If the TikTok trucking Gen Z is here for the long haul, their elder Millennials might be well on their way to something even more formidable -- fully entrenched in business ownership with plenty history behind them beyond the social media platforms.
This week in Overdrive Radio, walk through one such Millennial's story. Just a couple years ago, owner-op Kevin Bruns purchased a 2019 Cummins-powered International LoneStar after several years of local dump truck ownership and work around quarries and construction sites in the Nashville, Tennessee, region. That followed early experience with authority hauling cars a couple decades back, based outside Chicago where Bruns is from originally, then pneumatic tanker work as a company driver, all of it in prep for where the owner-operator is today. Bruns is married with two young children and back out on his own with authority as Bruns Trucking.
[Related: Trucking's TikTok generation reports harassment, but they're here for the long haul]
Owner-op Kevin Bruns
Bruns' LoneStar and step deck, loaded.
The owner-op's making plenty time for outside pursuits, too. One of the reasons we came together last week for the talk was his then-impending competition in this past weekend's Semi Stampede uphill truck drag race competition at Kuhnle Motorsports Park due south of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the only such events in the U.S.
Bruns attended with his big-truck-fan son last year, and this year was planning to compete himself in the stock class, bobtail. "I don't need to throw my driveshaft out," he quipped. Indeed. He shared this vid of his 2019 LoneStar getting outrun by a fast Pete over the weekend. I’m certain the experience was nonetheless one to remember for both Kevin Bruns and his young son.
Listen on for the owner-op’s trucking career in miniature, and his efforts to build the network in and around Gallatin, Tennessee, these past years for maintenance, for freight and for life and music, too. It's Nashville, after all, where he's now headquartered. Take a listen:
As promised in the podcast, shots here of a couple of Bruns' past rigs:
After getting his start with authority hauling cars with a hotshot and a three-car trailer, he upgraded to this 1999 Freightliner FLD and a six-car towed unit. "I wish I still had that truck," Bruns said. "It was awesome."
This Kenworth straight triaxle dump, a 2006-model T800, Bruns contracted to an outfit servicing construction projects in and around Nashville, Tennessee, after time spent as a company driver in Illinois with two well-known pneumatic tanker haulers Bruns details in the podcast.
**Find music from the "Singin Trucker" Kevin Bruns via his Facebook and Instagram social profiles.
[Related: When will owner-operators have to compete with truly 'driverless' trucks?]
