Truck’n

Courtney Greene of CLG Transportation, Inc.

By Edwin Ansel

So, as you’re reading this it’s entirely possible that I’m in the truck and preparing myself and the vehicle for the long descent into Laramie. It’s snowing. It’s dark. There is a wind advisory, gusts up to 60 miles per hour. That wind wants to push me in the ditch. The truck weighs about 70,000 pounds, and on this hill it wants to run away with you. You’ve got to control your speed. But the brakes can get you into trouble on a winter highway. I’ve got to slow down, and gear down, before pointing it down the hill. And then resist the urge to run with the cowboys who think they can get safely to the bottom going twice my speed.

Stressful? Absolutely. Scary? Can be. Trucking is on anybody’s short list of dangerous jobs. (Oh, the wrecks I’ve seen.) Driving across Wyoming in the winter takes that danger up a notch. Or three. But I’ve been trained to do this correctly. Let’s just say this hill has my full attention.

One question: Why am I out here doing this?

The simple answer is that the other day Rob Burleson, the owner of Jack Hicks, Inc. in Elk Park, NC, looked me in the eye and said, “You want a job?” This was right after, “Hello.” But you’ve heard that the industry is like that right now. Everybody is looking for drivers. This job is to take dry goods from Elk Park to Salt Lake City, then go on to Idaho, load potatoes, and bring them back. What he offered was a chance for me to double down. Twice the distance. Half the time. Twice the money.

It’s turned out to be a good gig, but no easy one. Out and back is about 5,000 miles. It takes the two of us drivers about a hundred hours, Monday through Thursday. You’d think we were being chased by wolves, we never stop. Sleeping in a moving truck is not easy, but you learn. Midway there’s a place, “Little America,” that is literally an oasis, a speck of green in vast desert of grey dust and sage. They’ll sell you a half a roasted chicken on a bed of fries that’s better than it has a right to be. I saw my first tumbleweed the other day. It made me laugh.

Being away from home is tough; my Audrey is not thrilled by it, but modern telephony really helps. I promised to take her to Italy, and that helps too. I’ve seen the way Rob’s company takes care of people, you can’t ask for more, not in this business, so signing on was a good decision. I’ve got money in the bank. And pulling a reefer (refrigerated truck) turns out to be important to me. I’m an “essential worker,” right? It may sound a little sappy, but bringing food matters. On our return trip I sit a little taller in the saddle.

Driving can be a good job, and trucking can be a good business opportunity, well suited to the High Country. If you want to have your own business, trucking offers this virtue: You can start with one truck and build from there. That’s what Courtney Greene is doing.

“I graduated from high school in 2010, and that’s when I bought my first truck,” says Greene. She grew up in the business. Her grandparents, Danny and Barbara Herman, started Danny Herman Trucking (DHT). They started with one truck, and DHT now operates over four hundred trucks across the U.S. and Mexico. Courtney currently owns three trucks that she leases to Jack Hicks, Inc., operating as CLG Transportation, Inc. Trucking has allowed Courtney to double down, also. Not only does it provide an income, but “it’s allowed me to travel, to meet new people, and enabled me to invest in real estate.” Courtney is helping her sister Channie to get in the business, too. “She owns three trucks, and she has her commercial driver’s license, she does it all.”

And hear this: Working conditions for women drivers, even solo, are good, and in Channie’s experience, no different than the conditions faced by the men. In fact, Courtney would like to have more women drivers. “They’re more careful, they pay attention to their surroundings, they have fewer accidents and violations, and they listen better.” Drivers are paid by the mile, and the numbers don’t lie. Equal pay for equal work. I see more and more women out on the road. So, want to get out of the house, or change careers and get equal pay? Give us a call, we need you.

Driving has its charms. One morning in Idaho, the sun just touching the tops of the mountains, bringing the first color to alien landscapes, stands out. Driving can be contemplative, and an artist needs a day job anyway. Novelist James Lee Burke drove a truck. Sean Connery drove a truck. Liam Neeson drove a truck. Elvis drove a truck, before he was Elvis. Still think

trucking is a bit déclassée? Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor drove a truck during the war—you may know her as the Queen of England—so there.

Guiding forty tons of truck across Wyoming, pounding the hills with five hundred Detroit Diesel horsepower, chasing the sun through that desert, that’s something. It’s about as close as you can get to being a bit of a pirate and also keep a little cabin tucked away in the forest above Linville, NC.

One last thing. You get frustrated with trucks, I know you do. They’re too big for the roads up here, and they go too fast. Out on the interstate they’re too big and they go too slow. People do insane, deathdefying things just to avoid the possibility that my truck will inconvenience them for, maybe, a few seconds. Now, I’m not saying every trucker is a hero every day, but most of us, we’re looking out for you. It’s part of the job. You may not even notice, but truckers give a little space here, create opportunities there, so we can all get where we’re going in one piece. And when you cut me a little slack, make my job a little easier and safer, it makes my day. And I pay it forward.

Edwin Ansel is a truck driver, as well as a writer and Art Director for Kudzu Press, an independent publisher of popular fiction and literature here in the High Country. Find Kudzu Press on Instagram and at kudzupress.com.