Like many long-haul truckers, Frank Merrill dreamed of being his own boss. Some day, he told himself, he would buy his own big rig and become an owner-operator, king of the road, choosing what loads and routes he would take and carving out more time for a life outside the truck.
Merrill considered himself well-informed about the trucking industry and its pitfalls. His grandfather, his father, his uncle and his brother all drove trucks for a living. After he got out of the Army, a tour of duty that stretched from Desert Storm to Afghanistan, Merrill settled in El Paso and began driving a company truck for a Missouri-based carrier. The company changed names several times — Con-way, XPO Logistics, CFI — as the result of takeovers and mergers, but Merrill enjoyed the work. CFI took good care of its trucks and its drivers.