Bill MacDonald is our July 2006 Rig of the Month Owner. You can see Bill and his rig at BC Big Rig Weekend. This is Bill’s story:

Hello my name is Bill, and I’m an addict.

My diesel smoke dependency started at a very young age. My Dad and my Grandfather, in the late sixties and early seventies, owned MacDonald Contracting Ltd. and they were directly responsible for my addiction.

I remember going to work with my Dad almost everyday before I started school. I’d look out the passenger window trying to see my reflection in the store windows that we passed and my father would say, almost constantly it seemed, “ Sit back! I can’t see a damn thing!” As a matter of fact my resentment of school started the day I had to go to school instead of work with my Dad.

Dad used to haul topsoil in the evening after working on job sites during the day. One of my favourite places to go was Western Garden & Lawn Supply. He’d drop me off at the old Diamond T dump truck that was just rotting away in their field and I’d play on it while he’d load. Later, at the ripe old age of seven or eight, he’d get out at the office and I’d drive his truck out back to load.  (You know, the old low range crawl) Man, I was king of the road.

My dad likes to tell a story of the time he was clearing my Uncle’s field with his old Cat and they stopped for a pop. (Yeah, right). While the two of them were quenching their thirst I played on the Cat. My father wasn’t worried because the machine was so old you had to start a gas engine first and then use that to fire the diesel engine. There was no way an eight-year-old kid would figure it out. Wrong! I started the gas engine and before they could get to the Cat I had it fired up and was clearing land. Dad tells that story with pride now but I’m sure he was just as scared as I was when I felt the machine move.

I was born in Haney B.C. in 1968 and lived in the Lower Mainland until I was 9 years old when we moved to Revelstoke. It was December and I had never seen so much snow in my whole life.

I was one of those kids that had more courage than common sense. If it had wheels I would jump it and if it had a motor I would jump it over something bigger. I was never really great at school; looking back I think it was because it just couldn’t hold my interest. I know I certainly didn’t play well with others and if it wasn’t for the undying patience of Andy Kovich my mechanics teacher I’m sure they would have kicked me out long before they did. Another teacher who I owe a great deal of thanks to is Wendy McDougal. She saw something in a sixteen year old kid that no one else did and she convinced school district nineteen to give me one last shot. Wendy told me that there wasn’t another teacher in the district that wanted me around other than her and Andy, so I had best make the most of my last chance.

When I got out of school I did numerous crappy, meaningless jobs for a year or so. Then my Father stopped to visit his old friends at Western Garden & Lawn and came home with one of their trucks. My life really hasn’t been the same since. He picked me up and we did a couple of topsoil deliveries for them and I was hooked (see it’s not my fault!).

A week or so later I was at work and I got a call from Dad asking if I would like to come to work at Western for two or three days to help shred soil. I would be bailing to him on an excavator while he fed the screener. I quit my job mid shift and was down there within the hour! I was playing Tonka toys in the dirt and getting paid! What a country! 

While I was there they hired a driver who, in one week, rolled a truck in North Vancouver while dumping soil then proceeded to tear the clutch out of a second truck and then to complete the tri-fecta, he blew the motor on their third and last truck. I came into the office for lunch and was asked if I wanted to get my Class One. I initially went there to fill in for a couple of days and I left five years later.

I owe the Meshen family huge thanks; they gave me a great opportunity and a lot of support in my time there. I made a few mistakes along the way but I was always given a chance to learn from them, and that is something you can’t say about a lot of employers. When I left I thought I knew everything and was ready to prove it to the world.

My next job was hauling hog fuel in a 53’ live floor from Chilliwack to Bellingham. It was a good job that paid by the hour but after two months I was told there had been a mistake. Instead of being paid by the hour we were now going to be paid by the trip. This really sucked because we had been getting our hourly rate plus four hours overtime everyday. The difference was going to be about $50 per day. When I complained to my dispatcher he said, and I quote, “Just be thankful we’re not making you pay back the overpayment!” Now I was trucking! My dislike for dispatchers pretty much started right then.

The one good thing that came from that job was an opportunity to work for the chip division of D.C.T. Chambers. I was asked if I had Super-B experience and I said well I have been running transfer units and that’s pretty close. When I was asked about mountain or winter experience I simply replied, “I learned to drive in Revelstoke.” I didn’t mean trucks but then they didn’t ask that.

On my first solo trip with DCT it snowed all night and I thought that once again I had used my ability to baffle people with BS to get myself in over my head. I made it up there no problem but on my way back I spun out at the light by Gorman Mill in Westbank (it’s gone now.) and there I sat. At that time I didn’t know how to put chains on and hadn’t been smart enough to ask.

I managed to put one set of triples on the front axle and proceeded to rip them to shreds, not being completely happy with that I then put the other set on the back and much to my surprise I didn’t wreck them… I tore the clutch out instead. That morning I fully expected to be fired by Dan Chambers, instead he taught me how to fix chains and told me they had recently turned up the N-14 from 430 to 460 hp and had obviously forgotten that the clutch was not rated for the extra power and torque. To this day I’m not really certain if Dan was just letting me off the hook because he needed drivers or if he really believed that excuse. I drove for DCT on and off for the next few years and met some good guys and learned a lot.

I left there in the spring of ‘97 and kicked around the dump truck business some more where I met Clive Wilson. I drove for Clive for only a few months while the driver of his second truck was ill. Unfortunately I was involved in an accident in one of Clive’s trucks that to this day still gets me on the chip. I was coming north on Knight St. at 41st Ave in Vancouver when a gentleman in a rental car decided to turn right. The only problem was he was in the left lane and I was in the inside lane and there was a pedestrian stepping off the curb crossing 41st forcing the car to stop in my lane. I was only fifty feet from the intersection at the time and doing 60 kph - I ran right over the back end of his car. I still don’t know how the pedestrian avoided being hurt, but I’m thankful we missed her. All the guy in the car could say in English was, “At forty-one I turn right”. He had just landed at the airport and surprisingly made it all the way to Knight & 41st before wrecking the rental car.

I.C.B.C. in its wisdom said I was 75% to blame.  I think every adjuster should have to ride along in a truck for at least a week, if not hold a valid class one with practical experience, in order to be qualified to make these judgment calls. I felt bad for Clive because I know he was considering buying another truck for me to drive when Ron returned and I think that left him with a very tough decision to make. Clive is one of the true class guys in the dump truck business, a good businessman and a good guy to work for.

I believe all things happen for a reason every time a window of opportunity closes a new door opens. In July of 1997, I decided to take my father in-law, Lauri, up on an offer he had been making for a couple of years and agreed to buy a truck with him. I know he meant well, but…it was his idea to buy a 1989 Freightliner cab over he had seen at a repo yard. The truck had been sitting for three years, didn’t have a clutch, the brakes were seized and it had a nice family of mice living in the doghouse, but it was a nice white colour – under the green mold.

We worked on that truck every night and every weekend all summer long and I have to admit that I learned a lot while rebuilding it. After we fixed everything we sanded and painted it right there in my father-in-law’s barn. I even managed to convince the mice that the barn would be quieter and have more room for their growing family.

I sure was proud of that old truck. All that time I thought I had become partners with my father-in-law, instead he gave me the keys and said it’s all yours… Oh, by the way you owe me twenty grand. It wasn’t my idea to buy the truck, but I sure can’t complain how it’s turned out.

A few months later we found out that Lauri had cancer. That was a tough one because he was old school. He never told you how he was doing; he would just say, “I woke up today so it could be worse.” Lauri always had faith in me no matter what I was doing. I think he was harder on his own kids than he was on me and he gave me the push I needed when I needed it.

Lauri past away about two years after we bought that truck and to this day I’ve put a small sign on the roof of my trucks that says “ Thanks L.P. “ All the trucks I’ve sold in the past still have that sign on them because I could never bring myself to take it off.

I believe in everyone’s life there are people that you would give anything, if you could just to spend a little more time with them. There have been two of these people in my life, my Grandfather and Lauri Paivairinta who I owe so very much more than money.

In September 1997 I went to work hauling cans around town for Burton Delivery. That lasted about 3 months until worked slowed down and then I found myself at American Cartage working for Gloria. What a character! American was a union shop and work was scarce at the bottom of the list so Gloria told me she had talked to Bob Simpson over at Team Transport and that he would be waiting for my call. I think I was traded for two bottles of Scotch and a lunch. (Just a rumour) Hauling cans was fun. I met some great guys, formed some lasting friendships and still made pretty good money. The longshoremen treated me very well because my father-in-law had been a foreman at Centerm and my uncle Terry had been hauling cans for years.  I used my charm to gain preferential treatment on the docks. (Okay, so a few well placed bottles of Rye didn’t hurt either.) It was fun while it lasted but hauling cans was changing. The ports were becoming congested and new companies were slashing the rates. (Hey, you wanted deregulation. You got it! ).

Playing a key part in the 1999 shut down at the Port of Vancouver was a great learning experience. While we were in negotiations I realized that this was destined to fail. I believe the owner operators were sold out for the betterment of the 200 warehouse workers that had been laid off, simply because they contribute to the union pension and owner- operators don’t.

After the shut down ended I left Team Transport and joined the guys at Pro-Trucker Transportation. That was a great group of guys to work with. During my time there I sold the money pit that was the Freightliner and bought a 1999 Western Star. At that time it took everything I had to get into that truck, but I couldn’t continue to run the old one. I was truly one repair bill from going under.

I started at PWS where I told Phil that my wife and kids had to come first. I told him I’d do what ever he wanted as long as he didn’t make me work weekends. At that time I thought that I would probably lose the truck anyway so my priority was keeping my family.

My first load for them was a tractor services load for Van-Kam from Burnaby to Trail, 5 kilograms of blasting caps, yep, 5 kilograms. The caps were sitting on a thick rubber mat and had a frame built around them with another mat on top of them. I thought my wife was going to cry when I brought the placard home.

After about three weeks of working tractor service just to prove my worth, Phil phoned and said we have a regular run for you starting next week. I thought this was great news until I found out my weekends would be Tues. and Wed. That was not going to fly. If Phil had waited two weeks more I would have renewed my prorate and probably would have been trapped, but with only two weeks left on my prorate I had nothing to lose except my family, so I took my truck and went home!

The next day I started at Roadstar where long time friend, Mike Dougal, worked. Mike and I had driven dump trucks, hauled chips and hauled containers together and we had a blast at Roadstar. Life was good. We were making pretty good money and we got to run together but then it happened, someone realized we were having fun! On one trip another guy decided he wanted to run with us, (bad move) by the time we got to Chehalis the poor guy just wanted to go home. When we got back we walked into the office like we usually did, laughing and goofing off. We were told the other driver had walked in and told dispatch we were insane and had to be on drugs, and promptly quit. We were both told to report for drug testing immediately, which we passed with no problem.

Things slowed down after eight months or so and with the pressure building both at home and at work I couldn’t afford to be idle. Having no choice I asked if I could do weekend work with my truck and was told no. That didn’t go over well and one thing led to another so I left. Had my personal situation been different I probably would still be there, but my prior choices left me no option.

This brings us to the final chapter in my life, as a lease operator with Shadow Lines. I was told they had just fired most of their guys and due to bad advice by their union the drivers would not be getting their jobs back. It seemed like a good opportunity to work for a union company that had said it was going to do things different this time. We made good money hauling all the pre-cast for the new Seahawk Stadium in Seattle and I was treated fairly by them right up to the time that I left.

While I was at Shadow, Pro-Trucker magazine did a rig of the month on Rick Wilson (Rig of the Month October 2000) a trucker who had gotten his own authorities and was doing very well on his own.

It just so happened that Mike Dougal had also read this, but had also had an opportunity to talk at length with Rick. Mike had decided to go on his own and it wasn’t long before I had decided to do exactly that myself. I had convinced myself that once again I knew it all, and this time I was sure.

On July 01, 2002 my wife Tiina and I started Allstar Transport Services Inc. I didn’t own a trailer at the time but that was a good thing because I had no idea what I would be hauling! I had an account at Lions Gate trailer so when I got my first load I could get whatever trailer I needed. I knew one thing for sure, there was no one else to blame this time - it was sink or swim.

It hasn’t been easy but it has opened my eyes to a whole new side of the business. As for those dispatchers that I had despised so much - I now began to see that their job was not as easy as I thought. I also understand now why companies are always harping about paperwork getting in on time. In July of 2005 I finally sold the Western Star, I damn near cried when I handed the keys over, it was like losing a member of the family. That truck had brought me back from the brink. I replaced it with a 2000 Freightliner Classic with a 550 Cat.

On July 01 2006 we will be hiring our 5th lease-op bringing our total to six trucks. Not bad considering a lot of people, who were close to me at that time, thought it their duty to inform me that I would be broke by Christmas!

I’m now lucky enough to say I work with some really great guys. I still get to do what I love and I have a good time doing it. I’m very proud to cruise down the road with my Uncle (Terry Millar, Rig of the Month, July 2000) who was very helpful in getting me started as an owner-op. I have good friends in guys like Don P., Shiny, Lorne, DumDum , the afternoon shift and last but not least the always entertaining Mikey D.

I know it’s not easy being married to a trucker. There’s always another bill in the mailbox. If it’s not a fuel bill it’s a repair bill. The guys in this business who are successful are the guys who manage to keep their home life stable. The credit for that goes solely to my wife Tiina. She has done an incredible job raising our two kids with just part time help from me. Our son Andy has started his apprenticeship for Heavy Duty Mechanics and our youngest Megan is in grade six. My family truly is the reason I do what I do, and they will always come first. Thanks guys.

PS: For my supporters, (or lack of…) is it Christmas yet? Because I could sure use some time off! 

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