An Introduction to Autonomous Truck(er)s

A Brief History, and a Mission Statement, of sorts.

Breaker 1-9, y’all got a copy?

G’day, and thank you for taking the time to read this new venture of mine.

I’ve been writing and discussing issues in the trucking industry for a little while now, specifically from the labor and experiential perspective of a trucker of over 25 years, and, more recently, as a supporter of Canada’s Freedom Convoy. I’ve also been a frequent worrier about the ongoing project of turning truckers into a kind of indentured and surveilled Cyborg, not really man, and not quite yet a machine.

Why do I worry about this?

Having driven Big Rigs in places as far afield as The Ice Roads of Canada’s Northwest Territories, The Kaingaroa Forest of New Zealand, across the desolate wastes of Western Australia with Triple Road Trains, and throughout the hills and valleys of Northern Appalachia, trucking has been very good to me, and very good to many; there are, however, powerful forces at work that seek to ruin our good time, and we need to talk about it. From ELDs, driver-facing cameras, the CDL Mill Corporate Welfare Complex, and those companies hoping to pilot trucks with Icy Cold Coding, there is an ongoing war on our once Noble Brotherhood; none of these things are desirable, inevitable, or unworthy of fighting.

Your humble servant in Karratha, Western Australia

A good friend of mine, writer and podcast host Oliver Bateman suggested that I start a Substack, given the modest successes I have had in the media talking about trucking.

Substack appears to be the kind of platform where I can experiment with blogging, writing more frequently, and sharing what I write at other publications. I’m hoping to do a number of other things here in documenting the last days of the Trucker, including interviews with academics, writers, and various personalities who are also discussing such. There may be a podcast, there may be not. I may host the podcasts of others, and will no doubt link to those of others that I find very useful. If you are a publisher somewhere I do write, and have projects underway for, worry not - I do not plan on moving all of my work here.

What this space will not be is just another complaint fest, like most static on the CB or VHF, nor will I repeat the tired tropes oft repeated in Trucking (and regular) Media, loathesome scum that some of them are. No, this will be a space for deeper dives, possibly philosophical, often uncomfortable, and more often than not at odds with just about everyone else in the business. I see myself as something of a Mad Max to the Tech-Bros and State Regulators under the command of Lord Humungus.

I thank you for being here, and hope you stick around.