Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/805422
Voices 8 | Overdrive | April 2017 Former household-goods-hauling owner-operator Fred Afflerbach ended his last novel, "Roll On," on something of a cliffhanger. Moving van owner-operator Ubi Sunt, haul- ing in his "Old Ironsides" 1950s Pete cabover, gets caught in a blizzard with truck trouble and shut out of his rig as the cab hydraulics freeze. With nothing to keep warm but the still-purring engine block, he settles in against it, pulling S-O-S signals with puffs of smoke from the stacks, and hopes he'll make it through. I reviewed Texas-based Afflerbach and "Roll On" in these pages in 2012. In many ways, the book was an immortalizing work for the trail- blazing independents of the '50s, '60s and '70s. Out now is the sequel, "The Bison & the Butterfly," a road novel that builds on the foundations laid by its predecessor. Afflerbach's empath- ic and often hilarious but moving depiction of two generations of men coming back together through lived experience after separation and loss is a master turn in the literary arts. With this novel, Afflerbach evokes the brother- and sisterhood of the road among all travelers, the "com- mon denominator that you're kind of vulnerable, and when you're not home, anything can happen," he says. When it does, "you all come together out there," no matter your station in life. "I read somewhere that people out on the road who are desti- tute and having trouble are the most likely to lend a hand to help others." — Todd Dills Novel honors the community of travelers Read an excerpt from Part 2 of Fred Afflerbach's "The Bison & the Butterfly" novel by searching his name at OverdriveOnline.com. Lots of companies reward driver safety, but the 40-truck Tennes- see-based Conard Transporta- tion's safety program is excep- tional. The new program's awards are named in honor of a local woman who died after one of Conard's company drivers was at fault when he hit her car at an intersection. Jeanne Mannes was a 76-year- old mother, former nurse and active church member in the community. At the time of the crash, she was "on her way to a memorial service for her daughter, who'd passed away," says Conard's safety lead, James Griffith. Against the advice of company lawyers, "we talked to the surviving family and ended up being very good friends of the family," he says. The culmination of that rela- tionship was the Jeanne Mannes Safety Awards, which put the company on a path toward "the good side of this thing," Grif- fith says. "It made us a lot safer. We've been able to step out and recruit better people because of this." The first awards ceremo- ny "was a moving occasion," Griffith says, bringing together Conard personnel with the Mannes family, as well as public officials involved with the acci- dent's aftermath. From tragedy, healing and improved safety Darren Isenberger won Conard Transportation's first awards program, hauling in $5,000. Congratulating him is Charlyne Cox, a surviving daughter of Jeanne Mannes, for whom the safety awards are named. Runners-up in the contest were drivers David Smithson ($2,500) and Hal Wagner ($1,000). Courtesy of Conard Transportation