Welcome to the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Newsletter presented by Truckstop: The most trusted loadboard. In this issue, Lucky the Pig’s trucking tale; weight loss for drivers; Storrowed.
Lucky one
Pig out — Back in May of last year, Lars Gradel, Rebecca Zajac and her 7-year-old son Colton were driving down I-215 in Nevada when they saw a piglet fall out of a truck.
“We saw a pig fly out the side of the truck, and he tumbled about 10, 15 times down the side of the freeway.” – Lars Gradel to FOX5 Vegas
The group quickly sprung into action to grab the piglet before oncoming traffic could hit it. Despite the truck traveling over 60 mph at the time and the pig bouncing a few times, he was OK.
They named the pig Lucky for obvious reasons. According to their vet, he was only 12-14 weeks old and weighed under 20 pounds.
The Zajac family kept Lucky in their backyard, but since his breed can grow to be 700 pounds, he needed to be moved to an animal sanctuary.
Over a year later and Lucky is now a 300-pound hoss who even has his own sponsorship deals.
Rebecca Zajac told FOX5, “We were lucky to have him fall into our laps and that he lives around the corner from us. We just hang out with him, and it makes our day to see him happy, thriving and giant.”
If you’d like to donate, volunteer or visit Lucky and the All Friends Animal Sanctuary, go here.
Can a truck driver weight loss program work for a podcaster?
Shape up or ship out – Back in April of this year, my dad had a heart attack and needed bypass surgery. This lit a fire under my keister as my dad isn’t overweight yet 99% of his arteries were clogged. I knew I had about 30 pounds to lose, and it was time to take it seriously.
So, I contacted Mark Manera at Offshift and joined his program, which is designed for drivers. Using that in combination with a calorie tracker (MyFitnessPal), I’ve been able to shed 21 of those 30 pounds over the past three months.
We may think of truckers as sedentary, but how many desk jockey brokers (and podcasters) are getting their steps in?
What’s worked for me about the program is that the workouts are guided in the app and are relatively short: about eight minutes per session and they give you two a day. A lot of the work is tracking those calories and staying within goals.
What’s been great about doing this weight loss journey publicly is all the DMs I’ve been getting from people in the industry who have been inspired to get healthy as well.
If you’d like more info on the program, click here. If you’d like to know more about my diet and daily goals, DM me on social media or email me here.
Storrowed
With teeth – Storrow Drive in Boston has claimed the tops of many box trucks and semis that have dared squeeze their 12-foot-6 frames into its 10-foot-6 passage. It is even enshrined in the most important dictionary of them all: the Urban Dictionary.
Urban Dictionary
Despite all those signs, why do trucks keep slamming into it? While many people may think it’s just college kids in U-hauls moving into town for the first time, a shocking number of out-of-state professional drivers hit it as well.
Chris Amaral, owner of Safe Responsible Movers in Boston, told Boston.com, “One misconception about ‘Storrowing’ is that many folks blame college students, but from what I’ve seen it’s overwhelmingly professional drivers who aren’t based in Boston.”
WTTGear.com
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WTT Friday
Inside Korber’s acquisition of MercuryGate; tech vs. cargo theft; hurricane loads — Friday live at 12 p.m. Eastern, we’re diving into deals, tech and hurricane freight.
- – Korber’s Rik Schrader talks about their big deal for MercuryGate.
- – WeatherOptics’ Scott Pecoriello looks at fallout from Hurricane Debby and looks ahead to how the rest of the storm season could impact freight.
- – Verified Carrier’s Andrey Drotenko talks about the $700 million-a-year cargo theft problem this industry faces and how Verified Carrier is fighting back.
Catch new shows live at noon EDT Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, X or YouTube, or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player and at 5 p.m. Eastern on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Trucking Channel 146.
Now on demand
FreightTech M&A heats up in August; engine tech; community-driven freight
Will stock market sell-off kill freight recovery; best lanes to run now
The rest of the noise
- J.B. Hunt, Kodiak break 50,000-mile mark on autonomous lane
- Don’t call it a comeback: Surge fights out of bankruptcy
- Border agents snag over $48M in meth from Mexico, cocaine bound for Canada
- U.S. container ports face record surge ahead of possible port strike
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Exit through the gift shop: WTTGear.com
Don’t be a stranger,
Dooner