10-4 Magazine October 2024

His next truck was a black and red 1998 Peterbilt 379 with a 63” standup sleeper. Donnie drove this truck for years, running it for 1.9 million miles, and still owns it today. Powered by an 800-hp Detroit hooked to a Super-10, it is now black and white, with a Seminole paint scheme, and mostly just for shows (but he did say that he could get in it today and drive to California without any problems if he had to). Pulling reefers and hauling produce for the first six years of his driving career, Donnie began to branch out in 1998, as his company grew, and star ted hauling meat. A few years later, he got a sweet gig hauling scrap metal from the GM assembly plant in Wentzville, MO to Alton, IL. This was a 24/7 deal, and the company had several trucks dedicated to it for years, until the plant star ted putting everything on rail cars instead. Today, the company, which is comprised of about 13 trucks (five company owned rigs and eight leased operators), pull reefers across the entire country. They operate under two banners, Emmons & Sons, which all the family trucks run under, and another company called D. Thomas Trucking, which is the company the leased operators run under. Don Thomas was a friend of Donnie’s, and the two formed D. Thomas Trucking together in 2014. After Don Thomas passed away, Donnie took it over completely and kept the company alive, dividing his assets between each of his companies, to create a little “buffer” between his two businesses. Born in 1995, Brandon (28) was the first child of Donnie and his wife Jody Emmons, who have been married for almost 31 years now. They also have a son named Nathan (25) who is a truck mechanic, and a son named Tyler (22) who drives and works in the family business, and does a lot more (we will get to that later). Going out on the road with his dad whenever he could, when Brandon wasn’t out in the truck with his dad, he was at home playing with his toy trucks “hauling loads down to Texas” and such, on the floor. Later, he got into truck simulator games on the computer, and did a lot of that, too. After high school, Brandon wanted to go trucking, but the company insurance wouldn’t allow him on the policy at that age, so he had to wait. Instead, he went and got a great job as a lineman for a company laying fiber optic lines. Earning a large salary at a young age, many (me included) thought he was crazy to get his CDL at 21 and then leave that company at 23 to star t driving in the family business. But since he wasn’t happy there, no amount of money was wor th it for him to stay there. He learned that “money doesn’t buy happiness” at a very early age, and went on to add, “A bad day trucking is better than a good day doing anything else!” Star ting in a red 2010 Western Star, which they still have, Brandon began his driving career pulling a bottle for another company as a leased operator through Emmons & Sons, and then went on to pull a flatbed for a shor t while, as well. Later, he got a 2004 reefer from his dad to pull (which was the first brand-new reefer trailer Donnie ever bought) and began running all over the country. Brandon and Donnie always liked B-model Kenwor ths, and both thought it would be cool to have one like Donnie’s dad (and Donnie) had back in the day. While vacationing at their home on Padre Island in Texas earlier this year, Donnie was surfing the internet and found a 1985 Kenwor th W900B with a 13-speed, a 60” sleeper, and a 260” wheelbase, spec’d very much like his dad’s was, for sale. A few days later, in April 2024, Brandon and a friend were on their way to South Dakota to pick it up! The silver truck was in good shape, but at some point, after its 400 Big Cam Cummins had blown up, it got moved into a field where it sat for a bit. During the covid pandemic, when trucks and par ts were hard to get, the owner decided to pull it out of the field and rebuild the engine, but then the truck was never used. When Brandon picked it up, it literally had like 20 miles on it since the rebuild. Not one to waste any time, Donnie gave Brandon and his younger brother Tyler one week to get it cleaned up and out on the road. And not just the truck – they also wanted to paint Brandon’s 2006 Utility 50’ spread-axle stainless reefer trailer to match, too. After removing the wet kit, tearing the truck down and then priming it, Tyler painted it a gray Lexus car color called “Incognito” and then added metallic violet stripes outlined and accented with lots of gloss purple. 10-4 Magazine / October 2024 11