MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — We can’t believe ourselves how few puns we stuck in this story.

Last year, small-game hunter and truck owner-operator Joe Mansheim, 43, spent almost $800 trying to teach his golden Retriever the ins and outs of pointing and fetching.

But no matter what he did, just like the saying goes, that dog won’t hunt.

Enter Mansheim’s boss, Doug Meloum, of Minneapolis-based Elite Transportation. "For that kind of money," Meloum teased, "You might as well buy yourself a flock of ducks."

So, Mansheim took the advice.

He went to Houley’s Feed and Tack store and for a whole 25 cents, bought himself a tiny fluffy Canadian Mallard he named Frank. That was about a year and a half ago.

Since then, Frank has grown into a full-sized drake and has ridden in Mansheim’s International 4300 flatbed, every day, as the driver makes his rounds.

Todaystrucking.com caught up with Mansheim between deliveries this week for a quick phone interview. Frank tried to quack a few words into the receiver but his duck accent made him unintelligible.

No, I’m not Frank. But if he can drive team, so can I

"All my customers love Frank," says Mansheim. "Just the other day I pulled up beside a big 18 wheeler and he looks into my truck sees Frank, and gives me the big thumbs up."

He also says Elite Transportation is managing to survive despite the less-than-exploding local construction scene and Mansheim attributes at least a small part of that success to Frank.

"The thing about Elite is, we don’t just have customers, we build relationships. And because everybody who meets Frank loves him, it’s good for our relationships."

"We haul for pretty much every project in town and the joke is ‘if you build it the duck man will come,’" he says.

While at work Frank perches atop a few cushions on the passenger seat and Mansheim keeps him fat and happy with a diet of corn and minnows.

Mansheim, a very funny ex-GI, says Frank’s a great sidekick. As he told the local TV station KARE when they did a story on him last fall (click here to see a video report of Frank riding shotgun): "Maybe if more people had a duck in their life, maybe we wouldn’t all be so mad at each other."

Hear that Mr. President?

Since he got elected on promising to ‘heal’ the country, perhaps Obama will take Joe the Trucker’s advice and be the first U.S. chief executive to get a webbed-footed pet for the White House.

Now that’s ‘change.’