🎙️ Episode 30: Things I Can’t Find – The Machinery Beneath

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 and set the stage for autonomous trucking.

From Birmingham’s 🎸 Black Sabbath to America’s highways, the theme is the same: workers turned into disposable parts.

Tony also talks about how “flexibility” pilots are really permission to exploit yourself longer, why cheap labor paves the way for automation, and Will talks about how truck-on-demand could change freight forever.

🎵 Featured Track

• 
  

  “Paranoid” – Black Sabbath (1970)

  
  

👤 Special Guest

• 
  

  Will Cook – A Driver’s Perspective
  
  🔗 Facebook Profile
  
  🔗 Amazon Author Page

  
  

🗂️ Topics Covered

• 
  

  🔍 The real story behind “driver shortage” claims

  
  


• 
  

  🎭 Dispatcher Appreciation Week thought experiment

  
  


• 
  

  🏛️ OOIDA’s role in trucking advocacy

  
  


• 
  

  🤖 Autonomous trucks & the future of linehaul

  
  


• 
  

  🌎 How mega-carriers use visa programs

  
  


• 
  

  ⚖️ The disconnect between regulators and drivers

  
  


• 
  

  📏 Why training standards matter more than ever

  
  

📌 Mentioned Resources

• 
  

  ✍️ Bobbi McGee’s Blog – A Hard Shell Life

  
  


• 
  

  🏛️ OOIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association)

  
  


• 
  

  🌟 TJ Graff – STAR Behaviors

  
  


• 
  

  🚛 CB Trucking Ltd – Chris Barber

  
  


• 
  

  💰 Mike Ritzema – Superior Trucking Payroll Service

  
  


• 
  

  👩‍🦰 Deb LaBree – A Woman Trucker

  
  

💼 Episode Sponsors

• 
  

  💵 Trucker’s Wealth

  
  


• 
  

  📑 Trans Carolina Permits

  
  

📝 Quote of the Week

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

📡 Connect with Channel 19 Experience

• 
  

  📧 Email: channel19experience.com

  
  


• 
  

  📱 Facebook: facebook.com/channel19experience

  
  

⏭️ Next Week – Episode 31

Tony heads to England 🇬🇧 to ride with UK lorry driver Matt Rainer, explore Birmingham’s industrial history, and gain perspective on the American trucking crisis from across the pond.

🔖 Hashtags

#Trucking #TruckDriver #DriverShortage #OOIDA #WillCook #TruckingPodcast #Channel19Experience #18Wheeler #SemiTruck #CDL #TruckingIndustry #OverTheRoad #OTR #OwnerOperator #TruckingLife #TruckingNews