2208_TTJM_AllPages

BEHIND
the wheel
living the
DREAM
Florida heavy-hauler
follows family tradition as
third-generation trucker
BY JOHN WORTHEN / THE TRUCKER JOBS MAGAZINE
Bubba Branch was just knee-high to a grasshopper, as they say in the south, when he first climbed
aboard his granddaddy’s big rig in Florida. His earliest memories include rowing through the
parked semi’s gears, turning the wheel and pumping all the leftover air out of the brakes.
“I drove a million miles and never left the yard,” he said with a laugh.
Branch says he’s proud to still live in Florida as “one of the few who are originally from here.”
Most of all, though, he’s proud to be a trucker — like his dad and granddad before him.
“I have been around trucking all my life,” he said in a husky southern drawl. “Grandad and
Dad were in it for 40 or more years. I like to say I was born in a truck. I was one of seven kids,
but I was the only one that took to trucks. I would ride with dad anytime I could.”
Branch said he also has special memories of riding along in his grandad’s truck.
“You could do no wrong with Granddaddy,” Branch said. “He was the cat’s meow with me.”
At age 18, Branch earned his CDL. His first job was driving an old, run-down 1970s-model GMC Brigadier
General for Miller and Sons in Central Florida. He had to work hard to land that job, he said, adding that he
“pestered” the company for a long while before they finally gave him a shot.
“They said all they had for me to drive was an old truck that had a lot of issues,” Branch said. “There were holes in
the floorboard, and the fumes were so bad my eyes would turn red. I took it home, washed it, and Dad and I patched
up the holes. I drove it for a while before I got caught by the DOT.”
After the truck was red-tagged and ordered out of service by the DOT, Branch didn’t have to worry about it
anymore, and in the ensuing two and a half decades he moved up the ladder of success in the trucking industry.
Now, at 44, he and his wife, Krystal, operate Atlas Heavy Haul out of Lakeland, Florida, his hometown. The
company primarily hauls heavy equipment.
“I wanted to haul equipment all my life, so I got some good experience and started on my own,” he said, adding
that his heaviest haul so far was a massive electrical box that he delivered to Heinz Field, home of the NFL Steelers
football team, in Pittsburgh.
The load weighed 200,000 pounds, and it took Branch nearly 15 days to make the run from Miami.
These days, Branch enjoys spending time working on his show truck, a 1996 Kenworth W900 dubbed “Just a
Phase.” When he picked it up the truck was white, but he knew he wanted to paint it red so it would stand out.
The entire interior had been stripped, down to the bare metal, so a new hush mat was put in the cab and sleeper,
then new floors, seats, an SH Tube twisted shifter and new door, roof and sleeper panels. Bubba’s son, Kolt, painted
16 THE TRUCKER JOBS MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2022 WWW.THETRUCKERJOBS.COM