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MAY/JUNE | TCA 2020
Talking TCA
C
ompany Driver
OF THE YEAR
Career for a lifetime: Veteran driver Don Lewis
discovered love of trucking at early age
By Linda Garner-Bunch
As a boy growing up on a small family farm outside Neosho,
Missouri, in the 1960s, Don Lewis was no stranger to trucks
and heavy machinery; hauling hay was all in a day’s work,
and driving a truck was not considered an “adventure.”
That all changed when, as a teenager, Lewis struck up a friendship
with a neighbor — who just happened to be a truck driver.
“He had a Peterbilt, and it was big and shiny red,” remembers Lewis,
now 70. “If he was home on the weekends, after I finished my chores,
I’d go down there and help him polish it. I was always asking him
questions: ‘What’s this do?’ or ‘How many gears has this got in it?’”
One day that neighbor invited Lewis, then 16, to ride along on a
three-day run.
“I said, ‘Oh yeah, man. I want to go. You betcha!’” chuckled Lewis.
That adventure was the first of several, he said, adding that when
he was 17 the neighbor began to teach him to actually drive the rig.
“That sealed the deal,” he remarked. “I said, ‘I’ve got to do this.
When I get out of school, this is what I want to do.’”
Long before he was eligible to earn what was then called a
“chauffeur’s license,” Lewis grasped every chance to drive that came
his way; then at age 22 he landed his first job as a professional truck
driver. Since that time Lewis has logged nearly 6 million accidentfree
miles (5.7 million, to be exact).
“A lot of it is by the grace of God and luck,” shared Lewis. “Every
morning when I get up, before I ever turn the key to start the truck,
I ask the Lord to watch over me and my family and help me make
good decisions. And I keep my head on a swivel all day long. You’ve
got to know what’s going on around you.”
During his nearly 50 years of driving, Lewis has worked as both an
owner-operator and a company driver, as well as a certified driver
instructor and trainer.
“I always made it real simple,” Lewis said of his approach to training
up-and-coming drivers. “I’d say, ‘You see that line there on the right?’ and
they’d say, ‘Yeah.’ ‘You see that line in the center?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Well, you keep
this truck between them, because if you put my feet in the grass, you’re
walking home,’ I’d tell them.”
Lewis met his wife of 28 years, Dianna, while working as a driver
instructor at Crowder College in Neosho. “She was one of my students,”
he said, adding that the couple drove as a team until an injury made it
difficult for Dianna to climb in and out of the cab.
For the past 19 years Lewis has been an over-the-road driver for Wilson
Logistics in Springfield, Missouri, where he has earned a reputation for
being safe, dependable, and professional, as well as simply “a great guy,”
according to co-workers.
“The simplest word to summarize who Don is as a professional
driver and his career is ‘remarkable.’ Don’s personality, professionalism,
and commitment to safety are to be remarked upon as a true
professional company driver,” said Wilson Logistics President and CEO
Darrel Wilson.
“Don is what I call the ‘quintessential truck driver,’” added the
company’s Vice President of Safety and Training Scott Manthey. “When
Don Lewis
you think about truck drivers years ago, when they were considered the
‘heroes of the highway’ — that’s Don.
“I’ve only known Don for three years, but he’s a standout guy,”
continued Manthey. “He does his job and he does it well. He comes in
and he’s the guy that, even if it’s a crummy day out, he’s got a smile on
his face. He’ll give you the shirt off his back, even if he’s cold. He’ll help
anybody out.”
In addition to earning numerous awards over the years, Lewis was
nominated by Wilson Logistics for TCA’s Company Driver of the Year
in 2017, 2018, and 2019. During the Association’s 2020 convention in
March, Lewis was awarded the coveted title of Company Driver of the
Year for 2019.
“I’m very honored. It’s a very humbling experience,” said Lewis, adding
that even though he had carefully written a two-minute speech in case
he was selected for the honor, the message he delivered during the
closing banquet at convention was probably “the shortest acceptance
speech that they have ever heard.”
After thanking TCA, contest sponsors Love’s Travel Stops and
Cummins, as well as Wilson Logistics, Lewis said, “I thanked my wife for
standing there beside me — not behind me, but beside me — all those
years, and I just got misty-eyed and couldn’t see anything on that paper.
So I thanked everybody again and told them to have a good night; then
I turned around and looked at Darrel (Wilson) and I said, ‘Let’s go.’ And
we walked off stage.”
In addition to an engraved plaque, Lewis received a check for $25,000
in honor of his achievement.
“I was looking at that plaque and thinking, ‘All right! This is going to
really look good on the wall,’” he said. “I never even thought about the
check until they brought it around to the table. I forgot all about the
money!”
The bulk of that check is resting in the bank, though Lewis said
the couple have used some of the money for “a couple of things that
have come up.”
“Basically I’ll leave spending it to my wife, because there’s really
not anything that either one of us wants or needs,” he laughed.
Reflecting on his decades as a driver, Lewis said he “wouldn’t
change a thing.”
“I’ve had a wonderful career. This industry’s been very good to
me,” he said. “I’ve seen just about every inch of this country, from top
to bottom and side to side, and just about all of Canada, too. I have
thoroughly enjoyed it. I still enjoy it; that’s why I’m still doing it.”
While Lewis enjoys relaxing — hunting, fishing and golfing are
among his favorite pastimes, along with camping trips with his wife,
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren — he said he does
not plan to retire in the near future.
“Actually, I have tried to retire, I guess about three times, and the
longest it lasted was three months,” he said. “I still love what I’m
doing. As long as I can pass my physical and I’m healthy and they’ll
let me drive, I’m going to continue doing it.”
28 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2020