Bennett's 'Large Car Campgrounds' initiative as truck parking salve for specialized owner-operators

David Lowry has been in the trenches of trucking since he was fifteen. In the manner of many second-generation drivers of his era, he was driving a tractor-trailer with his dad long before he was of legal age.

"I got a ticket in a big truck when I was fifteen," he said. "We had a load of steel going to Philly. Dad had a 40-foot Raven that'd 'bout beat you to death. That's why he wanted me on that run."

He rolled "across the Black Mountain scales while Dad was sleeping," he went on. "I wasn't supposed to do that. To this day, I'm surprised they ever let us leave." 

This grainy old photo shows Lowry (left) back in the day, with his dad.Fast-forward four and a half decades, and you can find that 15-year-old kid at the helm of fleet Bennett Motor Express. At a time when many companies that blossomed under deregulation are entering their second and third generations of leadership, Mr. Lowry might well represent a vanishing breed of CEOs in trucking -- those who have actually driven a truck. 

A stocky man of 61, the McDonough, Georgia, native can swap war stories with the most grizzled gearjammers out there. Operating Bennett Motor Express, the oldest of the 11 units in the Bennett Family of Companies headed by his mother, Marcia Taylor, you can still find Lowry at truck shows playing blues harmonica at 2 a.m. in impromptu jam sessions with Tony Justice.

In short, this is one CEO you'll be hard-pressed to out-good-ol'-boy, should you be fool enough to try. 

David Lowry today