Happy New Year!!!
We hope this year is a successful one for you.
Gibbs Truck Centers

GIBBS TRUCK CENTERS has been serving Central California since 1970. We have (6) six full service commercial truck dealerships offering the complete line of INTERNATIONAL and ISUZU brand products and services. We carry a multi-million dollar parts inventory to meet our customers' needs. Our Service Departments are staffed with Factory Trained Technicians with ASE certification. Should you require an additional unit we offer Rental trucks or full maintenance leasing through our Gibbs Idealease organization. Our state of the art paint and body shops can handle any make or model repairs. Looking to purchase a truck or tractor please contact one of our highly experienced sales professionals.

Record-keeping tips from John Turner, a CPA and regular guest on SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Road Dog Trucking channel.

1. Monitor Monthly
   Keep records of every transaction, from customer invoices to business receipts. Turn these records into financial statement, and review on a monthly basis for a snapshot of your business health - and a head start at tax time.
   
   
2. Write it Down
   Some on-the-road expenses don't provide a receipt: trips to the laundromat, or tipping a mechanic for a job well done. The law allows a deduction of up to $75 per day without a receipt, but you need a manual record. Write each expense in a notebook that's always with you.
   
   
3. Call for Backup
   With electronic logbooks, some drivers think they don't need to keep track of their own hours. But the IRS still requires backup documentation. Ask your employer for a printout. Or keep an old-fashioned manual logbook, and make sure it matches the electronic version.
   
   
4. Follow the 3-Year Rule
   Keep source documents for three years from the last affected tax return. For equipment that means three years after the disposition (sale, trade, or retiring) of that depreciable asset. Keep scans of paper records, and store copies in multiple locations.

How Far does International® go to test its trucks under severe conditions? To the most remote route in the coldest place in America.
By Josh Dean

In a ranking of the most remote and lonely routes in North America, there is a competition only for No. 2. The top spot is not in doubt. Ask a trucker: It's the Dalton Highway.

Also known as Alaska Route 11 and the Haul Road, the James W. Dalton Highway is a 414-mile gravel, dirt and paved road that startes just north of Livengood off the Elliot Highway, 84 miles north of Fairbanks, then crosses the Arctic Circle at Mile 115 and ends at Deadhorse, at Prudhoe Bay, home base for Alaska's oil drilling industry. It was built at a cost of $150 million over five months in 1974 to support the Trans Alaska Pipeline, but it's primary use-then and now-has been to supply the North Slope oil fields that suck the black liquid out of the seabed. And that requires trucks, lots of trucks.

Despite being one of the world's most remote highways, the Dalton is actually bustling with truck traffic-an average of 160 a day in summer and 250 in winter. Twelve months a year these rigs ply it's monotonous miles of tundra, bounce over its crater-size ruts and ascend its steep slopes, enduring some of the harshest weather on earth. Prospect Creek, at Mile 135, is the site of the lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. (-80°); Antigun Pass, at 4,800 feet, is Alaska's highest divide; and for 240 miles after Coldfoot, America's northernmost truckstop there are no servies whatsoever, making this the longest stretch of unsupported road in the U.S. Drivers leaving Fairbanks make sure to pack extra food, water and cold-weather gear-essential items in a place where outside temperatures can reach dangerous lows.

All of which makes the road the perfect place to cold-weather-test the International® fleet of heavy duty trucks. The idea behind the testing, says Navistar field test manager Roy Hensler-who runs the Alaska project and spends part of each winter in the frigid north-is to put International trucks through every situation that drivers may encounter and then some. "We're making sure the vehicle is reliable, performs and will be acceptable to customers all the way around," Hensler explains. "from driver comfort to vehicle performance." And Alaskan winter, so long and brutal, offer up to six months of below-zero temperatures. "That's plenty of data." (In summer he leads similar work in the Nevada desert to test trucks in extreme heat.) As for the road's quality: "I wouldn't say it's good, It's passable."