Comeau’s love for trucking fuels 51 years on the road

Tim Comeau has been around trucks all his life and was driving them when he was a child.

The Gravedigger Express co-owner and fleet manager grew up in New Brunswick in a trucking family and learned the trade from his father, who taught him how to drive and repair trucks.

Comeau said he started driving at age 12 and was hauling logs for his stepfather on private property before he even had a truck licence. “I only had a four-wheeler licence,” he recalled.

Trucking was the only career he wanted.

Comeau quit school in Grade 8 and took a job at a printing press, where he earned a licence in two-color offset printing. But when he turned 18 and got his truck licence, he left the printing industry within two weeks and headed onto the road full time.

“I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

Now 69 years old, Comeau has spent 51 years behind the wheel and estimates he has logged roughly 4.4 million miles without an accident.

After working for a small trucking company in New Brunswick for nearly three years, Comeau moved to Alberta at age 21, after his uncle helped line up a job opportunity.

From there, his career expanded across Canada and the United States.

He hauled refrigerated freight coast to coast, moving meat from Calgary to St. John’s, N.L., and spent several years running reefer trailers across North America. He later bought his own truck and operated independently, hauling produce and peat moss throughout the U.S.

Comeau eventually transitioned into flatdeck work in his early 30s. He also hauled cattle feed and tankers before settling into heavy haul operations.

Over the decades, he travelled extensively, driving through every Canadian province and nearly every U.S. state except Hawaii and Alaska.

But while the equipment and freight changed over the years, Comeau said the most memorable part of trucking has always been the people he encountered on the road.

One of his treasured memories came during a breakdown in Circle, Mont., roughly 40 years ago.

Comeau was stranded on Valentine’s Day with transmission trouble when a local stopped to help. The man towed his loaded truck to his property. He then searched through tall grass in a field and located a compatible 13-speed transmission lying outdoors to help fix the issue.

Treasured memories

The man, his wife and sister-in-law were heading for a Valentine’s Day dance. He insisted Comeau head to the dance, while he fixed the transmission. Comeau recalls having a fun evening with the townspeople and the sheriff driving them back at night. By then, the transmission had been repaired.

Comeau said he experienced similar acts of generosity throughout his career. During another breakdown in the U.S., he met an elderly gold miner who showed him jars filled with gold ore hidden beneath a trap door in his home and later gave him some ore to take back to Canada. He later had it appraised at about $2,800.

Experiences like those reinforced the lessons his father taught him early in life.

“My dad said, ‘Do your next trip better than your last,’” Comeau said. “I think about that every trip.”

Comeau said trucking requires people who genuinely enjoy the work and accept the difficult conditions that come with it.

“If you don’t like chaining up, don’t do the job. If you don’t like bad weather, don’t do the job,” he said. “It’s part of the job.”

He believes drivers need toughness, awareness and pride in the profession to stay safe on the road.

“Being aware of your surroundings and loving what you do keeps me safe,” he said.

Even after more than five decades behind the wheel, Comeau says he still enjoys climbing into the truck each day. One of his favorite moments remains waking up early on the road and watching the sunrise from the cab.

“That’s the coolest thing about trucking,” he said.

Outside work, Comeau races stock cars and collects vintage snowmobiles. But trucking remains at the center of his life. “Make sure it’s in your heart,” he said. “Make sure that you want to do it.”

As the years roll by, he certainly wants to do it because he has no plans to take it easy or retire anytime soon.