Mike Murchison, Author at Taxi News & Road Warrior News

We, as a country that formerly manufactured things like freezers, lawnmowers, drills, vehicles and a lot of other things, traded our “quality control” overseeing for “ease of convenience” strategies.

Things are not built to last anymore. They are built to give us a sense of immediate gratification, only to be followed by that horrendous sound of silence. That thing we just bought won’t turn on, light up or go whoosh when the switch thingy is flicked.

Share the road. Keep the stops somewhere everyone wants to stop. Photo: Mike Murchison

On the Road with Mike Murchison Trucking

Do you really need that delivery TODAY? Consumerism, friction and Trucking

October 2, 2022 Mike Murchison

Missed birthdays, anniversaries special occasions, kids growing up too fast, missed Doctor’s appointments, missed community and church involvement.

Furthermore: Driving in weather no one in which their right mind would drive. Traffic jams in major cities that go on for hours. Shippers and Receivers who are frantic for a pickup or delivery yet don’t want to see you when you arrive. Customers who will not hesitate to levy a late fine on you if they can get away with it.

On the Road with Mike Murchison Trucking

We are all on Candid Camera….smile!

September 25, 2022 Mike Murchison

Yes. We are always being watched, by countless entities. Government, law enforcement. Friends and neighbours and employers.

So, can a person ever get away from it all? Or get away with anything at all? I would think the answer would lie in the “No” category.

Obituary On the Road with Mike Murchison Trucking

Elizabeth’s constant dependability will be missed

September 10, 2022 Mike Murchison

She for 70 years was just there. There on a world stage framed by tolerance, dignity, grace and most importantly, servitude. To which, at the young age of 25, she committed without hesitation.

Guest Contributions On the Road with Mike Murchison Trucking

Music and Truckers go together like a tapping foot and a floorboard

September 4, 2022 Mike Murchison

It goes without saying that as much as many of us love hitting the highway to feel the motion, see the view out the windshield, there’s a good reason why music and truckers go together like a tapping foot and a floorboard. They are two ingredients that are needed to help move industry and keep a nation stocked.

On the Road with Mike Murchison

Time to decompress

August 28, 2022 Mike Murchison

So, I went for my late-night walk. It’s habit I have gotten into this last year. Some nights after pounding the white line, I’m too beat to walk; but most nights I make myself do it.

It’s my own time to unwind, after the engine is shut down and the bump and grind stop.

“Decompress,” I like to call it.

Guest Contributions On the Road with Mike Murchison Opinion/Column

Hygiene standards get flushed as COVID fears subside

August 21, 2022 Mike Murchison

Covid come tearing out of China like a cabinet minister out of question period. It consumed all forms of media. Disrupted the entire world economy and the lives of virtually every person on earth.

The phrase ‘social distancing ‘ becomes the cry of the day for nearly three years.

Masks, lockdowns….and hand sanitizers. Businesses are forced to put ‘stringent’ cleaning protocols into practice.

It was nice during the three-year period to walk into a restaurant, truck stop and even a washroom and smell that ‘just cleaned’ scent, which seemed to be present everywhere I went.

Guest Contributions On the Road with Mike Murchison

You have a choice

August 7, 2022 Mike Murchison

A lineup at customs had me stopped, parked and just waiting. Waiting for the line to move. Sitting high up in the big truck, there is quite a sizeable blind spot on the right side of the truck. So much so that I didn’t see, but rather felt a small jolt and heard the distinct ‘thud’ sound of an object making contact with another object. Namely my truck.

Guest Contributions On the Road with Mike Murchison Trucking

Your choices determine whether you exist in a prison, or live free in the wide-open spaces

July 24, 2022 Mike Murchison

No Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard song about prison ever hit me as hard as staring at that structure: it was huge. Thinking about who was in there and why had a sobering effect.

Contained inside were those who for whatever reason stepped over society’s line of freedom and decency. Some by choice, some out of rage and some simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They deserve to be in there, some would say. “He’s innocent.” “He’s been set up.” Didn’t matter. They were in there, and I wasn’t.

A stone-cold box with small windows that looked out into fields of lush green corn stocks. A small window that afforded a view of a highway, people moving, life being lived as opposed to just existing.

Author: Mike Murchison

The quality of longevity: instant gratification seems to mean near-instant breakdown, too