by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Nov 25, 2016 | BLOG, Uncategorized
An interview with Ruth Degen-Mackenzie, veteran driver
(By Michel Robichaud / “The Request Project”.)
Sunday 6:30 pm as I stop to park my vehicle in front of the ACS (Armour Courier service) building on Edinburg Dr. in Moncton, a sand colored GMC
pick up truck stops in a near distance. Realizing it’s the security guard, I decide to walk over to let him know about the purpose of my presence. Fifteen minutes later appears a white Freightliner Cascadia carrying a box trailer identified as SLH recognizable to its color scheme .
Ruth Degen-Mackenzie is pulling into the yard as the eighteen wheeler describes a wide loop in the middle of rising dust.
From the time she was dispatched and left with her load at Bridgewater Nova Scotia up in Moncton, less than five hours had passed. On schedule for our meeting, my camera focuses, already zooming on the motion sequence. Looking at the massive semi immobilized and introductions made, yet talking about all sorts and soon completing the photo shoot the ice would soon be broken!
But first things first, “there’s absolutely no lady thing” with Ruth and laughing about it, we then settle for “trucking gal” as her proper way to bring up our subject as far as introducing women in the trucking context.
Born on June 17, 1959 in Digby N.S. Ruth comes from a family whose grand father had been driving box trucks for local companies at one point in his life. Being a second generation driver by following those footsteps, one can surely testify that her fourteen years of experience behind the big wheel (including ten driving as team) runs in her blood. Currently working for SLH (Sears Long Haul) mostly running Canada/U.S. and travelling two main corridors; hauling basically tires from the Nova Scotia Michelin plant to South Carolina, Maryland, Alabama, Arkansas and Illinois states and delivering back to Canada. “We also haul tires from the province to Montreal QC and London ONT amongst other goods”. Finding her comfort zone with this company underlines all the importance and also the meaning of her past experiences. And yes, a million miller she is. Accumulating as well as logging in countless hours of operation is easier said than done she reminds us.
I asked Ruth what kept her there? “The respect and good treatment given to the drivers…” and adding “…It’s so great! The dispatchers have your back and do whatever they can to make things right… The runs are great also!” As I still listen, she replies “This company runs almost exclusive drop & hook, so not being stuck on a dock or unloading. If a tire load isn’t ready, then they will send you to pick up appliances or some other things that Sears sells. So there’s no sitting around; it is very, very rare to get a layover! They give you more than enough time to deliver. But should something happen, you just let them know and no questions asked. They only change the appointment time. If you get somewhere and there is no load ready, you still have driving time; they pay you for lost driving time.” In conclusion she mentions “I wish I had started there from the beginning.”
Trucking from Ruth’s perspective brings her back to her childhood memories when, at the young age of 13, she remembers pointing up at trucks passing by and telling to her friends “I’m going to drive those one of these days which would put them into hysterical laughter.” (I was so short…). And that resonating phrase “you won’t be able to reach the pedals!” surely made its effect; only in her mind it had a much different meaning. Thinking “Where do they go and what do they get to see!”.
Sure enough, her dream came to be, only much later in life after going on a trip in the U.S. with her eighteen year old sun who already had his class 1 driver’s license. She knew at this point in time what to aim for. E.I. (Employment Insurance) had given her the opportunity to join a local truck driving program. More determined than ever, Ruth had also convinced family and relatives of their full support and encouragement. No one, she says, was surprised about her decision. “My mom was proud of me doing it yet at the same time she worried. But she seemed to be a little more at ease as long as I ran team”.
Thereupon, Ruth is part of the growing presence of women whose contribution bring a whole new approach to this way of life as it does within the trucking industry. “Most people have no idea what this industry is about; but when I tell them I get paid to travel, you can see the light coming in their head so-to-speak.” The fact is that in a daily routine, drivers are bound to adapt themselves with numerous situations including driving time and in many cases long sleepless hours.
And the industry itself is in a constant changing mode. Finding your place and fitting in is a matter of three important elements in Ruth’s book: education, mentoring and security. Her advice to future generation who seek or ambition the specific profession would be the following recommendation: “…It would be nice to get the gals out there on career day, bring the truck and show things off, help them getting a good start on trucking life”.
A lot of drivers, such as Ruth Degen-Mackenzie, travel with a pet as companion. Mr. Chewie was seeking for a home and was offered as a gift to her husband as she states it: “This day I know because it was the hubby’s birthday gift…
Now this is the kicker, I’m getting a free Main coon cat, and his answer is no! (I never understood why he said that)”. As for me this cat made an impression on me just by its size. I never thought how big they could be.
Spending time on the road means making some for our interview when at a stop, at the end of the day (when extra energy can be spared) or on her days off. It made me realize that Facebook came in handy as more than half of our conversation was done over the keyboard.
A full working week has passed, crossing a long period of heavy rain stretching from Tennessee to Ohio state (640 miles) really puts you on your toes. Having logged in 3846 miles all combined and waiting for the next trip. As she recalls, the Freightliner is her rolling home; being away most of the time has develop Ruth’s sense of steady routine, particularly on well managed organisation around pre-trips. From home cooked meals to last minute verification’s of her truck prior to departure time.
On another note, Ruth describes herself as a ‘witch’ “To me a Witch is someone who listens to your feelings, pay attention to surroundings, learn to read and see the signs so to speak”; Being connected with life and people is a rule and fitting in a man’s world takes much determination even today; only in Ruth’s opinion it’s all in the mind and pretty simple: “If you want it bad enough you will become a trucker”… “We have more patience and we are more careful… I think the mother side of us really wants to make sure we don’t hurt anyone or anything”. In conclusion her professional background can be described as a hard one but well earned as far as experience is concerned.
Ruth Degen-Mackenzie to me is a living example for the younger generation although strength of character is definitely an asset . “… the fact we hit the road and live the excitement of travelling long distances is a great thing, but most importantly, I keep my beloved ones in mind…”
Interview realized in June of 2016 in Moncton N.B.
Photo credits: On Silver Wheels Photography.
Check out Michel’s Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/On-Silver-Wheels-Photography-783159908374048/
Email Michel Robichaud at michelrobichaud88@yahoo.ca
Website coming in 2017
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Aug 29, 2016 | BLOG
Truck Runaway Down a Mountain in Wyoming
While we were waiting at the Evanston WY truck stop that had been our home for 3 days for the chain law to be lifted, I was watching other drivers chaining up.
The 2 trucks beside us belonged to a father and son and they were chaining every wheel. Tractor and trailer. When I saw them putting a set on the steers I had to ask why, the dad said “It’s no use going if you can’t steer. Chaining the steers stops the truck from skating”
I knew what he was talking about from working in the bush with my husband and riding with him when we would take a load of pulp wood from the bush to the railway.
If you have never had a truck skate on an icy curve you are missing a heart pounding experience. That’s when you’ve turned the steering wheel but the truck keeps going in a straight line.
Finally on the 3rd day the chain law was lifted and we were allowed to start out. I should have waited till the next morning, but this was the first trip we were making for this company I wanted to get this load delivered on time.
You can safely go down a hill with a load if you use the same gear it would take to climb it.
I’m sure most of us have heard this when we were learning to haul freight,,,, following this rule can kill you! First of all when you’re climbing a hill the load is trying to pull the tractor back, when you’re descending a hill that load is pushing the truck.
I got a hard fast lesson the day I left Evanston Wy and headed up the first mountain. There was 44,000 lbs or so in the trailer and the old General had no Jake brake,,,, I was in 5th gear when I topped the hill.
The road looked like a rutted bobsled run and when the load started pushing me the truck over revved in a heartbeat. So to keep from blowing the engine I thought I would shift up, lol. As soon as I put it into neutral the truck shot off like a bullet and I couldn’t get into another gear, also I was rapidly gaining on the line of trucks ahead of me!
I grabbed my CB mic and said “I’m coming down too fast I can’t get my truck into a gear !! And this deep calm voice came back “You’ll be ok sweetheart just lean it out into that other lane and let it run, we’ll all just stay in this one and when you stop on the face of that other mountain just pull the red button” I never knew who talked to me but I have been grateful for him saving our lives that day. I still remember my partners face it was a white as chalk and he had his feet braced against the dash, that driver kept talking to me until I stopped on the next hill thank goodness I didn’t start sliding backwards, but it was just icy enough that I couldn’t get going again, so there we sat. We were only about a mile or less from the Little America Truck stop. The drivers going by couldn’t stop to pick us up because they would have been stuck too. But then a woman’s voice came on the CB she said they had a Jeep and would give us a ride to the truck stop.
They were local and knew people who worked at the truck stop, they told us to talk to the girl at the fuel desk and she would know who to call for a tow.
The fuel desk attendant’s name was Carol and she knew exactly who to call! She said Tim Cook is who you need and she called him. While we were waiting we sat down with a coffee by now the reaction to my runaway was setting in and I was shaking so bad I could hardly drink my coffee,,, but before I was even half finished the door flew open and this tall apparition came flying through “Kramer “ style! He was well over 6 feet tall dressed in a long drover’s coat, he had long curly red hair past his shoulders and topped it off with a leather cowboy hat, before he stopped moving he called out “ Who in here needs a tow off the Sister?”. I put my hand up and heard my voice say in a really high shaky voice “That would be us”. Hardly breaking stride he said “C’mon” and headed out the door.
Sitting in the yard was the biggest Tow truck or Wrecker as they call them there, huffing and rumbling it was all black and was a 6 wheel drive Kenworth, Tim called “Betsey” . We climbed in and went to rescue my truck. He hooked up aired up my truck and away we went up to the Little America Truck Stop. After he got my truck parked he asked us what our plans were, we told him we would sleep in the truck and start out again in the morning. He didn’t think that was a good idea, he told us that his wife managed the motel in Evanston and he wanted us to have a good warm safe place to recover from the runaway. He took us to the motel came and took us back up to the truck stop got the truck started and charged us $17.00 ! His comment was “I rescue a lot of trucks stuck in the mud at oil rigs and they pay real good, but I have to give my wife something for the room’’ he climbed back into Betsey with a wave and a “ You kids be careful now” and he was gone. I never saw Tim again but I hope he knows he was very instrumental in me continuing on this long road.
BUT this trip was far from over!
Stay tuned for more of Bev’s life experiences as a truck driver.
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Aug 22, 2016 | BLOG
By Matt Richardson
Once an individual decides to join the trucking industry as a driver, the biggest and most important decision they will make is where they will go to get their education. This decision will greatly affect the job opportunities of a licensed driver entering the work force, and will no doubt be one of the determining factors in the ability to have a successful career. It is important that this decision be an informed one, that is came to by researching different options and knowing what questions to ask and who to ask them too.
The first question that should be asked to any training facility; Is your school a registered and approved training provider? Quite simply, if the facility isn’t a registered private career or community college, they should not be considered. This essentially means that they operate under the radar, and answer to no one or no governing body in regards to training standards or curriculums.
After confirmation has been received that a facility is registered, the next set of questions is very important and should be directed towards the customer service representative at the school or the person responsible for speaking with perspective students;
Do you offer a TTSAO accredited course or PTDI certified course? Truck training programs that are accredited by the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO) or certified by the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI) provide the highest standard of entry level training available. Schools offering these courses are audited regularly and adhere to strict guidelines. These courses and the certificates that go along with them are also recognized by a large number of hiring companies and their insurance providers which means lots of job opportunities and the chance at a great career with graduates holding them!
Are the behind the wheel hours where I am learning to drive the truck One on One, and if not, how are those hours calculated? It is the opinion of many, including myself, that the best way to learn behind the wheel is with 1 instructor and 1 student in the cab, however not all facilities believe this or train this way. If a school does complete one on one in truck training, then you don’t have to worry about how those hours are calculated (50 hours of in-cab is 50 hours). However, if a school does not offer one on one training, it is important to know exactly how much seat time you will be receiving. If there is 50 hours of in cab training but with the ratio of 2 students to 1 instructor each student may only be receiving 25 hours of seat time each. If one on one training is not offered, it is very important to ask how the in-cab hours are calculated so it is clearly understood the amount of time behind the wheel per student.
Do you offer training on both manual and automatic transmissions? Although a number of hiring companies have gone to automated transmissions in their trucks, there a still a large number of companies who have manual transmissions. To open up the most amount of doors for employment, having the ability to drive either type of transmission is critical. The TTSAO found it so critical that its mandated that schools offering their accredited program provide a minimum of 24 hour’s drive time in a manual transmission to each student.
What are your instructor’s qualifications and experience level? The instructors are going to be the one’s educating each student and should have the qualifications and experience to provide the necessary information and knowledge. The highest designation available for truck trainers is the North American Training Management Institutes (NATMI) Certified Driver Trainer (CDT). If a school employs trainers with the CDT designation, there is a good chance students are receiving a high level of instruction.
Can I tour your facility? Schools should be proud of their facilities and want to show them off to potential students. This also gives the student a chance to check out the learning environment they will be spending anywhere from 4-10 weeks at. This also gives perspective students the chance to see the equipment, meet the staff and potentially talk to other students if there are around at time of the tour. A decision on where to attend school should never be made without a tour!
The next step after receiving answers to these questions in narrowing the list down to 2 or 3 schools who have met expectations and impressed over the question and answer period is to contact some carriers or private fleets who are hiring, and ask them where they would recommend a new driver to the industry receive their training. After all, these are the companies who an entry level graduate may look to get work with, so why not get their opinion?
Choosing the right school is the first step to having a successful career as a licensed driver. Make sure the decision is an educated and informed one. It directly effects an entry level driver’s potential in the industry.
Matt Richardson has been in the trucking industry all his life. Currently he is the Sales & Operations Manager at KRTS Transportation Specialist Inc. (KRTS). A graduate of the University of Guelph, Richardson spent 5 years attending school and playing varsity football for the Gryphons. Since graduating in 2012, he has worked in numerous roles at KRTS and is also heavily involved with the PMTC Young Leaders Group. Matt resides in Caledonia with his wife Julie.
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Aug 4, 2016 | BLOG
If you’ve been thinking about getting YOUR Commercial Drivers License, just do it!! Don’t let ANYONE or ANYTHING stand in your way.
There’s more than one way to come into trucking. You can attend a Training School OR take a Community College Course. So, stop making excuses…. If this is YOUR dream only YOU can make it happen.
For over 40 yrs Women have made a POSITIVE Impact on the Trucking Industry. Those Women have paved the way for YOU today !!
WE all had fears, WE all had concerns…..but the good news is, WE made it !! And you can too!
~ Isn’t it time YOU turned YOUR dream into a REALITY ~
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Jul 29, 2016 | BLOG, Celebrating Women Behind The Wheel
My Long Road to Long Hauling
Growing up on a farm near Matheson in Northern Ontario I learned there was no real difference between “men’s work” and “women’s work”. My maternal grandmother worked in the bush cutting fire wood for sale.
My mom worked alongside my dad on the farm, in the field harvesting hay and in the barn milking cows and cleaning the barn by hand because there was no hydro power to our farm.
We used horses to work the farm and in the bush skidding logs. I was home schooled during the winter and I would go to the bush with my dad when I was about 8 years old to help with the log skidding, as pulling a log is very dangerous I would ride the horse and hitch and unhitch the chain, little did I think that some 35 years later I would need to know how to hook a skid chain to drag a load off my trailer in Ida Grove IA! Where an older man who was pulling the parts off my trailer commented as he watched me hook the chain said “You’ve skidded logs, haven’t you ma’am”
When I got married I learned to operate the heavy equipment that my husband owned, this included different farm tractors, loaders and a TD6 crawler that was used to do custom plowing for other farmers. We had 5 children and my husband left us in the winter of 1970.There were not many jobs around the area at that time, so I knew I would have to move and find a better way of making a living for me and the kids who ranged from 3 to 12 years.My sister Barb lived near Barrie, ON and she suggested I move there and look for work, this was May 1971 and Barrie had many jobs available, so I decided to give it a shot.
My 3 older kids were still in school so my mom and my other sister Opal offered to take care of them till school was out and I headed south.
I thought I would have no problem getting a job on construction because I was a good loader operator but Barrie wasn’t as progressive as the North, so I went to work in a factory.
I also knew to move forward I would have to upgrade my education beyond grade 8. I started taking classes at Georgian college and working a part time/full time job. I got my GED and was taking a bookkeeping course, because I was good with numbers, not because I liked the course, when one of my classmates, Joyce Winters suggested I should drive tractor trailers, ya right I thought, all I wanted to do was get a decent paying job because my 5 kids wanted to live indoors and eat every day!
But, sometimes the path is chosen for you. One day I was driving home from school and I saw transport trucks with “George Brown College” turning around in the plaza in Angus I didn’t even know there was truck driving schools.
I thought I’ll have to call them and get some info sometime, and went home to have supper with my kids because I had a job 3 nights a week Wed, Fri & Sat at the Barrie Race track from 7 to midnight.
On my way back into Barrie I see the same trucks parked at a little restaurant along county road 90 ( its long gone ) I thought ok God I can take a hint so I stopped and ended up signing up for a 6 week Saturday course starting in November.
The course cost $250.00 I borrowed the money from my brother Robert and started on this new adventure.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy because I had a day job as well as working the 3 nights from 7 to midnight.
I thought all it takes is time management working 18 hours on Friday and needing to be on Cherry St docks in Toronto for 8 a.m Saturday morning would make for a short sleep night but I would have Sunday off so it would be doable. My friend Hilda offered to keep an eye on my kids and I took my first steps on this long road.
I was the only woman in the classes but because of my background I had a lot more real experience than most of the guys and got along really well.
November 1974 I earned my AZ license, it would be 11 years before I entered the long haul world.
I took a bus driving course and started driving school and city bus but kept thinking about getting a chance to use my AZ license.
One morning in May 1976 I was driving past Cooks Construction yard and saw a dump truck sitting on the pad, I thought that was strange because I knew they were very busy, so I went in and asked who I needed to talk to about a driving job (I didn’t know they didn’t have women drivers) I was told to talk to Ron in the scale shack. When I went in I asked Ron “Why is that truck sitting out there?”
“What’s it to you?” he said. “Well if you need a driver you could hire me”
He told me that he wasn’t sure what was happening but to leave my name and call him back about noon and he’d let me know what was going on.
Instead of calling I showed up wearing work clothes and work boots I had my lunch kit and gloves and said “Well?”
Ron just looked at me for a minute and then he asked me what my name was and if I knew where their pit was on the tenth, I did, He told me to take the truck up there and the pit foreman would tell me what he needed done, no application no road test!!!
I was REALLY glad that he didn’t road test me because when I climbed into that truck I found something I had never encountered before. A 2 stick 20speed powered by a gasoline engine. I knew if I went back in to ask Ron how to drive this truck I wouldn’t get the job and it paid over $8.00 an hour, more then I’d ever earned before so I spent a few minutes looking things over.
I had earned my AZ on a 13 speed road ranger and had driven many different types of standard transmissions.
Anyway long story short I got the truck up to the pit and ended up working for them for two seasons. I was the first woman driver for Cooks. The overpasses north of Barrie on 11 are my reminder of the time I worked for them. I was never treated any different than any other new driver if I didn’t know how to do something I asked and was always told and shown respectfully.
Because the work dropped off to almost nothing during the winter I was on EI when I got a call from my counselor about a job working on the snowplow for MTO out of Barrie.
I went and was hired as a wing operator again the first female driver the men accepted me without any problem but they joked that they couldn’t call me a wingman so they called me the wing nut. I took this in the way it was intended as a welcome not a put down.
In the spring I went back to driving city bus because there was no night shift and the pay wasn’t bad but I didn’t like the job.On one of my routes I passed Suburban Tank Lines on Penetanguishene St, where they also sold Western Star trucks (my dream truck back then) so on my day off I decided to check them out. One of the men in the garage directed me to the office where I found a young man behind the desk. I thought I would try the same “shock” method I’d used at Cooks.
I said “If I come to work here do I get to drive a Western Star or are they just for sale?” He looked at me as if I had fallen thru the roof. I told him what experience I had and he said “leave me your information and I’ll get back to you”.
I thought that would be the end of that, but at about 8:30 that night he called me! “Were you serious” he asked. “As a heart attack” I said.
We got together to discuss the job and I found out some of his drivers were giving him a hard time, he was taking over for his dad and they questioned a lot of his decisions, I would be the buffer the men couldn’t very well complain if a woman was doing the job, I went in took a road test and was teamed with the senior driver. Gord never asked me why as woman I wanted to learn to “yank tanks” he just wanted to help me get ready to do the job.
When Gord thought I was ready I was hired as a spare driver, that ment I would be driving a different truck every day. The company had 2 tractor trailer units pulled by a Mack and a Western Star and a straight truck so there was a lot of variety.
This job was the best for learning to back up in difficult situations.
These were “shotgun” tanks that means they had no baffles so the wash would move the truck forward if you braked hard and you had to learn to shift with the wash moving forward in the tank.
I learned a lot and met some interesting people.
This part of my driving career only lasted a few months because I was offered a job at a new plant Rockwell International that was supposed to last 10 years, it offered full benefits and paid well.
I thought it would be better for my family so in the fall of 1979 I was hired as the first woman on the shop floor. Having a woman on the shop floor didn’t sit well with some of the older foremen that came with the plant when it was moved from Quebec so again I had to prove myself.
I had applied as a Quality Control inspector, because I had earned certificates while working at other factory jobs, but I had to spend 3 months running a lathe which taught me a lot about the product, we machined pipeline valves of all sizes.
When I was finally moved off the line I became receiving inspector which I enjoyed because it meant following the valves as they moved through the shop.This 10 year job ended after 2 ½ years 50 of us were laid off in Jul
My next job was with Purolator driving a straight truck in Toronto and making some trips to various places like Kingston and Sudbury,
Then one night I went to work and they were short one AZ driver I told them I had an AZ and I was on my way to Montreal with 10 other trucks to do a switch.
I was there for over 2 years and the job paid well but the hours were unreliable one week I’d get 60 hours and then only one trip for a couple of weeks, that made it very hard to budget.
In the summer of 1985 I caught a severe case of pneumonia and was off work for 4 weeks and even with that time off I could barely drive, so I took vacation time to recoup. We often get steered in certain directions by unrelated occurrences.
I had a friend who had spent a few years living in Florida and North Carolina and we decided to take a road trip so we packed a tent and a few supplies and away we went it was wonderful! I returned home with a desire to travel the U.S in a tractor trailer.
When I got home I went back to driving for Purolator but started sending out resumes to companies looking for cross border drivers. They all wanted drivers with cross border experience, but finally I found a company who offered to train me, YESSSSS!!!
I made an appointment and because I really knew nothing about the industry and how some companies operated I showed up to do this “training” in Mississauga for 8 a.m.
I took all my info and got there early and spent the next several hours waiting in the driver’s room.
Finally this guy comes out of the office (I later learned he was the owner) and asked me if I knew were a certain warehouse was. I told him if I had an address I could find it. He said take the day cab and pick up a loaded trailer and bring it back to the yard.
I did. I asked “When am I getting my road test? He said that was it.
And then he said “By the way, if you want this job that load has to be in Calumet City IL in the morning” I asked what truck I was taking he told me the day cab! I had no idea where Calumet City was! He handed me a bunch of papers and said that the driver in the yard would me help fill these out, his name is Chris. So much for Cross border training. Back then the drivers had to fill out all their own paperwork and clear the load at the border.
Chris helped me fill out the paperwork and told me to write down all the info he gave me so I would be able to do it on my own.
Not knowing that I would be going on a trip I hadn’t brought anything with me no clothing or bedding or map book or extra money!
But I was determined not to let him beat me so away I went I was lucky I could follow Chris on this trip and when we stopped for coffee I called the company and asked the boss “Where do I sleep?” He told me to look behind the seat the last driver left a board there. We got to Calumet City (it’s on the south east edge of Chicago about 480 miles from the yard) about 3a.m. I went to check in with the security guard a big old black man, I asked him if it was safe to sleep here and he gave me the best piece of advice I ever got in all the years I drove. He said “If you keep your doors locked, your windows up and your mouth shut, your safe almost anywhere”. He couldn’t believe my boss had sent me all that way in that old day cab!
This is in late October and it gets cold at night in Illinois! Even with the truck running it was a long 4 hours trying to sleep on a board across the seats with no blankets!!
The next morning we got unloaded and I was on my own.
The “Good old days” were not so good in a lot of ways!
This company cared nothing for their drivers and I was to find this out in the next few days. I was unable to be dispatched home for about a week, and they would only pay for a motel room about every 3 days.
I didn’t even know that a driver cannot log sleeper berth unless the truck actually had a sleeper berth!
Anyway when I got home I was glad to get a change of clothes and packed a duffle, I also took the board home and padded it with foam and put a cover on it so it was a little more comfortable.
I got on a fairly regular run between Meadville PA to Collingwood ON, hauling glass this worked out well because it gave me a chance to get more comfortable with the paperwork and border crossing, but this load always got inland clearance at the customer instead of at the border. This worked out well until the night I arrived in driving rain storm. I grabbed my raincoat and the load papers and ran it to talk to the onsite Customs officer he could do one of two things.
Stamp my paperwork or come out and cut the customs seal on my trailer, the driver was not allowed to break a customs seal without having stamped paperwork.
Up until this load the weather had always been dry and the officer always came out and cut the seal but this time it was pouring rain.
He refused to stamp my customs paper so I went back out and sat in the truck, after a while he came out and cut the seal.
I immediately opened the doors and backed into the dock, got unloaded and thought everything was cool, when I got back to the yard I was to find out how vindictive this officer was. He had put in a complaint about me! I told my company that if I had broken the seal without a stamp on my paperwork that officer could have fined me!
The boss told me to wait in the driver’s room until they decided what to do about this.
While I was waiting I started reading the “drivers wanted” in the Sun newspaper back then there were dozens!
A little 2 line ad caught my eye a company was looking for a team to run Texas and Vancouver. My friend had been laid off and had been driving straight truck around Barrie so I called him and asked if he wanted to drive team he said o.k. I called this company to ask if the job was still available the dispatcher asked if we could be in Dallas TX for Monday (it was now Friday) I said no problem! He gave me the address and I told him we would be at the yard 8 am Saturday morning to get dispatched.
The best part was when I was called back into the office to receive my punishment for refusing to break the law.
The safety guy told me they had decided to give me 3 days off because I had upset a big customer.
I said “Could you give me more than 3 days because while I was waiting I got another job and I need to be in Dallas TX for Monday, I don’t think I can be back here in 3 days.”I laid my keys on the desk, the look on their faces PRICELESS! I had worked for this company for 3 weeks basically on no sleep but I had learned how to get loads across the border! I went home all excited I was going to Texas!
We got stuff packed up bought some supplies and left home early Saturday morning to go to TEXAS! When we got to the office to meet our new boss, Matt we were in for a surprise, the trip had been changed from Texas to Vancouver B.C with 4 drops Winnipeg, Edmonton an 2 in Vancouver.
Because neither of us knew P from putty about this stuff we took the load, now we’re going much farther over snowy roads and would be running through the mountains in B.C. Well this would be a new experience I had never run the mountains.
Our truck was a rental from Ryder a GMC General with a 27’’ coffin bunk and no jake brake, I had no experience with bunks or jakes but we got hooked up and headed out.
Because we were now headed northwest instead of south we had to stop by my house for warmer clothes, as we were running up the 400 I asked my friend how much experience he had pulling a
trailer he said “I’ve never actually pulled a trailer” I was so stunned I couldn’t even get mad, I just pulled over and told him to change seats. We were lucky he was a fast learner.
I drove the #1 highway by crawling down the steeper grades and being cursed at by most of the log haulers in B.C.
I learned a lot on this trip and also found the worst shower in all the truck stops I came across in the next 30+ years, it was so cold the shower mat was frozen to the floor, but since I had no experience with truck stop showers I thought this was normal.
Our return load had us picking up in Washington state U.S and taking it to New Jersey (interstateing ) but what did we know!
Getting down Cabbage Mountain was an experience I stopped at the top and went down in a low gear because it’s all switch backs, in some places you can see several sections of the highway below!
We stopped at a Flying J in Utah below Cabbage Mountain for a break and took some pictures and had lunch. I noticed the other drivers were starting to talk about a storm that was coming, we headed out and got to Evanston WY where we shut down for the night at a little truck stop. The next morning we woke up to a world buried in 3 ft of snow! Highway 80 over the 3 Sisters mountain was closed there was 70 trucks stuck on it, so we were confined to the truck stop till things changed.
We were there for 3 days, had to wait till the chain law was lifted because we carried no chains. The company trucks I drove never carried chains so in all the time I drove I never chained up, though I was in a couple of situation where they would have come in handy,,, like the next day.
That was my introduction to long hauling I think a lot of people would have packed it in but 30+ years later I was still curious to see what would happen on the next trip.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE STORIES FROM BEV WHO BEGAN HER CAREER IN 1965