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TRUCKER'S STORY * USA - Harvest truckers keep America’s crops moving to market
The season’s first work began in March ... Only in mid-December will the work finally be done
South Heart,N.D.,USA -RoadKing, by Richard Middleton -27 Aug 2010: -- Nancy Eberts is not your everyday trucker. Each year, this mother of four joins husband Myron on a six-month journey across America to ensure the country won’t run out of corn... The season’s first work began in March, when Myron left the family farm in North Dakota to make a series of journeys on his own in his Kenworth. Hauling each of the three combine harvesters as far south as Kansas, he put them at the ready for the coming season. Then, in late April, the Ebertses said goodbye to family and friends, loaded up the trucks and embarked on the 1,300-mile trip to Frederick, Okla., the traditional start of the harvest cutting season and a hive of activity as the crops ripen... The Eberts convoy has a pre-set route moving north, with a number of farms that have become regular stopping points...
The giant convoy of vehicles that snakes its way down through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma includes everything Nancy Myron and their six-person crew will need for the coming harvest tour. Five Kenworths haul grain carts, hoppers, customized flatbed trailers and two units that serve as living quarters, while a service truck and several pick-ups are used to pull the 40- foot harvester heads... From Kiowa, Kan., the crew will head north to Turon, then Goodland. By July, the trucks and combines will have moved to Nebraska, cutting in North Platte then Martin in South Dakota. In early September, the crew will be back at the Ebertses’ farm in South Heart, N.D... But the season is far from over. More crops, including soybeans and maize will be cut near the Ebertses’ own place throughout the fall. Then the crew loads up the trucks and goes back on the road. Winter wheat will be ready for harvest in Kenmare and Valley City in North Dakota... Only in mid-December will the work finally be done. The trucks will be parked, the combines rested and the crew sent home. Just a few months later, the trucks will be back on the road and the harvest cycle will begin all over again...* Canada - Gliding on the Ice. Fame gives an ice road trucker a chance to stretch his talents
(Video from YouTube, by jastesydlon -19 June 2009: Ice Road Truckers season 1 promo made by myself, music: Two Steps From Hell- Barrage of Noise)
Yellowknife,NWT,Canada -RoadKing -2 Sept 2010: -- Ice Road Trucker Alex Debogorski doesn’t mind hard work to earn money for his family. “You crank the organ and I’ll be the monkey,” he says. “Now I’m working on this movie star thing” ...
Debogorski, a true ice road trucker for more than 26 years, has a bit of celebrity thanks the History Channel’s hit reality show Ice Road Truckers. He has proven to be a real character over the past four years of the show. His talents include writing song lyrics, including a song called “Ice Road Truckers,” and penning columns for his local paper in Yellowknife, part of the Northwest Territories of Canada... This fall an offshoot of the series that made him a star debuts. Ice Road Truckers: Himalayas brings him to India, where he trades driving on ice for sharing the road with travelers on elephants and buffalo. He says it’s another form of extreme trucking...* California - America Out of Work: Lost his job as a driver a year ago, now is desperate for a paycheck and to live with his wife and children again
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times, by Ronald D. White -September 12, 2010: -- Byron Gamble is no longer in the driver's seat. A 10-year employee of FedEx Corp., he lost his delivery route last year after a long absence to mend an injured back. Since then, the married father of four has watched his career and finances skid... Gamble's wife, Angela, still has her FedEx job as a shuttle driver picking up freight from local airports. But her $25,000 annual salary isn't nearly enough to keep up with the bills... The couple have spent most of the $30,000 they had saved for a down payment on a home... No longer able to afford rent, the Gambles moved out of their roomy townhome in Westchester... Relatives were willing to take them in, but none had room for a family of five. Gamble, 31, now lives with an aunt in Los Angeles. Angela and the children, the youngest of whom is 6 years old, are staying with her parents... Desperate to draw a paycheck again, Gamble sought FedEx work in other states, including Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. But the overnight delivery industry was in the throes of a downturn from which it is still recovering. FedEx didn't need him... 
One thing he won't do is allow himself to be discouraged. He has too many people depending on him... Gamble recently learned that Robertson's Transport, a Rialto-based trucking company, was accepting applications... (Photo by Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times - Byron Gamble, a father of four, has been unemployed for over a year. An employee of Fed-Ex for over 10 years, Gamble was injured while working and found himself jobless after his year long recovery)
Labels: drivers out service, truckers stories
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