Milk Spills and One-Log Loads: Memories of a Pioneer Truck Driver by Frank White (review)

Detailed historical accounts of trucking in Canada are few and far between, which makes this autobiographical account of driving trucks in British Columbia from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s a valuable source. Part childhood reminiscence and part working-class memoir, it is the result of centenarian Frank White working with his son Howard to turn his stories and jottings into a coherent narrative. According to the preface, they organized the book “along the lines of a casual conversation” and strove to write “in the vernacular style.” (7) The result is a highly readable account of day-to-day working conditions in the early trucking industry that is accessible to a popular readership, that does not bog down in details about automotive technology, and that will be of interest to labour, rural, and business historians who study Canada’s interwar years.

The book is divided into three parts, each with six chapters. Part One is about growing up in the agricultural community of Abbotsford, 70 kilometers east of Vancouver. White learned the butchering trade at his father’s shop in town, and provides detailed descriptions of driving automobiles and slaughtering animals while still attending grade school. When White’s father acquired a Ford light delivery truck he made eldest son Frank responsible for making deliveries around town; though barely in his teens, Frank was fascinated by modern machinery. White recalls the high status accorded long-distance truck drivers in the late 1920s: “They were the only people who saw the country in those days. They were respected. People sought them out, wanted their opinions. They were men of special experience.” (88) White’s early truck driving experience proved an asset when his father died and he was thrust into the role of family breadwinner at the outset of the Depression.

Part Two is called “Trucking Milk.” In 1932 White was hired to drive a 3-ton truck hauling milk from Fraser Valley farms to dairies in Vancouver. He shows how truckers’ ability to travel a flexible route and make convenient pick-ups direct from the farm allowed this operation to cut into the transport monopoly of the BC Electric Railway Company, which expected farmers to deliver their milk to stations along its rail line. White provides rich descriptions of the work of truck driving and of the changing relationship between city and country that automobility permitted in the interwar years. Milk was hauled at an unrelenting pace, seven days a week, all year round. Loading milk cans was physically demanding, with a full one weighing 125 pounds. White and his colleagues drove at least 150 kilometers each working day, and got to know every bump and curve in the socalled highway between Abbotsford and Vancouver. They also developed intimate knowledge of their machines, including a truck’s pick-up and braking power, the qualities of its tires in different weather conditions, and its balance of gravity when loaded.

White depicts milk truckers as gobetweens for rural producers and urban processors. Truckers could help certain farmers by taking special care to keep their milk cool, or by putting in a good word with the dairyman. But truckers also kept silent when they saw dairymen take advantage of a farmer, because the same dairymen could shortchange farmers in order to “make up” the milk that a favoured trucker had spilled or otherwise spoiled in their unrefrigerated vehicles. Truckers made extra money by carrying passengers or running errands, and White recalls that meeting young women who wanted to visit the city was a perk of the job. White did not own the trucks he hauled milk with; he was not what we today would call an owner-operator. His employer was a drinking buddy who White quit driving for after being screwed over on a promised loan. He concludes that trucking milk allowed him to get through the Depression in “the fast lane,” noting that he “wasn’t out...