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You won’t see this old-school trucker in some flashy, chrome-covered rig

Robert Johnson readily and unabashedly admits that he is an old-school trucker.

And why not? He’s been making a living driving the big rigs for the past 45 years and has no plans of retiring anytime soon.

“I drive a 1995 Freightliner that my wife, sons and I painted in our backyard,” said Johnson, a resident of White Plains, Ky. “It’s not a fancy, frilly rig but it gets the job done and, best of all, it’s paid for.”

Johnson said that while he has nothing against the flashier, more polished show trucks of today, he prefers a more subtle approach to his job.

“I keep things plain and simple,” he said during an interview with The Trucker at the Interstate 40 Petro in North Little Rock, Ark.  “I keep the overhead down that way and, besides, I have yet to meet a customer who says he is willing to pay me $100 more a load if I’ve got a pretty set of wheels.”

Johnson’s tractor pulls a step-deck trailer, part of which he built himself (he has a gnarled middle finger on his right hand to prove it) and hauls “mainly government and military freight,” he said.

Johnson said he got into trucking “out of necessity — I was hungry. An uncle of mine (the late Nick Nicholas) taught me to drive when I was about 17 or 18 years old in Colorado and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

He said he’s been an owner-operator “for about 90 percent of the time I’ve been out here. I enjoy it. The day I stop enjoying it is the day I’ll quit.”

Johnson hopes that one day his sons, James, 11, and Dylan, 10, will follow in his footsteps, “if we still have a trucking industry when their time comes.

“They love trucking and they love this old truck, too,” he said with a slight grin. “They’ll tell you in a heartbeat that it’s their truck, not mine. They come out on the road with me from time to time, but usually on short runs.”

Johnson said the boys and his wife, Susie, who helped him paint his 13-year-old truck. “We did it out in our backyard,” he said. “I think it looks pretty good. It might not win any trophies or grand prizes at the next truck show, but she still gets on the down road.”

At the time of the interview, Johnson was leased to Packard Transportation out of Channahon, Ill.

“It’s a good company,” he said. “They’ve always been fair and square with me, especially when it comes to pay. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve found a home and I’ll stay with them until the day I finally park my old truck for good.”

How is he coping with the soaring fuel prices?

“There are certain things you can do to save on diesel,” he said. “One is that I never park anywhere except at an IdleAire. If I can’t find one with an open slot, I go to the nearest motel. I will not needlessly idle my truck, no matter what.

“You know,” Johnson added, the cost of diesel is having one positive effect on trucking. How? It’s weeding out a lot of the wannabes who probably should have never gotten into trucking in the first place.”

Johnson said he enjoys driving in almost all parts of North America, “except New York City, California and Canada. Whatever it is that they’ve got in those three places, they need to keep it. I want no part of whatever it is.”

 

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