It truly is America the Beautiful in this trucker’s eyes

Crete driver Doug Lenker says he feels blessed to be working and living in America. (The Trucker/Jerry Breeden)

By JERRY BREEDEN
The Trucker Staff

3/31/2008

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — “I love it out here,” Mechanicsburg, Pa., driver Doug Lenker told The Trucker during a recent interview at a Central Arkansas truck stop.

“Being a truck driver is a great profession and the U.S. is a great place to be doing it,” he said. “I make $1,000 to $1,400 a week getting paid by my company to see this great country up close and personal. I’m my own boss, more or less, and I love the freedom of the open road. I really am blessed.”

Lenker has been a trucker since 1999. He’s been with Crete Carrier Corp. for about four months.

“When it came time for me to make a change, I looked at a lot of different companies,” said Lenker. “There are a lot of good companies in need of drivers. I eventually narrowed it down to two outfits, Crete and one other.

“I talked to about two dozen Crete drivers. Time and time again, they were every one totally satisfied with the company. And then I took a good, close look at the company itself. Let me just say that I am very, very glad I chose Crete. I wish I had gone to work for them from the very first day that I started trucking.”

Lenker said he is “saddened when I realize how many truck drivers out here are just plain miserable. Not all of them are, by any means, but there are quite a few. So many of them have a negative frame of mind.”

Lenker said that “recruiters, as a whole, have a very low credibility rating, but the recruiter I talked with at Crete was straight up with me about everything. He told me the truth when he explained what I could expect and what the company would expect of me.

“When I went for orientation, they provided me with a rental car, put me up in a motel for two and a half days, paid me $500 and, in general, treated me royally,” said Lenker. “They really do care about their drivers.”

He said he hears a lot of chatter among the older truckers of today “complaining about the newer, or younger, drivers. The new drivers aren’t the problem, as I see it. The problem is the owner-operator roaring down the road in some old heap and yelling for everyone else to get out of his way.”

Another thing Lenker said he likes about Crete is that “they closely monitor three types of drivers: the new ones, those who’ve had violations, and those who have driven a lot of miles. That kind of monitoring helps protect not only the company, but the driver as well.”

Lenker, who is single, is also drawn to trucking because of the travel. He said he loves driving in the Sheridan, Wyo., area. “I love the Sioux Indian Territory and Little Big Horn, plus Yellowstone. This country of ours is so drop-dead gorgeous and so rich in a history all its own that just being out here is a blessing.”

Lenker said he hopes someday to do a book or photo-travelogue of interesting places to visit in the U.S. “I’ll call it Sunrises Over America. I think that would be really great.”

To Lenker’s way of thinking, people — and not just truck drivers — “need to slow down and realize how beautiful this country is, regardless of the state of affairs or political climate we’re in. This is a great nation and we should all be proud to be living here.”