Even though he's 90 years old, there's no stopping Doyle Archer behind the wheel of his big rig. He's the world's oldest trucker, and he just keeps on truckin'
Archer is a resident of Kansas and has been driving a commercial big rig for the past 60 years. Despite being far past retirement age, the trucker doesn't have any plans to retire. Throughout his career, he's traveled more than 5.5 million miles across 48 states as well as five Canadian provinces. Guinness World Records officially recognized him as the world's oldest trucker.
Archer said that he enjoyed all of the traveling he got to do with the job. He got to visit the space centers, most of America's major cities, and enjoy the scenic mountainside. Archer's driven from Chicago to Los Angeles during his career. "I do all the time what other people take a vacation and do — save their money all year long to go out and be on the road seeing the country for a month or something," the trucker told New York Post. "Here, I do that all the time."
He also got to see the Twin Towers just a few days before 9/11 happened. It's a moment that he will never forget.
"I would have never gotten to see those otherwise," he said. However, it wasn't all pleasant. Archer admits that being a trucker is hard work. He said, "You have to work hard at it, put in some long hours, inconvenient hours sometimes. Sometimes it's an all-night long drive."
World's Oldest Trucker
Growing up on a farm, Archer pursued a career in agriculture. However, he later found his passion for trucking in the early 1960s. He travels more than 70 hours over eight days. Archer earned his Million Mile Safe Driver recognition for traveling more than 1 million miles without incident.
Archer was happy to be recognized by Guinness. "I was happy about it. You know. I wasn't overly happy, going off the deep end or anything," he said. "I took it as happiness and went on."
The trucker said there's a lot of responsibility when it comes to driving a big rig. "You have to be focused very much on your job," he said. "There's a lot of responsibility out on the highway, you got a truck that weighs 80,000 pounds, 70-foot long, being in traffic you have to be focused on that all the time."
However, he doesn't plan to quit anytime soon.
"It's an interesting life," Archer said, adding. "As of yet, I don't have any plans to retire. Like I've told some people I don't have that word in my vocabulary."
