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Is there really only one way how it really works? The problems we run into are different from time to time. Some of our loads are simple freight. One literally drew a crowd of officers at the customs office because the paperwork was so unique (not improper, unique). Sometimes additional...

The steps, checks and double checks you list are the kind that are in the driver's control. We do the same things. The problems we have encountered at the border are not due to driver paperwork errors. Our paperwork is perfect. The problems sourced from other people. And that's the problem...

It depends on the load. They go bad in various ways. We seldom know what is really going on behind the scenes. There are steps drivers take on international loads and double checks we can make to do everything in our power to make sure things go right. Nevetheless, that is sometimes not enough...

That is not an option for us. Exercising that one would likely free us from hanging around as a contractor with our carrier.

Perhaps, but that does not mean that is the way it has to be. It seems to me far too easy for a broker to blow it. While we sit and rot at the border the broker seems to bear no consequence at all (though I must admit I know little of what goes on behind the scenes). I am not pleased with the...

I thought that might have something to do with it. Knowing very little about automotive freight, I presume it frequently crosses the border, has no out of the ordinary security or regulatory issues attached, and is handled regularly by the same brokers. Some of the stuff we get into is more...

If broker errors are rare at one carrier but not rare at another, what do you think is going on that makes the difference?

Broker delays have not been rare in our case. In the last four months we have done four loads into or out of Canada (Quebec or Ontario). Two of the four involved broker-caused border delays of 12 hours or more.

Drivers who do U.S./Canada runs are probably familiar with the plastic chairs the customs officers have you sit in when you are delayed at the border for one reason or another. While sitting in one on Wednesday, a thought came to mind. Perhaps a plastic chair should be added to the dispatch...

Diane and I delivered a load in Ontario Tuesday morning and got a load back to the U.S. the same day. As we drove toward the border, dispatch sent word that we could not cross because a problem was found in the paperwork, and that the broker that needed to straighten it out would not be in until...

More details are coming out as the crash investigation proceeds. It seems clear now that there was no truck involved. There is no evidence that supports the bus driver's claim that he was clipped by a truck before the crash.

If you go to online bookstore Amazon.com and do a search for trucking books, several come up. One challenge you would face, BigBusBob, is coming up with either something that has not been done before or something that is better than what has been done before.

So do you do anything different now?

I was about to jump in but it seems I already have. I'll update to today that we continue to use the same unit. We have never done anything to it except turn it on and off and clean the air filters. Works good!

From NBC News: "A tour bus that crashed on I-95 in the Bronx, killing 15 people, was traveling as fast as 78 miles per hour before the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday." Full story

My thoughts: - Not every engine has a secondary priming pump to prime (fill) the fuel filter as you describe. - Given the direction of fuel flow through the filter, if the fuel filter is filled before installing it, that first bit of fuel would not be filtered at all, would it? Yet that is...

A fascinating fact for any would-be truck book author to consider is the utter lack of truck books on the market now. Sure, there are a few scattered here and there available from various sources, but if you go to a big bookstore and look in the transportation section, you will find maybe one...

Don't be too quick to brush off the "make a million" part. It can be done. I know that because Diane and I are in the process of doing it. See this.

Ballparking it, we get somewhere between 275,000 and 325,000 out of our drive tires, maybe better (dual wheels, tandem axles). We are only on our second set and the truck has 580,000 miles on it now. We are about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the second set now and see a noticible increase in...

You seem to have put a lot of thought into this, BigBusBob. Maybe you should go ahead with a book yourself? You've done expediting, tour bus and the big-rig thing. You are handy with a pen. Why not go for it?