COVER FEATURE - JANUARY 2004
If you want to succeed in trucking, you have to have the right stuff. In the case of this month’s cover feature, we found a young man (34) with the “Wright” stuff - namely, John Wright of Bakersfield, California. With a combination of attitude, commitment, work ethic and quality, nice-looking equipment, John has discovered “what it takes” to build and run a growing and successful trucking operation - but he’s still just a driver at heart.
John was born and raised in the farming community of Bakersfield, in the heartland of California. Growing up around trucks and farming equipment, it made sense for him to get into trucking. But his mother didn’t agree. When he called to tell her he had bought a truck (his first one), she went silent. John’s father was a hay hauler, but the two of them weren’t very close, as his parents divorced when he was five years old. But John still had a lot of respect for his father, claiming that, in regards to his trucks, he was ahead of his time. His dad always had a lot of cool and innovative stuff on his trucks. At 21, when John was just beginning to get close to his father, he died suddenly of a heart attack. His father helped put the trucking gene in John’s blood, but what really got him started was a friend who’s dad owned sixteen livestock trucks. John grew up in and around those trucks. By the age of twelve, he was already driving around the yard.
After graduating from high school in Tehachapi, California (just up the hill from Bakersfield at the top of the Tejon Pass), he went to college back in his hometown. After one semester, he decided this was not the place for him, so he left school and went to Australia for six months. A friend of his had moved there and was running a cotton farm. John helped out around the farm for a while and then came home. But he liked it so much, he went back again the following summer for three more months. He drove a cotton picker for his friend during their busy season, but then got a little homesick and came back again.
Back in California, he took a job at a local concrete company driving a loader, which eventually allowed him to move inside and run dispatch. Over the next couple years, he dispatched at a few different companies, but really longed to be back outside. So he started driving. His first real driving job was hauling livestock for an outfit in Stockton, CA. Then, about eight years ago (1996), he decided to buy a truck and start his own operation - John R. Wright Trucking.
The first truck he purchased was a 1975 Freightliner that cost him $7,500. John was scared to death - he had no idea how he was going to be able to afford such an “expensive” piece of equipment. Today, with a fleet of six trucks and 10 sets of trailers, his monthly fuel bill is higher than that. Hauling mostly hay (95% of their work), the company also has some bottom dumps and livestock trailers.
Business used to slow down in the winter months, but John says he never gets a break anymore. He claims he has enough business to run twelve trucks, full time, year-round, but he doesn’t want to have to manage a fleet of that size. In the winter, most of their loads (of hay) are picked up in Nevada, Arizona and California, and then brought back to the dairies in Bakersfield and Tulare. In the summer, they mostly run local loads of hay to various dairies in the area.
All of John’s rigs are tractors that pull sets of doubles except for the one on our cover this month, which is a truck and trailer. John found this ugly old 1977 Kenworth K100 cabover (painted nasty green) at a local junk yard about four years ago. It looked terrible. It had been owned by a local freight company that obviously had taken better care of it then its exterior suggested, because when John climbed in and took it for a spin, it went straight as an arrow.
At that time it was just a standard 3-axle tractor. He had an extra hay bed and trailer in his yard, so he decided to buy it and build it specifically for transferring loads onto it that were going up into the hills. With a strong 400 Cummins, 13-speed transmission and 3.42 rears, this truck had more power and maneuverability than his other tractors. At that time, he had no idea that he would be taking the rig to shows - and winning trophies. Some of the things he did to the truck he would have done differently had he known it was going to compete at truck shows (like the single exhaust - he definitely would have installed dual stacks).
After stretching the frame and installing the bed, John sent the rig to Pee Wee’s Paint & Body in Bakersfield where it was sprayed with the company colors - cream, black and red. Then it went to Bad Boys Customs where painter Kevin Robbins added the stripes and flames. All of John’s trucks are painted with the same color scheme, but he lets Kevin play around with the extra stripes and graphics - no two trucks are exactly alike, but they all still match each other nicely.
In the beginning, the truck was really light, but then John started hanging a lot of chrome on it. All of the custom stainless and chrome was done by Kevin and Joe at American Fabrication in Bakersfield, including the headboard, battery box and all the tail plates. Everything was custom made from scratch. John was really impressed with Kevin and Joe’s skill and craftsmanship. Because of their talents, these guys have had the opportunity to do a lot of work on John’s other trucks as well.
Besides the flashy paint job, the truck’s exterior features about 125 lights (all are LEDs except the cab lights and the ones on the bottom of the bumper), painted tanks (red) with chrome and painted cream straps, chrome quarter fenders, polished wheels with red pinstripes painted on the outer edge of the rim, and a dark-tinted windshield and side windows (not exactly legal but great for cutting down afternoon glare). Both the truck and trailer run on low-profile rubber and have an extra long bed that can hold up to four blocks of hay each (a block is 64 bales, for a grand total of 512 bales). With over 1.5 million miles under its wheels, this rig still looks and rides like a million bucks!
The interior has been done twice - the first time it was done really poorly, so John had it redone by Gene and Chief at The Design Group in Bakersfield. Sporting a 1,000 watt stereo/CD player, this truck demands a lot of attention at the shows. The sound system has two 12-inch woofers and four 6-inch mid-range speakers. Remember, it’s only a cabover - and it has no sleeper. That’s a lot of noise for such a small space!
In addition to this rig, John also has (among other things) a 2000 Pete 362 cabover which he takes to the shows. Painted similar to the truck on the cover, when these two rigs hit a show together, they don’t go unnoticed. This newer model Pete is driven and taken care of by driver Bates Fanseca. John says that Bates is a real clean freak, and that he takes very good care of his truck. John says he is happy with his current crew, even though he was later caught saying, “I might not have any children of my own yet, but I still have five kids to take care of on a daily basis.”
When he’s not driving or managing his people, John enjoys riding his quad motorcycle at places like Pismo Beach. Sleeping outside, riding all day, and just getting away is something he always looks forward to. But its not often that he can get away from his office phone, his nagging cell phone (which rings constantly), and his pager. With today’s technology there’s just no getting away. But he can still “hide” (a little) in his trucks from time to time when covering for a driver or running a load when its really busy. John’s always considered himself a driver first and a company owner second, which helps him stay “connected” to his drivers.
John Wright takes pride in his equipment - and it shows. “Just driving a truck isn’t that much fun. The fun comes from fixing them up and taking care of them - and now, going to the shows,” said John. Having clean, matching trucks helps improve his company’s reputation and makes him feel good. He added, “One compliment can make the worst day ever the best day ever.” In closing he said, “If I ever do go out of business, I’ll look good doing it!” John certainly has “the right stuff” - in more ways than one. Through honesty and hard work, John Wright has built a solid company that will no doubt continue to prosper for many years to come.