FINDING JOY - John Snyder
FINDING JOY
Legend Nominee: John Snyder
An impressive career of 46 years with three-million lifetime miles, there is not many places left for this Legend truck driver to visit. Owner-operator John Snyder, a longtime resident of Williamsport, PA, leased on to Mercer Transportation in 1982. Prior to running long haul, he had ten years’ experience driving dump trucks with a background in auto mechanics.
Having been to every state in the U.S. with a personal bucket list checked complete across-the-board, John has zero intentions of slowing down. At 64 years young, he says, “I simply enjoy what I do. Getting to travel and see different things all the time has been great. I honestly don’t know what I would do if I ever retire.” His wife, Diane knows the truth in his words more than anybody. Married for forty years, they have shared many trips together. She also assists John with his business, helping manage his paperwork. As a library assistant with the Williamsport Area School District for thirty years, Diane joins him mostly during the summers when her work schedule allows. On the special occasions when John has the pleasure of his wife’s company, he likes to plan each road trip to visit areas throughout the country they wouldn’t typically have the opportunity to see. Sharing such experiences over the years is another reason his love for trucking increases with every new adventure.
In British Columbia the couple traveled by boat over to Vancouver Island, and walked the beautiful trails of Cathedral Grove; known for it’s magical forest of nature’s most ancient Douglas Firs. Many of these rare trees have survived over 800 years, standing as large as 250 feet tall and 29 feet in circumference. The Hoover Dam and the Four Corners are also among John and Diane’s tourist stops. The Four Corners is the only region within the United States where borders of four states intersect, in which most of the region belongs to Native American nations. The neighboring states include Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. This area has been home to native people for hundreds of years. Archaeologists have recorded numerous ancient Puebloan sites dating prior to AD 1300 throughout the Four Corners area.
At the beginning of his career, as John was away on the road Diane stayed home with their three children. The guilt of leaving home to provide a living for his family, he could only best describe as; his toughest battle.
“Diane had to be the mother and father when I was gone. You don’t get to see everything that’s going on in their lives and the kids grow up without you. That’s why it’s important to make the most of your time when you are home. Back then, we didn’t have cell phones. I would call about three times a week from a pay phone outside in the cold with a coat and gloves on. Things are a lot different now! I call every day. But for all the truck drivers with families it helps to be prepared. You have to go into this as a team, understanding that at times things will be difficult, but as long as you work together everything will work out.”
To succeed as an over the road driver, John said that it’s important to keep your eye on the bigger picture. “Some drivers will turn down a load if they think it’s not good enough or won’t pay well, but if you take what you have been given and work with it, by the end of the trip it may be worth it once you’ve added everything up. Being away from my family is hard, but I’m going to make the best of it while I’m out here and work my tail off. Seeing the bigger picture in everything helps you find the joy in just about anything,” John said. With Diane as his biggest supporter, the lifestyle of being a trucker has strengthened their relationship, saying, “Her love and encouragement has helped me believe in myself and pushed me to keep doing this. And here I am, almost fifty years later and I still get to enjoy it. If it weren’t for her and our family, it wouldn’t be the same.”
John purchased a 1996 Kenworth and immediately went to work on custom designing it. He stretched it out, put a big sleeper on it, painted it blue and white multicolor with gold stripes. His flatbed features a strip down the center of the trailer for optimum use in securing high-value loads. Currently running a dedicated route hauling military cargo and specialty equipment, his schedule is four days out then home for three. With experience pulling dry van and fuel tankers, the variety and challenges that flatbed offers is John’s preferred choice of work. He says,
“The trailer I have is ideal for the most unique loads. I’ve transported bee hives, conduit to run electrical wire for buildings to Newfoundland, and I was one of the drivers for Mercer in the World Trade Center convoy. When presented with the opportunity to be a part of the convoy, it wasn’t about money; it was what it represented. We all loaded together and we all drove up the road together. It took us three days to do it. It was quite an experience! When we all arrived, they took us to an airport hangar and showed us everything that was going in the museum. Getting to see things that other people don’t get to see reminds me how magnificent our jobs really are. It’s bigger than just us.”
John’s assignment to Newfoundland consisted of twelve trips. He loaded out of Louisiana and drove up to Nova Scotia, road a boat for six hours to reach Newfoundland, then traveled another 600 miles across the island to St. Johns. Lucky for John, his wife was able to join him, making each round trip more of an excursion.
Growing up, John’s father was an over the road driver and his mother worked as the secretary for the trucking company he drove for. It was after the family of six settled down in the city of Williamsport, when John befriended a close neighbor with a large farm and dump truck operation. Business owner, Jim McKage had a shop on site that easily intrigued John. At first, he helped on Jim’s farm running tractors and bailing hay. By 13, he was racing snowmobiles and hanging around the shop watching the guys work on different sorts of equipment. At 15, his interest moved on to racing motorcycles, which led him into auto mechanics in junior high. The toys grew larger and when licensed he crossed over from working on dump trucks to driving them.
After high school, John continued to drive for Jim for ten years before leasing on to Mercer. The two remain close friends and share one another’s success. He says, “I visited Jim recently, he’s about 75 now. He grew his business from a stone quarry to a large concrete business. He’s had anywhere from twenty to thirty trucks. I learned a lot from him growing up and I’ll tell you what, never think you’ve learned everything! I’m still learning from him. Jim has had a huge impact on my life.” As an impressionable teenager, shadowing his mentor, John says it was Jim’s work ethic that stood out the most. With Jim’s guidance, John was able to learn and discover his own passion. Adding,
“It’s all easy for me now because I’ve been doing this for so long. I just stayed with it and kept adding things to the list until it all came naturally. I learned back when everything was hands-on, and you learned from making mistakes. That is when stuff really resonates with you. That’s also how I raised my kids. All three of them can travel with ease because I wanted to teach them the importance of recognizing their surroundings and knowing where they’re going. When our youngest, Vicki was twelve, she and I took a trip out to California. I gave her a map and said that if she wanted us to stay in a hotel with a pool she could swim in, she would have to find us a way, and she routed us there and back! Today, she travels a good bit with her job and pretty much drives without a map.”
By allowing his kids to be involved with his lifestyle as a trucker over the years, sharing those experiences with them also had some effect on their lives, as well. John’s son is carrying on the family legacy as their third-generation driver.
John says that it’s the people at Mercer Transportation that has kept him happy with the cargo and freight company for 36 years. Describing the staff as respectful and always willing to help. “They are easy to talk to and most importantly, they try to keep you busy,” he said. Throughout his career, he has been awarded multiple awards for safe driving, but states that his biggest accomplishment is getting each load delivered safely.
Having the weekends off with Diane, they both try to spend as much possible time with their growing family. With grandchildren from ages eight to thirteen and active in sports and theater, they enjoy sitting in the audience or cheering from the sidelines. John says, “We try to do things with the kids; family has always been important to us. After all, you never know what will happen tomorrow.” Having a successful career and marriage as long as John, one could say that he has unlocked the key to achieving a good life. Recognizing who and what makes you happy is what helps get us through our most challenging circumstances. Life is too precious and doesn’t have to be difficult. Just follow John’s lead.