Ewing bought the company in 1987. “I always wanted to own it from the


very beginning when I first started working there as a part-time driver in 1968,” said Ewing, who became general manager a year after Fred Hurley’s death. In many ways, Ewing’s story mirrors


Hurley’s. Both worked part time to pay for college, both had early driving experience (Hurley was a bus driver for the Albuquerque City Transit System), both interrupted their schedules to serve in the military and both worked in Army intelligence. Hurley served during WWII and


Bill Ewing (left) receives a Pioneer Award in 2008 from presenter Kevin Knight.


adjust operational expenses accordingly due to the nature of dedicated contract hauling. “Newspapers are one of the most time-


sensitive products there are,” Ewing said. Fred Hurley would have known that.


As a young district supervisor of circulation for the Arizona Republic in 1950, he recognized the growing demand for home delivery service. Hurley opened the Republic’s first


branch circulation office in Flagstaff and started a home delivery service that extended to several northern communities. In 1952 Hurley bought two trucks and founded the Fred Hurley Trucking Company for the purpose of establishing dependable delivery of the Republic in northern Arizona. Hurley pitched his idea to the Arizona


Republic and Phoenix Gazette General Manager Willard C. Worcester, who embraced the plan. Hurley’s first terminal was an


abandoned gas station at 10th and Roosevelt in Phoenix. In an 11-year span the operation grew to 35 trucks, included delivery of the Gazette, and made stops in all major communities in Arizona. Hurley also began hauling newsprint, contracting with Southwest Forest Industries’ Snowflake mill and commissioning local dealerships for the special power units and long-bed trailers needed for the job. In the early 1970s a local freight


delivery operation was added. Hurley died in 1974 and his wife June took over the company. Continued growth included freight delivery throughout Arizona and operating authority for the lower 48 states. That was the size of things when


Arizona Trucking Association 2012 Yearbook


Ewing served during Vietnam, intercepting Soviet transmissions for two years while he was based in Turkey. He got his honorable discharge in 1973 and returned to Hurley as a supervisor. “Number 1, I wanted to get back to


Hurley and back home,” Ewing said. “It [the military] was interesting but three years is enough.” It was Hurley’s affinity for employing


young drivers that got Ewing that first job. Hurley boasted that many young men had put themselves through college driving Hurley trucks, and Ewing started down that route at even a younger age. Ewing, whose family moved to Arizona


from southern Illinois when he was 8, met his future wife Becki when they were 12, and the two married when they were 17. A year later he was working full time as a welder at a steel plant when he began seeking extra work to put himself through school. Hurley hired Ewing as a part time driver and he delivered papers from 1–5 a.m. “I always loved to drive trucks


anyway,” said Ewing, who recalled driving a tractor on the family farm as a 7-year-old. Ewing was planning to leave Hurley


in search of more money, but a job as dock foreman enticed him to stay, and other than his stint in the Army, he never left. “Thank God I stayed,” said Ewing,


who before buying the company held every management position available. Ewing got his associates’ degree at


community college then attended night school at Arizona State University. It took him 12 years but he earned his degree in business with a major in transportation in 1982. “I finally decided I might as well get a


degree out of it,” he said. 29


Hurley Transportation’s specialty is dedicated contract services for the newspaper industry.


Ewing secured the bank financing to


buy Hurley in 1987, paid off the purchase debt in 10 years and has overseen its growth and expansion ever since. He is a past president of the Arizona


Trucking Association and a current board member. He served as the first chairman of ATA’s Arizona Transportation Education Foundation established in 2009, and now serves as one of its seven board members. He is also a past vice president of the American Trucking Associations. Such posts come with the territory if you want to serve your industry and community. “When you’re part of the trucking


community, you have an obligation to do your part for that industry,” Ewing said. “Plus you develop relationships with the DOT and legislators so you can be a player when it comes to important decisions regarding infrastructure and things like that.”


Ewing has two daughters and eight


grandchildren and, with Becki, has become a world traveler with visits to 88 countries under his belt. He had just returned from a motorcycle trip to the Arctic Circle when he was interviewed for this article. “I’m very lucky or blessed. My wife and


I travel a bit,” Ewing said with a degree of understatement. It is no understatement to say Hurley


Transportation and the Arizona Trucking Association are on a shared journey. Since it was called Fred Hurley Trucking Company, the business has been an ATA mainstay, making it fitting that the two are celebrating major anniversaries this year. “They have been a member of our


association since they bought their first truck in 1952,” ATA President and CEO Karen Rasmussen said. “I think that’s a biggie.”


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