LONDESBORO, Ont. -- What better way for folks to get a glimpse of the trucking industry and the country than from the cab of an over-the-road truck?

A new U.K.-based travel agency was launched recently with that idea in mind.

Welshman John Rogers was over here visiting three years ago when he came up with his unique trucking-business idea. Rogers and a pal had toured Canada for three weeks and had logged more than 11,000 miles by the time they stopped in Vanderhoof, B.C., to visit a truck-driver friend. The driver took Rogers out for a trip in his rig, and inspiration struck.

That’s when Rogers invented See It By Truck. It’s a travel agency designed to match solo travelers with North American owner-operators so the trucker can make some money by carrying the sightseers. It’s sort of like tourists who ship aboard freighters to see the world.

Rogers wants to build a North America-wide network so travelers could begin truck trips anywhere in North America within 48 hours of landing at any major airport.

Of course, there are safety and insurance issues that need to be considered, but, the way he sees it, the more people that are put in the passenger seat of a truck, the better off our highways and truckers will be.

Don MacGregor, an owner-op with MacKinnon Transport, would be inclined to agree.

He’s no stranger to taking passengers along on hauls around Ontario. Every year, MacGregor and his wife Kittie play host family as part of the Lions International Youth Exchange Program and he gives their guests an opportunity to take a ride with him.

Some of the youth like the experience more than others, he says, but whether or not they would ever choose trucking as a career, they at least have a firsthand understanding about what a trucker does.