Pride In Their Rides
HDT editor's book profiling show trucks improves image.
Deborah Whistler
Editor
If you're putting together your Christmas shopping list, there is a new book on the market that would make a great stocking stuffer for everyone on your list.
Custom Semi Trucks and it showcases many of the spectacular show trucks you have seen featured on the pages of our sister publication, RoadStar magazine, over the years.
The book is a labor of love from a lady whom I believe is the truck driver's greatest cheerleader. Bette has specialized in photographing and writing about truckers and their rigs for more than a quarter of a century. There is no one better at capturing the spirit and drive of the American trucker.
Under the heading "Trucks That Make You Go WOW," Bette explains: "Shooting and writing about trucks is what I do. I photograph Class 8 tractor-trailers across America, ride them coast to coast, pose them in parks and on mountaintops, alongside roads, and in front of truckstops and loading docks. Then I tell their stories.
"A good number of my subjects are the "creme de la creme" of working show trucks - spectacular owner-operator tractor-trailers that have been beautifully muraled, colorfully striped, loaded with extra lights and dazzled with metal trim.
"Don't be fooled by their appearance. These trucks work hard every day pulling flatbeds, dry vans, refrigerated trailers, drop-decks, tankers of all kinds, even specialty trailers like bark haulers, auto carriers, and dump trucks, day after day, throughout all corners of America.
"Why do the trucks in this book look the way they do? In a word: pride. Their owners, the men and women steering these WOW-worthy rides, view their equipment as extensions of themselves, imprinted with their individual style, ideas and designs. They are proud beyond words of their equipment and profession and, by extension, their commitment to deliver their loads safely and on time to their customers and carriers."
This book is more than just a bunch of pictures of pretty trucks, although it certainly is that. It carries a public relations message everyone in this country should hear: that truckers are proud, essential, hard-working and dedicated.
I don't believe anyone could do a better job of making that message more heartfelt than Bette Garber.
Congratulations to all the wonderful truckers featured in this extraordinary labor of love. You make us all proud.
Custom Semi Trucks is published by MBI Publishing Co. You can reach them at (800) 826-6600, or go to www.motorbooks.com on the Internet.
E-mail Deb at dwhistler@truckinginfo.com
