With U.S. housing starts rising to a 717,000 annual rate in April, construction has improved 50% from the low of 478,000 in April 2009.  As construction continues to improve, it’s certainly a “rising-tide environment” for truckers and trucking companies – not only on the road – but evidently in the media as well.  As this report from Bloomberg points out, if starts were to remain above 750,000 for a 12-month period, 4,000 more trucks would be needed.  It even seems a proposed new highway bill is aimed at making room for them (see A Faster Lane for Trucks?).
And this heartwarming story in The National Post (The Long Haul) features a trucker with star power.  His dedication led to a perfect driving record – and perhaps even more impressively, a golden wedding anniversary.  At 69, Ken McCarty’s age “makes him a rarity on the road, but what makes him even more exceptional are the more than four million miles he has logged behind the wheel.  Imagine driving from Halifax to Vancouver and back — 550 times. He never speeds, and he pays attention to the road, a road he is on for 966 kilometres (600 miles) a day, most days.”