Ever wondered how a simple dashboard camera can transform your appreciation for the open road? Join me, Walter Gatlin, as I add my podcast to Rumble for a visual experience. I take you on an enchanting journey through Iowa’s scenic highways, accompanied by tales and tunes that celebrate the essence of trucking. This episode of Rollin' 18 promises breathtaking views on Rumble, thanks to my new video content showcasing the lush green fields and serene rolling hills of Iowa. All links are down below. Along the way, I'll share some classic trucker songs from legends like Red Simpson, Red Savine, and Dave Dudley, and even recommend a timeless tune that every trucker and road enthusiast should add to their playlist.
But it’s not all about the beauty of the drive and nostalgic melodies. I also highlight the "Nothing Without Trucking" campaign from Trucker News, a powerful initiative that is reshaping the public image of the trucking industry and emphasizing its critical role in our economy. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the dedication and hard work of truck drivers everywhere. So, grab your coffee, sit back, and join me for an enlightening and entertaining ride that celebrates the spirit of trucking and the stunning American landscapes we get to traverse.
Ever wondered how a simple dashboard camera can transform your appreciation for the open road? Join me, Walter Gatlin, as I add my podcast to Rumble for a visual experience. I take you on an enchanting journey through Iowa’s scenic highways, accompanied by tales and tunes that celebrate the essence of trucking. This episode of Rollin' 18 promises breathtaking views on Rumble, thanks to my new video content showcasing the lush green fields and serene rolling hills of Iowa. All links are down below. Along the way, I'll share some classic trucker songs from legends like Red Simpson, Red Savine, and Dave Dudley, and even recommend a timeless tune that every trucker and road enthusiast should add to their playlist.
But it’s not all about the beauty of the drive and nostalgic melodies. I also highlight the "Nothing Without Trucking" campaign from Trucker News, a powerful initiative that is reshaping the public image of the trucking industry and emphasizing its critical role in our economy. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the dedication and hard work of truck drivers everywhere. So, grab your coffee, sit back, and join me for an enlightening and entertaining ride that celebrates the spirit of trucking and the stunning American landscapes we get to traverse.
Text me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at (641) 990-5641. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Rollin' 18 Podcast. This 40-year veteran is here for anyone wanting to stay up to date with the trucking world. Grab your coffee, hop on board and let's get on down the road with Walter Gatlin.
Speaker 3:
Hello drivers, and welcome to Rollin' 18. I'm your host, walter Gannon. I appreciate you drivers out there downloading my podcast. I believe I'm pretty close to 6,000. This is the number 18th episode and I think I'm doing fairly well. I appreciate all of you folks supporting me in this endeavor.
Speaker 3:
I'm not charging a dime. I don't have any sponsors or anything at the moment. If I do ever get sponsors, they will be short and sweet. I promise you. I'm not going to try and sell you something that I would not myself investigate completely to make sure that it's worth your time to even look at. So let's understand that. First, pretty savvy when it comes to the computer. So let's understand that first, pretty savvy when it comes to the computer. So if I ever get a sponsor for an app, I'm going to make sure it is the most viable and safest app known to man.
Speaker 3:
Now number two I have started putting videos of me driving my truck down the road with my dash cam, because I travel a lot of two lane highways one way and the other way. You don't want to get in the left lane because you'll end up hitting somebody head-on. But anyway, besides that, I go down these highways, the scenery is so beautiful the green grass and the rolling hills out here in Iowa and all the corn popping up and the soybeans. Every once in a while you catch a deer or something running out there in the field. It is pretty cool. So I started putting the podcast on top of video and I think a lot of people like that. I have gotten a couple of requests not many, but a couple of requests. Hey, can you make a video too? I don't want to show you guys my ugly mug. I don't want you guys to freak out and start having a bunch of mini strokes. I am not real bad looking, but I'm old. I'm 60 years old. So let's keep that for the younger generation. They like to go out there and show all kinds of stuff. Let's let them have their fun and we'll stick with the serious stuff like trucking. Every once in a while we'll tell a good joke and have some fun, because isn't that what it's like to be out on the road?
Speaker 3:
Another thing I wanted to bring up too is the old trucking songs. I went through my albums this weekend and I was checking out all my old albums and I come across about six or seven different trucking albums. There's several of them out there. You know you've got Red Simpson, you've got Red Savine, dave Dudley I mean just the list goes on and on and on, with so many great singers back in the day that wrote songs. And you know, if you read the history of truck driving songs, it was, I believe, mgm or one of those big powerhouses came up with the idea hey, let's get some guys together, the guys that like to drive truck and also like to sing songs, let's see if they can put together some trucker songs. And boy, that was the smartest financial move any record label could do, because they sold millions upon millions of those things and it's just amazing songs.
Speaker 3:
But at the end of my podcast I'm going to recommend a classic trucker song. I'm going to play a little sound bite of it. I can't play the whole thing because of copyright issues. I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. I'm going to tell you why you should get it. You know you can go online and get these things all over the place any which way you want to. I'm not going to advocate any type of theft, but I am going to say you can get it any way you want to. I have the original albums on all of these songs, so I'm very proud to have that and they will be passed on to my children.
Speaker 3:
Today's story is about a story that I saw on Trucker News and this was posted on March 22nd and it really caught my attention because it says Nothing Without Trucking Message of Industry's New Image Campaign. Now I know a lot of the government organizations and the big trucking organizations that are outside of driving the truck. You know they're not the people doing all the intricate things of driving, like drivers and shippers and receivers, logistics people, brokers. You know all that stuff. They're outside of the industry. And I don't know if this one is outside of the industry or not. I hope they're within the industry, I hope they're actual people that have actually driven a truck, because it seems to me like they're biting the bit on this one. And it's a good thing because the trucking industry has a new image enhancement campaign with a blunt and forceful message. And this message could help owner operators, it could help lease operators, it could help company-operators, it could help lease operators, it could help company drivers, because it's all about letting people know that nothing without trucking gets done Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 3:
I always gawk at the fact that a lot of these roads that we're barred from being on, they had to be built by us. It's kind of like you know building something really cool and then all of a sudden you come to the door after us. It's kind of like you know building something really cool and then all of a sudden you come to the door after the day it's completed and they poke you in the chest. They hit the bricks, pal, because you're no longer allowed here, and you're like wait a minute, we built this place, it doesn't matter, you're not allowed here. Hit the bricks, isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy to think they took 40-ton vehicles to build this road and we are no longer allowed on it? It's like we gave birth to you but we've got to leave. We're going to let these people take care of you from now on until it breaks down and then they'll call in the big boys and the dump trucks and stuff. They'll go in there and put all that heavy weight on that road and it won't matter to the city, state or whatever. They'll let them do it because they're repairing. We build it, we repair it, but we're not allowed to drive on it.
Speaker 3:
But anyway, the american trucking associations on tuesday, may 21st, launched nothing without trucking, which the organization said is a multi-year nationwide image campaign to educate policymakers and the public about the indispensable role trucking plays in Americans' lives. The campaign launched at ATA's mid-year management session in San Antonio, texas, with an introductory video, and they also have a new website. I will put the link down below to that as well as the story that I'm reading off as well, and it says they put a introductory video, new website with social media shareables and call to action for industry supporters to share their stories. I love seeing these sort of things because I know the more we as drivers are respected by others, the more we as drivers respect other drivers. It's a catch-22, I know it, but that's the way it goes. We get miserable when people treat us like crap and then we start we're like family, so we're like the big brother that picks on the little brother, or, you know, the big sister that picks on the little sister. That sort of thing does happen, that mentality does happen when we don't get treated right and right now we're all kind of sort of miserable. So maybe we can work on that ourselves and I keep preaching that every show that I do, because I think it's important that we get along. But it says here, this time of the year, as schools wind down and summer vacations dot the horizon, we're here to remind America that, in every season and at every moment of daily life, there's nothing without trucking. Amen.
Speaker 3:
And the American Trucking Association President and CEO, chris Feer, is the one that's supposed to have put the charge into this, so I hope it really works out. It says here, in an election year when it can feel our country is more polarized than ever, which it is. Trucking is an incomparable industry that connects Americans of every background in ways that are literal, essential and personal. Our footprints, our omnipresent, our reach is inescapable and the campaign will show why trucking is the true beating heart of the nation. So back off Chevy. We are the heart of America, we are the heartbeat of America. It is the trucking industry and we're going to get this back.
Speaker 3:
We've been in a lull for the last 10 to 15 years, fighting amongst each other and doing all kinds of stupid things, really separating everything. A lot of people think that because we have so many foreigners in here driving truck that they don't appreciate America or appreciate trucks either, and I can tell you you're wrong. There's a few bad ones out there, just like there's a few, and not to mention every single other color that happens to be on the road. So let's quit separating each other in groups and let's start separating each other with good or bad, and let's start letting each other know who is the bad one, so we can stay away from them and possibly I don't know get rid of them somehow. We can't do that. It's illegal to use basements and duct tape anymore, so don't do it.
Speaker 3:
Anyway, the ATA said in a statement Nothing without trucking will champion the trucking industry story through earned and paid media, digital content, grassroots mobilization and in-person events that connect the men and women of trucking with elected officials, political candidates and the motoring public. We need a backbone. We need to regain our backbone so that we regain our inner strength, so that we can start showing our professionalism and our strength to the rest of the world. We are the largest industry in the world. We need to start acting like it. It says here. The tireless work of the industry instills a quiet confidence in every American that we can effortlessly get the products and goods we need precisely when we need them.
Speaker 3:
The American Trucking Association Chief Operation Officer, sarah Ratik said, this campaign will tell our American story in new and innovative ways. American story in new and innovative ways. We will spotlight the millions of individuals who make trucking safer, innovative, efficient and more environmentally responsible, from the drivers behind the wheel to the techs on the shop floor, to the dispatchers, safety directors and fleet managers, brokers, everything else who will play an indispensable role in keeping our economy moving. Who will play an indispensable role in keeping our economy moving? Now it sounds like a lot of political jarble and I understand they. I'm looking at the new logo. Now it's a new campaign.
Speaker 3:
I'm really hoping it works out. A lot of this stuff is done for political reasons. A lot of money was spent to bring women into the trucking industry and we went from 7 point something percent to 6 point something percent after hundreds of millions of dollars were spent. So very few things that the government and large corporations do, except when it comes to making money actually work for people without that benefit of them making billions. So I hope they're doing this from their heart. I hope they're doing this for us personally, like says here, and I hope to God this campaign works. But nothing is going to work until we, as drivers and brothers and sisters of the largest industry in the world start giving each other respect, and once we give each other respect, we give the road respect. Those that are around us will start respecting us a lot more. I will put the links below. On this Now the song that I'm going to play well, it's one of the saddest trucking songs ever and it's called Teddy Bear.
Speaker 2:
I was on the outskirts of a little southern town trying to reach my destination before the sun went down. The old CB was blaring away on channel one nine when there came a little boy's voice on the radio line and he said Breaker one nine, is anyone there? Come on bike truckers and talk to Teddy Bear. Well, I keyed the mic and I said you got it, teddy Bear. And the little boy's voice came back on the air. Appreciate the break who we got on that end. I told him my handle.
Speaker 3:
Now I'm going to put a list of each song that I put on my show and I'm going to pick one song per day, per time. I may do it once a week, I may do it for every Monday, wednesday and Friday show, I don't know, I haven't decided. But I want to try and bring back some of these cool classic trucker songs because if you listen to four or five of them where you're going down the road, it really makes you feel good and fuzzy inside. Some of you newer folks, you younger ones, you'll probably think, oh, that's really corny. But if you listen to the lyrics, my friends, you will see that they have a lot of meaning and a lot of heart to them. Some of them are just plain fun, but most of them really explain what we go through out on the road. And this here, teddy bear, is the story of a man that come across, a child that lost his daddy as a trucker. It's got a very happy but sad ending.
Speaker 3:
Anyway, thank you folks for listening to my podcast. If you want to check out my Rumble video, you can go. I will put links down below here at Roland18 Podcast on Buzzsprout and I will have links everywhere and eventually Rumble will show up as Roland18 on Google as well. So when you go to do a Google search, it'll show up. If you'd rather watch a video of a Peterbilt going down the road while you're listening to a good podcast, I'm your guy. Thank you guys very much. God bless, be safe and, as always, keep it between the lines. Driver.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to Roland 18 Podcast. Please visit my website at mediaiowacom or the podcast page at roland18podcastcom.