Gene’s temperance during the war eventually helped him realize his dream of owning a trucking company. Keeping to his Mormon faith, Gene didn’t smoke. He sold his cigarette rations and saved the money, buying a 1940 Kenworth flatbed truck when he got home. His brother Bill had already returned from the war and had a job at a newspaper, but Gene had other plans. They had previsuly made a pact to follow in their father’s footsteps.
“I pulled him off that newspaper and said, ‘Hey, remember, we’re gonna run a trucking business here,’” Gene recalled.
Their father changed the business name to C.R. England & Sons, and they started hauling lumber to Idaho. The boys would later buy out their dad, and Gene became president and Bill the vice president. And later, Gene eventually bought out Bill.
Even back then, Gene, never keen on spending a lot on maintenance, would trade out trucks after a few years to avoid any costly repairs. The fleet continues that practice today, and as the decades passed, Gene and Bill’s children started working for the fleet, too.
“We all grew up washing trucks, servicing trucks, doing all kinds of grunt work—and it was good training,” said Dan England, Gene’s second-oldest son.
In a world teeming with grasshoppers, Gene taught his children to be ants, working for the good of family and community.
Dan took over as CEO in 1985, with Gene giving him the power to steer the fleet’s direction and to innovate in new ways.
“When the boys came on, they started doing things better than we were doing them,” Gene said. “And they found ways to boost things and make it better. And that continues on.”
This included measuring traffic to improve route planning and implementing automation and computers. In the early ’90s, C.R. England also started to employ Qualcomm’s mobile communications.
Now the fourth generation of Englands are running things. The company specializes in refrigerated transport and has more than 4,000 trucks and 6,000 trailers, generating $1.5 billion per year.
Gene officially retired from driving for the company at 90. He lost his wife June that same year.
“He means so much to this company,” said Gene’s grandson Colin England, C.R. England’s director of accident prevention, in 2023. “And, when it comes to safety, his legacy stands tall. He drove more than 5 million safe miles. All our drivers know his name and legacy as they aspire to join the Gene England Million Miler Club.”
In 2017, Gene published his autobiography, “A Life Blessed.” He continued to come into the office a few times a week even at age 104. When we interviewed him and asked why he hadn’t given up this life of trucking, he said, “It's been a wonderful dream come true…it became a wonderful situation that's just gone on and on and on.”
Even as its size and success gets bigger every generation, the family-run business has kept thw two sides from negatively impacting the other.
Dan England, now company chairman, noted how important “keeping harmony in the family and life” is to the Englands, no doubt something passed on to him by his father.
