A 94-year-old trucker is aiming to set the Guinness World Record for the world’s oldest trucker after turning 94 this month.
Orrin Asmus began working as a trucker in central-western Iowa at age 19, after his brother-in-law fell ill and was unable to transport a shipment of livestock destined for the Chicago slaughterhouse district. Asmus got behind the wheel with only a regular driver’s license and some knowledge of farm tractors, but he pulled it off.
“[My father-in-law] he said to me, ‘You know how to drive a tractor—how about giving this a try?’” Asmus explained to The Gazette. “I gave it a shot… I’d never driven a semi-truck in my life.”
Since then, Asmus has driven trucks on and off since the 1950s, and he says the open road looked and operated very differently back then. The national network of interstate highways hadn’t been built yet, weigh stations didn’t exist, and, of course, electronic logging devices (ELDs) weren’t around yet. Many states didn’t require a commercial driver’s license (CDL) or even a regular driver’s license.
“The speed limit in Iowa (on highways) was ‘reasonable’; that was the definition,” Asmus explained. “In Illinois, it was 50 miles per hour.”
And, of course, Asmus says the camaraderie among truckers was much stronger back then, and that drivers were far more skilled—just as so many old-school drivers say today.
“In the early days of trucking, everyone pitched in to help each other out. You don’t see that anymore,” he remarked. “If you get a flat tire,[…]there’s no one who’ll offer to help you… The vast majority think it all comes down to cruise control and the Jake brake,” Asmus said. “When it’s raining, icy, or snowing, you shouldn’t use either of them.”
Although Asmus spent some time working on dairy farms and managing operations at warehouses and oil fields, he has always returned to trucking and says he still loves it even after all these years.
Since around 2011, Asmus has been driving for McLaughlin Freight, based in Mediapolis, Iowa. Asmus switched to part-time work about four years ago, after turning 90, and now only drives when necessary.
“He’s an old-school driver who never says ‘no.’ He just gets in the truck and drives,” says the company’s president and co-owner, Dan McLaughlin. “He loves what he does and doesn’t complain. He gets the job done whenever it needs to be done.”
Asmus turned 94 on August 11, but he and his son Googled the record for the oldest truck driver a few months ago and realized that Asmus surpasses the current record holder, Doyle Archer of Kansas, whose age was certified at 90 in December 2025. He is now 92.
McLaughlin Freight says it submitted Asmus’s application to Guinness World Records in March, but the application is still under review. Asmus says he’s happy with his job as a truck driver, with or without the incentive of a world record.
“I love what I do,” he said. “You have to love your job to be able to do it.”
