COVER STORY


A Working ‘Ret irement ’


Jim Dixon of Dixon Brothers keeps purpose in his life by staying busy in the trucking industry.


BY STEVE BRAWNER ContributingWriter


Stop by DixonBrothers any time during


regular business hours, and you’ll find five members of the family working there for a paycheck.You’ll probably also see one more family member, the company’s founder, Jim Dixon, even though he claims these days to be “more of an advisor.” “He says he’s retired, but he comes out here


every day,” said his daughter, Suzette Miller, the company’s office manager. “Usually the whole day.He just loves trucking. It’s in his blood, and he just really loves every aspect of it.” Retirement? Dixon, 78, has devoted his


life to trucking since he started the company inFebruary 1960 at age 25.He built it into


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a business that, from its base inNewcastle, Wyoming, today employs about 140 people, including 110 drivers, who haul bulk commodities such as petroleum, chemicals and cement across the north-central part of the country and inCanada.While he’s no longer a major shareholder, he has no desire to drop out of the industry, which is why, every day, he still shows up at about 9:30 a.m. and works until about 4:30 p.m. “You’ve got to have some purpose in life,


and you’ve got to be actively pursuing that purpose, or it’s just like a plant. It will whither and die,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people retire and go home and watch the TV, and in a few years, they’re gone. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to be around doing something. Even if I’m a pest,


ISSUE 6, 2012 | www.mttrucking.org


I’m still going to be around doing something for as long as I can, because when you quit doing something, you’re going to be looking for six people to walk slowly around you.” Dixon’s love of trucking started in high


school inNewcastle when he started driving a truck and decided he might want to do that for a living. Over the course of several summers, he drove a variety of runs, including after his senior year when he hauled 100 barrels of crude oil with a 1947 Mack truck. “Back then, I was just interested in having one truck and driving it myself,” he said. “Being the size that we are today back then didn’t even dawn on me. Trucks just fascinated me. I liked what they were. I liked what they did, andI liked everything about them. The people, everything.”


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