Growing up, Kim Loescher’s father had his own construction company and Kim loved going to work with him, playing around with his trucks and moving his equipment. After a career in the medical field as an adult, Kim followed her dad into the trucking business. With help from her dad and studying on her own, Kim passed the CDL and eventually joined her dad on the road thirteen years ago. They team-drove together for a couple of years and then Kim went out on her own. Today, Kim is a company driver with Classic Carriers, a family-owned trucking and logistics business based out of Ohio, for whom she pulls mostly food and medical supplies. Kim’s daughter also is a trucker and the two hope to team drive together again in the not so distant future.
Trucker Tools recently had the pleasure of speaking to Kim and learning more about her career, her battle with breast cancer earlier this year and why the Trucker Tools driver app is one of her favorite tools.
What It’s Like Team Driving with Family
In addition to team driving with her dad years ago, Kim also has experienced team driving with her daughter. Kim is a trainer with Classic Carriers and trained her daughter. After her daughter got her CDL, they drove as a team for a bit, but Kim wanted her daughter to be out on her own and experience driving solo. According to Kim, team driving, itself, can be challenging because you’re in a confined space and have to respect the other person’s privacy.
“Just being together every day in the truck can be very hard, especially with a parent. It has its ups and downs, like everything,” says Kim. “Overall, being with my father and the same with my daughter, we got to have a lot of conversations that we wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise have. You have someone to talk to. As a driver out here, sometimes you can get depressed. A lot of drivers get distant from family and sometimes they fall into a slump.”
“Overall, being with my father and the same with my daughter, we got to have a lot of conversations that we wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise have. You have someone to talk to. As a driver out here, sometimes you can get depressed. A lot of drivers get distant from family and sometimes they fall into a slump.”
Surviving Breast Cancer and Driving Greater
Awareness
Kim was only 47 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother also is a breast cancer survivor. When she found out she had cancer, she wasn’t having any symptoms and just thought she was tired from driving all day. Earlier this year following treatment, Kim returned to work. Because of what she went through, she wants to raise awareness about breast cancer and offer support to other cancer patients.
“I try to get the word out,” Kim said. “I have a big breast cancer awareness decal that my company paid for and put on my truck. I also have worked in Cleveland Clinic’s Fourth Angels program talking to and offering support to cancer patients who may be going through what I went through. I’ve lost a lot of friends along the way. Thankfully, I was blessed and someone had other plans for me and I was able to beat it. Early detection is the main thing — you’ve got to find it early.”
Kim also uses the Facebook and Instagram accounts that she and her daughter have set up to drive greater awareness about breast cancer. Kim couldn’t say enough about how well Classic Carriers treated her while she was getting treatment. She said she never had to worry about her job or pay during the eight month period that she was off work. Kim says she still got a percentage of her pay every week and retained her benefits, so that she never had to worry about how she was going to get treatment. She also didn’t lose her seniority while she was sick.
“Talking with other drivers and reading about other companies, I understand that it’s very hard to beat that,” said Kim. “I truly believe that there is no other company out there that would stand behind me like Classic Carriers has.”
A Great Tool at Your Fingertips
Kim is a big fan of Trucker Tools’ free driver app. She uses it on a daily basis for routing, to plan her stops, and to find truck stops and rest areas. She also uses the app to find backhaul loads, weigh scales and parking and to track loads for brokers. According to Kim, many of the broker loads she pulls require use of the Trucker Tools driver app, which she already has on her phone. She likes Trucker Tools’ load tracking tool because it cuts down on phone calls coming in from brokers.
“It’s an awesome tool,” Kim says. “There was a period of time when I was using another driver app and I just wasn’t liking it, so I went back to Trucker Tools. The more I use the Trucker Tools app, the more I like it. This morning, when I was planning my day, I opened up the app to see what’s on my route. It’s a great tool that’s at our fingertips.”
“It’s an awesome tool,” Kim says. “There was a period of time when I was using another driver app and I just wasn’t liking it, so I went back to Trucker Tools. The more I use the Trucker Tools app, the more I like it. This morning, when I was planning my day, I opened up the app to see what’s on my route. It’s a great tool that’s at our fingertips.”
To learn more about Kim, check out her Facebook page and Instagram feed.
Looking for another trucker interview? Read Trucker Roni Bender Talks Technology, Mentoring New Drivers and Why She Loves the Trucker Tools Driver App. To download our free app for drivers, visit https://www.truckertools.com/carriers/.
