Georgia Rolling (Hell Haulers, #1) / Hell Haulers (ePub)

In a desperate attempt to support his family, a good trucker turns to large-scale drug smuggling. By the time he realizes the money could cost him his business, his family, and even his life, it may already be too late.

This is a fictionalized true-crime story. Sourced from the experiences of real truckers, law enforcement, drug interdiction agents, and told true-to-life. If you ever wondered why a good person turns criminal, come along on this blow-by-blow adventure.

Ron is a good man, a hard-working driver with his own truck. But despite long hours on the road, he's broke and circling the drain. His pretty wife Jenna and young son Jimmy have moved out, and Ron fears to lose them for good.

Jenna's brother Ben and uncle Eli run a successful trucking operation and offer to help out, all they need is Ron to collect one of their trailers abandoned by a skittish driver. With no other option, Ron says yes.

When DEA Agent Saunders catches Ron with the suspicious trailer, it starts Ron on an increasingly-dangerous cycle of lies and high-risk drug-smuggling. With his opportunities to escape evaporating before his eyes, he soon realizes the lives of him and his family are hanging in the balance.

Over-The-Road Trucking is the backbone of America, the grease that makes the gears of industry turn, and the food that feeds the country. In 2017 over $721 Billion dollars' worth of freight moved by truck to every corner of the country.

Experts predict the American trucking industry will hire an average of over 100,000 drivers every year for the foreseeable future to stem the crisis of a persistent driver shortage. It would seem this demanding, but booming industry would be an excellent opportunity for those willing to take the risks, able to put in the grueling hours, those whose families can handle the frequent separation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Truckers say the Golden Rule is: "He who has the gold, makes the rules," and giant companies and brokers they haul for have all the money. The reason 100,000 new drivers are needed every year is not that they die in crashes, but so many go broke working for the Man in a cut-throat industry. The game is rigged to cut costs and squeeze margins, and long hours turn into impossible hours as honest drivers get crushed.

Owner-Operator is the romantic dream new drivers are sold on. The idea they can own their own merchant ship, their own powerhouse of independence. But after a million miles, with piling up maintenance costs, ever-increasing fuel prices and brokers squeezing the margins, an almost impossible reality becomes apparent. Driving logs get cooked, breaks get pencil-whipped, and drivers drive for less than minimum wage to try to make ends meet.

Families are also stretched to the breaking point by every mile that ticks by. Just as drivers suffer from chronic lack of sleep and long weeks on the road, families bear the long separations and uncertainty. Having a trucker for a husband is nearly synonymous with being a widow, and to a child, a dad who drives a truck means a dad who is never around.

And then enters the tempting shortcut to profitability: drug smuggling. In 2016 the DEA reportedly seized over $437 Million dollars in bulk cash associated with the drug trade, along with drugs valued at far more. And for every load that the DEA catches, highway interdiction experts estimate dozens if not hundreds slip by unnoticed.

But this shortcut entails extreme risks, as not only the Law but gangs, cartel families, and even your own friends and family may turn into deadly enemies when enough money is involved.