Trucking Life

People are drawn to the trucking industry and truck driving for all sorts of reasons. The luckiest ones are those who drive because they love it. Jerry Stephens loves driving a truck — and he’s good at it, too. He’s so good, in fact, that he was selected as the 2021 Driver of the Year by the Minnesota Trucking Association (MTA) at a special dinner and award ceremony Jan. 25. The event was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Conference Center in Roseville, Minnesota, following the association’s annual safety conference. The 12 candidates for the Driver of the Year award were each honored as a Driver of the Month during 2021. Judging criteria for the Driver of the Year award include an outstanding driving and work record, contribution to industry and highway safety, and involvement in the community. Stephens is an independent contractor for Woodbury, Minnesota-based Autumn Transport. The company is focused on agricultural products, with its youngest division in pneumatic tankers. “He comes from a family of truck drivers, and cares about the image of the industry and the responsibility he has been given to drive a truck,” remarked Chris Senty, safety director for Autumn Transport. Senty is the one who entered Stephens in the Driver of the Year competition. Stephens usually hauls ground limestone, a product used in the making of caulk, from Marble Hill, Georgia, to a plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He pulls a pneumatic tanker behind his 2015 Peterbilt 389. “I’ve been an owner-operator for 28 years,” he said. “I drove for companies for about five years; then I bought my own truck. I like it better that way.” He started off hauling lumber and pallets and then generalized freight before he found a comfortable niche in the dedicated pneumatic tanker route at Autumn Transport, he said. During the MTA ceremony, Stephens was honored for achieving more than 3.6 million safe driving miles in a career spanning 33 years. His wife, Wendy, was there to share the event. Stephens said he has wanted to drive since his childhood. “I was around it all my life,” he said. “My dad and others I knew drove, and I used to go with him when I could. Later on, my older brother started driving and I’d go with him, too,” he recalled. “I knew at a young age that I wanted to (drive). I mean, it has to be something you want to do or you’re never going to make it. There’s a lot of stuff you give up, you know. “I’ve just been around trucks growing up when I was a kid,” he continued. “That’s what I always wanted to do, so that’s what I’ve always done.” Stephens has been a good fit at Autumn Transport, where integrity and service are two of the company’s core values — and two values that Stephens holds dear. While his son, now 23, rode along with Stephens as a child, so far he has not shown an interest in following in his father’s footsteps. “He used to go with me a little bit when he was growing up, and I thought maybe he’d have an interest,” Stephens said. “But I let him make his own choices. So far he hasn’t gone to trucking. He’s got him a good job here at home.” At just 53 years of age, Stephens says he isn’t planning to retire any time soon. “I’ve got the perfect little deal for me, he said. “Some guys like to see the country and stay out longer, and trucking is a great opportunity to do that, but I’m happy doing what I’m doing. I plan on doing it for a good while.” When he isn’t trucking, Stephens and his family enjoy camping and riding side-by-side off-highway vehicles. A favorite destination is the Royal Blue trails near Norris Lake in Eastern Tennessee. The area features more than 23 miles of trails through mountain forests. While he enjoys exploring the trails, Stephens says he’s just as happy to set up camp without the four-wheelers. Like many drivers who have a few million miles of safe driving under their belt, Stephens has some advice for others. “Just maintain that following distance, that’s the main thing,” he said. He knows what he’s talking about. Pulling a pneumatic tanker requires plenty of stopping distance, as the rigs often approach a weight of 80,000 pounds when loaded and can be top-heavy, making swerving dangerous. “Be aware of your surroundings, too. Things can happen pretty quick,” he said. Stephens doesn’t adhere to a particular defensive driving system. “It’s mostly common sense,” he said. “You learn over the years.” As for his MTA award, Stephens remains humble despite his achievement. “I’m just a simple country boy,” he said. “I’ve just stuck it out and stuck with it — and, of course, I love it. I love it today just as much as I did when I started, because it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” To some, driving a truck might be just a job — a means of making a living until something better comes along. To Jerry Stephens, however, it’s the fulfillment of a dream.

When asked what advice she can give couples who choose to work together, especially in the close confines of a semi cab, Joanne Balmer has a ready answer. “Pick your fights,” she said with a big laugh. “Don’t be somewhere you’re going to be sitting for hours and hours and hours when you start (an argument). That’s not good. Always be on your way home when you’ve got something to say, so you can get out of the truck sooner.” Balmer’s sage advice for trucking couples comes from four years of going on runs with her husband, John Balmer Sr., a trucking veteran of more than three decades. The two are together most of the time, as John estimates he logs about 50 weeks out of the year on the road. “Seriously though, I don’t know if there’s a secret to it or not,” Joanne said of staying off each other’s nerves on the road. “Both of you need a function, I know that. I do the paperwork, write down the mileage. I do all the cooking in the truck, which is great. “I also do all the electronics,” she continued. “John’s very old school. When it comes to electronics, he’s like, ‘I don’t get it. I don’t want to get it. I don’t want to learn it.’ He hands me the phone all the time and says, ‘Fix it.’” The Balmers, who have been married for 23 years, decided to give the work arrangement a try once the kids left home. “We talked about it a long time ago, about when the kids grew up and were gone on their own that she’d jump in the truck and come with me,” John said. John has been on the road for 34 years, estimating he’s covered “several million” miles during that time. A product of Fort Madison, Iowa, he’s spent nearly all of his life behind the wheel as an owner-operator, lately leased to D.A. Moore Trucking of Stronghurst, Illinois. “I grew up around trucks and have always been interested in them, he said. “I watched the show ‘Movin’ On’ when I was a kid, and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Those guys were always getting into trouble and always having fun doing it. I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’” He lets out a well-worn laugh. “That’s pretty much how things panned out for me — except for the trouble ain’t too much fun sometimes,” he noted. Being a driver for more than three decades, John’s life has settled into a certain kind of rhythm, not unlike the one his tires beat out beneath his 2001 Peterbilt 379, pulling a reefer from the Midwest to the Southeast U.S. “I used to run 48 states coast to coast, did for years. It’s kind of a dedicated run, now,” he said. “I’ve got one where I come down (to) St. Elmo, Illinois and pick up for Hy-Vee Foods and go to Sheridan, Iowa. Lot of times I’ll haul out of Burlington and go to Atlanta, Georgia, or Carthage, Missouri.” In his co-pilot Joanne, John has inherited a sidekick with as much love for — and as long a heritage in — the trucking industry as he has. “I’ve been around trucks for over 50 years. I grew up around trucks,” Joanne said. “I got my CDL permit twice to go get the license and could never get anybody to hire me, because I didn’t have two years of provable experience for insurance. Nobody would insure me. And I was not getting out of the truck with my husband to get in the truck with somebody else for weeks.” The couple’s driving arrangement took a little bit of time to break in, but the payoff since then — in shared experiences and changing scenery — has been well worth it. “We used to haul show trailers, and we did the Budweiser Clydesdales. I really enjoyed that,” Joanne said. “And NASCAR racing — we went to Talladega and hauled some racing ones, too. But the Budweiser one was really my favorite because they let us go back and see the Clydesdales and interact.” Even the challenges of COVID-19 were easier to take because the couple could share the experience. “In the beginning of COVID, it was great, because we go to Atlanta all the time — and when it comes to traffic, I’m sorry, but Atlanta is the hellhole of the U.S.A.” Joanne said. “When the traffic cleared out of there, it was awesome. “The biggest problem I think we’ve had is, they shut down everything that we use out here. You couldn’t find any place to eat. You couldn’t even find a bathroom,” she said. “Most of the time places still won’t let you use the bathroom. Like, seriously? That’s the worst of it.” John has spent the majority of his career as an owner-operator. When you ask him why, he just shrugs and says the independent lifestyle of the road is appealing. That’s something he holds in common with generations of men in his family. “I do what I want,” he said. “I’m hardly ever out of the truck. If I’m out of the truck, I’m usually working on it — getting it ready to go again, making sure everything’s all right and (that it’s) not going to have any breakdowns. That’s just how I grew up. All I can remember is trucks. If it wasn’t my dad, it was a few of my uncles or my grandpa. I just teethed on it.” Given his many years on the road alone, John admits that it took some getting used to having Joanne ride shotgun. But having driven it both ways, he’s most definitely appreciative of having her there these days. “I’ve been in a truck running coast-to-coast by myself, and it’s kind of like living in a cage,” he said. “When I put her in here, there was actually somebody to talk to. It’s been nice.”

Chris Hahn describes his furry co-pilot as “a bundle of joy” — at least while it’s asleep, which is about 18 hours a day. The remaining six hours, Hahn says Four Sox (better known as “Lilshit”) more closely resembles “a toddler on meth.” That’s just fine with Hahn, a native of New Orleans who entered the trucking industry following a 14-year career as a chef. Even though he now basically lives on the road as an owner-operator, Hahn still practices his culinary skills. In addition to traveling with a grill for outdoor cooking, he’s customized his 2008 Kenworth T660 studio sleeper to include everything he needs to prepare meals. “It literally has everything but the kitchen sink,” he said with a laugh. The rig is also “ferret-proofed” to ensure the safety of both Lilshit and the equipment, and Hahn has created a network of tubes that allows the ferret to roam the truck from top to bottom. There’s also a plastic tub filled with toys to keep Lilshit entertained. The idea of having a ferret as a driving companion came from a chance encounter at a Texas truck stop, where Hahn noticed a driver walking out of the shower area with a ferret sitting on his shoulder. “When he saw me, and realized his ferret was out, he hurried up and threw (the ferret) in his bag and took off,” Hahn recalled. “By the time it registered with me what I saw, he was already gone. I was like, ‘Wait, wait!’ A lightbulb went off in me,” he continued. “I’d been driving solo with no pets for several years, and I’m like, ‘You know, I’m bored. I’m lonely.’” With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions and risks, Hahn’s life, like that of many truckers, had become increasingly isolated. “I didn’t want a cat; I didn’t want a dog,” he said. “When I saw that ferret, I’m like, ‘Hmmmmm.’” Hahn spend the next four months researching ferrets and how to care for one as a pet (ferrets are domsticated mammals in the Mustelidae family, and are related to badgers, stoats and minks). He acquired Lilshit, who will be 1 year old May 30, late last summer from a pet shop in Pendleton, Oregon. “It was a little ‘mom and pop’ shop. They opened the cage and he came running up to me — it was love at first sight!” Hahn shared. And so, the shared travels of Hahn and Four Sox-Lilshit began. “I’m so glad I got him, Hahn said. “His personality is just —” Here, he paused, chuckled and then shared a tale about Lilshit’s hijinks. “I went out to a restaurant last night, and SOMEBODY had a little fit because I left him alone,” he said. “He didn’t do anything really bad; it was stuff like missing the litterbox — intentionally — digging into the trash, things he knows he’s not supposed to do. But I wasn’t here, so he could do it.” Such incidents are common among ferrets (and many other animals), but savvy owners can minimize the frequency through good “pet parenting.” Because ferrets sleep most of the day, their active hours can be quite a frenzy of activity, Hahn said. “When they’re awake, they’re little Tasmanian devils,” he added. “It’s either 100 mph or (when asleep) the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.” In addition to doing his homework before getting a ferret, Hahn says he has discovered a number of valuable resources online and through social media. Hahn is a member of several “ferret parent” groups, as well as a Facebook group called Trucking Furbabies that includes drivers with all sorts of pets. Even though Lilshit might be considered high-maintenance by some, Hahn says he’s the perfect companion, and that the pair happily share the truck. “How has he changed my life? It’s something that is entertaining,” Hahn explained. “Instead of waking up and thinking, ‘Oh God, I’ve gotta do this crap again,’ I’ve got him to put a smile on my face, so I can say, ‘OK, let’s do this crap again!’ As with any pet, excercise is important. While Lilshit is free to roam the truck, he also has a harness and leash for exploring the great outdoors. “When the weather’s warm, I like to grill,” he said. “So I’ll go sit behind the tractor-trailer, put the barbecue pit out on the grass, and I’ll bring him out there with me.” Because ferrets, especially males, are known for having a distinctive “ferret-y” odor, Lilshit has been neutered and descented. Hahn further controls the scent by keeping a close watch on the animal’s diet and keeping his litter box clean. Hahn offers the following advice for anyone considering having a ferret as a co-pilot: Make use of the resources on Facebook. “Don’t just go out and buy one and wing it. Do your homework, because ferrets are expensive little pets, they have a whole lot of health problems — but they are a bundle of joy, too,” he shared. “It’s not a dog; it’s not a cat. Your shoes will never be the same. They have a personality that is wonderfully unique,” he concluded.

Contrary to what some people believe, the trucking industry is filled with a dizzying array of people, diverse in their backgrounds and professional training. But even in this professional melting pot, it’s hard to find someone with a background like Christine Bosgraaf of Sanger, Texas. Bosgraaf started her career in veterinary medicine in Illinois, as a technician in the biomedical research field. It was a role she filled for two decades — which made the sudden end of her employment a real shock, she says. “At the time, funding was really poor, and my boss couldn’t get funding to keep me. So, he gave me about six months’ notice that he was going to lay me off,” she said. “I checked with the other labs at the medical school that I was at, and nobody was getting funding, so nobody was hiring. So, I had to think really hard about what I could do from there. “Trucking had always been in the back of my mind, I guess most of my life. It was something I looked at from my car and thought, ‘That looks like it would be kind of fun,’” she shared. A local trade school promised a CDL license in 20 days, so Bosgraaf knuckled down and attended truck driving school before her six months employment ran out. Eight years ago, she landed a gig with Schneider in Illinois and has been with them ever since, except for a short-lived stint with another carrier. “When I was in Illinois, I was driving regional for Schneider and I pretty much hit all the states east of the Rockies, wherever they needed to send me,” she said. “I was based right outside of St. Louis, in Edwardsville, and I was out for seven days at a time and just went wherever they sent me. That was for about a year and half.” Family health issues demanded that Bosgraaf be home more, but since her job didn’t allow that, she changed companies, eventually transferring to Texas. However, she said, she didn’t like the outfit much. Once she was established in The Lone Star State, she rejoined Schneider, this time in an intermodal role that kept her within 200 miles of base and accommodated her home life while still letting her do the job she loved. “I like being alone. I like being in a truck by myself, seeing different parts of the country that I normally would not be able to see,” she said. “I might not be able to stop somewhere and spend a couple of days and do different activities, but I did at least get to see different parts of the country. That was the big plus for me.” Six months ago, Bosgraaf took advantage of a career opportunity within Schneider that spoke to both her passion for driving and her background in academia and research. She joined the company’s in-house driver instruction program as a teacher. “Mondays and Tuesdays, I teach classroom for what we call the CAT program, the CDL Apprenticeship Training program,” she said. “Students come in with a CDL permit and then we get them their CDL. We teach them how to drive, back, all of the skills that they need.” “We also teach them Schneider’s rules and policies and put them through a Schneider orientation at the same time. That way, when they get their CDL, they’re a company driver,” she continued. Bosgraaf was moved to apply for the position on the strength of other training roles she’d held with the company in which she’d ride along with new employees. She’s discovered that she enjoys standing in front of a classroom just as much as sitting behind the wheel, especially since she gets to spell out to new employees — both men and women — what life is really like on the road. “I’m given pretty good leeway to tell them what they need to know,” she said. “I am given a curriculum to follow, but I’m also told to throw in whatever information I feel is necessary, including from personal experiences. “So, as I’m going through different parts of the curriculum — whether it’s a class full of men, full of women or a combination — I tell them all the same thing: It is dangerous out there,” she said. “When you’re sleeping in the bunk, put the seat belts through your doors, because somebody can come in and assault you. These are the kinds of things women are concerned with, but men should be concerned with it as well.” Because she only has a few days with any given class before handing her students over to another instructor, Bosgraaf doesn’t mince words when it comes to detailing the perils of over-the-road driving. It is this straightforward style, she said, that students of both sexes seem to appreciate. “There’s a lot of men who are like, ‘Well, it’s not unsafe out there. We’re out there, too. We’re in the same environment you are,’” she said. “But you’re a man. Yes, you can be attacked, you can be assaulted, but it’s a different kind of assault. There might be two types of assault that a man can have towards them, but there might be five different types of assault a woman has to be concerned with. “We hand out a sexual harassment agreement that, of course, doesn’t cover everything — but it covers a lot that we as a company don’t accept,” she added. “And there are a lot of men out there who have no clue what women have to be concerned with, just walking out their front door every day, whether they’re truck drivers or not.” There is a light on the horizon, Bosgraaf says. “But I do see that improving,” she noted. “There’s a lot of men that are happy women are out here and congratulate us for doing the job — in a lot of cases doing it better.”

Some drivers come to trucking because that’s what their father or another family member did. Chris Slindee came to trucking to honor his father’s memory. “He loved the Peterbilts,” Slindee said of his dad. “He drove a couple with the aero packages, but he always loved going back to the long-nosed trucks.” The elder Slindee never reached his goal of traveling to all 48 continental states during his 38-year driving career. “That’s why I made it my goal. I want to visit all 48 in his memory,” Chris said. Driving isn’t the only thing he and his dad had in common. Before becoming a driver, his father worked as a diesel mechanic. Slindee joined the U.S. Army at age 18 with a specialty of Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanic. Technically, that meant working on smaller vehicles, such as the Humvee that replaced the iconic Jeep. When Slindee got to his first duty station, however, he was assigned to work on heavy equipment. “It didn’t bother me, because I grew up working on farm equipment and heavy equipment with my dad and grandpa,” he remarked. A short time later (“21 years, six months and eight days, but who’s counting?” he quips), Slindee retired from the Army with the rank of Master Sergeant. Initially, he planned to continue in the field of diesel repair in the civilian world. Knowing he’d need a CDL to transport and test the vehicles he’d be working on, he enrolled at the Fort Bliss, Texas, campus of Phoenix Truck Driving School. As part of the Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program, he was able to use his Army benefits to pay for school and maintain his income while learning. Slindee planned to continue his training, once he got his CDL, at the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) in Phoenix to begin his career as a diesel mechanic. Unfortunately, his father passed away before that happened. “I just decided that I was going to continue trucking in his honor,” Slindee explained. He’s reached 46 of the 48 contiguous states in his quest to achieve his father’s dream, lacking only North Dakota and Minnesota. As a driver for Knight Transportation, he’s been offered loads to Minnesota, but he wants the state to be the last one on the list for a special reason: He plans to visit his father’s grave and tell him about his accomplishment. Slindee’s work at Knight and his determination to honor his father earned him a nomination for the “Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence” award that honors America’s drivers who have made a successful transition from active military service to commercial driver. The contest, co-sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s “Hiring our Heroes Program,” the FASTPORT Trucking Track Mentoring Program and Kenworth Trucks, awards a new T680 with a 76-inch sleeper to the overall winner. As one of three finalists, Slindee was provided a tour of the MHC Kenworth facility in Ohio and a seat at the Wreaths Across America 30th anniversary dinner. “I’m glad I was a part of it, and I’m grateful for the entire event, everything we got to experience —and we got to do a lot,” he said. Although he wasn’t chosen as the overall winner, Slindee relishes the experience. He was a bit disappointed, however, because winning the truck would have helped him achieve another of his father’s unfulfilled goals. “He never owned his own truck,” Slindee explained. “So, I want to own my own truck, and I will. The question now is, ‘Do I go traditional style, or do I go aero cab?’” He doesn’t really have a preference, except that his father would appreciate the traditional long hood. “When Dad drove for his last company, he drove a Volvo, but whenever it was due for service they’d put him in an old long-nosed Pete until his truck was done,” Slindee explained. “He really made it hard for them to get their truck back.” While he may be debating the style of truck, Slindee is settled on a few things. “I really want a manual transmission,” he said. “I want twin stacks, and I want to use my Jake brakes. And I’ve gotta have all the chicken lights,” he concluded. As far as where Slindee will work once he has his own truck, that’s undecided. “I’d like to stay with Knight, but it would really depend on what the pay is like,” he said. “There’s a lot of safety and security in staying, and I won’t be worrying about getting loads.” On the other hand, Slindee has a friend who owns a small refrigerated business and wants to recruit him. “He’s a military friend of mine, and I’d like to help him get his company going,” he commented. “So, I need to weigh my options as far as whether I want the security of staying with Knight or jumping over there.” One decision Slindee has already made is changing the status of his partner from “girlfriend” to “fiancée.” “She doesn’t know yet,” he confided to The Trucker, “but it’s okay if you put it in the story.” The couple recently moved from Texas to a new home in Denver. “It was one of the most random, spontaneous decisions that I’ve ever made, along with my fiancée,” he said. “I was kind of depressed in El Paso and didn’t realize it. We moved to Denver, and within the first two days of being there, I just felt like a whole new person.” Slindee like to spend his off hours riding his Harley Davidson Road Glide motorcycle. These days, his fiancée often rides along. “Before I met her, I rode from El Paso to Minnesota, met up with my dad and we rode to Sturgis together. Then it was New York, then Virginia. The trip came out to 7,500 miles,” Slindee shared. Wherever his career leads, Slindee plans to continue honoring his father and the traditions of the past as he rides confidently into the future.

In an industry where drivers frequently change jobs trying to find more favorable conditions, Andrea Lewis is an anomaly. “I’ve never really quit jobs,” she explained. “There are a lot of ups and downs in trucking. We pay our dues and work our way up. I found a company that is really driver-oriented and that keeps me pretty much stabilized at one job.” That company is J.B. Hunt. Lewis has driven for Hunt for 14 of her 17 years of driving, and she has accumulated more than 2.2 million safe miles of driving in her career. Lewis says the company is large enough to offer a variety of driving positions and home time options, which fits her perfectly. She runs a dedicated Georgia Pacific account that gets her home on weekends for a 34-hour restart and a recharge. Like many in the industry, Lewis didn’t start her adult life as a driver. She graduated from Norfolk State University in 1997, where she studied music education and music media. “My grandmother played the piano at our church in Lynchburg, Virginia,” she recalled. “I played the viola and the upright bass. I was first chair and all-city, all-district and all-region.” During her high school years, she performed in Christmas concerts, and she even formed a quintet with teachers and other students, which performed locally. “We played at Busch Gardens several times, and we played at events for Mayor Meyera Oberndorf of Virginia Beach about four times,” she said. “It was pretty phenomenal.” Lewis also participated in the Golden State Youth Orchestra, playing bass guitar, and added the piano to the list of instruments she could play. “I was going to change colleges, but I felt like working at night on top of caring for my family and going to school in the daytime was quite a lot for me,” she said. “I took a semester off, and didn’t start back because my father was diagnosed with cancer.” To support the family, she delivered the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, where she learned about route efficiency. She also began working with her mother at the Norfolk Naval Base and other area military establishments, unloading trucks and stocking merchandise. “I’d watch the trucks back up, and I noticed that a lot of the deliveries were made by the same drivers,” she said. “I learned about warehousing and grocery retail, but I was always interested in the trucks.” Lewis said she actually caught the “trucking bug” years earlier, when her father, a driver, taught her to drive a car on Virginia backroads. “I realized that when he was teaching me how to drive, he was actually teaching me how he drove a truck,” she said. “He always told me to travel. I remember being a kid, traveling with him and going past the 18-wheelers and realizing how big the tires were you know, that kind of thing. There’s some things that really stuck with me.” In 2004, Lewis earned her CDL at the Advanced Technology Institute in Virginia and began her trucking career. Although she’s home every week these days, it wasn’t always so. When she started in trucking, being on the road for weeks at a time was routine. “I’d leave home right after Christmas and wouldn’t be home until Valentine’s Day, or St. Patrick’s, or even Easter,” she said. “I’d be home for two or three days and then gone until Memorial Day.” Her vacation time was usually cashed in for the additional income rather than enjoyed. Eventually, the road took a toll on her health and on her family. After her father died in 2003, Lewis’ trucking job helped support her mother. Then her sister, a mother of three, suffered a long illness and Lewis helped to support her and the children. When her sister died in 2012, Lewis assumed responsibility for the children. “With the kids I was always coming home for the school shopping and stuff. When they were younger, I would do Halloween and Thanksgiving but then I was gone again until Christmas,” she explained. “I realized that it was about 300 to 315 days a year that I was living on the road,” she said. “I wanted to be home, but trucking took on more of a meaning when I had more family to take care of. It gave me drive to keep going.” The miles provided income to support the family, but took a toll in another way. “In 2020, I failed my DOT physical,” Lewis explained. Like many drivers, she found that a poor diet and lack of exercise were catching up. “I knew everything was going to fall apart if I didn’t stay healthy,” she said. “I needed to do something that is going to make me happy and healthy.” Lewis began working out while on the road using techniques she learned online, and she changed her eating habits. She credits Women In Trucking and the Espyr “Fit to Pass” program with helping her make the necessary lifestyle changes. “I started using strength bands and barbell weights and just actually staying moving, taking walks when I park,” she said. “I don’t park close to the store and walk in; I walk for 30 minutes. It’s the little things that I wasn’t doing.” Her efforts paid off, and Lewis was able to meet the physical exam requirements without prescription medications or treatments. “Most of the time, (once you develop hypertension) you only qualify for a one-year certification, but I was able to get the two-year again,” she explained. Lewis plans to keep driving for a while longer — at least until she reaches the 2 million mile mark with J.B. Hunt. “When that happens, I’ll be about two and a half million miles total and just shy of 20 years of driving,” she said. “I want to do it for as long as God is willing.” In the meantime, Lewis is enjoying better health and more time with her family. “My niece is playing the violin, now,” she said. “I’m helping her in her studies.” To other drivers, she says, “Don’t take your health for granted. Life is going to happen to us all.”

Zachariah Fry walks into a truck stop and scans the room. He’s been out on the road driving semis for 12 years, and he’s become pretty good at spotting trouble in front of him before it starts. Today is no different as he casually looks from face to face, wondering who will be the one to speak up first about his companion. The duo has been yelled at and accosted, and Fry’s been told to “get the hell outta here” plenty of times. The relationship has caused him to change jobs, as he refuses to work for a company that would discriminate against the pair. He says he knows ignorance when he hears it, but that doesn’t mean he’s not tired of having to stick up for himself and his pal — his service dog, Ghost — who never says a word, just sticks to his side. “There’s so many misconceptions about service dogs and it’s absolutely ignorance,” said Fry, 31. “But, that’s just our society, right? Everybody thinks they know everything, but nobody actually cares to learn anything. Basically, with the dogs out on the road, people either love them or they hate them. “It isn’t just Ghost; a lot of truckers deal with this with their dogs,” he explained. “I would say at least 75% of trucking companies don’t allow drivers to have pets. But ‘service’ is the key word. If you have a service dog, they’re not a pet.” Fry said having PTSD makes a service animal a necessary element of his dealing with the stress of everyday life — stress than can be made worse with his job. “When I was younger, they tried treating it with meds and stuff, but it didn’t go well,” he said. “The doctor suggested the service dog route, and that’s how I came to get Ghost. I didn’t expect him to be what he is to me. Basically, our life has become one together.” The ultimate irony of the relationship is that the very thing, his dog Ghost, that helps Fry cope with the stress and potential triggers of the road is the same thing that’s caused him the most headaches from others in his trucking career, from employers to truck-stop personnel to storekeepers while out on the road. “It’s been stressful over the years,” Fry said. “I remember one time we were in Kroger, and we were in an aisle. Ghost, when he’s working, he doesn’t bark at anybody. He’s an exceptionally (well) trained dog. We were in an aisle, and I was bent over picking up some shaving cream and the manager comes up behind us aggressively, ‘You can’t have that dog in here!’ “I was like, ‘He’s a service dog.’ ‘If he’s a service dog, I need to see some papers right now!’ the guy said,” Fry recalled. “I was like, ‘That’s not how it works. I don’t need to show you anything, actually.’ He’s like, ‘Then you get the hell out of my store!’ And that same thing has happened a million times.” The Americans with Disabilities Act was supposed to smooth things for people who rely on service animals to function, but Fry said in reality, the law is widely misunderstood — or just disregarded altogether. “With the ADA, basically if you have a service dog you don’t have to have a vest on it that says ‘Service Dog’” Fry said. “The requirements are that your dog is trained and he’s not bothering anybody. He can’t be creating a disturbance, and if he is, people can ask you to leave. If you go to a business, they’re allowed to ask you, ‘Is he a service dog?’ Then you can answer them, and they can ask you, ‘What is he trained to do so that we may accommodate?’” When asked why he sometimes chooses not to suit Ghost with a vest, on the off-chance that it might head off some of the confrontations, Fry said it comes down to a matter of privacy. “I do have a medical condition, and I’ll tell you what. The worst part of having a service dog is that everybody asks what you’re suffering from that qualifies you to have a service dog,” he said. “I shouldn’t be required to have a big sign that says, ‘I’ve got something wrong with me. Here’s my service dog.’ “People who have service animals, they don’t want confrontation,” he shared. “They don’t have a service animal because they want to go fight everybody about their dang dog. You know what I mean? That’s what always blew my mind so much about it. I have him with me to help keep me calm and for my benefit. He’s the sweetest dog ever, and everywhere we would go it would just cause a big scene, like he’s some troublemaker. It’s just crazy.” Fry said the presence of Ghost has caused him to cycle through several trucking companies who refused to view the 6-year-old German shepherd as anything but a pet. So earlier in mid-2020, he took the extraordinary step of forming his own company, Ghost Hauling. “We’ve been doing real good. I have a handful of customers, great people. It’s the best experience of my life,” Fry said. “I work on the smaller side of things, you know, working with smaller companies and smaller shippers. I haul fertilizer most of the time. I deliver to farmers and nurseries and stuff like that.” One interesting aspect of the venture is that now that Ghost is pulling double duty as company mascot — with his profile painted on the side of the truck and everything — the reception the pair receives is often much different than when Ghost was simply doing his job as a service animal. “Ghost is with me everywhere I go. Everybody loves him,” Fry said. “They love seeing him on the truck and seeing him in the truck.”

For all of the recognition and notoriety trucker Todd Daum has achieved as Santa Claus, he might not be the most famous occupant in the cab these days. That honor could arguably go to Vincent, Daum’s cat and traveling companion. “Vincent also has his own Facebook page, ‘Vincent the Trucking Cat,’” Daum said. “He’s been in 48 states. He’s leaped across the border at Canada. He’s leaped the border at Mexico. He rides up in the front seat or up on the dashboard all the time. I’ve got all kinds of pictures of him on the dashboard and around the truck on that Facebook page. “I also belong to another group for cat owners; somebody said we ought to start a group, and I did,” he said. “Now there’s like 150 people that follow his antics and him scratching the hell out of my arm and everything else.” Vincent was only five weeks old when he was adopted by Daum. In the three years since, Vincent has proved to be a natural road cat. “I can get out of the truck with the door open, walk behind the truck, open the doors on the trailer, take the seal off and then walk back to the front of the truck — and he’ll be sitting there on the floorboard waiting for me or sitting in my seat,” Daum said. “He knows the inside of the truck is his home. Soon as we put him in his cage, he knows he’s going back in the truck. He lays down, curls up and waits. Soon as we let him out, his motor’s running like there’s no tomorrow because he knows he’s home.” The benefits of having a pet ride shotgun are many. Daum said Vincent is a calming influence, even if he’s a little rough around the edges when showing affection. “He’s a big help, especially when it comes to the stresses of being out on the road. I get stressed, so I grab him, hold onto him and pet him for a little bit,” he said. “It’s enough to remove the stress from the loading dock that I just couldn’t get my truck to back into, or the receiving clerk that was a complete and total ass, or the other truck driver who just took an hour and a half at the fuel pump instead of pulling forward.” In addition to helping relieve stress caused by on-the-job aggravations, Vincent helps make the road feel like “home” for Daum, who notes that he doesn’t miss his family quite as much “because part of the family is with me.” Just like the human members of any family, Vincent is subject to mood swings and cranky days. It’s one of the things that Daum says he likes best about his cab buddy — the authenticity of Vincent’s affection, rough around the edges though it may be. “Animals have such an uncommitted love, but he’s a cat. He’s not a dog, you know,” Daum explained. “A dog will be on your lap and licking you all over the place. The cat is, ‘You want to pet me? Well, you can walk your butt over here to pet me.’ And I understand that. “But I don’t treat him like a cat,” he continued. “Now, my co-driver treats him like a cat and (Vincent is) very, very gentle with her. But with me, I start on him like you start on a dog, and the teeth come out and the claws come out, and when he’s had enough, he runs away. When he wants more, he comes back.”