Whether it's building trucks with Lego bricks or building up communities with goodwill, here are Five Good Things in trucking.
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Full-sized Mack Anthem created with 1 million Lego bricks in Australia
Mack Trucks Australia aimed for a Guinness World Record for the largest truck made from Lego bricks to celebrate 60 years of manufacturing in the western corridor of Brisbane.
Professional Lego builder Ben Craig was be Mack’s expert on the job, using close to 1 million pieces of Lego to achieve the Guinness World Record build of a life-size Mack Anthem.
Measuring 4 meters high, 2 meters wide, and 8 meters long, the truck took two months to build before it was displayed at South Bank Parklands as part of the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show. This compares to how long it takes—just six days—to build a real Mack Anthem Class 8 at the factory.
Strengthened with metal internal supports, the Lego Anthem featured a detailed exterior and interior, including wheels, air lines, fuel tanks, turntable, fully operable doors, and a 36-inch sleeper.
Cemex nature reserve certified by Wildlife Habitat Council
Special recognition was given to Cemex’s El Carmen Nature Reserve, which received the WHC’s Desert Project of the Year award for its work to protect and restore habitats of the Chihuahuan Desert. The reserve, located on the border between Mexico and the U.S., is one of the most biodiversity-rich areas in North America and one of the five great wilderness ecosystems in the world, according to Cemex.
With 140,000 hectares (about 346,000 acres), El Carmen is larger than the city of Los Angeles. It is home to more than 1,500 plant species and 450 animal species. This includes nearly 100 American bison, which Cemex and its partners successfully reintroduced to this area after over a century.
TEL donates to Chatt Foundation to help Chattanoogans in need
Transport Enterprise Leasing (TEL) has donated $6,000 to the Chatt Foundation to support services for the homeless and hungry in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The foundation is an outgrowth of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen started 40 years ago. Today, the foundation provides food, clothing, shelter, counseling, job training, employment and other assistance to residents with the goal of meeting basic needs while offering a clear path to self-sufficiency.
“The Chatt Foundation is profoundly effective in serving the needs of the less fortunate in our community. Their staff and volunteers are making a positive difference in many ways, and we welcome this opportunity to support their efforts,” said Lori Hyde, director of human resources for TEL.
“On any given night, more than 785 unsheltered people experience homelessness in the Chattanooga area," said Chatt Foundation CEO Baron King. "We are grateful for the generous support from our friends at TEL.”
Driver saves couple who crashed into ravine
The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has named truck driver Michael Callahan, from Harts Location, New Hampshire, a Highway Angel for coming to the aid of a couple who crashed into a 25-foot ravine next to the truck stop where Callahan was parked. He drives for Melton Truck Lines (No. 89 on the FleetOwner 500: Top For-Hire Fleets of 2023) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
One morning Callahan was at a Pilot truck stop in Bowman, South Carolina, when he heard a loud crash.
“I stopped what I was doing; I knew something bad had happened,” he said in a TCA release. “A small car with two passengers in it had gone off the road and over a 25-foot bank, landing in a ditch between the highway and the truck stop.”
He quickly ran to check on the passengers, called 911, and was able to get them out of the vehicle. Though the vehicle looked to be totaled, the young male and female passengers appeared to be uninjured. He got the woman a blanket and waited with them until emergency responders arrived.
“It was a truck stop full of trucks, and it surprised me that nobody else heard it or saw it—I was the only one there,” Callahan said. “It was the right thing to do; I would hope if my kids ran off the road, somebody would stop to help.”
J.B. Hunt driver saves motorcyclist
This driver for the No. 4 fleet in the for-hire FleetOwner 500 saved a crashed motorcyclist from bleeding out.
