Keith Bradley from Barriere, BC is our November 2009 Rig of the Month driver. This is his story:

Although I’m sure the irony of the situation escaped my mother at the time, it seems quite fitting that, in the spring of 1969, the latest addition to our trucking family, namely me, came very close to being born while on the highway, at mid-span of the Ashcroft Bridge. I had decided to enter this world one month early, and since my father was at work, my mother called my grandfather who lived just down the street. In those days there was a long single lane bridge crossing the Thompson River at Ashcroft. As luck would have it, my grandfather had to wait for traffic to clear before racing across the bridge to the hospital.

After my impatient entry into the world, I grew up at 16 Mile, just north of Cache Creek. I’m third generation truck driver, my grandfather drove truck and my father started out as a driver as well until he decided to work closer to home to help out with raising my brother and me.

Grandpa Bradley ran Vancouver to Toronto back in the late 50’s and I grew up surrounded with trucking stories. He ran for Gill Interprovincial and Vancouver Alberta Freightlines Ltd., long before the Trans Canada highway was built. He also spent many years with Overland Freight Lines and Country Freight Lines. Before leaving Vancouver and moving to the interior, he ran a freight transfer yard in Vancouver under the name of “Brad’s Enterprises” (dang brokers!) doing freight marshalling work for trucking companies based in the Fraser Valley. This was in the day before the freeway, when Vancouver to Chilliwack was an all day run.

I have some letters that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother while he was on the road trucking and it is funny to see that the things they talked about back then are very similar to what I discuss now, on a nightly basis, with my wife Cindy. It shows that even though the equipment has changed drastically, the challenges of separation that trucking families face really hasn’t changed at all. My grandfather’s letters are a whole other story that hopefully will be written one day.

When I was in school I would either show up on the school bus or in John Thompson’s logging truck. It really depended on which one was the first to pass our house. I spent a lot of summer days, and the occasional school day, riding in John’s logging truck. On the weekends I’d wash and grease it for him. I wasted at least three grease cartridges before I figured it out how to do it right. He liked the way I cleaned his truck but he always complained that it took at least two trips before his lunch box would stop sliding across the freshly armoralled floor mats. Unfortunately he moved to Anaheim Lake before I could really get my hands on his truck. 

When I was in high school I took the work experience program from grade ten through twelve. This gave me the equivalent of a 1st year apprentice in body work which came in handy as I re-built my 66 Chevy pick-up more than once with that experience.

While growing up I also spent a lot of my spare time with Ivan Lowe and his boys Donald and Darren. I’d often ride in their dump trucks, back hoes or pick ups. That is when they weren’t fixing them and we did a lot of fixin’. I used to go to town with the boys where I usually ended up being their personal shopping cart. They taught me that if 2 lights are good – 10 are better. I learned a lot of things from Ivan, like the difference between a box end and open end wrench and that anything can be taken apart with a cutting torch – putting it back together though is a whole other story.

When I finished school I went to Vancouver to work in the ship yard with a sandblast and painting crew. I returned home that fall and spent another year working in a body shop. One day I answered an ad in the newspaper for a job at the coast. I got the job so I packed my bags, tools, and bike, and once more headed for the big city. I worked at Truck West in Burnaby and Langley for a year and while there I did everything from prep and paint to looking after the shop on weekend shifts.

I don’t know if it is a family trait or what but the allure of the trucks finally got to be too much for me, so I hatched a plan to become an owner operator. The opportunity came in August of 1990. The truck was a 1987 Western Star 4964 with a 60” couples comfort bunk. Langley Western Star had Truck West paint it for a customer but when the customer came in to finalize the deal he realized that the truck was too long for the job he had. 

When I found this out I went to the old Triangle Transportation and told them, “If you give me a job I can buy this truck”. Then I went to Paul Sooel at Langley Western Star and told him, “If you sell me this truck I can get this job.” So with a bank loan from the First National Bank of “Dad” I became an owner operator. 

The only thought I had was “hell I’m young – I can start over again!”  I spent the next 6 months running the U.S., Vancouver Island and the Southern Interior and made just enough money to move on.

In January of 1991 I started with RN Kellen running the I-5 corridor as well as hauling in BC, Alberta and doing local work in Vancouver. I spent the best part of a year hauling railway ties from Williams Lake to Ashcroft. I hauled whites down and treated ties back, doing a trip and a half a day. 

After RN Kelln closed its doors in the winter of 1993, I went to Valley Roadways in Kamloops to work for the Pasemko family and that is where my trucking career really started. I worked for them for 6 years and purchased 2 trucks during that time. The work consisted of hauling material to building supply stores throughout the Okanagan and northern interior. We hauled just about anything they could find and of course it all had to be tarped.

In the spring of 1995 I loaded some floor joists in Vancouver to haul to Terrace. My Dad had just got the golden handshake from Highland Valley Copper after 28 years and, since he still had a valid class one, I thought he should come truckin’ with me. I picked him up at the Husky in Cache Creek and gave him a crash course in driving a new truck, then I climbed in the bunk. We made it to Terrace to deliver first thing in the morning but I think he must have upset a few Lomak chip trucks during the night. He was too afraid to split gears so he would take a whole gear. They would catch him on the hills and he would run away from them on the flats. That was the extent of his renewed trucking career but I had a good revenue week - thanks Dad. 

The last two and a half years that I worked with Valley I was on a contract run for Wilkinson Steel in Kamloops. At night I would do multiple pick-ups in Vancouver and at their warehouse then deliver the load the next morning in Kamloops.

Then in 1999 came the brain fart – I decided I was going to make millions pulling a reefer. I purchased a 48’ Great Dane reefer trailer with all the lights and goodies of course and started with Canusa running from Vancouver to LA, up to Toronto and back to Vancouver. I only lasted 6 months. I couldn’t put up with the grumpy receivers at the dock so I packed it in and went back to flat decking. 

In the fall of 1999 I started with VIP Transport, owned by Hal Perras, just when it was a new up and coming company. I ran across Canada and most of the western US states as well as the North West Territories and the Yukon and even into some places where we had to make our own roads. I hauled underground mining equipment into Northern Nevada as well as grinding balls to Utah. I also hauled lots of bridge spans into the North Country and diamond drilling supplies into the North West Territories where I was able to venture onto the ice roads to the Diavk Mine. 

My first trip onto the ice was with the now “famous,” Alex Debogorski, of the show “Ice Road Truckers”. I have to say that he is exactly like he portrays himself on the show. You never know what he’s going to say, you just know that it will be entertaining to say the least!

While at VIP, I met my wife Cindy. She is the Safety & Compliance Officer there - and she is good at her job. She doesn’t have a problem hauling your butt in and letting you know what you did wrong on your logs or call you in and “discuss” tickets or Notice and Orders. I’ve always told everyone, “Don’t let her bubbly personality fool you!” We started dating in November 2003 and haven’t looked back since. 

I made some good friends and had some great runs while working at VIP. In the fall of 2000 I got a load of roof trusses and headed to L.A. with Cliff Wilcox in tow. I unloaded in LA Monday morning and Tuesday morning went for my 6am load appointment at a shelving manufacturer. By 11am no one had even bothered to talk to me so I left and got a load of mud out of Nevada.

I met Cliff at the truck stop in Ontario, California and off we went to Vegas for the night. We drove up and down the Vegas strip in our chromed out trucks, as if we knew where we were going, trying to find a  place to park. We had dinner in Vegas, spent the night and didn’t lose any money at the tables. We loaded in Nevada the next day and it snowed all the way to Alberta – just another day at the office.

Unfortunately not all runs turn out that good; in the winter of 2002 I was loaded with drilling supplies bound for Yellowknife when I ran into a snow storm north of Peace River. I was on the phone yakking to Ronnie Siemens at the VIP Transport shop when all of a sudden the vehicles ahead stopped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a red flashing light and all I could think was “Damn – school bus!” There was an empty super train in front of me and an empty ditch to my right. I picked the ditch. When I picked the phone up off the floor all I said to Ronnie was “I’m in the ditch, I’ll call you right back.”  It cost me $300 dollars for a tow truck and a day in the ditch. Oh well it could have been worse, there was no damage to the truck but my pride sure took a licking.

Just before Christmas of 2003 I had a load of drilling supplies to take to Yellowknife. I had just started dating Cindy and I thought it would be fun to have her come along. It was her first trip anywhere in a big truck and I have to admit that I was curious to see how she would handle it.

We left on the twenty-first of December and decided to stop and buy some groceries in Hinton. The problem was Cindy had parked my pick-up in the shop, which was something that I normally did, and my wallet was left on the front seat.  I didn’t realize I left it behind until we got to Hinton - it was a good thing Cindy had hers. We loaded up with groceries and off we went.

The ice bridge was not open to large trucks yet so we waited about 30 minutes for the ferry at Ft Providence. Once we crossed the river we headed up the road to Yellowknife. It was just then that the northern lights came out. Cindy had lived in northern BC so she had seen northern lights before but nothing like this. If you opened your window you could hear them. She was glued to the front windshield like a little kid. I thought she was going to crawl up on the dash to get a better look.

It turned out to be a great trip. We unloaded/reloaded in the morning in Yellowknife, did some sightseeing, taking pictures at the Wardair Bristol Freightliner Air Craft, and made it back home December 24th in time for Christmas dinner.

After four and a half years with VIP, I joined up with Brian Weipert who I had worked with at RN Kellen, Canusa and VIP. Brian had started his own company and was looking for more trucks. I ran BC and Alberta and did a lot of work for Ranger Transport, Cooper Barging and Fedderly Transportation. I worked there for 2 years until Brian passed away and his wife Sharon took over the reins. For a lady who didn’t know much about the trucking industry, other than having a husband as a truck driver, she worked really hard and did an amazing job of keeping the company going.  This was while still working full time as a Long Term Care Aid Nurse in Kamloops. (Come to think of it her experience as a long term care nurse probably served her well in dealing with truckers, dispatchers and shippers.) After about a year Sharon decided that running a trucking company was not for her and she decided to close. She gave us all plenty of notice which meant we had to make a decision; either go out on our own or hire on with another trucking company.  Looking back, Brian’s way of dispatching was a different one, however I believe it was his way of grooming us to go out on our own.

This was probably the hardest decision of my career. After many discussions with Cindy and my family, I decided that I would get my own authority and go out on my own.

In May 2006 we embarked on this roller coaster ride we’re on still today.  Keith Bradley Trucking was closed and Keith D Bradley Transport was born. 

With a new NSC number and the new business started, I stopped at Kamloops Peterbilt to pay my bill and to look at the spec sheet on a truck I wanted to order. While I was there I saw a 2007, 379 Clone with a 475 cat engine, 18 speed and basically the same specs as my 2004 and the one I was going to order, except for the colour. I little while later I called Cindy and asked her to come down to see what I had just bought. Once again all I could think was “I’m still young – well kinda – and I can start again…I hope.”

That is the same truck that I’m running today and I have attended Big Rig weekends in BC and Alberta with it since 2006. This year we also attended the Vancouver Island truck Show.

I started my business where Sharon Weipert had left off.  I had her full support, a copy of the customer list, a brand new truck and trailer, a cell phone and fax machine in the truck and away I went.

When we first started the business it often took just one phone call to plan your whole week and sometimes two. Today it takes more calls but I have been fortunate to find good, faithful customers who like the service I provide.

In 2007 I thought I would be a big time player and increase my fleet to 2 trucks. What a disaster that was. I went from not only being a truck driver and dispatcher but, as it turned out, a private eye was another hat I had to wear most days. “Where’s Willie?” was a constant question and we’ll just leave it at that…

Today, with my wife Cindy by my side, we have managed to keep our heads above water and we have a great list of customers who appreciate my honest opinions. Sometimes a little too honest – but I always get the work done in a safe and professional way. 

Cindy and I were married in May of 2008 and we are hoping to start our own version of a Bradley Transport “fleet” soon.  We currently live in Barriere, BC and love the peace and quiet there.  It’s also nice to have our neighbors smile and wave (with all 5 fingers) when I drive up the street and back into our yard. 

Life is good ... just need a dog....