Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85435
Half- century triumph With 50 years of trucking in the side-view mirror, Larry Severson gets his due as Overdrive/TCA 2011 Owner-Operator of the Year. BY TODD DILLS had the most fun in the 1990s," says owner- operator Larry Severson, looking back over his five decades spent around the trucking industry. The Vadnais Heights, Minn.-based operator spent most of those go-go years in a series of Mack tractors, two R models and two CHs. Then he climbed into a 1994 Peterbilt 377 in 1999 and joined one of Eagan, Minn.-based Dart Transit's dedicated fleets the next year, where he would embark on his most financially successful decade. 2011 also was good for the bottom line – $50,000 net income on 108,000 miles. Severson put the icing on the cake for that year when this March he was named 2011 Owner-Operator of the Year. He is the first winner of the award since two contests were merged: Overdrive's Trucker of the Year and the Truckload Carriers Association's Owner-Operator of the Year. In addition to the prize of the Cummins-powered 2011 Dodge Ram 2500 he received, the award is fitting acknowledgment for a business owner who's made safety and customer service an integral piece of his success. Severson also bagged the Minnesota Trucking Association's top prize for drivers in 2004. He made it to the finalist round for the TCA award in 2009, after being nominated by Dart Transit, to whom he's been leased for more than 30 years. This year, having accumulated more than 5 million miles without a preventable accident, he took the grand prize. MAY 2012 OVERDRIVE 29 Photos by Todd Dills