HURON — When he first got behind the wheel to drive a truck as a paid position, Danny Oswald wasn’t yet old enough to even get a driver’s permit.
“I got started when I was only 13 or 14 years old,” Danny recalled. “I drove for Andy Hofer. I went to Oklahoma with him for combining twice”
Now, more than 50 years later, he and wife Pat are being recognized by Wheel Jam this year for the Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledging a career that has taken him all over the Midwest while keeping his roots close to home.
“I was born out here,” Oswald laughed, gesturing to an older home on the current property that he occupies with wife Pat, who also grew up in the same area north of Huron.
After driving truck for “five or six years,” Oswald chose to buy a Chevy truck for hauling and go into business for himself, beginning Oswald Trucking.
“That was quite the truck in its day,” Danny smiled. “Everybody had one of those Chevy trucks!”
One of the early Chevrolet trucks that helped grow Oswald Trucking.
The first shop for the business was built right in the yard of the Oswald home. Two larger shop buildings, built roughly a half-mile away from the home, now house the trailers and trucks.
He’s hauled plenty of materials in his career, beginning by hauling concrete products in the Chevy, then added pup trailers and eventually added a semi and end-dump trailers before moving to side-dump trailers now.
“We started off hauling 15 ton in the old Chevy, then 24 when you added that pup,” Danny remembered. “Now, we’re at 60 ton with the side dumps.”
“I think we made more money with the smaller trucks,” Oswald laughed. “It costs so much more to run them now. Back then, gas was only 15 cents!”
Trucking led Oswald across the state for big projects multiple times.
“When they built the high-line wires clear out to Wyoming, he was hauling as part of that,” Pat mentioned.
“We hauled all the way out to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming,” Danny said.
Longevity of his crew has been something that Oswald found valuable over the years.
“I had one driver who drove with us for 43 or 44 years,” he stated. “That’s not something you see every day.”
“We’ve had really good people drive for us over the years,” Danny continued. “Really, really good people. And they stayed with us. We had a driver who was more than 80 years old and was probably our best driver.”
One of the newer trucks, pulling a pup trailer.
Throughout the run of Oswald Trucking, the focus has been hauling rock, dirt, sand, and other materials. However, recently that has diversified some.
“I do haul all my own grain,” he stated. “I do farming as well, and I haul all my own grain, but don’t haul for others.”
“She got into the livestock hauling about four years ago,” Danny continued, gesturing to Pat. “She runs that under D&M trucking.”
Pat’s also been the primary bookkeeper for the business throughout the years. The couple’s son Steven now manages most of the farm operations.
While the change in technology is definitely evident in trucking, Danny says the gradual progression has allowed him to keep up.
“When you’re in it every day, you can keep up a lot better,” he noted. “But on the farm, I don’t even run the corn planter anymore. That thing’s got three screens! It’s crazy!”
Even with the advances in technology in the industry, including the possibility of driver-less trucks, Danny has no plans to be done anytime soon.
“I plan to drive until I can’t do it anymore,” he chuckled. “What am I going to do sitting around the house all day?”
