Mark Harter will tell you that he’s been involved in the trucking industry since the day he was born in 1975. From the time he was a young child, Mark wanted to be a truck driver.

Harter’s father worked for Sears, Roebuck and Co. for two decades which involved many job transfers during the late 1970s and into the 1980s. While most kids his age would have been unhappy about pulling up their roots, Mark was always excited every time he moved because he knew a big Atlas Van Lines tractor trailer would be parked in front of his house on moving day.

Some of Marks’s truly memorable trucking moments include getting his first Mack Truck hat and the first time he saw a Kenworth T600A, his all-time favorite truck.

In the mid 1980s, Harter started subscribing to publications such as Trucks, Overdrive and others. He would request information on trucks from dealerships, read up on trucking history and acquired his first camera, a 110 Kodak.

During the late 1980s, the movement for better truck aerodynamics became prominent in the trucking industry. Mark was required to do a science fair project in grade school and took his 1:32 scale model trucks and, with the help of his father, built a smoke tunnel using dry ice and a vacuum cleaner to pull the dry ice vapor over the model trucks, thus displaying how air moves over a vehicle. Later on, in 1992, Mark expanded the project and built a twelve foot wind tunnel based on Bournoulli’s Principle. Taking up half of his family’s garage, Mark was able to test the drag coefficient of a 1:32 scale model tractor trailer. He won the Central Indiana Regional Science Fair, earning him a trip to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Nashville, Tennessee that same year.

Since Mark used his 1:32 scale Kenworth T600A which he modified to be even more aerodynamic, Kenworth took notice of his results and were extremely impressed with the coefficient numbers that the project produced.

In the early 1990s, Mark created several trucking related websites and helped Mack Trucks with feedback and design when they developed their first website.

When he turned 21, Harter acquired his Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and started driving for PGT Trucking, Inc., of Monaca, Pennsylvania, where he hauled steel and pulled flatbeds, and then later on, hauling antique, classic and exotic automobiles for Horseless Carriage Carriers, Inc. of Paterson, NJ. Mark has seen 48 states, been to most major American cities and has nearly 1,000,000 safe miles in a tractor-trailer. He came off the road in 2003 to run fleet operations for a small firm in Indianapolis, driving from time to time as needed.

In 2005, Harter was involved in a serious motorcycle accident which left him visually impaired, and because he was unable to drive anymore, he founded Eyes on the Road, a program designed to teach eyesight healthcare and to promote vision safety and research awareness.

Mark is a current member of the National Association of Show Trucks (NAST) and has been a member of the American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) in the past, and has shown trucks in Pride and Polish events around the country.

Outside of trucking, Harter is an avid fan of the Indianapolis 500 and the NTT IndyCar Series.