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Lual Akoon is a Sudanese-born independent owner-operator who now lives in Eagan, Minn. His childhood memories are still vivid.
He remembers growing up in the small village of Aweil near South Sudan’s city of Aweil. His family survived by farming and raising livestock.
In 1983, the second Sudanese Civil War erupted and his village was attacked.
“They burned everything we had down, killed our livestock and took people to enslave them,” Akoon stated.
Many of his family and fellow villagers died.
As a boy, he fled with hundreds of children from his village, most of whom were boys. They escaped with the aid of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SPLA), which was fighting the government in one of Africa’s worst wars.
A Treacherous Journey
The journey of Akoon, along with 20,000 other displaced refugee children now orphaned who fled their homeland to find safety, was the subject of “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a documentary released in 2003.
The documentary chronicled these “lost” boys’ lives and their treacherous journey of 1,000 miles, mainly by foot, from one refugee camps to another.
As reported in the documentary thousands of boys died as refugees traveled through warzones and endured devastating dehydration, hunger and exhaustion. Some were attacked and killed in dangerous river crossings or drowned by wild animals.
Akoon: “I was lucky that my brother taught me how to swim at a young age.”
Akoon received his first formal education in a camp located in Ethiopia. Then war broke out in Ethiopia. His journey continued to Kenya where, by 1992, 10,000 refugee boys aged between 8 and 18 settled at the Kakuma Refugee Camp.
The war in Sudan was still raging and returning home wasn’t an alternative. So, the United Nations relief agency applied to the U.S. State Department for approval to resettle 3,500 refugees, Akoon included, in the United States. The process lasted from 1996 to 2005.
Akoon can recall the exact date he arrived in the U.S.
“It was June 17th, 1999,” he said. “I landed at Des Moines in Iowa in full African attire.”
In a few short weeks, he had settled in and found a job at a nearby packing house where he put toppings on the pizzas and packaged them. He also enrolled at a community college. He was married in 2004. He has three sons and two girls.
He returned briefly to his native country in 2011, when South Sudan gained independence.
“I wanted to see the flag of my nation raised for the very first time,” he said with pride. “As someone that lost family and friends in wars, was shot and almost died, I couldn’t let that day, the 9th of July 2011, pass by without being there.”
He experienced an emotional and personal moment as he stood in a crowd, not more than 10 feet away from the newly independent South Sudan flag. He witnessed freedom being restored to his countrymen, and those who died for this freedom were honored and remembered.
Find Opportunities in the Trucking Industry
Akoon returned to the U.S. and moved to Eagan in Minnesota, on the advice of a friend, who suggested he could find better opportunities to provide for his family.
He began his trucking career as an Amazon driver for a couple of months. Then he applied to the driver training school at truckload carrier CRST. He was accepted and completed the course. He also passed his month-long on-road test with a driver trainer.
From there, his trucking career took off. He drove for Transport America, where he was a driver’s instructor, and CFI where he did truckload runs over the road.
Akoon received a call in 2022 from Bay & Bay Transportation. They offered him a position as a driver for the company. He accepted their offer and joined the team.
Akoon performs a pre-trip inspection for Minnesota Rep. Erin Koegel. (Minnesota Trucking Association)
He explored the possibility of becoming an owner-operator. He decided to go out on his own and leased a truck first before buying his current 2021 Freightliner. He then began building his business by hauling loads for Bay & Bay, among other companies.
Advocating for the IC Model
Akoon’s role as an industry advocate has recently been expanded.
Last year, he was appointed a spokesperson for independent drivers by the Coalition for Independent Truckers (a trade group devoted to protecting the independent contractor business model in the trucking industry).
This ambassador program recruits, trains and supports owner-operators as advocates to provide context and counterpoints to state legislative efforts to reclassify independent contractor as trucking company workers.
John Hausladen, President of the Minnesota Trucking Association, said: “We needed a training program that would enable independent contractors to speak up for themselves and explain the importance of maintaining the model.”
The program could not, at the same time ask participants to take away time from their businesses — and lose revenue — to be advocates.
Akoon (left), and MTA’s Hausladen (2nd from right) participated in an event in Washington, D.C.
“ICs are a business on wheels.” Hausladen explained that every time they stop driving, they lose money. The genius of the ambassador program is that it provides the funds to allow the driver do it.
Hausladen explained that when they spend time on advocacy activities such as taking legislators for ride-alongs, giving speeches at state legislative meetings or meeting members of Congress, they are paid a financial compensation equivalent to the amount they would earn driving their truck per day. The program also covers expenses for travel.
Hausladen asked members of the state association to make recommendations when deciding who to nominate for the program. Bay and Bay nominated Akoon.
Hausladen was a huge fan of Akoon’s story.
He said: “As a man, a professional driver, businessman, family man, and someone who has overcome unimaginable difficulties, he was an embodiment of what a independent contractor can do.”
Akoon accepted the program, went through training, and became the first of the five Minnesota-based ICs who joined the program in June last year.
Akoon takes part in a meeting between Rep. Pete Stauber and Akoon during the Call on Washington event. (Minnesota Trucking Association)
Hausladen had the idea to take government leaders for a ride with an independent contractor, so they could see the business in action.
“Lual was our first choice,” he said. “He took a member of parliament for a tour around his district.” They learned from a real driver about the trucking business, its challenges and issues [such as the lack of truck parking] and what they could do to help.
Hausladen noted that the ride-along can be a fun field trip for legislators. Participants come from both political parties.
It’s about Freedom
Akoon, an immigrant whose freedoms were taken away at a young age, sees the issue of contractors as independent and the efforts to reclassify it through a very specific lens: preserving liberty.
“To me, an American dream is anything I choose to do with my own hands, my own hardwork, alone or with others, in order to earn a living and provide for my family,” said he. “It’s the freedom to choose.”
In his ride-alongs, he asked legislators: “Is the American Dream only for certain types of people or jobs, or is it something that anyone can dream about, strive for, and hope for?”
“I live in a truck.” “Most of us are providing for extended families,” he said. “So, I tell my family that the freedom I have now must be preserved and flourished. This truck is the American dream.”
He is proud to represent tens and thousands of other ICs that provide a service to the economy by providing capacity to haul freight.
He believes that the ambassador program works. He believes the ambassador program is working. Akoon said that whether they act on this is another matter.
He has a vision of the future.
“I want to start a business, I want more than one truck,” said he. “I can see myself doing it. I see my son working in the business. It’s something I want to leave him.”