Imagine owning something that weighs 35,000 pounds. The weight maximum for a semi-truck with a loaded trailer legally allowed in the United States is 80,000 pounds. A semi-truck without a trailer weighs between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds, de- pending on the size. That is a lot of power to have out on the highway, and that is what Christopher Burton has every day as he goes about his job as the owner of Triple Arrow Trucking, LLC, based in Victorville, California.
“The way I got started in the trucking business is kind of funny. I had earned my Associate Degree and moved back home to California. I was in a dead-end job, doing telephone marketing, that I really was unhappy with. I wasn’t making the kind of money I needed to be making. And I was bored out of my mind. My desk was right next to a window that faced an off-ramp from the highway. I kept seeing one truck, in particular, that had a sign on the side that was an advertisement for a trucking school. It said Truck Driver Training. I would see these trucks go by all day long. One day, my job sent me home early, and I decided to go over to the school and see what they had to offer.”
After hearing the Admission Counselor’s description of what the school had to offer, Burton said he was pretty impressed. “If you went to the school full time, from 8 am-5 pm, for two weeks, straight, without missing any classes, and you passed all the tests, they would teach you how to drive and help you get placed in a job almost right away. The other thing that sold me on the idea of becoming a trucker was a road trip I took around the time my grandmother passed. I was driving from Georgia back to California, and I noticed at rest stops along the way where you get gas and food. I kept seeing all these postings for jobs for truck drivers. It’s as if somebody was trying to send me a message.”
For most of my life, I felt like I was either under-employed or unemployed. It took me to start driving a truck to start feeling like I was really utilizing my time in such a way that I could really make a good income for myself and my family. I think it was the fast pace of how you could apply yourself, make a lot of money, and make a good living. It was a mixture of all those things that got me.
In September 2018, when I purchased my first 18 wheeler, basically that was the beginning of me becoming more independent. I signed up as an owner/operator with XBO. After working for XBO for two years, I decided to step out on faith and do all the paperwork to get my own company, my LLC number, and all of that.”
Being in business for himself, Burton commented, “It’s more challenging, but I still love it. It is challenging, but it is more rewarding. I enjoy the freedom. A lot of times being a truck driver, especially, it’s a very demanding profession. If you plan properly, it can be good if you have a family. A lot of time with truck drivers, you’ll earn so much revenue for the company, that they’ll run you three-four weeks straight without bringing you home. The longer you stay out on the road, the more money your truck earns. But when you don’t own the truck, you don’t see all of that revenue as the driver. If I want to work hard like that now, it’s a better return on my time. Part of me wanted to have my own truck and my own company, so I could be with my family more and control my time better. That’s been the biggest plus for me, starting my own trucking business. “
The offspring of parents who operated a couple of successful small businesses in the 1990s in California, he credits his parents Carlos Burton and Tracey for instilling in him the concept, “God Bless the child that has his own.”
Christopher Burton says as, for the future, he’s being patient about expanding. His business is still considered a “start-up” at this time, as far as being an independent carrier. He works with brokers, and he wants to be sure not to have more trucks than work. I do see myself expanding at the right time, but I’m just not going to do it prematurely. I want to wait until I have more stability.
Truckers are very important to the success of the American economy. They move 71% of all the freight in this country. That means most of us use something in our daily lives we get thanks to a trucker like Christopher Burton. Through the pandemic, truckers were some of America’s frontline workers. They to have been called our heroes.
Burton commented about the effects of the pandemic on truckers. “Overall, truckers did great during the pandemic. All things considered. It was a very challenging time. We had to be so very careful, wearing face masks and doing all the other things health-wise to try and stay safe. The trucking industry as a whole broke all kinds of records for freight delivery, the likes of which we’ve never seen before in America over the last sixteen months or so. In short, we delivered, and it is not over yet.”
