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Area truckers are aiming to protest trucking industry regulations they believe to be unfair and overreaching with a planned “slow roll” protest Wednesday on highway systems throughout Missouri.

Then on April 12, Black Smoke Matters, a Facebook group made up of thousands of truckers from around the country, is calling for a nationwide trucking strike to bring awareness to what it says are the issues truck drivers face on a daily basis.

An estimated 30,000 truck drivers will be participating in the strike by taking anywhere from a day to the following week off from their normal routes to call attention to what the group say are overwhelming regulations, roadway safety problems and a lack of adequate driver training.

A Black Smoke Matters-Missouri branch has formed in support of the movement and dozens of area truckers are hosting their own statewide protest Wednesday, including in Joplin. Truckers will meet at 9 a.m. at Joplin 44 Petro and roll out at 10 a.m. where they’ll be traveling to and from Springfield on Interstate 44 at minimum highway speed, which is about 45 mph.

Billy Bogar, of Lamar, is helping to coordinate the local effort. The truck owner-operator leases with a carrier, and has been driving on and off for the trucking industry for 20 years.

“We’re trying to make a lot of changes here because industry standards are just crumbling and our roadways are getting more dangerous because of regulation,” Bogar said. “We want to call attention to the April 12 movement and over-regulation in the business. We’re out here to help everybody, not just truckers.”

Bogar said one of the biggest problems facing the trucking industry is the lack of proper driving training with megacarrier companies. He mentioned how the companies' driving schools have cheat lines on the asphalt to assist drivers with the test and that they’re being trained by unqualified instructors in only a few months before they’re placed on the road.

The group is also speaking out against electronic logging devices, or ELDs, which are installed in every truck’s data port to record driver speeds and track hours of service and location. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began working on ELD mandates in 2015 and fleets had until December 2017 to implement the system.

Truckers are allowed to drive for 11 hours in a 14-hour period. Bogar said this is a problem because drivers are now racing a GPS and an ELD to make their required time.

“Your clock doesn’t stop and that’s a big problem,” Bogar said. “It’s distracted driving at its finest. Now, you have an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer racing the clock when he or she should be concentrating on the road around them.”

Brian Adams, of Farmington, has served as an owner-operator, company driver and run a trucking company during his 20 years in the industry. He agrees with the concerns of BSM and is leading a slow roll from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis Wednesday at the same time as Joplin’s to raise awareness. Another issue he's fighting for is additional truck parking and rest areas.

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A pre-apprenticeship trucking program in Shreveport, Louisianan is recruiting young adults ages 21-24 for its class.

The Department of Community Development, Bureau of Workforce Development, and WIOA Youth Program created the program with Diesel Driving Academy to prepare young aspiring truckers for their driving careers. Participants will have the opportunity to get their CDL from Diesel Driving Academy before transitioning into a one-year apprenticeship at Schneider Trucking. The pay for the program is $9 an hour for 95 clock hours through Diesel Driving Academy.

Training begins April 15. The program is available through the end of June. Participants must have a clean driving record, no felony record, and can pass a drug test and a DOT physical.

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Four tractor-trailers were destroyed in a fire Sunday morning at a truck stop in Indiana.

The cause of the fire at the Flying J in Lake Station, Indiana southeast of Gary has yet to be determined.

Firefighters responded at about 7:50 a.m. and found the four trucks — all unoccupied — fully engulfed in flames.

No injuries were reported in the fire that was fought by three departments.

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GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is urging the U.S. Trade Representative to continue moving forward with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement approval process and forthcoming implementing legislative language in a timely manner.

The U.S., Mexico, and Canada signed a trilateral pact nearly six months ago which included annex language establishing a regulatory process to restrict Mexican trucks to the commercial border zones.

The deal also addresses cabotage and states “only persons of the U.S., using U.S.-registered and either U.S.-built or duty-paid trucks or buses, may provide truck or bus services between points within the U.S.”

“OOIDA believes these provisions will help end the current program that allows Mexican carriers and drivers who are not held to the same, rigorous U.S. safety, security, or environmental regulations to operate on American roadways,” said OOIDA president, Todd Spencer.

For decades, OOIDA has opposed the original NAFTA provisions that established today’s cross-border Mexican trucking regulations which OOIDA says harm American small-business truckers and jeopardize highway safety.

Spencer said the association believes that the USMCA deal provides a chance to amend those rules and end the non-reciprocal system in place.

“Our members have suffered economically from Mexican trucking companies taking away jobs and profits from American drivers and motor carriers. At the same time, Mexican trucks are endangering the motoring public as U.S. DOT’s own safety statistics show that the crash rate for Mexican-domiciled carriers is 2.8 times higher than U.S. carriers,” said Spencer.

OOIDA said the USMCA agreement is the best opportunity to stop unregulated Mexican drivers and trucks from continuing to transport freight on our nation’s roads. OOIDA will continue working with the Administration and Congress to ensure the cross-border trucking Annex language remains in any final agreement.

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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is moving to allow gambling at more than 40 truck stops and five mini-casinos while much of the attention on Pennsylvania’s gaming expansion has been focused on sports wagering and online gambling.

The state’s 2017 gaming expansion allowed for truck stops to offer gambling on up to five machines and allowed for the creation of mini-casinos with up to 750 slots machines and 30 table games, Gaming Control Board executive director Kevin O’Toole told lawmakers Wednesday.

Most of the state’s 12 full-sized casinos have between 1,500 and 3,000 slot machines and 75 to 300 table games, according to gaming control board reports. Last year, the Gaming Control Board held a series of auctions for the rights to operate the mini-casinos. Mini-casinos were approved in five counties: York, Westmoreland, Lawrence, Cumberland and Lancaster.

All together, those auctions generated $127 million in revenue from casinos seeking the right to operate the mini-casino locations, he said.

O’Toole said some of those mini-casinos could be operating in the next “7-9 months.”

The truck stop gaming locations should begin operating sooner, O’Toole told members of the House gaming oversight committee.

In the Valley, only Danville Mobil, in Montour County, has received conditional approval for gaming.

“Hopefully, some of the establishments will be in a position to implement late this fiscal year or in the summer,” he said.

The gaming control board has given conditional approval to 43 truck stops. Now those facilities must complete a series of steps, including making renovations, adding surveillance equipment and designating employees who will be responsible for monitoring the gaming area, O’Toole said.

In addition to the 43 truck stops with conditional approval, another 17 locations have applied for the right to get the video gambling terminals, said Richard McGarvey, a Gaming Control Board spokesman.

The gaming expansion limited the video gaming terminals to truck stops. To qualify, locations must be on at least three acres of land, have 20 or more parking spots for trucks and have a convenience store.

Truck stop gambling is banned in 10 counties where there are already full-sized casinos — Bucks County, Dauphin County, Delaware County, Erie County, Luzerne County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Northampton County, Philadelphia and Washington County.

While the move toward truck stop gambling and mini-casinos is still months away, the state’s entry into the world of sports betting is well underway, O’Toole said.

Regulators completed testing on the sports betting operation at the Valley Forge Casino on Tuesday, he said. Similar testing is underway at an off-track betting facility, Valley Forge Turf Club, operated by the owner of the Parx Casino in Bensalem. With those sites opening, there will be sports betting at eight locations in the state. The only other casino approved for sports betting that hasn’t gotten its sports book open is Presque Isle Downs in Erie County, O’Toole said. Sports betting should be available in Erie “in the next month or so,” he said.

In all, the six casinos offering sports wagering in January took $32 million worth of sports bets, gaming control board data shows. That translated into $886,000 in state tax revenue and $52,000 in local tax to the communities where the sports betting facilities are located.

The Gaming Control Board has not yet announced February sports betting revenue.

But O’Toole added that gaming regulators expect that at least some of the seven casinos that haven’t already sought permission to offer sports betting will do so over the summer.

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Richard W. Adkins, 56, was escorted by the Crossville Police, seven semi cabs and host of family and friends in their vehicles Sunday from Hood Funeral Home to Crossville’s City Cemetery.

Adkins was given his final send off in a Truck Driver’s Final Ride ceremony, as he was a truck driver for decades. The occasional honk of semi air horns pierced the lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon as the funeral procession slowly made its way up Hwy. 127 S.

“He loved his trucks. He loved Peterbilts and Harleys,” said Julie Adkins, his wife. “We met through driving trucks, and it was how I fell in love with him.”

Julie was also a truck driver and reflected how the two met in Amherst, OH.

“We used to run into each other a lot up in Amherst and would talk. We both had been married before. He was always kind. I needed help moving a trailer and I asked him if he could move it for me. He said, ’sure, hon.’ He had me with sure, hon,” Julie said.

Adkins was a hard worker and drove for MDS Trucking in Crossville. She said he previously drove for TLD Trucking, as well. In 2014 Adkins suffered a massive heart attack and was forced to go on disability.

“He was lucky to survive. I noticed I hadn’t seen him in a long time and I asked about him and found out he had a heart attack and couldn’t drive anymore,” Julie said. “I tried everything to find him and finally looked for him on Facebook and found him.”

Julie said she sent Adkins a message.

“I was going through a divorce and he helped me a lot talking about everything. I sent him a message and told him that I would love to talk to him again and sent him my phone number. He called me in a matter of minutes,” she said.

Julie said the two began dating, and she moved to Crossville to be with him.

“After April 15, 2015, we were inseparable,” she said. “He went back up north with me and helped me take care of my mom and my dad while they were in ailing health. He was a big-hearted man. The world needed to have his kindness.”

Julie said Richard’s brothers, Mike and Marc were twins. They, an older brother and their father were all truck drivers.

Mike is a driver for TLD Trucking in Crossville and asked if they could help with the Truck Driver’s Final Ride, and they were happy to oblige.

Three of the trucks for the final ride were from TLD. Mike and Julie rode in the first truck with Richard’s ashes.

“Being a truck driver is like being part of a brotherhood. We all loved him and I wanted to do something special for him and we thought this would be the perfect send off,” Julie said.

The seven trucks and processional took Adkins to his final resting place, where a brief graveside service was held.

“I’m really going to miss him,” she sobbed. “We’re all going to miss him.”

Richard is also survived by by his parents Clyde and Treasa Adkins, brothers Mike and Marc Adkins, his children Rick Adkins, Lisa Mulligan, Talia Adkins and Shada Adkins, and countless friends.

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