BigRoad Blog

Effective April 24 2017, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has increased fines for violating trucking regulations. Read on to learn more about these new adjustments, and get a detailed overview of each violation fine increase. 

Maintaining your vehicle through winter can be tough. The cold temperatures, driving conditions, and salt on the roads all affect how your vehicle looks and runs. Now that winter is behind us and spring is here, it’s time to refresh your rig! Get your truck in tip top shape by following these three steps.

To quote Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” The same can be said for trucking, every day on the road is different. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a truck carrying chips collides with a truck carrying beer to fulfill every snack lovers dreams!

2016 is a wrap! It was a challenging yet newsworthy year that, for many, won't be remembered fondly. In what’s sure to be another winding road ahead for the trucking industry, what will 2017 bring? Set some resolutions to put yourself in the driver’s seat and rock your year!

The trucking industry saw a huge year in 2016! Headlines were made as autonomous trucks inched toward reality (while delivering beer no less). The electronic logging device (ELD mandate) and its aftermath saw court challenges and confusion as we head into 2017.

Below, as determined by our BigRoad Blog readers, here are the top 10 most-read stories of 2016:

If Santa didn’t have his own private sleigh to fly, he'd be a trucker! This holiday season, let’s thank the truck drivers out there. They work hard, all hours of the day, away from their families, to give us a merry Christmas.

At the start of every year, people make New Year’s resolutions to improve themselves or their lives. Usually they don’t really pan out for the whole year - just look at the drop off of people going to the gym after February. But I say stick to it! If you do it long enough, it will be routine and you’ll be happier in the long run.

Here are BigRoad’s Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Drivers in 2016.

With Thanksgiving behind us, December is a hectic month. The closer we get to the holidays, the more frantic it is: buying presents, baking, cooking, events with friends and family and more shopping. All of the items we need for these activities are available - usually the only thing missing is time!

This holiday, not only should we leave out cookies for Santa, but also say a thank you to truck drivers. They lend a big hand (and rig) to ensuring all the food, gifts, supplies, parcels arrive at their destinations on time. It’s actually a lot of work!

How much work?

Thanksgiving, whether Canadian or American, is a great time of year. It brings together families, food and, if you are lucky, you usually get some time off as well. Folks gather round and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. The local stores and shopping malls are usually pretty crazy - not just leading up to Thanksgiving but especially the day before...and heaven knows the day after as well!

As much as we complain about what a pain it is to get to the store during these busy periods, it’s actually pretty convenient. And who do we have to thank? We have truck drivers to thank! These are the folks who transport all the goodies cross country so that we can step out to the store and easily access everything we need.

On Saturday October 17, BigRoad attended the Truck Convoy in Paris, Ontario which is a two-day event benefitting the Special Olympics. It was such a great event! We met a lot of different people - drivers, volunteers, families and even representatives from the Special Olympics organization itself.