WAVY Archive: 1979 Franks Truck Stop - Truckers Strike

Take a look back in the WAVY 1979 archives.

[@josephherrmann6304]

I started trucking around that time. It was the pinnacle of real trucking and truckers.

[@PeterGriswald]

'75 to '88 were the golden years bro. I'm just glad I was able to be a part of a bygone era.

[@davidmilhouscarter8198]

Look at all those cabovers. When I was a little kid, in the '90s, I remember seeing a mixture of cabovers and conventionals.

[@captainmorgan1107]

Really miss seeing all of those cabovers running down the highways.

[@kevinrichards3288]

Same here. The increased length limit & safety are what got rid of them since they had very little protection between the driver & whatever is coming at him in front. In a head-on collision with a car driven by a drunk driver for example, the cabover driver would either get thrown out through the windshield or get his legs & feet crushed. But cabovers were still awesome semis & they were easier to maneuver & park in than conventional cabs too. Down in Jamaica there are a lot of both cabover & conventional cab semis, a great mix.

[@ericzerkle5214]

There are a few around here owned by farmers.

[@rickytrezise4674]

Look up Australia can over Kenworth, still made here in Melbourne

[@kevinrichards3288]

Man I really miss those cabovers here in the USA🇺🇸. I remember I saw them everywhere back in the 1980s.

[@SuperDave01965]

I remember our instructor in my first transportation of dangerous goods course in August 1987 in Toronto talking about the US truckers’ strikes (trucking wars) of the late ‘70s. Canadian truckers were running with large Canadian flags on the their trailers and the slogans “Were Canadian Truckers Just Trying To Get Home.”

[@CarolinaRails]

Cabovers and Mack Type R's, The Good ole days

[@goratgo1970]

Camaro 1:16 and then Monza 1:23 swerving at the roadworker - chaos captured on video!

[@johndoran3274]

My dad left his truck sitting at the Delaware Water Gap toll booth during this strike when I went to pick him up. Guys were out on the interstate with tree pruners cutting trucks airlines while they were rolling down the road. That strike was pretty nasty.

[@PeterGriswald]

We can all thank good old Jimmy Carter for why trucking has become a joke!

[@stevemccoy8138]

I remember the shut downs back in the 70s , several bad things happened in our area, One Driver was killed.

[@michaelmedina8304]

Damn killed for what for his load or for being at the wrong place at the wrong time

[@robingilmore1444]

I remember this strike. I was stuck in salt lake city for a month before I could get home. As in most strikes, nothing good came of it. I pulled a flatbed, the truck made less than .50 cents a mile. Drivers made .13 cents a mile. Times have sure changed.

[@stevemccoy8138]

It was a Trip State Motor Transit Truck, Striking driver shot into a load of explosives going east on I44 ,blew a 32' hole in the road, nothing was found of the driver , only a small piece of underwear.

[@camionerosfurgoneros5915]

THE REASON IM WATCHING THIS OLD VIDEO,ITS CUZ OLD THOSE OLD TRUCKS SPECIALLY THE CABOVERS TRUCKS

[@eligebrown8998]

I was born in 74. Got my cdl in 2003. To late in the game to rember the old ways but im tired of all the regulations and cant do that, cant do this blah blah. If there was a call for a national strike id be the first to join.

[@shawnkinser1164]

Frank's is still in business

[@larrygreen8912]

I remember this the Teamsters ask the independent truckers to honor their strike and the independent truckers didn’t cross their picket lines the year prior, well next year the independent truckers went on strike and the Teamsters did everything possible to wreck the independent truckers. The move by the Teamsters was the beginning of the end of truckers working together. You could go into a truckstop and see Teamsters sitting by themselves and independents didn’t speak to them .

[@CIorox_BIeach]

Good ole unions...

[@johndoran3274]

I remember that. I covered my icc number with duct tape and crossed their lines to scab their freight for a little payback out in Pittsburgh. They let me in and out, but 2 blocks up the road on my way out, they threw a toilet off an overpass and it went through my passenger side window and landed in the passenger seat. I didn’t stop till I got to DuBois to patch it up and it was December. I still chuckle to myself about that.

[@561roadrunner4]

Sorry I don’t know the terminology but what is ah “teamster” and how could u tell him (teamster) from ah “Independent” and what is crossing lines only been driving 5 years but my dad drove bac in the day that’s what led me to driving

[@larrygreen8912]

@@561roadrunner4 it was easy to spot the teamsters , they wore the teamster patches on everything they owned ( hats , shirts ect )

[@joecummings1260]

Does anyone else remember, FASH? Fraternal, Association, of, Steel, Haulers. It was kind of a rust belt thing in the 1970s

[@michaelscordo256]

Shooting from overpasses and throwing homemade jacks under your rig when you drove by picket lines.

[@joecummings1260]

@@michaelscordo256 yeah things got pretty rough then. I'm thinking it peeked around 74 or 75

[@leviboggs3361]

When my dad was born in here the trucker now

[@rsmith3033]

@ 1:16 tha chevy nova pullin that travel trailer followed by a camaro 😎

[@MegaOsvaldo18]

Waow, I remember as kid from 1992 - 1997 seeing these convoys and cabovers trucks, some clean and the others dirty like in this video. There cool trucks. Now, in 2023 there are like 0.5 % of this type of semi trucks.

[@KevinRichards-rk3gp]

The length & weight limits increased are the reasons why there are not many cabovers around anymore. Also cabovers lacked in comfort & safety. Rough & noisy ride because the driver sat directly above the front axle & the motor was underneath the cab instead of at the front & the sleeper was smaller. In a crash with another vehicle, the cabover driver gets smashed because there's very little protection between him & whatever is coming at him in front, depending on the weight of the other vehicle & how fast it was going too. Whenever mechanics work on them, they'd have to tilt the whole cab up & a lot of times, the driver's lose stuff inside the cab gets thrown around making a big mess & sometimes break the windshield too unlike on a conventional cab where the mechanic can just open up the hood at the front of the cab & already ready to work & is easier access to the motor too. It was faster to get access to the motors on conventional cabs than on cabovers whenever mechanics began to work on them. Conventional cabs are easier to get in & out of the cab too which made it easier for drivers who are overweight so them & other drivers wouldn't have to cowboy up into a cabover anymore.

[@brose2323]

Shootings , nails on the road, obstruction at the fuel bay we still have that.

[@bendover9411]

1:16, everybody drunk lol!

[@truckinfam2207]

I been to Franks in 1981

[@truckinfam2207]

@@je862 yes. Stayed at the little motel next door. It caught fire that night an air conditioning shorted out. The good old days.

[@truckinfam2207]

I had a 1979 K 100 Double Bunk Cabover with an 8V92 Detroit Diesel 14 speed Spicer moving furniture for United Van Lines. We ended up in the Hampton Roads area often.

[@earlblackjackmartinjr5750]

I remember that. I used to go in Frank's truck stop alot. Trying to sleep with that train buzzing threw there while trying to sleep an I thought I was on the track. I never did sleep good there. I was coming off flat top on 77 an got a rock through my windshield in that strike. We criss crossed under the underpasses an all sorts of stuff. People that had nothing at all to do with trucking made all the trouble. Got shot at an one person got killed as I remember. I drove through 2 or 3 strikes in my 50yrs of trucking.

[@561roadrunner4]

Why where people mad at the truck drivers and damaging trucks?

[@truckerkevthepaidtourist]

It's still there and the train still blasts right through coming out of the Chesapeake Virginia Beach area headed for Suffolk

[@Imintune...]

Do remember the teamsters strikes of the 70s.

[@renoldg4919]

I drove for 29 year's and I've stopped at that truck stop when they had that trucker strike I never had any trouble during the strike

[@rdavian]

.........and they say history dosnt repeat

[@madmikemadmike2175]

truckers today dont have the balls to do it today

[@keithknight8072]

Ain't that the truth is they not smart enough to got no con in them old timers wasn't just truck drivers but mechanics farmer's and most of all confudince men for most of all today aren't even driver's steering wheel holders a lot ain't even that

[@NLD88000]

To many collage educated liberals out hear now....

[@OGnunyabiznass]

Has nothing to do with balls. Not near the independents now that there was then. Corporate America has control of everything now. Big business is everywhere. Were just pawns in the game. Sad but true

[@eligebrown8998]

No lie

[@Bluelinechevy82]

Not that they don't have the balls, more like they have bills and familes to take care of and can't afford to strike.

[@392nightrunner]

And here we are in 2022 over mandates

[@maidenrulz73]

Red 1969 camaro 👍👍👍

[@cherylmantello3693]

nah /blue gogomobile 1960/could fit to of those into the trunk of your camaro / grandma would lift the the back end up by herself whenever you were running a flat tyre true story /beat that you gringo lowrider //anyways cheers from ozzie ozzie oui oui

I remember that ugly strike, bricks hanging from overpasses I'n California ,and bombings

[@dewaynemiguel3349]

That strike was a joke me and my dad shut down and went hunting we seen more trucks on the road then before the strike,the mexican truckers in california hurried bought a bunch of junk trucks and cut the rates to try and get haules away from others my friend hauled bulk 17 dollars a ton they took the haul for 12 dollars a ton 3 months later the customer complaind they wouldnt show up trucks breaking down offered him the haul back he had for 6 years 17 dollars a ton ,he told them he wouldnt take it for 21 a ton.

[@TheDriller100]

2023.... same bull💩🤡🤡

[@thomascaldwell3537]

I REMEBER THIS PEOPLE WERE THROWING BRICKS OFF BRIDGES AND STUFF AT TRUCKS I WAS RUNNIN OUT OF SALEM VA AT THE TIME PEOPLE THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUCKING WAS THE. MAIN ONE'S CAUSEING MOST OF THE TROUBLE

[@blackwolf3274]

For real

[@XRPSwan]

1:40 he said "I JUST DON'T KNOW" typical yank