Overdrive : October 2008
Trucker of the Month
48 OVERDRIVE OCTOBER 2008 Russ and Vernanne Mills have their own authority and are cleared to haul military freight. St ev en Mac ka y R uss Mills' trucking experience has been a lot like his time on Alaska's ice roads. Despite the potential pitfalls and slippery slopes ahead, with practice and care, he says it has been a rewarding adventure. Mills is a Rochester, Wash., resident with his own authority, R.E. Mills Transportation. That was probably the most interest-ing, fun work I've ever done, Mills says of Alaskan ice road hauls he made for Carlisle Transportation in 2001. Along the way he saw night skies lit up with so-called diamond dust, a ground-level cloud composed of tiny ice crystals, and herds of musk ox and caribou 12,000 strong. For Mills, a 40-year trucking veteran, to label any one of his experiences most interesting speaks volumes. Mills has hauled freight ranging from 27-ft.-wide oil equipment to 130-ft. long bridge beams that required a rear steer car to manage. He also carried a nuclear accel-erator from the University of Washing-ton to Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. The route, due to the extreme over-height, took us over Mt Hood, Ore., Mills says. He has come a long way since start-ing out in a friend's old dump truck in 1969, but 61-year-old Mills says it hasn't been an easy ride. It's so much harder today than when I started trucking, he says, more traffi c, more distractions, more inconsiderate drivers, including some of my fellow truckers. It's the lack of credibility in our industry from the broker who says anything to get a load moved to the double brokering of freight and carriers who entice inexperienced drivers with `get rich quick' promises. He notes that low rates are a constant point of com-plaint among drivers, but they still haul it. There needs to be some accountabil-ity like the rest of life, but there doesn't seem to be any in this industry. According to Mills, accountability is one of the most important tenets of his business. We do a little brokering of freight, and any truck that has ever hauled for us we tell when they're going to be paid and that's when they get Real independence Russ Mills runs his own way BY ASHLEY VICE