At 79 years young, Wayne Schooling has worn many hats including driver, salesman, manager, lecturer, businessman, and a regular contributor to 10-4 Magazine since 1994. Having never missed an issue since his contributions started, his column “Wayne’s World” is consistently bringing our readers useful information and advice. Speaking with Wayne, I learned his favorite job was drawing for Hallmark in Kansas City right out of high school. He graduated a year early and, at 16 years old, had to lie about his age to get the job. Later, Wayne began driving for Pacific Intermountain Express (PIE) back in the 60s making $3.25 per hour. He worked his way through many areas in that company and thought for sure he would retire from there. Wayne stated that there isn’t much in trucking he hasn’t done. His expertise comes from not only his experiences but also the desire to continue educating himself. Wayne believes “knowledge is power” and continues to be an advocate for big and small trucking companies, providing useful resources to members of his company, NorthAmerican Transportation Association (NTA), a company founded in 1989 under a different name as a drug testing consortium that he took over in February of 1999. When trying to re-brand the company with a new name, North American Transportation Association was his initial thought until he realized the acronym would be NATA, which sounded a lot like “nada” (which means “nothing” in Spanish). He opted instead to combine “NorthAmerican” as one word, thus creating NTA. Today, members have access to insurance providers, industry specific lawyers, and many other entities to aid companies in keeping costs down. Wayne is also one of the largest supporters of Truckin’ For Kids and a longtime advertiser in 10-4 Magazine. He has a soft spot for charities and cuts a check to DAV (Disabled American Veterans) and St. Jude every month. Away from his business, Wayne enjoys collecting old coins, firearms, and books of famous people (he has a first edition book on Jesse James written by the sheriff who shot him). Listening to him talk about his collections, you can hear the passion in his voice, but you can almost hear the smile on his face when talks about his beloved 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III, which is one of only thirteen still in existence, according to the Rolls-Royce worldwide directory. Thank you, Wayne, for your continued contributions, generosity, and willingness to share your wisdom. You are certainly one of the few remaining originals from the humble beginnings of 10-4 Magazine, and we are proud and honored to (still) have you in the family.
