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By John White
Greg Penner from Abbotsford B.C. is our June/July 2008 Rig of
the Month driver and this is his story:
I grew up in a Mennonite family in a rural area between Landmark
and Steinbach, 40 miles southeast of Winnipeg. I am the oldest of
seven children and I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters. We grew up on a
hog and grain farm and my dad was foreman at the local feed mill.
He also did feed deliveries which is where my interest in trucking
began. He drove a 1967 Mack with two sticks and a 1984 Ford
Louisville with a 13 speed. In the evenings, after management had
gone home, dad would let us boys drive the truck back and forth on
the scale while he was up top loading. I always enjoyed riding
along with Dad which wasn’t often enough as all seven of us kids
had to take our turn.
An owner operator from a local livestock hauling outfit used to
come to our farm to pick up the pigs and we would often get a
chance to talk. He always said that if I still wanted to be a
driver when I got older then I should get my license and drive for
him.
I finished my grade nine in 1991 and started out doing carpentry
work until I was eighteen, when I fulfilled my dream of driving by
going for my Class 1.
I got my learners permit and started to drive Jackie Nelson’s
‘93 freightliner single axle with a nine speed tranny pulling a 48
foot double deck stock trailer. It was the perfect job for a young
driver because it gave me the opportunity to experience a lot of
different situations doing farm pickups in snowed in yards, tight
driveways etc. I drove all over south east Manitoba until Jackie
thought I was ready for my road test. When I tried to make an
appointment for my test the local town was all booked up so Jackie
convinced me to take it in Selkirk just north of Winnipeg - one of
the few towns around that I had never driven in before.
Then three days before the road test Jackie’s truck was
dispatched to South Dakota leaving me scrambling to find a truck!
Luckily, Jackie had some friends at a local trucking company and
for $100 they let me use one of their truck and trailer units for
the morning. It was pretty intimidating that morning when we went
to pick up the truck and trailer. Here was a long nosed Pete with a
53foot reefer but the worst part was the 13 speed tranny! Jackie
had me drive it most of the way to Selkirk which was one stressful
trip! Amazingly enough I passed the test on the first try. That
instructor must have known to go easy on me!
I started work for Steve’s Livestock but after three months the
owner operator I was working for decided he wanted to drive and I
found myself jobless with almost no experience. I went back home
and helped my dad build on to his hog barn. It gave him more income
from the farm so he wouldn’t have to work at the feed mill
anymore.
I left my resume at a few trucking firms in the area and in June
of ‘95 I got a call from a chicken farm in Niverville, a town 15
minutes west of where I lived. They needed a team driver to run a
truck load of birds up to Hay River, North West Territories. Dad
said I should go and I had no problem agreeing. I jumped into a ‘92
Pete cabover with a 475 cat. It was pretty challenging learning to
shift with a cable shift but Paul, the other driver, was very
patient and encouraged me to drive in spite of my nervousness. This
was probably the best thing he could have done for me. It was an
interesting trip to say the least.
Paul must have been talking to our boss because on our way back
I got a call from him asking if I wanted to turn around and do
another trip to Edmonton with a Super B - another first for me. I
ended up driving with Paul for almost three weeks. The last trip
was to Salmon Arm, B.C. with a load of chickens and then we ran
empty to Grande Prairie, Alberta for a load of birds back to
Morden. I’ll never forget the ride into Golden, B.C. with those
steep grades and the tight corners! Paul let me drive west of
Golden, but I didn’t even make it to the first tunnel and I had to
pull over and let him drive. I was just too nervous!
When I got home the boss cornered me and offered me a full-time
job hauling chickens. He showed me an ‘89 long nosed Pete with a
425 cat and I was hooked. After four months he ordered two new
Petes and said Paul and I could spec out our new rides. Paul chose
a dusty rose and I chose a pink rose color. Man I was in my glory
when I went to pick it up!
I hauled chickens for almost two years before I got myself in
trouble. I had met my wife Cindy in the fall of ‘95 and got married
in March of ‘96 but then I lost my license because of too many
speeding tickets. The boss was nice enough to let me take care of
his chicken barns while I was suspended but that job didn’t work
out so as soon as I had my license back I started working in
Winnipeg hauling feed.
I worked there for three months until Hart Feeds, the feed
company that my dad had worked for, offered me a job. It was much
closer to home and since I had spent so much time at work with my
dad I already knew their yard and customers, so needless to say I
grabbed it! I worked at Hart Feeds for 8 months until my chicken
hauling job called me back. I didn’t get my pink truck but by this
time my friend Paul was the dispatcher so I got his truck which was
every bit as nice.
I spent an enjoyable 2.5 years hauling chickens in the three
prairie provinces and six northern states around Manitoba. I went
up to Hay River a total of 17 times and one of those trips was on
the longest day of the year and one on the shortest day. On one
trip in the summer I picked up 13,000 birds in Des Moines, Iowa and
delivered them to Hay River three and a half days later. I only
lost 20 birds that trip which was real good. It was too long of a
trip in the winter though because those trips didn’t work out
nearly so well.
When I hauled chickens I worked with a driver named Myron
Penner. We have the same last name but we aren’t related. Since we
were the only two drivers in that company we made a lot of runs
together. I got to know Myron pretty well and found that he had
much the same background as I did.
In May of 2000, I hauled a load of birds out to the Fraser
Valley and having never been that far before it was quite an
experience! When I ran into some minor problems at the Golden brake
check I finally understood what the other drivers meant when they
said B.C. stands for “Bring Cash”.
I took my wife Cindy along with me on that trip and she really
liked the valley. She liked it so much in fact that by the end of
June she had convinced me to move out to Abbotsford, B.C..
I started work for Sumas Transport in Abbotsford hauling gravel
and shale to the river barge in Mission and to the Lafarge plant in
Richmond. It was a big adjustment for me driving in all that
traffic and it was a rough year with many mistakes on my part that
must have cost Sumas Transport a lot of money.
In June of ‘01, I started work at Can-Am West driving a ‘97
Freightliner Cabover pulling super b’s. I had never done any flat
decking before so this was another new experience in trucking.
That’s where I met an experienced driver named Norm Johnson. I
learned a lot from Norm over the years and I still have lots to
learn from guys like him.
I ran freight to Washington and Oregon for the first year,
gradually starting a weekly run to Portland, then on to Calgary and
Edmonton. I finally got a ‘99 Pete conventional which was a big
step up! I spent four and a half years decking with Can-Am and
luckily I had a very organized dispatcher who gave me good miles
the whole time I was there.
That truck was totaled in ’04 when a car came around a 70kmh
corner doing 120kmh. It crossed over the centre line and went head
on into my drives. I was empty at the time so it spun me around and
left me facing the opposite direction with my trailers zigzagged
across Hwy 1.
I ran to the car and tried to help the man behind the wheel
which was probably the wrong thing to do, as I had nightmares for a
long while afterwards. The first thing the RCMP said when they
arrived was, “Well I see you stopped him first.” Apparently they
were waiting for him at the rest area just up the road. I never did
out find why. I don’t know what became of the driver but I held the
IV bag for the emergency crew as he was being extracted and he was
in very bad shape.
I had the opportunity to go to some interesting places while I
was at Can-Am, from Kitimat, B.C. to St. George, Utah and
everywhere in between. My most unique load for them had to have
been the big Bell helicopter that I picked up at the Centerm docks
on the Vancouver waterfront and hauled it over to the International
Airport. Oversized and over-height made for an interesting ride
through the city.
In October of ‘05, my friend Marcus Friesen brought up the idea
of the two of us buying a green truck and trailer that was for sale
at Big Rig in Abbotsford. I went to see it and I thought, “Wow what
a lot of green.” The idea grew and about a month later I convinced
my wife that we should go for it.
Marcus knew Reimer Bros. from Armstrong B.C. so we leased on
with them. This was another new chapter in my life as I was now
pulling a reefer. Marcus did the books and I quit at Can-Am and
went driving. A lot of people thought we had lost our minds and I
have to admit there were days when I thought that maybe I had. Up
to this point in my career, when there was a problem with the
truck, I filled out a maintenance sheet and the work always got
done on my time off. Now suddenly I had to take care of the general
things myself and pay for the heavy repairs! Marcus also did some
driving to help me out with home time. In May of ‘06, we wanted to
paint our trailer and buy a new bumper for the truck but funds were
low so we decided to run team for one trip and not take wages. We
put on 6000 miles in six days running down to Denver over to
California and then back east.
In August of ‘06, Marcus broke the news that he was going for
his U.S. papers so that he could eventually move to Mississippi and
farm. We decided to split up, so in August of ’06 the truck was
mine.
Overall, Reimer Bros. have treated me fairly. The miles seem to
be there every month and we are licensed for 40 states and 6
provinces. There are lots of states I haven’t seen but I’m sure I
will probably get there eventually.
In April of ‘07, I took a load of flowers to Denver then got a
load of beef hearts going to Maple Leaf Foods in Moncton, New
Brunswick. Then I went to Kertville, Nova Scotia to load cherry
pies for Indianapolis. It was an interesting trip but I was gone
for 19 days, which was way too long! I have hauled trees to
Pennsylvania and apples to North Carolina and just recently I took
a load of cardboard juice cartons to New Orleans. The management at
Reimers do a good job and I really enjoy the variety of trips that
I get. I’ve also learned a lot from the other drivers at Reimers.
That’s one of the great things about this job, I have been driving
for 13 years now and I still have lots to learn.
I have to give a lot of credit to my wife, Cindy, who keeps the
home fires burning while I’m gone. It’s hard on both of us when I’m
on the road.
There are many good drivers and I enjoy meeting all of them out
on that endless asphalt ribbon. I have also stumbled across some
RCMP and DOT officers that are doing a great job. I’ve always found
that it is in my best interests to be polite and courteous when I
get stopped, even if some of the reasons seem foolish. The rules
are there for a reason and if these guys and girls can help us get
home safe by taking dangerous trucks off the road then they’re
doing us all a big favour.
Trucking has been good. Even if our highways get busier every
year, the potholes get deeper and the frost heaves get rougher. The
price of fuel does take more of the fun out of it but why kid
ourselves? It isn’t going to drop.
I talked to an old-timer the other day in Great Falls, Montana
who runs from Billings to Great Falls to Portland and back every
week. He told me that when he started years ago he would take $300
with him for his fuel and meals on the road and he’d still have
money left over. Those days are long gone. I’m not sure what we
will face out here, but we were warned that ‘08 was going to be a
tough year. Hopefully most of us can survive.
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