My first load 52 years ago. Trucking ain't the same, but has really changed

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  • I first posted this several years ago, re=post every few years to let new hands see the difference in truckin'., but still the same old BS.---------------- 50 years ago today, I hauled my first load. Produce to Baltimore. I was barely 20 years old, sitting in Baltimore at a closed receiver, with a flat tire on my steering., load of sweet corn on a dry van ( no refrigeration unit ) needed 3,000 ice ASAP, on a hot July 4 th.
    I live in Florida, was just a kid, but had been around trucks all my life. Dad was a trucker, and in the produce business. The summer I turned 20 years old, we bought a Kenworth for me to learn to truck. Paid $15,500 for a 1970 cab-over. 3 year old truck with a V-8 903 Cummins,13 speed, torsion bar suspension. Nice truck, and as dad said, it would outrun the word of God. Very fast. Bought a 40 foot Great Dane dry box.
    Well, I learned to drive it around the county for a few days, and then Dad called me one morning. He was in North Carolina, working a produce deal, and needed a truck for a load the next day. Told me to be there the next morning.
    I bought me a new black cowboy hat, cashed a check at the bank for 200 bucks [ fuel was only about 30 cents a gallon ], and left Florida for Eastern North Carolina.
    The Interstate was not yet completed, so some of the dead head 650 mile trip was on backroads. Not all 4 lanes.
    Got there the next morning, July 3, shipper told me to go to a farm and load 900 boxes sweet corn from a hydro-cooler, then go top-ice it at the ice-house. Remember, no refrigeration unit on my trailer. The shipper said he would usually not load a dry box with perishable sweet corn, but knew me and was OK with it.
    Finally got loaded and iced about dark, and he told me to head towards Baltimore, for a 6 am appointment at A & P . And yea tomorrow was a holiday, but they DO receive. Shipper had double checked.
    Left out for the 300 mile trip, AC quit, all on back-roads, finally found place about 5 am in downtown Baltimore .Very bad area. Remember, no cell phones, no GPS, very few CB,s. Hard to get info.
    Anyway, get there and the guard laughs and says no receiving until tomorrow, today is a holiday. I knew that was going to happen.
    Walk back to truck, flat on steering on drivers side.
    Still had about 100 bucks left, but finding a tire repair shop that made road calls on a holiday in downtown Baltimore ? Finally found one, got new tube put in for only $45. Remember this was 1973.
    Well, produce buyer had screwed up, and I was sitting with a load of VERY perishable sweet corn that required ice. Needed at least a ton blown on top.
    Dad finally found an open ice house in Wilmington, Delaware, and they sent me there. But they were closing early so I had to hammer down. Finally get there and the workers were mad because they had to wait on me. Anyway they blew ice on the corn, and headed back to Baltimore. I was getting tired, but knew if I screwed up there would be trouble. At 20 years old, I still had to prove myself.
    Maryland scale sign said closed, but I saw a cop car at the scale house, so I pulled in. Officer quickly yelled at me I had better leave, they were closed. Do not believe I had ever seen a log book at the time.
    Getting back to A&P in Baltimore about midnight, I thought about my cash. Remember, this was before credit cards, fuel cards, and ATM's. No way to get more cash. And very hard to communicate with no cell phones. Had to locate a pay phone, and hang around while you got a callback.
    Check in at gate next morning at 6 am, new guard tells me I should have been there at midnight, they had a message to give me a door ASAP. Nobody told me.
    First time I had to back in a door between trailers. Other drivers helped, and I finally bumped the dock.
    Could not afford the $25.00 lumper fee, so started unloading it myself. The forklift operator was slow about keeping the pallets pulled out of the door, and the corn was getting warmer. I gave the operator a dollar [ yes, a WHOLE dollar ] , and he got in a hurry.
    That first load taught me a lot.
    All of this for a load that paid 350 bucks. Not much even back then.
    People will give you wrong information, trucks break down, law enforcement can be a- holes, you get tired, everyone wants money from you, rates are cheap. and things just plain go wrong. Trucking is trucking.
    In the past 48 years, I have nearly always been involved with trucking. Either driving, having a driver on one as I farmed, or running several. I was always an independent, never would lease to the big guys.
    I posted this long account so newer hands could see trucking has not changed, and never will.
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    • But I still enjoy it.

Jody Bateman