Derek Bates has been driving for Janesville, Wisconsin-based James Churchill & Sons Trucking for about 11 years.
His situation with the company is somewhat unique in that, while he’s a company driver, he gets his own freight. That arrangement has been in place for about 9.5 years, he said.
In the beginning, Bates was approached by a steel company in Wisconsin whose owner he had known for several years. They wanted him to haul their freight, so he worked with both companies to set up the arrangement.
Since then, he’s hauled chrome steel bars and tubing from Wisconsin to Kingman, Arizona, and Los Angeles twice a month. On top of that, he also helps the steel company with dispatching when they need extra trucks, either bringing a James Churchill driver in or other outside help.
At the 2024 Waupun Truck-N-Show, the 35th and final iteration of the event, Bates was showing the 2023 Kenworth W900 that he drives for the company. The truck earned a first-place trophy in the Working Truck, 2005 and Newer, Soft Side/Conestoga category.
Bates said he got to “spec everything about it but the color,” and even that he had a little bit of say with.
Most of the Churchill fleet’s trucks are blue with gray stripes, but Bates’ truck is gray with blue stripes.
Other custom work on the truck includes a different front bumper, taller stacks, along with a drop in the front end height. “Just kind of basic stuff,” he noted. “It’s gotta serve its purpose before it has to look nice, so it gets the job done.”
Bates added that he considered putting an air ride suspension on the front end, but after weighing the pros and cons, he decided against it.
“I can’t risk losing a bag or breaking a spring,” he said. “I’m a fan of just simple, less is more, just drive it. Let it do its job. Let it make money. So, I’m pretty pleased with the way it is currently, and I’ll just leave it that way.”
As of August’s Waupun show, he had been driving the truck for about a year and four months.
The rig is paired with a 2019 Mac flatbed with a Quick Draw conestoga kit, which Bates said is “an absolute necessity doing multi-pick, multi-drop stuff.”
The rig is powered by a 565-hp Cummins with 2,050 lb.-ft. torque and an 18-speed.
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Derek Bates: I’m Derek Bates. I drive for James Churchill and Sons Trucking in Janesville, Wisconsin. Well it’s a 2023 Kenworth W900. I got to spec everything about about it but the color. All the local trucks got the blue with the gray. And I got the gray with the blue. 565 Cummins, 2050 torque, 295 wheelbase, 18 speed.
The interior’s done, but it’s factory done. So it’s all every bit. It’s a two-tone light gray, dark gray two-tone interior. It gets down the road all right. I lowered the front five inches, taller pipes, put a different bumper on. Just kind of basic stuff. It’s got to serve its purpose before it has to look nice. So it gets the job done. It’s got 210,000 miles on it. The trailer’s a five year old Mac, 49ft flatbed with a Quick Draw Conestoga kit on it. I thought, oh, I’ll put an air ride on it. Yeah, but sometimes I can’t risk failure. I can’t risk losing a bag or breaking a spring. I’m a fan of just simple, less is more, just drive it. Let it do its job. Let it make money. So I’m pretty pleased with the way it is currently, and I’ll just leave it that way.