About the Author Ken Skaggs

Ken Skaggs has been a trucker for over twenty years. Living and working in Chicago most of those years, he was always frustrated with all of the traffic and the crazy drivers. In 2000, he wrote the Chicago Driver, a booklet about how to drive in the big city, hoping to educate people on how to prevent traffic jams rather than cause them.

He sent a copy by email to Jesse White, Secretary of State of Illinois, who said he "liked the ideas and would use some of them in his Aggressive Driving Campaign." Ken tried to get it published, and wound up landing a gig as a columnist for Ten-Four Magazine. There, he published parts of many chapters as articles, along with many more ideas about city driving and trucking in general. After eight years, he continues to write for Ten-Four Magazine. He has had to do a lot of research for many of those articles and has really honed his writing skill and his knowledge of city driving. His by-line at Ten-Four was always "Author, Educator and Big City Driver", since he has always been a teacher at heart. And his website, BigCityDriver.com has many of his articles from the Chicago Driver and Ten-Four Magazine. You can also find over fifty of his articles at their website, here. His latest venture is his own magazine, Big City Driver, which concentrates on trucking in Chicago and suburbs. He can often be heard on the radio, talking about what causes traffic jams and ways to alleviate them. These Ten Keys for Safe City Driving are sure to be a hit with all of the publicity he gets, along with his willingness to speak at trucking companies and truck driving schools. We can only hope everyone reads it, so that it will have the intended impact and teach drivers how to Prevent Traffic Jams. Ken is available for speaking engagements, so if you have a trucking company or driving school, please email him here.

"I've been a trucker for over twenty years, while living and working (mostly) in Chicago. In all my years of trucking and writing, I have attended at least three dozen orientations at some of the top trucking companies in the Country. I have seen how the best do it, and I can honestly tell you that not one of them covers City Driving, at all. What's worse, City Driving is probably the most difficult aspect of trucking." -Ken Skaggs

If you want more, try KenSkaggs.com, listen to his radio stuff, browse the main links on the left, or, read more about the Ten Keys to Safe City Driving at the bottom of this page. Now Available on Video!

Ten Keys to Safe City Driving on VIDEO is finally here! Watch a few chapters here.

Truck Driver Education Source

Big City Driver is dedicated to trucking safety. Webmaster and founder Ken Skaggs has dozens of articles that promote Trucking Safety and Safe City Driving from a drivers perspective, but professional enough for Trucking Company Safety Departments. Here at Big City Driver you will find true stories and serious driver education lessons, like Tales of the Tailgater, Wind, the Silent Killer, Preventing Preventable accidents and Holidays and accidents. You will also find funny and entertaining stories, like Chickenhauler School, Monkeys can Drive and Driver Cuss-Out.There are lots of anecdotal, true stories and inspirational stories and articles.

In this line of work, it's easy to get depressed, gain weight, and lose touch with reality because of the long periods of time gone from home that many drivers experience, not to mention the aggravation of New York City, other big city dangers and aggressive drivers. It's important for todays professional drivers to be smart enough to learn how to stay calm under pressure and keep their sense of humor, which is not easy, and, try to look at daily driving hazzards scientifically instead of emotionally, and learn to relax and entertain themselves.

Many experienced truck drivers love to talk about the good ol' days, of course I am no exception. Because of all the trash-talk on the CB lately, some will argue that there was a time when drivers had class, but in my twenty-five years of trucking, I found that they still do, and even more now than ever. I think it's an age thing, or, just common sense.