Close to Home: Don’t let AB 5 kill American Dreams like mine

In the early 1980s, I bought my first truck and became an independent owner-operator.

I have been working since my early teenage years, first as a paper boy, then a dish washer and, by the time I was 20, as a journeyman welder at a relatively large trailer manufacturing company that's no longer in business.

Having reached top-scale earnings, I took a look around at my opportunities for advancement within the company. I calculated how many years until the foreman would retire and I could get that position. It was then that I decided to go out on my own, and I purchased my first truck.

At 21, I became a trucker. I was self-employed, and I no longer had any limits on how high I could climb the ladder of success or restrictions on the amount of money I could make.

Assembly Bill 5, the recently enacted law restricting independent contractors, including truckers, would have killed my American Dream 35 years ago.

At the same time I started my business, I got married and started a family. We did well enough to have the privilege of my then-wife being a stay-at-home mom, and within two years of starting our business, we were able to buy our first home. Although the hours far exceeded an 8-5 job, I had the freedom to juggle my schedule so as not to miss important child-rearing events such as soccer games, school plays or an occasional field trip.

As the years went by, we grew the business to five trucks. We were afforded the opportunity to send our kids to college and see the first generation in our family obtain a degree.

In looking back over the past 35 years and the benefits I received from being an independent owner-operator trucker, it was the smartest move I could have made. The taste of independence, the pride of doing it on my own and the fulfillment of achievement is my definition of living the American Dream. The experience I gained as an independent owner-operator led me to start another successful business, now running for over 20 years.

My message for Gov. Gavin Newsom and other supporters of AB 5: There are a lot of us who don't want to be coddled by the government and make just make enough money to put food on the table. Some of us are chasing a carrot. I would think they would be quite pleased with the tax revenue the state has received from me over the course of 35 years in business.

Please don't take away our American Dream - not from me, not from my kids and not from my grandkids.

Joe Helberg is the founder and president of ADTS, Inc. in Rohnert Park.

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