Contoocook is home, but these days Roy Garber doesn't spend much time there, opting instead for the open road and a full trailer.

Owner of Arbie's Team Transport and independent shipper of all things familiar and fantastic, Garber last year started bringing an A&E TV crew along for the ride.

Shipping Wars, which just wrapped up its first season, features 47-year-old Garber as one of five shippers, his no-nonsense (and, yes, at times abrasive) attitude coming along with a nearly perfect track record of delivering loads on time and unharmed. The show's first two episodes, in which Garber hauled a 4,000 pound, 22-foot steel horse and an English phone booth, attracted 3 million viewers.

Last week - somewhere outside of Chicago - Garber caught up with the Monitor, managing to yell at just one bad driver in the process.

How did you get involved in this business?

About five years ago I bought a house down in Sarasota, (Fla.) and I wanted to pay for gas to get back and forth so I opened up a transport company. . . . I retired from my plumbing and heating company there in (Bow), New Hampshire and went to this full time.

How did you hear about the show?

They chased me. They came after me and asked me if I wanted to be involved in it,. and it took a while but they finally convinced me to get involved in it. So here I am.

Why did it take so long?

I just thought it was a scam.

Did it surprise you that someone would be interested in this business?

No, interested in me. Come to find out it's my reputation and the way I do business and basically my attitude.

How so?

Um, I don't care. I'm here to do a job and that's it.

You seem to not take as much pleasure as the other shippers in the interesting items. Why is that not a hook for you?

I'm here to do a job and that's it. I'm not here to make friends. I'm not here to be popular. I'm just here to do a job. Over.

But on uShip, where shippers bid for loads, you have one of the best ratings and not one negative review. What's your key to having such great customer service.

I'm a man of my word. If I say I'm going to be there, I'm going to be there. Over.

Okay, so what are some of the most unusual items you've ever shipped?

A million and a half dollars worth of art, $300,000 cars, a 22-foot, 230 pound live reticulated python.

The show features some of those weirder items but what is the heart of your business?

My normal day to day is cars, bikes and household goods. That's my common every day. But I'm always looking for the strange and unusual things that people don't really want to ship because they're so hard to handle or they take too much to deal with.

Is that where the real money can come in, too?

Correct. If you saw the episode with the (steel) horse, there were people out there bidding on it and then they come to find out they've got to do specific things with this horse and all of a sudden 99 percent of them dropped out.

How do you feel about having an A&E crew follow you around?

It takes some getting used to. I just got done filming Jan. 10 for eight and a half months. . . . What we do is I find the loads and then they ride with me when I run the loads. But they're with me 12 hours a day, six days a week. We take one day a week off. . . . The camera is running the whole time, because I'm a very unpredictable person. I'm a very volatile person.

Do you like the company or do you enjoy the job for the solitude?

That's what I like about it. I'm a solitary person. All I tell them is if they're in my truck they keep their mouth shut unless absolutely necessary.

What kind of reaction have you gotten from being on the show?

That's the hardest part of this whole thing that people don't realize. I didn't think it was going to be this bad. I can't go anywhere or do anything. It's just dumbfounding how many people walk up to me, have almost ran me off the road trying to get pictures. . . . And it's just, wow, I'm not used to this kind of stuff.

Any part of it flattering?

It's just another day to me. I've got tunnel vision.

Any thought of capitalizing on the attention you're getting from the show and trying to expand you business or add more trucks?

Nope. It's me by myself. I won't expand. I won't get any bigger. I have people calling me. I tell them if I can do it, I'll do it. If I can't, I can't.

How often are you on the road and when do you make it back?

I left there June 12. I was back in New Hampshire for a day in Sep

tember and three days ago. . . . I own a house up there in Contoocook. Whoa, no turn signal no nothing, right? Ugh, I hate people that drive like that. Sorry. You're almost on the phone as a witness to an accident.

Are you doing another season and planning to let A&E continue taping your life on the road?

Let's put it this way, they haven't said anything yet. I told you I'm a man of my word and I've got a signed contract with A&E. If they come to me and say look we want to do X, X, X or whatever, I'm there because I've signed on the dotted line with them, and I'm a man of my word. If I start it, I finish it.

(Tricia L. Nadolny can be reached at 369-3006 or tnadolny@cmonitor.com.)