Arthur Wilson has been a roadside mechanic for twenty years. Ten of those were at Chalk Mountain Services in the Midland, Texas, oil fields. Steady work, steady pay, and stretches away from home that got harder to justify as his kids got older.
"It came to a point where I couldn't be gone all the time no more," Wilson said.
He moved back to Pleasanton, Texas, to be closer to his wife and family. Three months ago, he found a mobile diesel repair position through a job listing and got a text from Truckup's dispatch team. "It was kind of a blessing in disguise to come across and get this job."
Then he started working it.
The Day-to-Day
Arthur sets his hours from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., but most evenings after 6:00, he logs back into the dispatch app on his own. He chooses to take extra jobs for the extra income.
There is no shop foreman and no one standing over his shoulder. When he arrives at a job site, it is him and the customer. He works through the issue, keeps the customer updated on timing and parts availability, and moves on when the job is done.
Arthur says there is nothing on a heavy semi-truck he is not willing to take on, whether its electrical work, engines, or tires.
When asked what someone would see following him around for a day, the first thing he mentions is not the mechanical work. It is communication and customer service.
"I don't like to come back on something that I messed up on," Wilson said. "I like to do a good job and move on to the next one."
His tools, worth roughly $10,000, stay in the side door of the truck at all times. He does not take anything off. If he did, he would leave for a job without it, and that creates problems he would rather prevent. The truck parks in front of his house every night. A surveillance camera sitting on top of his barbecue pit watches it.
"I've got a lot at stake to lose," says Arthur.
When Jobs Go Sideways
Arthur's first Truckup job was a jump-start. He drove forty-five miles from Pleasanton into San Antonio for a driver who had left his sleeper lights on overnight and drained the batteries. An hour to get there, thirty minutes on the charger, and the truck fired up. He filled out the app on his phone, got paid, and they parted ways.
Not all of them go that smoothly.
A few weeks prior, Arthur responded to an exhaust manifold gasket job on a truck that had been neglected. It was covered in oil. There were no shade trees and no canopy. The truck's owner stood next to him the entire time.
"He stood over me like a hound dog," Arthur said.
The owner had a thousand questions, and every time Arthur moved to the next step, another one came. The job required scraping the old manifold gaskets, replacing turbo gaskets, an oil tube hose, and a breather clamp, with a parts run in the middle of it. A job that should have taken two and a half hours took six.
In three months, Arthur said, that has been his worst job. The rest have been straightforward. Most customers let him work and come back when he calls.
Another recent job did not end with a fix at all. A customer had bypassed the air dryer on his truck and hooked the system direct to save money. Water filled the air tanks, the air lines, and started coming out where the air bags sit. Arthur was able to get the truck off the road by supplying air from his own vehicle, but the damage was beyond what he could repair on-site. The truck had to be towed.
"I kinda walked away with my head down on that one," Arthur said. "It was just too much wrong with it."
The Jesus Bracelet
On the morning of this interview, Arthur responded to a call for a blown heater hose on the side of the road. He bought the replacement hose, installed it, and filled the truck with antifreeze. A routine job.
What happened after was not routine.
The driver told Arthur he was a son of Jesus. He handed Arthur a bracelet and put a couple more in his pocket. Then he walked to the front of Arthur's green Truckup service truck with his Bible, blessed the vehicle, and said, "Carry on with yourself, son."
Arthur said all right, got paid, and they parted ways.
What He Would Tell Someone Considering the Work
Asked whether he would recommend mobile diesel repair to another mechanic, Arthur did not hesitate.
"Go for it," he said. "It might be slow. I might get one job a day, I might get three jobs a day. I might not get no work the rest of the week. It just depends. But just to be patient, the work will come in."
Arthur logs back into the dispatch app most nights after his shift ends. Not because anyone asks him to. Because the work matters to him.
“[For a truck driver], everything to them is time and money,” says Arthur. "When they're down, they're not making [any] money, so they can't feed their families."
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