32 10-4 Magazine / April 2025 Truckers in the moving and storage industry, aka Bedbuggers, operate some of the coolest rigs in trucking, and these men and women are probably some of the hardest working individuals in the industry you will ever meet. Just imagine packing up your house, then loading it all up into a tractor-trailer, then driving several hundreds or even thousands of miles, then unloading it all a day or two later, and then doing this all over again, day after day, and week after week, for years on end. Sounds pretty tiring, doesn’t it? Well, for the most part, that’s the life of a Bedbugger. If you think you’ve got it rough bumpin’ a dock with a van or reefer at a shipper or receiver somewhere, go and move household furniture up and down flights of stairs on a regular basis, and I’m pretty sure you’ll miss that run to a warehouse, even if you might have to sit for a while waiting to get unloaded. The thing that I always found cool about the moving and storage industry were the trucks. Back in the day, cabovers were king and you’d see Kenworth K100 Aerodynes, Freightliners, Peterbilt 352 and 362 double-bunks, and International cabovers, all rollin’ up and down the interstates (or in your neighborhood). Fancy paint schemes with the truck matching the trailer were common, and in many cases, that is still true today. Although the moving and storage industry has changed over the years and companies have consolidated, the basics of the job remain the same. For second generation moving and storage industry veteran Spencer Mathis Jr., it’s all he knows and all he’s done for a living since the late 1970s when he was a kid. Originally from Washougal, WA, which is located just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR, Spencer spent a lot of time riding in his father’s truck, and as he got older, he began to help load and unload. “I like to tell everyone I grew up in a 1976 Bicentennial KW K100C Aerodyne,” said Spencer, referring to Bill Keenan, who was a family friend and owner operator leased to an agent of Fort Wayne, IN based North American Van Lines (NAVL). “Bill ran the 11 western states, and I helped Bill on his truck in the summertime when I was around 12 Truckapedia: By Mark Harter years old until I turned 18, then started helping him full-time,” said Spencer. At the age of 21, Spencer began driving a company truck for a NAVL agent and he bought his first truck – a 1992 International 9700 cabover – at the age of 28. “I bought my first trailer at that time too, which was a tandem-axle 48-foot Kentucky double drop frame ‘Big Bertha’ with super singles. Those trailers have more room in them since the wheel wells are not as large. I traded that trailer a couple years later and then upgraded to a 51-foot ‘Super Bertha’ with three axles and six tires,” said Spencer, as he told me about some of the unique trailers and equipment that are used in the moving and storage industry. A BEDBUGGER’S LIFE
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