CONVENTION CRASHING: TRUCKLOAD CARRIERS ASSOCIATION

Brendan Buhler, Las Vegas Sun

Thursday, March 15, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

A trucking convention at the Bellagio?

In there with all that marble, carpet, fine art and sushi restaurants? A place that has a conservatory?

Come on, the parking garage is way too low-slung. There's no way Cledus is getting the rig in there, not so that he could get it back out.

Shouldn't this be at, you know, Circus Circus? Sam's Town?

Actually, the Bellagio is a fine fit for the $206 billion trucking industry, represented by the 1,800 people at the Truckload Carriers Association's convention. These are nicely dressed professionals in dark-colored slacks and suit jackets, drinking bottled water. There was only one mullet on display Tuesday, and it looked well cared for.

These are the people who own the trucks, and they're worried about how to cut costs, keep the truck on the road and a driver in the truck.

That last one is a huge problem, says Harvey Stone, with some truck companies turning over 130 percent of their drivers each year. For drivers, it can be a hard life on the road and sometimes it can feel like a bit of a dead end. Which is where Stone is hoping to come in with In-Cab U , the college that keeps truckers on the road.

Stone is from Mountain State University, which has an actual, accredited building in West Virginia. It also offers online courses, and its In-Cab U offers degrees in "transportation-oriented fields and transportation leadership."

But how are you going to use the Web on the road?

Well, other than parking next to a Wi-Fi coffee shop, there's always the digital truck stop.

One version is offered by IdleAire, which has 107 such electrified truck stops (locally there's one at a Petro in North Las Vegas), places where drivers pull into rows under metal scaffolding and hook giant yellow plastic tubes into their windows. The tubes offer heat, air conditioning, power outlets, a phone jack, a television hook-up, and wireless and Internet access and a touch-screen computer.

Most important for the truck's owner, it means the driver isn't burning gas and wearing down the engine by idling his truck to power his air conditioning and electronics.

And for the driver, there's always the on-demand movies, handily listed in an entertainment guide. This month's cover features a remake of "The Hitcher," which in turn features a shotgun-toting Sophia Bush looking like a miniskirted Mad Max.

"It's not a movie about truckers," says Ray Williams, IdleAire's marketing director, "but it's a movie truckers like."

Pork Chop Express, deluxe model

The International ProStar Eagle, engines available with up to 525 horsepower. Options include no-idle heat and air conditioning and a ceiling-mounted DVD player.

The burgundy red floor model has a sleeper cab, faux-wood paneling, a CD player, Global Positioning System navigation and nice, cushy air-ride seats.

"I suppose you could drive without an air-ride seat," saleswoman Vanessa Besteda Jackson says, "but I don't know anyone who would want to."

List price $140,000, with the transaction price usually being around $120,000.

Lenders lament

Jeff Bahr eyes the GPS truck trackers with envy. No, he doesn't own a trucking company, but he kind of owns the trucks.

Bahr's 1st Source Bank makes loans for trucking equipment (mostly trucks) and things are mostly fine, but sometimes they aren't, people start losing money and trucks have been known to disappear. It sure would be nice, from a banker's perspective, to always know where they are.

"I like to be able to keep track of my equipment," Bahr says. "If something goes wrong, people don't always want to tell you."

But alas, so far truckers aren't sharing their tracking data with banks.