Gina Hoffman

“We all live a journey.” This is Dawson Taylor’s philosophy on life. Most people’s journeys do not shift quite as remarkably as Taylor’s. Along the way, trucking has made all the difference in his life. At 54, Taylor is an earnest man with a hearty laugh and a respectful demeanor. He tries to do the right thing — but this was not always the case. Taylor said he chose a rough path as a young adult and admittedly made ill-advised choices. He was into partying, and decided to drop out of high school. “I was just being stupid,” said Taylor of his behavior at the time. Taylor’s father, a recovering alcoholic himself, had been attempting to redirect his son’s path. Eventually, those efforts hit an impasse, and Taylor was kicked out of the family home. “I did things I’m not proud of,” said Taylor. “I wish I had listened to (my dad) more.” At one point, Taylor’s older brother, James H. “Jimmy” Taylor Jr., took him in. Jimmy was a trucker, and Dawson went everywhere Jimmy went. This meant joining Jimmy on his rig. “He wasn’t (just) my brother. He was my best friend” Dawson said, adding that he “sowed his wild oats” under Jimmy’s watchful eyes. “If it wasn’t for him doing what he was doing, I don’t know what I would be right now,” Dawson said. Dawson started out working with his brother as a “bedbugger” (a slang term for movers at the time). Things were still not tranquil for Dawson, but they were looking up, and he found joy in his new career. “We poked fun. We made jokes. One time, we rolled (Jimmy) up in a mattress and put furniture on top of him,” Dawson said with a chuckle. After three years of riding alongside Jimmy, Dawson got his own CDL. He also started taking his father’s advice. Dawson’s father recommended that he finish his education and find a career before getting married and having a family. “That was playtime. Now this is adult time,” said Dawson of the transition. Five years later, he progressed from working with his brother to driving solo over the road. That career has endured for 32 years, and Dawson says there’s no end in sight. Everything was rolling right along … then tragedy struck. Dawson lost Jimmy — his best friend and brother — about 15 years ago because of complications during open heart surgery. Dawson served as one of the pallbearers at Jimmy’s funeral. Later, Dawson’s father died. Despite these heartbreaking losses, Dawson continued his life’s journey as a trucker. About eight years ago, he started driving for Pro Transport, where he found a surrogate father. “He reminds me so much of my daddy, it’s almost like talking to (him),” Dawson explained, adding that he’s grateful to have found Pro Transport. “It’s a shame I didn’t find them earlier,” said Taylor. “I love where I work.” Dawson keeps a plaque in his rig dedicated to his father, his brother and his mentor at Pro Transport. “I honor them. I don’t forget them,” he said. Dawson leases his 2020 Freightliner Cascadia, nicknamed “Roll of the Dice,” from Pro Transport. In July 2021, Dawson drove the rig to the Walcott Truckers Jamboree at Iowa 80 in Walcott, Iowa. At one point in the competition, he shared, he began to feel discouraged. In his book, Freightliners typically don’t take home prizes. He almost left before the event ended. “I actually thought about packing up and leaving. I really did,” he said. He stayed, however, and that perseverance earned him three awards. “That just shows you: Don’t give up,” he said, adding that for him, the event was not about winning, and that the Truckers Jamboree was a great learning experience. Before he went out with his next load, he dropped off his awards for display at Pro Transport. “They’re just as much their trophies as they are mine,” Dawson noted. Though Dawson loves what he does, his greatest love is for his family. “I like to stay gone, but I like to go home,” he said. At one point, Dawson’s wife, Bobbie, joined him on the road after obtaining her CDL. “We ran teams for a little over a year,” he said, adding that Bobbie left trucking after an accident in Amarillo, Texas. “She got beat up pretty bad (in the accident) and has PTSD. (But) everything (happens) for a reason.” The couple’s life circumstances changed, and now Bobbie stays home, helping to raise their granddaughter, Kayleigh. “That’s more important right now than money,” said Dawson, noting that he couldn’t continue to drive if Bobbie wasn’t able to stay home with Kayleigh. Taylor returns his wife’s love and kindness with faithfulness. His “rough” days are behind him. “(I’ve been) married 25 years and have been faithful all 25 years,” he shared. Throughout his life’s journey, Taylor admits, he has made mistakes. However, he tries to use each misstep as learning experiences. “I don’t like the word ‘regret,’” he said. “‘Regret’ means you wish you didn’t do it. If you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t have learned from it.” This is one piece of advice that anyone can follow.

Tim Olden’s savvy behind the wheel, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, earned him the title of Owner-Operator of the Year for 2020 at Decker Truck Line in Fort Dodge, Iowa. This achievement, while largely based on financial indicators, also takes a great measure of skill — something Olden has in abundance. “It takes a qualified driver to run these things,” said Olden, who owns, drives and repairs his own rigs. Olden is not an overnight prodigy. His impressive skill set comes from spending the majority of the last 32 years out on the road. Because he typically drives between 160,000 and 180,000 miles each year, Olden says almost any place can feel like home. “Home is wherever I lay my head,” said Olden. During the warmer seasons of the year, Olden typically makes his home in what he calls his “summer truck,” a Peterbilt Model 386 that he’s transformed into a home on the road. He added several modifications, including antique birchwood flooring, to the rig. In the winter, he switches to his Model 389, because it has better ground clearance. “There’s only 6 inches of clearance (on the 386),” said Olden, who has no intentions of operating his rig as a makeshift snowplow. Transforming a truck into a home away from home is no small feat. It does seem apropos, however, given Olden’s early career interests: He originally wanted to become an architectural engineer, but found he wasn’t suited to an office job. “(Trucking is) freedom. It’s a lifestyle,” he said, explaining why he changed his life’s direction at age 18 and earned a chauffeur’s license and hitting the road. Three years later, when the CDL was introduced, he recertified, keeping up with the times. The early 1990s were sort of a “golden age” for Olden, who said he began to develop a skill for repairing rigs soon after hitting the road. A family mindset prevailed in the industry. Truckers often stopped to help other drivers, as well as the public, out with flat tires and minor repairs. “We used to help one another,” he recalled. Olden still carries a repair kit and spare parts in his trucks to assist others as needed. And of course, as in any good family, there was food everywhere within the trucking community. “We used to do cookouts in truck stops. We used to set up a couple of flatbeds with music,” he said. Such events were like a party in a parking lot. Today, however, the practice has been discontinued due to safety concerns. Many changes have been necessary over the years. Olden recalls keeping a roll of dimes and using pay phones to report his location to dispatch twice a day, once between 8:30 and 9 a.m. and again between 5 and 6 p.m. This system was all that was available in the days before cellphones and easily accessible computers, and it had its limitations. “A lot of my friends would actually pass away in the truck,” said Olden. “Nobody would have contact with them for a week.” If a driver didn’t complete an assigned run, police had to contact other drivers with the same company to piece together the missing driver’s routine in an attempt to find him or her. These days, electronic logging devices (ELDs) and other equipment transmit the locations of the trucks. Even though he understands the reservations some drivers have about ELDs, Olden says that to him the device is indispensable. During his years on the road, Olden periodically took breaks from his trucking career to work construction jobs for a few months at a time. “I (had) my ups and downs (with) trucking,” he said. It was during one of these “breaks” that Olden met his girlfriend of almost 13 years, Margaret “Peggy” Carstens. She would be instrumental in helping him through one of the most challenging times of his career. He began a partnership in the trucking industry, but it was short-lived. The owners parted ways over a disagreement, and Olden found himself driving for a different company. The financial difficulties caused by the dissolution of the partnership were major, but Olden says Carstens helped him through them. Today, as an owner-operator driving for Decker Truck Line, Olden says he’s been able to reclaim the family-oriented mindset he remembers from his early days in the trucking industry. In addition, he enjoys the freedom and respect the company affords him as an experienced truck owner. “I’m known by my name (at Decker),” Olden said, adding that his driving miles, which number over a million, have been recognized with commemorative rings, plaques and jackets. It appears that Olden has found his niche in the industry, and he said working as an owner-op for Decker has given him the right mix of independence and camaraderie. “I should have (gone) to Decker 20 years ago,” he said. Olden has weathered changes over the years, for the most part with a positive attitude. The open road has changed a lot during the last three decades, and Olden’s experience has morphed as well. However, gaining all that experience and being recognized as Owner-Operator of the Year hasn’t gone to his head. “I’ve watched this industry change,” he said. “I’m the same now as I’ve always been.”