Iowa driver celebrates career milestone of buying his first brand-new truck

By Al Muskewitz

When Ryan Smith was 16 he remembers vividly telling his father, a lifelong trucker, he was not going to spend his life driving a truck – and the way it shook the family tree.

Fast forward a couple years and he remembers when and where he was when he climbed into his own big rig for the first time, and the reaction that got, too.

It’s five years later and Smith, now 23, just drove off the lot at Grask Peterbilt in Davenport, Iowa, after buying his first brand-new truck, a 2021 Peterbilt 389, to keep his personal trucking operation – and the family legacy – going strong.

“I remember standing on the stairs and I was talking about college and I told dad I was never going to drive a semi ever in my life,” Smith said during a recent visit to the dealership for a once-over. “I actually think I broke his heart a little bit when I said it. My grandpa was a truck driver. My dad is a truck driver. So, I’m a third-generation driver. I thought I was just going to break the trend and it turned out it’s what I’m supposed to do.”

And when he came of age that’s exactly where he was. The day he turned 18, he got his CDL. In December 2018, he had enough of working for somebody else, sold his sizeable herd of cattle, dusted off one of the family’s old DOT numbers and climbed into his own truck.

He followed the wheat run from Texas to North Dakota for a while and then hauled heavy equipment and cattle feed. He continues to haul livestock because he likes working with farm animals and meeting farmers across the country while the other four trucks in their North English, Iowa, company run dry and refrigerated freight.

All that work led up to a couple weeks ago when, at the spur of the moment, he walked into the dealership and bought a brand new truck for the first time. 

He said Peterbilt sales specialist Melissa Ramsey made the whole process “quick and easy.” It is a sweet ride, with a purple paint scheme that drew his eye, a 565 Cummins engine with boss power and a cool sound system to play his oldies, country and Dave Ramsey. He made a short cattle run on his maiden trip and already has more than 7,000 on it.

“I’m really enjoying it,” he said. “I was driving through West Virginia and the mountains yesterday. I had the windows down, the radio cranked and I was loving every bit of life.”

Even though he runs under the authority of the family’s operation, Smith has always considered himself an owner-operator and understands all the challenges and benefits that come with that.

The idea of setting your own schedule, determining the freight you haul and being your own boss certainly has its appeal. He never had trouble finding someone to give him a chance to pull their livestock trailer, but when he was younger it was a struggle to get insurance. And, of course, it’s his responsibility to handle any maintenance issues with the truck. Within four months of getting his first truck he was down 42 days.

“There are ups and downs,” he said.

Smith is starting to see more people in his peer group coming into the trucking business, and there are initiatives underway nationwide aimed at attracting younger people to an industry where the average CMV driver is closer to retirement age than college graduation. A further indication that the future of the industry is bright, two more young drivers are following Smith’s lead and have trips scheduled to the Davenport dealership to purchase their first brand-new trucks next month.

“We’re starting to see that generation come in more regularly now,” Ramsey said. “It’s probably within the last year they’re starting to do that and I think that’s great. The new generation of trucking is happening. I think we’re on the forefront. We need the next generation to come into this because without these boys it’s not going to keep on going. We’re not going to live forever. We need them to step up and they’re hard working. I’m glad to see them doing that.”

Brenda Neville, president and CEO of the Iowa Motor Truck Association, also is encouraged by the interest shown by the next generation and applauds the initiative of young drivers like Smith.

“A vast majority of today’s nationally recognized and respected companies got their start the same way – one ambitious individual getting a truck, investing a lot of time, energy and hard work and most importantly making a valuable difference,” she said. “Every person is impacted by the trucking industry so the demand for the services that are offered by the trucking industry is always going to be significant, which also makes it a very good business opportunity. I also think we are going to see more and more examples like this one as the next generation of business leaders see and appreciate the opportunities that exist in the trucking industry.”

Al Muskewitz is Editor of Wright Media. He can be reached at musky@wrightmediacorp.com

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