Content Sponsored by CRST
“I’ll try to retire to when my eyes close. I love it. I don’t want to do nothing else. I enjoy what I do. That’s why I do it. I love listening to the engine, to my truck. I just enjoy it. It gets in your blood when you get in a trucking family.”
46 years later, veteran trucker still loves his life over the road and working for CRST:
Mr. Samuel Francera has diesel in his veins, but originally he earned his stripes serving in the US Army. His story of service is fascinating– guarding the Berlin Wall before it fell.
“We were eye to eye with the Germans. We didn’t like them and they didn’t like us. We watched to make sure nobody crossed the wall. We had a complication every once and a while. Things I (still) can’t talk about.”
“I felt sorry for the people that didn’t want to be stuck on the other side of the wall. The Communists. I thought why do people have to suffer on that side? Why can’t they be free like the Germans on our side?”
“You never knew when some conflict was going to break out.” It was a strange time– the transition from World War Two. “Some of the Germans didn’t like us being stationed there. They threw rocks at us.”
“When they tore down the wall I thought at least everybody is free over there now.”
Why did you transition from the military to trucking?
Trucking is in Samuel Francera’s blood.
“I was in the trucking family. My dad was a trucker. My brothers were truckers. When I was a little kid my dad drove a dump truck. Me and my brother would ride along when he would deliver sawdust in New Jersey. We would see different parts of the country, meet different people.”
Charmingly, Mr. Francera has been driving the same truck for all these years. “My dad and brothers used to ride in the truck with me. My truck– it’s like part of the family.”
46 years is a long time to truck for one company– why CRST?
After 46 years of trucking with CRST, Mr. Francera says that “The agents are all friendly. If you need help they will help you. I have been here a long time and it’s a really good company to work for. I have a lot of friends that lease with CRST.”
