HURON – Charlie Price says he dabbled in different pursuits over the years where he thought he could make some good money.
Before he jumped with both feet into the trucking business in the mid-1980s, he worked in sales for Earl Nordby and Pepsi Cola and RC Cola.
Then he spotted a truck he liked that was for sale in Highmore.
“I just went out and went down the road,” he said. “I told her (wife Joyce) I was going to do it.”
While he was in the business, he bought a number of trucks. He hauled loads to places like Chicago and California himself, and he leased his trucks to others.
Price is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented Sunday at Wheel Jam.
The men he worked for and with are like a who’s who of Huron trucking – Stan Kopfmann, Bill Payne, Clyde Willard, Lyle Storbeck.
“We hauled a lot of meat going to Chicago,” Price said. “Then I went to California.”
What did he like about it?
“Well, I don’t know, I thought a guy could maybe make some pretty good money and hang on to it,” he said. “But, you know, a job is just a job, you don’t get out of it what they’re telling you you’re going to get.

“You got to work darn hard with a truck to make a living,” he said.
The hours were long, but Price said drivers know when they need to pull over and rest.
“When you get tired, you learn how to use your body, and so maybe three to four hours is all you’d sleep and then, bang, right back getting in that seat right away,” he said.
He worries about today’s drivers should electronic logbooks become law. Stricter hours will harm the industry, he said.
“You know you can’t go no place without the truck,” he said. “You’ve got to get somebody to move it. That’s the only way. You’ve got to move that freight.”
His time off with his family back home always went too quickly, and he’d be back behind the wheel again.
Leaving home was probably the hardest part. “I really didn’t want to go all the time,” he said. “But I knew I had to go because that’s the way you make your dollars.”
The first time he visited Chicago was when he was hauling a load to the Windy City. It’s not easy maneuvering an 18-wheeler around big city streets. And in the days before GPS, Price was just given the address of where he was to drop his freight.
“Oh yeah, they’re tough, but you just learn to do it,” he said.
He had a few run-ins at weigh stations.
“I never got caught much,” he said. “Just kind of drive it right, and run it the way it should be run.”
Like other truckers, Price did a little of everything in the business. “You get an education, just like going to college,” he said laughing.
It was fun interacting with the other drivers on the road. They shared a way of life they, and few others, could appreciate.
Price decided to retire about 10 years ago. He sold his trucks, and now he and Joyce work part-time for the Huron Public Schools to keep busy.
What was the most fun about driving long-haul trucks?
“I didn’t see any,” he joked.
“Oh, it was all fun driving, going to where you wanted to go,” Price said.
“I didn’t make a lot of money,” he said. “But I made a good living in the trucking business.”

PHOTO BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN
Charlie Price, the 2018 selection for the Wheel Jam Lifetime Achievement Award, poses in front of a Peterbilt semi tractor.