A Better Road

Bowman driver Jim Coulter rides constant awareness to an impeccable safety record

In October 1996, Jim Coulter decided it was time for a career change. The then-37-year-old factory worker was looking for something different — something, he says, that would “make a better living for my family. I’d been working at a factory all my life, and [trucking] just sounded like a better road.”

Fourteen years later, the flatbed hauler has recorded more than 1.3 million accident-free miles and no moving violations. Safety, he says, is about “looking at the big picture.

“You can never let your guard down. You always have to be looking. Safety has to be on your mind at all times. You want to do your job and get home like everybody else, but you want to keep everybody else safe in the process.”

Coulter hauls steel for D.M. Bowman in the Northeast and Midwest. The Berlin, Pa., resident says he gives “no less than 110 percent at all times,” something Bowman Safety Manager Christine Lape attributes to Coulter’s passion for the trade.

“He loves what he’s doing,” she says. “I don’t think he would do anything else. Some people aren’t cut out for this job — Jim just is. He is aware of other road users and respectful. He knows how to get his job done and how to do it safely.”