Canada 

I grew up in a trucking family.

Back in the mid to late 50's my Father and his partner "Lefty" jointly owned a red F.W.D. tractor and a small green Brockway and leased them both to Tank Truck Transport. I remember more about the FWD than the Brockway since it was my Father's ride - "Lefty" drove the Brockway and eventually it became too small for their needs and they went truck searching. For a 3-4 year old the impression of the old Smokey JT-powered International they were loaned, is quite strong, to this day I remember the blue smoke from the little Cummins was the same colour as the tractor. The international didn't work out so they ended up with a brute of a Brockway, a big 260 single-axle with a 200-hp Continental Diesel, 5-speed main and a 3-speed auxiliary.

My Father would eventually comment that he never had as many tickets in his life as he had with that long-legged Brockway!

The partnership didn't work out so they dissolved their assets and went separate ways.

My Dad went to work for Gill Interprovincial and I can still remember how big one of their Bull nose KW's looked on the one and only time I ever got near one of the trucks. There's a difference when your Dad owns his own and drives someone else's .... It's only his temporarily, and from a distance!

So my growing years evolved around the early trans-continental carriers, my Dad having gone from Gill to Fleet Express and finally ending up at D.S. Scott Transport where at least for a growing truck-nut I got to see a much greater number of trucks.....

This is me at the age of 9 in Washington State, behind the wheel of the "61 HAYES" he drove for Fleet Express, wondering, "what should I be, a jet pilot or a trans-continental truck driver? 

 filling out a log book!

In the spring of 1969 my Dad finally called it quits at Scott.

New owners had changed the whole operation around. Line haul drivers were domiciled solely out of the west and his time in Ontario was limited only to the amount of time it took to switch and head back west. After Christmas of 1968 when he went back on the road he was never home until he pulled the plug - although just last year I ran into one of his team partners who told me that there had been a lay-off - that was something my somewhat secretive parents never mentioned!

He gets a job delivering windows for a Scarborough Ontario-based window manufacturer. After years and years of seeing him drive away for days, weeks and months at a time it's suddenly quite different to see my Father go to work in the morning and come home in the evening on the bus!

But this is about my start and not so much my Father - although he is my mentor and highly regarded.

My first attempt at driving the Fleetstar was a short trip down Howden Road in Scarborough - International had a dealer there and the tractor had been left there one Friday night for servicing. I was impressed enough to think I really might like to try this.

But that 2010A wasn't any piece of cake to drive. It had been judiciously put together with a sharp eye on costs - it didn't have front shocks even! - and some of the components weren't the easiest to use - such as the "crash-box" 5-speed transmission and air-shift 2-speed axle. I don't know how many times I'd crash and bang the transmission, roll to a stop on the side of the road and try it all over again. Of course it was a while before I caught on to working it correctly, that is, quick from 1 to 3 with all splits but between 4 and 5 in both low and high section of the 2-speed rear the engine had to be bumped and held to 2400 rpm before dropping into the next gear.

At the moment my ears are turning red remembering the embarrassment!

International's big gas V-8's were never known for long life and it wasn't long before the 478 engine was patched once and then died. Rather than major the engine a second time, a diesel conversion was considered and eventually followed thru on.

Now that was a different truck to drive! It was the difference between a barge and a sporty speed boat.

Harper Detroit put a 6V-71 in the truck, kept a 5-speed tranny and the 2-speed rear but somewhere along the line something got mixed up and the truck went through a series of clutch failures until it was realised that the transmission was under-spec's, too small for the engine.

And so it came time to get out into the working world.

School was finished and along came a school-time friend who said I could get a job working at the outfit he worked at in local cartage. I thought I'd give it a try - starting out with a beat-up old Chevy straight truck and then one day getting my first tractor-trailer. I wasn't impressed at all. Another beat-up old ride, only this time it was a Super Duty Ford and "here, take these 5 or 6 jugs of water along with you since you might need them". Or sending me to deliver shoes on King Street in a Toronto downtown alley with an old Loadstar cab-over, which was an equally older former bread van of about 45 feet too long into an alley. I had a bitch of a time getting out since I was very inexperienced and once out swore I'd never go back again. I didn't because when pressed to go a week later, I took my time card, punched it and said "thanks for the opportunity".

Early on I'd made several decisions and driving junk wasn't one of them.

As it turned out my school-chum ended up leaving also a week or two later and on the spur of the moment we dropped into Laidlaw Transport and filled out applications. What a surprise to find out we were both wanted a couple of days later.

I spent my first day not driving, but hand-balming Green Giant canned goods at Dominion Stores on the West Mall in Etobicoke. I'd been dispatched with the "Big D" shunt man to work with him - put a trailer in to start hand-balm for awhile and then back one or two in during the afternoon. According to Bill Smith, I had no trouble driving forward but needed work getting backwards.

But Laidlaw was willing to take a chance, and what a chance they must have thought.

Having once been part of Leather Cartage our terminal in Toronto did a lot of work for Dominion Stores and probably the best place in the world to learn was their Rogers Road warehouse.

What a torture chamber!

Inside the building you could get possibly 8 or 10 trailers inside, but Wilson's had the centre of the dock and Laidlaw the east end with the 3 outside. The dock guys all worked together, in that Laidlaw waited until the Wilson shunt driver had his loads in against the dock and then they put theirs in. And by the way, when the trailers were against the dock there was only enough room between them and the wall for two trucks to sit side by side.

My first time backing into that dark hole in an old swing-fender Dodge, my left leg was shaking so badly it took weeks to calm down!

Backing up back then was never my strong suit - I used to stand on the dock watching other guys do it and think to myself "if only I could do it like that" but then I guess I was only annoying them because I hate it now when someone stands on the dock and watches you back in. You know you'll mess it up!

But then suddenly I no longer stood there watching and hoping I was able to do.

Laidlaw was an excellent education for any driver wanting experience as back then there were no separately operating divisions as they have today. You could go out in the morning with a van load, pull a flat-bed in the afternoon and if you wanted the extra hours you cold run a cement tanker to Polson Street and get a load.

Only the lure of a big, faster truck and new scenery got to me.

I moved to a canning company based just east of Toronto. The truck was a big, fast Ford cab-over with a 350 Detroit. Trips across Ontario, north to Sudbury and east to Nova Scotia! Knowing what I know now I should have walked away when the traffic manager handed me a fist full of circuit breakers and said "you'll need these". Or when on a return from Sudbury just south of The White Stallion the 350 spun a bearing, broke a rod and quit in a pall of smoke. All in one day I arranged for the tow to Toronto, getting a rental, going back north to get the empty trailer and getting perhaps 2 hours sleep before delivering at Dominion Stores the next morning for 7 AM.

Hours of Service? What hours of service!

The best yet was "Why did you have that broken air line repaired at Curry Hill? Couldn't you get it home and save the cost of the service call?"

I left shortly thereafter.

Driver service agencies in Ontario in particular have many of the good private carrier jobs.

I've worked for many in the ensuing years.

"No, I'm not going to get you 400-hp. You'll only race each other or other trucks down the road!"

Race? At 120,000lbs gross, yea right?

"Jake Brakes"? No, I've been to Baie St.Paul in my car. That grade's not that bad. You don't need them."

I guess not, who would need a Jake Brake at 120,000 lbs gross, and flying down 11% grades, at least 7 km long?

Or better yet, on the subject of cab switches for the air lift axles....

"No, you'll only play with the switches when you're empty to watch the smoke come off of the tires when the wheels touch the pavement."

And this from a manager who's favourite office past time was to pitch quarters against the wall.

No wonder I haven't patience these days.

But trucking has been good to me over these past 32 years.

I haven't made a lot of money but I've seen a lot of country and enjoyed many different things. A good carrier has a lot to do with how one views the industry and I like to think I've found a home where I am now - if they're willing to tolerate me! I've listened to a good many comments in many places over the CB and one that sticks in my mind and bothers me a lot is "I can make more money flipping burgers!" And there's a lot of that out there! And it's wrong as far as I'm concerned. This is a good job with a good future but you have to know that it's hard - hard on you because you'll end up giving up so much of what seems to be a normal life and hard on any family that you have at home.

Heaven only knows why my wife's put up with me for these many years but my hat's off to her!

Spouses don't get enough credit. 

WHERE AM I TODAY?

An Owner/Operator with Midland Transport. The photo on the left was my 2000 Freightliner FLD, which I sold in December of 2005. It had accumulated 730,000 miles (1,175,000 kilometres). The photo on the right is of my brand new 2006 Freightliner Columbia, powered with a 500-hp Detroit Diesel.

That's it for now ----- Doug McKenzie.

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