The current “IRT: Deadliest Roads” season of the “Ice Road Truckers” reality-TV series franchise on the History Channel aired its second episode last night, after a launch the previous Sunday that garnered 3.4 million viewers. It pits North American drivers from past seasons, as well as a new face, against the incomparably rugged terrain and chaotic cities of the Himalayas.(Read a summary of IRT’s second episode here.) If you saw it, you came into contact with the hauler who today might be the leading figure in the public imagination when it comes to U.S. trucking. Before that episode aired, I spoke with Lisa Kelly (pictured, History Channel photo) about her growing notoriety, enabled by a supportive 
Kelly, 29, is still employed by Carlile Transportation, truckers of the Dalton Highway (the “Haul Road”) in Alaska and her only trucking employer in her seven-year driving career. “They trained me,” she says. These days, she’s been traveling more and more in the air, flitting here and there doing promotions for the new series, but says the 2004 Kenworth W9 she more typically rolls in is waiting for her in Alaska. “I’m in love with it,” she says.
Getting back to her regular runs may take time, she adds, but that’s OK in the end.
Is she enjoying all the hubbub? “I am having fun,” she says, indeed.
Check out the first IRT episode of this season online, which aired on the History Channel more than a week ago now. And see below for selected bits from my interview with Kelly.
Do you think about your situation in terms of being an ambassador for U.S. truck drivers to the general public?
Whether I choose to or not, that’s the place I’ve been put…. I’m doing the best that I can to represent who truckers are and put my personality into it.
