12 Old-School Trucking Practices You Wouldn't Believe Were Allowed

In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, trucking ran on rules that sound strange today. Some were the law, some were gaps nobody had closed yet, and one thing on this list was never allowed at all. This countdown walks through 12 of them, from open-flame pot torches set out on the highway to a federal list that regulated popped popcorn but not unpopped. You'll hear how a driver could get by with an ordinary car license, or carry licenses from more than one state, and why the legal sleeper bunk was just 18 inches wide. You'll hear about the 1962 hours rule that created an 18-hour "day," the 1956 weight limits that changed at state lines, and the ICC's mid-1950s roadside checks that found nearly one rig in five unsafe. You'll also hear about the FDA inspectors who learned to drive trucks to go undercover, and the three-axle tractors that could legally run with no brakes on their steering wheels.