To 15-year owner-operator Mark Yelton, running the road sometimes feels like "everybody's got a Peterbilt." He pondered his own equipment this way: "How many Western Star Heritages do you see?"
For my money, the North Webster, Indiana, flatbedder and family are running with some of the sharpest 1980s and '90s Western Stars still on the road.
Shown here are Mark’s 1994 Star Car daycab (left) along with his son Sam’s 1986 4964-2.
They're in prime shape, polished, wheels and tanks all taken care of.
The younger Yelton’s square-nosed 1986 4964 is powered by a 3406B 425 Caterpillar motor with an Eaton 13 speed and 3:26 rears. Still, he tries to adhere to the "spec fast drive slow" credo.
“If you don’t have to sit there and look at the pretty black smoke comin’ out of the stacks, you can get about seven and a quarter” for fuel mileage, Mark said when I met him at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March.
He was accompanied by sons Sam and Will, as well as his daughter-in-law, Emily.
Sam's 21 and just signed on to work for his dad, having bided time working locally in wait for his pop’s insurance company to finally approve him.
“The bug bit [Sam] when he was just five years old, riding with me," Mark said. "I don’t think he’s ever had an idea to do anything else in his life."
Will, age 15, is also giving trucking serious consideration. “Will, he enjoys working on trucks," Mark said. "Then we’ve got a seven-year-old at home who is like a miniature Sam. All I really want is that they follow what the Lord has for them.”
The Yeltons represent the type of family who will drive five and a half hours just to see the sights and hear the sounds of MATS: With multigenerational roots in the business, trucking for the Yeltons is an extension of family and faith.
Mark Yelton (center) with sons Will (left) and Sam at MATS. Yelton predicts as many as three of his sons could eventually follow him into trucking.
I can't say that, it's sure. My kids all got college degrees or post-secondary certificates in other fields. All rode along with me when they were young and, perhaps seeing one too many all-nighters concluded it would be better to go to college.
Our daughter Anna, though, with a master's in social work, frequently threatens to become a trucker after a difficult week as a case worker. (She would run circles around me. She already does in so many ways.)
I wondered how it is with other drivers, so I asked. Read on for answers to the question that follows here, where you can weigh in yourself.
And: Why or why not? Drop me a comment below, and meantime here's what a few owner-operators I know had to say:
Michael Beatey, Big Iron Xpress:
Beatey hauls leased to Southern Pride.
Why? The aforementioned neverending thirst is neverending for a reason, in his view.
With some exceptions, trucking today is "over-regulated, underpaid, and designed to grind up and spit out those that can’t or won’t conform” to the difficult reality, he said.
Casey Simpson, Simpson Trucking and Other Things
Casey Simpson was more measured. It depends, essentially, he said:
“As long as they were able to continue in the agriculture division of the industry where they can be more local than OTR, I’d say that if my children decided to follow in my footsteps and carry on the family business I wouldn’t be upset about it!"
Casey Simpson and family
On the other hand, he added, "If it depended on brokers and living in a truck, I would do everything to steer them away from it!”
Wes Harman, owner-operator, Prime
Another maybe, in essence, from this leased owner.
Wes Harman
Harmon enjoys trucking himself still today, he added, "but I don't think trucking in 20 years is going to bear much resemblance to trucking today," let alone what it looked like 20 years ago.
[Related: Don't judge the next-generation book by its cover: CDL training for the future]
Jerry Novak, heavy hauler
"My grandfather and dad owned trucks in Nebraska," Novak said, dad hauling "cattle and agricultural goods in Texas."
Jerry Novak
His advice? "I’d tell any of my kids, ‘If you’re going to do this, make sure you’re training for the top one percent.' That’s in heavy haul.”
Taj Wallace, Wallace & Sons small fleet owner
For North Carolina-based Taj Wallace, the jury's still out on to some extent on his own sons.
"Being that I have three sons," he said, "I would like at least one of them to follow me into trucking. I’m the only person of color who has a company that is hauling direct out of both [North Carolina] ports. I’m a preferred hauler in those ports."
Taj Wallace
He couches his response with concerns for legacy, ultimately.
"If there is no successor of my lineage," Wallace said, "then what I’ve built will simply be distributed amongst the mega carriers.
"As if I never existed."
[Related: 'I call it trucker soul': Taj Wallace, aka Supa Trucka, bends ears with new music]
