Highways and Byways: Meeting the Boss

By Maik Strosahl

Four stops. Just three deliveries and one pickup in Nebraska before heading for 34 hours with the family and starting it all over again on Monday. And it began as just another Saturday in the life of a Werner-dedicated driver working the Dollar General account, but somehow it became quite a memory.

My truck is a Freightliner. We drive Internationals, Peterbuilts, & Kenworths too.

    I started that morning in North Bend after driving most of Friday afternoon to get to the store. I remember the rail lines were very active behind the store as I completed their delivery. Then on to Fremont. Nothing memorable there. Last delivery in Valley, back in was smooth, delivery was going very well. Had already loaded all the returning rolltainers – Dollar General’s rolling carts that are sent from the distribution center to the stores and returned either folded up or with broken-down cardboard boxes.
    A vehicle pulled to the back of the store by my trailer. This happens occasionally, many times when a person is looking for some boxes to use for moving. People will go through the cut cardboard and pick out a couple they could possibly use, but most have already been cut down, making them useless. Besides, as I said, I had already loaded them up, so I was preparing myself to disappoint the cardboard seeker when they backed up and out of view. I figured they must have seen there were no boxes to be had, so I continued unloading.
    It was then that I saw a familiar face come around the back of my trailer.
    Mr. Werner is a man I had never met before. He is the founder of the Werner Enterprises company, the guy who started out driving one Ford truck in 1956 and now owns near 10,000 semis. And he was now standing in front of me as I lowered three more rolltainers to the ground.

    He introduced himself as C.L., said he was driving to a friend’s and was just passing by. I nervously shook his hand and pushed the first cart into the building. He said he saw one of his trucks and figured he ought to check on his driver. We chatted for a while about driving today and working the account. At one point he asked how hard it was to move the rolltainers full of product. I pulled one off of the lift and offered to let him push it around – mind you, he was no spring chicken. He started moving it around and I was afraid he might attempt to push it up the ramp and into the store, but he turned back to me and said, “I’m not going to push it up that hill.”
    His wife, who had arrived with him, asked if she could take a photo of the two of us together, also offering to take one for me with my phone. After the photos, they made their good-byes and wished me well, driving off while I completed my delivery.

    I just had to tell everybody about meeting the boss. I called my wife, fellow drivers, sending the photo as proof. I posted to a driver’s forum, telling the same story I am telling you today. The response I got back did not surprise me. Drivers with similar experiences told their stories, shared their photos with the man, the legend himself.
    I have been lucky to get to know supervisors and managers before, but C.L. really impressed me. I was just one of 10,000 drivers who were working for him that day, yet he took the time – as he did with the others who had their stories and photos – to stop, check on his driver, showing that I was more than an employee number, driving more than an assigned truck pulling some customer’s freight. I was one of his, and I am proud to drive for the man, Mr. C.L. Werner, whose last name is on every door.

The magnets on the door signify 19 of the 20 states in which
I have delivered to Dollar General stores since I started in 2018:
Oregon, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri,
Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia.
(I have no magnet yet for South Dakota.)

    He made that ordinary day spectacular as I finished my day, continuing on to my final pickup and three hundred sixty miles home.
    Thank you, C.L. I will keep these wheels turning and the shiny side up from here.

Copyright © 2021 by Maik Strosahl Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there.