Interview October 29, 2025, with Ted Callister, Lowboy Magician
He knew instantly something was terribly wrong. He tried to keep digging despite the throbbing pain, rain pouring down his face and back, soaking him to the bone. The trench had to be dug. The shovel slammed into a rock when he bore it down into the streaming sludge, taking his breath away. The magnitude of pain caused him to double over, wracked by dry heaving. Covered in mud and shivering from sweat turned cold, he made his way to the job site foreman to deliver and receive the bad news.
“Twenty-nine years ago, grunt work didn’t get you paid if you were out. I had to have income to take care of my kids.”
With a distant look, Ted Callister recalls the day his career took a dramatic turn. Motivated to provide for his young children, Ted seized an opportunity to train to drive a dump truck while recovering from shoulder surgery. Earning his CDL (Commercial Driver’s License), Ted honed his skills, adding special endorsements to his license, and spent the last twenty-five years in an elite niche of truck driving, known explicitly as Heavy Haul.
Seasoned by brutally difficult days and extreme stress from responsibility, the lines around Ted’s eyes deepen as he smiles at me. The kitchen is filled with scents of white chicken chili, baking cornbread, and the cinnamon candle burning. It’s blustery outside, but the house is warm as we sit at our kitchen table together for the interview. Ted remembers wanting to be a combat pilot when he was a little boy. He was always in awe of complex mechanical engineering; he couldn’t get enough fast cars, fast planes, and giant machines. Drawn by the grit and prestige of the military, Ted also knew he wanted to be an honorable man from a young age.
Despite “falling into” driving a truck, Heavy Haul has not come easily. Heavy Haul drivers must understand weight distribution, the physics of chain load capacity, laws on load securement, Department of Transportation transport laws, overpass heights, bridge weights, road restrictions, maneuverability of large loads, moving through cities, moving large loads in bad weather, over mountain passes, highways, low-maintenance roads, forest roads, and private roads. They must also be mechanically inclined, able to fix and improvise things in a pinch.
Ted’s truck is often 150,000 pounds and fourteen feet wide, fully loaded, traveling down highway lanes that are only eleven feet wide. He is the truck on the road with Oversize Load signs, flashing lights, and accompanying pilot cars. The responsibility to be hyper-aware, cautious, and knowledgeable at all times is immense.
The landscape on the road has changed dramatically over the last twenty-five years. Laws have changed, requiring heavier, more robust chains and mandating that drivers have at least ten hours of downtime. The nature of other drivers on the road has also changed. Having a bird’s-eye view, Ted says many drivers now drive recklessly, too fast, fail to follow critical safety laws, and use their cell phones.
“At least a third of the cars I pass on the road, I can see people using cell phones in their laps or on the dashboard. People don’t understand what the truck I drive will do to their car. My truck, fully loaded, is up to thirty times heavier than the average car.
“People don’t understand that if they strike my trailer or the equipment on it, it will rip through their car like a tin can.”
Ted reports, every single day people follow too close, pull out too quickly and abruptly brake hard in front of him, make rapid lane changes around him, hover in his blind spots next to bulldozer blades, pass in emergency lanes, center lanes, and no passing zones, and even go around the front of his truck to pass while he is in a wide turn. Ted is concerned that people don’t understand the literal risk to their lives from taking these reckless actions.
Although he is acutely aware of the mistakes others are making and is highly skilled, he emphasizes that he and other Heavy Haul drivers have limitations on reaction time due to the size and weight of their loads.
Professional truck drivers are different nowadays, as well. Ted feels that truck driving schools often produce drivers who can pass a written test but cannot drive a truck with skill and intuition. Skills are lacking in new drivers, and they no longer take being a professional driver as seriously. When Ted obtained his CDL, it was considered a significant accomplishment in the field.
Ted expresses that the wages don’t necessarily match the level of skill and stress, either. The hours are long, and drivers often sacrifice time with their families and personal life to ensure others have what they need. Being a truck driver is not easy.
Ted hopes that drivers will start taking pride in their work and acting as professionals, and that they will be paid accordingly for their time away from home and the valuable skills they bring. He hopes people will learn to respect and appreciate the truck driving trade again. And for him personally, he hopes to retire sooner rather than later.
“A dream for me would be for people to remember me even after I retire. That the younger people I have taught will remember me, and that I’ll be remembered for being really good at what I do.”
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