10-4 Magazine March 2023

a baby, and with another mouth to feed, he spoke to his dad about needing a raise. After a couple weeks, John Earl asked if he thought he could make it on his own. Dale’s reply was, “I learned from the best!” This led him to choose one of the six trucks in the fleet and start Dale’s Trucking in 1986. No longer a partner in the company, Dale still hauled for his father under his own authority, as well as continuing to help with the maintenance on the rest of his dad’s fleet. The truck Dale chose was a 1979 Ford 9000 triaxle dump truck, which was one of the two trucks that had air conditioning. A couple years later, with 10-4 Magazine / March 2023 33 winters being harsh and sitting a lot during that season, Dale knew he needed to find consistent work that wasn’t just seasonal so he could work year round. He and his dad heard about a company in Winston-Salem, NC that had regular work, so they drove down to check it out. Interestingly enough, the company was on top of a hill and below was a quarry called Vulcan Materials, which is where they ended up because they missed the asphalt company on top of the hill. After talking with the dispatcher at Vulcan, Dale and his dad were directed to speak to the trucking company who did their hauling. Several conversations were had regarding hauling dirt by the load from the quarry to just down the road. Dale didn’t feel he would make any money doing this, but that didn’t stop him from talking to the owner and, finally, the owner, probably sick of the talks that weren’t going anywhere, told Dale to be on site that Monday. So, Dale called his then wife, they packed up everything that weekend, and moved to North Carolina. Moving to North Carolina wasn’t just with the thought of steady work, but also providing more opportunities for his sons since, at that time, the area Dale grew up in was limited on opportunities