Back in early March Glen Horack and his wife, Karla, were vacationing in Florida with friends. Between trips to the beach, the couple was eagerly awaiting an upcoming trip to Vegas where Glen would learn if he had won the Truckload Carriers Association Owner Operator of the Year.
This was the fourth time Glen had been a finalist. Each year, some 12,000 drivers enter the running, and only three make the finals. As he prepped for his fourth trip to the awards ceremony in Vegas, Glen was stoic. “The guy who won last year was finalist six times,” he says. “So who knows.”
Glen has driven in Prime’s refrigerated division since 1992, and his wife joined him on the road in 2009 once the couple’s two kids left home. Before driving as a team, Glen would call home to check on the family when he was in the middle of making a delivery. Work kept him on the road for eight to 12 weeks at a time. “Sometimes I’d get to pass through for a night or so, but that wasn’t very often,” he says.
Once his wife joined him in the truck, the couple sold their home, bought a fifth wheel camper and truly lived life on the road. He says the transition was pretty easy. The biggest piece of advice he has for other couples who drive team with their spouse is to communicate and stay busy. “My number one piece of advice is to not do it,” he jokes. “But really, stay busy. It’s when I’m not working that I get unhappy.”
With more than 30 years at Prime, Glen definitely likes to be busy. It’s how he hit his 4 million safe mile mark this year. When his wife joined him, he made sure to train her, so he could rest easy knowing his safety record was in good hands. “My reputation is tied to this truck,” he says. “In trucking, that’s the only thing I have to offer.” His reputation and safety record is also part of what he hoped would set him up to be this year’s Owner Operator of the Year. All contestants send in essays talking about the safe miles they’ve driven, the years they’ve put in and so on. For Glen, that includes a true love of the industry. He participates in truck driving championships where contestants navigate obstacle courses. “Instead of trying to stay away from an object, you want to stay as close as possible without hitting them,” he says. “I’ve won my class three times and be overall champion once.”
When asked what he would do with the $25,000 prize awarded to the Operator of the Year, he joked and said his plan was to pay off the motorcycle his wife had just purchased. But that has since changed.
At the end of March, Glen stepped on stage in Vegas and learned he had in fact won Operator of the Year. Instead of paying off that bike, he and his wife plan on putting the winnings toward a new home in their favorite vacation destination—Daytona, Florida. Congratulations, Glen!
Read more in the Prime magazine, Prime Ways – Time to Train
Interested in driving for Prime? Apply online at www.primeinc.com/?r=blog or give our recruiters a call at 888-664-9121.
