Trucker learned to shift gears from the passenger seat with dad as his teacher

By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff

11/11/2009

After serving in the military from 1972 to 1975, Gustavo Vega had some money in his pocket and no plans.

“My dad had trucks,” he explained. “I had some separation money from the military so I had a vacation. He had a 1964 big rig sitting up on blocks. He told me, ‘If you want it, you can have it.’ So I put my money into that and drove it.

“He taught me to drive. I learned from the passenger side shifting gears with my left hand. I worked for my dad.”

The two hauled shipping containers in and out of ports.

“We worked like that for about 15 years,” Vega said. “I talked him out of trucking. He sold his company and now he buys and sells and distributes heavy-duty parts.

“I went into construction for a year and didn’t like that and went back to trucking over-the-road.”

Vega’s been a truck driver for 32 years and currently works for Rinaudo Enterprises, where he hauls heavy equipment.

He’s married with three grown boys, ages 32, 26, and 24. They all still live at home. He’s been married for 28 years to Lissy, an accountant.

“She’s my soul mate,” Vega said. “We went to school together in sixth grade through eighth grade. We sat close together because of assigned seats.”

Vega moved away after the eighth grade and didn’t see her until he came out of the military. They ran into one anther on the beach and exchanged numbers.

“The next night we went to the movies and that was it,” he said. “Actually she called me.”

Vega grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He left Brooklyn and moved to Puerto Rico in 1967, and it was when he returned from the Army to visit his dad, who was still working there, that he reconnected to Lissy. That was about 1975 and he stayed until sometime in the early ’80s.

“Trucking [in Puerto Rico] is very unique,” Vega said. “It’s got elevations of 12,000 feet above sea level. It’s mountainous. I learned how to drive in the mountains on small bridges and old roads. If a truck was going up a hill it had the right-of-way.”

Vega was married in 1983 and moved to Jacksonville, Fla., because of its ports and rails. “We went there because that’s where the money was,” he said.

Vega still goes into the ports for work, but rather than container hauling, he goes in to pick up equipment. He recently got his Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) and a Jacksonville Port Badge.

Vega thinks the TWIC program is ineffective.

“I went into the Savannah, Ga., port and I didn’t have a TWIC,” Vega said. “But they told me a guy around the corner could escort me in who they made sure to say wasn’t affiliated with the port, for $60.”

Vega said this angered him and that he went through with the deal to finalize his destination, but then he got his TWIC.

“By this kid having a TWIC and getting me in, where’s the true meaning of the security badge? It violated the whole concept of security. The people at the port, the security, they know all about it.”

In 1996 Vega was an owner-operator when he got into an accident. A four-wheeler lost control and entered his lane and he T-boned it.

“It was a young little lady,” he said. “She was in better shape than I was. I ended up having an operation on my neck. I lost my truck because I was off for a year.”

Vega gives the company he works for, Rinaudo, high marks.

“I’m home every two weeks and then home for a week,” Vega said. “I do hardwood floors on the side. My clients call me and I say you have to wait ’til I get home. We own our own house and have a lot of expenses with credit cards and car notes. I’m up against the wall and I gotta do what I gotta do.

“This economy ain’t gonna get no better. I’m telling you that. Every time anything happens I always go back to trucking. I know I can make a living. I know that. I’ll retire in trucking. I do want to own my own truck again. I’m just trying to get my finances in order. It’s really a good time to buy with the economy down.”

Vega said heavy equipment haulers are macho and don’t like to drive smaller loads, but right now he does what he has to do to make a living.

“Makes no difference to me,” he said, about what loads the company gives him. “I’ll pull any equipment they have right now. I have a step deck. As long as I’m working — I used to would have been embarrassed to be hauling a step deck.”

Vega says he doesn’t have any problems with the trucking industry, but that he does have some issues with the politics involved and politics in general.

“The priorities that everybody [has] — just [use] common sense — we need to get America to work. We need to change the health care system but not right now.”

He also has problems with state-of-the art electronics mixed with trucking like EOBRs and Qualcomm units.

“I don’t like any of that,” he said. “I have a cell phone and a GPS and that’s as high tech as I get. It’s just like marriage, if I don’t trust my wife I shouldn’t be going. Trucking doesn’t trust you.”

Vega’s got some problems with the latest Hours of Service rules, and he’s been around long enough to have driven under the old pre-2003 rules, and he mentions another problem, too.

“[The] existing rule is no good,” he said, “because all the truck drivers come into the truck stops at one time and you can’t find a parking spot. They are forcing the drivers to drive when he’s tired with these rules. He can’t take a break when he needs to.”

And on another issue: “When I have an oversize load — depending on the state — you have a curfew. The states have different rules. There’s no access across the board. No uniform rules.”

As for all the recent attention to distracted driving, The Trucker asked about his policy for using a cell phone while driving.

“I think that’s a no-no,” he said. “I might pick up the phone but I say I’ll call back later. Take your eye off the ball and you’re off the road.

“I get so angry when I see people driving and on the phone. I see a lot of truckers on cell phones and it makes me so angry. But I keep it to myself. It doesn’t take a lot to get into trouble.”

Vega said he’s taken his wife and kids across the country and he added that there’s not much to see that he hasn’t already seen.

He said that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, trucks stops have been really cleaned up. He said they used to have a lot of drugs, girls going from one truck to the next, just a lot of action and he used to like to be involved in some of it.

“I used to drink too much, but I don’t drink at all now,” he explained. “I don’t crave for it. I smoke a lot. I smoke about a pack a day. It’s mostly out of habit. I don’t have much joy in it.”

Vega served his country during the Vietnam conflict but didn’t see any combat. He was an aviation repairman.

When he’s home he likes to watch NFL football — he’s a fan of the N.Y. Giants, Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos — and spend time with his family.

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barbkampbell@thetrucker.com.

Follow The Trucker on Twitter at www.twitter.com/truckertalk.