Ryan Brothers Trucking turns 60

It started simply. Two brothers, Tom and Jim, and six or seven trucks. Sixty years later its a family affair with 30 sets of asphalt haulers, 30 tractors and 90 trailers that travel 47 states.

Ryan Brother's Trucking is celebrating 60 years as a business staple in Hot Springs County, having started in September, 1958, with the buy-out of Herman Trucking and Halstead Trucking.

Jim was in charge of taking care of the shop and all the mechanic work while Tom handled the business side of things, running the office, doing the bookwork and hustling the work for the seven or eight employees they had.

The brothers began hauling cattle and sheep throughout Wyoming, branching out into Colorado and Nebraska, taking the sheep to packing houses in Denver and Scottsbluff.

Near the end of the 60's, they began buying "fat" cattle and hauling them to the packing house. This was about the time they stopped hauling the sheep.

Tom Ryan, Jr. said no one really does that anymore, buying the fat cattle and taking them for slaughter. "The big packers do that," he said, "but not the little guys."

Ryan, Jr. said he and his brother, Bob, used to travel a lot with the trucks when they were little and even helped with cleaning them out and other tasks around the shop.

It was in the early 80's when they began hauling liquid asphalt through Dick Jones Trucking. By the late 80's, they started hauling the liquid asphalt themselves and now, it is the largest portion of their business.

In 1985, the company had grown to four cattle haulers and five tractor trailers, but now, they do very little cattle work, keeping it centered mainly around the Pinedale and Big Piney areas.

The latest addition to the Ryan Brother's repertoire is propane. They began hauling the fuel last fall with two of their own trucks and are expecting delivery soon of two more.

It is amazing how things have changed during the last 60 years.

Tom, Sr., who is 85-years old, still comes into the office every day to check up on the boys – his sons and grandsons who have now taken over the business.

If you stop by the office when school gets out you're bound to see the younger generation, grandkids and great-grandkids, there. They get off the bus at the stop right outside the shop, and in good weather you will probably see them riding their bikes and scooters in the parking lot.

You'll find their furry friends there, too – three or four very happy canines hanging out with the kids or taking a nap on the cool shop floor in the heat of summer.

Technology has really changed the trucking business for the Ryan's, too.

Since federal regulations have changed, making it mandatory to have electronic monitoring of trucks, they have had to invest in a $300,000 program that will track their trucks and drivers down to the exact street they're on anywhere in the U.S. as well as how fast they're driving.

Not only can they track their shipments in real-time, they can let the customer know exactly where their shipment is and even let the driver know if he's taken a wrong turn, saving time and money.

Needless to say, running a trucking company takes a lot of coordination. They're working in different time zones in six or seven states at any given time.

They are running about 40 loads per day. In the month of June, they had 705 total loads and July saw 685 loads.

They put about 200,000 miles a month on the wheels and figure this year to have somewhere around two-million total miles.

While they've always done their own mechanic work on their trucks, a new shop south of town in 2008 gave them more room. They also build a lot of their own equipment and have their own fuel facility.

What started as a pair of brothers with a shop downtown (where Tumbleweed Propane is now), to a bigger shop in the 60's (across from Pizza Hut), to a spanking new facility that employs 36 local residents, Ryan Brother's Trucking has come a very long way in 60 years.