Pro-Trucker Magazine

Howdy, my name is Ernest D Erickson, and here is my story.

I was born on December 20, 1959, in Wainwright, AB. I grew up on the family farm until I was 10 years old, when my father, Martin Erickson, passed away in 1970. My mother, Lillian, moved us to Edmonton, where I stayed until I was 18. I first got interested in the trucking industry because of my uncle Bob Shopland, who was the owner-operator of Chauvin Transport from Chauvin, Alberta. I have spent the last 47 years driving trucks and still love it today.

I moved back to Wainwright in July 1978, where I started driving truck for my cousin Rod Shopland (Shopland Trucklines Ltd). It was a 1976 Kenworth W900 A. We were hauling Nelson Homes out of Lloydminster, AB. In November 1980, we started hauling crude oil for Gibson Petroleum out of Hardisty, AB.

I got married in November 1979 to Julie Stromberg. Then, in January 1981, we had our son Ernie Jr. He started going to work with me when he was 3 years old, a trucker in training. The truck I was driving then was a 1985 Kenworth K100 E. It was a body truck and tri-axle pup. We figured that was when Ernie Jr. fell in love with Kenworth cabovers. Hence his nickname “The Cabover Kid”.

In the fall of 1982, I went into partnership with my cousin Tim Shopland. I continued to haul crude oil with Tim until March 1994, when I started my own company, “Feather River Transport Ltd.“ I continued with Gibson Petroleum until they were bought out by Trimac Energy Services in July of 2019. I stayed on with Trimac until July of 2023, when I leased on to Boychuk Ventures Inc., where I continue to work now.

I’m currently running a 1985 Peterbilt 359 Extended Hood. I’ve had “The Duke” since 2014, when I decided to go back to the 80s. It has a warmed-up Cat 3406 B engine, an Eaton RTL OO 18 speed transmission and 46000 lb Rockwell diffs. The trucks that I have owned over the years are 8 Peterbilts, 6 Kenworths, 1 Freightliner and 1 International.

Ernie Jr. started driving for me in the fall of 2001. I sold Ernie Jr. the 2001 Peterbilt 379 L that he was driving for me in 2006 when, with his wife Gloria, he started his own company, “Roll on Trucking “. It was great working with him hauling crude oil for Gibson Petroleum, and now, since October 2023, hauling canola oil for Boychuk Ventures. It’s been really cool getting to truck with my son all these years.

Over the years, I have had numerous adventures. This past winter, I ran through 2 of the worst blizzards I have ever seen. I should have probably parked, but the Duke and I made it through like the Pony Express. It’s been a great adventure over the years, and I hope that the grandkids will carry it on.

I remember one trip in March 1980, Nelson Homes packages hadn’t started moving yet. We got hired on with Northern Industrial Carriers out of Edmonton, AB I was dispatched with a load of pipe that was to be delivered north of Calling Lake, AB. Little did I know that I would be going on a bush road. I decided that being as it was to be a short load (I thought), I took my younger brother Jim along. I had told our mother we would be back by noon the same day, but the trip took way longer than expected. I ended up spinning out on an icy hill and had to chain up for the first time. I still couldn’t get up the hill. In the meantime, 2 body trucks were waiting at the top of the hill for me to get going. We had to hook up the 2 of them together to pull me up the hill. It took almost to supper time to get to the delivery location, and then we had to wait for the crew to fix the device for stringing the pipe off the trailer. Luckily, it was a camp job, so we got fed. We finally got back to Edmonton, AB, at noon the following day. One cool thing about this adventure is that in 2019, we were hauling crude oil out of the same area ( Martin Hills ) for Trimac, pulling super B trailers.

In September of 1980, four of us owner/operators working for Nelson Homes took house packages to a reserve north of Terrace, BC. We went in on a logging road, and it was a good thing the log haulers were on strike because we didn’t have company radios, and the road wasn’t very wide. When we got to the delivery site, we found out that the community was on the other side of the river, so we would have to put our trucks on a barge to get to the other side. The tide was in, so the river was high. When the first truck started backing onto the barge, the barge wasn’t secured properly, so it started moving with the current. He had his trailer on the barge, and the tractor was still on the riverbank. That didn’t make the rest of us feel very good about backing onto the barge, but we finally got all 4 units across. While we were unloading, the tide went out and the river went down a lot. This posed another problem, as now we had to back through the river mud to get on the barge again.

In the summer of 1995, my sisterin-law Joan and her husband Bob bought a Nelson Home package. I was able to use my cousin Rod’s truck to take the package up to Telkwa, BC. My wife, Julie and Ernie Jr. came along on the trip to surprise her sister. They were very surprised to see us when we got out of the truck.

Later that summer, I took Ernie Jr. on another house load up to Burns Lake, BC. A native fellow was helping to unload, and we were discussing trucks. He asked what I thought about Internationals, so I told him that I couldn’t answer that because I was prejudiced. He got quiet and looked away, and I went Oh shoot. I mean, I’m prejudiced against Internationals because I only like Kenworths and Peterbilts, then he smiled, and we had a good laugh.

When we got back from Burns Lake, there was another Nelson Homes package that was going to High River, AB. It was interior framing walls, and at the back of the load, they put a deck package on top of the interior walls. Every time I tried to tighten the straps, it caused the wall panels to come apart. I had to stop at Antler Hill (Innisfail, AB) to try and stop the load from shifting. A couple of other truckers saw my dilemma and helped me secure the load. I couldn’t drive more than 70 kilometres an hour because of the load coming apart. That was a very long night for me. On the way back, we stopped at the Road King in Calgary, so I could have a nap. Ernie Jr. wandered the parking lot, taking pictures of trucks and checking out the chrome shop inside. When I got up, I figured that we had time to stop at the Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin, AB. The lady at the gate was sure surprised to see a tractor-trailer come to the museum. It was a quick but fun tour of the museum.

In 2012, I was hauling crude oil with my 2000 379 L, it had a Herd super road train moose bumper. The bottom rake was only 6 inches off the ground, so I had trouble with Texas gates at times and also deep ruts. I was like the road grader in the summertime and snowplough in the winter. A couple of times, I was having a great time breaking drifts on the highway, when the drifts got a little too deep and the snow started blowing over my hood onto my windshield, making it hard to see.

Life can be a great adventure, especially when you love what you are doing. Keep it between the lines, boys and keep on trucking!