"When I was thirteen, my dad taught me to drive trailer-truck in the middle of the night. Back then, it was a little bit easier; he put me in the seat and said, 'There it is, now get to drivin’</font>
Morgan Morris comes by his love of trucking naturally – it’s in his genes, so to speak. He says, “My dad’s been in the trucking business all of his life, so before I was twelve years old, I was tearing motors apart and rebuilding them by myself.”
“When I was thirteen, my dad taught me to drive trailer-truck in the middle of the night. Back then, it was a little bit easier; he put me in the seat and said, ‘There it is, now get to drivin’.”
***image3***He adds, “We were in the dump truck business in Austin for five years before things slowed down. We sold the business, and my dad and I went to FedEx Custom Critical where we ran team for a couple of years.”
Six years later, Morgan is still with FedEx Custom Critical working in the company’s White Glove division – a segment of the company that concentrates on specialized handling shipments.
He states that a number of his family members have been in expedited trucking over the past few years. His brother is a FedEx Custom Critical fleet owner and until his father’s retirement, his parents drove one of his brother’s trucks. Recently, members of his brother’s extended family left their jobs to take over driving duties in the truck vacated by his parents. About a year ago, Morgan’s wife Tina joined him on the road to run team.
His Equipment
***image4***He tells us, “I started with FedEx Custom Critical in 2000 with an old day cab Kenworth that I pieced together in my back yard. I went to Houston and bought a used sleeper, went to Dallas and bought a used cargo box. The truck looked alright and I didn’t want to buy a new truck because I didn’t know what I was getting into.”
“I recommend that new people buy a used truck to get to know what they’re getting into and to find out if they like expedite. It also gives them a chance to find out what they would want on a new truck.”
Morgan and Tina’s Pride and Joy
He states, “A lot of people don’t know anything about trucks so they just go to a dealer. I go to my people and they do their thing – everything’s done by individual specialists and actually, it’s cheaper.”
“I designed the truck myself,” he says. “I went to my Kenworth dealer (MHC Kenworth of Longview, TX) and told him what I wanted on the truck. I spec’d the engine, trans, tires, cab, and all on a 40-foot long frame from the factory in Seattle.”
“From there, the factory shipped the truck to Indiana Custom Sleepers (ICT) in Lagrange, IN. I got together with ICT and they gave me a set of plans. After I scribbled on them a few times, I came up with this design.”
Morgan’s ride is a 2005 Kenworth W900L that began life as an extended day cab. The color? It’s a solid white with purple fenders front and rear. It features aluminum wheels, tanks and steps. As Morgan says, “If it ain’t white, it’s chrome or aluminum.”
With its chrome stacks, toolboxes, breathers and chrome bumper with 22 LED’s, Morgan has built himself a standout ride! Speaking of LED’s, the truck sports over 300 of the illuminating devices.
Power for this custom unit is provided by a Cummins ISX with 530HP running through an Eaton Fuller 18-speed Autoshift into tandems with 3.36 ratio.
Morgan spec’d the Supreme cargo box himself and he tells us, “It’s a 14-foot refrigerated box, but I wanted the widest and tallest box I could get. It’s 102″ wide with a 100″ door opening with polished chrome barn doors. I need the bigger opening because we haul a lot of mainframe computers and they’re real tall.”
The box also contains temperature probes for the freight to satisfy the FedEx Temperature-Validation” (T-Val) requirements – another White Glove service. The Morris’ had the Carrier refrigeration unit installed at Crow’s Truck in Memphis, TN. Completing the cargo area is a 5,000 capacity Leyman liftgate.
The ICT sleeper is a 13-foot/156-inch long unit with refrigerator/freezer, sink, stove, hot water system, and bathroom (no shower). The top bunk has a 15″ flat screen TV and the bottom bunk has a 20″ flat screen. Both TV’s are connected to in-motion “cable” system. “Tina can watch her programs on the top bunk TV with a wireless headset while I’m watching a movie on the other TV.”
***image2***He says, “The typical ICT sleeper has the kitchen area on the passenger side of the truck and I wanted something different so we have our sink, stove and all on the driver’s side.”
“We’ll stay out maybe three weeks or longer. You’ve got to make the best of it. It’s nothing for us to cook full meals in the truck’ steak, ‘bloomin’ onions, whatever we want.”
“Not long ago, we had some extra time before we were to pick up a load in Los Angeles, so we spent the night in an State Park in an RV slot right on the beach.”
“I designed the truck so it’s got shore power, water tanks and all, just like an RV. I can pull up to any RV spot, plug in my electric and water, and we’re ready to go!”
Morgan says that most of the couple’s freight is comprised of electronics and pharmaceuticals in the 3,000 lb. range, however, the truck can scale a 15,000 payload. “It’s a big ‘C’ truck that weighs in 30,640 lbs.”
Morgan tells us that he can achieve about 9.2 mpg on the plains of the Midwest: “With the big engine and the high-speed rear ends, I’m only doing about 1400 rpm at highway speed. We run our cruise control a lot and that’s how you get your mileage.”
He says that his KW is an attention-getter that serves as a recruiting tool for his company: “Everywhere we go, people will come up and start talking to us because of the truck. FedEx recruiters will give out my phone number because people want to talk to someone in the business to get a feel of what’s going on. I give them a little information and tell them to go from there.
“We entered the truck in the Pride and Polish competition at the Mid-America Truck Show in ’05, my fifth year doing it. We enjoy it, but with three days for show prep and with the schedule of the show, we’ve got to take a week off.”
Thoughts on the Business
When asked if he still enjoys the trucking lifestyle, Morgan says, “I had trailer-trucks back in the ’90’s and I didn’t like it that much so I went to the dump trucks. The only reason I went back on the road is because we’re in a straight truck.”
“We don’t have the hassle because it’s easy getting loaded and we can whip in anywhere we have to. We just don’t have a lot of the problems that the trailer-truck guys have.”
“Nowadays, it seems like if you don’t get into a truck stop by 6:00 pm, you can’t find a place to park a big truck. Every year there’s more trucks with fewer truck stops and they’re not building the parking spaces wide enough. With a straight truck, there’s always someplace to park.”
Morgan and Tina Morris – expedited trucking with style!
