“God is my co-pilot” is the slogan of Percy Jardine’s Gold Line Transport Company. Percy Jardine didn’t always have a transport company, and God was not always his pilot. He was born in Blackville, New Brunswick, and came with his parents to live near Newcastle when he was about six. The Jardines were not Christians and Percy was not raised in Sunday school or church. At sixteen he took a job in a lumber mill and two years later signed on with a trucking firm. Little did he know that was to be the direction his life would take.
It was really trucking that brought him to God. Driving long distance transports took him to Boston often. Outside of Bangor, Maine, there was the highway sign, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh! Are you ready?” It spoke to Percy Jardine for he knew he wasn’t ready to meet God. One night on the Boston radio he heard three gospel sermons. They started him seriously thinking about God. He had listened to people talk about Dr. Billy Graham’s great meetings, with hundreds responding to the invitation of commitment to Christ. Somehow he felt this just wasn’t for him.
Yet Mr. Jardine’s interest in spiritual things increased week by week. “I even prayed, and prayers were answered,” he said. “But I knew I hadn’t committed my life to Christ as my personal savior.” He began attending Boom Road Pentecostal Church where he and his wife are now active members. However, up to that time he had not made a Christian commitment. Then Rev. Perry Rockwood came to Newcastle. Percy Jardine attended these meetings with keen interest. One night the preacher said, “Any man who leaves this meeting without the Lord is at the mercy of the devil.” That night Jardine accepted Jesus Christ. He experienced new birth in God. “All at once I felt I was walking on golden streets in Newcastle. A tremendous burden of guilt and sin was gone.” That was in 1956.
During this time Jardine worked for three transport firms in succession, driving a truck, doing bookwork, and conducting a good deal of the business. He bought every book he could find that related Christian life to business. “If God has helped some man in his business, I wanted to read about it. I wanted my faith to grow. I ended up with over 50 books!”
One day a Christian man walked into the transport office. He began to talk about God’s blessing on his life but Percy stopped him short. “Why don’t you use that blessing in your business?” He asked. The fellow had about thirty trucks. Percy had none. But he was convinced that somebody in the transport business was going to work with God. When that happened, the sky would be the limit. “It could well be me,” Percy thought.
So Percy Jardine took a real step of faith. He came home that night and told his godly wife, “I think I’ll quit my job.” “You should have quit six months ago,” she said. That was in June of ’69. He gave his notice to the company almost immediately, and the amazing story began – a story wrought by God in the lives of two people who put their faith in Him and simply refused to doubt His promises.
“Why don’t you phone the Canadian White Company and see if there are any trucks for sale?” Mrs. Jardine asked. Trucks were hard to get them, but he called immediately. They said they had a truck coming in. Percy said, “I’ll take it.”
“Now phone Canadian Trail Mobile. They may have a truck trailer,” she suggested. They had a trailer on order but the buyer had canceled. “I said I’d take it when it was delivered,” he recounted. Jardine continued his story. “We had $60,000.00 worth of equipment on order. No Company, no money, no licenses, no insurance, no business! We had three weeks in which to see God work.
“We set some things straight right at the beginning. We pledged 2% of the gross income to God’s work. I phoned the lawyer in Saint John, New Brunswick, and had him draw up the papers for the Gold Line Transport Company Limited. I wrote to the United States and applied for trucking licenses. I secured a temporary trucking permit for New Brunswick. I hired a helper and told him I would be loading the truck on July 26th. Every night my wife and I prayed for God to work out the details. Often we linked hands, and from the upstairs window looked at the space by the house and thanked God for the truck and trailer that He was going to put there.”
Financing was hard. Money was tight. Jardine was turned down by the banks and finance companies. Then to his surprise, the phone began to ring. The story was always the same. “I hear you are going into business. Come in. We’d like to help.” The insurance companies called, saying they would ensure the equipment. Everything began to fall into place.
When he met with the White Motor Company representative, he discovered that the extra equipment was exactly what he wanted. Even the color was right – two-tone green with a gold line running the length of it. Percy said, “Paint Gold Line Transport Limited’ on it. And another thing – paint ‘God is my co-pilot’ across the front of the cab.”
“The contracts called for $6,700.00 down at the time of delivery. Though I didn’t have $67.00 I was convinced that God was giving me that truck. With this faith, I signed the contract.
“By July 25th, I picked up the truck and trailer, paid $8,500.00 down, picked up my insurance policy, got my temporary permit and was ready to roll. The next day, right on schedule we were loading the truck for Boston.”
It wasn’t that Percy Jardine was flushed with cash. The Sunday before, he put his last $20.00 bill in the offering plate at church. He left for Boston with $38.00 in his pocket, a handful of credit cards, and a new machine worth $60,000.00.
“When I applied for my permanent license, I appeared before the New Brunswick Motor Carrier Board with two letters of references and three men for character references. The big companies in the area, some with as many as 400 trucks, all had representatives and lawyers to oppose me. Amazingly, in twenty minutes I had my license. I walked out of there with something that couldn’t be bought at almost any price. God had answered prayer.”
It was pretty much a one-man operation for the first while. Percy drove the truck, loaded and unloaded it, serviced the motor and did all the office work. But the company began to prosper.
The next winter he bought two more trailers at $18,000.00 each and rented the trucks. By the spring of 1970, Gold Line Transport had three trucks on the highways.
“The next winter I decided to haul petroleum. Only one company in New Brunswick had a petroleum license. I had assurances in Newcastle that I could get all the business I could handle. ‘But you’ll never get your license, ‘they assured me.”
“When I applied to the Motor Carriers Board, Imperial Oil and Texaco stood behind me. The company with the trucking monopoly opposed me. My lawyer was discouraging. The session lasted hours and we left without a decision.
“Three days later I returned home after midnight. I looked for mail. There was nothing. Upstairs, I prayed by my bedside, thanking God in faith for that petroleum trucking license. My wife awoke. ‘I had a call from the lawyer today,’ she remarked. ‘What do you think he said?’ I hardly dared to ask her. ‘We got our license,’ she told me. We both thanked God together.
“Now I needed three tankers to haul petroleum. They were almost impossible to buy, either new or second-hand. Imperial Oil volunteered three tankers but had to withdraw this offer when a previous deal materialized.
“But amazingly, the company to whom the tankers were traded phoned long distance, offering the three tank trucks for $9,000.00. What will you take for the three of them, cash? I asked. What presumption! I didn’t have five cents. I bought them for $7,000.00.”
Those trucks went to work day and night. In about a month and a half, they were all paid for. They haven’t stopped running yet.
Now, this is the way Gold Line Transport Company has developed. Step by Step, prayer by prayer, miracle by miracle, it has written its history. In five years it has assembled a fleet of eleven trucks, ten tankers, ten flat-bottom trailers, and three vans-thirty-four pieces of equipment traveling almost a million miles annually. It hauls a variety of products between the Maritime Provinces and Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
“God is my co-pilot,” is not just a slogan, but fact. Percy Jardine isn’t joking about God’s help. Take that winter afternoon when Jardine stopped in front of a garage near a thirty-foot embankment. There was a bit of a downgrade. He left the brakes locked and went to make a purchase. As he was standing there, the garage man suddenly looked at him and said, “Your truck is running away.” Turning quickly, he saw his truck loaded with fruit sliding on the ice toward that thirty-foot drop. “I ran out and jumped in the cab but I was on the wrong side,” Percy recalls. “Four feet from the embankment and I knew I couldn’t do anything. I shouted, ‘Lord, stop this truck!’ It stopped just as though it was on dry pavement. I bounced against the dashboard. The garage man came running out and looked at me like I was some kind of miracle man. ‘God was really with you,’ he said.”
Year by year, Gold Line Transport contributes thousands of dollars to the local church, world missions and the support of orphans overseas.
And month by month the story continues to unfold. Through constant problems, God answers prayer, piloting the trucks and the business. One job stops another one begins. The trucks are running around the clock. After only five years, Gold Line’s financial standing is comparable to some of its biggest competitors.
Gold Line Transport was organized with God as a partner. It has been blessed in a miraculous way. “I’m sure we can have fifty trucks some day,” commented Percy Jardine, “for God is my co-pilot.”