Courtney Harrell (Host)
speaker
376 appearances
10 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard May 2025
Courtney Harrell (Host)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Supplies like Maxine's paper towels aren't typically covered by trucking companies. Some companies do offer per diems to help with those kinds of travel costs, but there's no law requiring it, so more than half of trucking companies just don't. Despite that, despite the low pay and the loads and the makeshift bathroom, Maxine loves driving her truck. How did you get into it initially?
So you had your parents saying you were a good driver.
But what else was it about trucking that made you be like, oh, as soon as I get the chance to do that, that's what I'm going to do?
Maxine went to trucking school in Kansas, where she learned a bunch of driving techniques that would help once she was out there on her own. Like how to turn no matter how long the wheels span. How to keep control through high-grade hills. How to see the road in front of a long-nose truck. And she learned a healthy respect for the massive machines. Learned to stay vigilant all the time.
And she loved it. What is the best part of the job?
You're getting stuff to people that they need.
I think a lot of us associate driving on big, long, open roads the way that you do with freedom. Does it feel that way to you? You feel that. You do?
After the break, we'll dive in to Maxine's week.
Maxine had already bought the food she needed the day before, so her total for day one was zero dollars.
Are you in the truck right now? I am. Yeah, will you just kind of describe the inside of it to me? Like, what would I see if I was in there?
As long as Maxine stays at her current job, she's always driving the same truck. So all these things in her kitchen, plus the tea and the extra mattress and an old picture of her son's basketball team, make the truck she spends so much time in feel more like her own.
Your 34-hour reset is the amount of time you're required to take off before starting a new work week. So a driver is only allowed to work 70 hours in an eight-day period, and then they have to take that break.
Total for day three, $16 at Love's Truck Stop.
Maxine loves to listen to music while she drives. Mostly gospel, rock and roll, a little country. But she also loves opera, and she loves to sing. So in her downtime, she's learning to sing O Mio Papi No Caro.
Total for day four, $26.
Can I ask, like, this part of your job that's like, OK, I don't get paid if all of these things happen with my truck or with the load. How does that make you feel?
Maxine kind of is abandoned. Ever since the 1980s, the trucking industry has become increasingly deregulated. And now there's no law that says trucking companies have to cover expenses like parking or supplies. So it's left up to truckers to figure out how to get through the job and then how to pay for life outside the job. And for Maxine, she can no longer make both things work.
After months of working 14-hour days and waiting, waiting, waiting for her pay to improve so she could catch up on bills, Maxine was forced to make a really hard decision. She decided she had to give up her apartment. After day five, she headed back to North Carolina and started packing up.
Where did you go stay after you left your place? I live in a truck. You live in the truck full time?
How do you all talk to each other about that? What do you say to each other?
Showing 101–120 of 376 · page 6 of 19
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