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Legend nominees:

James & Valorie Webster

In the realm of transporting special commodities, those involved agree and make known the caliber of carrier required. This particular division of the moving business serves an exclusive niche; clients seeking quality drivers to perform high-value work. The indicated area of responsibility is considered a small community, in which a person’s character is taken much into consideration. Meaning, all jobs are earned based on experience and respectability.

Each Legend article features a driver that has created their own path while becoming an example worth imitating in an industry that demands a willingness to endure more than expected, along with the type of determination that is life changing. We read how each individual’s journey through humility and perseverance achieve success as a professional truck driver. This feature highlights two of today’s finest drivers that specialize in the transportation of high-value art. In this field, their current business was attained after years of focusing their ambition on supporting one another in accomplishing his and her personal goals. In doing so, their hard work was recognized as their names among those associated began to travel up.

James and Valorie Webster of Henderson, Nevada started their business, Webster Logistics in 2007. Specializing in art transportation nationwide, they travel in their 2007 W900 Kenworth with a 150in custom sleeper. James brings to the team 31 years of experience with over three million miles and Valorie has earned her share of one million miles over the span of twelve years. Together, they explain the practice that went into mastering their trade and how they overcome tough days, running over the road as a husband and wife team. In a unique lane, such as providing the proper delivery of paintings, artwork, and sculptures, business calls for the upmost meticulous and detailed movers that can maintain the highest level of professionalism during any given circumstance. In transportation, the profession can prove difficult when operating as full-time business partners with your spouse, but James and Valorie share with us how success as a couple can be made possible. These two drivers are far from the average team…

Making A Name

“All truck drivers get into trucking for their own reasons. Some are raised within the business, others may feel forced financially to do this for the money. After all, it’s a decent means of living to support a family. The people that walk into trucking saying, ‘This is what I have always wanted to do, nothing else!’ …those drivers …the ones that just want to drive a truck out here, they’re the truck drivers that last and do well. They choose to master the skill.” -James

James Webster was born in 1965 at Freedman’s Hospital located in Washington, D.C. Now known as Howard University Hospital, a private, nonprofit institution that allow students the opportunity to pursue a career in the medical field. The teaching hospital offers community-based programs for participation in clinical and research work with physicians and other health professionals.

His mother, the late Marcia Baham became the first African American female Master Carpenter born and raised in Washington, D.C. James’ stepfather, Kenneth Bahan is a World War II and Korean War veteran having served the U.S. Navy as a combat construction engineer. Having both parents with strong backgrounds in the construction industry, they typically worked on many projects together. Marcia as the construction carpenter, followed suite by Kenneth as the finish carpenter. Naturally, the couple had hopes for their son to join the family in the construction business, but James felt led in another direction.

James recounts a few of his most memorable moments from his childhood. He states, “As a kid, I would go to job sites with my dad and I remember him teaching me measurements when I was 11, and by 16 I was actually working with them, cutting wood with the router and so on. The whole time I was never fully interested in any of it. My head was always in the clouds, constantly thinking about trucks. Growing up in Washington, D.C. people mostly traveled by public transportation or did a lot of walking. I distinctly remember walking with some friends one day, I was 15 at the time and we were standing near a Wonder Bread factory. I was watching the guys pull their trucks up to the dock. I was just amazed because that dock for their bakery was crazy! My friends asked me if I was going to stand there and watch the drivers in the trucks all day? I told them, one day I was going to do that. I was going to get that good and do what that guy was doing.”

Following in his parent’s footsteps, James worked construction Monday through Friday. At seventeen, he landed his big break. He got his foot in with a moving company working as a helper on the weekends. Watching and learning from everyone involved, James quickly excelled and worked his way up to the driver’s seat. Soon after he was placed in charge of a four-man crew and his own truck. Driving a 26ft straight truck only required a standard driver’s license. When he reached 20, he left the construction business in pursuit of making trucking his full-time endeavor. “I walked away and never looked back. When I was with the moving company, I thought that would be enough, but then I wanted to drive a truck and trailer. That’s when I knew that I had to get my own and do this for me… make a name for myself. As soon as I was out of driving school, I was determined to reach my goal. And that was to have my name on the side of my own truck,” he said.

In 1986, James finished driving school and went directly to working over the road. He purchased his first truck in 1997, a brand-new Freightliner FLD. And later, began running under his own authority in 2003. He and a close, childhood friend whom was also a professional truck driver, went in as partners establishing East Coast Logistics based out of Fremont, Indiana. As their book of business steadily began to build the team grew adding four more drivers, all leased on to the company.

Valorie Webster was born in Miles City, Montana. Her mother was a full-time housewife and her father drove a truck until she was seven. He then switched over to the oil field securing a position as a heavy equipment operator. From her initial introduction to trucking, to the time she decided to make the leap, the idea of traveling the country for a living was all about timing. Due to a previous marriage with a truck driver, Valorie was able to get a small glimpse of what it was like living on the road and doing local work.

Like her mother before her, Valorie devoted her time to raising her children. As her three kids grew in age, she put in more hours at the convenience store she worked at in Reno, Nevada. Later, with an empty nest and a manager title, Valorie was ready for the next chapter of her life. She explains, “Before, I was a stay-at-home mom. My kids and grandchildren are my life. They are the greatest, most special part of everything I am. I had reached a place in my life where my children were all grown and I was ready to embrace a new change. And trucking was the perfect opportunity for me to learn something new. Something to challenge me. I also wanted the freedom… the travel and adventure. Just something for me.”

As if fate had heard Valorie’s new declared purpose, a TV commercial caught her attention, nudging her instincts to explore further. The two key factors that she says every truck driver must possess to succeed are self-confidence and determination. Her first five months she drove team; training, studying, and absorbing every piece of knowledge possible about the business and trucks. She says, “After those few months I thought, I can do this just fine by myself and I did! That’s the thing, never think that you can’t do something if that one thing is what you want to do. Go after it! Tell yourself that you can do it and just make it happen. Try not to be afraid. Trucking for me can be intimidating, but when I need to, I talk myself through those moments. It’s all about having self-confidence in your ability and determination to not give up. Have courage to chase your dream.”

James met Valorie while still in the business of moving electronics and special commodities in trade shows. Valorie had been on the road for almost three years. At the time, she was hauling paint. “She’s a tiny woman and was out here pulling pallets of paint. She was doing her own thing… it’s not like I came along saying, ‘C’mon, lets run team and I’ll show you how to do it.’ She was already in the groove of things. If anything, when we teamed up she became an asset to me,” James said.

In 2007, Webster Logistics was in full swing. Valorie’s pursuit of trucking was for her own personal gain, but not in a materialistic manner. Completing a painting with the colors of life starting with only a blank canvas and a vision, can easily leave you wondering if everything came together the way you wanted. Stepping back to breathe in your masterpiece, allowing it to fill your heart with a sense of peace, that’s the affirmation Valorie received, confirming that she did indeed accomplish what she set out to do. Something Valorie had said resonated with me long after we ended our interview and it helped me understand. She said, “When I started trucking, I was getting the feel of it and trying to figure out if I could even do it or not. I stuck with it and worked extremely hard to be better than just good. It was the first time in my life I could remember my dad telling me that he was proud of me. That was huge! Still is.” James says that his life achievement was the day he started his own trucking company with his own authority. He adds, “Being able to represent myself and not a carrier is something I’ve worked towards since I started in the 80’s. To have a perspective customer call me and request that I do a job, reminds me that it’s all worth it. The level of patience and hard work pays off in return for the respect you receive from your customers. That’s why I do this, because I love it. And then to be acknowledged that clients appreciate my work and notice how I treat them are small indications that I’m still doing things right.”

Diamond Duo

When James first graduated to driving Class A trucks, his uncle had just retired from the military, serving in the transportation sector for the U.S. Army. James helped him get in the door at the same clothing company he was driving for. Given his prior driving experience, he and James were paired up on a round circuit running from Chicago to Texas, and back to Washington, D.C. Being a Vietnam veteran, James’ uncle took him under his wing and showed him how trucking was done the old-fashioned way. “Most guys had to figure things out on their own. I had the privilege of attending driving school and what I didn’t learn there, I learned from my uncle. He never let up either! Just because I was his nephew, there was no special treatment. He treated me like he was training a new recruit in the Army. I learned the hard way, what not to do. Plus, that being a different time when there were no cell phones or a GPS to help you navigate. He would give me a map and say, ‘This is where we are going. Which way should we go and what time will we get there?’ He taught me how to get my gear shifting down and gave pointers on backing up. We went over it and over it until I had everything down, going backwards and forwards. This went on for three years. I’m proud to say that I was taught trucking the way it was supposed to be taught,” he said.

Valorie views her husband in that same regard. Stating, James has been the biggest influence on her trucking career. Running as a team, the companionship and connection they share is evident through their work. Spending most hours of a day alongside the same person, one can pick up on the slightest mood change. Even foresee situations that could cause an interruption on a regular day. During any dilemma under those circumstances, James and Valorie have learned how to react delicately and always remain in tune with one another. “Of course, we have our stressful days as husbands and wives normally do.” James continues, “The average couple go their separate ways seeing each other in the mornings and evenings, spending the rest of the day at work or what not. We see each other 24 hours a day, every day. Because of that, we know when the other person is having a good day or a bad day. Or sometimes even catch on before it becomes a bad day, and make it a good day. What we have learned is to talk each other through it. When we’re doing an art shipment for a client working as a team, communication is imperative. Even on those bad days, you are expected to conduct yourself in a certain way; when you’re in a museum or at an exhibit, or say at an airport loading directly off a plane.

You’re also expected to be dressed in proper attire. Speaking from a driver that’s been doing this for 31 years, this goes back to the days when I first got into the business and the guys were still wearing uniforms at work. That’s what the professionals in the museums expect to see. Keep in mind, we go to the downtown areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. You must function with the same cool head that you drive with out on the open road. Keeping calm amid an urban area at the worst time of traffic can test a person’s limits. But you can’t arrive at say, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City at 7 o’clock at night, upset because of rush hour or bad weather. It doesn’t make a difference, that’s what you get paid to do. Show up in proper attire with a smile on your face, greet people, and carry on as the professional you were trained to be.

On the days when chaos tries to creep in, one of us will step up and let the other one take a breather. That’s how we get through those tricky days, working as a solid team. We complement each other as business partners and I think that helps keep our marriage strong too, by having each other’s back.”

I admire their commitment to the business and the image of our industry that they represent. James said it best, “This is a skilled occupation.” I couldn’t agree more.