By Lisa Gordon | June 17, 2013 Estimated reading time 6 minutes, 2 seconds.
Doug Scott is used to stopping traffic – or at least slowing it down. The owner of Calgary Gooseneck, a Calgary, Alta.-based trucking company specializing in the transportation of helicopters, gets tongues wagging and cameras clicking as he criss-crosses North America with his unique cargo in tow. It’s not unusual to see fellow motorists taking pictures of his truck or even following him off the highway, or approaching him in a parking lot to see if they can get a closer look.
Five years ago, when Scott bought Calgary Gooseneck – which was originally established in 1979 – he never would have guessed he’d be getting this much attention. Like many successful entrepreneurs, he owes it all to a good idea.
About a year into owning the business, Scott decided that a custom tarp enclosure for his trailer would be a good investment. It would allow customers to keep their helicopters – and their privacy—under wraps, but it would be a costly project. He began looking for a company to sponsor his truck. They’d get a moving billboard with North American exposure – and Scott would get his covered trailer and a leg up on the competition, which was still shrink wrapping aircraft before shipping them on open trailers.
He approached Vertical magazine publisher Mike Reyno, who recognized a golden opportunity. The pair teamed up, and before long, a 50-foot trailer was rolling down the highway, covered in a custom tarp sporting a massive version of Vertical’s North American civil helicopter fleet poster. Although the truck was labelled “Calgary Gooseneck” on the front, Scott said that more often than not, it’s been called the Vertical truck.
“The response has been excellent,” Scott said during a recent visit to the magazine’s offices in Kitchener, Ont. “The truck has run steady for three years, mostly moving medium-sized helicopters. People want the covered trailer. If it’s busy, I’ll offer them an open trailer, but many of them just say that’s OK, we’ll wait for it.”
New Look
The truck’s look has changed since those early days. The sun faded the fleet poster and the team went back to the drawing board, coming up with a new design on a more durable canvas. The latest version features covers from all three of MHM Publishing’s aviation magazines: Vertical, Vertical 911, and Canadian Skies. A huge helicopter appears to hover on the back door of the truck, and whether by design or a trick of the light, its spotlight actually seems to reflect out at motorists. “I’ve had other truckers call me to say I forgot to turn off my backup light,” chuckled Scott.
In many cases, it’s cheaper and more convenient to ship a helicopter by truck rather than ferrying it by air. Scott does much of the driving himself, with the help of two other drivers, Darrell Chahley and Garvie Christie. His wife, Dolores, helps with scheduling from the Scotts’ home in Calgary.
After a slow start, business has really picked up. Last year, Calgary Gooseneck trucks covered more than 273,000 kilometres (170,000 miles) moving helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft.
The specialized transportation company has done so well, in fact, that Scott recently partnered with Reyno to design a canvas cover for a second trailer. He picked it up in early June, stopping at MHM Publishing along the way to show off his new rig. With a specially-designed interior and a bit more ground clearance than the first trailer, Scott is hoping to transport additional types of fixed wing aircraft as well as helicopters. “It’s just like Lego,” he said. “The back can be totally reconfigured for each job.”
A covered trailer offers many advantages, he continued. When people see a helicopter on the back of a truck they will usually assume it has crashed, and that Scott has been hired to drive the wreckage home. They’ll often come up to an open trailer, trying to peer into the windows of the helicopter for a better look. But the tarp system changes all that. First, it conceals the aircraft from curious onlookers, and protects it from the elements. Shrink wrapping is no longer necessary, and the trailer features a special compartment for the safe storage and transport of rotor blades and other components.
“We can load a small Bell in one hour, versus about six hours to shrink wrap it,” said Scott.
Another side benefit is that people need to stand back to see the bigger-than-life graphics on the side of the trailer – and that’s just fine with Scott. He prefers them to keep their distance from his valuable cargo, anyway.
