Fleet Maintenance selected an Overachiever for six different categories based on reader nominations. This is the winner of the Technician category.
Vernon Fulkersin has been a mainstay in the bay at FTC Transportation (FTCT) in Oklahoma City since 1992, and the trucking company’s SVP Emory Mills has worked alongside him for the last 24 of those years. She remarked how the lead technician’s value isn’t just in the outstanding service he provides to the 25 Cascadia sleepers and 60 trailers in the fleet—along with one other tech, Mark Grayson—but as a comforting institution who makes the place brighter through his positive attitude and actions.
“Vernon’s character makes him shine,” Mills attested in her nomination. “He never says ‘no’ to helping someone and encourages anyone he knows who is having a hard time.”
Fulkersin started out as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oil fields in the late ’70s, but you’d never know that by the way he melts when he talks about his grandkids. At 64, with twinkly eyes hidden behind spectacles and a luminous white beard, he resembles a fitter version of Santa.
To FTCT, he’s both a tireless worker and a saint.
Mills recalled one Friday, when the office and shop had shut down at noon, that one of the drivers was having trouble with his mini fridge just before he was to leave.
Fulkersin had made plans with a friend, but he also knew what heading across the country without a place to store his food would mean for the driver.
“I hear from drivers almost every day that it costs too much out there for them to not use a refrigerator,” Fulkersin said. “It’s like $60 a day for one driver to eat, going to truck stops.”
So he stayed and started troubleshooting the fridge’s electrical system like he would any vital system on the truck. Because to the driver, it was.
Read more: Fleet Maintenance Overachievers of the Year: 2023 full list
In the end, the fridge was junked and replaced. It was a value brand, nothing special, one that Fulkersin said typically has trouble surviving many road miles and hard bumps. Canceling his plans to help a needy driver also didn’t seem like anything special to Fulkersin.
“Sometimes I have to cancel my dental appointment or doctor’s appointment—ain’t no big deal to me, but I’ll stay right in there until I get the work done,” he said matter-of-factly in typical Okie fashion.
It was a big deal to the driver.
“This act made a huge impression on our driver, who shared that he was truly overwhelmed that a company and this mechanic cared enough about his comfort and needs to sacrifice their off time to help him,” Mills said.
Driver satisfaction is a huge deal to FTCT, which has earned a CarriersEdge “Best Fleets to Drive For” award for 12 years running.
Fulkersin will also help retired drivers. During a recent vacation, he took the time to drive to Amarillo, Texas, four hours away to help a retired driver restore a 1956 Ford F-100. Meanwhile, his home project is currently a 1965 Ford Falcon.
The one thing about institutions, though, is what happens when they leave. Fulkersin plans to retire in the next few years. But he isn’t planning on leaving the shop without a succession plan.
“It’s just like family,” he said. “I just can’t walk out the door.”
And even when he does, it’s likely he’ll still be there if Mills needs him.
