Even though I now had some long haul, mountain and border crossing experience I really had less than a year running the U.S so again it wasn’t easy to find a company to sign on with and I couldn’t afford to take too long between jobs what with a mortgage and all the other expenses of being sole wage earner. I got a road test with a company that had been around for a long time and is still going. When I was doing my road test I should have known what the company was like by the way their guy acted during the road test, he was one of those who waited until we were almost on an exit before he said “Turn here” and he was upset when I told him we were too close to make the ramp safely, I was hired to haul “cans” or containers to Red Hook and Port Elizabeth, NJ.

When I went to take my first load I could not believe how dirty the truck was inside but there was nothing I could do about it right then.

There were 2 other drivers going to the same place so I got to follow them for my first trip. 

We ran the old 15 highway it was 2 lane back then and these guys were used to it they drove so fast on some of the curves that the trailer tires left yaw marks on the pavement it was dark and I had a hard time keeping up but we all got there ok.

I ran several loads for this company and tried to get to the delivery point in time to get some sleep. I heard many stories about how dangerous Red Hook and Port Elizabeth was but I never had one problem with people coming around my truck, it was trying to get the backhaul ready that took the time. We would drop the load we brought then be given the number for another chassis to get a container loaded onto for the trip back. The chassis sat in an unguarded part of the port and were often stripped of lights and other parts so they would have to be put in the shop to be repaired before they were road worthy this would sometimes take hours to get done then by the time the container was loaded the day would be half gone and the tires on these chassis were really bad they suffered from the salt air and the loads were really heavy so it was common to have tire problems. Back in the so called “good old days” when we were held up like this we were expected to mark the time a sleeper berth time so we could still make the back haul.

I had worked for this company for a few months and was always worried about some of this old equipment causing me a real problem on the road. One day I was told to take a container that was on a chassis that only had 3 hold down locks the fourth one was broken off on the one back corner but I was told to take it anyway,,,,, I wasn’t happy! But I headed out!

As I was rolling along the QEW a Roadlink Transport passed me this wasn’t the first one that had but today I paid attention, on the back of the trailer was an 800 number I got on the CB and asked the driver, who I needed to talk to for a job, he said “Ask for Joe” they were looking for drivers I jotted down the number and when I got to the Grimsby scales I pulled in and called.

I told the person who answered the phone that I needed to speak to Joe Pio she told me he was on vacation but Mike Norton was handling his calls when Mike came on the line I decided to use the same tactic that had got me a couple of good jobs back in the 70’s. When he asked me how he could help me I said “Are you looking for any good drivers?” He said we are always looking for good drivers. I told him to write this name down and gave him mine, because you’ll want to hire this driver. He chuckled and then asked me what I was doing now I said “Heading for Red Hook with a piece of junk chassis that I may get fined for hauling” He asked me if I could come in and talk to him on Monday morning, I did and he had a Ryder truck waiting for me and sent me out, no application no road test and I was gone for 12 days, I had to call in for directions to get back to the yard, LOL. This was the start of the best years I had had with a company hauling freight so far. 

This was where I got to drive my first NEW truck a 5 star General that I went right to the dealer and picked up! I felt like I was living in a palace on the road. 

I heard recently that Mike Norton has gone on to that big Truck Stop in the sky , but if any of you who read this remember some of the drivers or anyone else who worked for Roadlink tell them I said “Hello” 

Working for this company showed me that trucking for people who actually knew what they were doing (most of the time 😉 could be a good experience. It wasn’t always perfect but it was pretty good for several years.

The new trucks had set back front axels which made them prone to lay down on a ramp this was something new to most of us, if you went into a ramp too fast and braked in the turn the cab would tip over, there was one week when 5 Generals laid down on the job! Paul our mechanic asked how I managed to keep my truck from being one of them. I told him I always tried to take the ramps at half the posted speed and use a little power to pull the load around the ramp.

I learned a lot working for Roadlink a few customers were not happy with the treatment they had been receiving from some drivers and I found I had to make them know they would get the best treatment from me that I could deliver, I remember calling a customer in Champaign IL, (we delivered rubber to them and hauled tires from them) to let them know I would be delivering a load Monday morning. He said well if you’re a Roadlink driver I’ll see you when I see you. I said I was sorry for the treatment he had received but if I was going to be late I would call ,,,, he hung up on me! I did my best to turn this customer around and a couple of years later I had a load cancelled that I was supposed to pick up in Chicago on a Friday, dispatch told me to run down to Champaign and get the load that was ready there. It’s only around 140 miles but I had run over night from Toronto and had been waiting around for the load that was eventually cancelled and I was tired! I stopped at a truck stop on the way for a nap I had time for about an hour and could still get to pick-up before 11 pm. But that saying about “The best laid plans” was about to come true! I awoke with a start at 10:30 pm and I was still a long way from destination, I called dispatch and explained my situation and asked him to call and see if I could pick up later or in the morning, dispatch put me on hold and when he came back on he said “No dice, you’ll have to wait till Monday!” I asked if he told the customer it was me? He hadn’t so I called, and when “R” heard me he said “ They never told me it was you” He told me to get some sleep and come on in in the morning that he would leave my paperwork  with the gate guard and if I ever found myself in that situation again to let him know and he would have my load moved across the street to the truck stop the paperwork would be with the fuel desk person, but he said “I’m won’t do this for any other driver until they learn to treat us with the same respect you have” This made me feel very proud and it made me want to work harder to make my customer know who I was. I always introduced myself told the customer who I was and then the company I drove for. I heard so many drivers call a customer and say “ I’m a driver for Whoever I’m supposed to pick a load up” They never made that personal connection some seemed to think it didn’t matter but it worked out well for me many times.

Another time I was going into Bayonne NJ on a Friday to pick up and I got stuck in traffic, the customer closed at 3 pm and I wasn’t going to make it,,, so I called and got hold of the dock foreman I had delivered here many times and it’s not an area you want to spend a night in let alone a weekend. As soon as I said “HI It’s Bev the Roadlink driver” He knew who I was I told him the situation and he said no problem you come on I’ll wait for you I felt like I had finally arrived! Getting a New Jersey dock foreman to stay late on a Friday was not an easy task I had heard many drivers tell how they had to layover somewhere because the customer wouldn’t wait for them.                                                  

 Roadlink had O/O’s and company drivers and sometimes it seemed like a competition, I remember one time I was on my way to the customer in Champaign when an O/O blew past me in his long nosed bright red Pete! He spoke to me on the CB as he was pulling away  “ Sorry Bev, but I’m taking your load at Champaign, I need to be home and this load will get me there” There was nothing I could do, my General couldn’t keep up let alone out run “The Bullet” so I let it go.

Sometimes someone else has a greater need. This O/O had family problems and needed to get home and since there was really nothing I could do about it there was no use raising a big stink.

This happened at more than one customer until the company made the loads driver specific.

At another customer near Philadelphia I met 2 young men who had earned money while they were in college working as lumpers unloading trailers, when they graduated they started their own company and hired guys to unload trailers, these boys were great workers and if one of the hired hands didn’t work as hard as they did they were let go. I was there the day they got the tshirts with their logo on and they said they would like to give me the first one, I was honoured! I still have it. 

I pulled in there one time with an O/O who was always buying things on the road and hoping to make a little extra money by selling them to someone else he never had anything illegal and I don’t think he ever made any money at it but this time he had folding knives and he asked the one young partner if he wanted to buy one for $10 we were walking across the yard at the time the young man never missed a step as he said “Why would I need a knife? I carry a 9 mil”. My buddy almost fell down! He couldn’t believe that this well educated clean cut young man was armed! All legal we were assured.

Not all customers and runs were perfect there were times when I thought when I get back to the yard I’m quitting, but I was making good money and I had the travel bug so I kept showing up and heading out. I passed “The lady in the Harbour” so many times going by on the Cross Bronx Expressway that I swear she waved back a couple of times.

I even met a customer in Flushing NY who helped me out after he got to know me , I picked up baled scrap paper there. The first time I went I met the owner Tony he could have had a part on the Soprano’s big guy no neck but a good heart! He also had the biggest Rotty I had ever seen,he told me  he had found him by the dumpster 4 years ago as a nearly dead starved puppy and kept him in his warehouse, I was nervous of the dog but Tony said just don’t go anywhere outside the yellow line and you’ll be fine. Apparently he had trained the dog to keep an eye on drivers while he loaded their trailers.

This was one of the only yards I had been to that wasn’t fenced and there was not a bit of graffiti on any of the trucks or anything in this yard which was really unusual for NYC, Tony told me he was the 3rd generation of his family to take over this business and he said “If you are ever laid over near here and need a safe place to sleep come here, I guarantee no one will bother you”

I never had to take him up on it but a few months later I got turned around in the construction going there to pickup and called him for directions and he sent his son out to lead me in!