Even as a child, Josh Giesbrecht knew his future lay on the open road. He can’t remember a time when he didn’t love trucks and the idea of traveling from one end of his native Canada to the other.
“This is what I always knew I was going to be doing, ever since I was a kid and went on the road with my dad in the summer between school seasons,” he said. “It was just a given to me that this is what I was going to do.
“I got my regular driver’s license at 16 and I immediately got a job delivering pizza in Winnipeg,” he continued. “At 18, you can get your CDL — we call it a Class 1 in Manitoba — and as soon as I could, I got that and I got to trucking.”
In the 17 years that followed, Giesbrecht achieved his dream and then some, having touched all the Canadian provinces and U.S. states reachable by truck. The endless journey has racked up a million accident-free miles and counting.
That million-mile record is impressive enough for anyone, but another aspect of his trucking career is what has made him a recognizable face to people around the world.
For 12 of his 17 years as a professional driver, Giesbrecht has steadily built a worldwide audience through his vlog persona, Trucker Josh. Through that medium, he shares the joys — and sometimes the perils — of the job he’s chosen and the life he loves.
“(The vlog) started because I wanted to show people who weren’t in the industry what I actually do out here,” Giesbrecht said. “A lot of times, I’d go to a party or go to some friend’s house and people would ask, ‘What do you do for a living?’ I’d say, ‘I’m a truck driver,’ and they’d give me that look, like, ‘Oh, you’re JUST a truck driver. That’s easy. All you do is hold the steering wheel all day.’
“Well, actually, I’ll show you what I do!” he said.
Thus, vlogging became a regular activity for Giesbrecht, chronicling his life as an over-the-road driver for Keystone Western. As Trucker Josh, he quickly discovered that telling tales from the road came almost as naturally as his day job of driving.
“I’ve always enjoyed the camera. I’ve always enjoyed sharing stuff,” he said. “I’ve never had any second thoughts about that. I’ve had a very good audience over the years. I haven’t had any instances where I felt uncomfortable or threatened — although some people are a little TOO friendly.”
Over the past 12 years, Giesbrecht has grown his audience to 300,000 to 500,000 views per month — or, at this writing, nearly 55 million lifetime views. Part of what has driven his popularity is the authenticity he brings to each vlog, whether he’s speaking in wonderment about the scenery or sharing his feelings about deeper topics that he knows all truckers face.
“Some things weren’t really topics that I wanted to talk about,” he said of the Trucker Josh vlog content.
“I guess no one really wants to talk about when they’re down,” he said. “I really love what I do, so I wasn’t showing the hard parts of leaving home, or the struggles in a marriage you go through, or other things that got too personal with the audience.”
He quickly realized that his audience wanted to see and hear the whole story about life as a trucker.
“I started to get feedback from people, ‘You’re hyping (the job) up. You’re making it all sound amazing, but this is also true, and this is also true in the industry,’” he explained.
“I took that to mean maybe I should be at least addressing these other things so new drivers don’t come in and think it’s going to be just amazing every day,” he said. “When they hit those issues and they have those struggles, I don’t want them to think, ‘Oh, it works for Trucker Josh; why is it not working for me?’ I’ve learned I can show them I’ve dealt with those same things too, just like you. I just push through it.”
One thing that has set Giesbrecht apart from the field has been his willingness to bring viewers into his personal life when it’s appropriate. His wife, Brittany, and young son, Theo, show up in episodes here and there, which further humanizes Trucker Josh for his audience.
“Britt has always been very supportive. She’s actually more open than I am about sharing,” he said. “Since we’ve had our kid, we’ve had a lot of discussions about, ‘Where is that line? What do we share with the internet, especially when it comes to our son?’
“This is different,” he continued. “We realized, ‘It’s not me. It’s not you. This is a kid who doesn’t know what’s going on yet, and he’s going to be going to school and people are going to know who he is because of something Daddy did.’”
The 12 years on the internet have brought changes, both to Giesbrecht the driver and Trucker Josh the program. On the driver side, he’s scaled back to a dedicated route that helps him have more home time to spend with his family. On the program side, he’s had to adjust to the loss of one of the vlog’s brightest co-stars, his dog Diesel, who has recently stepped into retirement.
“Probably 99% of my viewers tuned in to see Diesel. They loved him,” he said. “It’s a shame I can’t have him in the truck. He’s an old guy now, and he can’t get in the truck anymore. He was definitely the star of the show. He’s now living his best retired life at home, getting pampered every day.”
As for the future, Giesbrecht sees no end in sight, either as a driver or for the Trucker Josh program. Even after a dozen years, he’s still energized by finding out about drivers who joined the industry specifically because of what they’ve seen on his vlogs, as well as drivers for whom the road is made a little less lonely when away from loved ones.
“I want it to be a storyline that continues through my whole life. I’d like to keep doing this as long as I live,” he said. “That would be great to have my whole adult life documented, something that can be put somewhere into a time capsule and future generations down the line can have it to look back on.
“Who knows, maybe in 200 years — if they’re still watching videos at that time — they can see how one of their ancestors lived 200 years ago! I think that would be pretty cool,” he continued.
In recognition of Giesbrecht’s contributions to the trucking industry, he was inducted into the Howes Hall of Fame in March 2024. The announcement was made during the Mid-America Trucking Show, held in Louisville, Kentucky.
“There are people who have grown up watching Josh that are now becoming drivers themselves. There are others who get to live vicariously through him, traveling to places they may never have the chance to visit on their own,” said Rob Howes, president of Howes.
“Many are inspired by his commitment to positivity and his endless search to find the good in every situation, for his dedication to trucking, and for offering a personal and candid view into the life of a trucker,” Howes continued. “Howes is proud to welcome trucker Josh into the House Hall of Fame.
For Giesbrecht, it’s not about fame. He simply wants to make a difference in the lives of others.
“I want (Trucker Josh) to be a positive influence for other people in the industry,” he shared. “When they’re so alone on the road all the time, they can watch the videos, wherever they are, and know they’re not the only ones going through what they’re going through.
“We all have our unique struggles but if they can see someone else is going through the same thing they are, they’re not by themselves. Some days are good, some days are bad but we’re all out here together,” he concluded.
Dwain Hebda is a freelance journalist, author, editor and storyteller in Little Rock, Arkansas. In addition to The Trucker, his work appears in more than 35 publications across multiple states each year. Hebda’s writing has been awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists and a Finalist in Best Of Arkansas rankings by AY Magazine. He is president of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths, which provides editorial services to publications and companies.
