Driver Six Weeks In An Eighteen-wheeler

Phillip Wilson decided he'd like to see America, and get someone else to pay for the trip, so he went to truck driving school to learn how to operate a big rig. Driver is Wilson's memoir of his six weeks of over-the-road training, crisscrossing the country from coast to coast and points in between. During that time he worked and lived in close quarters with a partner who could hardly be less like himself: his trainer. Along the way he learns how to run a "mule," as drivers like to call their rigs, and thrillingly describes the thrill of what it's like to sit on top of a 425-horsepower diesel engine hauling 80,000 pounds of trailer and cargo. He learns what it takes to become a million-mile driver, and why companies stand in line to hire them. He appreciates the joys of Gulf Coast cooking, finding those places that truck drivers recommend to one another. He finds out about the outlaw drivers who fudge their logbooks, and does his best to stay in "the hammer lane" (the fast lane), with his gearbox in "the money hole"-top gear, when the miles are accumulating and so are the dollars. Driving a big truck on America's highways is among the most difficult, demanding, and highly regulated occupations open to the average American. It's also one of the least restrictive ways of life still around-a throwback to the independence and freedom of the frontier. This is an account of one man's embrace of that experience and that relationship. A story about America, and about the truckers who keep America supplied and running.Wilson, Phillip is the author of 'Driver Six Weeks In An Eighteen-wheeler', published 2005 under ISBN 9781592286799 and ISBN 1592286798.