Driver Lifestyles

Owner Operator Snapshot: Walter Dyksinski

The subject of this Driver Profile is yet another example of the varied backgrounds of the people who find their way to expediting. 

Walter Dyksinski was born and raised in Poland before emigrating to Austria in 1983.  He lived there in a refugee camp for a year before moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba.  He took English classes for 6 months and rented a truck (tractor) for a couple of hours with which to take his road test.

Walter says that the European trucks are more car-like with air-ride suspension as well as being easier to shift.  "With American trucks, you need to know rpm's and shift points, otherwise it's going to make noise."

He eventually moved to Toronto, where for a year he ran local container freight, air freight and worked as an auto hauler.  He says he has transported just about every kind of freight.

"I like driving," Walter begins.  "A friend of mine told me about expediting in 1996.  At that time, he was leased with Roberts Express (now FedEx Custom Critical) and he wanted someone to drive  with his son in a Volvo 780.  Some drivers want a big, shiny truck with a big hood, but I liked the Volvo because it had good visibility all around." 

"I had driven my own trucks for years before I entered expediting, so I was used to working as an owner-operator.  In fact, I had owned my first truck for four years when I went bankrupt.  This was back during my days of running general freight.  I lost pretty much everything because I had bought too much stuff." 

"I ran with the son for about 3 months, but I don't like driving team.  I made plans to get my own truck and bought a new 1999 International.  I'm still running that truck today with 650,000 miles on it."

Walter's ride has a Detroit Diesel 60 Series with 435HP that runs through a 13-speed overdrive. The sleeper is a 72" integral with double bunks.

"I like expediting, it's good for single people.  My woman left me in '97, so for four years, I was living in the truck.  I can't complain, I saved a lot of money."

He continues, "This is hard work, but if you take care of your equipment, drive safely and watch your money, you'll do alright.  But, you have to like trucking."

Walter says he doesn't see any difference in being Canadian and U.S.-based in expediting: 
"Driving is driving, in the U.S. you have nicer roads.  In Canada, if you drive between big cities, it's OK, but if you go up north, it's all two-lane roads.  I don't see much difference."

"Most of my loads take me into the U.S.  I might only do a couple of loads in a month that are intra-Canada.  I'm crossing the border into the U.S. all the time and it's no big deal."

"At first," he says, "it was difficult because I didn't speak good English then and I don't speak good English now.  That's why I don't talk at all on the C.B. radio because truckers are mean to people who don't talk exactly like them and they tell you right away to go back to your own country."

"But, when I first started and got to the border, if I had a question, I would park out of the way and go in and ask questions.  It's very important to have your paperwork together and be polite to the customs agents.  The paperwork is easy to do once you learn how.  But, now they expect the driver to know everything."

Walter says that dealing with the customs agents on either side is like a lottery - you never know who you're going to be dealing with: 
"In my 20 years of crossing the border, I've probably had only 10 really bad people I had to deal with.  I can't really complain about them."

I take all kinds of freight into the U.S. and there are some cities where I would never think I will get freight to.  Then, the next day, I get a load out of there.  That's another thing I like about expediting, I get to go to new places.  I don't like to see the same places all the time, I like to be in a new place everyday.

Walter says that he's often approached by people thinking about an expediting career and he tells them that this is a business for patient people: 
"Many times we are slow and it seems like we'll never get a load.  But, because I am already with FedEx for seven years, I know where to go to find the loads." 

"Many people get out of the business because when they come into expediting, they think they're going to get a load every day.  I tell them that you have to look at the whole month or the whole year.  Also, in expediting, you can be in the wrong place and you have to understand that things will not always work the way you want."

"What I see at FedEx is that they try to divide the work among everybody, but of course if somebody doesn't want to work, or if they call him and he refuses the work, what can they do?  Some guys don't understand that."

"I don't like to give advice, I just try to tell them how it works.  Some guys don't understand that, they want to drive 3000 miles every week.  A guy pulling reefer told me how much money they would pay him for a run and I told him how much I would get for an expedited run.  It was the same money for half the miles and he wouldn't believe me."

Walter has had his share of good times in expediting - he's a 6-time winner of FedEx Custom Critical's "4-Star Award".  And, to top it off, he was recently one of the big winners in the company's "Service Pays" contest, pocketing $25,000 as one of the finalists!

"I like expediting because you're on your own.  In other trucking, you have to go there when they want you to go there and sit there, otherwise they won't pay you layover.  Expediting is a different kind of work.  There's a lot of freedom.  Any time that I want to take myself out of service, I can do this." 

"But, I never do because there's lots of work."