Driver: Six Weeks In An Eighteen-wheeler

by Phillip Wilson

Phillip Wilson decided he’d like to see America, and get someone else to pay for the trip, so he went to truck driving school to learn how to operate a big rig. Driver is Wilson’s memoir of his six weeks of over-the-road training, crisscrossing the country from coast to coast and points in between. During that time he worked and lived in close quarters with a partner who could hardly be less like himself, his trainer.

Along the way he learns how to run a “mule,” as drivers like to call their rigs, and thrillingly describes what it’s like to sit on top of a 420-horsepower diesel engine hauling 80,000 pounds of trailer and cargo. He learns what it takes to become a million-mile driver, and why companies stand in line to hire them. He appreciates the joys of Gulf Coast cooking, finding those places that truck drivers recommend to one another. He finds out about the outlaw drivers who fudge their logbooks, and does his best to stay in “the hammer lane” (the fast lane), with his gearbox in “the money hole” (top gear, when the miles are accumulating, and so are the dollars).

Driving a big truck on America’s highways is among the most difficult, demanding, and highly regulated occupations open to the average American. It’s also one of the least restrictive ways of life still around--a throwback to the independence and freedom of the frontier. This is an account of one man’s embrace of that experience and that relationship. A story about America, and about the truckers who keep America supplied and running.

Genres: Travel

376 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years ago, I read a wonderful book entitled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It became somewhat of a cult classic and while ostensibly the peregrinations of a father and his son, was as much a philosophical meditation on what constitutes quality.

Driver: Six Weeks in an Eighteen-Wheeler by Phillip Wilson reminds me of that earlier book. Wilson, after numerous other careers, decided in his late forties that he'd like to become an over-the-road truck driver. This book is a quasi diary of the six week training period when he is paired with a driver who supposedly has more experience to learn the ropes. The company they work for is a good one, emphasizing safety and it's clear that Wilson has been trained well. One harrowing scene describes the instructor, referred to in the book as Trainer, takes the load 40-ton truck down a steep hill, realizing too late that he has picked the wrong gear. Wilson had warned him at the top that he was doing it wrong. Trainer stands on the brakes, Wilson watching the trailer brakes sending up clouds of smoke in the rear view mirror, fearing death is imminent. They make it down safely, only just, bail out of the cab fearing a fire; fortunately none occurs, but now they are faced with calling the company and requesting a repair to fix brake sets that are now seriously dangerous. Trainer makes a bad decision regarding the call. Wilson uses examples like this to muse on death, life, and recklessness.

I love Wilson's combination of detailed descriptions of how the trucks work, the minutiae of driving one of those rigs, the dangers and the satisfactions, and he has just the right combination of personal musings and philosophy and trip detail. Ultimately, it's a book about quality and interpersonal relationships, much like Pirsig's book.

[C.E. Grundler · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the cover sums it up pretty well, this book is brimming with insights and observations of a newly trained driver as he shares the cab with a more experienced trainer, detailing the day to day life of a long-haul trucker. Some may find the extensive details tedious; I found myself immersed and fascinated.

[Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in a truck and truck stops. This was a little soupy, but good nonetheless. Worth reading, just for perspective.