After 16 years of cutting hair at Jay’s Barber Shop in Schoolcraft, Jay Harris started a trucking company. Jay’s son Jerry took over the company four days after he graduated from Schoolcraft High School in June, 1979 and bought his first truck.
And just like that, Jerry Harris Express Trucking was on the road. “The next 46 years would include many adventures and happy memories,” said Harris as he moves into retirement.
“I started running seed corn out of Athens initially, back at a time when you shoveled the load into the trailer by hand. Through the years the company hauled grain, lumber, paper and even bridge beams,” Harris said.
Interviewing Harris on a rainy July evening, it was crystal clear that he really enjoyed hauling the 180-foot-plus bridge beams the most. “Hauling those monsters out of what was then St. Mary’s Concrete out of Kalamazoo required escort vehicles front and back,” according to Harris, “Indiana was doing constant upgrades to bridges, so we transported them all there.
“We had a speed limit on each bridge we crossed with these massive loads, sometimes as low as three miles per hour. And we had a device to turn the back wheels under the load, with a button that allowed these long loads to get around the corners. It was quite an experience and required a steady hand to get these loads where they needed to go.”
“Most of the company’s loads were delivered regionally in the Midwest, but when the frost and freeze laws restrict loads in the Midwest and opportunities present themselves, you go wherever,” remembered Harris, “I once delivered a load of bleachers from Schoolcraft to Tucson, Arizona. It was a 4 ½-day run in which I decided to take a shortcut through the desert. There was nothing for miles on end and the thought of breaking down in that hot and inhospitable region was all I needed to never take a shortcut in an unfamiliar area again.”
Harris has seen many changes over his long career. Some he doesn’t see as for the better, “I preferred the handwritten log books because more flexibility could be considered, he said. “The new electronic logs will cause issues and unsafe practices,” and this despite one time leaving his written log book in the back of a state trooper’s vehicle after a safety stop.
Harris credits his daughter, Megan Harris Eikey, for helping him adjust to many of the things that are now done online. “When I started trucking, fuel was only 45 cents a gallon and my first truck had only 5 speeds,” recalled Harris, “and now with over 1 million miles under my belt, I feel blessed with all the stories I have to tell.”
Although Harris is selling his 13-speed Freightliner Classic and leaving the road, he is contemplating writing a book. He believes he’s lived too many stories not to tell them.
