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By Dennis Ruttan
Our February 2008 Rig of the Month is Dennis (Fred) Bowcott who
lives in Princeton B.C. Many drivers will recognize his blue 2007
W900L Kenworth Tri-drive. It has a 625 hp cat engine, 18 speed
transmission with 58,000 rears and he pulls a matching blue
tri-axle live floor. This was the very first W900L Tri-drive
highway tractor ever built and is his fortieth Kenworth. This
preference in trucks has earned Dennis the nickname, “The Kenworth
Cowboy.”
The plate that Dennis had when he bought his new truck was
number 07 and since it is an 07 that was delivered in the 7th month
he put the number 707 on the side figuring it has to be lucky. When
Dennis purchased the truck he said it would be his last but when I
visited him and Penny at their ranch outside of Princeton he told
me he had just bought another one so now we’re sitting at forty-one
and counting. Dennis grew up on a hobby farm at Sidney B.C. on
Vancouver Island. His parents kept cows and horses and this is
where Dennis developed his love for animals. It also gave him the
opportunity to learn how to run the farm equipment at a very early
age.
Dennis comes by his interest in trucking honestly. His father
had an excavating and gravel business and the town of Sidney was
one of their prime contracts and continues to be a stable part of
their business to this day. The Bowcott family leased one of the
few local gravel pits in Sidney which made them an integral part of
the development of the surrounding area.
Dennis has a very vivid memory of one time being on a small
island with his Dad where his father had been doing some excavating
and gravel truck work. He was about four and a half years old at
the time and his Dad had to move two machines, a dump truck and a
small cat, to the other side of the island in time to load them on
a barge that was scheduled to leave. Since there was only the two
of them, Dennis’s Dad set Dennis on the hood of the small cat, set
the throttle and Dennis followed him to the barge using his feet to
steer by pushing the steering/brake clutches. He couldn’t steer
from the driver’s seat because his arms were not strong enough to
pull the levers but his legs were strong enough to push them.
Dennis attended high school in Sidney and he was the only
student whose ride was a gravel truck. His interest in the business
left little time for being involved in sports or other
extracurricular activities. If you wanted to find Dennis as a
youngster you would look for him at the job site. Dennis soon
learned that being able to run every piece of equipment kept him
busy and always working.
After school one of the many jobs Dennis had was at the Hartland
Landfill site where he would operate the loader, excavator or drive
truck. The garbage at the landfill was spread and then covered with
a layer of dirt. Driving on that spongy surface taught Dennis a lot
of tricks that helped make him the driver he is today.
Dennis recalls that his Dad and one of his long time employees,
Eldon, were often critical of his work but he admits that striving
to win their approval made him a better driver. Dennis freely
admits that most of this criticism was constructive but at times it
was hard for a young fellow to accept. However, learning from the
ground up and working in all aspects, including the maintenance
which he still does himself to this day, gave him the experience to
successfully run his own company.
In 1975, when he was eighteen, Dennis joined the Sidney
Volunteer Fire Department. This caused a slight bending of the
rules as officially you were supposed to be nineteen to join.
Dennis’s friendship with the fire chief’s son, his persistence, and
his class 3 with air went a long way towards the bending of these
rules. Dennis later became the Fire Department’s driver trainer and
he was active with them for over 20 years. Upon leaving, the Fire
Department made him an honorary lifetime member.
After finishing school, Dennis took a job with Potter’s
Distillery driving a Brockway half shack with a single axle. He
hauled their teams of Clydesdale horses to fairs, parades and
events around the country. This was his first shot at driving on
the highway but Dennis says that he spent more time shoveling
manure and polishing and cleaning harnesses than he did driving. He
says he laughs now when he recalls that Potter’s thought it was an
upgrade when they changed to a “Ford” with a 250 Cummins.
Dennis became an owner operator in 1977 when he bought a
1975 KW powered by a 671 Detroit. He later traded it for a 79 KW
with a 290 Cummins. He went to work for Dixon Cable and this was to
be his driver’s “finishing school.” At Dixon he moved equipment
through some of the roughest country in B.C. During the day his
ability to operate equipment was put to good use as, when operators
were away, he filled in on the cat, grader, and cable plow.
Dennis worked for Leader Mercantile transport, Freeway Transport
and he freelanced for many others. This was before log books and
Dennis recalls he once worked 53 hours without a break. He pulled
over immediately and had a good sleep after he thought he saw a
20-foot tall bear while driving down highway 3! Next morning he
realized that the “bear” he saw was the carved wooden one on the
East Gate sign for Manning Park.
Dennis came home in 1985 and bought the business so his dad
could retire. It was then that Dennis formed D.F. Bowcott
Excavating. He wisely kept one highway truck so that every now and
then he could get a break from dealing with his 36 employees. Back
when I owned Ruby Transport I took full advantage of this because I
always knew that one call to Dennis would give me a reliable owner
operator.
Dennis and I, along with our dogs, put on many miles throughout
B.C., Alaska, Yukon, Alberta and the Western U.S. Dennis always
named his dogs (mainly German Shepherds) after country singers.
First there was Willie, then Waylon and now Merle who is an
Australian Shepard. This love of animals and trucking formed a
strong friendship between Dennis and my family. Dennis helped both
of my sons become better drivers and there are many other drivers
both male and female in the area that Dennis taught to drive. His
teaching style earned him the nick name “The Tormentor” from the
drivers he taught. The name comes from pushing the drivers to be
their very best. A call at 3 A.M. to move a machine was often part
of this training. If the learning driver didn’t respond positively
then Dennis felt that he didn’t have the work ethic to be a good
driver.
There are a few drivers who never completed their “Tormentor”
course and they probably don’t understand why the drivers that did
are often given first preference in hiring. It isn’t necessarily
their ability to drive; it has more to do with the work ethic that
the “Tormentor” drilled into his drivers. Many of his “graduates”
are now in business for themselves and they often credit their
success to the push that Dennis gave them.
After graduating from school Dennis went to work with a passion.
He developed a strong friendship with well known Island trucker,
Butch Taylor, who took Dennis under his wing. Butch knew that no
matter what the time, job, or weather, one call to Dennis would get
him some help.
Dennis says he learned a lot from Butch who was known to take on
hauling jobs of any kind and do them right. Dennis figured if you
were going to learn you might as well learn from the best. These
jobs varied from moving buildings to large boats and everything in
between. The locations varied from the city streets to wild bush
roads.
One of Dennis’ proudest moments was being presented with the
“Butch” Taylor Memorial Trophy at this year’s Vancouver Island
Truck Show. This trophy is given to the driver who best shows
“Butch’s” involvement in family, community, and dedication to the
industry. The winner is picked by the participants of the show
which shows the respect that other drivers have for Dennis.
At the show Dennis and his brother, David, jokingly asked that
their Dad’s new Mack not be parked next to their Kenworths. Their
Dad is 72 now and said that he bought the truck to show the boys
that he still has both the drive and the ability to do a days work.
There was lots of teasing about Dad’s automatic transmission and
all the latest computer gizmos in the Mack. This was all
good-natured and you could see the respect between these competing
members of the family.
To see the smile on Dennis (Senior’s) face, when Dennis (Junior)
turned in the fastest lap on the track at 25 seconds and Dave
turned a 29-second even dragging his transfer trailer and box, was
worth the price of admission.
To sweeten the pie the “Tormentor” did this in front of a lot of
the guys that he had taught to drive and who were ribbing the “old
man” by challenging him to give it a go.
Dennis’s love of K.W.’s started while he worked at Hartland
driving a ‘56 KW powered by a 220 Cummins. The truck always had to
be jump-started, a quirk that eventually spelled the end for the
truck. When Dennis’s Dad sold it, the new owner rolled it down the
hill to start it but instead of turning into the fill area he
decided to try to build up air by heading downhill. Any of you
older drivers will know that this is a slow process and sure enough
it proved to be too slow as the truck ran a stop sign at the bottom
and almost ended up in the ditch. It scared the owner so bad that
he took it home, parked it, and never drove it again. It sat there
for twenty years until he passed away and interestingly enough
Butch Taylor inherited it.
Many of Dennis’s 41 KW’s were bought from Ray Gaskin at Inland
Kenworth in Langley. Ray said that Dennis was a great customer and
his word is as good as any written contract. For this reason Dennis
was able to buy many of these trucks over the phone. The last new
truck that Ray sold before retiring was Dennis’s 2007. He thought
that would be the last deal he would do with Dennis but that wasn’t
to be as he found the 2004 for him also.
Eleven of Dennis’s KW’s were long nose with Cat power. Power is
something that Dennis loves. 3408, 1693’s, 400 Cats from D.I. to
precups and of course a few Cummins KT’s. Dennis laughingly says he
didn’t pass many fuel pumps through the years but he also didn’t
see many taillights from other trucks.
Dennis has always been a business man first and a truck driver
second. “The problem that some truckers have is they don’t look at
the big picture. They don’t factor in the depreciation of their
equipment or the higher expense of winter driving into their job
estimates. I’ve actually taken loads off my truck when shippers
have changed the agreement. If the weight goes up, or other things
are added, you have to stand up for your rights and be paid for it.
If you let it slide then you have set a president and it’s a good
bet that the shipper will try to take advantage of you again in the
future.”
Dennis’s ability to draw and nurture friendships is one of his
strong points and growing up in a community that was a mix of
ethnic groups certainly helped him later in business. Jerry Basi,
the owner of Blue Star Transport, is one of Dennis’ closest
friends. Dennis has sold Jerry a couple of trucks and they have
worked very close together over the years. Dennis attributes a good
part of that friendship to the respect he has for Jerry’s great
work ethic.
Dennis’s sister farms with her family in the Peace River area
and two of his three brothers are not involved in the trucking
industry. This is probably a good thing as competing with his
brother Dave and his father is already a tall order.
Dennis is very proud of his little brother Dave and credits him
with being the inspiration behind his getting back into truck
shows. When he was growing up Dave lived much of his life in, and
as, Dennis’ shadow, always being there to help him polish his
trucks and keep up his equipment. Dave in turn named his company
Little Bro Trucking, which shows just how close these brothers
are.
Five years ago Dennis and Penny moved to their dream
ranch, which is 14 km out of Princeton on highway 5A. It’s hard to
miss the picture perfect ranch house with his blue Kenworth proudly
parked out front. “Out Of The Blue Ranch” is a cow/calf operation
with rangeland and bottom hay land. A short walk from the house is
a pretty little trout stream that runs all year round complete with
beaver dam and pond.
I was treated to a trip around the property and to Dennis’s
favourite spot. From this spot you can see the length of the valley
but the town is still hidden. Dennis remarked that the price of
beef is lower now than during the B.S.E. scare with the U.S.
embargo. His grin, which is never far away, reappeared as he
philosophized, “You may not make much money trucking, but I can say
from experience that cows make trucking look good.”
Dennis has always been busy with business so it is no surprise
that his relationships through the years never survived for the
trip to the church. Until now it was pretty hard for a woman to
compete with a long nose Kenworth or the crazy schedule that Dennis
keeps but it looks like Dennis has finally met his match in Penny,
his partner for the last five years. This fine lady matches
Dennis’s work ethic and interest in the ranch and family. Watching
Penny work with her horses, cattle and her dog, show the common
link with the ranch. Penny is a licensed Practical Nurse at the
Princeton Hospital and at a time in life when many of us are
settling for what we have; Penny is pursuing her quest to be a
licensed Registered Nurse.
Dennis, David and the other family members learned to work hard
from their Father and Mother and Dennis feels he owes a lot to
them. I had an opportunity to sit with their Dad and hear just how
proud he is of his sons and I think I can safely say that the boys
can mark paid to some of that debt that they feel they owe.
P.S. As we were going to press Dennis called to say he just
purchased a 1950 Kenworth Gravel Truck. He is now at 42 KW’s and
counting… some promises are just meant to be broken.
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