Early on during the Mid-America Trucking Show, I happened upon a 2007 Pete 379 and pristine 2001 Utility reefer with a familiar company name emblazoned along the sleeper.
That's right -- not my own sometime fictional trucking company name (anybody remember good ol' T. Dills Trucking?), but not far off, either.
Its owner-operator I didn't find nearby the truck in that moment, nor when I returned after first learning the owner's first name -- his 379 cleaned up in the PKY Truck Beauty Championship awards in the a.m. on the final MATS Saturday.
A little closer look at the show badge hanging from the open door above:
I thought, Wait a sec, my brother doesn't run out of Catawba.
My environmental-property-evaluating younger brother doesn't haul at all, in fact, but there it was, Jeff Dills, owner-operator of Dills Transportation.
I finally caught up with the truck's owner on the phone this morning. "Jeff, there's another Jeff Dills down in Rock Hill, South Carolina," I told him; it's where I grew up, and where most of my extended family on my father's side that I ever truly knew lived.
Are we related?
There's some likelihood, turns out, given lineage in both our families around Charlotte and farther back in time and distance up into the North Carolina mountains around Bryson City and elsewhere.
Unlike my brother, though, this Jeff Dills comes from a trucking family of Dills, that's certain. His "dad and my uncles and friends" trucked, he noted, and growing up, hauling was in his future before a motorcycle accident in the 1990s left him unable to use his legs. He'd go on to compete in wheelchair sports for the next decade or so, competing with the U.S. paralympic basketball team in 2004.
After that experience, his outlook shifted to the long term, and back to what he truly wanted. He would figure trucking out, use of those legs or not.
In addition a driver-side lift and other mods made by an experienced local builder for accessibility (who'd only added lifts to RVs in past), the hand-controlled lever for the throttle and brake you can see here on the left side of the wheel (the Peterbilt knob). Pull back for throttle, push forward/down to brake. The transmission is a push-button automated 13 speed, and Dills noted he's got the truck set up so that any driver can still operate the rig using the traditional pedals, too.
It's a story he told in more detail to Big Rig Videos' Chris Fiffie during the MATS event. Their full conversation detailing parts of his journey to a CDL and, ultimately, this particular beauty of a 379 Fiffie shared via the well-known channel. You can catch it embedded here, too:
Dills is planning to show at SuperRigs in June, likewise Semi Casual's Smokey Mountain Big Rig Showdown in Pigeon Forge in late July.Stay tuned for more from him and the Pete, no doubt. It wasn't his first truck on the journey -- he purchased it in 2010 after first outfitting a Freightliner Classic similarly, he told me. He wasn't fully satisfied with the set-up there, and "with this one I was determined to figure it out."
He hauls with his authority, working with some close brokers and direct with farmers in Florida and the Carolinas for produce and other commodities, he said.
"Produce is up and down" so far this year, he said, with the weather. But "we're still surviving." He's hopeful renewed focus on fraud, chameleon operations, enforcement and regulatory efforts around English proficiency, substandard training, and all the rest serve to bolster rates by pushing "cutthroats" out of the market.
"We’ve been fortunate enough," Dills said. "The people we’re dealing with know what happens when you get a cheap carrier" -- service failures, ruined product. "Produce is time-critical."
Find a few more pictures of the truck and trailer, and some further details, below. And as noted, keep tuned for more with the owner.
Meantime, our conversation has me thinking a little, too, about other namesakes out there. "I think I’ve heard of a Todd Dills up around Asheville or Canton," Jeff told me. Most folks are only a Google search away these days, right?
Owner-operator Dills placed first in two categories, including "First Show - Combo" as well as "Working Truck - Combo, Lights."
The 2007 379 is powered by a Caterpillar C15 Acert, with a 13-speed automated manual transmission and 3.08 rears.
The '01 Utility reefer shines up nice, with the Dills insignia on the unit.
More views and news from last month's big show.
[Related: MATS PKY show full results]
