WSJ: What To Do When You Retire?

The Over-50 Crowd Takes to the Road In Paid Big-Rig Gigs

Couples Find Second Careers Driving 18-Wheelers; Gone to Look for America
By STEPHANIE CHEN
August 24, 2006; Page A1

At a truck stop diner along Interstate 5 near Tigard, Ore., Daniel and Becky Ford were fueling up on pancakes and black coffee for the 2,200-mile run to Dallas they were about to make in a Freightliner tractor-trailer stuffed with auto parts.
It was the 10th week on the open road for Mr. Ford, 57 years old, and his 51-year-old wife, who chucked their old life in rural Pennsylvania in May for a cramped truck cab that keeps them moving 22 hours a day.
Their new career is taking them to places they always dreamed of visiting but couldn't afford. "When the money is tight and you have other worries, you can't be too adventurous," says Mrs. Ford, a former hairstylist. "Becky and I serve as our own boss," says Mr. Ford, a former carpenter. "We can stop wherever we want."
Faced with a worsening shortage of long-haul truck drivers, freight carriers are turning to the RV generation, aggressively recruiting older couples like the Fords to climb behind the wheel. Schneider National Inc., the Green Bay, Wis., company that hired the Fords and put them through driving school, fishes for applicants through AARP, the advocacy group for people 50 and older, and has a Web page for "mature workers." This fall, the American Trucking Association plans a billboard and television ad blitz to lure older drivers.
"We just thought if Ma and Pa can drive the Winnebago, maybe they can drive the 18-wheeler," says Tim Lynch, a senior vice president at the trade group.
Since 2000, the number of service and truck drivers 55 or older has surged 19%, to about 616,000, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage jump is quadruple that of truck drivers overall. At Schneider, about 3,000 of the carrier's 15,000 drivers and independent contractors are older people.
The hiring binge has dramatically increased the number of husband-and-wife driving teams, and truck makers are trying to make their big rigs feel more like rolling homes away from home. Paccar Inc.'s Kenworth Truck Co. unit introduced a new model in March with leather beds and heated seats. Volvo Trucks North America, part of AB Volvo, has begun production of trucks with a full-size bed in the cab comfortable for couples.
Johnson's Corner, a truck stop halfway between Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo., that claims it has been open 24 hours a day since 1952, has begun ordering outdoor magazines and Western novels for older drivers who don't like the standard fare of hot-rod and girlie magazines, said Chauncey Taylor, the truck stop's owner. A new whirlpool and massage chairs are available for "those who have weary bones," he says.
Women drivers at Prime Inc. can get their hair and nails done at a salon that opened two years ago in a 40,000-square-foot facility that the Springfield, Mo., refrigerated-truck carrier runs in its hometown for drivers and other employees. "Even if they are away from home, we want to give them the same amenities everyone else would have," says Don Lacy, the company's safety director.
Terri Lynch, 58, who began driving a truck with her husband, Joey, in 1992, now has a cellphone jammed with the numbers of wives who take turns behind the wheel with their spouses. She makes weekly calls to new husband-and-wife driver teams, peppering them with advice on how to make marriage coexist with life on the road. "You just have to learn to work with each other," Mrs. Lynch tells other truck-driving wives.
Older drivers don't face any extra requirements because of their age. Most carriers send recruits to commercial driving school. Drivers must pass a physical exam required by the federal government, but there is no mandatory retirement age as there is for commercial pilots, who under Federal Aviation Administration rules must retire at 60. On the road, among all drivers, those 55 to 69 have the lowest fatality rates for adults, according to a 2004 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report.
Truck companies with baby boomer drivers insist their safety record is at least as good as that of younger drivers. Older drivers are especially cautious, says Steve Vogel, president of Vogel Safety & Risk Inc., a safety consulting firm in Bolingbrook, Ill. Riding shotgun with a spouse also can make drivers less likely to speed, tailgate or go berserk at road-hogging cars.
At larger carriers, older husband-and-wife drivers often get health insurance, a 401(k) plan, and two or three days off every two weeks. Annual starting pay is roughly $66,000 to $90,000 per couple, enough to entice many middle-aged spouses approaching a financially precarious retirement. The $1,000 a week that former office secretary Betty Ewing, 53, and her husband, Ed, each make driving for CRST International Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has allowed them to build a house in Texas. On the road, they read mystery novels to each other to pass the time.
Many couples are won over by the chance to see sights that seemed out of reach before they hit the road. Wayne and Zella Gerdts of Hortonville, Wis., dashed to Niagara Falls during an eight-hour layover four years ago. She has developed an interest in collecting Native American pottery, sometimes shopping for Navajo vases while her husband plays casino poker. Mrs. Gerdts, 65, turned to trucking after being laid off by the insurance company where she worked for 14 years.
The Fords can stop wherever they want along their company-assigned routes, as long as their loads are delivered on time. They already have visited 44 states, stashing postcards on the dashboard from stops along the way. Earlier this summer, Mr. Ford emerged from an old Western shop in El Paso, Texas, with a pair of ostrich-leather cowboy boots, and the couple made a detour off I-84 in Utah last month to see Devil's Slide, a limestone formation.
The auto-parts run to Dallas was a three-day slog with a tight deadline that left no room to wander. So Mr. and Mrs. Ford enjoyed watching thick forests along the highway sharpen into focus like a Polaroid picture. Bouncing through Oregon's Cascade Mountains, she noticed something flicker through a corner of the windshield. "Look," Mrs. Ford said, touching her husband's shoulder as she pointed out a faint rainbow receding into rain clouds.