Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/183648
Feature Story Successful Flatbed Hauler Delivers Not Only Oversized Loads, But Also Pets to New Homes Fuel Savings, Driver Comfort From Aerodynamic Kenworth T660 Helps Make Charity Work Easier B ear, a 4 1/2–year-old Pekinese, traveled 4,500 miles for nine days across the western United States, British Columbia and the rugged wilderness of the Yukon Territories to be with his new family at their home in North Pole, Alaska. Bear didn't have to make the trip alone huddled in a pet carrier at the back of an airplane. David Binz, a Kelso, Wash.-based owner-operator who drives for Alaska West Express in his blue Kenworth T660, picked him up in Oklahoma and delivered Bear to his new home in Alaska after picking up a load in Texas. This feel-good story on Binz's trip to Alaska was featured in a national news segment about Operation Roger airing recently on NBC's Nightly News. "Pets are like a gift from God," said Binz, who volunteers for Operation Roger, a Texasbased non-profit group made up of truck drivers who take rescued animals and transport them to new homes. "There are so many good pets out there that get placed into shelters and need new homes. Shelters often find they get too many of one breed and, while there's a demand for them in another part of the country, there's no way to get them there. So, they have to put them down." Enter truck drivers like Binz, who make it possible to move pets like Bear from one part of the country to the other. To pay the freight for Bear and other pets like him, and to make his living, Binz hauls a variety of oversized items usually destined for the mines and oil- / Owner operator/ october 2013 / / 34 OO 1013 feature.indd 1 9/6/13 1:59 PM