Does a load of hot liquid asphalt need to be pulled in such style? That thought flitted through my mind as I approached the handsome two-tone-blue Kenworth that was hitched to an insulated aluminum tanker outside a shop at Athens, N.Y., on a warm, sunny, summer morning. The rig and the facility, which hugs a channel of the Hudson River, were owned by Peckham Materials, a distributor and producer of construction-related chemicals and supplies south of Albany, New York's state capital. Peckham, a family-owned firm now in its third generation of management, has about 35 operations up and down the Hudson Valley and a fleet of trucks, tractors and trailers to keep them running. "We're not a trucking company," said the fleet's supervisor, Larry Fingar, over supper the previous night. "We run trucks to support our companies." For example, Peckham has contracts to spread calcium chloride for dust control on dirt roads and building sites, and supplies asphalt for road paving of roads and parking lots. The liquid asphalt was produced in the Midwest and shipped by rail car to a nearby yard, and was loaded into the tanker early that morning by Jack Mirando, the driver assigned to the Kenworth.
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