The long haul: Trucking isn’t an easy job, but it’s essential

FIFE — Theron Wood stands in a fenced-in parking lot at the end of a narrow cul-de-sac not far from the Port of Tacoma. He’s watching a pair of forklift drivers load 32 tons of palm fat — 64,000 pounds in one-ton totes — on the back of a pair of flatbed trailers hooked up to his semi-tractor. The 25-year-old has been driving for a year as a professional driver for TL Trucking in Pasco, and the parking lot of Global Agri Trade is now a regular stop for him. But it’s a bit of a difficult stop. The street is narrow, short and poorly maintained — crumbling at the shoulders — and would be a tight fit for any big vehicle, much less a semi-truck pulling nearly 70 feet of trailers.