“I’m in California now —Tulaire. Tomorrow I am using as much as The Normal Sherman tree —the climate will probably be excellent!. On Friday, I ship my load in Fresno, get reloaded within the space, then I am headed dwelling,” writes Shawn Cranwell, a long-haul truck driver primarily based outdoors of Toronto, Canada, as we’re making an attempt to arrange a time to talk.
After every week on the highway, driving his freight load throughout the US, Cranwell was taking a time off to deal with a 200-kilometre journey that may have him climbing 2,600 metres into California’s Sequoia Nationwide Park.
Cranwell, 52, has been driving a truck for 26 years, and that is only a regular week. His firm provides him 5 days to drive the 4,000 kilometres from Toronto to California, equating to roughly 40 hours behind the wheel. Alongside the way in which, Cranwell, an avid bicycle owner, makes probably the most of each journey.
Cranwell absorbing the miles in between lengthy days inside his truck cabin.
(Picture credit score: Shawn Cranwell)
The lifetime of a long-haul trucker is something however glamorous. Lengthy days behind the wheel, navigating main interstates by means of desolate farmland, mountain passes coated in snow and metropolitan gridlock stuffed with anxious commuters desirous to get dwelling. It may be lonely and monotonous– decide up a load, drop off a load, repeat —with drivers doing their jobs as rapidly as is protected and allowed by legislation earlier than heading dwelling to see their households.
Nonetheless, travelling throughout the US as a long-haul trucker may also be rewarding and stuffed with adventures. That is what initially attracted Cranwell to the job nearly 30 years in the past.
“I like being out [travelling]. I in all probability received a little bit of wanderlust. So I used to be like, ‘alright, I’ll go drive [truck]’,” he remembers.
When he took his first truck-driving job, Cranwell was in his mid-twenties and had simply stop bike racing. The attract of the wide-open highway was plain, however he rapidly realised that this new path got here with a major trade-off: a decline within the health he had been used to.
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“Sooner or later, I used to be outdoors of a enterprise the place I used to be delivering a load and I used to be like, I’ll run throughout the garden. I ran throughout the garden and I threw up. I used to be like, ‘I am so out of practice; I received to get it again’. So I threw the bike that I had on the time within the truck and I simply began using. I simply form of received an increasing number of into it.”
It’s kind of crammed however Cranwell makes it work – utilizing his restricted cab area to Zwift when using open air is not an choice
(Picture credit score: Shawn Cranwell)
Whereas using bikes and driving vans might seem to be two issues in full juxtaposition to one another, Cranwell rapidly realised that they are often completely complementary. Life on the open highway, irrespective of how monotonous and repetitive it could seem, is at all times stuffed with surprising twists and turns {that a} driver (or a rider) must be ready for.
One of many largest classes Cranwell has discovered whereas being a long-haul trucker is that it’s vital to prioritise psychological and bodily well being.
“I began driving after which I began using extra after which I made a decision that I did not wish to commerce my well being once more for a job. So, I simply form of began specializing in my well being and taking good care of myself,” he says.
Though Cranwell isn’t the one truck driver who carries a motorcycle (or a number of bikes) in his cab, it’s nonetheless a comparatively new concept for truck drivers to consider using whereas on a job.
“[Other drivers] simply routinely assume that I am a comparatively new driver [when] they see me roll by means of a truck cease on a bicycle. They’re like, ‘He will not be doing that for very lengthy as a result of actuality will set in and he must earn cash and no one has time for that nonsense.’”
Nonetheless, Cranwell is worked up to see an increasing number of long-haul truckers take up biking.
“There is a Fb group known as Truckers with Bicycles,” Cranwell explains. “And there is a man with a unicycle. There’s a few guys with recumbents as a result of they’ve dangerous backs and dangerous knees. Most of them are mountain bikers. And you may go into the Fb group and say, ‘the place’s an incredible place to journey? Any path system?’ And the attractive factor about truck stops is nearly all of them are in rural areas; you simply pull your bike out and also you go journey.”
Cranwell can inform anybody about the very best roads alongside Route 66, Interstate 80 and most of the different main trucking routes. In 2024 alone, Cranwell logged over 200,000 kilometres behind the wheel driving from Canada by means of Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and extra. Alongside the way in which, he’s additionally logged almost 600 hours within the saddle, tallying up some 13,000 kilometres and counting.
Over time, Cranwell has explored his fair proportion of open roads. “You are at all times chasing the subsequent place to see,” Cranwell says. “I really like using in Utah. I actually just like the [Sierra Nevadas] and I actually get pleasure from after I go right down to LA and journey as much as Mount Baldy, and I would journey throughout Glendora Mountain Street.”
“I attempt to journey day-after-day if I can, simply to interrupt the monotony, get out of the truck and get away from it.”
Cranwell explains that many firms, together with his employer, are realising how helpful the bike is for the psychological and bodily well-being of their drivers. Drivers need to move annual medical exams, and there’s growing emphasis on supporting their psychological well being.
Lengthy-haul truckers cowl greater than 1,000 kilometres day by day, driving 100 kilometres per hour. Using a motorcycle is an effective metaphor for slowing down and having fun with lengthy, cross-country journeys. Truck drivers expertise elements of the nation that most individuals by no means see. They meet travellers from everywhere in the world, and if they’re keen to enterprise outdoors the truck stops and bounce on a motorcycle, they can expertise among the greatest rides the US has to supply.
“I inform drivers on a regular basis, I am like, ‘You already know that truck cease in Wells [Nevada] you cease in? There is a highway proper there. You possibly can lease a automobile, go drive up. There is a lake there. You possibly can fish, do no matter else.’”
Leaving the truck for a couple of hours throughout the necessary stops additionally means Cranwell isn’t burning extra gas and is costing his firm pointless cash.
“If I am off using my bike, my truck’s not idling to maintain me heat or to maintain me cool… If I’ve to do what’s known as a reset to get sufficient driving hours to return dwelling and I’ve to take a full time off of driving, I am not sitting within the truck burning their gas. I am off using my bike. So, for them, they actually like that,” he explains.
“It is a job the place everyone’s at all times speaking about time constraints, however the one particular person pushing you as a driver actually on the finish of the day is you.”
Corporations, just like the one Cranwell works for, allot a sure variety of days to every drive to ship a load. In the US, drivers are restricted to driving 11 hours a day, and sometimes an additional day is allowed as a buffer for climate, mechanical points or different delays.
Cranwell has discovered to embrace the ups and the downs and be affected person and adaptable. He carries a coach that he can arrange in his cab for days when he can’t journey outdoors. The bike, even when it’s using the coach, has given him one thing to look ahead to, irrespective of how lengthy and exhausting the day.
“I will be on the coach after which I will be like, ‘Why am I doing this? That is ridiculous. I am like a hamster on a treadmill.’ After which I get off it and I really feel good,” Cranwell says. “I attempt to journey day-after-day if I can, simply to interrupt the monotony, get out of the truck and get away from it.”
Like several job, Cranwell has skilled his share of excellent days and dangerous days. However using a motorcycle alongside the United State’s main freeway techniques has stored Cranwell excited and looking out ahead to the subsequent journey. As an alternative of feeling alone and remoted throughout his drives, the bike has given him a neighborhood of truck drivers, fellow cyclists and anybody else he meets alongside the way in which.
“I’ve met so many individuals from around the globe using throughout America,” Cranwell explains.
Ralph Waldo Emerson as soon as wrote, “It’s not the vacation spot, it’s the journey”. And if something, that’s the largest life lesson Cranwell has discovered in his twenty-six years of driving a truck. Benefit from the journey wherever the highway might take you.