How can Onspot keep you on the road? We talked to Glen Rice, a long-time truck driver. Here's his story:
“You can’t make a living looking out the window,” teachers would tell young Glen Rice, as he’d long to be on the road and draw pictures of trucks and cars. Now 67, Rice has made a living looking out the windows of his big rig for almost 50 years.
“My sister was a lawyer, and she was always the smart one. But I was always the happy one,” he said. “If you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life, and that rings true for me. A few years ago, I drove one of the trucks used for stage equipment at the Super Bowl. I got to see the game and halftime show, and it was thrilling. I was born to drive.”
Rice started driving trucks in 1974. His grandfather owned a hauling company out of South Bend, Indiana , and his father started Bolin Drive-A-Way , which delivered equipment and busses. He tried college, but the road kept calling him, and he started driving full time. He bought his own semitruck in 1984 and has more than 3 million safe miles on the road. In 2020, he was on the road 321 days out of the year.
“People say driving trucks isn’t good for families, but I was able to bring my daughter, even as an infant, on the road, and my then-wife got her CDL license and rode with me for about five years. We shared in many adventures as a family,” he added.
Rice was able to take those adventures, even in the winter, because of his Onspot automatic tire chains. He bought his first and only set in 2000.
He credits his safe miles to Onspot automatic tire chains, which allowed him to drive in the snow and ice with confidence and without having to manually put on regular tire chains. Many of his colleagues take the winter months off because they have not invested in Onspot’s automatic tire chains. “Big mistake,” Rice said.
“Out of everything on my truck, my Onspot tire chains are the only thing I don’t worry about replacing, and I have had them for years,” he added. “I got them looked at once at the facility in Indiana, and the guys worked into the evening to make sure they were OK. That is customer service, and their endurance speaks really highly how they train you to use it."
And they are easy.
“It’s like turning on a lightbulb. You push the button on the dash, and I am good to go. At my age, and even when I was younger, nobody wants to get out in the snow and ice to put on tire chains. Yuck,” he said. “Onspot automatic tire chains are so simple yet amazing. It’s really wonderful, and it allows me to keep trucking, literally, for the full year.”
Rice relies on his tire chains even more since his first and only major accident in 2000. A woman drove head-on into his truck at 100 miles per hour. He tried to avoid her, but “it was like she followed me everywhere I turned,” he said. The woman died, and the experience haunts him.
“I don’t remember much these days, but I still remember her name and her story,” he said. “You always think, what if I would have left 10 minutes later or done this or that. It’s rough.”
The injuries he sustained left him in a wheelchair for some time, “and I was mean and miserable,” he said. Rice said he was glad to get back on the open road in 2008. His new truck has a shower, toilet, full kitchen and a 46” television. It is his home, although he does have a physical address in Florida. Still using a cane or walker, Rice said he was able to get back on the road, in part, because of Onspot — knowing he can depend on the automatic tire chains in bad weather.
“The road is where my friends are,” he said. “Someone will recognize my truck and holler out, “Happy Birthday, Glen” over the radio as they pass. It’s a great group of people, and I love seeing the country, even in the frosty winter months.”
Learn more about traction aids for heavy vehicles here
