The key to his safe driving, Manny Mendiaz says, is that he always drives like it's his first day in a truck. And that works especially well for him, considering his first day proved tricky because of his load.

"I started in the worst position, because it was almost like hauling cattle," he remembers.

Actually, he was hauling cattle. Manny drove a refrigerated truck with quartered cows hanging from hooks. "Meat can start swinging pretty good when it's hanging from the top of the trailer," he says, so careful driving was a must.

That's not the only period of his driving history that proved instructive. Another job had him driving an open carrier with cars out of Billings, MT. That's when he learned to negotiate ice and snow.

Manny has been driving trucks for 25 years, and he's

Manny Mendiaz with his wife, Magda De La O.

now in his sixth year with Star Freight.

"I love my job and love what I do, but I still try to think of every single day like it's my first day of driving. It helps me to stay out of trouble and accidents," he says.

Manny says he's learned to rely on his judgment in every dangerous situation. For instance, in bad winter weather, "I always pull over and park and just call the dispatcher and tell them the situation. You've got to do what you think is safe ... Once you get into trouble, you've lost"

One time, he was stalled in a snow storm -- with the rest of traffic -- for two days. It turned into a profitable venture for him. "People were paying me to put snow chains on their tires because they didn't know how to do it!" he says.

Manny, who lives with his wife in Oklahoma City, also places a lot of importance on keeping his truck in tip-top shape. In fact, he bought his truck new in 2001. Fifteen years and 2 million miles later, it's still like new, he says.

One piece of advice he always remembers: "My uncle told me, the steering wheel is like your wife. You have to be really faithful to the steering wheel."  That, Manny is.