Drilling Deep: ‘Big Rig’ author Viscelli on how drivers are doing today

Also on the podcast: A renewed surge in diesel prices

Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Steve Viscelli popped up on the trucking sector’s radar several years ago when he wrote “The Big Rig.” He had been a truck driver-turned-academic, and he wrote a firsthand look at the life of drivers on the road.

In particular, he took aim at lease purchase deals, arguing that they were distinctly bad deals for drivers.

Viscelli joins host John Kingston on Drilling Deep to talk about how drivers are doing in this strong market and whether his views on lease purchase deals have changed at all.

Also on Drilling Deep, Kingston talks about the renewed surge in diesel prices.

More articles by John Kingston

Drilling Deep: In hiring drivers, speed is of the essence

Drilling Deep: The case for lease purchase deals even as lawsuits grow

Drilling Deep: What the Workhound feedback stream from drivers said in 2020

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.