Dana Guthrie, Author at TheTrucker.com

Traveling buddies: Vivacious pup brightens life on and off the road for Maine-based trucker

By Dana Guthrie - April 12, 2022

As most truckers know, the job can be lonely at times. With long hours — and even longer stretches of road — many in the trucking industry can attest that you need something to pass the time. For driver George P. George Jr., that “something” is a traveling companion that lights up his world. That buddy is of the four-legged variety — his faithful friend, Valerie. Valerie is a pug/Chihuahua mix. George says she truly makes his time on the road a joy and that she has been a great help to him in a job that can be isolating. “I love her because she is great company,” George said. “She’s a great watchdog. I have a tendency to get a little depressed just because I’m out here by myself. You’d think after 30 years I’d be used to it, but nobody ever perfect the art of being by yourself. It’s just not something that you can do. Valerie keeps me company.” Born in California and raised in Massachusetts, George currently makes his home in Saint Albans, Maine, with his wife Kerry and, of course, Valerie. Valerie is not the only dog in the couple’s lives. The family also includes Scrat, a short-haired Chihuahua, and Ellie, whom George says is “too affectionate to be a Chihuahua” and that he believes, “her heart is one size too big.” Twin pups Bert and Ernie rounded out the clan before they were adopted to another home. The family also has one cat and a kitten; George says the kitten “doesn’t really know he’s not a dog. He really has no clue he’s not a dog. Not one bit.” “My wife and I love all these dogs and cats,” George said. George started his trucking career in 1992 after serving in the U.S. Army. His love for trucking started at an early age, driving around his family’s farmland. “I have family members that drive, and I think it’s just in my blood,” George said. “I think I was born to drive. It’s something that I have always wanted to do. I’ve been doing it for 30 years, and I don’t think I could do anything else.” George currently drives for Sibley and Son out of Bangor, Maine. “It’s a family business that started way back in the day,” George said. While George hauls freight — mostly items such as water, gymnasium sheeting, paper goods and store fixtures — Valerie is almost always by his side. George and Valerie’s story is a heartwarming tale. A gift from George’s former partner Maxine, who died just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Valerie was destined to be George’s traveling partner and help keep him company on the long drives. “Valerie was born on the Fourth of July in 2014, and she traveled with me all the time,” George said. “After Maxine passed away, I left Valerie at home for a while with someone to care for her.” When George first met Kerry, now his wife, she was already a loving dog-mom to a senior dog. Soon, George, Kerry and the two pups stated traveling together. Once the pandemic started, Valerie wasn’t able to travel with George as much, and he sorely missed her companionship. “Valerie is loyal to a T, but she has become quite attached to my wife,” he said. “My wife has multiple sclerosis, and Valerie has become a great companion to her as well. “The other dogs … traveling is not really conducive for them, so Scrat and Ellie stay home with her,” he continued. “They are great watchdogs too. We live out in the middle of nowhere, and I’m glad they can keep her company.” Valerie has a very special, yet unexpected perch whenever she travels with George: She rides on his shoulder, something that George taught her to do when she was just a puppy. As Valerie has gotten older, she also likes to sit next to George or curl up by his legs. When the two are traveling, George says, Valerie never meets a stranger, and people are always thrilled to meet her. “As soon as I stop, she is right there, looking out the window,” George said. “She’s not a ‘little’ dog like she used to be, but she’s not a big dog either.” When Valerie was a pup, George was always concerned about the possibility of her jumping out of the truck — and his fear came to life on one run. Luckily, his fellow truck drivers were there to save the day. “I had backed in, and without thinking about it, I opened the door and didn’t look to see where she was,” George said. “She jumped right out onto that first step, and it’s a good drop. She jumped and ran about 10 feet and then realized how steep the drop was. She stopped and turned around and looked at me. I called her and she just froze. “This very nice lady came along, a fellow driver, and she ran over and scooped her up,” he continued. “I just thought, ‘There’s the goodness in people’s hearts.’ If I wasn’t at a truck stop or if I was somewhere else, maybe someone would have come along, but at a truck stop there’s always someone to help. It’s like a family.” Valerie also comes in handy when George is traveling because of her uncanny ability to “help out” in a myriad of situations. In one — quite humorous encounter — she was instrumental in helping George avoid a ticket. “She likes to bark, and I got pulled over by the Department of Transportation in New York,” George said. “I didn’t know what to do with her. I couldn’t have her on the seat because she would bark and possibly freak the cop out,” he said. “So, I tried (putting) her in the bunk. The cop is walking up to the truck, and I’m trying to put her up there, and she didn’t want to go. I finally got her in there, but she wouldn’t stop barking. So, needless to say, between me, the cop and the dog, it became quite interesting. “I didn’t get a ticket and I think it was because of Valerie,” he concluded. “I was embarrassed that I couldn’t get her to stop barking. He said that he had dogs at home too, and he knew exactly what I was going through.” During his down time, George and Valerie love to spend time with their family more than anything else. “I have a stepson with my wife Kerry. Manny works security for two of the local hospitals,” George said. “I have three boys. My stepson Eric is Maxine’s boy. Even though we were not married, we still are very close. (He) works in Bangor at Bangor Truck and Trailer as a parts coordinator/locator. My son Thomas works for Bank of America as a vice president in IT and lives in Dallas. My youngest, Michael, is serving in the U.S. Navy and is currently in training. “Family is very important to my wife; we have dinners at my mother-in-law’s every Sunday when my work allows for it,” he shared. “It’s a large gathering, considering my wife has four brothers and a sister — and then there is all the kids.” George says he cannot see himself without dogs in his life. “I will always have dogs around me,” George said. “I grew up with them and I love them. I am in the waning years of my career, but I will always have a dog.”

A man with a mission: Driver, company owner tackles challenges, enjoys freedom of the road

By Dana Guthrie - February 23, 2022

Growing up in a family with trucking connections, you would think that the obvious choice for a child would be to follow in the family business. That was not the case for Jamie Hagen, who started driving in his teens. Now, at 48, he is the owner and operator of Hell Bent Xpress. Hagen’s earliest travel plans — more of a mission, really — wouldn’t have just taken him across the country. He would have left the planet entirely. Born and raised in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Jamie was a big fan of the sci-fi series “Star Trek,” and he dreamed of a life in the stars. “It was a little ambitious of a dream,” Hagen said. “Once I got into my teenage years, my uncle and my dad both drove trucks, and it became my passion. I started driving when I was 16. My dad had trucks on the farm and I kind of worked my way into it from there.” His father, Norman Hagen, started bringing Jamie with him on the road when Jaime was only 3. Hagen says he considers himself to have been “raised on the road.” Those early experiences are part of the reason Hagen followed in the footstep of his family — that and the fact that there are, at times, virtually “no co-workers,” Hagen joked. “It’s the freedom to do your own thing,” he said. “Someone tells you, ‘Here is A; now get it to B.’ You’re the master of the ship, and that’s the part of driving that I love the most. That and being in charge of my own day, so to speak, and nobody micro-managing you. That’s how I treat my guys too.” It’s that spirit of freedom that made Hagen realize he wasn’t entirely happy with the way the trucking business treated him and other drivers like him. He says he was often treated not as a person, but just as another piece of equipment. That’s what inspired him to found Hell Bent Xpress in 2020 — he wanted to create an environment where those who work for him feel respected, valued and trusted. “When my guys call and ask what they think they should do, I tell them that they are the master of their ship,” Hagen said. “You do whatever you think you need to do get you from A to B. That’s all that I ask of them.” The creation of Hell Bent Xpress was the chance for Hagen to grow and build something bigger, and to take on the challenges of ownership. “There’s no better challenge than to be completely on your own,” Hagen said. “When you’re leased to a carrier, they handle all of the ups and downs. You’re sort of isolated from the situation to some degree. I wanted to get a real good ‘kick in the teeth’ of trucking.” Hagen is not only the owner of Hell Bent Xpress; he is also part of the driving team because, he says, he still has that passion for driving. He enjoys listening to audiobooks and “a lot of podcasts” to pass the time on the long hauls. “My days are pretty full, dispatching my trucks and dealing with issues of running a business,” Hagen said. “I have a pretty full day on the phone.” Hagen is typically gone for one to two weeks at a time on a run, depending on the scenario, but he likes to be home with his wife and children as much as possible. The father of five girls, his blended family includes his wife, Hillary, and daughters Taylor, 27, Grace, 20, Elizabeth, 13, Camille, 11, and Celeste, 7. Continuing the family tradition begun by his father and uncle, Hagen has brought the kids along on his trips, just as his father and uncle did with him. “(With my daughters) it was when they were younger,” Hagen said. “When they get to those teenage years, the trips kind of loses their shine. It’s fun when they can load up in the sleeper and watch movies … all of them have been with me at some point.” Hell Bent Xpress has two different fleets with four trucks leased to Cliff Viessman Inc. in Gary, South Dakota, which handles food-grade liquid tanks. In addition, he has six trucks that haul dry vans (according to Hagen, this freight is “whatever you can stick in a box”). For Hagen, what he loves most about the job is that it offers adventures. “Some people hate it for that aspect, but I love it for that aspect,” Hagen said. “Every day is a new problem that has to be solved, whether it’s weather or a mechanical issue or a shipper or receiver issue — in my opinion, there’s always an adventure.” Hagen bought his first truck, a 1992 Freightliner FLD, in 1995. Even though the tractor was only 3 years old, Hagen said it had already seen its better days. Still, he was elated at the purchase. After nearly three decades in the industry, he still loves trucking. When queried about his opinion on the truck driver shortage, Hagen said that’s part of the reason he founded his company. “There is no driver shortage; there is a shortage of treating people like decent human beings,” Hagen said. “We create a lot of drivers every year with people getting their CDLs. We don’t retain those people to a large degree. They are burned right out of the gate with some of these mega-carriers, and in some of the little ones too, that mistreat people.” Numbers wise, Hagen said he believes there is somewhat of a driver shortage simply because many drivers are retiring, and there are not enough younger drivers entering — and staying in — the business. For those who are entering the trucking industry, Hagen says the No. 1 thing a new driver needs to have is patience. “You’re not going to make seven figures the first year,” Hagen said. “It takes a while to grow and find what you like and master the craft. I look back at my first few years, and they were kind of a disaster. It takes time to learn the way of the trucking life. Even though I was born into it and definitely traveled a lot, it’s a whole different story when you’re on your own and doing it. Had I given up then, I would have never gotten to this point where I have a small fleet and I’m loving it. Hagen said it is his mission to do things differently in the trucking industry. “I try desperately every day to treat my people like decent human beings. I want them to feel like they’re part of the company and not just working for it,” Hagen said. “I want to them to feel like they have ownership of it, to some degree.” He said he feels that, in some cases, truck drivers feel like they’re just another number, and that their opinions don’t matter. “That’s the biggest reason I created Hell Bent Xpress,” he explained. “It’s one thing to talk about it, but another to actually do it. Every day we are trying to grow and evolve and be profitable, but still have our people be a part of it.”