Roses & Razzberries – August/September 2025
ROSES to a road foreman who rescued an Iowa driver from a burning truck. Dale Iles told KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, he saw the truck crash on a rural bridge, overturn and burst into flames, trapping the driver inside the cab. “When your adrenaline kicks in, you don’t even think about it; you just start acting,” Iles told the television outlet. He was able to help the driver – who was treated and released from a local hospital – get out of the truck safely. Iles said he would do it again
RAZZBERRIES to a Florida trucking company owner sentenced to 23 years in prison for scheming investors out of nearly $160 million. A jury found 45-year-old Sanjay Singh of Coral Springs, Fla., guilty of a Ponzi scheme using investor funds to purchase and operate trucks, guaranteeing returns of more than 200%. Singh used millions of investor dollars for mortgage payments, home renovations, brokerage accounts and collateral for stock trades. The scheme dated back to January 2020 and spanned until June 2023, when Singh was arrested and indicted on eight counts of wire fraud.
ROSES to all involved in some recent fundraising efforts. A touch-a-truck event was held at Stithton Baptist Church in Radcliff, Ky., in honor of Carson Wilson, a 5-year-old battling leukemia. All kinds of trucks showed up, and Carson also received a ride in a limousine. A separate event in Canada resulted in 4,200 food kits for children facing hunger this summer. This was part of Food Banks Canada’s After the Bell program. “Network members usually experience Trucks for Change from the perspective of moving freight, and this hands-on experience helps them connect with the cause on a personal level,” Betsy Sharples, Trucks for Change Network executive director, said in a news release.
RAZZBERRIES for a scam specifically targeting truck drivers outside the Love’s Travel Stop off Interstate 40 in Dandridge, Tenn. Local authorities said victims were approached by a suspect and escorted to a group of co-conspirators. The victims were asked to play a betting game where they were conned out of money and jewelry. Additionally, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office alerted the public of fraudulent texts claiming to be from the “Tennessee Department of Vehicles.” As with scams in most other states, these scam texts are seeking payment for unpaid tolls – or more recently, for unpaid traffic violations – and threaten legal action if the fines or tolls are not urgently paid. The sheriff’s office said that anyone who receives the text should not click the link and should delete the message.
RAZZBERRIES for the fact that truck drivers pay nearly 20 times more per mile than the average car owner into the federal Highway Trust Fund. In all, the average OOIDA member contributes $42,132 per year into the Highway Trust Fund, while the average passenger vehicle driver contributes anywhere from $137 to $296 per year. “You might even say that there’s a good case to be made that in some ways, truckers are subsidizing the use of passenger vehicles on the road,” said Charles Sperry, research analyst for the OOIDA Foundation. It’s also worth mentioning that these figures don’t include the state fuel taxes that truckers pay, as many of those funds are used for state projects not related to transportation. LL