In the Driver’s Seat: Interstate Trucking -- a Journey

People asked me, "What's interstate trucking like? What's it really like out there on the road?" My short answer was always the same. "You have to like being alone." In The Driver's Seat -- memoir, travelogue, portrait of an industry -- is the long answer. One month after his 45th birthday, Marc Mayfield became a long-haul truck driver, something he'd always wanted to do. Away from home for weeks at a time, he crisscrossed America in 18-wheelers. Drove into sunsets and, often, through the night. Learned firsthand that truckers compensated by the mile are shortchanged with each paycheck, that the federal Hours of Service of Drivers are as unrealistic as they are dangerous, that every day out there brought threats to his truck, his cargo, and his life. But he loved the solitude of a truck cab and traveled more than one million accident-free miles. Along the way, he all but destroyed his marriage. Then he met someone he didn't know he'd been looking for: Himself.

Marc Mayfield lives in northern California with his wife of 20 years. He is at work on two books--a second memoir and a novel of revenge--and two original screenplays.