I don’t know anyone who takes more pride in their work than professional truck drivers I grew up around it. Not all freight movers wear this title as a badge of honor, but old school guys– and yes, quite a few girls – take it seriously. It is not uncommon for them to exceed 1 million kilometers and go on to travel 2 million or even 3 million, but even this impressive feat cannot match the men we are talking about today. Two longtime truckers with more than 10 million miles between them embarked on a cross-country trip from Seattle to Washington, D.C. with the Capitol Christmas tree in tow.

Nationally known driver John Schank and veteran hauler Fred Austin are the ones handling the heavy lifting for Lynden Transport. This specific 74-foot Sitka spruce was harvested in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, and the harvest celebration just wrapped up in the town of Ketchikan. Lynden’s sister company, Alaska Marine Lines, then shipped it by barge to Seattle where the tree and trailer were hitched to the duo’s Kenworth T680. He’s now on his way to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol with a list of stops planned along the way.

Schank has twice been named Driver of the Year by the Alaska Trucking Association, once in 2014 and again in 2017. He also received letters of congratulations from Alaska Governors Sean Parnell and Bill Walker, for his 40 years of service on the very sketchy Dalton Highway. connecting Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. At the time, Schank had accumulated 5 million miles of accident-free driving; he has since accumulated 1.1 million more.

Austin is a seasoned professional, apparently nicknamed the “Alcan Icon” for his experience on the Alaska Highway, which connects the state to the contiguous United States across Canada. He started at Lynden in 1975, when construction of the Alaska to Fairbanks pipeline began, and now he is a driver trainer and mentor at the logistics company’s training center. Austin completed instructor training at the age of 79 in 2015, making him the oldest to ever take the test in Alaska. That means it’s almost 90 years old now, with about 4 million miles under its belt and still going strong at trucking.

Schank and Austin will be on the road until November 22, when “The People’s Tree” is scheduled to be delivered to Washington, DC. This is actually the second time Schank has done this, having first completed this task nine years ago. He remembered this work in a Press release issued by Lyndensaying “he met a lot of kids who thought I was Santa” while touring the trees.

You know, I’m glad Santa has his trusty sleigh, but wouldn’t it be cooler if he drove a Kenworth with a 455 horsepower MX-13 diesel like this one? I think so of course.

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