10-4 Magazine November 2023

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss Not one to shy away from a challenge, or stay at any one job for too long, in 1995 Ber t left Bonanza and took a driving job at Gold Rush Motorspor ts, hauling motorcycles and cars in an enclosed Kentucky trailer, with a Kenwor th W900L. Following the bike rally circuit and doing hospitality work for Gold Rush Motorspor ts, which took him out on the road for long periods of time, Ber t stayed there until he got burned out in 1999. Taking a local job in Las Vegas, Ber t began working for Paul DeLong Heavy Haul, driving a 1996 Peterbilt 379, hauling all sor ts of equipment in California and Nevada. After a few years of throwing chains and strapping down loads, Ber t star ted tearing up his shoulder, so he left Paul DeLong and moved to Reno, NV, and took a job at Q&D Construction driving a triple transfer. A few years later, he went to Cappuro Trucking, where he continued driving a triple transfer. From 2004 to 2005 he took a break from truck driving and went back to work in the underground construction field, then he went back to driving a transfer for a company called Klassic Rock (Floyd Johnson) driving a nice 2002 long hood Peterbilt painted black. Running from Reno to Sacramento on a daily basis for Klassic Rock, Ber t did this until 2006, when he took a job at a paving company called Qualcon Contractors in Minden, NV, where he hauled the paving equipment and the asphalt to the job sites. He stayed at this job until 2012, and then moved to Hunewill Construction in Winnemucca, NV. While at Hunewill, he ran end dumps and belly dumps, hauled some heavy equipment, and eventually got back into a triple transfer. Doing a lot of work in the gold mines, he stayed there until 2017 – after years of living out of a suitcase and in motels, he was done with that – but he did get good at cooking all his food, including vegetables, in microwave ovens. After a shor t stint at a local company in Gardnerville, NV, driving a triple transfer, he decided to try something new and took a job hauling bulk commodities in a belt trailer for a It’s not often that someone gets a second chance, but sometimes it happens. Such is the case for trucker Ber t Greene (63) of Gardnerville, NV. Not long after taking the plunge to become an owner operator, after decades of driving company trucks, Ber t had a medical emergency that looked like it was going to sideline his driving career and force him to sell his dream truck and trailer, which he had just purchased. Thankfully, his condition improved, and he was able to get back into the driver’s seat before the truck went to a new home. Sadly, his matching trailer sold in just days, so once he was cleared to get back on the road, he had to find a new gig – and a new trailer – to continue on. But that is exactly what he (and his wife Lisa) did! Born in 1959 into a trucking family, Huber t (Ber t) Greene star ted life in Gridley, CA, a small town about 50 miles nor th of Sacramento. At that time, Ber t’s father Huber t Greene Sr. (AKA Hugh) was running a transfer for a company called Shifflet Brothers. When Ber t was four years old, his father transferred to Clearlake, CA (about 80 miles east of Gridley), so the family moved there in 1963. Working at Clearlake Truck and Crane Service, Ber t’s dad was a trucker’s trucker. Growing up, Ber t went out on the road with his dad whenever he could, and actually learned to drive in his dad’s two-stick truck. In school, Ber t played a lot of spor ts, and at one time, he had hopes of playing baseball in the big leagues. But during his senior year of high school, he decided he had other interests and walked away from a future in spor ts, and instead began focusing on other things, including driving a truck. Graduating in 1978, he went to work for a local construction company doing underground and pipe work. In 1983 he began his driving career in a 10-wheel fuel tank truck. In 1985 he went to Benito Tank Lines and began hauling fuel in a tractor-trailer. Benito was known for having nice equipment, and Ber t was blessed to get a brand-new, fully polished, 1986 Peterbilt 359 to drive while he was there. A few years later, in 1987, Ber t switched over to Unocal in Richmond, CA, driving one of their orange 1988 Peterbilt 379 fuel trucks locally around the Bay area. But after just about a year and a half of driving at night in that terrible Bay area traffic, Ber t left there and went to D. Dolan Trucking in Petaluma, CA, and began running a really nice 1987 Peterbilt 379 transfer. A year later, in 1989, he went to Ted Moore Trucking in San Jose, CA, and drove a transfer for them until 1993, at which point he decided to move to Las Vegas, and took a job at Bonanza Materials in Henderson, NV, hauling powdered gypsum in a set of aluminum belly dumps. 10 10-4 Magazine / November 2023 A SECOND CHANCE