Yuku free message boards

Ice Job if You Can Get It: Popular show returns with Mullen drivers
05/23/2008
DEDMONTON - Mullen Trucking's Field Supervisor Jerry Dusdal was looking at taking one of two trips next week.

He had to either drive a truck as far north on this continent as it's possible to go -- Prudhoe Bay -- to pick up a drilling rig; or he had to fly south to the Big Apple to be wined and dined, entertained and interviewed for TV.

His boss, Bruce Mullen, made the call. "Go to New York,"

The reason Dusdal is being beckoned to the City that Never Sleeps is he is starring in Season Two of the documentary-style TV show "Ice Road Truckers" which hits the airwaves on the American History Channel 9:00 p.m. on June 8. The producers want him in New York to do some PR work.

The first season, which aired last year, had record-high ratings and producers think that the inclusion of Dusdal and his crew from Mullen will be just what the show needs to make the ratings spike even higher.

For this second season, the drivers and camera crew work between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, joined in the winter by 300 km of ice road, more than 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The history channel crews descended on the Mackenzie Delta natural gas fields last year and over a period of about two months filmed, interviewed, edited and traveled about with Dusdal and his drivers as they serviced the gas-drilling rigs that are popping up all over that part of the Arctic.

In the new show, two clients collaborate with three competitive trucking companies to move hundreds of heavy, oversized loads through frigid, often dangerous conditions.

Dusdal, who has been with Mullen for almost 19 years, tells us that the introduction of himself and Erik DuFresne, another driver with Northwinds out of Inuvik, will bring new characters to the show, and, Dusdal says, that's what reality shows such as "Ice Truckers" thrive on.

"They know how to make the most out of any little thing," he says in an exclusive interview with todaystrucking.com. "And in the new episodes, I kinda give Keith and the other guys a thrashin' because they don't know that much about our end of the industry. It's all in good spirit but the producers pick up on that."

Season one of Ice Road Truckers broke ratings records. Driver Dusdal
expects this follow up season to be even better.

The thing is, they're amazed by what we do and we're amazed by what they do. It was lots of fun for our crews and for theirs."

The first season of ice-road trucking drew criticism from some northern companies, including the participating carrier, who accused the producers of over-dramatizing the world of the O-T-I (over the ice) end of this business and exaggerating the dangers of the job.

Dusdal's response to that worry? The critics should chill.

"The producers are what we do to the rest of the world and they also make us appreciate what an amazing part of the world we live in."

Dusdal, 46, is married to Lesia. And one of the best parts of the filming, he says, happened one day when he was driving across the ice to Tuktoyaktuk, and when he found a spot where his cell phone actually worked; he pulled over, phoned home and asked Lecia for a NASCAR update.

The cameraman was so impressed by the fact that Dusdal was a fan, but more so by Lesia's well-informed response, that he put her on the speakerphone so (we hope) viewers around the world will hear Lesia give Jerry the all-important circuit news.

"It's just another example of how these shows bring different worlds together."