I Meet the Sopranos...I Think!

One night, my wife and I went to pick up a load in a deserted area in New Jersey.

Following the directions on our Qualcomm, we finally spotted an old, beat-up warehouse at about 2 AM. It had an empty parking lot with grass growing up through the cracks in the concrete and an over-grown, decrepit look which made it seem that this facility had not been used in years.

However, surrounding the warehouse was a brand-new chain link fence, higher than a man. There were new security lights all around, and a well-lit, and well-guarded gate.

We drove up, and the guard came out. He was very professionally dressed and his attitude was relaxed but professional.

When we explained that we were there to pick up a load, the guard told us to drive in and park near what is called a "man door" near the middle of the warehouse. He explained that no on was there, but that they would arrive about 6 AM. He told us we could get some sleep (always welcome to hear), and, once we saw cars there, we could go in and the people inside would arrange for our load.

We slept until about 6:30, and, when I looked out of the curtains, I saw three or four cars parked near the door.

I went over to the steps to the door, noticing that, except for the cars, the place looked even deserted and decrepit in the daylight. The door was unlocked and I went inside the warehouse.

The warehouse seemed as deserted inside as outside. It was huge inside, but there were shrink-wrapped loads on skids (pallets) at various point.

I saw what appeared to be an office a few hundred feet away and went there.

As was common, there was a window in the office, a bit like a movie ticket window, where I could hopefully get my load data. I had my Schneider "Pumpkin Pad" in my hand.

The pumpkin pad was an orange pad that Schneider drivers used to record load data. We copied the info from the original messages so that when we went inside a warehouse or plant, we would have all we needed to know about the load we were going to pick up.

Inside the office were five or six people.

One guy, sitting at a desk, was in shirt sleeves and looked like he worked in a warehouse.

The others were playing poker and looked like they were extras for the Sopranos. They all had suits, some of which did not fit that well.

One guy, a Frank Sinatra look-a-like (almost), looked up at me with a cigarette in his mouth and said, "Whadda youse want?"

A straightforward question, it sounded slightly menacing, like maybe I was not supposed to be there.

The other guys at the poker table had all turned to look at me with quiet, steady stares.

Sinatra looked at me for a few more seconds and then turned his head and spoke to the man at the desk. I could not hear what was said, but the guy at the desk looked at me for the first time and asked for the load info. I read it off my pad, and he riffled through some sheets of paper on his desk.

He finally stopped at one and looked it over, then turned and said something to Sinatra who had been watching him.

Sinatra slowly slid his eyes back to me and, with the cigarette still in his mouth, said, "Go round to door 46. Chollie'll take care o youse."

All the poker players had watched me intently through the whole process.

I went back out to my truck and told my wife what had happened. She and I had already had another experience that led us to believe that we might have been in a place where we wanted to be.

I wasn't quite sure about HOW "Chollie" would take care of me, but we drove around and backed up to the dock. A couple of minutes later, "Charlie" opened the door. Actually, he turned out to be a really nice guy. He loaded us up in just a few minutes, but, when we looked at the bills of lading, they said "FAK", which stands for "freight, all kinds".

In other words, we had no idea what was in that trailer, and, to tell the truth, we didn't really want to know.

The Research Phase Before Truck Driver Training

My wife and I were ready and willing to go trucking. The pay looked good, and, having that totally useless degree in accounting, after running the numbers several times, I was looking for somebody to sign on with.

The problem is, to drive a 70' long vehicle, you have to have training (expensive), and a special license...Class A CDL (which requires you show up with a truck for testing).

After a lot of research, about 6 months, we decided to go with Schneider National Carriers out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. They offered free truck driver training, and, if you graduated, a job. They also had a good safety record and attitude, and this was of paramount importance to us.

We met with a recruiter and joked with him about his last name, "Swift". Swift is a major competitor of Schneider's. We also received some informational materials from Green Bay, including a short video. As it happened, we later met many of the people in the video and even got to work directly with them, but that comes later.

Finally, we passed all the intial tests, including taking a written test in our home state of Texas so that we qualified for a training permit. We also had to qualify on a HazMat test before things were a go.

After a little back and forth, we were notified that we were accepted for training. One drawback was that the training was going to be in Green Bay. Since we lived in Texas, and were going to have to quit our jobs to even give this a shot we began to have cold feet. We were not even sure how we were going to get to Green Bay and survive the two weeks of unpaid training.

However, Schneider informed us that transportation would be provided from Dallas to Green Bay and all lodging would be provided as well. With all that resolved, we took our minimal savings, paid off the monthly bills, left our girls in charge of the house...and the dog...and set off from Austin to Dallas to catch the bus...yep, bus...to Green Bay with enough cash in our pockets to allow us to live on less than $10 a day each for the next three weeks...we thought. More on that later.

Next episode: The longest bus ride of our lives!!!

Who's Idea Was This, Anyway?

How My Wife and I Became a Truck Driving Team

Back in 1997, my wife and I had only been married for about three years. We had each come out of a bad marriage and it seemed that we had each found the right mate. Life had tested us a little and we had gotten through it...and then we decided that "normal" was not enough.

We were on our way back to Texas after visiting relatives in Arizona. We were eastbound on I-10 in the Deming, New Mexico area when a nice looking truck and trailer went by in the westbound lanes. It's still up in the air, depending on who's talking, about who said what first. However, we both agree that one of us said, "I've always wanted to do that.", and the other replied, "Me too."

That might have been the end of it, but, right about then, we exited to gas up, and do other things, at the Savoy Truck Stop.

As I entered the building, one of the first things I saw was a rack of booklets about truck driving jobs. On my way back out, I grabbed two or three. It was my wife's turn to drive, so I looked through the books and relayed the info to her as I read.

Page after page contained ads from truck driving companies offering big bucks, and castles and dragons, to any who wanted to wander in off the street. One thing that caught my attention, and hers, was that "teams" seemed to make more per mile and the companies either implied or stated that these teams got the best loads.

One phrase which we both liked was "no-touch freight". Of course, at that point we were not exactly sure what "drop-and-hook" meant, but it sounded a lot like no-touch freight. Having loaded and unloaded many trucks in the back of a grocery store, the wareroom of a discount store, and out in the field with the Army, no-touch freight sounded good to me!

By the time we got back home to Texas, we had decided to at least look into this new world a little more. It sounded good, but it also sounded like a big leap for a government clerk (her), and a retired soldier turned optician (me).

Next time I'll be telling you how we finally got into trucking.