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By John White
Gerry Tosoff who lives in Yarrow, B.C, and drives for Tenold
Transportation is our November 2008 Rig of the Month driver. This
is his story:
If there is such a thing as a “trucking gene” then I was born
with it in September of 1953 at Prince George, B.C. In 1955, our
family moved to Fort St. James, B.C. where my dad, Alex Tosoff,
drove a lumber truck for Miller & VanKoughnett Enterprises,
hauling from the Fort to Vanderhoof. My uncle, Flemming Miller, and
my grandfather, Dan VanKoughnett, owned the company.
I guess you could say that my mother, Doreen, unwittingly
contributed to my career choice by buying me a car seat with a
steering wheel when I was a child. Apparently, I quickly wore it
out from constantly turning the wheel and honking the horn.
We moved back to Prince George in 1959. Dad drove Cat for Jack
Burke and in 1962 started as a driver at Prince George
Warehouse/Spruce Land Terminals which was owned by Herb Assman. Dad
became the manager of the Spruce Land terminal in about 1970 and
held that position until he passed away in 1993.
I spent my summer vacations and school breaks with Gramma and
Gramp Van in Fort St. James. I would ride along with one of their
drivers in a lumber truck when I could or sometimes I’d just sit in
a truck by myself and pretend I was driving. The rest of the time
I’d just hang out in the shop and help where I could. This
continued until I was in my early teens.
When I was 18 years old, I started working at Prince George
Container exchange, a division of Prince George Warehousing. I
drove one and three ton trucks delivering empty beer bottles to
Uncle Ben’s Brewery. The worst part of this job was loading 45’ dry
vans, by hand, from floor to ceiling with empty pop bottles
destined for Vancouver.
In 1972, when I turned 19, I transferred to Spruceland Terminals
which was the agent for Pacific Brewers Distributors. This was the
job that moved my career towards a class I driver which at that
time it was still called a chauffeurs licence.
My first experience in a truck with more than four gears was an
International body job with a 671 Jimmy and a 13 speed
transmission. There was a rush load of beer that had to be taken to
Mackenzie B.C. Not wanting to admit I hadn’t driven a 13 speed out
of the yard before, I backed the truck up and loaded it. Proud as
punch I drove the truck out of the yard, figuring out the gear
pattern as I went. The transfusion was now complete - the smell and
taste of diesel was in my blood!
In 1974, I married my wife, Donna, and in 1975 I took my air
brake course. My buddy, Reg Schlit, drove for Carlos Green at the
time delivering pop from Prince George to Prince Rupert, Terrace
and Dawson Creek. He let me ride with him, whenever possible, so
that I could get the much needed tractor trailer experience.
In 1976 I got my class 1 and although it was great experience to
start from the bottom and work my way up, my days of driving body
jobs was finally over and I stepped into a 1972 Kenworth with a 36”
sleeper, 350 Cummins and 13 speed transmission. My first run was
hauling beer west from Prince George to Smithers and all points in
between. I did this for twelve years, until 1988, when I decided it
was time for a change.
At that time I ordered a 1989 379 Peterbilt, with a 48” stand up
sleeper, 444 Cummins, 15 over transmission and 4:11 rear ends – it
was slow but good. In August of 1988, I moved my family, wife
Donna, sons Jeremy, Clint, Matt and daughter Jane to Yarrow B.C.
and leased on to UTL transportation out of Burnaby.
I worked there for two plus years operating in the western half
of Canada and the U.S. pulling dry vans and flat decks mostly
between Vancouver, Edmonton and Whitehorse.
My most memorable trip was from Vancouver to Inuvik, N.W.T with
a load of construction material for the airport. Lucky for me it
was in August and the weather was good so I could enjoy the
scenery. Coming down the flats on the Dempster Highway out of
Dawson City for the first time I saw this large dust cloud rising
from the mountainside. Curious as to what it could be, I soon found
out that it was the road going up the mountain! I climbed and
climbed for what seemed forever until I finally reached Eagle
Plains which is the halfway point between Dawson City and Inuvik. I
stopped there for supper and when getting out of the truck I
noticed big cement pillars that were buried in the ground with
large steel rings attached. When I asked what they were for, I was
told that they used them in the winter to anchor the trucks and
trailers when the road was closed due to high winds!
In Feb 1991, I leased on with CAN-AM West where my old buddy,
Reg Schlitt, was now an owner operator. I worked there on the flat
deck division until December 1992. From January 1993 to April 1993,
I hauled logs in Prince George and then I leased on to Northern
Interior Fastfrate (a division of Prince George Warehousing) out of
Annacis Island. I worked nights there doing 70 mile switches or
straight through runs to Prince George.
In June of 1995 my new special ordered 1996 379 Peterbilt with a
63 inch sleeper, N14 - 500 HP engine, 15 over transmission and 3:90
rear ends arrived. (We still occasionally see this truck on the
highway hauling scrap cars in BC) When we traded in the 1989 Pete
it had 1.25 million km without any major component overhaul.
My son, Jeremy, got his class I in the winter of December 1995
and my wife, Donna, got hers in the spring of 1996 and I continued
with NIF doing overnight LTL until January 1997.
In February, I started with Town and County, a division of
Schenkers International, pulling vans with empty water bottles to
Revelstoke and Naya water back to Vancouver. That was short lived
as the division was shut down in September 1997, so I decided to go
back to flat decking and went to work for Highland transport until
April 1998. Reg was now at MOTRUX so I joined him there, pulling a
48’ tridem step deck across Canada. My first load was high and wide
delivering to downtown Toronto, keep in mind that I had never been
past Winnipeg before. Things went good until south of Barrie when I
saw the “low overpass” “trucks use centre lane” sign. Moving into
the centre lane I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes thankfully
never hearing a scrape. Following the customers directions for
delivery I headed down the QEW. While waiting to turn left at a red
light I knew I was in trouble! There was a low clearance overpass.
I kept looking from the load in my mirrors to the underpass and
thinking this is not going to fit. The light turned green, I turned
left and pulled up as close as I could to the underpass. I stopped
and got out to assess the situation as people were honking and
hollering that I was holding up traffic. I was about 4” too high so
I dropped the air on the tractor and trailer and with the help of
one kind motorist guiding me, I made it through, cargo unscathed –
unfortunately the same can’t be said for the tarp.
Hauling oversize mine equipment tires from the docks in Surrey
to Wabush, Labrador was a regular run for me. After Donna and our
daughter, Jane came with me on one of these trips, Donna told me
then that I’d best find a different job before winter came because,
“no job was worth your life”. There was no way she wanted me to run
that road in the winter. It was too desolate and the hill at Manac
5 (one of the world’s largest dams) in Quebec had an 18% grade
(personally I think it was steeper) and too many switch backs to
remember.
From MOTRUX I went hauling Super B’s. That was also short lived.
We had gotten our own authority in 1998 so we decided that it was
time to go out on our own. I ordered a set of Super B’s in the
summer of 1999 and started hauling wood pellets from Armstrong, BC
to Washington State. This led to steady runs with wood pellets from
the Okanogan and various building materials from the lower mainland
to lumber wholesalers and building supply stores mainly in the
Spokane area. We reloaded out of Valley, WA to Surrey BC. Donna
started running a few days a week with me and in March 2002 we
ordered our present truck a 2003 379 Peterbilt, 70” sleeper with
all the amenities of a bachelor suite, minus the bathroom. It has a
550 HP CAT, 18 speed, 3:70 rear ends and is a very comfortable
truck. When we sold the ‘96 Pete the mileage on it was 1.5 million
km with no engine overhaul but we had done the transmission, clutch
and rear ends in Nov 2001. We continued on our own until the fall
of 2002 when south bound freight dwindled due to the softwood
lumber tariffs and the rising Canadian dollar. I leased on to
International Machine Transport in October 2002 until May 2004 and
hauled Jet engines, Z drives (ship propulsion units) and mill
machinery all over Canada and the U.S.
In June 2004 I went back to Highland Transport and Donna and I
ran team. Mainly DHL Vancouver to Toronto with occasional runs to
the south-eastern states from Vancouver and from Toronto to
Brownsville, Texas. It was during this time that we experienced our
worst month ever trucking - both weather and incident wise.
It was November 2004 and we left Edmonton for Vancouver in the
middle of a snowstorm – which in retrospect, I should have taken as
an omen. A deer clipped the right front fender of the truck by
Avola but thankfully there was only minimal damage. The snow quit
as we got through the mountains and we continued on to Highland’s
yard in Port Coquitlam B.C. We dropped that trailer and hooked on
to another one and then headed to Charlotte, North Carolina with a
drop in Memphis, Tennessee.
The snow started again in Rapid City, South Dakota and steadily
got heavier. Donna could tell I slowed down so she popped her head
out of the bunk to ask what was going on. I told her she didn’t
want to know. By now I was down to 10 mph with zero visibility on
occasion.
The first place we came to was Oacama, South Dakota so we pulled
into a small truck stop and waited a day and a half for the road to
reopen.
Growing up in Prince George, we were accustomed to long winters
but nothing like the blizzard we were in. When the snow quit the
cars in the parking lot had snow to their roofs. When the highway
reopened we carried on and did our drops and then went to the Pilot
Truck Stop in Charlotte waiting for dispatch.
We had just laid down when a young fellow from California backed
into the front left side of the truck damaging the bumper, fender
and mirror. Thankful that the truck was still drivable, we headed
to Toronto loaded with pillows. In upper New York State we
encountered lake effect snow which was another new experience for
us. It is when large snowflakes accumulate very quickly.
In Toronto we hooked onto a trailer and headed west to Vancouver
and had winter conditions most of the way. By the time we got back
to Vancouver we had been through 3 snowstorms, 1 blizzard and had
over $12,000 damage done to the truck!
While on vacation in December of 2005, we decided it was time to
slow down. I have always preferred flat decking, so we started
looking at various companies. I made numerous phone calls and
notes. After comparing what we were looking for and what companies
were offering, I set up a meeting with Keith at Tenold
Transportation. Donna and I sat down and talked with him and we
liked what they had to offer, so in January 2006 we leased on with
them. I am a member of the safety committee and I must say, other
than working for myself, this is the best place I have ever worked.
We’ve loaded in Yellowknife and crossed the ice bridge two days
before it closed. We’ve loaded in Queens, New York and delivered on
Long Island, NY and Naco, Arizona right on the Mexican border. We
never know most times where we are going or what we are loading but
that is what keeps things interesting.
Donna and I have been together in the truck for 7 years now and
are frequently asked how we mange to be in such close quarters and
still get along. The answer is love, respect, friendship, family
and a good sense of humour. Laughter definitely makes everything
better.
We have been married for 34 ½ years and have three sons, one
daughter, one grandson and one granddaughter. All three boys have
worked in the warehousing end of the trucking industry. Our oldest
son, Jeremy, is a heavy-duty mechanic for Finning and lives in
Prince George with his wife Claire and their son James. Clint lives
in Yarrow, with his wife Val and daughter Viola. He works at the
Kal Tire warehouse and also has a college certificate for auto
upholstery. Matt lives in Greendale with Tami and her show horses
and works at the Kal Tire shop. He is working towards his Farrier
degree. Our daughter Jane will complete her nursing degree at BCIT
this December. The kids all took turns riding with me during school
holidays and between us we have had some good times and seen a lot
of country over the years.
The trucking industry has been good to us and our family and we
hope to continue in it.
Our 2003 Peterbilt now has 1.5 million kilometres on it… and
climbing.
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