Ronnie Tims, left, and Charles Millican are retiring after 40-plus years of safe driving for the United Parcel Service.
Mark KennedyTen million miles.
That's 400 times around the world or 20 trips to the moon and back.
Together, two local UPS truck drivers have logged more than 10 million highway miles without putting so much as a scratch on a company truck.
Like two marathon runners crossing the finish line arm in arm, Charlie Millican and Ronnie Tims hung up their keys at the UPS complex off Bonny Oaks Drive last week. They ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in Tennessee in UPS's Circle of Honor, a safe-driving hall of fame.
Millican and Tims, both 66, are more than lifelong co-workers, they're also friends. Both went to work for UPS in the 1960s and have remained loyal to the package-delivery company through thick and thin. Actually, Millican helped Tims -- a cousin by marriage -- get his first job there in 1969.
Both were package drivers (the folks in the brown trucks), but eventually graduated to feeder trucks, tractor-trailer rigs that follow freeway routes. Until last week, both Millican and Tims arrived at work before sunrise to begin their daily journeys deep into Georgia to swap loads with trucks headed northward from Orlando, Fla. Every day, it was the same 560-mile loop -- target time, 8 hours and 20 minutes.
Millican went to work for UPS at age 18 while he was still in college.
"I was just going to stay (at UPS) until I figured out what to do with the rest of my life," he said. "I guess I've still got some figuring to do."
Tims was driving trucks for an appliance manufacturer when he came to work at UPS as a vehicle washer and package sorter. He started driving feeder trucks in 1973.
"It's a family," Tims says of his company.
There's a hand-painted sign at the UPS center here that reads: "Be safe by choice, not by chance."
Before the two could scoot off to retirement -- Millican to drive a church bus, Tims to ride his motorcycle more -- they sat down to offer some driving tips that could save your life.
Here are their top five:
1. Get serious. Both Millican and Tims said they have seen fatal wrecks unfold right in front of their eyes. It's a sobering experience that forever changes one's approach to driving. Driving, they cautioned, is a serious task that requires your full attention. People who think of driving as a leisure-time activity put themselves at risk.
Millican said he recited a Bible passage -- Psalm 91 -- every morning before driving his route as a way of seeking divine protection and clearing his head. Apparently, it has worked.
2. Park the cell phone. Years ago, UPS truck drivers were always on the lookout for drunk drivers, Tims and Millican said. From their elevated perches the drivers could spot drinkers balancing bottles of beer between their legs.
Now they use the same skills to try to spot cell phone users texting, checking e-mail or simply lost in conversation. Meanwhile, blatant drinking while driving has all but disappeared, they say.
3. Keep your eyes moving. UPS drivers have a safe-driving technique that they can recite like a mantra: "Shift your eyes every two seconds and check rear-view mirrors every 5-8 seconds."
Adhering to this rule makes a driver aware of his or her surroundings and keeps them out of many dangerous situations.
4. Beware of highway hypnosis. Both Tims and Millican said there's a fine line between concentrating and zoning out. Through years of experience they've learned to spot drivers who are deep in thought -- and clearly not focusing on the road. Mentally preoccupied drivers are just as dangerous as those distracted by cell phones, they said.
5. Watch out for snow birds. Interstate 75 is filled with senior drivers from Canada and the northeastern United States headed to retirement homes in Florida. They tend to migrate to the center lanes of the freeway, while faster traffic filters around them, setting up the potential for lane-change collisions.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.