Thanks Trucking Industry * USA: If Trucks Stopped...

(Vi

deo by CDLLife - Oct 22, 2014)
-- How fast would the well-oiled machine known as America sputter and stall if truck drivers weren’t bringing us everything we need? The ATA says, “Pretty quick" ... In less than a week, hospitals will run out of basic medical supplies like insulin, bandages and blood. Runs on food and supply markets will eradicate any surplus of food, fuel and essentials... In less than a month, the entire healthcare system will grind to a halt for anything but the most vital of surgeries or the simplest of treatments. Every factory in North America will be offline and no one will be paid. Cities will become cesspools as garbage trucks cease to haul waste, and sewer trucks no longer bust the bilge-clogged water and sewer lines... Only the most politically connected rich and powerful will be able to locate and afford anything. Within a month, America transforms into a third world country, drowning under the weight of its crumbling infrastructure and waste... So the next time you see a truck driver, shake their hand and tell them “Thank you” ... They work hard so your family gets what they need, every day of the year...

NOT ALL IT'S TECHNOLOGY * USA - An old-fashioned trucking company offering today’s investors a glimpse of what’s to come

* Trucking company shows today’s investors a glimpse of what’s to come

... Frustrated by Swift Transportation’s co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Moyes, the company’s shareholders will be voting at Friday’s annual meeting whether to eliminate a dual-share structure that grants him control. Owners of Facebook and other similarly feudalistic frameworks one day may find themselves similarly frustrated... Mr. Moyes and his family began in 1966 with a single truck. Once expanded to 800, the company went public in 1990 with one class of shares. Mr. Moyes resigned as chairman and chief executive in 2005 after paying $1.5 million to settle insider-trading allegations, and then took the company private. When Swift returned to the market in 2010, at a discount to the buyout valuation, Mr. Moyes tightened his grip with special shares carrying twice the votes... Though the $3.5 billion company has performed well, with the stock growing nearly twice as fast as the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index since going public again, Mr. Moyes has found ways to irritate shareholders. He is bumping up against the company’s cap on shares that can be pledged on margin, and has offered up many millions more as collateral in other personal transactions... These shares would convert to ordinary ones if seized. The potential dilution understandably spooks other investors, as would Mr. Moyes’ earlier agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and that the professional hockey team he owned filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009... More than three-quarters of the lesser-powered shares voted in 2014 to eradicate the fief, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has put the matter on the ballot again... Putting aside that two of the three have imploded, the control-ceding example set in the tech and media industries by companies including Google and 21st Century Fox is not one to be emulated. Some young leaders, including even Mr. Moyes many years ago, may deserve to operate unrestrained for a while... Inevitably, however, their choices increasingly tend to be at odds with the greater good. Facebook already is facing a quixotic vote next month to strip its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg of his super-voting regime. Odds are, however, that like Mr. Moyes, he’ll just keep on truckin’...
New York, NY, USA - The New York Times, by JEFFREY GOLDFARB - May 7, 2015

FEMALE TRUCK TECHNICIAN * USA: Repairing big rigs

* Minnesota - Breaking barriers while fixing trucks

-- Greasy black hands and a dull gray shirt can't hide the bright smile Nicole Porter wears as she steps up to a semitractor-trailer... After working in the parts and service industry in her home state of Utah, Porter started her education at WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming. Porter was part of the inaugural Diesel Advanced Technology Education program, designed in part by Volvo Trucks. DATE is an accelerated program to put students on the fast track to securing a master technician status in the field... Now the 26-year-old spends her days at GATR Truck Center troubleshooting and repairing Volvo big rigs. Along with entering a male-dominated profession, Porter is a few classes away from receiving the highest level of certification for Volvo mechanics. And she will be the first female to do so... 
(Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.com - Nicole Porter, 26, pauses to talk during the replacement of an alternator April 2 on a Volvo semitractor-trailer. Porter is on pace to become the first female master technician for Volvo Trucks) -- Sauk Rapids, MN, USA - The St Cloud Times, by Vicki Ikeogu - April 18, 2015