FIRST TIME TRUCKERS-26

When I was a teenager out of school I worked at a lot of nickel & dime jobs for a while. A friend and I heard of a job at an auto wrecker in London, went over and got hired on. The first day the boss asked me if I had a license and of course the answer was yes. He pointed to an old 3 ton 1948 Chevy truck with two stripped car bodies loaded on it. I was to drive it across London to a scrap dealer and come back for another load. Well this was just great. I was now a truck driver and got paid for something I liked doing.

That job lasted all summer but by fall things in the scrap business were getting slow and I had a lead on a job picking up milk cans from the local farms and delivering to a dairy in Aylmer Ont. This was hard work swinging full cans of milk up, but got easier as the body got built up.

The job was seven days a week and the pay was $25 per week. The truck was a 56 Dodge with a 6 cylinder engine and a 5 speed tranny with a 2 speed axle. The next year the boss bought a new 1962 White tandem dump truck. It had a 6 cylinder gas engine and a 5x3 transmission. He offered me the chance to drive it and I jumped at it. I caught on to shifting the two sticks right away and was quite proud of this new machine and the raise in pay to $75 per week.

We hauled gravel and asphalt for the building of the 401 hwy. west of London, Ontario. In the fall of that year the truck went in for service and never came out. The boss had gone bankrupt. End of that job.

Next I heard of a job at National Trailer Convoy in London. They hauled house trailers (mobile homes) all over Canada. The first day I was given this old 1958 GMC one ton gas truck. Only thing a little different about it was that it had a Buick V-8 car engine in it.

The distributor on those engines were at the back of the block and whoever installed it just cut a hole in the firewall down by the floor and there it was. You could reach down and adjust the timing while driving down the road if need be. It wasn't much of a truck but it was a job and I was on the road.

My first trip was to go to Tillsonburg, Ontario and pick up an old mobile home and bring it back to London. Ok, did that with no problems. Was told to come back next morning and bring a suitcase. Arrived early morning, handed a set of bills and hook up to a 10x50 ft. trailer and deliver it to a dealer in Rimouski Quebec. That was a shock. I had never been any more than 100 miles from home before and now am heading to a strange country far away with an old cobbled up truck towing a long wide load behind.

I had maps on the seat beside me to find the way. No problems to the Quebec border. After that things got a little tricky as we had to go around Montreal via Valleyfield and change a few highway numbers but I made it to the other side. Only thing is when going through some towns the old GM would get pretty hot and be boiling coming out the other side.

Actually the trip didn't go too bad. I kept using the maps and saw a lot of sights I had never seen before. I got to Rimouski, found the dealer dropped the trailer, picked up the cheque and headed west bobtailing all the way back. At least the truck ran cooler with no load.

I worked for that outfit for a few months and met a fellow at a truck stop in Trenton who was in the same business only he had good equipment. Before we parted company he had offered me a job working for him and I jumped at it. He had a contract with a trailer factory to deliver all their new trailers and mobile homes to dealers across Canada. I was given a new 1965 Ford 600 COE truck to drive and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

A few months later I had the chance to buy this truck which I did. Now I am an owner/operator. I got 70% of the rate and business was good. Lots of miles and see lots of Canada. I ran as far west as Calgary, Alberta, as far north to The Pa Manitoba, and east to Halifax.

I sold my little Ford three years later after putting 300k miles and three gas engines in it. It was time to step up and do some real trucking and blow some smoke.

I stopped in Toronto one day and signed a contract with Jumbo Motor Express to haul freight from Toronto to the Maritimes. I found a used 1964 Mack F600 in Fredericton NB and signed the papers for it. This was in the spring of 1969.

It had to be painted Jumbo colours and Mack would call me when it was ready.

The call came and I was on a plane heading down to pick up my (new to me) truck. I did the paper work, got the keys and out to the lot with a big grin. Actually I had never driven a diesel or a big tractor before but I figured it couldn't be much different than the dump truck I drove before and the trailers were long and wide so how hard could this be. I got it started and sat there listening and looked across the cab and realized this cab is sure wide inside. The sleeper looked big too, so I was all set.

I drove around Fredericton that evening just getting used to it and bob tailed to St. Johns next morning and found Jumbo's yard. Went in, told them who I was and was ready to work. The dispatcher gave me a trailer number, some papers and I was to hook up and go back to Fredericton and pick up a load for Toronto. Ok, out I go, fire up the Mack, back under the trailer and go around back of the cab to hook up the air lines. Well it's a good thing the coffee truck came just then and everyone headed over there because it gave me time to figure out how the glad hands worked. I didn't even know how to hook them up yet.

Anyway I got the load at the cotton mill and now it was time to head for Toronto. The load was only around 23k lbs. But as I started off it felt like I had the whole world behind me. It was quite a trip but Mr. Mack and I made it ok and a lot more trips after that.

A lot of miles and a lot of stories could be told. I quit after two years with Jumbo. Just couldn't make enough money to keep going and a second child was born so I better stay a little closer to home?

The Mack was breaking down a lot so one day I took it back to Mack in Fredericton, cut the plates off and got a ride home to Ontario.

That winter a friend had a Freightliner hauling produce to Florida and needed someone to make a trip for him. Of course I jumped at the chance to see Florida. We ran double and left Caledon with a load of apples for Peoples Market in Miami Florida.

It was a good trip down the eastern seaboard through the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia and into Florida. We got to Miami on Sunday afternoon, unloaded Monday morning and then ran empty up the coast to Lake Worth to pick up a load of lettuce for New York City.

Well here we go, hauling interstate with a Canadian truck and half the plates are out of date and no good. We got to NY and found Mot Street in China Town, unloaded and headed for home with an empty trailer.

In 1971 I got a job with Hutton Transport in Uniondale. Their main business was St. Mary's Cement. I was given a 9000 White 10 speed with a 220 Cummins and lots of hard work.

Everything was hand bombing in those days and I wasn't thrilled about the work or the equipment. After the second week there I figured I wasn't going to put up with this nonsense but ended up staying for 23 years.

One fine June sunny warm afternoon in 1993 at 2:30 pm I told the boss I had enough and quit. It felt good. That's the day I changed occupations. I had a race horse or two that I worked with as a hobby, so after I quit trucking I got serious and got better horses and now own, train and race full time. Sort of like an owner/operator.

The trucking years were great though and had some unforgettable times and experiences. I still think how nice it would be to climb into a nice shiny rig and head for the coast but I guess that's not going to happen.