My work was my salvation
My work was my salvation
Guillaume Levaillant is a passionate truck driver and managing director of Paratrans, the transport company he set up. He has been paralysed since the age of 22, but that hasn’t hindered this entrepreneur. PIERRE ALAIN BRENDEL visited the genuine workaholic in the North of France.
“I just love being a truck driver! I feel like I’m on holiday as soon as I grasp the steering wheel,” says Levaillant. The 45-year-old entrepreneur turned his passion into his career and is now managing director of Paratrans, a transport company based in Houdain, northern France, not far from the English Channel. Yet it wasn’t always clear to Levaillant that he would enjoy a successful and fulfilled career. Being paralysed, he has already had to overcome significant adversities in his life.
Early beginnings on the farm
“My parents lived near a farm and I used to help with the harvest from the age of eight,” Levaillant recollects from his childhood. “So even early on, I was sitting around on tractors and combine harvesters and was soon able to operate them myself.” He subsequently undertook vocational training as an agricultural worker and farm machinery operator, also obtaining his truck driver’s licence. He continued helping with the harvest, transporting sugar beet and driving large machines.
But everything changed in 1998, when Levaillant suddenly felt strong pains in his leg. The diagnosis was devastating for the 22-year-old: a malignant tumour was pressing on his spinal cord. Following an eight-hour emergency operation, he could no longer move his legs. Unfortunately, a second operation six months later was also unsuccessful; the paralysis remained. A very long hospitalisation ensued and Levaillant subsequently struggled with severe depression.
“That was when I realised I really had to fight to regain my life,” he now recalls. He decided to return to the farm that had always been his major passion: “I desperately wanted to work again. That was my salvation.” His friends assisted him, using a telescopic crane to fashion a seat lift that would enable him to operate tractors and agricultural machinery with the aid of a steering wheel gear lever.
From tractor to truck
Even if his passion for agricultural machines remains, Levaillant soon felt the desire to set up his own transport company. Nevertheless there were a few hurdles to overcome before he was able to do so, like extending his truck driver’s licence… “Not that easy when you’re sitting in a wheelchair and can’t reach the brake pedal or accelerator!” he points out.
MAN Truck & Bus was the only commercial vehicle manufacturer out of all those he contacted that responded to Levaillant’s request for assistance. Stéphane Montagne, at that time a MAN dealer in nearby Arras, became personally involved on Levaillant’s behalf, loaning him a tractor unit. Levaillant got the truck equipped with personalised controls, including brake and accelerator levers on the steering wheel. “I used this truck to renew my driving license and I felt ecstatic,” he beams. The loan didn’t just help Levaillant to obtain his license; it laid the foundations for setting up his company.
“My contact at MAN had shown trust in me from the very start. The banks didn’t want to grant me any credit, but MAN made a vehicle available to me for the first six months of my business start-up. I only had to pay for it after this period had expired,” says Levaillant. Yet in its first few months of existence, Paratrans was so successful that he was soon able to order the first of his own trucks from MAN.
Long days and looking to the future
Today Levaillant can look back on a successful career, enjoying his days working at the wheel. All of his trucks come from MAN, including two TGX units: one 500-hp and one 580-hp (373 and 433-kW respectively). Both are equipped with operation levers on the steering wheel.
Even the complications of getting into and out of the cab are no longer an issue for Levaillant. Whereas before he had to be lifted into the cab by his friends, he now has a lifting platform that raises him and his wheelchair to the right height, so that he can get into the cab in just a few seconds without any problems to start work at dawn each day.
“My working day begins as soon as I’m sitting in the truck,” says Levaillant… and it’s a long one, as he adds: “I only sleep for four to five hours every night, that’s enough for me!” At 06:30 each morning, he drives to the sandstone quarry at Pernes, only a few kilometres away from his home.
“Everyone knows me there and I don’t have any more issues than any other driver,” says Levaillant. At the quarry, where more than 30 trucks come and go every day, a member of staff hands the necessary documents directly to him in the cab, so that he doesn’t have to lose any time by extending his platform. After the first load, Levaillant is back on the road at 07:00, heading directly to the delivery location. This is followed by a further four to six such trips, and sometimes up to 12 in a day if necessary, meaning that the managing director covers between 350 and 450 km daily.
Levaillant’s company doesn’t just carry loads of sand and gravel, though. Since last year, Paratrans has also begun to transport sugar beet waste. For this, the Frenchman uses a 480-hp (358-kW) MAN TGX with a large grain trailer to drive over the fields until late evening. This has enabled more than 2 700 tonnes of sugar beet waste to be processed into animal feed or used in the operation of biogas plants – a flourishing business.
This enterprising workaholic is looking forward to the future with relish. Alongside his demanding job, he now also wants to completely renovate his house with help from friends and artisans, explaining: “The main thing is that I keep moving.”
Photography by Jean Philippe Glatigny and Karl Lefebvre.
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