From the age of five, Jeffery Stevens has known what he wanted to do when he grew up. His boyish attraction to big trucks and big machines, nurtured by a truck driving dad who sometimes let him ride shotgun on weekends or summer vacations, soon blossomed into a passion that continues to motivate the 31-year-old owner of Jeffery L. Stevens Logging & Trucking Co. His dad, Jerry Stevens, spent the largest part of his career driving log trucks—first as an employee and then as an owner/operator. That is, until he became his son’s first employee and his business advisor in 2005.
Young Jeffery started saving his money as a teen so that at age 19 he was able to purchase his first log truck. So intense was his drive, the budding entrepreneur quit school his senior year to launch a trucking career. After a year, he took an over-the-road trucking job and started saving money again, this time to establish his own logging business. Initially, Stevens drove the carrier company’s truck and l