktrucks.com/assets/mack/history/1962_fmodel_big.jpg
http://www.6066gmctrucks.org/biggmc/1964-LW6500-1b.jpg
http://www.truckpaper.com/images/truck/fullsize/70136339.jpg
http://www.truckpaper.com/images/truck/fullsize/71017509.jpg
http://www.fairground-circus.com/circus/images/c294.jpg
http://www.manactrailers.com/www/emanac.nsf/MA-211.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:International_9700.JPG

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