Marc Springer offline

At the age of fourteen, Marc already had a knack for looking for wonderful opportunities. Knowing that in the 1970s the way to the NHL was from Canada and then reading an article in a copy of Sports Illustrated, Marc found his first challenge. The article was about a small town called Dauphin in Manitoba, Canada. This city lived and breathed hockey and Marc knew it was the place where he belonged. Marc wrote to the mayor and asked if he could come there to train and play for the local Junior Hockey League team. “My mom saw the fire in my belly and let me explore it,” shares Marc. With his mother’s faith in him and the Dauphin Kings Hockey Club in agreement, Marc packed up and left home. He spent the rest of his youth in Canada pursuing his hockey dreams.

One of Marc’s secrets to success is seeing the big picture and a bigger picture of how all the parts are connected. The economy was tanking in the mid-2000s as Marc sold Harley Davidson and watched his income plummet. He knew that he had to do something. He looked at his truck and decided to try to make money from it. So he found uShip, he bought a trailer for his dodge and he ran. He also knew that other drivers would be selling his equipment for pennies on the dollar and if he waited he could buy what he needed. Two years later he was in the sleeper cab of a Kenworth that runs as fast as Marc does.

Twenty-five years after Marc’s first truck driving experience, he was ready to start his own business. Marc confesses, “I didn’t have a license and I didn’t know anything about interstate commerce, I just knew that I was going to make it. I learned very quickly that it was controlled and I needed a lot of licenses. I applied for all the licenses, set up the company, went through the CDL training, and then realized that not only did I like this, but I could actually make a lot of money doing it. So, I upgraded to a medium-duty truck with a 25′ trailer. When I realized it still wasn’t big enough, I sold that truck and trailer, using the money to buy a Kenworth.”

I asked Marc where he thinks the world is headed, which is a question that gives a great idea of ​​the person. He said: “…to me the world is becoming more challenging and at the same time more polite. This is a great question. I would like to think that slowly but surely we will hold our world up and not blow it up by the airs”. We are all here in one big box and if we move something from one place to another it still affects everything. We need to focus on taking care of what we have… maintenance.”

Many of the truckers I have spoken to in the last few months talk about self-government in one form or another. The long-haul trucking industry is full of self-starters who are open, independent-minded, and exploratory personalities. Many of them organize their long-distance jobs to include new places that they have not yet visited or want to visit once more. However, they all mention that despite their love of the road, it is disheartening that strong regulations and policy measures must be put in place to control the few that negatively affect the many.

Marc is no different and is also appalled by the regulations and policies imposed on truckers. He sees the trucking industry as “…over regulated. The cost of shipping will eventually be so high that it will affect our economy in a major way. Everything we have touched in this country has been trucked. If we let trucks, the economy will be flooded. Rubber and fuel prices also affect the industry. No one person can make all the money; it has to be divvied up. If one person gets all the money, everyone else pays for it. My costs are more than people are willing to pay. I have to make a profit or it’s not going to happen.”

Marc has a simple and direct philosophy that he learned from his years playing hockey. He takes responsibility seriously and lives up to the high expectations he has set for himself. Marc is a fast learner and always meets challenges head on. He expects everyone else to also live and perform to the best of their ability. Marc told me, “I do things by the book and to the best of my ability. I don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s safety. I do things right, but then there’s this other guy who doesn’t care. These (govern) the rules they’re to protect the general public and the guys who do it right are either going broke or getting kicked out. I don’t see a lot of truckers talking about owner/operating anymore. Now are you part of the big fleet or not. It’s not about anymore the passion and adventure of driving across America. It has become a matter of money.” So I asked Marc what he thinks the driving community should do about it. He said: “He needs to go back to his roots. Go back to the days when Billy Bob gets out of school, he knows how to drive a truck and he likes it so much he just says, ‘let’s go’.”

When I asked Marc what he likes best about his job, he was quiet for a moment. Then, almost reverently, he said: “[I] I love driving and I love driving my truck. For me, it’s like going to church. Driving is my time [to] think about my family and my business. I can do whatever I want when I drive. [I] don’t let people bark at me… it’s my time. I like meeting people and seeing the country. I use back roads and two-lane highways, even if it takes longer. I try to stay away from the big truck stops. I prefer to park next to the road. If I had a choice, I would park on a two-lane road on top of a mountain, where I can hear birdsong and squirrels running in the morning.

Truck owner/operator/driver is the perfect occupation for Marc. Persistence, drive and vision have followed him throughout his life. After speaking with Marc, I think the secret to his success is wanting to be a part of something bigger than himself. He brings that joy to the world. Marc now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He is married and has four children. On his days off, you will find Marc riding his bike or motorbike enjoying the beautiful country roads. His daughter Jesse Springer is a budding photographer and contributed the cover photo to this month’s issue of The Long Haul Magazine. In the future, we hope to see more of his photographs printed of him.