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Florida Business Newsmakers in 2011
These business people were exceptionally notable during the past year.
WILLIAM TIMOTHY McCOLLUM
Truck driver, Port Charlotte
 [Photo: Alex Stafford] |
A Long Haul
After nearly three decades restoring hotels, condos, hospitals and office buildings around the country, overseeing as many as 120 workers toward the end of his career, former general construction superintendent William Timothy "Tim" McCollum in 2011 joined the roughly
1 million Floridians who were unemployed. He promptly retrained and in a matter of weeks was a long-haul truck driver. "Everything in the world gets delivered by truck except babies," he says. The Port Charlotte resident works as an independent contractor for a Kansas company, leasing a purple truck his family nicknamed Barney (after the TV dinosaur). He spends most days hauling meat from the Midwest to the east coast and dry goods on the return leg. McCollum, 52, sleeps in his cab and sees home once a month — actually more than he did in construction. The pay, he says, is comparable and it comes with "a lot less headaches."
— Mike Vogel
