A while back I was parked behind the 75 Chrome Shop in Wildwood, Florida, when I chanced upon a truck I recognized. Truly a work of aesthetic beauty, it was a rare and meticulously maintained survivor of the 1970s, resplendent with long hood, chrome and big breathers.
As I walked past the rig, I chanced upon the driver in front of his truck. He was working on some wiring with his lights. He warmly greeted me thusly: "Long Haul Paul!” We shook hands, and I began the process of frantically trying to recall where we’d bumped into each other while making small talk. Oh yeah! People's Convoy, 2022. He’d asked for a selfie back then, and I happily obliged.
I suppose I should stop right here and acknowledge the conflicted relationship I sometimes have with the scant sliver of micro-celebrity I’ve stumbled into within trucking. It’s something I simultaneously mock and deeply appreciate. As the country singer Miranda Lambert once observed, “Everybody dies famous in a small town.”
Trucking is, in fact, the smallest trillion-dollar-a-year industry in the world. So once every blue moon, somebody looks up from what they’re doing in the back of a chrome shop or a truck stop and says, “Long Haul Paul!” It's usually a cordial exchange. Usually.
After a few pleasantries, he asked, “So which one of those is your truck?” I pointed to my company-issued blue Freightliner Cascadia in the back row.
“Wait just a second," he said. "So you mean to tell me you drive a Tupperware Torpedo?”
“Yes sir. That’s what the man I work for gave me to drive.“
Was I, he asked, going to stand there and tell him that Long Haul Paul actually drove a Freightliner Cascadia (he used yet again a different term)?
I answered again to the affirmative, and he returned to his work, saying no more.
Snub duly noted.
In ancient times, when a conquering general was being paraded through the streets of Rome, by the decree of Caesar, a slave was appointed to stand next to the general and repeat over and over Sic transit gloria mundi, which translates to “All glory is fleeting,” more or less. These days, when the Good Lord decides to burst my bubble, he usually just sends along a truck driver. One minute you’re Long Haul Paul, graciously obliging a fan with his request for a selfie. The next, you’re just another guy in a Tupperware truck -- a clear and present danger to old-school trucking culture, and all it takes is a name on a grille.
But wait just a second. In this day and age, just what the heck is so bad about driving a Cascadia?
After recently being assigned a 2025 fourth-gen unit by the folks I work for, I’m here to tell you, driver, not much. The Freightliner has come a long way since being the butt of jokes in days past. Bear in mind, I’m no equipment expert by any means. But I’ve pushed one of these things down the road for more than four million miles, and this particular 2025 model, in all honesty, is about the nicest truck I’ve ever driven.
[Related: Fifth-generation Cascadia gets big safety, business tech updates]
Peterbilt owners' jokes about doors that don't close and the old Freightshaker moniker can be finally put to rest. I can attest to the fact that the 2025 Cascadia has doors that close quite well and is free of rattles, leaving the old moniker in the dust.
The truck's automated-manual DT12 transmission and the DD15 505-horsepower motor is turning in real world numbers at a respectable 8 miles per gallon at the 18,000-mile mark, expected to improve after further breaking in. That’s for a truck governed at 68 mph, with a smart-pass option of 71 mph, allotted in two forty-minute increments per 11-hour drive shift, an option I admittedly utilize liberally while hauling 40,000-lb. loads of reefer freight with fairly tight transit times.
The ride of this model is as smooth as any Paccar unit I've ever driven, and with a Thermo King TriPac providing climate control and A/C power parked, the Cascadia provides a level of creature comfort I'd guess a mite better than that available to my chromier-than-thou old-school friend from Wildwood.
I'm not going to lie. I love this truck and I don't care who knows it. You can rant and rave all you want about turning in your man card to drive an automatic, but when you’re 65 with tendonitis in your right shoulder, and arthritis in your neck and elbows, the transmission becomes a godsend, especially in Atlanta rush-hour traffic.
Moreover, the best progressive shifter in the world will be hard-pressed to get better fuel mileage at similar speeds in similar conditions. And speaking of doors, miracles of miracles, the doors on this 2025 model won’t lock unless you use your key. No more of the age-old problem of accidentally locking yourself out of a Freightliner.
One of the niftiest features? This direct plug-in for speedy charging of smartphones. It’s the fastest charging system I’ve ever had anywhere, much less in a vehicle.
But alas, in all things trucking, love cannot exist without a little bit of hate.There is a deficit -- the AM/FM radio's reception. I've run through the home of WSM 650 in Nashville, Tennessee, midday at times and had trouble even picking up the powerful AM signal right there where it originates.
Look, I’m no expert on these matters. I’m just a driver with an opinion. So when I’m up against a wall for information I do what any trucker does -- I ask other truckers. I do this all the time. Perplexing medical issue? Ask a trucker! Especially one whose wife is a nurse.
Intractable, years-long marital issue? Ask a trucker! Especially one who’s been married several times. They have more experience.
A window into the problem I was having with reception came to me from my old friend Tom Kyrk, who's experienced similar. Better yet, he used to be an assistant manager at Radio Shack. According to Tom, "it’s all about fuel mileage these days and they don’t want anything out there like an external antenna that would compromise fuel mileage.” He pointed out the integrated antenna system.
Well, that makes sense.
Making one of these radios work the way I wanted it to was quoted to me at $170 for antenna work by our local CB shop. The shop would bypass the antenna system and install a traditional antenna with some grounding hardware.
An OTR guy like me, who drives about 120,000 miles a year and might spend 2,800 or more waking hours in the cab over that year: Should I need to pay $170 to retrofit a truck with a sticker price of $190K just to listen to the Grand Ol’ Opry on Saturday night? And yes, I know how to stream to listen, and do so frequently. But given how problematic some listening platforms are with respect to the hands-free requirement -- particularly Youtube, where there's always a video component (good luck proving you were just listening and not watching should the worst happen, your phone records get subpoenaed, etc.) -- having a radio with good reception, in this gearjammer’s opinion (well, at least still a gearjammer in my heart), is a must.
I've purchased one Daimler product, back in the DaimlerChrysler era -- a brand-new Dodge Caravan, and on a cold night that AM radio could pick up stations 1,000 miles away.
So much for true love.
We asked Daimler reps about the radio reception, about whether they'd done anything different with the antenna system in the fifth-generation Cascadia, set to start rolling off the assembly lines later this year.
"While there are no changes to the antenna from Gen 4 to Gen 5," Daimler said, the company highlighted its "Interactive Touchscreen Display" as a new standard feature in the fifth generation for easy switch to satellite radio or Bluetooth capabilities "during AM/FM transitions, providing a more versatile and enjoyable experience."
That sounds great, yet in my view, if Daimler wants to continue to make inroads with owner-operators with the fifth-generation Cascadia, as Jason Cannon's somewhat recent story suggested, improved AM/FM radio reception seems low-hanging fruit for improvement.
Heck, though I've lamented more than once that my owner-operator days are long in the past and will most likely remain there, I might buy one of these myself.
Long Haul Paul is a four-million-mile trucker, freelance writer and singer-songwriter. He can be reached via email here.
