Amanda Myers with her two dogs and her truck. (Image Courtesy of Amanda Myers)Trucker Amanda Myers is an avid movie fan. With over 5,000 movies in her personal collection, sheâs got plenty of options to keep her entertained when sheâs over the road.
Myers, of Tallahassee, Florida, started collecting movies because, she says, sheâs really not a social person.
âI donât like sitting at the counters at the truck stops and socializing too much,â Myers said. âI buy movies because I hibernate in my truck and it gives me something to do and you canât always find a television station.â
She keeps about 75 movies in the truck at all times and usually buys two or three movies a week.
âI end up unloading two or three hundred every time I go home, and I go home like every other month,â Myers said.
When Myers isnât home or watching movies, sheâs hauling power only for R&R Carriers, Inc., as an owner-operator under her own authority. Myersâ father was an owner-operator and as a child she was the designated truck washer, and she hated it. She couldnât see herself growing up to be a truck driver.
âI hated the truck. I hated the dirtiness of it,â Myers said. âI was like, Iâm not going to grow up to drive a truck and he said, âWell, you need to learn how to change brakes.â I said, âBut Iâm not going to grow up to drive a truck,â but thatâs how it started.â
She was in school studying criminal justice and human resources when she was looking for a change. Her father brought up trucking to her again, and she decided to take his advice. She started driving in 1999 and eventually got her own authority and launched her company, Two Pups in a Truck. The companyâs name is a reference to her two ride along dogs, a beagle/lab mix named Nike and a coyote/shepherd mix named Zeus.
Meyers says the trucking industry has some drawbacks. She feels like she missed out on some opportunities by always being gone, but she decided to get her own truck to give her more control. She currently drives a 2001 Peterbilt 379 extended hood with an ARI 126-inch custom sleeper. Her sleeper has a full bed, dinette table, shower, toilet, refrigerator, convection oven, single burner cooktop and kitchen sink. It has a Caterpillar C15 6NZ with an 18-speed Eaton-Fuller.
Myers knows trucking isnât for everyone. She says sheâd recommend trucking to other women, but sheâd recommend they follow the same advice her father gave her: If you want to drive a truck, go sit in your car after a full work day and just sit there. Look through the windshield, look at the mirrors and turn on the radio. If you can do that for about eight hours without falling asleep, Myers says, you may be able to drive a truck.
âThe reason he said that is because a lot of people donât realize itâs not just about getting behind the wheel and driving down the road,â Myers said. âThere are so many things involved, thatâs the least of it.â
Myersâ five favorite movies are:
1. Avatar
2. Titanic
3. 10,000 B.C.
4. Passion of the Christ
5. Star Wars (all films)
