Driver stuck at truck stop trying to make it home to do volunteer work

By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff

8/31/2009

Bartlow file
Drives for: Tennant Truck Lines Inc.
Grew up in: West Central Illinois
Drives: 2004 International
Home vehicle: 2004 SAAB
Birthday: Jan. 2, 1979
Years trucking: 12

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — All he wanted was to be home in time to do some promised volunteer work, but driver Nate Bartlow found himself stuck in Arkansas with an empty flatbed truck as he counted down the minutes, realizing that he most likely would not be home in time to help with a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fundraiser.

Bartlow drives participants in a van along the 74-mile route where relay runners take turns on foot and riding in the van.

He does other charity work as well. In February in Galena, Ill., each year Bartlow is a ski patroller for the Illinois State Special Olympics.

“I help keep them safe and do a lot of smiling,” Bartlow beamed. “They live for that week. Until you actually help them you have no idea how much enjoyment you can get out of them.”

Bartlow also participates in a St. Jude golf outing fundraiser.

“Five years ago my team won,” he said, “and we gave all the money back.”

He also works a couple of times a year on Habitat for Humanity houses.

Bartlow has been a truck driver for 12 years, nine of those as a full-time driver. The other three were spent driving on a farm.

“I learned from older guys and the farm,” Bartlow said about how he got started in trucking. “I took the written test then took the driving test in a snowstorm the day I turned 18. The corn had to get to the river.”

Bartlow passed the test and got the load to a barge.

While he says trucking is something he just kind of got into, there are other things he’d like to do although at the moment he didn’t know exactly what that would be.

He drives over-sized specialty heavy loads all over the U.S.; mostly from the Rockies east.

“I don’t like the East Coast big cities,” Bartlow said. “I love to drive the two-lane roads, just out anywhere because you get to see America — what turns America.

“I started over-sized at 23 or 24 working road construction — job site to job site — they called it local but it was a full-time drive.”

That is until his company was shut down. The governor at the time, Rod Blagojevich, said it was for a safer Illinois, Bartlow explained. All road work had to be bid on by a union company.

“So the owner called and said, ‘You have four weeks work, Nate, and you’re done.’ And he shut down. I went to Tennant after I saw their banner in the Quad Cities on the way to a baseball game. I called ‘em up and started work about a week-and-a-half later.

“It’s a good family run business. Overall they are great. I’ve never met a better bunch of guys. Most of the staff has driven trucks. The president [Bob Tennant] still drives trucks. He does an overnight once in a while but mostly hauls local. He’s there every morning working on stuff. His dad started the business.”

The company has 107 trucks.

Bartlow is unmarried and has no children of his own. For fun he likes to snow ski all over the place. He said he takes a week off here or there to ski.

“Most weekends I am at home. I spend time with my best friend’s kids and farming. The children are 13 years, 11 years, and 14 months. I take the older ones for pizza or just to hang out. I baby sit them.”

When on a break on the road he surfs the Internet, watches movies, listens to baseball games, or just goes for a walk.

“I love seeing the country” Bartlow said. “I’ve trucked in every state but three.”

The economy has a big effect on flatbed loads and while things are difficult for a lot of drivers, Bartlow thinks the recession is going to hang on a while.

“The recession is not over,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot longer than they think. The housing market goes up 2 percent [referring to a recent slight increase], but it’s going to take a lot more than that. Obama’s plan hurt me. I haul oversize stuff. It’s cutthroat hauling for nothing.

“We haven’t seen any of the stimulus — the money’s not going where it needs to. The companies bid so cheap they can’t buy new equipment. Obama’s plan is not working in that aspect. It’s one thing to put the owners and workers back to work, but the companies aren’t making anything.”

Bartlow offered his own suggestions on fixing the economy:

“Cut income tax,” he said. “Cut all taxes. Somehow, somewhere you can do it — it gives people incentive to work harder. A lot of tax goes to welfare and unemployment. Why give people an incentive not to work? People need to work. Get off your butts and go to work.

“[Trucking] is a lot of good work. There’s a lot of good people on the road. And there are a lot who don’t want to be out here — don’t want to drive a truck. They’re full of anger. They don’t have a good attitude towards anybody. It puts everybody in a bad mood. Sitting at a diner or somewhere and somebody is so negative; it’s uncalled for.”

Is trucking something Bartlow might do for a long time?

“No,” he said emphatically. “I have a great head of hair, I’m a great babysitter; I should be in customer service. I’d like to do customer service. I like meeting people. The ski industry would by ideal.’

But he does enjoy seeing the country.

“I like seeing new places — seeing the sun come up over the desert or the lakes up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or the way the wind blows across the wheat fields. It’s America — I like it.”

Bartlow said one wish of his for trucking is that drivers act better.

“Have respect for the road,” he said. “Everything — other drivers, cars, customers, the ladies at the fuel islands, the guys at the shops — treat them nice.”   

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

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