10-4 Magazine November 2023

Trucker Talk: By John & Kim Jaikes Every November we remember a great friend and awesome ambassador for the trucking industry – Bette Garber. Her famous line was, “I can’t make you rich, but I can make you famous.” She started “shooting” trucks in the late 1970s and continued photographing and writing about drivers and their trucks until she passed on November 13, 2008. Her work documents a lot of trucking history and her memory lives on in all the friends she made along the way. I met Bette at the Walcott Truckers Jamboree in 1990 and we became friends. Her first trip with me was to LosAngeles, CA in October 1991. I still have pictures from that trip, and the most memorable one was when she stood on top of my T600 in the Virgin River Gorge so she could get pictures over the barrier in the middle of the interstate. Over the years she took several trips with us, shot stock photographs, and found stories along the way. She had five books published, but she never got to do the personal memoir of her journey in the trucking industry. We had talked about it, and she wanted to title it “A Memory Every Mile” – hence the title of this month’s column. But this month’s article is not about just Bette, as we are tying the story of another friend of hers together. Susie De Ridder of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada has been a longhaul trucker for 44 years and has won many awards over that time. Last year she was honored to be chosen as a TA Citizen Driver Award recipient. The TA Travel Center network created the award to recognize professional drivers who demonstrate traits that bring a high level of respect to the truck driving profession, including good citizenship, safety, health and wellness, community involvement and leadership. As part of the honor, every Citizen Driver Award winner get to select a TA, Petro Stopping Center, or TA Express location to be dedicated in their name, allowing their story to be displayed for all travelers that pass through. The TA Susie chose is the one on Lenwood Avenue in Barstow, CA. Growing up in a trucking family, Susie traveled with her dad from the time she was a toddler. She spent every chance she got around the trucks. If she wasn’t busy helping wash the trucks, she was learning how to drive one – she could drive a truck before she got her license to drive a car. There weren’t many women drivers back then, and when Susie asked her dad why he said, “The steering wheel doesn’t know who is holding it.” It’s a quote she still cherishes after all these years. She set out on a mission after high school to get her license to drive a truck and then went on to pursue her trucking career. That mission has been fulfilled on a very high level. The TA Citizen Driver Award isn’t Susie’s first time being recognized. She was chosen to be on the Women In Trucking (WIT) Image Team in 2018; cover for Port Magazine promoting International Women’s Month March 2020; first “Driver of the Year” for WIT 2020; named as one of WIT’s (and Fleet Magazine’s) Top Woman to Watch in 2021; was featured on the Wall of Fame at MATS 2022; Women of Inspiration Authentic Leadership Award based on a global platform of five continents 2022; Top Fund Raising Efforts by a Driver for Cancer Research and Awareness in the Atlantic Region of Canada; and the first female to lead a convoy in that region. As an active volunteer at WIT events and truck shows in Canada and the US, Susie mentors young women at events at high schools and community colleges to promote trucking to future generations. Her lifetime memberships includeWIT, OOIDAand OBAC (Owner Operator’s Association of Canada). She is also a regular guest on Sirius XM Radio trucking shows and podcasts. One night on one of our “party line” phone calls, Susie told us that years ago some of the guys in the shop in Ontario asked if she could stop by West Coast Choppers and get them some t-shirts, since her loads took her near there. She said she would be happy to do it. After she was unloaded, off she went to find this place in Long Beach, CA and when she got there all the guys were on break and came out to see her extra long nosed “Pinocchio” Peterbilt. It was an awesome place, and Susie took pictures of the mint old cars and choppers inside to show the guys back home. 70 10-4 Magazine / November 2023 A MEMORY EVERY MILE