By: Ellen Voie

Mrs. Trisha Peach teaches a career unit for her fifth and sixth-grade students at New London’s Intermediate/Middle School in central Wisconsin. She wanted the trucking industry represented, as many of her students were interested in becoming professional drivers. She knew that trucking was a significant industry in the area and employed many local families. The school guidance counselor, Elle Maus, reached out to me to see if I could come in and speak to the students about trucking. Elle’s brother, Andrew, is my son-in-law, so she and I have known each other for years.

I reached out to Kim Conradt, Safety Programs Coordinator for the WI Motor Carrier Association, to see if I could get a Road Team member who could bring a truck to the event. Kim found four drivers willing to spend the afternoon with these students. Danny Tankersly, (who was just named the Driver of the Year in Wisconsin) brought his Special Olympics-branded truck that features autism, compliments of WEL Companies. Greg Magsam brought a CNG power unit with a reefer trailer, thanks to CTS, and Wes Radtke (Skinner Transfer) and Frank Raljevic (Schneider) helped speak to the classes.

Four classes participated by asking a lot of questions before heading outside to climb into the trucks. The drivers talked about stopping distances and blind spots, but the kids were more interested in the lifestyle where they’d driven, and how often they would get home. They were curious about the amenities in the cab and how someone lives in such a small area!

It happened to be spring break for my seven-year-old granddaughter Adelynn, who was spending time with me. Since Elle is her aunt, I brought her with me to the school where she helped hand out the plastic sunglasses from Women In Trucking and lots of fun items like footballs, pens, and koozies from the drivers and their carriers. She even demonstrated how the air horn works for the students!

It was truly a rewarding day, and Mrs. Peach said the “kids loved it and learned so much.” However, I was impressed with her enthusiasm in exposing the students to careers in trucking. She provided them with facts about the importance of trucking to the economy and how many jobs are created for their families.

Quite a few students had family members who were professional drivers in their lives. One student’s (truck driver) father had tragically passed away the week before, but he came to the class and told the Road Team drivers about his father. Other students talked about their dads and grandpas who drove for a living (no female drivers in this group!)

Many thanks to Mrs. Peach for doing HER homework about the industry and for providing an opportunity for her students to learn from true professionals. Thanks also to Elle Maus who coordinated our visit and helped guide the students throughout the day. Special thanks to Kim
Conradt at the WI Motor Carriers Association for coordinating four drivers and two trucks for an afternoon of learning. My greatest appreciation is for the drivers who shared their expertise and their experiences with these students and for their carriers who support them as Road Team Captains.

More schools need to embrace the reality that many students will never be college-bound for various reasons, but a career as a driver, dispatcher, mechanic, or company owner is possible. They just need to learn about these opportunities. If each of you would reach out to your local school and offer to bring a truck for a career day, more of our youth will have a greater understanding of the trucking industry. At the very least, they will have an appreciation for the drivers and how to safely share the road with our trucks. I promise you’ll have a lot of fun as well.

By: Ellen Voie

Warmer seasons bring orange cones and construction signs to our nation’s highways. Although these barriers might be frustrating, they are needed to maintain the nearly 50,000 miles of interstate highways. How familiar are you with how our roads were designed and how to understand our nation’s interstate numbering system? If you’ve always relied on your GPS instead of a folded map, then you may not know the reasoning behind our highway system.

In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T to America. Until that time, the roads were better suited for horses and buggies than tires. The need for paved roads led to the creation of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, but progress was delayed during World War I. In 1921, the Federal Highway Act provided funding for two late highways to be built by state highway agencies. It wasn’t until 1956 that the Federal Aid Highway Act authorized a network of 41,000 miles of interstate highways to be funded through a three-cent per gallon tax on gasoline. This was the goal of President Eisenhower, who had been impressed by the German high-speed roads he used in World War II.

Eisenhower wanted a coast-to-coast high-speed interstate system with overpasses and bridges to avoid intersections and stop signs that would slow a motorist’s travel. The medians were designed to separate traffic and the signs were standardized. These roads are maintained by the individual states, who also set the speed limits within their borders. This changed for a few years from 1975 to 1986 in an effort to conserve fuel by slowing down the traffic.

The Interstate System has an easy-to-understand numbering method, but many people today are unaware of what these numbers mean. All the primary interstates are two-digit numbers less than one hundred. The north and south highways have odd numbers while the east and west highways have even numbers. The numbers start in the west and become larger, and the north and south roads increase as you travel north. There is a total of 77 interstate highways in the United States. The longest is I-90 which begins in Seattle, Washington, and ends in Boston, Massachusetts traversing thirteen states for a total of 3,020 miles. Interstate numbers that are divisible by five are coast-to-coast or border-to-border roads, such as I-90. The shortest interstate highway is H2 located in Hawaii with only eight miles from one end to the other. The shortest highway located in the United States is I-87, which runs thirteen miles from Raleigh to Wendell in North Carolina. 

To travel around cities, you will find three-digit roads which include the last two digits of the connecting highway. For example, in Washington DC I-95 will connect you to I-395. For loops and bypasses that start and end with the same numbered highway, the first number will be an even one as opposed to those that might connect to only one other interstate highway given an odd first number. Although the Interstate System was created to connect the United States, there are three land masses that are not part of our 48 contiguous states. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico have their own interstate systems, but the highway numbers begin with the letters A, H, or PR. There are still new lanes being built, but these are much shorter than the original roads. The most recent are highways that were built in 2017 include I-14 in Texas, I-11 in Colorado, and I-87 in North Carolina.

Professional drivers are much more knowledgeable about the markings on the interstate system and know to reference mile markers to report their location. Most states number their exits to correspond to the nearest mile marker, but some states have sequential exit numbers which is typically found in the northeast. Multiple exit numbers that are close to a mile marker include letters such as a, b, or c to remove confusion over which off-road travelers should take.

President Eisenhower had a vision to connect our vast country by creating an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use interstate system. The orange cones and construction areas will be around as long we continue to wear these roads down with both our cars and our trucks on the highway