Driving For Entertainment Company

I drove by a WWE Truck the other day and it got to think of yet another random question. Has anyone on this ever worked for, known someone, or met someone who worked for an entertainment company like NHRA, Nascar, Winterjam, or even dare i say the WWE? I am curious what that would be like

What's WWE?

What's WWE?

That would be World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly known as the WWF.

I think we have a couple of drivers here that work for companies which have specialized divisions for driving for shows. I think one of them is Rolling Thunder but I'm not positive. I do remember that it was something he was asked to be a part of after proving himself to his company for a year of excellent driving and service to customers. Hopefully someone else will jump in here and correct me if I am wrong about who it is if it isn't RT!

Ahh.. I must be old and out of touch. I only know WWF. I've caught wind of these more modern wrestlers. Seem like a bunch of nancies compared to the good old boys, e.g. Rowdy Roddy Piper, Iron Sheik, Mr. Perfect, Simmy Superfly Snuka ... you get the picture.

I don't drive for a entertainment company, I drive for Swift but we have an account with Feld Entertainment called Tours and Trades. I and 3 other guys are dedicated drivers for a show called Marvel Universe Live. As of right now it is the largest show running in North America with 28 trailers. It is a live action stunt show. Swift also has on this account drivers that haul the Ringling Brothers Circus, Monster Jam, Disney on Ice, Frozen on Ice and Motorcross.

Getting into hauling entertainment the 2 big companies I see the most at arenas either leaving as we are coming in or coming in as we are leaving are Upstaging and Stagecall. Upstaging requires 5 years or 500k miles previous experience and Upstaging requires 2 years previous experience.

Hauling for a live show is a little different than say a concert. For Marvel we are at a location normally for a week where as a concert tour your there for one night. For Marvel when our last show is over on a Sunday night depending on the venue and how tight and hard the backing is we have between a 5-7 hour load out. Again we have 28 trailers. After that depending on how long it takes to get to the next venue we will take and start driving a little that night. Say it's a 700 mile trip to next venue. We will drive 200 miles through the night before we shut down and take a 10 and finally get sleep. Then as soon as our 10 is done we are gone again and normally pulling in around 1-2 in the morning Tuesday morning. When we get there we have to check to see if all our other trailers have made it and if not start calling and finding out where they are. After that if we aren't parking on site we go and find the quickest way to the arena and the quickest way back. Normally by this time it's prolly around 3-4 in the morning. Our first day load out starts at 6am so we might get an hour or 2 of shuteye. It's easier when we have parking at the venue.

Load in normally takes about 5 hours because the union workers get a hour break between unloading trailers. We unload 18-19 trailers the first day and the rest the 2nd day. First day stuff is all rigging and trusses, speakers, lighting, and stuff like that. Second day of load in we don't start till normally 11am and we are normally finished between 1300-1400. After that we set the first trailers to get loaded for load out and then we are done till Sunday for most of the time. They might have a P.R. Event that we haul some stuff too. Or they may want us to bring a trailer back over so they can store some stuff in. But most of the time after we finish with load in its time for sleep and to go play tourist in whatever city we are in.

Sunday comes around and the whole process starts all over again. It's fun, we work like hell Sunday through Tuesday but then we get a good break.

Another thing about these kind of accounts and companies that run shows and concerts like this is it's better to be single with no attachments. You would be looking at getting a divorce real quick doing something like this unless your old lady rides with you. Hometime is virtually non existent. I got on this account back before Halloween of 2014 and the first time I've been home was last week when the show came to Texas. Once the show leaves Texas I won't see my parents or brother and his wife for another 4 months. We had a cruise scheduled before I got on this account that I was already paying for. If it wasn't for that no telling when I would see them again. But it would be me flying home on my own bill to see them.

We have a lot of fun on the live show I haul for but its hard work when it's time to work I'm constantly dropping trailers into docks normally 10 or more a night. Plus helping getting the OTR drivers that get called in to help haul or show set straight.

I love it tho. I don't plan on going back to being a freight hauler anytime soon. This is to much fun and the stuff we see or do after we are done working during the week is fun.

Hope this helps, Logan