A blog for and about owner-operators and drivers (and for fleet folks who want to understand them better.)
Where do drivers learn mountain-driving techniques? It's sure not from the typical state CDL manual. Jim Park shares what he learned following a deadly 2019 Colorado crash.
As a former driver, Equipment Editor Jim Park thinks many drivers could use some refresher training on how to inspect brakes on one knee or how to apply brakes when the ABS isn't working.
Car drivers take their lives in their hands when they misbehave around big trucks. Now we have technology that will help keep them safe. But what about the truck and the truck driver?
The latest behind-the-scenes video from Nikola's Trevor Milton reveals more details about the hydrogen-electric truck and shows he has high expectations for its success. But HDT's Jim Park says at this point, he's still long on promises but short on mileage.
Convincing drivers that camera/monitor systems are at least as good as, if not better than, traditional mirrors will probably take no more than a few hours of driving with them. That was Equipment Editor Jim Park's experience with MirrorEye. But he's still not convinced there’s any real need to abandon silvered glass.
For all the time, money and effort spent on platooning over the past eight years, we probably could have had a nationwide north-south and east-west LCV network in place, contends HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park in his On the Road blog.
Equipment Editor Jim Park, himself a driver and owner-operator for 20 years, disagrees with the notion of a driver shortage. There are 10 million CDL holders in the U.S. and only 3.7 million trucks requiring CDL drivers. How is that a shortage?
The NTSB has determined that the actions of a human truck driver was a probable cause in a collision with an autonomous shuttle bus. The driver behaved as drivers have always done under the circumstance; but the computer-controlled shuttle did not.
GPS is clearly the navigation method of choice in trucking, and amongst the general population, but chronic GPS users might be doing their brains a disservice, and missing out on a lot of excitement by getting lost once in a while, says Equipment Editor Jim Park in his latest blog.
It's easy to get excited and stay excited about fuel economy when you can see positive change coming from your efforts. When I saw the numbers creeping up into the 10s on a recent test drive in a Peterbilt 579 EPIQ, I started pushing for 11. And it worked.
Each day, thousands of truck drivers in places like western Pennsylvania and California and Montana and West Virginia manage to get their trucks down similarly dangerous mountain grades. What went so horribly wrong in Lakewood? HDT's Jim Park, who was a driver for 20 years, digs into the possibilities in his On the Road blog.
A tragic collision involving a bus with a junior hockey team and a tractor trailer took 16 lives. The contrite driver pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing – but should he shoulder all of the blame? Blog commentary by Equipment Editor Jim Park.
This year hasn't yet faded from the rear-view mirror, and HDT's Jim Park is already looking forward to 2019. The technology advances we have been watching over the past few years look finally to be coming to fruition, and some of those new bits will be hitting the street in 2019, some within the first few months of the New Year.
Rarely do editors get to evaluate fuel economy on test drives. On a recent three-day "Performance Tour" trip in a Mack Anthem, Equipment Editor Jim Park turned in a trip average of 9.5 mpg, with a high of 10.4 on the second leg of the trip. Read how Mack's new engine technology made that possible.
A fatal accident in New Mexico is a sobering reminder that proper reaction and proven driving techniques are key to ensuring that a truck remains under the driver's control in the event of a tire blowout — even a steer tire failure.
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