George "Sonny" Wagner, who retired Aug. 26 from Schneider National after over 50 years of driving, can be justly proud of his career. He is one of the few recipients ever of the ATA's 5-Million Safe Driving Award. He can also be proud that he has never changed jobs in all those years. Wagner, whose lifelong home is Park Falls, Wis., started his career in the early 1950s. "When I was young, I watched the trucks coming through town and I knew then that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a truck driver."

His career began in 1952 with Kampo Transit, a regional milk and fuel oil tanker hauler. In 1969, Schneider bought Kampo; Wagner just stayed in the seat while they changed the name on the door. Officially, he is credited with 4.6 million safe miles, but, he says, "You have to remember that for the first six years of my driving career there was no accounting for the safe driving miles. In the 1950s we only drove about 50,000 miles a year, so I know I am right on the 5-million mile mark."

While luck played a big part in having 50 accident-free driving years, the fact is you make a lot of your own luck. Wagner, 69, entered the industry at the same time that the Smith System, created by Harold Smith in 1948, and its "5 keys to space-cushion driving" became a standard industry training tool. "I was taught the Smith System and safe driving became a challenge to me," Wagner says. "For me, the most important of the five keys is to know what is around you at all times. Then you add the three extra ingredients, patience, patience and more patience."

He still plans to do a lot of driving. He has retrofitted an old bus into a motor home and plans on touring the country, visiting places he saw only from a distance on the highway. "I love driving, and plan to do it for as long as I can." Congratulations, Sonny, on a job well done.