Channel 19 Experience Trucker Podcast

🎙️ Episode 33: You Can’t Whistle When You’re Smiling... or Crying This week, Tony breaks format for one of the most powerful episodes yet — blending philosophy, trucking, and rebellion through the music of The White Buffalo. From “I Got You” to “The Whistler,” he explores what it means to keep whistling when the world wants you smiling or crying too hard to make a sound.

Then — buckle up — we haul some sacred cows to the slaughter...

From Villa Park to Lincoln Cathedral, from Ironbridge to Runnymede, Tony crosses the pond for a ride-along with UK lorry driver Matt Rayner—and discovers that what keeps trucks (and relationships) rolling isn’t contracts, it’s covenant.

This episode blends 800 years of history with the rhythms of modern trucking: how the Magna Carta, the Charter of the Forest, and the Industrial Revolution still echo in today’s freight industry.

From Birmingham, England — 3,500 miles from American trucking — Tony breaks down the word that explains so much industry nonsense: externalities. Costs they create but you pay. While recovering from shoulder surgery that would’ve been ~$30K in the U.S. (and £500 in the UK), Tony lays out how trucking’s “bad math” hides the real costs on drivers.

Using Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground as a backbone, we dig into the LinkedIn math ...

Interview with Will Cook

This week Tony sits down for a two-hour deep dive with Will Cook — 🚛 35-year driver, 🏆 ATA Million Mile Award winner, and 📚 author of The Driver Shortage and The Machine Behind the Wheel.

Together they peel back the layers of the so-called “driver shortage,” exposing how mega-carriers, visa mills, and false freedoms fuel a system built on churn ...

🎧 S1E29 — Running Water Instead of Rain Down in the gulley where moonshiners survive when legitimate work won't pay. The Driver Shortage Series continues with TJ Graff (Star Behaviors) discussing behavioral assessments. Are they rain or just a better-designed spigot? Plus Charlie Kirk's murder, AI misinformation, and why drivers sell their souls for running water instead of rain.

👤 Guest: TJ Graff — Star Behaviors → https://starb...

We take the red pill on trucking’s “driver shortage” narrative. Tony goes underground with Dostoevsky and Orwell to ask why drivers accept equations that don’t add up—why 2+2 can feel like 5 in this industry. From bankruptcy to Key West to accounting classes in Minnesota, this is a story about cages we call freedom, laments we call songs, and the splinter you’ve felt your whole career.

👤 Guest: Mike Ritzema (Superior Trucking P...

This week on the Channel 19 Experience, we’re loading up with dogs, demons, and the start of something big: the Driver Shortage Series.

🐾 Bulletin Board – Connections matter. From LinkedIn shout-outs to the quirks of cab-riding pets, we talk about what really keeps us grounded. 🚛 Pre-Trip – Are we really facing a “driver shortage”? Or is that just the industry’s favorite excuse to avoid the real monsters in the cave? 💰 Money Lin...

This week lives up to its title: one minute I’m down bad from truck stop food poisoning, the next I’m fielding a life-changing job offer. From the gut-punch of sickness to a reflective Money Line about growth, forgiveness, and trucking wisdom — this episode walks the tightrope between the worst kind of week… and the best kind of change.

📍 Timestamps 00:00 – Breaker, Breaker 19: Cold Open 02:14 – Quote of the Week: Charles Dickens ...

From freight market headwinds to the scent of slow-smoked brisket in the backyard, Episode 25 delivers a full plate. We kick things off with a profit calculator comparison, dig into English Language Provision enforcement, and look at a rail merger that could shake up lanes. Then we ease into a Money Line that connects patience, timing, and Kawanna’s brisket to trucking economics. Finally, my co-pilot of over 20 years jumps on the m...

Featuring: Barry Trahan, Load Calculator Breakdown, Autonomous Freight, and Hard Lessons from Recent Carrier Closures

In this jam-packed episode of the Channel 19 Experience, we hit the brakes and check the books. From three big-name carrier shutdowns to a forgotten Stephen King flick that feels eerily relevant — this week, we’re talking about the math, the margins, and the mayhem shaping today’s freight world.

Whether you're lease...

In this episode of the Channel 19 Experience, we’re cranking up the spotlight on something every trucker has—but not everyone uses to full power: professionalism.

We kick things off with a challenge from business thinker Dale Dauten: “What ELSE could we do?” That question rolls straight into a powerful LinkedIn post by Landstar agent Elissa Wallace, who reminds us that showing up clean, calm, and on time still matters.

Then we ride...

In the Bulletin Board segment, we uncover a legacy that stretches across generations—a Facebook post from Nick Clendaniel led us to a CB card collection, a long-lost documentary, and a family whose handles were as legendary as their road stories. Ground Shaker. Tear Drop. Pepsi Girl. Dream Weaver. This is CB radio culture at its finest.

In the Pre-Trip, we check the gauges with our Quote of the Week and take a winding book review d...

Welcome back to the Channel 19 Experience Trucker Podcast! This week, we're double-clutching through trucker culture, road wisdom, and real-world experience.

🛑 First up, we lay down the law on Parking Lot Etiquette—the do’s, don’ts, and downright disgusting. If you’re backing in with your high beams on or leaving your lunch wrappers in the lot, this one’s for you.

🎪 Then we roll into a recap of my day at the Walcott Jamboree at t...

This week on the Channel 19 Experience, we’re blowing the smoke off the stack and diving straight into a red, white, and blue mess of headlines and hard truths. It’s Independence Day weekend, and we’re talking freedom with responsibility—starting with a whiny UK article about American trucking policy that didn’t even make it out of first gear.

We break down freight fraud with real talk from brokers and dispatchers—Jason Rabine and ...

Breaker 1-9, buckle up. We’re rolling through freight storms and economic truth bombs in this one.

In Episode 19 of the Channel 19 Experience Trucker Podcast, we kick things off with stories that cut deep—like Pat Hill’s tribute to truckers and their wives, shared by Koolhand Danny C. Hall. Then we head down under to Australia with Brendon Ryan’s letter, “The Breaking Point,” and compare how bad it really is across the trucking wor...

S1E18 Trucker Poetry, Three Arm Trucking and Danger Dave Returns

In this exciting episode, Tony delivers a wealth of trucking stories and industry insights. This week, we have a special poem reading of a poem written by Sherae Moore, founder and president of the SHE Trucking Foundation. Tony shares his own rollercoaster trucking journey, with a funny incident featuring a book, 'Three Arm Trucking and Other Tales from the Highway' b...

S1E17 Finding Trucking Friends, Per Diem and 2 interviews - Eric Verdiguel and Mike Ritzema

In this episode of the Channel 19 Experience Trucker Podcast, host Tony celebrates Father's Day and shares heartfelt messages for all types of fathers. The show covers a range of topics including safety tips for the summer driving season, a bulletin board discussion from Reddit about making friends on the road, and detailed insights into the...

S1E16 Where to put my tandems, First Etiquette Quiz and a Trip Back Home - Interview with Verlen Larsen

In this episode we debut the Bulletin Board, this weeks is about Where to put my tandems.  We also debut the first Etiquette Quiz starting with the Fuel Island Etiquette Quiz.  Before we get into the interview Tony talks a little about his trip back home to Minnesota.  Verlen Larsen joins the show this week and shares his perspec...

In this Memorial Day episode of the Channel 19 Experience Trucker Podcast, host Tony covers a range of topics vital to the trucking community. From the latest enforcement of English language requirements for CDL drivers, updates on the Aurora self-driving trucks pilot program, to Warner Enterprises’ decision to cut their 401k match, Tony touches on the key issues impacting drivers today. He also reflects on Memorial Day, sharing pe...