The Trucker Newspaper - February 1-14, 2020

12
AT
THE TRUCK STOP
PRESENTED BY CAT SCALE, VISIT WEIGHMYTRUCK.COM
When he retires in three years, William York will have spent 52 years in the trucking industry.
Long-time driver compares his early experience
to today’s trucking industry
Lyndon Finney
lyndonf@thetrucker.com
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At age
14, William York dropped out of school for
the express purpose of riding shotgun to his
truck driver brother.
“I went along so I could sit beside him
and keep him awake,” York, 63, said during
a recent interview with The Trucker at a truck
stop on Interstate 40.
But after a few trips, York decided he
wanted to become a truck driver himself and
started his career driving a cabover International
4000.
The only thing he lacked was a driver’s
license.
“Driving a big rig down the road was an
adventure,” he said.
It wasn’t long before York had his first encounter
with law enforcement.
“I was driving in the middle of the night
carrying a load of cattle to a packing plant and
got pulled over in a small town in Tennessee
(his home state),” York said with a chuckle.
“The policeman asked for my license and of
course I didn’t have one nor did I have any type
of identification. He looked at me, scratched
his head and walked around the truck. He came
back to the driver’s side and said, ‘I’m going to
let you go, but I never want to see you again.’”
Eventually at age 18, York was able to
get a chauffeur’s license, the precursor to the
commercial driver’s license.
“You could get a chauffeur’s license if
three drivers with a chauffeur’s license signed
for you,” he said.
In 1992 York was one of many drivers
with chauffeur’s licenses who were grandfathered
into the new commercial driver’s license
program.
For a long while, York was an owner-operator,
but eventually he became a company
driver and now works for Cargo Solution Express
of Fontana, California.
“I still have my old Peterbilt 379 sitting
out there in a pasture at my home,” he said.
Like many other drivers, York says the
public’s perception of the trucking industry
needs to be changed.
“You never hear about the trucking industry
unless it’s about a story of a wreck caused
by a trucker in which four or five people are
killed,” he said.
What’s more, York said, passenger car drivers
don’t understand how to share the highway
with a big rig, especially when it comes to
passing and then cutting in front of a big rig.
He’s also concerned about truck drivers
who don’t know what to do when a steering
tire blows out.
“Many of them will slam on the brakes,
and that’s the worst thing you can do,” York
said. “You just need to ease off the gas.”
He’s also concerned that driver trainers
sometimes don’t have much more experience
than the trainees.
“Recently I was talking with a trainer and
asked how much solo experience he had, and
he told me about eight months,” York said.
“Well, the trainee had three months driving
experience so there was less than a total of
one year’s experience in that cab.”
When interviewed, York was wearing
a jacket emblazoned with speed racing
emblems.
“I’m a big fan of NASCAR racing,” York
said.
And, apparently, a big fan of hammering
down the pedal when on the road.
York said his rig will run up to 80 mph
on cruise control, but “I know how to handle
speed. I may run 75-80 in the middle of the
night when there’s nobody out there but me
and the Lord.”
The Trucker: KRIS RUTHERFORD
Like other truckers, York is not a big fan of
electronic logging devices, pointing in particular
to problems associated with parking because
often he will have to go to two or three
locations before finding a spot, all the while
having to stretch the limits of on duty time.
In fact, the only reason he was at the truck
stop was because a computer error incorrectly
made an advance entry in his log.
“When I pulled in here last night, there
were only three spaces left, so I was able to
park,” he said.
Reserved parking also frustrates him.
“I pulled into a lot recently where the only
spots left were reserved places,” he said. “I
went ahead and pulled into one of them. The
attendant told me I had to move, so I told him
to wake me when the person who reserved the
space got there. He never came.”
York, who takes medication to control his
high blood pressure and sleeps with a C-Pap
machine, says he will work three more years
until he can take Social Security.
So, let’s do the math. Sixty-six minus 14
equals 52 years in one profession.
Not bad for a person who was only supposed
to be in a truck to keep his brother
awake. 8