When The Trucking Bug Bit
Posted on Apr 11, 2008 - 9:14pm by Donna Snelling in Lifestyle
When did the trucking bug bite you? I remember exactly when it bit me. It was the summer I was 12 years old. My dad was a mechanic for a very small trucking company (I’m talking maybe eight trucks at the most!) when he gave me my first ride in a truck. It was a cabover Kenworth, with NO air ride seats. I could deal with the “nice” body jerking, stomach hitting your back, jarring of the seat, but seeing the road that close – no thank you! Then I got my second ride in a big truck a few days later. Another Kenworth. I do not remember exactly what model it was – but I do remember it was red, it had air-ride seats (YES!), a stove, fridge, TV, bed, wow – that was a truck!! I vowed that day I would drive one!
Do I drive one? No – not yet. But Lord knows someday I will as my husband has been teaching me slowly but surely how to. Heck, I couldn’t drive a stick shift until a year ago! I do know how to hook and unhook a trailer – I like to help with that, even cranking the dollies.
After working behind a desk, covering every spot in the office, it was a very welcome time when my husband started hauling livestock. As much as everyone dreads seeing those guys on the highway – trust me – they do a lot of work. I think it was during this time that the boys got bitten by the trucking bug. Not so much the oldest – he is more of the bookworm in the business – but the youngest. He has already made his vow to be a bullhauler, after college he promises. That will be determined in a few years.
With that being said – I know being involved in the transportation business it has changed our whole family. My husband went from working for a company, to working for an individual. to owning his own truck. It has been hard on all of us. The time spent away from home, the decisions that are made, the amount of money invested, it gets a little hairy at times. But somehow we always prevail.
I have seen my sons grow in their responsibilities as well. They both know how to hook, unhook, crank the dollies, shut the doors the proper way, do a pre-trip, etc. The youngest can get in and out of a cattle trailer quicker than you can walk to the front of a dry van to hook up the air lines. The oldest – he can tell you how much money you will make or lose on a load. When it comes to math problems in school – they have taken one of their passions (trucking) and apply it to their math problems.
But in the end, I still cannot help but wonder to this day, how someone can love a job so much they never give it up but yet hate it so much they always threaten to quit doing it. I guess it’s one of those “love/hate” relationships. You love it on some days – the others you hate it. And no matter how much you say you will never go back to trucking – you always end up back in a truck trying to quiet the restless spirit you have inside.
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Good post.
For me, it was July of 1971, Utapao Thailand, Royal Thai Air Force Base. I was assigned to drive old ratty International LodeStars OR even Rattier Military Five ton’s……hauling bombs.
What a hoot!!!
I like to say “I got diesel smoke in my blood” back then. Addicted for life.
You know.. My Dad drove a truck most of the time I was a kid. I liked them, but he always encouraged me to get a education so I “wouldn’t have to drive a truck” like him. I learned to appreciate what he did as a sacrifice.
I worked in restaurants for years, but eventually was able to attend college, then couldn’t find a decent-paying job! I went to a truck-driving school & drove team with my wife. Thats really when I got the bug. I never thought that I could DO that kind of work! I actually had started to feel like I was getting good at it, after about a year & a half, when family problems forced us to come home. I started working on a masters degree, and I do love the university, but now I find myself dreaming about being back on the road. There were, as you said, times when I hated it. The dispatchers were a pain. I missed my kids. The down time when I didn’t need it and being pushed when I did need down time. Still… I’m thinking about going back on the road. Still… I see a truck & I am envious on the person driving it. There is something about trucking that is hard to escape.