I always looked forward to the one week of the summer when Dad would take me out on the road with him. It was always my favorite week of the year. I sat in the passenger seat and thought I was the coolest person in the world as we drove through big cities I never thought I would ever get the chance to see. We would stop at good restaurants and even take days to go swimming in the ocean. As a truck driver’s daughter, I felt like the luckiest kid in the world.
Growing up, I missed my dad a lot. When my siblings and I were young he used to be out on the road for a week at a time, but as we got older he started changing his routes and switched to a regional carrier as an owner-operator. He never wanted to miss any of our activities, so he would drive from Green Bay to Chicago and back each and every day. He would be exhausted, but he never missed any of my softball or basketball games. Who else could wake up and work 14 hours a day and still have enough energy to sit through all of his kids’ events? In my eyes he was Superman.
In May 2015 I was hired on as an intern at SFI Trucks and Financing, and I encouraged my dad to make the switch to leasing his business on with Schneider. I saw how hard he was working each day and I knew it would be better for him at Schneider. It was in July 2015 that he brought his truck over to Schneider as an owner-operator. To this day he swears it was the best business decision he has made. It is pretty cool to be able to call my dad after work and talk to him about all the things I learned. I know it puts a smile on his face.
I will forever remember the experiences I had as a young girl riding passenger in my dad’s big truck, and I will forever remember my siblings and I running out the door when we heard his truck get in the driveway, begging him to honk the horn. Life as a truck driver’s daughter was hard at times, but I would not have changed it for the world. He will forever be my Superman.
If you were a truck driver’s daughter or son, what was your experience like?
