Category: News

The trucking industry is unlike any other. With drivers required to maintain focus on the road at all times, DOT and individual companies are extremely careful with drug policies to maintain safe driving on the road.

Even a single positive drug test will usually cause a driver to be fired and go through an SAP program, or a Substance Abuse Program. Whiteline Express, for example, is zero tolerance.

Because of this, one would assume that failed drug tests are not that common in the trucking industry. That assumption is dead wrong.

Failed marijuana tests are becoming a huge issue in the trucking industry

Quest Diagnostics recently released a report showing how common positive marijuana drug tests were in the trucking industry. The numbers were. . . jarring.

Since 2020, there have been over 100,000 positive tests in the industry. Each year, the number has risen and continues to rise, with over 9,000 through March of 2023.

Marijuana isn’t the only drug coming up on tests though. Since 2020, there have been over 30,000 positive cocaine tests and over 16,000 positive tests for methamphetamines.

Perhaps the positive marijuana tests are a result of the legalization of the drug throughout certain states in the US. Regardless, it’s becoming a huge problem, with some drivers struggling to maintain a job without a failed test. The numbers are as clear as day.

Trucking and Taylor Swift are not two words that you’ll often hear in the same sentence. It’s unlikely that the average truck driver is a fan of the global pop star.

That said, Swift is employing more truck drivers than 95% of trucking companies. That’s right, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is going to be bringing along around 90 semi-trucks, according to The New York Post. This is supported by a photograph posted in Reddit’s r/Truckers showcasing a small portion of her tour fleet.

Guess that makes it the second-largest Swift fleet in America. Sorry, bad joke.

Why does Taylor Swift need so many semi-trucks?

The first question when you hear about Taylor Swift’s 90-truck fleet is simple: why? Why does she need so many trucks and what is in all of these trucks?

Unfortunately, the answer is vague and extremely unsatisfying. That said, it can be explained away by looking at Swift’s elaborate and physically demanding stage sets. The pop star sees multiple set changes per concert. But how can she afford that much in logistics fees, you ask?

According to Forbes, the Eras Tour could bring Swift over $600 million. Yeah.

This makes sense, as the cheapest tickets for her concerts are hovering around $1,000. Taylor Swift knows how to draw a crowd.

Truck drivers will experience a handful of inevitabilities throughout their career. Whether that be getting pulled over, having a vehicle issue, or being involved in an accident, negative things are bound to happen. It’s the nature of the job.

One inevitability that no truck driver is looking forward to is encountering a bridge that is too low.

Despite the fact that there are usually plentiful warning signs. . . stuff happens. If you’re active on social media, you probably see a new photo or video every week – no matter what precautions are taken, semi-trucks will continue to run into bridges.

This truck driver just showed all truckers what to do if they’re approaching a bridge that is too low

Approaching a bridge that is too low can be a huge dilemma for a truck driver. It’s easy to panic or do the wrong thing. Earlier this week, a truck driver gave a strong example of what to do if you’re approaching a low bridge.

Though it may seem like common sense, the best option is never to drive under a bridge and hope for the best. When in doubt, stop your truck and pull over.

That’s what a truck driver in Houston, Texas did earlier this week when they realized that their oversized load was not going to fit under a bridge. The driver had no way of turning off of an exit. Instead of powering through, the driver stopped and alerted the police.

Unfortunately, this mistake caused a huge backup but the alternative would have been a crash straight into the bridge. The semi-truck had to be escorted the wrong direction on the highway by police.

The entire ordeal took over two hours. Still, it was the right choice.

Make sure you’re watching signage on the road for clearance heights. If you miss it, be prepared. Drivers crash into bridges all the time – it’s easy to avoid being one of them.

One thing that is unique and highly-appreciated in the trucking industry is the resilience of the job market. No matter what type of economic change is seen, the trucking job market will, at least generally speaking, remain consistent.

For this reason, nobody was panicking in February when the trucking job market saw a decrease of 5,000 jobs – the largest plummet we’ve seen in a long time.

And just as expected, the jobs have returned.

Over 6,000 jobs have been added to the trucking industry in the last two months

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job industry bounced back from its 5,000-job plummet with a spike of over 3,000 in March. This was followed by another 3,000 in April.

Still, this leaves the industry behind the extremely hefty bar that was set last year. That number was 61,000 in 2022 – one that likely will not be reached by the end of this year.

That said, transportation jobs are way up as a whole and have followed a similar trend to trucking-specific jobs. Transportation-related jobs as a whole rose by 11,000 last month and has jumped a total of 38,000 total on the year. Last year, the industry jumped by 261,000 jobs.

Another day, another bizarre trucking story.

Earlier this week, a trucker parked in Philadelphia had an estimated $100,000 stolen from their truck. But as you can see by the title, this wasn’t your ordinary robbery. The truck in question was transporting $750,000 worth of dimes, according to NBC News. The break-in was reported at 6:00 AM northeast of Philadelphia in a Walmart parking lot.

The crime seems like an odd one. Coins are extremely heavy, especially when they are that low in value, and the payout only yielded 15% of the truck’s value. Plus, the money could easily be tracked.

The dime robbers left money all over the ground

If you thought that this was a well-organized, thought-out plan, you were wrong. The robbers used bolt cutters to get into the truck and proceeded to take the dimes, which were kept in bags, and transfer them into their own containers. Throughout this process, they spilled dimes everywhere.

https://twitter.com/Emme0703/status/1646878999786803201?s=20

That’s right – if you’re not good at math, this dime theft took 1,000,000 dimes. That equates to nearly 5,000 pounds.

Again, this crime seems. . . inefficient.

As of this morning, authorities are searching for a White Chrysler 300 with tinted windows. They’re also searching for a “dark colored pickup truck” that presumably carried the cargo once it was stolen.

Even though the connection might not be obvious, the trucking industry is no stranger to the dark and mysterious. Whether it’s a haunted truck stop or a disaster on the road, scary things happen all the time. It’s unavoidable in an industry that employs over 6 million people across the United States.

If you’re reading this article at night, you may want to close it out.

This week, we saw another example of a creepy occurrence captured on a truck driver’s dashcam at night.

https://twitter.com/TheSun/status/1637778515306377216?s=20

Even if the trucker’s video doesn’t show a ghost, it’s extremely creepy

The video originally depicts something that looks like a human standing next to the road. In fact, most attentive drivers would go so far as to move their vehicle out of the way. This includes William Church, the driver who saw the ghost, who actually twitched the wheel to miss whoever it was.”

Church states that while he originally thought he had seen a human, a review of the dashcam footage showed that the figure did not appear to have an upper half. Despite the bottom half of the figure seemingly having two legs standing up, this one remains a mystery to this day.

Either way, it’s not something that you’d want to see while driving down the road. Best case, it’s some sort of animal or a reflection of one. Worst case, you just saw a ghost – a few feet further into the road and it could have caused any driver to swerve out of the way and crash.