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Dwain Hebda

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About Dwain Hebda
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.

Posts by Dwain Hebda

The voice of truckload: TCA looks ahead to legislative goals under Trump 2.0

By Dwain Hebda -

The return of former President Donald Trump to office in January touched off a flurry of executive orders on everything from government spending to the military to securing the U.S. southern border. Recently we had a chance to visit with David Heller, senior vice president of safety and government affairs for the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) about what Trump’s second term in the White House could mean for trucking. While Trump’s actions so far, at least at the time of this writing, are not directly aimed at the freight industry, Heller says he looks forward to a good working relationship with the White House — and Congress in general — over the next four years. ‘A friend to trucking’ The previous Trump administration was often viewed as favorable toward the industry. “It’s no surprise that President Trump is friendly to trucking. He understands the business, and he’s involved in the business,” Heller said. “Quite frankly, his personal business outside of being president of the United States has relied on trucking for all of its existence, just as any business in this country does. “Judging by his presence in his last administration, I think we can expect an ear,” he continued. “That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a good ear or a bad ear, but he has control over the House, and he has control of the Senate through the Republican Party.” Even though most of the executive orders signed during Trump’s first couple of weeks in the Oval Office don’t specifically address the priorities of the trucking industry, Heller believes some do apply to trucking by extension. The meatier issues that will directly affect trucking will likely come later, he says. “I think you’ll see it as a ‘next wave,’” he said of the trucking industry’s legislative agenda. “When you start looking at some of the infrastructure aspects of what President Trump has signed, there have been side impacts.” Environmental issues One executive order that will ultimately benefit trucking is Trump’s cancellation of environmental mandates requiring vehicle manufacturers to phase out the use of diesel engines for electric motors in both passenger and commercial vehicles, Heller noted. “We, as an industry, were faced with rules coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency that we had to start adopting electric vehicles for our fleets by as soon as 2030,” he said. That short of a timeline is unrealistic, according to Heller. “Right now, the equipment just doesn’t work for us. It doesn’t hold water to its diesel-powered counterpart,” he said. “How are we supposed to effectively deliver freight productively in a manner which we do today with equipment that doesn’t work as well as the equipment that we’re using? “I think everybody wants to improve upon the environment, but we have to do so in a way in which we can accomplish it, not ways that are pipe dreams and unicorns,” he continued. “Let’s really have some common-sense discussions on what really makes the most sense for our industry so that we can keep America in toilet paper.” Infrastructure improvements As for other industry priorities, Heller says that continuing the work on the nation’s infrastructure is of primary importance. Over the four years of the Biden administration, $1.2 trillion was spent on the effort. While this was a good start, Heller says, the work must continue. “Not enough has been done,” he said. “For instance, the one thing that was left out of the last infrastructure bill was truck parking.” The availability of safe, secure parking for commercial drivers has long been near the top of most lists of trucking industry issues for years. “We as an industry desperately need more spaces for our drivers to park while they’re out on the roads, specifically in the truckload segment of the industry,” Heller said. “This is not a secret,” he said. “The fact that there is one parking spot for every 11 trucks on the road today shows a tremendous need. These drivers should have an adequate amount of safe, secure places to park their vehicles so that they can get the rest that they need as required by hours-of-service regulations.” The Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is set to expire in September 2026. “That means it’s going to be within this Congress’ purview to start laying the groundwork for what the next infrastructure bill,” Heller noted. Rolling back regulations Heller views Trump’s continued rollback of regulations as a good sign of things to come that will help American industry in general — and the trucking industry specifically. “We can’t forget the regulatory ‘noise’ the Trump administration is going be responsible for overseeing, things like speed limiters, automatic emergency braking,” he said. “These are issues that are kind of hanging, waiting to see what comes down the pike. “At the very least, we want to see what could effectively come in on the future of rulemaking on the testing of autonomous vehicles,” he continued. In effect, Heller says, the previous Trump administration removed the regulatory burden of two regulations for every one issued — a trend he expects will continue in version 2.0 of the Trump administration. “Certainly not all regulations are bad,” he said. “There are some good and needed regulations out there. But our expectation is that (the administration) will indeed take up the mantle on some of these things.” Protecting the independent contractor model Heller also expects the federal government to become more involved with protecting the process by which many Americans enter the trucking industry — a proposition that has become more complicated as various state laws call into question the definition of independent contractors. Certain laws in states like California, as well as rules and regulations that came from the Department of Labor during the Biden administration effectively instituted an economic realities test for determining whether an independent contractor is an independent contractor or not. “We expect the president to support that American Dream of becoming your own business owner. That’s what the (independent contractor) business model represents. It’s been around for as long as trucking has,” Heller said. “Most of your major truckload carriers that operate today were founded based on that independent contractor business model: Go buy one truck, start hauling freight and grow your fleet from that point,” he noted. “That’s ‘Business 101,’ and we certainly expect the president to ease that burden in bringing the independent contractor model back into the fold.” No matter what Trump 2.0 brings to the table, TCA will continue to be the “voice of truckload” on Capitol Hill, working to ensure the success of its members and the trucking industry as a whole. This story was published in the March/April 2025 edition of Truckload Authority magazine, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA).

For Estes’ Jerry Clark, big wheels keep rollin’…and rollin’…and rollin’

By Dwain Hebda -

Everything about Jerry Clark, a native North Carolinian who drives for Estes Express Lines, is oversized, from his big personality to the mammoth safe miles total he has racked up during his career. Clark first got behind the wheel in 1992 for Schneider and promptly piled up a million miles in a scant seven years’ time, then covered his second million in about eight years. The second batch took longer, he said, because his career briefly detoured into being a trainer. After taking some time off to work other jobs, he’s stacked up miles by the truckload in the eight or so years since he’s been with Estes. He put his career odometer at somewhere around four million accident-free miles and is still going strong. “I’ve been to every state at least 25 times and Canada 12 times,” he said. “Me and my wife teamed and we went everywhere at Schneider. We were called an elite team because we would stay on the road for six weeks at a time and come home for three or four days and then go do it again. We had a goal, you know, of paying off all of our bills and being debt-free.” His total mileage isn’t too shabby for a guy who started out looking to work under the hood rather than behind the wheel after he separated from the U.S. military where he served a tour during Operation Desert Storm. “In the military I drove a wrecker, which is about the same size as a truck,” he said. “We pulled heavier vehicles and tanks and stuff, but I just figured since I had some education to be a mechanic, that’s what I wanted to do. “I got out of the Army in 1992 and I went to Schneider National thinking I was going to be a mechanic. They were going to start me out at like $12 an hour and I’m like, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ The man said, ‘If you really wanna make money, be a driver.’ So that’s where I started.” The rapid pace that led Clark to his first two million miles is easy to understand, given how completely he threw himself into the job taking whatever the company threw at him, but that doesn’t mean the ride hasn’t been without quirks. When team driving with his wife, Dianna, herself a member of the million-mile club, Clark took his turn at night and therefore much of the country he’s covered he’s never even seen in the dark. “I love driving at night. It’s just, you know, you get in your little zone and put in an audio book and the miles click away,” he said. “The traffic is lower but the animals are worse, though. That is really the worst part of driving at night, the animals, especially through the rural areas. I killed three deer at one whop once because they just would not move. I hit one just two weeks ago ― he darted left, I went right and then he turned around and came back at me.” Asked what has allowed him to cover that much ground safely, Clark credits his military training and his employer’s focus on safety topics. “The Army calls it space-cushion-drive; just drive with a big bubble around you,” he said. “Even though you try to do that, with some of these cars out here it’s like a big video game. At Estes they stress safety here all the time, I mean, they always have something going on with safety, every quarter.” Unlike the go-anywhere attitude of his early years Clark today sticks to a single route. He started with a run between North Carolina and Charleston, West Virginia and recently got bumped to a route from North Carolina to Indianapolis. Despite his wife stepping into retirement recently, Clark said he has no plans on parking his rig for good, given how well he’s treated by his employer. “She says, ‘Well, you can retire, you know, when you’re 59.’ And I was like, this company is so easy to work for,’” he said. “I’m home every other day now. At Estes, they get you home every holiday; I mean, they won’t even let you drive because they don’t want anybody to get hurt for all the DUI drivers and stuff out there. “I mean, they keep you pretty busy but after years of driving six weeks at a time, this is feels like a vacation. It’s a good company, I love it here.”

No place like home: Estes’ Percell Bowser hits 2 million-mile mark on very familiar ground

By Dwain Hebda -

Any driver that safely reaches the milestone of a million or more miles has accomplished something amazing. Percell Bowser, who recently crossed the 2-million-mile threshold, put his own unique stamp on the accomplishment. Bowser, who drives for Estes Express Lines, has the distinction of having reached the impressive 2-million mark as a pickup and delivery driver — without ever taking his rig cross-country. In fact, his well-worn route rarely took him outside of the Charlotte, North Carolina area. “I have driven some short runs on the weekend. I might go to Richmond or Atlanta,” he told The Trucker. “I’ve done that, but I’ve never been an over-the-road driver.” Because his driving career involves shorter runs, it’s taken Percell about three decades to reach the 2-million mark. But reach it he did — and safe miles are safe miles whether accumulated in broad swaths across the country or a few hundred at a time over decades. Bowser started his career with Estes after two years driving for a local firm, and he says he has never driven for anyone else since the day he signed on with the company. He attributes his stellar driving record to the company’s firms, consistent drumbeat of safety first. “The thing the company really, really stresses is safety,” he said. “We have regular training on safety where it’s reinforced over and over in us about being safe and things to watch out for, that sort of thing. That was instilled in me from Day 1 and it’s what brought me this far.” When asked whether his routes around the Charlotte metro area have grown “stale” during his three decades with Estes, Percell said the answer is definitely “no,” noting that the view from the driver’s seat has changed considerably as the city has grown over that time span. With that growth has come several changes, including the amount and hazards of increased traffic. “Well, you know, Charlotte’s done a lot of growing over the years,” he said. “We are a big ‘hustle-and-bustle’ city now, and everybody seems to be in a rush. People get a little impatient when they’re trying to get somewhere, and you have to watch out. “And the cellphone? Oh my gosh, the cellphone!” he continued. “I hope we can do something about that, because that’s really dangerous. I’ve seen a lot of people talking on that phone and driving.” Now, at age 57, Bowser said he finds a lot of satisfaction in his chosen career. “You know, trucking is really rewarding,” he said. “It’s really fulfilling to me because it’s an important service that (the trucking industry does) for the country. It’s like the lifeblood of a body, you know — without it everything else shuts down. Every day, I feel like I’m doing something beneficial.” Bowser also gives technology its due for making things safer on the road. Unlike some longtime drivers, he doesn’t necessarily pine for the “good old days”; he says he appreciates the value of new technology. “The technology definitely has some good things to it, like lane assist and (preventing) tailgating and things of such nature,” he said. “Some people — even truckers — they get to following a little too close sometimes. That feature will keep them from doing those bad habits. So yeah, it’s been a beneficial thing, and I think it’s headed in the right direction.” Because of his dedication to safety and excellent record, Estes has drawn on Bowser’s expertise to help others in the company, enlisting him as a driver trainer in the past. “The most important thing I tried to teach other drivers about being safe was not to get into a rush, be patient,” he said. “Patience is a big thing I stressed because it doesn’t take about a second for something to go wrong when you’re rushing.” What about retirement? Well, Bowser sees that as a step to be taken slowly and patiently as well. For now, he says, he loves driving. “Whatever God sends me, you know?” he said. “As long as I’m in good health I just want to keep going as long as I can.”

Bennett Family of Companies’ Allison Hughes excels after ‘crash course’ in logistics

By Dwain Hebda -

When Allison Hughes — a graduate of the Truckload Carriers Association’s 2024 Elevate Young Leadership class — joined the Bennett Family of Companies six years ago, she had zero experience in trucking or logistics and even less of an idea of how she would excel in the field. Today she’s a valued member of the company’s management team, having risen to contractor relations manager in the retention department. In her current role she leads the team in serving the company’s fleet of owner-operators across a wide range of issues. “We call our department the one-stop shop. We’re an owner-operator based company, and my department deals with anything and everything that we can do to keep our contractors leased onto us,” she said. “We are an agent-based company as well, and we really have to target specific agents and customers to keep our guys moving.” Building solid relationships with independent drivers is key to success. “That’s probably the biggest thing; this new generation of truckers, a lot of them, want to be home more. They want to do more regional freight versus the typical model of over the road,” she said. “Even though we are predominantly an over-the road-company, we are trying to target more regional work.” The “people” aspect of Hughes’ job is just one side of the coin — the other is gathering and presenting data to her superiors that track and guide her department’s efforts. “I handle all the turnover numbers, revenue numbers, that kind of stuff,” she said. “It’s a very analytical position — just trying to figure out kind of where our shortcomings are and what we can do to improve to keep these guys leased on.” A native of Indiana, Hughes graduated with a degree in criminology from Ball State University. Following graduation, she didn’t have a clear career path. That’s when a friend who was working for Bennett suggested that she give it a try. Despite knowing nothing about the trucking industry, she packed up, moved to Georgia and reported for duty in the safety department. From there, she moved into the claims department as part of Bennett’s self-insurance program. As a claims adjuster, she worked specifically on Bennett Truck Transport, getting an up-close-and-personal look at the trucking industry on a daily basis. While she quickly adapted and thrived in the trucking industry, she says the trickiest part of the job was familiarizing herself with the Bennett Family of Companies’ many divisions. “Bennett is so diverse! We’ve got about 12 different operating companies,” she said. “We’ve got crane and rigging, we’re in the oil fields, we’ve got heavy haul. We haul all sorts of different commodities. “That was the biggest learning curve for me — just learning all of these different entities and how they function, and what they mean, and what they do, and how that all culminates,” she continued. “But I also think that’s why we are so unique; we have such a large footprint, and we do so much.” When Hughes stepped into the job of contractor relations manager three and a half years ago, she got her first taste of managing people, in addition to other new expectations that come with being a leader. “When I took on this role, I had a lot of life changes going on,” she said. “I found out I was pregnant with my first son right as I took this role — so that was a big adjustment. I knew that I was taking on this role and I wanted to be as present as I possibly could. “It was also definitely an adjustment gaining the confidence to go in front of upper management and speak and all that kind of stuff,” she continued. Managing other people isn’t necessarily the hardest part of the job, she says, even though it was challenging to learn to deal with different personalities and work relationships. “The most difficult part was finding my confidence, learning how to interact with upper management and senior level positions,” she said. In addition to these personal skills and attributes, Hughes’ various roles with Bennett have given her a “crash course” in the multi-faceted transportation industry, as well as a deep-rooted respect for what truckers have to deal with day in and day out. “The logistics industry is consistently changing. It’s never the same — every day is different, with a different problem, a different environment,” she said, adding that this variety is what she likes best about her job. “I never thought I would be in the logistics industry,” she said. “Growing up, I always heard the typical stigma of logistics and truckers and the trucking industry as a whole. I had no idea what all that encompasses and what all goes into it. “I’m consistently amazed at everything these truckers have to know — not just with their trucks, but the law and rules of the road and their loads,” she continued. “That’s the kind of stuff that the general population has no idea about.” Despite her “crash course” in the logistics industry, Allison Hughes has risen to the top of her class, and she couldn’t be happier. Photo courtesy of Allison Hughes

Build, baby, build! Grading of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law still murky

By Dwain Hebda -

As the Biden administration winds down and the Trump administration prepares to take office, numerous industries are working to score the effects of the policies of the old ahead of the new. In one particular instance — the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) — the scorecard is mixed. Signed into law by President Joe Biden in November 2021, the BIL allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for federal infrastructure including public transit, passenger rail, highways, roads and bridges. The BIL also contains more controversial measures, such as investment in clean energy transmission and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. The push to phase out internal combustion engines in favor of EVs is a key sticking point for many in the freight industry. BIL expenditures Depending on the category, BIL expenditures have resulted in an undeniably impressive spate of improvement projects — more than 66,000 projects in all according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). These have continued as recently as a couple of months ago with the announcement of two major awards totaling almost $3.6 billion for various projects. On Nov. 15, the third anniversary of the enactment of the BIL, the Biden administration announced $3.5 billion in grants addressing passenger rail, highway improvements and investments in ports — all projects billed as part of a larger effort to strengthen the nation’s supply chain. Also announced were grants totaling $172 million to be awarded to more than 250 communities to make local roads safer, part of USDOT’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Missed opportunities Unfortunately, even with all this windfall spending there have been missed opportunities to correct issues that have long plagued the U.S. transportation system, particularly for those who make their living on the highway, according to David Heller, senior vice president of safety and government affairs at Truckload Carriers Association (TCA). “A major component of (the BIL) was $110 billion aimed at highways, bridges, roads and improvements,” he said. “Certainly as you drive on the interstates across this country, you’ll see signs of projects that are funded through that infrastructure law — which has been a good thing. The money is circulating where it needs to go; the country’s using those dollars to fix roads and bridges.” But roads and bridges aren’t the only parts of the infrastructure that need work. “The one thing that was left out of those dollars that should have been included was truck parking and that continues to reach epidemic proportions in this industry,” Heller said. “It’s a real problem that will take real dollars to solve.” The problem has been compounded by inflation — another hallmark of the Biden Era —making it very unlikely that under currently available funding such missed items will be paid for due to the increased costs just since 2021, Heller says. “You know, 2020 prices are not 2024 prices — and those prices aren’t going away anytime soon,” he said. “Projects come down to the most important things for the American public, not necessarily just trucking. All traffic uses both roads and bridges, for instance, but the American public probably isn’t going to use truck parking.” The TCA is taking steps to remediate the issue through the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which calls for $755 million over three years to address the problem. Heller says the association is hoping to get the measure into the next infrastructure bill, which will follow the current BIL’s expiration in September 2026. EV infrastructure Easily the most embarrassing outcome of BIL has been the $7.5 billion gambit to build an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure that would make electric vehicles — including over-the-road Class 8 trucks — more practical for everyday use. The Biden Administration’s stated goal was to construct a nationwide network of 500,000 ports, including high speed chargers, placed no more than 50 miles apart along highways. However, as of June 2024, only seven charging stations were operational under the program, offering a combined few dozen ports. Heller says the laughable lack of progress should indicate that widespread adoption of electric vehicles in long-haul trucking is likely quite a way off. However, he’s quick to point out that lingering Biden regulatory time lines and state-level mandates for phasing out internal combustion engines in favor of electric still represent a thorny issue for the industry. “Trucking is a vast industry. Transitioning over to electric vehicles with charging stations is going to take a heavy lift — and that heavy lift hasn’t happened,” he said. “We can’t base our future on rainbows and unicorns. It has to be real dollars that are spent in real ways to develop an infrastructure and a power grid to sustain an industry that delivers.” Right now, he says, the infrastructure to support widespread use of heavy-duty electric trucks is simply not there. “It does call into the question the reality of the timelines and stringent rules that the EPA and California have put into place and how achievable they actually are,” Heller said. “I’ll tell you right now they’re not achievable. It can’t happen. The work hasn’t been done, and it won’t be done any time soon,” he continued. “What becomes the bigger question is this: Why as an industry are we still facing these time lines through EPA and through California that just aren’t achievable?” The incoming Trump Administration has been vocal in its intention to reduce burdensome regulations and eliminate previous mandates regarding EVs. Heller is hopeful that such moves will happen under the new administration, as well as additional infrastructural spending — even if it’s not all resolved in the first 100 days. “As an industry we probably can fully expect they’ll be examining any rule the industry’s put out,” he said. “I think President Trump recognizes the shortcomings of all these electric vehicle rules, and they will be taking that under consideration.” Road and bridge investments Heller notes that roadways and bridge investments are a statistical reality. “It has to happen. You can’t turn your back on it. If you turn your back on it, then the economy suffers and the American public suffers,” he said. “The clock has already started ticking in terms of what the next highway bill looks like. As an industry, we have to step up and explain and communicate our concerns to those that regulate and those that legislate,” he concluded. “It’s up to us to tell them how things work — and the more we do that, the better off we are as an industry.”

Rollin’ for a travelin’ band: Josh Rickards loves hauling equipment for music stars

By Dwain Hebda -

Josh Rickards was all of 8 years old when he caught sight of life on the road for the first time. Even back then he knew he’d found what he was meant to do with his life. “My introduction to trucking was with an uncle,” he said. “I rode with him in his Kenworth W-9 back when I was a little kid. “Yeah,” he said in remembrance. “He had an 18-speed, and he was teaching me how to go through the gears and all that. I fell in love with it at that point. I knew that trucking is where I was ultimately going to be.” Fast forward a few decades, and Rickards’ passion didn’t just pay off in a long-driving career. It paid off in a way that would fulfil the fantasies many folks might have had in their younger days — hitting the road with nationwide touring bands. From hip hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and Little Wayne to recent clients including country mega stars Luke Combs and Zach Bryan, Rickards has entrenched himself within his niche. “The thing about touring, is it’s really hard to get into but once you get into it, and you’re an experienced tour driver … well, that’s my thing,” he told The Trucker earlier this year as he navigated highway traffic en route to the East Coast, where he was joining up with Metallica on tour. Like a lot of people in the entertainment touring industry, Rickards didn’t start out hauling guitars and amps for the rich and famous to stadiums and venues across the U.S. He actually started out rocking a delivery truck for Boar’s Head meats. By the time he turned 21, he’d joined a West Coast record label doing marketing and promotions. The label hadn’t invested in a semi, so when they sent acts out on tour, they called on Rickards to drive the 30-foot box truck. In time, he went on to earn his CDL — and he learned all he could about business with the dream of one day opening his own company. “The label taught me the business side, both about the music business and about business in general,” he said. “In 2013 I left and started trying some different things, moved to Seattle, drove a tanker for a little bit.” By 2017 he’d bought his own truck, and he got his DOT authority in 2018. Rickards Transportation Services LLC launched a year later and has grown steadily, by design, from there. “During COVID, I was more about quality of growth and not rapid growth,” he said. “I know people that grew to 10, 20 trucks quickly — and now they’ve been caught in a down market for a while. The people that I knew that grew fast, they came down pretty hard. For me it was kind of more of a ‘the turtle wins the race’ type of thing.” One element of Rickards’ controlled growth was leveraging his previous contacts in the music business to start hauling for bands and performers. He said the niche offered a surprising amount of consistency, even in a down market. “We’ve done a lot of shows, right, like all these one-off shows,” he said. “There’s a lot of production companies that I work with that do a lot of corporate gigs, as well as the longer tours that can go for months.” In the beginning, a hungry and unattached Rickards practically lived on the highway to make a name for himself, but now that he’s paid his dues, he is more selective about the tours he signs onto himself. Being gone for months at a time is a serious strain on his family, so he’s learned the fine art of balancing his work life with his personal life. “When I used to tour nonstop, I didn’t have a wife and kid,” he said. “What I like about the position we’re in is that we are support for these tours. We’re almost like hired mercenaries in a sense, so we can pick and choose our own schedule as opposed to someone who works for a touring company full time. Those guys are out on one tour or another all the time.” Rickards chuckles at people’s reaction when he tells them what he does, saying that most people envision him hanging out with the performers and partying like a rock star. It’s not that glamorous, he says. Between being gone for extended periods and the demands of the work itself, it takes a lot of hard work to help bring the music from town to town. “I’m the one in the back of the truck, strapping the load in,” he said. “When you’re on a tour, the first week you’re trying to learn your pack so that it’s loaded the same way every night, after every show. After that, I’ll know every road case, I’ll know what’s in it, I’ll know the packing order.” The gig is perfect for night owls. “Another thing people don’t realize is, when you’re doing music tours, 99% of the time you’re going to be driving at night. You can have your daytime schedule when you’re on the off days during setup — but load out is always after the headliner is over.” Even though the road offers less conventional glamour than people think, to a dyed-in-the-wool driver like Rickards, there are perks that can only be found in this small corner of the trucking world. “When I rode with my uncle as a kid, I saw the comradery that existed out there. I fell in love with that, the whole thing,” he said. “When I’m out there, I’m not partying with the band, you know, there’s none of that — but I AM sitting around a campfire with a bunch of drivers on tour, telling stories,” he shared. “These guys have each other’s backs. For someone who loves trucking, that is actually as cool as anything. There’s a lot of passion in that.”

Strength under pressure: Tristen Utter rides out Hurricane Helene on first solo run

By Dwain Hebda -

Tristen Utter is going to have to drive trucks for many years to equal the excitement of his first run for Texas-based National Carriers. In late September of 2024, the Kansas City resident was dispatched with his very first solo load, bound for Black Mountain, North Carolina — where he was welcomed by storms and catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. “The trip should’ve taken three days. I went from Tama, Iowa, to Black Mountain. I did 1,200 miles in two days,” he told The Trucker, noting that he was making good time. “I was going to deliver that next morning and be on my way somewhere else on the third day.” But, as they say, the best-laid plans often go awry. “It wound up being two weeks,” he said with a rueful laugh. Utter arrived in Black Mountain on schedule and parked his Kenworth T680 reefer — loaded with beef — to bed down for the night. He’d have plenty of time to make his scheduled 5 a.m. delivery the following morning … or so he thought. Utter had already encountered stormy weather on the way in, and he’d been following reports of how Helene was set to make landfall on the Florida coast. “I had no idea that it was going to be like a full-blown hurricane in the Carolinas,” he said. “I parked in a Dollar General parking lot, and I went to sleep. At 3:30 in the morning, 150-mph winds woke me up. It was literally rocking my truck back and forth violently. “I opened my curtains,” he continued. “There were shopping carts flying through the air and there was 2 or 3 feet of water on the road.” Realizing that he couldn’t safely drive through water that deep, he called his dispatcher and reported he wasn’t going to be able to make the delivery on time because of the conditions. The team at National Carriers offered their full support. “They were just like, ‘You’re in the middle of a hurricane right now. Don’t go anywhere; just stay there. We’ll call the receiver to see what’s going on,’” Utter said. “Well, the receiver ended up getting flooded and hit really bad. He was a half mile away from me on lower ground.” For the next 24 hours, Utter hunkered down in his truck and watched as the town’s residents were loaded onto buses for evacuation. Not wanting to abandon his truck, he prepared to ride out the storm inside the cab, despite the locals’ dire predictions of what was to come. “They said they thought this whole town was going get swept away in the hurricane. I just toughed it out there, and thankfully nothing happened to my truck,” he said. “I started calling people, like my family and stuff, letting them know that I was in the hurricane but that I was OK.” Before long, conditions were so bad that Utter couldn’t have left the area even if he’d wanted to. The next alerts that reached him were both bad news. One announced that a stretch of Interstate 40 West had been damaged by a landslide and a chunk Interstate 40 East had crumbled under flood waters. That news, he said, was one of the scariest parts of the experience. “Right after I got that alert, I got another alert saying the Black Mountain dam was about to break. Everyone was told to evacuate immediately,” he said. “I was trying to Google where this dam was — and all the service went out. “So, at that point I was pretty scared,” he continued. “I just sat in the front seat waiting for hundreds of feet of water to come sweep me away. That was probably the scariest 20 or 30 minutes of my life before I finally decided that (the dam) must not be close to me.” The Black Mountain dam held, but the following day the National Guard came around trying to get everyone left in town to evacuate. More heavy rain was expected, and authorities needed to do some controlled flooding to ease the strain on the dam. “I asked the national guardsmen where the dam was in relation to this high ground because I couldn’t evacuate. I was stuck in a truck,” Utter said. “He just looked at me in the eye, said, ‘I’m sorry,’ and drove off.” A few minutes later, while on the phone with his girlfriend, Utter saw the wave of water approaching. “I told her I saw the water coming, and the phone cut out,” he said. “It happened really quick — there was 6 inches of water on the ground, then a foot, 2 feet and 3 feet.” Utter describes the horror of fearing his truck would be swept into the flooded river. “I felt the water pulling, moving my truck forward toward the river that was flooded. I got my flashlight out that’s got a window breaker on it and prepared for the worst,” he said. “I was literally praying to God. I’m a good swimmer and all, but I don’t know if I could compete with flood waters and all the debris in the river,” he said. “As soon as I started thinking I was going to go into the river, the flood stopped, and it sat me back down — a full 80,000-pound truck.” If he didn’t already realize what a close call it was, surveying the aftermath of the storm underscored just how fortunate Utter had been. “I ended up walking to the receiver, and there were trucks turned on their sides. There were trucks upside down. There was a day cab stuck in a tree,” he said. “They were sending people into the receiver’s building in boats, like rescue rafts, to pull people out. The building had flooded and then there was an electrical fire.” Utter had high praise for National Carriers and their support throughout the ordeal, noting that they kept constant tabs on him … as long as power and cell signal held out. “I was in line to use a National Guard phone, and I called my parents and my girlfriend and let them know I was OK,” he said. “Then I waited in line again to call my company — and the very first thing they said was ‘Are you okay?’ “They were really great through this, the whole thing,” he continued. “National showed that they actually care about their drivers, at least in my experience. They’ve been really great with me.” One good thing that has come out of Utter’s ordeal is that once a driver has ridden out a hurricane in the truck and lived to tell about it, it’s pretty hard to still call them a rookie, no matter how new to the job they might be. Asked what he’d offer by way of advice for staying cool under pressure, Utter shared some keen insights. “You have to have the mindset that literally anything can happen,” he said. “The hurricane was completely unexpected. Even the people in that area were caught off-guard because it was a historic flood in recorded weather history. A full-blown hurricane had never come over the mountains. “My advice to others is to be totally prepared for things that you would not think would happen,” he continued, adding that he counts himself lucky. “I had just left for that trip, so I had a month’s worth of food and a week’s worth of water in my truck,” he said. “I’m now a big believer in expecting the unexpected — because sometimes a hurricane will hit a thousand miles inland and nobody will see it coming.”

Two of a kind: Brothers Tyrone and Wade Burcham share a love for trucking

By Dwain Hebda -

Tyrone Burcham and Wade Burcham have always driven parallel lanes in life. The native Virginians’ resumes are almost identical, from their careers in trucking to the success they’ve had as professional drivers. The duo has been driving for a combined 61 years, 29 of those years with Estes Express Lines. Those totals split almost down the middle, with Tyrone — who’s 15 months older than Wade — holding a one-year edge. Both Tyrone and Wade have reached the 2.5 million safe miles mark with the Estes and are both approaching the 4-million-mile mark in their respective careers. Again, Tyrone has a slight edge — after all, he had a one-year head start in the business. As if that weren’t mirror-image enough, their parents further solidified the bond between the brothers by naming the eldest Tyrone Wade and the younger Wade Tyrone. That’s a moniker twist that has produced some memorable moments through the years. “When me and Tyrone were running team for A&W, we were in Montana at a scale house one time,” Wade said with a chuckle. “(The inspector) pulled me in for a check. He asked me for my logbook, and I gave it to him. He looked at it, and he looked at me, and he said, ‘Do you think I’m stupid? Do I look stupid?’ I said, ‘No, sir. Why?’ “He said, ‘I’ve seen people put down Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, but I’ve never seen no one dumb enough to reverse their name,’” Wade continued. “I told him, ‘Oh, Tyrone Wade’s my brother. I’ll get him up if you want me to.’ He said, ‘No, but you will go get his license and his logbook.’ “He made me go out there and get Tyrone’s license and logbook and bring them in for him to see that Ty really existed,” Wade laughed. Even though the brothers aren’t twins, let alone look-alikes, their names make quite an impression. “We’ll bump into people that we ain’t seen since elementary school and they’ll say, ‘I never forget you two because of your names,’” Tyrone chuckled. The fact that the two brothers are so identically skilled behind the wheel can be attributed to their father, Tyrone, who inspired the boys to go into the industry. He even worked at Estes, with his sons before retiring. During his time at Estes, the elder Tyrone had a chance to drive team with each of his sons. Today, the brothers give their father a lot of the credit for their longevity and safety record. “He taught us everything,” said Wade. “Number one: slow down, check and double check. Whenever you’re driving, pay attention to what’s going on the road. If you had something going on at the house, that would be there when you got back; focus on what you’re doing.” Both brothers count themselves lucky to have been able to team with their father. “I ran team with Dad for probably a year and a half. My brother, he ran team with him when we went out west,” Tyrone said. “(Like Wade said, Dad) always said, ‘Don’t get in a rush. Make sure you cross your T’s, dot your I’s, check everything and think stuff through. Don’t ever get in a hurry. Always take your time, and do it right the first time.’” The brothers have also been able to team drive together during their career, and each has traveled to all of the lower 48 U.S. states and into Canada. Today, thanks to their seniority, they run as a team … of sorts. While they don’t necessarily share a truck, they DO share the road. “We started out hauling reefer. We would haul NAPA filters out to Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Then we would turn around and pick up produce in Washington state – apples – and come back,” Tyrone said. “We done that for about the first — me, seven and a half years, and my brother six and a half years. “Right now, we’re running general freight and dry box to Kentucky,” he continued. “We run separate trucks, but we’ve got enough seniority that we get to follow each other. I run at 4 in the morning and my brother runs at 4:30 in the morning.” The brothers’ close bond — and their father’s early lessons — have always kept any sibling rivalry out of the cab. “We’ve always worked together well,” Tyrone said. “I mean, we’ve always been competitive against one another, but in a good way. We work together, and we’re so close that usually when I hit a milestone, he’s right behind me — within six months anyway.” The two still love what they do, despite everything that’s changed since they first got behind the wheel more than 30 years ago. Wade attributes a large portion of their contentment on the road the company the two have called home for the past couple of decades. “Working for Estes, when they give you your bills and you’re going to do your run — as long as you’re doing your job and doing it like they want you to do — they really don’t bother you,” he said. “I like that freedom. I mean, I never could think about working in a factory or doing something else.” Tyrone says he’s not sure if the two will ever “outgrow” their love of the road. “I still like traveling. I still like going out seeing everything, going in truck stops, stuff like that,” he said. “Trucking is just a good industry. We just try to keep it how we found it, you know? It was good when we came into it and, hopefully, it’ll be good whenever we get to leave it at retirement age.”

Nussbaum’s Clark Reed lands TCA DOY honors by sticking to the fundamentals

By Dwain Hebda -

In the two decades Clark Reed has been behind the wheel, he’s racked up approximately 2.5 million miles, touched all of the 48 contiguous states and graced the pages of multiple industry magazines. He even participated in a Fireside Chat with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in 2021. Most people would call that a pretty good career, but for the 60-year-old stalwart, who drives for Nussbaum Transportation, that list doesn’t even scratch the surface of his accomplishments. He’s been recognized in FleetOwner magazine’s list of Top 10 Influencers in Trucking, and earlier this year he was named Truck Driver of the Year by the Illinois Trucking Association. A month after that, he added an even bigger trophy to his case: Reed was recognized as one of five TCA Professional Drivers of the Year for 2024. “I still don’t know how to process all this,” Reed told Truckload Authority. “I’m honored, obviously, and flattered. It’s nice to know that people recognize the work I put into what I do. At the same time, though, I kind of joke that I don’t know what I did to deserve it. I just show up and do my job!” While he’s been behind the wheel for 20 years, Reed has actually worked in the transportation industry for three decades. Those first 10 years, he says, he “drove” a desk doing third party logistics paperwork. Then one day, he looked around … and decided he was tired of staring at cubicle walls and enduring interoffice politics. A career change was in order. “The idea was to drive over the road for a couple of years and then get something more local. But of course, plans always tend to have their own way of working out,” Reed said. “I discovered I actually had a passion for the road, so I stayed out on the road.” After earning his CDL, the native Ohioan drove for several carriers before finding a home at Illinois-based Nussbaum Transportation and the rest is history. Reed credits the expertise of a mentor trainer and a detail-oriented mind as fundamental to his success in the business. “I had a really good trainer, who taught me to pay attention and to sweat the details,” he said. “When you’re driving, you have to pay attention all the time, to every little thing. I’ve always been a detail-oriented person — and I think worrying about the details and paying attention has paid off.” At the same time, Reed is quick to admit that trying to keep a stranglehold on something that has as many moving parts and variables as an 18-wheeler is a recipe for cracking up. Because of this, he says, he discovered another trade secret to longevity: patience. “When I talk to new drivers and they ask me what’s one thing I can share with them, I always tell them, ‘Practice patience,’” he said. “The kind of patience I’m talking about is recognizing everything that’s going on around you, focusing on what you can control and letting go of the rest of this stuff. If you worry about the stuff you can’t control, you’ll drive yourself nuts.” One of the things Reed recognizes is beyond his control is the transformation of culture in the driving community over the past 20 years. The days of drivers gathering around a table at a truck stop and sharing experiences and wisdom with other drivers is rapidly disappearing, replaced by various smartphones, tablets and other entertainment gizmos. “I think that the advent of all these electronics has a lot to do with it,” he said. “Drivers can FaceTime their families at home, or just grab a phone and talk. It’s much easier to stay connected to family and friends. “Before, it was difficult to do, unless you wanted to plug a bunch of quarters into a pay phone or get one of those calling cards,” he continued. “As a result, I think the camaraderie has kind of gone away.” That doesn’t mean there’s a lack of community among drivers, Reed says. “But I will say this, and here’s where it counts,” he said “You may not see them hanging around the counter at the restaurant — but for the most part, if somebody is out there struggling, somebody’s going to jump in there and help them out, especially the older guys. “If somebody’s struggling backing into a hole or getting to a dock or their truck’s broke down or something like that, guys still jump in and help each other out,” he added. Reed finds other ways to connect with his fellow drivers as well, having served as a company training resource for a number of years. He said he enjoys the opportunity to help industry newcomers set out on the right foot, and that the biggest reward he gets is watching one of his students advance in skill and succeed in their career. On that latter point, however, he may not know his own strength. “What I enjoy the most about training is seeing them succeed,” he said. “I’ll tell you a story: At Nussbaum, we have a scorecard that determines what your bonus is going to be. I don’t mean this to sound like a braggadocio, but for the longest time, probably 13 months running, I was ranked No. 1. “Well, I had a student named Mike Cline,” he continued. “I taught him like I teach everybody: Do the job the correct way every time — don’t take shortcuts on your pre-trip, don’t put off these little things you see wrong with your truck, do your planning. Well, Mike took all this to heart and then one day, he actually knocked me off the top of that scorecard! That’s something he reminds me of every time I see him.” At this, Reed lets loose a peal of laughter, tickled at the memory of the student besting the sensei. “I was so happy for him,” he said with a note of fatherly pride. “One, he’s going make more money and two, it shows his hard work and dedication to doing things the right way paid off. It also showed me I was doing my job the right way.” And that’s what it’s all about: Showing up, doing a job and doing it well. This story originally appeared in the September/October edition of Truckload Authority, the official magazine of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Texas ‘tech’: Southeastern Freight’s Kaitlynn Aikin embraces career as diesel tech

By Dwain Hebda -

If 13-year-old Kaitlynn Aikin could see herself today, as a decorated diesel technician for Southeastern Freight Lines, she wouldn’t believe her eyes. “My freshman-year self would be astounded,” said Aikin, now 20. Back then, Aikin had her mind set on a career in law enforcement. However, as a high schooler she took advantage of an opportunity to take an automotive program — and unintentionally discovered her future career. “I was always interested in mechanical things growing up, and seeing how things worked,” she said. “When I was 16, I thought it would be very fun to attend a trade school class. I fell in love; I did very well in the program, and I took a job at a shop, working in the tire shop and on cars. “They also had a diesel shop on the same property, and I got to go there and work on boats, excavators, tractors, all the big rigs,” she continued. “It was just very interesting to me.” Following high school graduation in 2022, Aikin completed a technician training program before joining Southeastern’s Fort Worth service center. To date, she has yet to share a classroom or workspace with another female, yet she insists she’s never felt any intimidation in the male-dominated field. “I didn’t find it intimidating at all being the only female. I found it more of a challenge,” she said. “There’s a competition aspect to it; I want to see how good I could be.” So far, all assessment of the Alabama native runs along the lines of “pretty damn good.” Despite being on the job for just a few months, she landed Southeastern’s award last December. She’s also blended into her work group with a poise and skill usually reserved for people with many more years under their belt, a fact she struggles to explain. “Everything about this field just came naturally to me. It’s very intriguing to figure out how something works and why it works and how it can fail,” she said. “Electrical diagnostics is just fun. It’s something that has laws; a circuit can only fail in three ways, for example. After you figure that out, it’s fairly simple from there. “I just see it as a constant puzzle of understanding how parts go together, how they function and what their purpose is,” she added. “After you understand the basics, it’s a pretty simple understanding of how to diagnose it, which is also very fun because you’re just trying to find the problem.” One of Aikin’s secret weapons in her job is humility. Despite her recent accolades and recognition, she never turns down the chance to learn or fails to ask more experienced team members for help. “[At Southeastern] you work with another technician for your first two months. I was actually put under two more experienced technicians,” she said. “They were very helpful with any questions I had, and they showed me the proper procedure to do anything that I had questions on. If they couldn’t answer my question, they would send me to someone else who could explain it. “That’s been very helpful because where we used to be called mechanics, because we worked on things that are mechanical, we’re now called technicians because we can do anything from electronics to body work on the vehicle,” she continued. “A lot of the systems that used to be mechanically controlled are now electronically actuated. So you have a lot more electronic failures and you have to do a lot more electronic diagnoses.” Despite her tender age, Aikin has quickly become a role model for other young people in general — and young women and girls in particular — to consider the field of diesel technology. It is a message that industry is desperate to deliver to prospective workers. Speaking to the Virtual Diesel Expo in 2022, Diesel Laptops founder and CEO Tyler Robertson estimated there were 80,000 open positions for diesel technicians in the U.S., while colleges only produced about 10,000 new technicians for the trade annually. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also underscored the scope of the problem, noting that between 2020 and 2030, the industry is expected to add 28,100 openings annually for diesel service technicians and mechanics. Asked what she would tell a roomful of young people about the industry were she given the opportunity to do so, Aikin’s first advice is to get the facts about a career as a tech. “I was told growing up that you need a four-year degree to be successful,” she said. “That was never the path that I wanted to take. I didn’t want to go to college for four years and then not use my degree for anything. With trade school, you’re hands-on and you get into the workforce within a year or two after graduating high school. There are plenty of different programs you can go through that teach you and will actually help you accel in using those real-world skills.” As for the courage to break stereotypes, she said she’d advise any young woman or person of color to embrace such challenges. “Some things may seem very challenging at first, but whenever you break something down it makes it a lot easier,” she said. “Take things piece by piece instead of trying to take on everything at once, slow down and take a deep breath. It’ll be OK. We all find those things that are challenging to ourselves and working through them is what makes us who we are.”

Glimpsing the future: Shell Starship program continues to push boundaries  

By Dwain Hebda -

HOUSTON — In the continuing effort to redefine what’s possible in transportation, Shell’s Starship program ranks at or near the top of radical engineering feats in truck technology. The program, which unveiled the original Starship in 2018, has since begat two other generations of the groundbreaking truck and trailer, providing a tantalizing glimpse of what’s to come in the field.  Ryan Manthiri, engineering manager for the program, said while the concept vehicles combine a series of highly complex design and technological elements, the astonishingly simple premise upon which they were conceived has remained constant.  “Commercial global transport accounts for about 9 percent of global CO2 emissions. That’s basically made up of, like, 17 million vehicles that operate in this global supply chain carrying around 22 trillion ton kilometers of cargo each year,” he said. “The scale of the challenge to decarbonize the sector is huge.  “We wanted to create a material demonstration for the sector of how we can come together, collaborate across different even technical boundaries to showcase significant reductions in energy usage and CO2 emissions,” he continued. “That was the underlying philosophy for the truck itself.”   Starships 1.0 and 2.0 leaned heavily into radical new design, advanced technology and space age lubricants built on increasingly efficient diesel power plants, achieving fuel economy and freight-ton efficiency that well exceeded the national average for Class 8 diesel trucks. Starship 3.0 is steeped in these elements while rolling out one important difference, the incorporation of alternative fuels.   “Nobody knows what the next thing is. There’s really no definition, you know, is it going to be hydrogen? Is it going to be electric? Is it going to be natural gas?” said Heather Duffey, Shell’s global commercial road transport communications manager. “The answer was yes to all of it, right? So that’s where we started looking: ‘What can we do now? Let’s not talk about what’s further down the road, because there’s plenty of stuff we can do now to go ahead and start reducing carbon emissions.’  “At the same time, our customers, especially large fleets, are not going to just make a change just to make a change and see how it works,” she noted. “That’s where we were like, ‘Let’s put it to the test. Let’s see what we can do. Let’s see how we can showcase our technological leadership in the industry and in this sector.’”   Starship 3 includes two models, one operating on a Cummins X15N natural gas engine and the other is a hybrid model, soon to be introduced in China. The latter model, developed in partnership with Chinese manufacturer FAW, boasts an engine that runs on Shell biodiesel, which further improves the truck’s carbon footprint.   Both trucks operate on next-generation specialty Shell lubricants such as Rotella natural gas engine oil and Spirax transmission and axle oils. While lubricants are generally considered an afterthought in existing trucks, when dealing with something as futuristic as the Starship, no detail is too small to escape innovation.  “The lubricants that we have that support the truck are just as critical as the hardware,” Manthiri said. “The engine is the heart and the lubricant is the lifeblood — and in this truck we have specially formulated natural gas engine oil. We’ve done similar things with the transmission oil making sure that the lubricant selection across the power train and the drive line are there. We want all the power coming from the engine to hit the floor with minimal resistance. That’s where these advanced lubricants come in.”   The payoff of the program has been immediate and eye-catching. Each version of the truck was put through its paces, running cross-country with a maximum-capacity load, and delivered results in fuel efficiency and emissions far superior to industry averages for a Class 8 truck. In the latest of these tests, Starship 3.0 delivered 80,000 pounds with more than two and half times better efficiency on a ton-miles per gallon basis and more than three times better emissions on a ton-miles per kg of CO2e.  Asked why an oil company would take the lead in truck design, Duffey says Shell has always stressed innovation through its internal Discovery Hub. Applying that expertise to a truck, while unique, is in keeping with the company’s forward-thinking mentality. She also said with few exceptions — the Cummins engine being one — Shell Starship sought to incorporate the best available technology regardless of origin.  “We built this to be purposely OEM agnostic, as much as possible” she said. “We felt like that was really important so that we could give a truly unbiased view of different technologies. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t showing any kind of bias towards one OEM over another in order to see what we can do and give a true evaluation of that to our customers. We work with a lot of really large fleets and OEMs, and it’s nice to be able to see the things that they have developed from the work that we’ve done that will have an impact on the industry going forward.”  The concept is not just for the present, but will be something that can be used for the future. “One thing we frequently refer to is being a lab on wheels. That’s what Starship is,” Manthiri said. “It’s been a great proving ground for technology in hardware, lubricants and fuel.” 

Getting in gear: After a slow start, under-21 pilot apprentice program gaining momentum

By Dwain Hebda -

When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced its Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program, a product of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in 2021, the trucking industry breathed a long-overdue sigh of relief. At last, many thought, Washington had heard the industry’s pleas to create some path to allow drivers under 21 to operate in interstate commerce as a means to help ease the pervasive driver shortage. In the time since, however, the program has sputtered, attracting participation by only a handful of carriers. Virtually no small companies, which some believe the bill would benefit most, have stepped up to take part. Critics blamed the low response to what they described as excessive regulatory and reporting requirements in the program. The most criticized portions of which were requirements for participating carriers to register with the Department of Labor, mandating driver-facing cameras in the cab, and reporting requirements. Whatever the reason, the apprenticeship pilot was widely panned and appeared to be headed for the scrap heap. Not so fast, say some carriers who have given the program a try. Tim Chrulski, COO of Ohio-based Garner Trucking, a participant in the pilot program, says his company didn’t take much issue with the requirements of the program as written. “The program itself is one that, frankly, I’ve believed in for a long time,” he said. “Before all of this even started, we put together an apprenticeship program of our own so we could at least train drivers under the age of 21 to be able to operate in the state of Ohio,” he shared. “So, when this program came to fruition, it was extremely exciting for our organization. I think this is one of the best things to happen to the industry in a long time.” Some naysayers may be focusing on the wrong things. “First and foremost, the most important thing is that we have safe drivers driving tractor-trailers, because my family and your family are out on the same road sharing the same highways,” Chrulski said. “I think the way that the program is structured, with the amount of hours that you have to complete, the accountability for reporting, and the need for safety equipment inside the trucks — all of those things are beneficial, and really very productive for the program,” he said. New York-based Leonard’s Express was another early adopter of the apprentice program. Ken Johnson, the carrier’s CEO, says that, even before the pilot program was launched, the New York state trucking industry was already working on issues. “We were one of those few states that didn’t allow 18-year-olds to get their Class A, so we worked hard on getting that done,” he shared. “A lot of the reason we did it was because we knew that there was the possibility of the pilot program coming through from the federal government. We wanted New York state carriers to be able to participate in it.” Johnson says his company had no issue with the pilot’s requirements, having already established its own independent driving school, ensuring it was carrying the necessary insurance and equipping all of its trucks with cameras. “The only thing that we had to do was put the proper training parameters in place. It wasn’t that big of a hurdle for us to overcome,” he said. “Having never been involved in a federal government pilot program before, we really didn’t know what to expect,” Johnson continued. “Some of the rules that came out of DOT we thought stretched it some, but we also didn’t think that they were so stretched that we couldn’t achieve the goal.” The Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program is the most proactive attempt yet to produce safe, qualified younger drivers for interstate operation. The program outlines a training pathway by which 18- to 20-year-old apprentices complete two probationary periods. In addition, specific educational requirements must be completed as laid out in the program guidelines. Both Chrulski and Johnson believe that whatever shortcomings the program might have had were miniscule compared to the issue it was created to address. The industry’s driver shortage stretches back decades and is consistently cited as the biggest challenge facing the industry in terms of current capacity and future growth. Having a workable mechanism that safely moves young people into interstate driver jobs earlier is worth jumping through a few hoops, they said. “I hope they convert the pilot to where everyone can participate in it. I think it’s heading in the right direction,” Johnson said. “It’s imperative for the industry to have this to start attracting younger people. If you go to our typical first day of class at our driving school and you look around, it’s clearly people in their second or third careers,” he continued. “We need to find ways to lower the age and bring in people for whom trucking is a first career choice. I think the program provides that.” This spring, proponents of the pilot got some good news as the FMCSA issued an emergency request to the Office of Management and Budget for approval of program revisions. The request dropped the inward-facing camera requirement and mandatory registration with the Department of Labor. Hopefully, the changes will eliminate any remaining barriers and open the pilot program to wider participation across the U.S. “I personally believe that if you are going to have a complete picture of what’s going on behind the wheel you need that camera inside the truck anyway, and I think the amount of reporting is quite necessary as a part of the program,” Chrulski said. However, he noted, if the camera requirement was the deciding factor for a motor carrier to not participate in the apprentice program, that the FMCSA made a worthwhile decision. “I don’t know that there’s been anything I’ve been more passionate about than this apprenticeship program in all my years of trucking,” Chrulski said. “I just think this is the right decision for our industry and I just want to encourage other companies to embrace this and figure it out for themselves,” he continued.” I’m willing to help where I can and give some guidance where I can, because I just think this is the right thing to do for our industry.”

Averting nuclear disaster: Trucking industry fights back against company-killing lawsuits

By Dwain Hebda -

We’ve all seen them: the screaming billboards along America’s highways promising justice — and a big check — following a traffic accident involving a big rig, or the sleazy late-night commercial asking, “Have you been injured by a trucking company’s carelessness?” Such advertising efforts by the lawsuit industry have become so common, not to mention lucrative, that it has almost become passé — even though any of those massive settlement checks could be the death-knell of all but the very largest trucking companies coast to coast. Dr. Alix Miller, president and CEO of the Florida Trucking Association (FTA), is well-versed in the ways of the personal injury world. Florida has long been considered ground zero for such litigation. “Take any drive down an interstate in Florida, or any other side road, and you will see billboard after billboard after billboard, usually with a giant truck on them,” she said. “We are the industry that personal injury attorneys, especially the nefarious ones, have been targeting for many, many years.” Given this, it seems fitting that the latest win in the continuing battle for meaningful tort reform took place in the Sunshine State. Last year, the FTA saw its sweeping bill, HB837, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, ushering in major changes to the state’s civil litigation statutes. Adoption of the new state law represented the end of a long campaign, and the thrill of the win still rings in Miller’s voice. “Most people say, ‘Look, the trucking association got comprehensive tort reform in three weeks.’ And I always respond that it took 20 years and three weeks,” she said. “We came up with a formal strategy three years ago,” she explained. “We knew the time was not right in 2020. It wasn’t right in 2021. It wasn’t right in 2022. But that didn’t stop us from preparing for 2023, when we thought the stars might align with leadership and support from the governor.” Some of the more notable changes the bill brought into law include protecting small businesses from paying massive damages when they are not primarily at fault. Under the old law, companies could be pressured to settle even if evidence showed the plaintiff was 99% to blame for the event. Another change is the elimination of one-way attorney fee shifting, which allowed plaintiffs’ lawyers to recover attorneys’ fees without paying defendants’ costs after filing abusive lawsuits. Signage of the bill was a victory felt both inside and outside of the trucking industry. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called it “the biggest legal reform bill in decades” in a 2024 report detailing legal reform measures passed in the previous year. “Obviously, this is a significant problem,” Miller said. “There are significant problems in many states — some worse than others. Before 2023, Florida was one of the worst.” Tort reform is a state-by-state issue, but all tend to have the same goals in common, such as eliminating spurious lawsuits and limiting so-called nuclear verdicts, a term applied to judgements $10 million and up. Such reforms are often difficult to pass on emotional grounds since the level of damage resulting from an accident involving a semi accident tends to be prejudicial to lawmakers over determining who was actually at fault. Miller says that, while huge awards tend to attract the most headlines, a runaway system that allows multiple smaller awards is just as damaging to the financial health of the industry. “It’s about the settlement mills, that’s what we call them,” she said. “People talk about a nuclear verdict putting a trucking company out of business, and of course many will, but when you have most trucking companies at 20 trucks or less, just a couple of settlements are going put a trucking company out of business.” Rob Moseley, founding partner of South Carolina-based law firm Moseley Marcinak Group, says there’s another concern to consider, regardless of judgement size. “I think that it’s more likely to put somebody out of business, not because they get hit with a verdict as much as they can’t afford the insurance because of where the market is,” he said. “The odds of you getting hit with some sort of huge award are not that great, but the odds of having to pay a lot for your insurance are 100%,” he continued. “I think that’s a bigger issue than anything else. The verdicts are driving insurance costs up so much that we’re seeing those types of issues.” Moseley, who’s handled cases for transportation industry stakeholders for more than 30 years, says variances in legal statutes from place to place will continue to make tort reform a matter for the states, although there are federal measures that could also help. He believes broadening federal jurisdiction to allow cases involved in interstate motor carriers to be brought in federal court would be a good start. Until that happens, the issue lies in state legislatures’ hands. On this front, Moseley says he’s seen good progress in many areas of the country. “West Virginia’s legislature passed a cap on damages. Wisconsin’s legislature passed a cap on damages, even though the governor vetoed it,” he said. “We have had some significant changes in Iowa and Florida and Texas in the last few years. Those have been some good things. “We absolutely need to continue this state-by-state tort reform to put the brakes on these big judgements — no pun intended,” he noted. “Something’s gotta give whether it means your products in the store costing double because it costs that much to get them there or something else. Interstate commerce can’t withstand this continuing barrage of large verdicts.”

Behind the scenes: DAT’s Erika Voss, Lisa Henshaw seek to create innovative solutions

By Dwain Hebda -

In some ways, Erika Voss and Lisa Henshaw of DAT Freight and Analytics are as different as night and day. In all the ways that matter most, however, both executives are cut from the same cloth. Both are innovative leaders who are attracting national attention in their respective fields of expertise as they work to keep data and people safe. In addition, both Voss and Henshaw are excelling in what is traditionally a man’s industry, reflecting changing perceptions throughout trucking. Voss, who just this year became DAT’s vice president of information security, took a circuitous route to her role, beginning her professional life as a corrections officer before breaking into information technology, a field that’s almost as male-dominated as trucking. Henshaw, a career human resources professional, has been a fixture at DAT since 1999. In her 25 years with DAT, she’s been a part of building the Portland, Oregon-based freight load board and data analytics agency into a leader in its field. She now serves as the firm’s vice president of human resources. “I have to admit to being fairly fortunate to come into an industry where human resources was seen as a business partner from the very beginning,” said Henshaw. “Going back to when I started, I think the key thing that employees were looking for was stability more than anything else. That was something we were able to offer. “DAT has been kind of a rock in this industry for a while, and I mean that in a good way,” Henshaw continued. “Employees wanted us to be clear as to what the expectations were, and then come to work and do a good job. It was fairly simple. Also, we were smaller, so we were able to operate more like a family, all in one building.” If Henshaw represents the foundational elements of the company’s growth, Voss is absolutely a product of the digital age, working to foil hackers and other cyber threats on a daily basis. In so doing she finds herself singing familiar refrains when it comes to deflecting the assaults by the bad guys, even as it applies to future technologies. “It doesn’t matter what company it is, and I don’t think it matters what vertical it is. At the end of the day, you’ve got to nail the basics,” Voss said. “You’ve got to have good cyber ‘hygiene.’ You’ve got to manage your passwords. You’ve got to have multifactor authentication on the apps you use. You’ve got to understand what actually happens when you click on a link.” As an industry, Voss said, trucking stakeholders need to be better about educating drivers about cybersecurity, including the increasing role of artificial intelligence in various systems. “Artificial Intelligence is the future, but it’s no different than any other emerging technology: You want to have ethical use and ensure things are done in a secure fashion,” Voss said. “But it’s also recognizing that for every good thing, there’s also a bad actor waiting to come and hack it and use it against you. “You have to realize that phishing attacks are going to be harder, smarter, faster, more efficient,” she continued. “It’s really continuing that education, awareness and training journey that actually matters.” Both Henshaw and Voss are working in their respective fields to make innovations in the industry. One of Henshaw’s latest projects has been updating and recasting the company’s corporate culture into a codified set of values. While a lot of effort goes into identifying and writing the values, she says, this is actually the “easy” part of the process. The challenging part is consistently reinforcing those values until they become routine for the firm’s employees. This is accomplished by various means. “(The word) ‘culture’ means different things to different people,” she explained. “These (values) are what help define DAT’s culture: Acting with integrity, executing with excellence, delivering customer value, innovating, and growing and together we thrive.” Henshaw says DAT works to support its core values in a variety of ways. “We have a Spot Award program, and those are made public. On an annual basis, at minimum, we call out those who have truly performed well and recognize them in a public online/in-person all-hands setting,” she said. “We also do quarterly reviews and the only questions that we really use to assess performance are the five core values.” Similarly, Voss is working to leverage the company values to develop a new facet of corporate culture — one that solidifies IT security protocols as routine. Doing this is an imperative not only internally, she says, but also in interactions with external vendors and clients, who may not have such robust data security practices. “If you look at the broker dynamic, they are more sophisticated because they have people who do network security, or they might have a security engineer or a director of information security,” Voss said. “If you think about the shippers and the carriers, many of these are one-off, mom-and-pop shops where the husband is driving the rig down the road and the wife is sitting at home at a kitchen table telling him where to go next. “(If you just) put a smartphone in their hands and say, ‘Here’s multifactor authentication. Here’s a code. Here’s how you click a link,’ they don’t understand what that shit is — and they don’t want to,” she continued. Therein lies the “million-dollar problem,” according to Voss. “How do you reach those people and teach them good cyber hygiene and cyber best practices? That’s where we need to be better about teaching people password management and password health in general,” she explained. A native of Washington state, Voss holds a doctoral degree in cybersecurity from Northcentral University in Arizona. She has previously worked for Fortune 500 companies Capital One, Salesforce and Microsoft. She was also recently recognized by Nasdaq as one of five women making cybersecurity history. Henshaw earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of California-San Diego, and she holds certificates in human resources management and compensation. She is a sought-after presenter for national conferences as well as a frequent guest on national podcasts on the topics of leadership and innovation in human resources.

Maverick driver Sam Landrum has built a legacy on the road

By Dwain Hebda -

Sam Landrum didn’t get into trucking for the scenery or any personal acclaim. In fact, the way things started out, he might not have been that long for the industry at all. But the Piggott, Arkansas, native stuck it out and then some, racking up decades of driving and covering millions of miles en route to being named Maverick Transportation’s 2023 Over the Road Driver of the Year. “I’m incredibly impressed and encouraged by Sam Landrum. As much as anyone in the company, he knows how far we’ve come and how far we can go if we continue to work together and strive to make the driving job better,” said John Coppens, Maverick’s vice president of operations. “Sam is a great addition to the Driver of the Year group, and I look forward to working with him as part of our ongoing advisory councils.” While it’s not his first driver recognition award, 67-year-old Landrum says Maverick’s award is a particularly meaningful one. “What was so special about being named Maverick’s OTR Driver of the Year is the fact that other drivers voted on it,” he explained. “It really meant a whole lot to me when I had fellow drivers come up to me to say, ‘Man, I hope you get it. I voted for you!’ Just to be known and liked by fellow drivers meant a lot.” While Landrum discovered trucking early in life because several family members were involved in the industry, he didn’t seriously consider it as a career for himself until the bottom dropped out of farming in the 1980s. After graduating from high school in 1975, he worked on the farm with his father until 1981. “Interest rates went to about 21%, and we had a drought in 1980 so we were losing money,” he said. “We had gone backwards the last two years that we farmed. “The banker wanted to know if I wanted to continue. He was afraid my dad was going to be out on the streets without anything. They were getting scared, so I decided to quit farming,” he continued, adding that he and his wife moved to Dallas in 1982. “My wife and folks were from Dallas, so we went down there. I got a job working in a factory, building cabinets for houses and stuff,” he said. “The first four years it was all right, but the last two years I hated even having to go to work.” Then, opportunity knocked. A fellow church member offered Landrum a job driving a local delivery truck. After Landrum proved his skills, Landrum’s friend asked if he’d ever considered driving a semi. Landrum said he hadn’t. “He said, ‘Well, get in, drive around the block a time or two. You’ll learn how.’ So that’s what I done — that was my driving experience,” Landrum said with a chuckle, adding that he was asked to step in because the regular OTR driver was taking a vacation. “My first trip was to Colorado. I don’t think I slept the whole week because I was so nervous. I had to go through the mountains and all that stuff,” Landrum said. “I’m my own teacher. I made a lot of mistakes and I learned from mistakes,” he continued. “Of course, things are different now. Before anybody will even look at you, you’ve got to go through school and all that. I learned it hard-core.” A funny thing happened after that initial “baptism by fire.” The more Landrum drove, the more he found he enjoyed the job. He especially liked the brotherhood drivers shared, knowing that, at any truck stop or over the CB, he could connect with someone willing to share some knowledge or help him get the job done. “When we started out, we didn’t have no GPS, didn’t have no cellphones, no nothing. We had to buy a suitcase full of city maps,” he said. “Back then, drivers would talk to each other. So, if you went to a truck stop and said, ‘Hey, man, you ever been to this area?’ they might say, ‘Yeah. Avoid this road; there’s an old bridge here.’ Everybody talked to each other a whole lot more than they do now.” Landrum has driven for Maverick for the past three decades, and he says his love for the job has only intensified. His dedication has not gone unnoticed by the carrier and his fellow drivers: He’s been nominated as Driver of the Month four times — and, of course, he’s a current Driver of the Year. These days, he delivers materials for the construction and automotive industries within a 700-mile radius of his home in Piggott. “I have a real good wife who held down the fort while I went out and made more money for our family,” he shared. “I tell you what, it takes a special woman to put up with a truck driver! “I also want to say that Maverick was a godsend to me. I couldn’t have gone with a better company,” he continued. “That’s why I’ve been here so long. I’ve got 30 years and 3 million safe miles with them, and I can only say good things about Maverick.”

Retaining training: Make sure your team takes skills, information from the classroom to the highway

By Dwain Hebda -

If it feels like your company’s driver training and other educational programs are falling on deaf ears when participants leave the classroom and return to the road, it might not be a case of poor attitude or an inability to learn on the part of the trainees. According to training experts, many companies go to great lengths to educate their employees — only to overlook one critical part of the process: consistent follow-up. “You never want to stop educating. You want to have recurrent education. Communication is huge, and it differs with different segments of industry,” said Mike Brust, director of safety and loss prevention for the Arkansas Trucking Association. “The less-than-truckload side is going to see the drivers face-to-face quite a bit and you can easily schedule meetings and impart information,” he explained. “For a truckload carrier, you often don’t see those drivers for months. In that situation, you have to discuss things — pat them on the back, let them know they’re not forgotten, that they’re part of the team. That’s extremely important.” Technology offers a great assist in this process, limited only by the creativity and imagination of the training team, Brust said. “One item that I’ve seen to be very successful is the use of video,” he said. “Use a phone to video record drivers performing a job properly, such as pre- and post-trip inspections, proper three points of contact getting into and out of a tractor, proper lifting, proper backing, etc. “Employees like to see one of their co-workers in the videos; I have used this in the past with great success,” he added. Brust says the best companies recognize that instructions from even the best training teams usually pale in comparison to advice from employees that others look up to, especially when adopting new materials and adapting to change. The most successful training programs engage employees who are respected by their peers early in the process. “When I worked for FedEx and other truckload carriers, we brought those folks in and we explained (the new material) to them — how it benefits them and how it benefits the company,” he said. “Whenever we had major changes going on or something worth looking at, we’d bring those guys in or contact them through a conference call to get their feedback and their buy-in. Once you have their buy-in, that goes a long way in how things are perceived and accepted by everyone else.” Even with that endorsement, it’s up to each individual employee to learn, accept, and put into practice whatever new material is being presented. This can be difficult to accomplish, no matter how much benefit the changes represent. Dr. Gina Anderson, CEO of Luma Brighter Learning, says having an intentional approach to the presentation of material, combined with thorough follow-up, presents the best chance that the materials are learned and applied consistently. “The first step in the learning process is to get a learner’s attention — and then you have to keep it,” she said. “Our minds quickly begin to wander, so even though the person is physically in the room where training is happening, the reality is that their minds most likely are elsewhere,” she warned. “With safety training, it is imperative to use information processing encoding strategies to help learners remember information indefinitely.” One vital strategy is to focus on the most important information for learners to retain. “For example, our cognitive abilities have limits. It is critical that coaches identify what they want the learner to remember after the learning session so that those critical understandings can be reinforced in multiple ways, in multiple mediums, over time,” Anderson said. “Educational goals are broad and overarching, while short-term objectives are measurable steps taken to achieve goals; therefore, it is more effective to articulate outcomes in measurable deliverables.” Anderson says companies should not overlook a final two-part step following training: Offer recognition of employees who completed the training and seek ongoing feedback about the quality of the training itself. This offers powerful tools to improve both learners and educators. “It is important to build rewards and recognition into any learner program,” she said. “Game-based techniques like company stores, rewards, recognition, leaderboards, and shout-outs can all contribute to increased engagement and enjoyment in learning. “Creating meaningful assessments and feedback loops can help instructors determine how to improve learning, which is imperative in building impactful and effective education,” she continued. “Formative assessments can be accomplished through surveys, content ratings, and feedback loops, to name some examples.” Jeffrey Arnold, executive director for the North American Transportation Management Institute (NATMI), also suggests several strategies to ensure learners understand the material and to reinforce learning both during and after training. “Evaluate the trainee’s recall of the desired behaviors by asking the learner to recall the techniques presented during the training and repeat what they remember,” he said. “Then you can review or reteach any key items they miss.” Learning to apply classroom training to situations on the road is vital. “You should also ensure that the learning can be applied in a safe setting where students can practice and you can observe how effectively the new techniques are being applied, providing coaching and reinforcement where necessary,” he said. Arnold even suggested conducting a ride-along to help ensure new concepts are being applied under real-world conditions. “On a more general note, to reinforce learning, supervisors should acknowledge progress, celebrate accomplishments and provide positive feedback, consistently and frequently,” he said. “Habits are formed through repetition and reinforcement.” This article originally appeared in the May/June 2024 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Safety first, last, and always: Modern Transportation hangs its hat on protecting drivers, environment

By Dwain Hebda -

One of the most common slogans used to lure new drivers to a trucking company is the promise of family time. “Home on weekends” — and even “Home every night” — have become common phrases that are appealing to prospective drivers seeking a balance between home life and work life. Pennsylvania-based Modern Transportation takes this concept and kicks it up a gear, promising drivers that they’ll be “Home SAFE Tonight,” a commitment that’s as ambitious as it is compelling. “I’ve never worked for a company that cares about its team members as much as Modern Transportation,” said Woodson Witt, the carrier’s vice president of safety and human resources. “The company’s success is built on a culture of care. It’s living by the mission of, ‘Are you paying your people appropriately? Do they have enough personal time? And are you making sure you’re enabling them to feel good about taking that personal time?’ “When we say, ‘We value you and your safety above anything else’ and that nothing we do is worth hurting ourselves or others, we absolutely believe that,” he continued. “I mean, that is the first standard in our mission.” That corporate mission has evolved over the years since Modern Transportation was founded as a bulk materials hauler for western Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry — but the core operational ethic has remained the same. The company seeks to provide superior transportation solutions to customers in the safest, most professional, and efficient manner, Witt shared. This standard is more than words on a page, he added. It’s a calling that’s dyed, top to bottom, into the company’s corporate “fabric” providing a daily challenge to leadership and front-line workers alike. “If a team member gets injured, for whatever reason, we have failed as an organization,” Witt said. “You could say, ‘Oh, it was because of the neglect of the team member.’ Well, if it’s neglect on the part of the team member, then what didn’t we do as an organization to train them appropriately or set expectations? “There’s always a root cause analysis that’s done on anything to help us get to that ‘why’ factor,” he explained. “Why did that happen? What could we do to prevent or reduce the risk of a non-preventable accident from happening again in the future? We have to look at it that way.” Over the past 35 years, Modern Transportation has become an industry leader in bulk material logistics and trucking, expanding into liquid and chemical loads as well as petroleum-based products. The company operates two dozen terminals and supports shipping lanes in more than 30 states. In every location, the drive for improvement is constant, manifesting itself in new technology, precise logistical strategies, and a relentless focus on developing teamwork that benefits both clients and employees. “A culture of safety means not only that we want everyone to be safe out on the road, but also, when you come to work, it’s a safe place. There’s no contention, there are no silos. We’re all there for the same purpose,” Witt said. “We walk through those doors, we’re there for that mission, and that’s what we’re living. Our pledge to our customers is that we want to be innovative and creative to improve value for their dollar.” Achieving this lofty goal requires a mix of the high-tech and the high touch — being personally involved in every aspect of the company’s operation. Witt says Modern Transportation has never shied away from deploying the latest technology, from TMS and other systems to onboard safety devices and systems that streamline billing. But even as it embraces the advantages of new tech, Modern Transportation never forgets the value of old-fashioned, one-on-one interactions when it comes to solving problems and building client relationships. “We had a customer who was doing their annual visit with us. While they were here, they got the news that one of their other suppliers had just closed their doors,” Witt said. “They just looked at us and said, ‘How can you help us?’ We were able to turn around and pick up that business in a matter of days and get them right back on track. “We like to say that we strive to create a culture that meets and exceeds their standards regarding integrity, timeliness, and competitive pricing,” he continued. “When they have a problem or they have a situation, we want to be that partner, that extension, that’s there to help them. Their problems are our problems. I think the reason we’re able to do that is because everyone at Modern Transportation is aligned. We’re all moving in the same direction, helping everyone do their business better.” The company is equally innovative in the way it cares for its employees, particularly drivers, for whom safety isn’t just stressed behind the wheel or in the shop, but also through a corporately funded wellness program that helps participating employees reduce their insurance costs. This program is accompanied by a lifestyle savings account, which operates similar to a health savings account but with far fewer restrictions. “The new wellness program we started this year is a huge thing for us,” Witt said. “We partnered with a company called Sonic Boom, which has an app that has all kinds of health and wellness advice, mental wellness, financial wellness. I mean, it covers the entire gamut to show employees how to improve. As they continue to earn points in the wellness program, we will start depositing real dollars in their lifestyle savings account and they can spend it on things like gym memberships or child care. “We understand that our employees truly are an investment,” he noted. “If we cut corners with our team members’ safety and wellness, then it’s gonna haunt us down the road. We’re gonna pay big time for that. On the other hand, if they’re healthier, they’re gonna be happier — and they’re gonna be with us longer. When you care about peoples’ well-being, it’s an awesome feeling to be able to invest in them in ways that truly improve their lives at work and overall.” Photo courtesy of Modern Transportation This article originally appeared in the May/June 2024 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Josh Giesbrecht: Get to know the driver behind the Trucker Josh vlog series

By Dwain Hebda -

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.

Army vet Brandon Meredith embraces civilian career as trucker

By Dwain Hebda -

When Brandon Meredith retired from the U.S. Army, it marked the end of a 20-year journey that had taken him to the Middle East, Africa and the far East. For 13 of those 20 years, he served in the Special Operations Forces. During his time in the Army, he saw deployment to a combat zone, where he earned a medal for valor. Long before he enlisted in the military, however, Meredith discovered a love of trucking. Since childhood, he’d dreamed of being a truck driver, like his father and grandfather before him. Meredith says he never lost sight of that target, despite his 20-year “detour” through the military. After leaving the Army March 31, 2023, he immediately set his sights on earning a commercial driver’s license (CDL), enrolling in the driver training program at Fayetteville Technical Community College in North Carolina. “I wanted something where I could just kind of decompress — for lack of a better term — and not be surrounded by a lot of people all at once,” he said. “(Choosing) trucking was kind of a no-brainer to me. I’m going to go out here and I’m going to do this job. I’m going to be 90% autonomous. I don’t have to be around a ton of people all day every day.” After earning his CDL, Meredith landed a job as a driver for St. Louis-based Slay Transportation. “I think I got really lucky with the position I got with Slay in the tanker field,” he said. “My research alone told me it’s not easy to get a fuel or a tanker job right off the bat as a rookie.” Less than a year later, Meredith was honored as the winner of the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award. Each year, the award, presented through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes program, recognizes America’s top rookie military veteran driver who has made a successful transition from military service to driving for a commercial fleet. To be considered for the award, veterans must complete a rigorous nomination, selection committee and public voting process. The winner receives a brand-new Kenworth T680 Signature Edition truck, among other prizes. “Somewhere around the end of June, my boss called me into her office. I thought maybe I did something wrong, since that wasn’t a normal thing,” Meredith told The Trucker. “She told me that my CDL school director nominated me for a national award. I’m like, ‘That’s awesome, that’s cool.’ Then I kind of changed the subject,” he said. “She was like, ‘Hold on. Do you know what the first prize is? It’s a brand-new Kenworth!’ I was like, ‘Let’s talk about that a little bit more.’ I had never even heard of the program — never even heard of that award.” In September, Meredith discovered he’d made the final cut, becoming one of five finalists. In December, he was named the winner for 2023. He received the award — and the new Kenworth truck — during a ceremony held at the American Trucking Associations headquarters in Washington, D.C. His wife Dani and daughters Kylie, 15, and Kamryn, 12, were at his side. He says he’s been floating on air ever since, and says he could not have asked for a better year. “Veterans are a special breed of human beings. I’ve made some lifelong friends throughout this award,” he said. “I’m a third-generation truck driver now.” Just 10 days before Meredith’s 19th birthday, he says, his father was killed on the job. “While that was a hard time in my life, this profession is something I’ve always wanted to pursue,” he said. His stint in the Army helped prepare him for his future in trucking. “I got behind the wheel of a lot of different vehicles in the military, a lot of them large — not so much comparable to a Class 8 tractor, but somewhat in comparison when it comes to a two-and-a-half ton LMTV (Light Medium Tactical Vehicle) and stuff like that,” he said. Today, Meredith enjoys the variety he’s discovered through life behind the wheel. “I see a little bit of everything. I’m not going to the same place every day. I’m a little bit more active with the hoses and connections and unloading and loading,” he said, adding that his job is definitely NOT like the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the hapless hero finds himself trapped in a repetitive loop. “(At Slay), we haul a lot of resin-type material, liquid resin for manufacturers of wood products — flooring, fiberglass, things of that nature,” he said. “Being a tanker, (the truck is) moving around and banging you around pretty good. Once I got the hang of (hauling a tanker), I fell in love with it. I wouldn’t take my choices back.” Meredith’s new Kenworth, which boasts a 76-inch sleeper, a 455-horsepower Paccar MX-13 engine and a Paccar TX-12 automated transmission, wasn’t the only prize he brought home. He was also awarded a full-tuition scholarship to National University, which he plans to use to finish his degree. Because his tuition is now covered by the award, he says he will now transfer his GI Bill education benefits to his daughters. In addition, he says, he hopes the publicity he receives because of the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award will inspire other military personnel who are making the transition to civilian life, whether in trucking or in some other profession. “(That process) confuses them quite a bit; they see advertisements or things about career transition, and they probably don’t really do their research,” he said. “They’re probably just following what somebody else has done, whether they go to IT school or something like that.” Meredith wants others to realize that their military careers provide a solid foundation for a variety of civilian jobs. “There are a lot of opportunities for veterans, a lot more than there used to be,” he said. “If you can think ahead and plan your departure from the military, your transition, there are a lot of opportunities out there for you that aren’t as publicized, and the options are growing every day as far as what you can do. “I have a lot of friends that are getting ready to retire (from the military) and they’re always saying, ‘I don’t know what I want to do,’” he continued. “I tell them, ‘You know what my wife told me? You put in all this time in the military; now it’s time for you to do what you want to do.’ “There are a lot of opportunities out there. You’ve got a retirement check coming, and you’re already taking care of your family. So just do what you think you will enjoy doing — and you can’t go wrong.” Meredith says he realizes his whirlwind of a first year in the private sector isn’t typical — but he’s enjoying the ride nonetheless. “I joke with some of my friends about it. When I first started working — once I was trained and on my own — during my first three months alone I had two Driver of the Month awards,” he said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Hey guys, the civilian world’s really easy. You’ve just got to show up and do your job and they love you!’ Seriously, though, it’s been pretty wild.” All joking aside, however, Meredith is determined to continue along the road to success.

On target: Army veteran Brandon Meredith thrives in new career as truck driver

By Dwain Hebda -

When Brandon Meredith retired from the U.S. Army, it marked the end of a 20-year journey that had taken him to the Middle East, Africa and the far East. For 13 of those 20 years, he served in the Special Operations Forces. During his time in the Army, he saw deployment to a combat zone, where he earned a medal for valor. Long before he enlisted in the military, however, Meredith discovered a love of trucking. Since childhood, he’d dreamed of being a truck driver, like his father and grandfather before him. Meredith says he never lost sight of that target, despite his 20-year “detour” through the military. After leaving the Army March 31, 2023, he immediately set his sights on earning a commercial driver’s license (CDL), enrolling in the driver training program at Fayetteville Technical Community College in North Carolina. “I wanted something where I could just kind of decompress — for lack of a better term — and not be surrounded by a lot of people all at once,” he said. “(Choosing) trucking was kind of a no-brainer to me. I’m going to go out here and I’m going to do this job. I’m going to be 90% autonomous. I don’t have to be around a ton of people all day every day.” After earning his CDL, Meredith landed a job as a driver for St. Louis-based Slay Transportation. “I think I got really lucky with the position I got with Slay in the tanker field,” he said. “My research alone told me it’s not easy to get a fuel or a tanker job right off the bat as a rookie.” Less than a year later, Meredith was honored as the winner of the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award. Each year, the award, presented through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes program, recognizes America’s top rookie military veteran driver who has made a successful transition from military service to driving for a commercial fleet. To be considered for the award, veterans must complete a rigorous nomination, selection committee and public voting process. The winner receives a brand-new Kenworth T680 Signature Edition truck, among other prizes. “Somewhere around the end of June, my boss called me into her office. I thought maybe I did something wrong, since that wasn’t a normal thing,” Meredith told The Trucker. “She told me that my CDL school director nominated me for a national award. I’m like, ‘That’s awesome, that’s cool.’ Then I kind of changed the subject,” he said. “She was like, ‘Hold on. Do you know what the first prize is? It’s a brand-new Kenworth!’ I was like, ‘Let’s talk about that a little bit more.’ I had never even heard of the program — never even heard of that award.” In September, Meredith discovered he’d made the final cut, becoming one of five finalists. In December, he was named the winner for 2023. He received the award — and the new Kenworth truck — during a ceremony held at the American Trucking Associations headquarters in Washington, D.C. His wife Dani and daughters Kylie, 15, and Kamryn, 12, were at his side. He says he’s been floating on air ever since, and says he could not have asked for a better year. “Veterans are a special breed of human beings. I’ve made some lifelong friends throughout this award,” he said. “I’m a third-generation truck driver now.” Just 10 days before Meredith’s 19th birthday, he says, his father was killed on the job. “While that was a hard time in my life, this profession is something I’ve always wanted to pursue,” he said. His stint in the Army helped prepare him for his future in trucking. “I got behind the wheel of a lot of different vehicles in the military, a lot of them large — not so much comparable to a Class 8 tractor, but somewhat in comparison when it comes to a two-and-a-half ton LMTV (Light Medium Tactical Vehicle) and stuff like that,” he said. Today, Meredith enjoys the variety he’s discovered through life behind the wheel. “I see a little bit of everything. I’m not going to the same place every day. I’m a little bit more active with the hoses and connections and unloading and loading,” he said, adding that his job is definitely NOT like the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the hapless hero finds himself trapped in a repetitive loop. “(At Slay), we haul a lot of resin-type material, liquid resin for manufacturers of wood products — flooring, fiberglass, things of that nature,” he said. “Being a tanker, (the truck is) moving around and banging you around pretty good. Once I got the hang of (hauling a tanker), I fell in love with it. I wouldn’t take my choices back.” Meredith’s new Kenworth, which boasts a 76-inch sleeper, a 455-horsepower Paccar MX-13 engine and a Paccar TX-12 automated transmission, wasn’t the only prize he brought home. He was also awarded a full-tuition scholarship to National University, which he plans to use to finish his degree. Because his tuition is now covered by the award, he says he will now transfer his GI Bill education benefits to his daughters. In addition, he says, he hopes the publicity he receives because of the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award will inspire other military personnel who are making the transition to civilian life, whether in trucking or in some other profession. “(That process) confuses them quite a bit; they see advertisements or things about career transition, and they probably don’t really do their research,” he said. “They’re probably just following what somebody else has done, whether they go to IT school or something like that.” Meredith wants others to realize that their military careers provide a solid foundation for a variety of civilian jobs. “There are a lot of opportunities for veterans, a lot more than there used to be,” he said. “If you can think ahead and plan your departure from the military, your transition, there are a lot of opportunities out there for you that aren’t as publicized, and the options are growing every day as far as what you can do. “I have a lot of friends that are getting ready to retire (from the military) and they’re always saying, ‘I don’t know what I want to do,’” he continued. “I tell them, ‘You know what my wife told me? You put in all this time in the military; now it’s time for you to do what you want to do.’ “There are a lot of opportunities out there. You’ve got a retirement check coming, and you’re already taking care of your family. So just do what you think you will enjoy doing — and you can’t go wrong.” Meredith says he realizes his whirlwind of a first year in the private sector isn’t typical — but he’s enjoying the ride nonetheless. “I joke with some of my friends about it. When I first started working — once I was trained and on my own — during my first three months alone I had two Driver of the Month awards,” he said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Hey guys, the civilian world’s really easy. You’ve just got to show up and do your job and they love you!’ Seriously, though, it’s been pretty wild.” All joking aside, however, Meredith is determined to continue along the road to success.