He has driven 7.5 million miles (12 million kilometers) across North America—roughly 15 trips to the moon and back to Earth—and bought and sold six trucks and four trailers (and too many tires to mention) in the process. That encompasses Don Slater’s 50-year career as a self-employed truck driver and company driver.
Slater has pulled refrigerated and dry vans and tied down loads on flatbed trucks for decades for various trucking companies. He has hauled cargo including grain, produce, baled tobacco, steel, fish, empty crates and frozen cakes.
“In the past, these frozen pies were not loaded onto pallets, but placed in boxes on the trailer,” said the 70-year-old trucker, who loaded hundreds of boxes onto pallets by hand when delivering them to warehouses.
Slater grew up on a farm and loved working with machinery. He began his career as a truck driver in 1974, just before his 20th birthday.th birthday when he was hired by Bruce R. Smith.
“A long-time employee took me under his wing and showed me how it was done. I rode in the truck with him for a bit and learned,” said Slater. Truck driving fed his love of travel, as the work took him to other carriers on regional routes in Ontario and later to other provinces and parts of the United States.
“Older drivers showed me how to put a 20,400 kg coil in the middle of a flatbed trailer, chain it down and have no problems,” he recalls.
Family life
And truck driving led Slater to his partner. He always went to eat at a restaurant that had a truck parking lot. His future wife Marion, a waitress at the restaurant, said she didn’t like truck drivers. But she saw something special in Slater and they married in 1985.
Marion decided to stay home and raise her two sons. “She always mowed grass with our son on her hip. It wasn’t a self-propelled lawn mower,” says Slater.
“It wasn’t easy,” Marion admits, adding that Slater took excellent care of her and the family.
She remembers trucking wasn’t the same when the boys were little and Slater was home two days a week. But as the years went by, he was gone longer and under more stress.
By this time, he was already driving his own truck and was focused on work and keeping his vehicle running. Marion said he would spend his time at home working on his truck.
“Neither of our sons – they are now 38 and 36 – are truck drivers because life was hard,” she said. “They say their father did a great job and knew what hard work meant.”
Changes in the industry
Over the years, the transport industry has changed and Slater points out that many rules have been introduced.
He remembers: “We had no logbooks. We had no cell phones or fax machines. When you went to a rest stop, there were ten pay phones on the wall.”
He used an atlas to plan his route. He drew a line to his destination and noted the motorways that led there. “Once you’ve done that once, you know your way around,” he says.
His years on the road have also taught him many life lessons. As a trucker, you have to make sure you get along well with your dispatcher. “There’s nothing worse than having a dispatcher as your enemy,” he says.
And Slater’s mantra for safety is simple: “Stay in the right lane as much as possible and go with the flow of traffic. Don’t try to be number one.”
After 50 years on the road, Slater is already looking ahead to the next chapter of his life. He is tinkering in a new workshop on his property. He is also open to working at a nearby golf course or delivering auto parts to repair shops.
His wife Marion said he has a to-do list that has been open for 39 years. Maybe he will get around to completing it.
