In November 2011, the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association launched the first installment of weekly blog posts. This first article was titled “Dirty Lyle” and it set the tone for the next six years of blog posts: police officers and truckers must work together to keep Illinois safe and make trucking profitable. Now, after more than 220,000 words in 318 articles, the weekly blog is coming to an end on this last day of 2017. But don’t think for a second the ITEA is driving off the shoulder of the information superhighway…quite to the contrary. Read on to find out what is in store for the faithful readers in 2018.
First a little housekeeping. The blog, technically speaking, is not going anywhere. Every article will remain live and on the web for the eternity of this organization. These posts represent the lifeblood of the ITEA and will survive for reference, historical perspective and a good laugh.
In its place, the ITEA will begin marketing a monthly newsletter via email in January 2018. Each newsletter will contain smaller, condensed articles of news in the truck enforcement world. This will allow the ITEA to promote more content, in less space, than a weekly blog post. If you get the weekly email, you will automatically receive the monthly newsletter.
To speak technically again, the blog is not 100% dead either. There will be times when events impacting law enforcement or the trucking industry will need an extended article. It could be a new piece of legislation, a training event or a thorn needing to be pulled. It those times, the blog as you have known it may be resurrected for a specific purpose.
It’s been a good run! Through this blog and it’s many contributing authors, a ton of ground has been covered. Complex laws have been explained. Educational opportunities have been promoted. Misunderstandings have been straightened out. Precedents have been set.
The blog has not survived without its own controversies however. Rogue enforcement practices, incorrect teaching methodologies and general anti-police or anti-trucking sentiments have been exposed and extinguished.
Through a few adversarial blog posts, the ITEA lost some friends and made some enemies. It happens. Nobody said truth is an easy pill to swallow. The goal of the ITEA, using electronic communication mediums, has been to provide the facts no matter how much it hurts.
The ITEA will not focus on those the blog has alienated. Olive branches were always offered and refused. So be it. This organization will continue to fight the good fight and promote the positive results from professionally speaking truth.
Articles appearing on this blog have been reproduced in local, regional and national publications of various partner organizations. Law enforcement periodicals, trucking magazines and other governmental groups have duplicated the content in their own rags.
The best encouragement the ITEA has received is the never-ending appreciation from those readers from all different occupations. Every event ITEA leaders attend, anywhere in the nation, yields compliments from the thousands of readers who have found these articles in their inbox every Sunday morning. Not all articles apply to everyone, but each reader has found something beneficial from one post or another.
The ITEA would like to thank all the sponsors who have financially underwritten the cost of the blog each week. Mid-west Truckers Association, the Connolly Law Office, The Mulch Center, Advanced Weighing Systems, and Oxcart Permit Systems – thank you for making this happen. Your partnership with the ITEA has been nothing short of awesome.
See you in a few weeks! Until then, keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your…tail?
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