A longer talk here with Maryland-headquartered Ed Miller, now retired from trucking and the author of a memoir called “A Trucker’s Tale: Wit, Wisdom and True Stories from 60 Years on the Road.” It’s an intimate portrait of a life lived in trucking, from a kid in Western North Carolina changing tires for his father and grandfather’s trucking company, to the driver’s seat himself stateside and in Vietnam as a Navy Seabee, to managing shipper relationships and/or operation back in this or that trucking-company office or terminal. First, though, at the top, a few more readers’ responses to the hours of service final rule that FMCSA announced not quite two weeks ago. Caller look on changes to the split sleeper rules as advantageous to safety, given the ability now of the shorter period in the split to stop the 14-hour clock as long as it’s at least two hours long, according to the text of the rule itself. Miller, ultimately, hopes new changes might bring about more ability to restore a little of that Knights of Highway public profile once enjoyed by today's drivers forebears -- more might stop to help out a broken-down four-wheeler, at least, as his book suggests ...