Florida gas hauler brings industry conversation to truckers’ iPhones

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It’s not every day a driver finds himself at the center of a burgeoning cultural movement, but such is the case for Aubrey “Allen” Smith, a 30-year veteran of the trucking industry, most of that time spent as an owner-operator running household goods long-haul.

Smith is an on-call hauler for Florida-based Pipeline Transportation, pulling gas tankers in a daycab between Tampa and Ocala. His part-time status has run parallel to a growing business and personal quest, which today has Smith and his wife, Donna, a medical lab researcher, standing at the nexus of technology and media as it relates to a growing community of drivers concerned about the state of the industry.

Smith traces the origins of that quest to a conversation overheard in a Kansas truckstop. “This guy was talking on the phone,” Smith says, “and he was worried. He couldn’t make his truck payment” and feared losing his home. Smith had heard this sort of story many times. So many, in fact, that he tended to put others’ problems “out of my mind,” he says. But at that moment he determined to do something to help.

He set about penning a book, The Truth About Trucking, to give new drivers the hard facts about training, the on-road lifestyle and business entry. In 2003, he began offering it to readers via TruthAboutTrucking.com in e-book form, and as attention to it slowly rose, he took note of many requests for audio versions and CD-ROMs and also launched askthetrucker.com to provide readers an avenue for their questions to his and others’ years of experience. Smith’s call-in radio show has been a going concern since late last year, too: BlogTalkRadio.com/TruthAboutTrucking. Recent shows have taken on driver-training schools, union trucking, lease agreements for owner-operators and more with expert guests, including drivers, from all sides of every issue.

Perhaps his most ambitious project became a reality in March. He and Donna are the proud parents of the first resource iPhone application designed specifically with truck drivers in mind. The Trucker app, $.99 via www.truckerapp.com, aggregates Smith’s educational and media pursuits with social and business networking functions, user-provided content and other outside resources in a central location for iPhone users.