After six long months of part-time dock work, I finally got to drive again—though not without having to take a driving test for Overnite. The safety officer’s name was Bob Darby, and he was one of the coolest safety men I’ve ever worked with in my 47-year driving career.
Now, you have to understand that all of Overnite’s power equipment were Mack trucks. The city day cab tractors were MB models—primarily used as trash compactors, but instead of a trash box, they had a fifth-wheel plate. The road tractors were F-model Macks, also day cabs. Both models were equipped with 5-speed transmissions and a second shift stick for high/low range. That alone was a college education for me, and I’m not joking.
Back to Safety Supervisor Bob Darby and my driving test: I was to hook to an empty trailer, which Bob watched me do. Then I demonstrated my pre-trip inspection, and Bob watched me go through the motions, kind of smiling, and said, “Good enough for me.”
Now, here’s where my driving test got really interesting. Remember those three drivers from McCormick who taught me to drive? They trained me without using a clutch to shift gears, and these Mack transmissions are nowhere close to the synchronization of a 10-speed Fuller transmission. So, when we took off and I started shifting, I was grinding every gear. Bob looked at me and said, “Relax, Gerry. You pass. I know you can drive. Besides, word is they’re planning to replace those gears with rubber ones soon.” That took the pressure off, and the rest of the test went as smooth as silk.
I was assigned to train with Kenny Grismore. His route was Bloomington, Indiana. I rode with him for, if memory serves, a whole week. The training was very thorough. Overnite equipment had what were called “tattle-tale” monitoring clocks—early models of electronic logging devices. These clocks were tied into the engine’s electronic system, and you’d put a round paper disk inside. The needle inside the clock would mark the disk, showing how fast the truck was going, when it stopped and started, and how long the driver took for various tasks. It also recorded when the clock was opened and closed. The stops recorded on the driver’s card had to closely match the disk data, whether for city or over-the-road drivers.
After passing the driver’s test with Bob and completing the week of training with Kenny, my next step was my city peddle route. I was assigned the southwest side of Indianapolis—which I had hoped for.
About two months after my driving test and training, I was told I needed to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, for orientation. My travel plans were to fly from Indianapolis International to Atlanta, then onto Charlotte. During this time, I called my former traffic manager from McCormick, Danny Eldridge, from the airport to catch up and thank him again for his help and the reference letter that helped me get this far. He told me, “No thanks are necessary. You earned this with your work ethic and professionalism. But I’m glad everything’s working out for you.” He also said, “Call anytime if you need anything.”
I caught my flight to Charlotte and arrived later that day to start orientation the next morning—Monday. Orientation was… well, just orientation. Three days of classroom sessions covering the company’s history, the organizational structure, benefits, and daily routines like paperwork, safety protocols, and proper load procedures. On day four, I went with an assigned local driver on his route for hands-on lessons—basically everything Kenny had shown me during my training at Indianapolis.
But here’s the unexpected part: on that Thursday, some of us were told we wouldn’t fly home but instead would drive tractors to deliver them to terminals that needed them. I drove an MB single-axle Mack bobtail (no trailer) to the Cincinnati terminal—about 450 miles—on Friday. The next day, I picked up a loaded tractor and trailer and drove it back to our Indianapolis terminal. That bobtail drive through the Smoky Mountains was unforgettable. To this day, it’s my favorite place in the country to spend leisure time. Thank you, Overnite, for that incredible experience.
There’s so much more to come in the next chapters about my experiences at this amazing company. I hope you’re enjoying this journey as much as I enjoy remembering and sharing it—because it truly means the world to me.
My Trucker Life 