Owner/Driver #328

four brothers and 10 sisters, her family found a home base in
Ontario after their mum and dad moved up from Mexico.
Eva’s love of trucks can be blamed on her Mexican ancestry.
Every year her parents would squeeze the league team (well
there was enough for the starting 13 plus reserves) into their
passenger van and drive the 46 hours to visit family down in
Mexico. Eva remembers being around 11 or 12 and seeing all
the cool trucks on the highways.
“My sister and I used to do the arm pump thing out the
windows to all the trucks,” Eva recalls. Her dad had a CB
fitted to the van as well so they were able to chat to the
truckies on the way.
It was those trips that got Eva interested in trucking, but
it wasn’t until she was 21 and able to save some money that
she managed to put herself through a truck driving school.
The three-month course to get her licence consisted of the
first two weeks, all day every day, in the classroom learning
theory. That was followed by almost 200 hours of on-road
training and assessment before receiving a commercial
vehicle licence.
So, at age 21, Eva could drive an 18-speed ’box like a pro.
Ironically though, she could also stall her friend’s manual
car more times in one block than I could in a lifetime. Eva
laughingly admits that’s still the case; she can’t drive a
manual car.
Above & left: One of Eva’s
customers was so impressed with
the truck they donated this pair of
apparently very expensive shoes;
The truck wasn’t just built as a
memorial to one person, Eva
and her boss wanted it as a
memorial to all of those affected
by breast cancer
Opposite top: You can’t escape
the theme, even inside the truck.
Now you see why Eva is the only
one that drives it; Parked up
outside the headquarters of the
world’s largest truck stop, Eva’s big
Kenworth steals the night as well
Experience necessary
The next challenge for Eva was getting a job. We all know the
old ‘can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience
without a job’ dilemma. It’s a real issue for many. The same
thing applied to Eva – very young, very petite, very new, very
keen but not very lucky. She wasn’t deterred though, she kept
applying and applying while keeping a factory job as she
chased her trucking dream.
Ironically it took losing her job and going to visit her sister
that led to the break she needed. Another newspaper ad
application, another interview, however this time on the ride
home she got a phone call and after a little convincing that
it wasn’t a hoax, she had her job. It had taken just over a year,
but the now 22-year-old Eva had the keys to a brand-new
Freightliner Columbia.
A few weeks with a trainer beside her in the truck and
Eva was on her way. No looking back, despite her youth,
44 MAY 2020 ownerdriver.com.au