This year’s
first member story we start out with a long-time CDTOA
member out of Southern California near San Diego –
Frank Thacker Trucking.
Since 1967, almost 37 years to the month, Frank and Beverly
Thacker have been CDTOA members and their story of independence
and risk-taking is like many owner-operators who joined
CDTOA in the 1960’s.
Growing in up in San Bernardino, Frank and Beverly met
in a roller rink 43 years ago, Beverly was 16 and Frank
19. They were married one year later and moved to Claremont
Ca., a small town at the time, near Pomona. Frank started out installing television antennas in the San Bernardino area and when things got
windy he would work in the San Diego area helping San
Diego member Gene Saathoff who was also in that business
at the time.
Frank started his trucking career in 1967; his interest
was piqued when Hal Harrison, a neighbor and trucking
company owner, talked about a truck he had for sale. Hal
owned and operated his own truck and Frank always wanted
to try it out, “I always liked mechanical things
and trucks were very mechanical back than,” recalled
Frank..
In late March of 1967, Frank purchased his first truck,
a 1953 Peterbilt. After his first day of working as a
trucker for Harrison Trucking pulling a set of double
bottom dumps, Frank’s truck motor ‘blew-up’.
He recalled making $17 an hour and for his first day of
work he grossed a total of $70.19 before the engine failed.
The engine replacement was very expensive, it cost us
$1,800 for a used replacement engine, this was a very
hard time for us,” recalled Frank.
Beverly stayed home and took care of their children, Michael
and Tammy.
Michael now 40 years of age, is their full time mechanic.
After graduating High School, Michael graduated from UTT
diesel mechanic school in Arizona.
Working with Harrison Trucking for a few years, Frank
expanded the business and bought his first Transfer, a
new 1969 GMC. After this purchase, he then went to work
for Steven Trucking out of San Pisqual Valley hauling
sand to ConRock, now know as Vulcan.Frank’s luck
with the new GMC went from bad to worse, “we went
through four engines by 1971, and we demanded that GMC
take the tractor back,” recalled Frank. With a lawsuit
pending against GMC, utilizing the newly created “Lemon
Law” GMC finally bought the truck back. With those
funds, Frank bought an AutoCar chassis with a Mack cab.
They named it AutoMac. He worked
the truck for some time, retiring it and eventually purchasing
a 10-wheeler.
(L to R) Frank Thacker, (daughter)
Tammy and (son) Michael Thacker. Frank’s first
truck purchased in 1967 a 1953 Peterbilt. |
In 1973, Frank and Beverly decided
to trade the homemade 10-wheeler for something different,
a 1957 Peterbilt transfer and trailer combo. The boxes
on the Pete were bad so Frank replaced them with an older
set of 1963 Cook Brothers boxes. He had found a pair of
old boxes that were abandoned at a sand plant due to their
out of date hydraulic transferring system for $500 dollars.
Frank converted the transfer system to electric and customized
them turning the boxes into a front transfer system. Frank
had explained that in the early 60’s the transfer
boxes were different to what they are today. A driver
had to leave the transfer parked in a flat open space
and go from behind to transfer the trailer box. “You
needed a lot more space for those older transfers,”
he said. The conversion of these boxes was something that
no one had seen before and was indicative of Frank’s
creativeness.
(L to R) Frank and Beverly
Thacker stand next to two of there working trucks,
a 1997 Peterbilt, a 1990 Kenworth and there custom
shaved GMC dully. Frank likes his equipment to
both run and look good.
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Frank and Beverly ran this business
for about five years, upgraded to a 1972 Kenworth tractor
on July of 1974, pulling a semi-end dump with it. “Work
was very hard to find at that time for most local dump
truckers,” recalled Beverly. “We got a break
and began hauling for a company called CBE (California
Bulk Express). We hauled many different materials interstate.
The company ran in 14 western states and we hauled copper
ore, manganese to many different fertilizer companies,”
added Beverly. “Frank traveled interstate as far
as Texas. He would bring in copper ore from New Mexico
and dump it into the Port of Long Beach.” Beverly
said. “Beverly also managed all the accounting, road
taxes and prorating for CBE,” Frank explained.
“In the late 1970’s the recession ended, and
word spread that you could get more local work hauling
semi-end dumps or with a transfer work,” said
Frank. So he took the 1972 Kenworth and added a set of
transfer boxes and started to work every day. Frank had
a tendency over the years to not leave any job or rock
untouched and whatever it took to get the job done he
took his trucks and turned them into whatever the job
called for. “Sometimes they weren’t very pretty,
but they got the work done and generated income,”
said Frank.
This 1972 Kenworth was converted
from a tractor with a sleeper pulling semi-end dumps
to a 10-wheeler dump truck. The paint scheme was
changed to reflect Frank’s company colors. |
“The 1970’s were pretty tough here in the state
for many in the construction industry,” recalled
Frank. And if the recession wasn’t bad enough, in
late 1974, Frank had what doctors thought was lung cancer
and went through some serious operations, but the family
still had to pay the bills. During this period working
for CBE, Frank taught Beverly how to drive his truck prior
to his surgery and for six weeks while Frank was in recovery,
Beverly was behind the wheel. “After Franks surgery,
I was pretty much on my own,” she said. “It
was very unusual for women to drive in those days, but
people knew why I had to. I would come into ConRock and
the guys at the plant would help me with my load,”
she said. “I had all kinds of support, not like some
women who really had a hard time back then”.
When Frank started to get better, both Beverly and he
teamed up to drive around the clock. “Frank would
take two loads and I would do one,” Beverly explained.
Frank had an accident in his Kenworth in 1978 and replaced
it with an International tractor. The International needed
some serious maintenance, but for a handy and resourcful
guy like Frank it was a piece of cake. Rebuilding the
International from the ground up and building up the boxes,
was part of the whole trucking experience back then for
Frank.
Frank’s 1957 Peterbilt
with custom 1963 Cook Brothers boxes. Frank converted
the transfer system to electric turning the boxes
into a front transfer system. In the early 1960’s
the transfer boxes were transferred from the rear.
Today, all transfers are done from the front of
the trailer. |
While Frank and Beverly experienced
a number of boom and bust periods over the years, Frank
did have some fun experiences. One of the most memorable
was an incident he had with a local CHP officer. “It
was early in the morning and I had just picked up my haul
of charcoal, this stuff was oily, greasy and nasty,”
he recalled. “So the officer pulls me over to see
what I was hauling, he thought I was overweight. He went
over that truck trying to find something to site me for.
The officer went up to the top to see what I was hauling
and when he came down he was so mad that he had gotten
really dirty, he sited me for a strap that was backwards,”
Frank smiled.
Frank Thacker Trucking moved many times to compensate
for the losses it had with their equipment and the changes
with the local economy. As their kids grew up, they to
would help with the family business. After a few years
and recovering from some bust cycles, they finally were
able to grow the business again and purchased some land
and bought a
Frank Thacker Trucking’s
latest model equipment, (l to r) 1997 Peterbilt
and a 1990 Kenworth with a Western Box behind is
a 1976 Superior pup trailer. Frank Thacker Trucking
does there own painting and maintenance on their
equipment.
Photographs; Jesse Ramirez Others
provided by; Beverly Thacker |
home in San Marcos, living there
for about 16-years and still running mainly one truck.
In 1993, Frank Thacker Trucking moved to Valley Center
and began to grow their business again. By January of
2000, their fleet grew from one truck, which Frank drove
to five working trucks. While the company has grown, so
have the headaches according to both. “ It’s
almost impossible to have employees in the trucking business
today with the high cost of insurance and workers’
comp, benefits and now fuel,” said Frank. Fortunately,
most of what they owned was paid for and that helps
them to remain competitive, but “there comes a point
when it’s not worth it and we’re getting pretty
close to that point,” added Beverly.
Frank Thacker joined CDTOA in April of 1967 and has been
very supportive of the association and what it has done
for the industry over the years. “I remember when
we first went to work for Harrison Trucking, Hal strongly
suggested that we join CDTOA and we did. It was a good
investment,” said Frank.
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