Curtis Wright is our May 2012 Rig of the Month driver. Curtis is a great example of a hard working young family man, with a good attitude, that takes pride in his rig. 

I was born in 1981 in Calgary Alberta and grew up on what is now our 5^th generation farm. My Dad Leonard, was the 3^rd generation farmer but as the farm income was not adequate he drove truck to make ends meet. My mom Debbie, was a stay at home mom who took care of my sister Carmen and I. I also have a stepbrother and sister from my dad’s second marriage.

My first experience, as a “trucker” was when I was a three-year-old sitting on my Dad’s knee driving his 1972 3 tonne cab-over truck catching grain from the combine. The problem with that truck was that the radiator air came from under the front bumper and it would overheat because of all the chaff and straw that would blow under the bumper and plug the rad. When it overheated Dad had to pop the cab up then blow off the straw and chaff so that the air could get to the engine. One time when I was only three, he jumped out in a rush and, forgetting I was on the front seat, popped the cab up sending me flying into the windshield. 

As I got older my dad started hauling specialty cattle all over North America with his friend George Boyack. They started out with a Chevy dually that had a bunk and a 24ft stock trailer. Once they got going George bought a GMC top kick single axle with a 3116 cat engine and put a bunk on it. It pulled a 40ft ground load Wilson cattle trailer and I would often go along with Dad when he did local runs. That was when I first became interested in trucking.

My dad began teaching me to drive at the early age of five by throwing me in a Ford 800 Louis gas 429 3-tonne. He would start me out in second gear, pull the throttle, and send me on my way from the field to the bin yard to unload. The rules were that when I got to the yard I was to turn the key off and someone would come and unload for me. One time Dad put the throttle lock too high and when I reached the yard the engine dieseled and would not shut off.  After making a few laps around the bins crying, I crawled down on the floor and pushed the brake as hard as I could until the engine stalled. When Dad arrived back at the bin yard I was still crying and mom was yelling at him.

I got plenty of practice over the next 15 years on farm trucks and if I cleaned the liner’s for my Dad or my Uncle I got to drive their trucks a little bit on the back roads.

When I finished high school, I was not looking to pursue a career as a trucker; instead I entered Olds College studying to be an agricultural mechanic. Once I graduated Olds I left home to work for Mac Don Industries in Winnipeg where they sent me to work on combine headers on a harvest run from Montana to Mississippi.  It was while I was on this run that I started appreciating all the different trucks and I started wondering if I should be pulling wrenches or driving one.

I returned home at the age of 21 and my step brother Rich got me a job at Cissell Farms working for Peter and Lana Cissell. He worked for Lana’s brother and father at Gatez Farms.  When I started that job they told me that they wanted me to get my class 1 as soon as possible which I knew meant before the spring work began. Before I had a chance to get my license they put me in a 1992 T600 Kenworth with an 18 speed and an N14 Cummins engine and, with Bernard Cissell guiding me, that was the truck that I learned how to drive in.

One day Peter Cissell told me that I had to move grain from a bin yard to the elevator. Not having my licence but having my air endorsement he told me to grab the 88 freightliner tandem with a 4 and a ¼ cat and take it. He explained that even if I was overloaded it had enough power that the DOT wouldn’t suspect anything. Long story short, four miles from Peter’s yard and only one mile from the elevator, I had my first encounter with the DOT and I was sweating bricks. He walked up to the truck opened my door and asked me where I was headed. I told him I was just going one mile up the road to the elevator to unload. Just then it began to rain. Obviously not wanting to get wet, he glanced at the truck front to back and told me to replace a signal light that was out and then sent me on my way.

After that episode I told Peter I was parking the truck until I had my class one. A week later he sent me to Beiseker in the T600 with a 40ft tridem grain trailer to take my test. Earlier my stepbrother had shown me the route they tested you on and I was pretty sure I could ace it but I was a little concerned about the pre-trip. After completing the test the instructor told me that the only thing I did wrong was forgetting to check my high and low beams on the pre trip. I felt pretty lucky to walk away with my license that day.

At the end of the farming season Peter bought a 2000 International 9900 slope nose with a 63inch pro sleeper, N14 5 ¼ engine, 18speed transmission with 46 rears and full lockers. Peter didn’t have cattle to keep me busy driving in the winter so he proposed that I go trucking on shares with his truck hauling anything I would like. I didn’t feel like hauling cattle since I had already shovelled enough crap out of barns in my life and I didn’t see the fun in shovelling trailers, so I decided to go hauling grain for Rob Knight Trucklines in Beiseker. I did that for two winters while continuing to work on the farm for Peter the rest of the year.

One winter when I had some time off with Robbie, a friend of my dad’s, Rick Sibernagel from Continental Couriers called and asked if we could make a couple team runs so he could catch up on some sleep. The first run was up to Fort St. John BC then over to Kindersley SK. Coming out of Fort St. John we ran into snow and needed to chain up to make it up the hill on the other side. This was the first time I had chained up in my life and I didn’t much enjoy it especially while worrying about getting crapped on from the load of cattle above me.

We made the trip through all right but it was a lot of night driving mainly because of ranchers taking their time loading us in the mornings.  Now as a rancher I try to make sure that whether it’s my liner or someone else’s leaving our yard, I’m ready so they can leave at a decent time in the morning and not have to spend so many hours on the road in the dark.

In the Fall of the next year Rick Sibernagel called again asking if I would like to go to Chase BC to pick up a load of cattle with other local hauler’s. This was the first time that I had gone over the rocks with a truck and trailer. I told him that I did not have a lot of experience except flat land Alberta run’s and I didn’t know if i would be much help. He said it didn’t matter, there’s got to be a first for everything. He put me in the drivers seat at Golden just when we started climbing the rocks. From there I really needed to learn to drive all over again. When we got to Salmon Arm that night we all stopped and had supper then the next morning Rick drove while leading us to the ranch. We went through Chase then over the bridge to Indian land and straight up a steep hill on a logging trail full of switchbacks. I thought they were all crazy but Rick and the other guys thought nothing of pulling a 53ft tridem cattle pot up these roads. Once loaded Rick told Tom Taylor from Carstairs, Alberta that I should drive his truck home. I had no problem with that as Tom had a nice 379 Peterbilt with a cat engine. Tom told me to jump in the drivers seat and we’d head for home. Tom, not knowing that I was so green, taught me a lot about driving in the mountains. I do admire all the men and women that drive in the mountains all year round and in all kinds of weather conditions but I have to say - it’s not for me.

After driving Tom’s truck I knew that once I was ready to buy my own truck it would be a Peterbilt. My neighbour Keith Wise from Irricana had a beauty that I had my eye on but he had sold it before I had even got my class one.  It was a white 1999 379 Long nose, 240wb 550 cat engine with an 18speed tranny and I had kept track of it over the years. In late 2006 I found out the owner was looking to sell and I knew I had to have it. I paid what he was asking even though Rob Knight had advised me to pay an extra $20-30 thousand to buy a newer truck with warranty. I didn’t listen and bought my dream truck. Eight days later the crank snapped in the cat engine leaving me out of commission. Thankfully at the time I was still working for Rob who had a spare 379 long nose Pete sitting in the shed. He lent was generous enough to lend it to me so I could keep working to pay for the motor in my new truck. This hard lesson taught me to listen to the advice from people who have been in the industry longer than I have. Thanks to my dad who drove to BC and picked up a new engine, I had my 99 up and running again in a week’s time.

After pounding down the pavement for those couple winters I decided I would be happier back in the farming game. I approached Cissell and Gatez farms to ask if they would be interested in having me as their own personal trucker with my own outfit and they said that would definitely be something that would work for them. I still haul for them for most of the winter but I am home every night.

Once I had started my own company, Wright-Way Trucklines, I decided to expand by purchasing a self-loading and unloading round bale hauler.  So two months after buying the 99 Peterbilt I was also the owner of a 1988 Western Star with a 14-bale deck. This turned out to be a very successful business move as the 88 was out making big money during the busy season.

In July the 99 was parked at home hooked to the liner when the worst hailstorm I have seen in my life came through our area. This storm ended up causing close to $30 000 damage to the Peterbilt and after asking my friends in the trucking industry and with high recommendations I took it down to Fort McLeod to Diesel Foolz Classy Chassy. That is where I met the Glen family who restored it to the clean classic look that I wanted.

After only one season of bale hauling I knew I needed a bigger outfit but my girlfriend told me that I had better buy her a ring after four years of being together before buying a third truck in less than a year. Right about then I met Jake Gossling from Indus Alberta and he had a 1995 379 short nose with a 14 bale automatic picker plus a 14bale automatic bale pup. This would give me the ability to move twice the bales in every load. Knowing that this was a great idea I put a down payment on it right away and then swiftly headed to a diamond store to purchase an engagement ring.

After secretly owning the 95 Peterbilt for three days I decided to polish my 99 Pete before hauling a load of show cattle to Regina. I polished the outside and got my girlfriend, Nevada, to clean the inside as she was going to be riding along with me to the cattle show. She had cleaned the entire cab before I asked her to check the registration and insurance in the glove box to make sure it was up to date. That is where she found the ring. I let the excitement of the engagement wear off before I told her that I had bought the 95 Pete then I quickly promised I would sell the Western Star as soon as possible. I sold the Western Star in January of 2008 and focused on grain hauling and calving cows in the winter, and then picking bales in the summer.

That was the first year that I attended Pro-Trucker’s Alberta Big Rig Weekend.  I had stayed in contact with the Glen family and I went as a spectator to see what it was all about. I was becoming more and more interested in having a show truck. In the fall of 08 Nevada and I got married and we were expecting our first child by the summer of 09. I entered my truck in Alberta Big Rig Weekend in Calgary for the first time that year and, although I did not win any awards, I met a lot of great people and learned a lot about what it takes to be a better contender.

In the fall of 2009 my first son, Lane, was born and I had the pleasure of getting to know Bob Leslie who worked on my trucks more over the winter. Between Bob Leslie, John and Suzie of ZZ Chrome and myself we got my 1999 Pete in the shape I thought it should be in to be a contender in the show. In June of 2010 I entered the Alberta Big Rig weekend in Red Deer and received five awards. I am especially proud of the Drivers Choice and the Wowtrucks 365 award as they are voted on by my peers and not based on judging. That weekend was also my first father’s day and my son got his first tooth. Making it one of the most memorable and best days of my life.

They say that everything happens in threes and after the 3 high’s of the truck show weekend I returned to real life and had 3 lows. These included tipping the loaded bale truck onto its side in a ditch. This happened when I was reaching for my cell phone and it really has made me appreciate the distracted driving law.

The year got worse when my employee tore the picker arm off of the bale truck on a customer’s large, well-reinforced gate, costing me thousands of dollars. After that accident I realized expanding with employees to make more money isn’t always the best way to go. Sometimes it is better to make a little less and do the work yourself.

The third incident was getting T-boned in the bale truck by a Dodge one-ton dually. The poor bale truck was damaged once again and it threw me around the cab like a rag doll. The impact pushed the 95 over an approach knocking the front axel off the leaf’s and leaving the dually wedged underneath my air cleaner. When I opened my door all I heard was I got to get going - here’s my business card - I have to feed cows - and the guy left! I phoned the RCMP and they said to just go in the next morning and file a police report. Without the police attending to see what really happened it ended up with me being found 25% at fault. 

Since that time trucking has gone smoothly and I continue to enjoy being behind the wheel. I have taken on a few acres of land to start farming and we have had another son Kase.

It’s not very often that you get the chance to publicly thank some of the people who have helped you out along the way so I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife and family, Peter and Lana Cissell, Gatez Farms, Bob Leslie, and everyone else who through their help and support have made the last six years of trucking possible.