Ice Road Truckers

During the finale of the show's first season of 10 episodes, The History Channel aired a promo for season 2 which began airing on June 8, 2008.[2]

Season 1 of Ice Road Truckers was shown on the British national commercial channel Channel Five in February/March 2008. In Australia it aired on Austar and Foxtel in early 2008 and from June 18 it also began being shown on Network Ten. In autumn 2008 season one aired on RTL 7 in the Netherlands. In Italy the first season premiered on History Channel on January 7, 2010 as "Gli eroi del ghiaccio" (English: Heroes of the ice).[3]

The second season premiered on June 8, 2008 in the US; October 9, 2008 on History in the UK and in Australia; November 12, 2008 in New Zealand; and January 7, 2009 on Channel 5 in the UK. The first season was not aired in Canada until March 4, 2009 on History Television.

The third season premiered on May 31, 2009 in the US; September 10 in the UK. Channel Five debuted series 3 on January 5, 2010.

Debogorski, Rowland, and Yemm continue driving in Canada for this season, moving cargo along the Dempster Highway (Debogorski) and Manitoba's winter roads (Rowland and Yemm). Jessee (seasons 3 and 4) returns to drive the Dalton along with three newcomers, and Hall appears in one episode to help move a modular building up from Fairbanks. Near the end of the season, Veilleux (season 4) is called in to help transport the last loads up to Prudhoe Bay. Molesky and Kromm are involved in training drivers new to driving on the Dalton Highway for Carlile Transportation. Additionally, both Molesky and Kromm independently monitor other drivers' standards and behavior, and advise Fairbanks Terminal Manager Lane Keator if there are issues like those that led to Redmon and "Porkchop" being fired.

• Darrell Ward (1964–2016): Coming to Alaska from Montana, Ward has 31 years of highway trucking experience, including driving logging trucks in the Rocky Mountains, and drove the Dalton for Alaska West Express in 2009.[7] This is his first (and only) year at Carlile, and he ends up coming second to Jack Jessee by one load. Darrell, easily one of IRT's most popular drivers ever, was killed in a plane crash at the age of 52 on August 28, 2016. Ward at the time was a business partner with Lisa Kelly. The plane was piloted by Mark Melotz and it crashed near Rock Creek, Montana.
• Austin Wheeler: Wheeler, 23, has been a Carlile employee for almost two years, transporting heavy loads in southern Alaska before transferring to the Fairbanks depot. While his season ended early towards the end due to engine power issues, he earned credit in saving Darrell when the latter was stranded in the middle of the season.
• Ronald "Porkchop" Mangum: Mangum, 35, is a South Carolina trucker with 14 years of experience. Like Ward, he started his first season on the Dalton; he is fired near the end of the season due to concerns over his driving performance.

• Dalton Highway: This is the final season for the Dalton on the show.
• Dempster Highway: Connects the Northwest Territories to the rest of Canada’s road network through the Yukon.
• Manitoba ice roads

Alaska

• Jessee – 29
• Ward – 28
• Wheeler – 23
• Veilleux – 5 (not in the full season)

Canada

• Debogorski – 25
• Rowland – 14
• Yemm – 6

Debogorski, Kelly, and Ward relocate to Winnipeg this season and begin driving for Polar Industries. Rowland and Pleskot return as well, leaving Polar to start their own trucking company, VP Express.

• Art Burke: Burke, a Yellowknife resident, has driven the diamond mine ice roads for 15 years. He originally signs on with VP Express to drive for Rowland but switches over to Polar, after being fired. He also brings the winning load for Polar by the end of the season.
• Todd Dewey: Dewey, a logging trucker from Washington state, started his first year on the ice road to work for Rowland. He is also featured in Ax Men season 8, especially driving logs for Rygaard Logging into the saw mill during the warmer months. Dewey is the nephew of Craig Rygaard and cousin of Gabe, Jason, and Burt. Craig is the original owner of Rygaard Logging, and when he retired, Gabe took over.[8]
• Joey Barnes: Barnes, known as the "King of Obsolete", and his daughter Xena live in northern Manitoba, well past the end of the winter roads. He uses vintage trucks and modified tractors to travel over the rough terrain for equipment delivery/pickup runs.[9][10]

• Polar – 181
• VP – 180

Darrell Ward, Art Burke, and Lisa Kelly drive for Polar. Todd Dewey switches from VP Express to Polar.[11] Alex Debogorski drives for longtime rival Hugh Rowland’s and Vlad Pleskot’s VP Express.[12] After a tense verbal exchange with Polar owner Mark Kohaykewych, Darrell quits Polar in episode 5, frustrated with repeated truck breakdowns and how few loads he has been given, and goes into business for himself. Joey Barnes appears in episode 10 to escort Burke on a delivery run through the Manitoba wilderness, after Burke avoided being fired after jack-knifing his truck the previous trip. Also in episode 5, Burke was fined $490 and "shut down" (suspended from driving) for three days, due to multiple log-book infringements and over-working, from being stuck in the snowstorm on the previous round trip. In episode 12, Kelly, Burke, Dewey, Darrell and Reno all make it to Fort Severn, while Kelly decides to support Darrell and help him go further into Peawanuck. Kelly was not censured by Mark for her actions, as it was "a morally and ethically right thing to do," and she was offered a job by Darrell for the next season; she was undecided on switching sides.

This was Hugh Rowland's final season, as he was involved in a 2014 pickup accident.

• Reno Ward: Darrell Ward’s son, he was hired to help his father in episode 9.

• Manitoba/Ontario ice roads: Two new destinations in northwestern Ontario: Fort Severn and Peawanuck.

• Polar: 171
• VP: 170
• Total: 341

With the departure of Rowland and VP Express from the series due to a 2014 pickup accident which severely injured him while riding with one of the series’ producers,[13] the "dash for the cash" theme is less emphasized from this season on. As a result, load counts are no longer shown, and the focus shifts to delivering loads to communities as shortening ice road seasons permit, as the season’s two-part finale demonstrates.

This season features all the truckers from the prior season with the exceptions of Hugh Rowland, Vlad Pleskot and Reno Ward. Debogorski, Dewey and Burke drive for Polar, while Darrell Ward and Kelly drive for their own company.[14][15] Barnes appears in episode 8 to help Burke haul a load of fuel.

• Mike Simmons: Mike is the owner of Bad Apple Escorts, Inc., a pilot truck service based in Edmonton, Alberta. Although he is an experienced heavy hauler on the Alberta oil fields, this season marks his first exposure to ice road trucking. He is hired by Polar to help keep loads moving, in response to the threat of competition posed by Ward and Kelly.

• Manitoba/Ontario ice roads
• Seal River, via cat train convoy from Churchill: Darrell and Mark teamed up to send their best drivers (Dewey and Kelly) to make this haul over the southwest part of Hudson Bay.

Debogorski, Darrell Ward, Kelly, Dewey and Burke continue driving for their respective companies. Mark Kohaykewych briefly drives Darrell’s truck, as well as a heavy loader to push trucks over steep hills during the two-part season finale convoy.

This was Darrell Ward's final season, as he was killed in a plane crash on August 28, 2016.[17]

• Stephanie "Steph" Custance: Steph, 22, is a first-year ice road trucker with less than one year of commercial driving experience. Mark hires her to work for Polar, deciding that his need for drivers outweighs the problems he sees during her road test. She has a five-year-old son.

• Manitoba/Ontario/Alberta ice roads: In addition to previously seen destinations in Manitoba and Ontario, two new destinations were added in Season 10: Fort Chipewyan, Alberta and Summer Beaver, Ontario.

Debogorski, Dewey, Burke and Custance continue driving for Polar, and Kelly continues to run the company she and Darrell Ward founded. Darrell's son Reno Ward (Season 8) joins the cast in episode 5, helping Kelly repay a debt to Polar owner Mark Kohaykewych. Mark also drives a pilot car for an oversized load hauled by Kelly and Reno (episodes 5 and 6).

• Manitoba/Ontario ice roads: One new destination added in Season 11: Kasabonika, Ontario.

On October 3, 2010, a spinoff series, titled IRT: Deadliest Roads, premiered immediately after the Season 4 finale. Rick Yemm, Alex Debogorski, and Lisa Kelly traveled to India and put their driving skills to the test on the narrow, treacherous mountain roads that lead from Delhi to Shimla, then up to the Karchan and Kuppa hydroelectric dam construction sites in the Himalayas. Debogorski quit in the first episode due to fear of angry mobs if he were involved in an accident, and was replaced by Alabama trucker Dave Redmon (who has since been featured in Season 5 of Ice Road Truckers). As the season continued, the drivers were dispatched to carry supplies over the stormy Rohtang Pass to the town of Keylong, which had been cut off for months due to the bad weather. The season finale aired on December 5, 2010, with the truckers' attempting to deliver loads of jet fuel for helicopter crews who were working to rescue people stranded in the mountains by the storms. Yemm and Redmon turned back, deciding that the conditions were too hazardous for the volatile cargo; the next day, Kelly hauled the entire shipment herself and delivered it to the crews, becoming the only North American trucker to complete the entire season.

The roads were often hacked out of vertical cliffs like a tunnel with one side open to the air, with rock overhangs overhead and drops of several hundred feet below. One part of the road was called "the Freefall Freeway".

• In Episode 5: "Crumbling Roads", Kelly and Yemm delivered two images (one each, well-packed with sandbags, sand and straw) of the goddess Kali (shown as treading on her husband Shiva) along a frightful mountain road hacked out of cliffsides to a temple at a town called Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh.
• In Episode 6: "Thin Air", they struggled with a worse road and altitude hypoxia on the Rohtang Pass, and one of them delivered an image of Buddha and some Buddhist scriptures to a Tibetan-type Buddhist monastery in the mountains.

Early promotional spots for the series listed the title as IRT: Himalayas.

The second season of IRT: Deadliest Roads premiered on September 25, 2011. Six North American drivers are sent to Bolivia to haul cargo along the Yungas Road, notorious for its extreme hazards. The drivers work in pairs – Hugh Rowland and Rick Yemm, Lisa Kelly and Dave Redmon, and newcomers Timothy R. Zickuhr and Augustin "Tino" Rodriguez. Redmon and Yemm quit in Episode 2; Rowland continues driving alone, while Texas trucker G.W. Boles arrives to ride with Kelly in Episode 4. Starting with Episode 8, the truckers relocate to Peru and begin transporting loads to sites high in the Andes mountain range.

In episode 6, Kelly and Boles transport 32 breeding llamas across the Salar de Uyuni, the world's biggest salt flat, 12,000 ft (3,700 m) above sea level. On the way, their truck's radiator begins to leak; after they mend it, they must empty all their drinking water into the radiator to replace the loss. Abundant lithium deposits cause their magnetic compasses to read incorrectly, and for a time their GPS malfunctions.

In February 2015, Tim Zickuhr pleaded guilty to kidnapping and extortion.[18][19]