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From the Editor’s desk... VOLUME 17, ISSUE 02 PUBLISHER/EDITOR John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca PRODUCTION/CIRCULATION Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca ADMIN/SPECIAL EVENTS Donna White donna.protrucker@shaw.ca ADVERTISING/MARKETING John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Madill • Mel McConaghy Ben Proudley • Scott Casey Frank Cox • Ed Murdoch Colin Black • Dennis Ruttan PHOTOGRAPHY David Benjatschek • Ben Proudley HEAD OFFICE Ph: 604-580-2092 Fax: 604-580-2046 Toll Free: 1-800-331-8127 Published eleven times a year by Pro-Trucker Magazine Inc.,
The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements; the unauthorized use of materials or photographs; and/or any other errors or omissions in connection with advertisements placed in Pro-Trucker Magazine. The publisher can and will refuse any advertising which in his opinion is misleading or in poor taste. The publisher does not endorse or make claim or guarantee the validity or accuracy of any advertisement herein contained. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editing at the publisher’s discretion. The act of mailing or e-mailing material shall be considered an expressed warranty by the contributor that the material is original and in no way an infringement on the rights of others.
PUBLIcATIONS MAIL AGrEEMENT #40033055 rETUrN UNDELIVErABLE cANADIAN ADDrESSES TO cIrcULATION DEPT. 9693 129th Street. SUrrEY, B.c. V3T 3G3 Email: tori.protrucker@shaw.ca
PrO-TrUcKErMAGAZINE MAGAZINEe PrO-TrUcKEr
My first introduction to the generosity of the transportation industry was in April of 1999. I, along with our photographer, Kathy Fitzpatrick, volunteered at an event in Kamloops BC. It was the 2nd Annual South Central Trucking Industry, Charity Golf Tournament & Dinner Auction, which raised money for the Kamloops Royal Inland Hospital. This one day event raised over $100,000 the first year and the second event, the first of many that we attended, they raised over $150,000. Since then I have witnessed the industry strongly support many great causes like, The 18 Wheels of Christmas in Alberta, The John White World’s Largest Convoy, Convoy for a Cure, Cops for Cancer, the Vancouver Island Equipment Owners Lighted Truck Parade, Surrey Santa’s Lighted Truck Parade, various Food Banks, Christmas Bureaus and a very large number of charity golf tournaments, to name just a few. The latest charity supported by the trucking industry, “Chrome for Kids,” is an event that is very dear to the hearts of everyone here at Pro-Trucker Magazine. On January 8th 2012 fraternal twins were born to Pro-Trucker’s own Tori and Ben Proudley. The problem was they were born at just 29 weeks – 11 weeks shy of the normal 40. Their son Mason weighed just 2lbs. 9oz. while their daughter Mackenzie weighed in at a mere 1lb 12oz. To put that into perspective, the picture you see here is Mackenzie’s hand clutching her mother’s thumb. The kids spent the next 3 months in ‘NICU’ (Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit). Mason has since had 2 operations at Vancouver Children’s Hospital one of which was a heart operation. I am very happy to say that they are both doing extremely well and you would never know that they had such a traumatic start in life. Maybe I’m just getting older, or maybe it is because there are two of them, but they seem to be even more active than our children were. “Chrome for Kids” is being held to raise money for a much needed heart machine at Children’s Hospital. There will be a truck show which will include motorcycles and show cars. Jamie Davis from “Highway Thru Hell” will be there as will “Trucker’s Television.” Live music will be provided by “Total Rewind” – a great band - readers who were there will remember them from our 2014 BC Big Rig Weekend. So mark your calendars - this event is being held at Mission Raceways August 7th 8th and 9th. Gates open Friday and Saturday 9am to 11pm and Sunday 9am to 6pm. Entry is by donation. All proceeds from the event will go directly to Children’s Hospital. The growing list of companies donating to this event include, in alphabetical order, Big Rig Group, CSTT, CTL, Daryl Wear Contracting, , Inland Kenworth, Jetes-MTB Group, K-Line Trailers, Lil Bro Trucking, Lucas Oil, Mission Towing, Mobile Truck Shuttle Services, Ocean Trailer, Old School Trucking, Peterbilt Pacific, Pro Oil Change, Pro-Trucker Magazine, The Legion, TransX and ZZChrome. To donate to this very worthy cause call ZZChrome at 604-888-2322.
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LETTERS to the EDITOR
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e Whit zine John aga
rM rucke Pro-T e
John Whit gazine Pro-Trucker Ma
Hi John I’ve just got the February issue, thanks for another great magazine. When I read your editorial I was surprised to say the least. When are drivers going to learn that cutting rates does no one any favours? Years ago when I worked at Glasgow airport I watched as an owner operator with one small truck went into self-destruct mode. This guy had a good business going doing small house removals and parcel deliveries. With aspirations of grandeur he rented three top weight trucks and trailers. He tempted three experienced drivers away from local firms and undercut the rates of a few established companies and started to run airfreight to London. Of course with all his outgoings, truck and trailer rental, fuel, and wages, his meagre rates just didn’t cut it and he was soon declared bankrupt. But he didn’t just go down himself. When he took the work from another small company it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for that firm and they went bust as well, so his greed not only shot
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himself in the foot but another small company who were doing ok. tata the noo Colin Black, Bellshill, Lanark, Scotland. Good morning John It is with sadness I write to you to inform you of the Passing Of Mr. Frank Cox. He passed away the morning of February 1st, 2015. I know he wrote articles for your magazine and enjoyed doing it. Indeed before writing this email I read of your delight in receiving an email from Big Frank before Christmas cheering you up. He had a great way of cheering any man up. Frank worked for me for many years and was a true gentleman and a great story teller and many a funny story he shared and indeed created. A short story below: He penned an article in your magazine some time ago about the passing of another x-driver, David ‘Bootsie’ Kearney. As luck might have it another x-driver, now working in Canada, lifted the mag at a truck stop, read it and then sent it to me. Frank got a great laugh from this. Sometime in the near future I will put something together and it might be something you would print in memory of Big Frank. Best regards Brendan Woods, J&C Trailers Kilcroney, Ireland.
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Editor’s note: It all started back in September of 2010 when I received an email from Frank Cox, a truck driver in Ireland. He said he had been on our website and he enjoyed reading the stories about driving in North America. He said he could relate to many of the stories himself and that it just went to show that a truck driver’s hardships, heartaches and joys are very much the same no matter where you lived. He said that the family life, problems with traffic, dispatchers, 4-wheelers and customers are much the same but thankfully the joy of watching the sun come up while cruising down the highway to the hum of a diesel engine and the beat of your favourite tunes is also universal. He asked if he could submit a few stories about his driving adventures and I quickly said yes. In October of 2010 we published Franks first story and it was easy to see that he was a born story teller. Like all good story tellers, he could draw you into his stories so deep that you would almost swear that you had been there to see it yourself. Frank was a very private man and about a year ago he said he had some health issues and would be
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taking a sabbatical for a while. Not wanting to intrude, I did not ask the nature of his illness. It was with great delight then that I opened my email last November to see an email from Frank, with a new story and declaring that he was back and would send more stories now and then. For that reason we were very surprised and saddened when we received the email above telling of his passing. Although I was never fortunate enough to meet Frank face to face, I felt that, though his writing, I knew him as a friend. He will be sorely missed. Frank named his column, “View From an Irish Volvo” and in his memory we have re-printed the first story he sent us. The following is the introduction to Frank that we gave to our readers in our December/January, 2010 issue.
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get married in Rome. A quiet affair, I believe, usually followed by a visit to the sights of that ancient city. And, of course, St Peter’s Square, hopefully to get a glimpse of the Pope waving from his balcony. His blessing on a certificate was a standard feature of this type of wedding package. However, I once knew a man who liked to holiday there every year. In and around Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, if I remember correctly. He adored the climate, couldn’t get enough of the Italian food and wine and was ‘phrase-book’ fluent in the language. But, the The Marauding Mosquitoes Of Milan. blood running through this man’s veins must have been By Frank Cox There was a time when many Irish people went to Italy, toxic, because, in all the tedious accounts of his Italian where they, with the exception of truck drivers, opted to summers, he never once mentioned the murderous, Frank Cox is a 56 year old Irish truck driver. He has driven extensively in many European countries. For the past number of years he has been driving exclusively around Ireland. He says he is, “Making way for younger blood to do the continental work.” Mostly he hauls containers and reefers out of Dublin Port to wherever they have to go. He lives in Dundalk, a town halfway between Belfast and Dublin. In his spare time - such as it is – he writes.
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marauding mosquitoes! These tiny little savages seem to have a great weakness for succulent, white, Celtic flesh. On one of my trips to Italy, my 12 year-old son, Robert, joined me. We had two deliveries in Paris and two in Milan. All went well and we were sent up to a small town near Lake Como for a backload - a twenty ton block of marble. A beautiful part of the world and, as it was summertime, the countryside we drove through was looking it’s absolute best. But the heat was overpowering - almost nauseating at times, especially at night. We wore shorts all the time. Mistake! Every mosquito in Italy must have homed in on the Lake Como area that night to feast and gorge themselves on Rob’s skinny white legs. He was absolutely devoured! The repellent we had must have been only to deter the irritating, but totally non-violent, native Irish housefly because these blood-suckers didn’t miss an opportunity to bite. We got our backload and turned for home. The attacks gradually fell away as we headed for the Alps. At a service station outside Turin, I was, suddenly and without warning, accosted by an elderly Italian ‘Mama’! She flittered me publicly and loudly for allowing the bambino to be eaten alive. Her tirade went on, unabated for several minutes, drawing disapproving looks in my direction from passers-by. They understood every word she screamed. I didn’t - but the look on her
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Terry 604-882-7623 face, the tone of her voice and her wild, violent hand gestures were all the translation I needed. Some of the notes she hit would have won her a standing ovation at La Scala! Now, I am well over six feet tall, weigh in at just over 250 pounds - she was four foot nothing, over seventy years of age, with a head of very black hair and the biggest handbag I had ever seen! And I stood there. Terrorized!! Rob, in the meantime, was busy trying to rip the remaining flesh off his pock-marked legs in an effort to satisfy that maddening itch that follows mosquito bites. When, this Italian earth-mother finally paused to draw breath, she reached into that enormous handbag and produced a concoction that, when she sprayed it
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TRUCKER’S FAMILY WEEKEND!
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onto his legs, killed the itch almost instantly. The relief on poor Rob’s face was a joy to behold. She spoke in gentle, loving tones to him as she liberally applied her miracle cure. I tried to read the name on the can, with the intention of buying some, but every time I got close, she snarled at me. The crazy senora seemed to think that I had deliberately fed the child, feet first, to the mozzies. So I kept my distance, anxiously waiting to see if she would return him to me, or - and I just know it crossed her mind - would she take him home and keep him! For me, going home to his mother without him was not an option. Thankfully she gave him back with, what I can only surmise were some blunt words of warning on how to look after him. I assured her I would. A few weeks later my daughter, Bernadette, 14, came on an identical run to Milan. We took every possible precaution against the insect and managed to survive with only one or two small bites. No way could I risk meeting that same old woman - who, I was convinced, was probably godmother to half the Turin mafia - and me with another mutilated child!!! Rest in Peace Frank. *****
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Way back when I had just returned from the service I was wandering around getting into trouble, chasing My kid in university sent me a text that said, “plz” girls, doing way too much drinking, and generally doing (which is shorter than please) send me some money.” I nothing. Then Dad finally put his foot down. He was a sent back, “no” which is shorter than “yes”. World War Two Vet and I think he realized I was suffer-
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ing from what was then called battle fatigue and is now called PTSD and he decided to do something about it. We had a small trucking company at the time working out of the farm and hauling our own gravel from our pit. When I was not crawling into a bottle I did manage to haul a load or three but Dad decided I needed to get off my butt and quit feeling sorry for myself. One Monday I staggered down the stairs about noon, hung over and not feeling too chipper. I found Dad sitting at the kitchen table and he gave me that look that said I was in deep dodo and then he tossed a set of keys on the table. I looked at them and made some smart remark and that’s when the crap hit the fan. He informed me that the B61 was sitting at the garage with a trailer behind it and a D6 Cat on the trailer. He also informed me that I had signed for the load and it had to be in Winnipeg by Friday or I would be responsible for late fees and charges so I had better get off my butt and get moving. He then got up and left for the pit without saying another word. Mom went up to my bedroom and packed me a bag, brought it down and then she left to go work in the garden. What was I to do??? Slowly I picked up the bag and walked out to the garage and there it was, just like he said. I threw my stuff in the truck and fired the old girl up and sat there feeling sorry for myself for a while. I finally shoved in the clutch and eased out onto the road. Maybe Dad was right at the time because by the time
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the house to find Dad and Mom waiting for me. I guess they could see the difference in my walk and demeanor because they both had big smiles and Dad actually offered me a beer before we sat down for a real family discussion. Dad and Mom both told me that they cared what happened to me and that now that I had proven that I could do more than blow things up and feel sorry for myself I was on my own - but if I wanted, I could have the old 61 and could use it to make a life of my own. Was this a hard way to learn about myself ? Yep it sure was but it was also what I needed at the time. Three days later, after getting my affairs in order, I was back on the road listening to the old Maxidyne sing her song and I never once looked back. Did I have a few relapses? Yep I did, but I knew that I had been on a downward spiral and that there was a big world out there and if I wanted a piece of it I had to make some changes. Will this help others that are going through the same thing today? I wouldn’t presume to know or judge. Everyone is different as is the amount of their exposure to the demons that fuel this terrible condition. All I can say is that it slowly but surely helped me. Forty years later I look back on my life with just a little pride and many memories made by pushing iron down the highways and byways. Thanks Dad, Mom and all the others who helped me find myself.
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DRIVING THROUGH MY MEMORIES
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By Ed Murdoch
Ed has held a commercial drivers license for 63 years and has spent the better part of 50 years on the road. You can get Ed’s new book at www.drivingthroughmymemories.ca For reasons which will become clear momentarily, this is my first opportunity to offer our readers my very best wishes for an even more prosperous year ahead than 2014. With diesel prices coming down significantly perhaps there will be a bit more jingle in your jeans at the end of each run. I also wish you the good health to enjoy it. It may not seem that way at first but you will see that this month’s column is very much about trucking. My personal introduction to 2015 was both dramatic and traumatic. It began early New Year’s Eve when my right leg suddenly seized up with a pain so excruciating I wasn’t certain I would see any of the next 12 months. Instead of going to the doctor I suffered through the next two days so I wouldn’t miss my local radio show. (CKVS-FM 93.7 at 9:00 every Saturday if you’re anywhere between Sorrento & Sicamous). Then as luck would have it there was a big storm on Sunday and by Monday morning we were completely snowed in.
I called my doctor on the telephone and told him of my symptoms and he suggested rather forcefully, that I call an ambulance and get my sorry derriere into the hospital as it was possible I was in a life threatening situation. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option. Because of the depth of the snow, the ambulance couldn’t even get close to my home, which is atop a long, steep and curving driveway. My neighbour, bless her, came to my rescue and shovelled a path through three feet of fresh snow from my back door to her front door, where a friend who worked at the Shuswap Hospital, picked me up on her way in to work. Following a CT-scan and two nights on a stretcher it was determined that a clot had broken away from my
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heart and completely blocked the femoral artery to my right leg. I had no blood flow below the knee and of course no pulse in my icy cold foot. The decision was made to take me by ambulance to the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops for surgery before my leg fell off. I can joke about it now but at the time it was no laughing matter. I was given two choices. With Plan A there was a chance that I would lose my lower leg so I chose Plan B. It was successful and by the end of January I was at home recovering. What has this to do with driving a truck? Here’s the kicker. I was told by one of the veteran nurses on the vascular surgical floor that the majority of patients that have similar symptoms to mine, are long-haul truckers. The sedentary life-style of sitting for long hours behind the wheel, the irregular sleep patterns, the questionable onroad diet plus a lack of cardio exercise are all possible reasons for this condition. Truckers work in conditions that predispose them to a high incidence of cardiovascular disease and peripheral arterial disease, which is the condition that led to my hospitalization and surgery. 250 long-distance male drivers age 18 to 60 were studied and the results were disturbing. Among all the drivers lack of physical activity was at 72.8% and alcohol consumption was at 66.8%. 29% of the drivers smoked and 58.2% had an abdominal circumference greater than
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more sophisticated technology continues to interrupt and invade that natural development it is becoming more and more difficult for us to do all the things that are appropriate for each of us. While in the hospital I had lots of opportunity to think about this and after surviving four score years on this third rock from the sun I have come to a life-changing conclusion. I am no longer in the process of building a beautiful body. Yes, what you see is what I’ve got, with no apologies. It is what it is. I am now charged with the responsibility of maintaining the body which I have developed over the years by trial and error - apparently quite a bit of error. To get with the program I am determined to listen to my doctor, and take all the medications prescribed to me, in order to enjoy to the fullest of my ability the remaining time which has been allotted me. That, my friends is my New Year’s resolution. *****
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Rig of the Month
by John White
David Sanborn from Vernon, BC is our March Rig of the Canadian Forces. My sister, Lisa-Ann, and I were army the Month driver. This is his story: I was born in Victoria, brats and we lived the life of your typical army family. BC, the older of two children. My mother, Marilyn, was We started off in Victoria where my dad served at a stay at home mom and my father Melvin, was a cook in Esquimalt CFB, then it was off to Germany for 4 years.
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When we were in Germany he was stationed at the Canadian Forces Base in Lahr. I remember attending a French immersion school there, and my mother says that my sister and I could speak fluent English, French, and German when we were in Germany. My parents were fond of forest walks, and touring the castles over there. I even remember my grandparents coming over for a visit one year. When we returned to Canada, my dad served on the destroyer escort HMCS 257 Restigouche. Our parents divorced when I was 8 years old and my mom moved us kids to Chilliwack, where we lived in a subsidized income housing complex. My mom remarried a few years later and we then moved to Sardis until my teenage years, when we moved to Vernon, in the north Okanagan. That is where I still live. When I got out of school I worked at McDonald’s for about a year. One day while I was unloading the Martin Brower truck, Bill Disanjh, the truck driver asked me if I would like to move the truck ahead so we could reload all the empty trays. I remember that the truck was a Freightliner Cabover with a multi-temperature reefer. I was a young kid at the time with really know idea of what I wanted to do in life but I have to admit that sitting up in the seat of that truck and moving it just a few feet in the parking lot really started something. I guess you can say I got bit by the driving bug.
(Top)Heather & David Sanborn Marissa, Tanayia and Thomas I soon quit McDonalds and started delivering anything by vehicle that I could find, from pizzas to parcels. Everything was moving right along and I was enjoying myself until I was involved in an accident. I was t-boned at an intersection and the injuries kept me off work for about 9 months. It was about this time that my sister met Wayne, her future husband. He was a professional driver and he asked if I wanted to go on a couple trips with him. I had a great
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time and decided right then and there that I wanted to become a truck driver too. He didn’t have the time to teach me himself so in 1991, after talking to him and some other drivers, I used some of the money that I received from my accident settlement and went to Edmonton to attend Cameron Driver Education School. Back then the course cost me $2700, but I hear that today the same course costs upwards of $10,000. In the summer of 1991, after completing my course and obtaining my licence, Wayne took me out team driving with him. He had a truck on with Glenncoe and it was the first highway unit I drove professionally. It was a 1988 Western Star 4964, with a Detroit DDEC2 engine rated at 425hp. It had an 18 speed transmission with 3.55 rear ends and she could move when she needed to. We ran California for a few weeks, then had an accident that still lives with me to this day. Another vehicle caused an incident where he was parked on the side of the road pointed at us. It was night time and I was resting in the bunk with the curtains open when I saw a bright flash of lights and then heard Wayne muttering and cursing about it. The next thing I know I am going head over heels as we ended up rolling onto our driver’s side. Apparently Wayne was blinded by the flash of light and didn’t see the sharp curve in the road. With a top heavy load it didn’t take too much of a hurried turn for the truck to roll. What a rude awaking that was. We both had minor
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Ed 250-838-7655 / murdochedgar@hotmail.com injuries and were off for 3 months while we healed and the truck was repaired. When we came back he ended up putting the truck on with Hunterline Trucking, where we pulled B Trains. I drove team for another 6 months with Wayne until he picked up another unit and then I went solo. Over the next 9 years I did super B deck and reefer work running BC to Quebec. Then came the day I decided to try my hand as an Owner/Operator. I bought a 1999 Sterling Silverstar, with a 500 Cat, 18 speed, and 4.11 rears, for pulling tridems in BC. I found out that owning a truck and moving it up and down the road is not all that there is to being an O/O. Looking back on it, I wish that I had more business education and things may have turned out different. Just C
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after signing for the truck, our economy took a dump and, with my lack of in-depth business skills, I ended up giving the truck back in the summer of 2005. It took bankruptcy for me to get out from under that cloud. I guess you can say I’ve been there, done that, bought the shirt, and lost it too. One lesson I learned from that experience was that being an owner operator is not for me. Instead of trying that again I would rather write the cry sheet at night, have someone else repair the truck, and collect my paycheck at the end of the week. One of the low points in my career on the road was one night, in the summer of 1993. I was east bound on Hwy 16 between Lashburn and Maidstone when just over the rise in the road I saw a flash of light, like someone had spun out on ice. I came over the rise and had to stand on the brakes. There were two cars sitting part way into each ditch and there was debris all over the road. It was a head-on crash! I stopped and got out to help as I was first on scene. Within minutes other cars had come upon the scene and stopped to help. The driver of the Jeep died instantly when he ate the steering wheel and the windshield and his passengers were seriously hurt. Over in the full size car, was an elderly couple and their adult daughter. I was assisting with the elderly man pinned in his seat by the dash, when, just as EMT’s arrived, we lost his pulse. His wife was not too badly hurt but his daughter had back injuries. There were two fatalities that night.
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The driver of the Jeep was drunk, but he got off easy that night; he died instantly! That messed me up for days, where I couldn’t sleep or concentrate on driving. I still re-live that memory every time I see someone I suspect is drunk going down the road. For that reason I have no mercy at all for anyone that is caught in a DUI. My wife Heather and I have in interesting story. We starting dating in the summer of 1991 and moved in together late in 1991. We broke up in early 1993 and went our separate ways. Late in 2004 we got back together and married in July 2006. Heather has a daughter, Tanayia, from a previous marriage, and we also have had 2 children together, Marissa and Thomas. After giving the Sterling back in 2005 I tried local work
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as a security guard for a short time. The money was not what I was used to making, so I went back to local driving. After a while I returned to the road with Winfield Motor Freight doing a nightly run from Kelowna to Vancouver. That was followed by another gig hauling wood chips for DCT Chambers from the Okanagan to Castlegar and then some local work hauling with a live floor in Armstrong BC. Our economy was still in the tank and being low man on the totem pole, I was the first to be let go so I bounced around the local jobs until I ended up going back on the highway. It was not the best situation for a young family but you do what you have to do to make the income that is needed to raise a family. Like military serviceman, oil patch workers, and the like, highway driving takes its toll on the family too. It takes a strong woman to be a single parent while I’m away on the road and I love my wife all the more because of her strength. I have seen the better part of North America in my 24 years on the road but there are still a few places I would like to see. I still need to get to Yellowknife, Alaska, Delaware and PEI. In those 24 years on the road I have done flat deck and Super B-train work running across Canada. Hauled liquid fertilizer, gone off road in BC. Pulled reefers, heaters, dryboxes, all over North America. Pulled live floor and wood chip trains and ran front end loaders ranging in size from a Cat IT28F to 980B and a
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Volvo L250G, while hauling wood chips and hog fuel in BC, AB, and MB. I have driven units for Hunterline Trucking, Westline Trucking, RoadFast (a division of QuickX), TCT, Dan Chambers (DCT), Gold Star (a division of Arrow), Winfield Motor Freight (a division of Glenncoe), Glenn Transport (a division of DCT), Beaver Trucking Service of Kamloops, Can-Am West Carriers, and TransX. One of my most memorable trips was to ‘The Rock’ aka Newfoundland. The 8 hour boat ride over was really a different experience and seeing some of the towns that have unusual names was interesting. I stayed at a truck stop in the town of Goobies. But the most memorable part of that trip was coming back on the boat where we hit a storm with 7 meter seas that tossed us around like a cork. I remember waking up, in the room that I shared with 3 other drivers, when I slid right out of my berth. We pitched and rolled like that for about 5 hours on that crossing. When I worked for TransX Group of Companies I was based out of the Langley BC yard. Carson was my fleet manager at the time and I have to say that he is the best manager I have had in all of my 23 year career. He is easy to talk to and to work with as was Wes, my dispatcher, and Fei, the load planner. I loved working with them. They made my job a cake walk while doing the BC/Alberta regional line haul. I love driving the mountains - as long as there is no traffic to mess me up. Winter driving in BC can definitely be interesting. It has its challenges that can test even the most seasoned driver. One thing that I wish would happen is for BC to get in gear and finish the 4 lane project along for Hwy1. Health is one thing that can suffer greatly when you are on the road. Restaurants do not really cater to healthy cooking or proper portion sizes. When I started driving back in 1991, I weighed 250 lbs. and I slowly went up to 275 lbs. I decided to quit smoking which was a good move in one way but the result was that I put on another 100 lbs over a few months. Dieting didn’t work for me and I slowly kept gaining until I reached my heaviest at 410 lbs. Realizing that something had to change or I wouldn’t live to see my kids grow up I decided to take 7 weeks off and go in for a Lapriscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy. The operation was a success and I have gone from 396 lbs in late March 2014 to 264 lbs at the end of January 2015. My goal is to get down to 220 lbs. With the way trucks are now, just about every unit comes with a fridge, and power is easy to get for a microwave by installing a power invertor. This has made it a lot easier for me to eat healthier. I left TransX because, with the weight loss, I needed a more physically demanding job to help me keep losing weight. With that in mind, in early June, 2014, I signed on with Sutco Contracting Ltd, out of Salmo, BC. I am on the regional fleet, with a Super B Train running BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. They are a great company to work for and I get lots of PAGE 30
NEW Extended Hours Mon-Fri 8 am- Midnight • Sat 8 am- 5pm home time. They also have nice equipment, the dispatch is easy to work with, and I get decent pay. Another bonus is that I am working with 3 of the people that I worked with at Winfield Motor Freight/Glennncoe, Glen Wakefield, Don Coe, and David Scott. It really is a small world after all. All in all I feel like a new man. I have a beautiful family, great job, and I’m almost down to what I weighed in 1991 – life doesn’t get much better than that.
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If you can tell people you are at Timmy’s and it’s never followed by the question, “Timmy who?” You might be Canadian…
Idle Time
By Scott Casey Scott, our Rig of The Month for May 2003 has written “In the Devil’s Courthouse” a book about his years as a gun toting truck driver while serving as a Canadian Peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia
It’s almost like a song I was barreling down old 77 just the other day, runnin with Rubber Duck, when we passed a guy hitchhiking. So I gave the thumb to that hobo and kept goin. I ended up with a flat. Of course that was just one of the many events in this trip. Two hours ago Rubber Duck and I were jawin’ on the C.B., we’d just tore up all of our swindle sheets and threw them out when this odd voice came over the C.B. sayin, “Hey, hey, you Jim dandy Jimmy jammers you.” Well I hung up the talker and turned up the squawker and got a good grip on the wheel. The only ones I’d be talkin to tonight was my lady and my little boy who was holding his teddy bear hollerin’ giddy up go daddy, giddy up go. No matter how fast them trucks will go in our lil ol’ convoy we were still south bound and down. We kept a sharp eye on the rear-view watching for the White Knight too.
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I’d been six days on the road and I still had a long way to go and a short time to get there. Which meant no matter how I looked at it, I was still 500 miles away from home. Of course I would have been a day earlier had I turned my cheek back in Chi-town, my fight with that guy who was seven foot forty three with the aircraft carrier tattooed on his nose had been tougher than Wolf Creek Pass and the Feather River Canyon combined. But like a road hammer I got out of there and just as well because me and my truck with all its chicken lights and chrome have to deliver this load of hot freight. Once I’m empty tonight though, I’ll drive this 18 wheels with a dozen roses to my lil waitress called Flo. Ya I love to watch her leave but hate to see her go. Now that my freights been delivered I better get these big wheels in the moonlight. Mind you I’ll need forty acres to get turned around just so I can drive down the last forty miles of bad road. But hey that’s lookin at the world thru a windshield, just another day in the life of a truck drivin’ man. Editor’s note: Okay for all you fans of old truck driving music. Go to our Facebook page at “facebook.com/ ProTruckermagazine” and enter the contest “It’s Almost Like a Song” to win some great prizes. You will be asked to name all the songs referred to in Scott’s column. Winners will be drawn from the entries with the correct answers.
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From the Patch By Tamara Weston
Tamara Works for Cen-Alta Oilfield Trucking and, along with her husband Eric, was the co-Rig of the Month driver in our October 2014 issue.
It Was a Sad Day
Continued from February issue… I drive truck in the oil patch and last issue I told about how I returned to the shop one day to find the old 2006 Kenworth, that I loved, was all cleaned up. I was more than a bit surprised because no one ever cleaned that old truck up that good except for me, when I was driving her. I asked what was going on and I was told she was being sent to auction. I was devastated. She was a tri-drive body job tank truck, with a day cab, and when driving it I became the go-to girl when anyone got stuck on a job site because it could pull anything - as long as you were going in a straight line. I learned a lot behind the wheel of that ugly old truck – it made a driver out of me. It was like an apprenticeship when I drove her and it allowed me to move on with my career. I remember one day that I got a call to take it to the shop, hook up to a tri-axle wagon, and follow my husband Eric’s truck to Niton Junction. Up until then I had
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heard of quad wagons, but not tri-axles. Luckily Eric had many years of experience with them so I knew if I had trouble I could count on him. He came with me to hook onto it and then I had to drive it back to Redwater, so we would be ready to go early in the morning. All Eric told me about dragging it was, “Take your corners wide and don’t watch it in your mirrors as you drive down the hwy. “Why not,” I asked, and he replied, “It will be all over your lane but that’s normal.” I thought to myself that he was just being cautious and that it really couldn’t be that bad - boy was I wrong. If you have never dragged one, it is really nerve wracking at first. The next morning, we headed to the well to load. I loaded after Eric and then had to back out of the riser box. It was my first lesson in backing a wagon – wow! It was hooked to my truck with just a pintal hitch, so it has free movement, and then the front axle on the wagon pivots as well. I’ve hauled trailers of all types behind my pickup my whole adult life, but this was something completely new. With Eric’s help I got it out and we were off. Not only was this the first load with the wagon, it was my first trip down the highway in a rig. I had been driving for over a year but had really only done the puddle jumps, short little runs on range roads with limited amounts of time on the major highways. This trip was a 7 hour rounder on highway 16. Once we got through town and hit the highway, I took
M T AND T ACCOUNTING Specializing in the Transportation Industry: Bookkeeping - GST - Payroll Corporate & Personal Tax Planning and Filing Visit our website at mtandtaccounting.com or give us a call at 403-398-2476 it slow and steady, feeling out my truck listening to her groan and rattle with the extra weight behind her. I had to shift totally different because of it and of course I had to brake differently as well. Once again she was teaching me new and exciting things. I have to admit that I was nervous, not only was I driving faster than normal, I was dragging a wagon and was in traffic. Eric would call out now and then on the radio asking if I was good, how’s the truck managing etc. Once we hit the major highway he took off. The speed limit was 110kms and I had never driven that truck that fast. In the back of my mind I was remembering that I was told my steer tires, being 425’s, were speed rated to 90kms. Again he called out on the radio,
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CALLING ALL
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OWNER OPERATORS!
Monarch is now looking for Class 1 Owner Operators to run our Western Canada Van Division, US Van Division or AB Cartage Division!”
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“You comfortable doing 110kms?” I answered saying, “If by comfortable you mean sweaty palms and rapid heart rate…then yes, I’m just fine…” He said, “Don’t worry you’ll be okay, just relax and enjoy the ride.” It took a few trips pulling a wagon, but after every trip I felt more and more comfortable. Maybe it’s just a girl thing, or maybe it’s just not something that is talked about by men, but I was and I still am emotionally attached to that old wreck of a truck. When I first started driving her I could only double clutch and my shifting was rough - really rough. But by the time I was finally moved out of that truck I was more than comfortable shifting without the clutch. She taught me to trust my instincts and to listen to my truck and to feel them as well. The mechanics have all told me that they are impressed by how I can hear things that are not quite right with the trucks I’ve driven, and how I’ve caught things before they have become major issues. I’ve tried to explain how I feel about that old truck to my dad and all he does is laugh. He says, “It’s just a truck Tam, just a truck.” But to me they are more than just trucks, they have all changed me in some way or another. My pretty black 2015 that I drive now is my pride and joy, my badge of honor, but that sorry looking 2006 Kenworth molded me into the confident careful driver I am today. Sorry dad, she isn’t just a truck, she is a part of me and I will never ever forget her.
NOW
HIRING...
THE BEST OWNER OPERATORS! Flat deck BC-AB, Canada and USA Family owned and family operated Leading flat deck transportation for 34 years Safety bonuses & discounted fuel Here is what some of our team members are saying... “Be selective and choose to work at MHL, you deserve it!” - Jessica, Dispatcher
“I really enjoy the people, I love working here” - Sammy, O/Op
“I love it at MHL, we have the best drivers and owners in the industry.” - Brett, Dispatcher
PLEASE CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 604-857-8853 INFO@MHLTRANSPORT.COM PAGE 36
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Is Your Turbo Slow? Is Your Truck Sluggish? Due to Excessive Idling? IT IS BECAUSE YOUR MOTOR IS PLUGGED DUE TO SOOT BUILD UP! THE PROBLEM: The more refined diesel engines become the more susceptible they are to fuel deposits. This gummy varnish like residue builds up layer by layer showing itself by slowing your turbo and making your truck seem sluggish. Traditional tune ups cannot fix these problems. Your diesel fuel system needs to be serviced. SOLUTION: A specifically engineered chemical is circulated through the fuel system softening bakedon carbon deposit from intake ports, valves and combustion chambers. Cleaning and lubricating fuel injectors and restoring a proper spray pattern. A high pressure injector nozzle is then used to spray a cleaner/degreaser into the air intake and EGR system, removing crankcase by products from air intake, EGR and EGR cooler, restoring proper air/ fuel ratio. BENEFITS: Improves fuel economy, smooths idle and cold starts, restores power, throttle response and engine compression. Cleaning and removing these fuel deposits allows the engine’s sophisticated computer and complex set of sensors to respond as intended by the factory.
9975 199B Street, Langley
Phone: 604-520-1502 Emergency 604-970-1535 Advancedfleet.ca MArch 2015
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Mistake She pulled into the truck stop in a big shiny cab-over Pete, Her long legs were a sight to see as she climbed down from the seat. She looked just like a model, her dress, her form, her face – Not the usual type of woman that you see around this place. She walked across the pavement in that dress so short and red, Every single man among us had visions of a bed. You could have heard a pin drop when she walked through that door, Every eye was on her as she wiggled across the floor. Straight up to the counter and in a voice both deep and low, Said: “Where the hell’s the men’s room – this cat has to go!” The diner was pure bedlam as we departed from the scene: Our vision in a red dress was a darn ol’ pavement queen!
Dave Madill
Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores or amazon.com
Join our winning team. is HIRING Owner Operators • Fuel Cap of 47 cents per litre • Fuel performance pay program • Late Model Tractor • Direct Deposit, paid twice monthly • Fast cards and passports preferred • No cost satellite communication system • Insurance/license Subsidy of 40%,
• Scales paid
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• Group Insurance Dina or Mark at • Fuel cards supplied 1-800-663-2339 or fax resumes to • $500 sign on bonus 1-866-492 -7644 • Home most weekends dinae@berryandsmith.com • Paid pick ups and drops • All miles paid/practical miles equal monthly payments, no interest • Stable Company in Business Over 60 Years Good driving record • Good condition tractor • Cross border capability • Customer service focus
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Chevron Commercial Cardlocks Clean. Quick. Reliable.
Call Us 800 331 7353 / 604 668 5300 Find cardlock locations at Chevron.ca Š 2013 Chevron Canada Limited. All rights reserved. CHEVRON and the Chevron Hallmark are registered trademarks of Chevron Intellectual Property LLC.
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JOIN OUR TEAM
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OWNER OPERATORS
Earn Up To 2.30/mile Inc. FSC April 08, 2013 Paid Plates, Insurance, Permits & Tolls • Paid Load, Unload & Wait Times at $50/hr All Miles Paid at the Loaded Rate • Paid by Direct Deposit
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Up to .53/mile To Start • Paid Load, Unload & Wait Time at $30/hr Medical/Dental Benefits & RRSP Program • Paid by Direct Deposit Safety + Performance Bonus up to .04/mile Call Now: 1 (877) 452-9414 x 8706 Email: recruiting@continentalcartage.com Visit: www.continentalcartage.com
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