T2K_08-17_OnlinEdition

“Boom and I was on my own. What are
you going to do?” she said. “I was just kind
of living … I didn’t finish school,” working a
variety of jobs to get by. Then, a friend of her
brother’s taught her how to drive a truck.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s
changed my life,” she said. She got what was
then a
chauffeur’s
license
in 1989,
hauling
mostly
Kraft
products
for Glenn’s
Truck Service for
12 years. Susie said
she was “burnt
out,” hoping to try
something outside of
a big rig. She worked
at a factory, which
was “two weeks in hell” and then waitressing
because “Girls got bills. I paid my own bills,”
she said, adding she was never married before
Rick.
That feeling of being burnt out led to the
love of her life, Rick Foster.
“He would come into the restaurant
sometimes and we just started talking. When I
first met him I didn’t really like him,” she said
with a laugh, adding that she was happy with
her independence, her “own house and my own
life.”
But, things turned around.
She moved in with her
oldest sister. A week
before Susie’s 18th
birthday, her sister
Barbara was killed in
a car accident.
“He was just real polite, respectful to women.
I asked, ‘Are you good to your mother?’ He
said, ‘Oh yeah’ and that he talked to her all the
time. That meant a lot to me. Usually if a guy
is good to his mother, he’ll be good to his wife,”
she said.
Rick started trucking in 2001 and worked as
a truck driver trainer.
“One thing I tell anybody I’ve ever
trained, just don’t hit nothing,” he said
with a laugh, but also absolute truth.
“My best advice for a driver who is
just starting, most are coming out of
school, is to make sure it’s what you
want to do.
Do your
homework
on it.
Driving a
truck is not
a 9-5 job.
You don’t
work eight
hours, then sleep eight hours a night. It’s a
lifestyle, it’s not just a job … it’s not a get-richquick
job. You have to pay your dues, get your
experience before you start making really good
money.”
It’s a career that takes discipline and the
understanding that going home is not going to
be an everyday occurrence. But, the 48-yearold
is quick to point out, “I don’t want to put
nobody off on it because I love it. It just takes a
certain type of person to drive a truck.”
Or certain people, which makes Rick and
Susie such a great team.
42 www.TruckDriverMagazines.com TRUCKING 2017