Many drivers have found great careers behind the wheel of a commercial motor vehicle. For some of them, it’s just a job — a way to make a living.
That’s not the case for Gary Dean Jones Jr., who’s based in Lawson, Missouri.
For Jones, trucking is a lifestyle. It’s also a treasured family tradition that he wants to share with the world.
He shares his love of trucking by the way he conducts his business, with his show trucks and through his social media advocacy for the trucking industry and his fellow drivers.
Family tradition
Jones is adamant about including the “Junior” in his name.
“I have my father’s name, except he was “senior,” he explained. “Actually, I’m a third-generation trucker.”
Like many trucker’s kids, he helped out with truck washing and maintenance chores in his dad’s business — but he wanted a company of his own. Jones acknowledges his father for helping him start his own business.
Unique route
Jones says his path to truck and business ownership started earlier than most, and he traveled a unique highway.
“I started trucking when I was 16,” he said, describing his early venture as a hotshot driver. “I went out with a 1-ton pickup and a gooseneck trailer and trucked cross country until I turned 18. Then, when I got a CDL, my first truck was already paid for.”
Establishing a pattern that he still applies to growing his business, Jones saved the revenue earned with his hotshot operation to pay for his first Class 8 tractor.
As with many truckers, there was an outlaw aspect to that early business.
At age 18, his CDL was only valid for intrastate operations, but he had a job to do, so he started hauling to the West Coast and back.
“I know that’s illegal, but that’s what I did,” he admitted.
Striking out on his own
Jones continued the pattern of using revenues to add equipment to his business, leasing each additional truck to his father’s business.
“I had five trucks leased to him by the time I was 21,” he said. “And then, I just stayed that size until I started my own company.”
The result was SPB Trucking, which includes a small fleet and other drivers.
One might wonder how a driver with the initials GDJ arrived at “SPB” for a company name. Like the rest of Jones’ career, the origin is unique.
“SRB was for the names of our dogs. It was Sweety, Parker and BeeBee, and we’ve always kept those initials,” he said. The dogs were Boston Terriers owned by Jones and his then wife, Devery.
Jones chose the heavy-haul segment of trucking for his business, as his father did before him. He also chose to invest in quality equipment, producing several trucks for the show truck circuit.
“I’ve always had nice stuff, meaning I always take care of my equipment and always try to take pride in what we do,” he said. “Even as a young man, I’ve always had nice cars, fancy wheels and motorcycles. Customization has always been a big part of my life.”
The show circuit
Jones brought three trucks to the 2025 Mid America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky. “Triple Seven” was part of a show display, while “EZE (Easy) Money” and his newer Peterbilt 359 bobtail were on display for the contest.
Back in 2019, Jones won “Best Lights” and earned second place in the tractor-trailer division in the Shell SuperRigs competition, held in Albert Lea, Minnesota. He was also awarded a spot in the SuperRigs calendar (at the time, the author of this story was one of the judges for the SuperRigs competition).
“I usually do between 16 and 20 shows a year, and the trucks I show are work trucks,” Jones said.
“This year I’m entering Triple Seven in the Walcott Jamboree,” he said. This year’s Walcott Truckers Jamboree is set for July 10-12, 2025, at the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa. “I bought this truck 14 months ago and I’ve put 165,000 miles on it.”
A circle of friends
Jones says he enjoys the competition at the truck contests, but he also relishes the opportunity to get together with friends in the industry.
“I keep my circle tight and my friends close,” he said.
While his circle of friends may be small, Jones has a large social media presence, with more than 90,000 followers on TikTok. He can also be found on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
“I have all the social media platforms, and I keep everybody well entertained,” he said with a laugh.
Jones stays in close touch with that circle of friends, often sharing loads that fit their unique operations.
“I don’t make any money from them; I just put them in contact with my customer and let them have the business,” he said.
Changes in the industry
Like most drivers, Jones has opinions about the state of today’s trucking industry. For one thing, he says, the caliber of drivers has changed.
“When I started trucking, it was fun,” he said. “You’d see boots and jeans and cowboy hats and button up shirts — and now you see flip flops and sweat pants.”
Jones says taking part in truck shows give him a chance to hang out with other drivers who take pride in both their personal appearance and in their equipment.
And, like many drivers, he isn’t crazy about the current hours-of-service and electronic logging systems. While he wouldn’t encourage a driver to keep going until they were too exhausted to function, he doesn’t believe all drivers should be grouped together with the same requirements for rest and drive time.
“Some people’s bodies are different than others. Some people take 10 hours to feel rested,” he said. “Well, there are also people that sleep just six hours and they’re not fatigued. It’s just that their bodies are different.”
The government’s close regulation of drivers’ hours of service has had an unintended consequence, according to Jones.
“You’ve got people parking on ramps and on the sides of the roads because their elogs are out of time,” he said. “It’s causing accidents.”
New generation of truckers
While the caliber of drivers may have changed, Jones said, the younger drivers entering the industry aren’t getting enough credit for their accomplishments.
“I think the young people that are trying to make it out here just need a little recognition, because everybody’s so hard on them,” he said.
“I don’t care if you drive a Volvo or a long-nose Pete, as long as you take pride in it,” he said. “Our trucks are going away. At one time, everyone drove cabovers. Now there’s more plastic, shorter hoods, more aerodynamics. Everything changes.”
As we visited for this story, Jones was on route to Houston with an over-dimensional load weighing in at 120,000 pounds. His French Bulldog, “Scooter” — who one day may have a trucking company named for him — was by his side for the journey.
Cliff Abbott is an experienced commercial vehicle driver and owner-operator who still holds a CDL in his home state of Alabama. In nearly 40 years in trucking, he’s been an instructor and trainer and has managed safety and recruiting operations for several carriers. Having never lost his love of the road, Cliff has written a book and hundreds of songs and has been writing for The Trucker for more than a decade.
