Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 84

Humble Haulers:
Mundall Trucking and the Family Driving its Success
Katie Mayer

“Y

ou’re in the trucking business.”
That’s what Phoenix farmer Lester
Mundall told his son Danny Mundall in
1968 after learning he could buy a trucking
permit – a commodity which was hard to
obtain in those days.
Danny loved to farm, but he listened
to the wise words of his father. And many
would say it’s a good thing he did, because
out of humble beginnings farming 40 acres
in south Phoenix grew one of Arizona’s
Top: The first truck John Mundall
purchased at his farm and dairy.
Opposite page, top: Lester Mundall in the
old shop where trucks and farm equipment
were maintained.
Opposite page, bottom: Eight Ford 10wheelers after the dairy closed.
Eighty four

most highly regarded trucking companies
with more than 46 years of history hauling
and delivering asphalt and other materials
to paving contractors around the state.
Many know Mundall Trucking for its
fleet of green super dumps, but those
who’ve worked with the Mundall family for
years know them for their dependability,
professionalism, and deep Arizona roots.
“There are a lot of different companies
that are good, but when Mundall trucks
come up on the job, we always knew it was
going to be easier,” said Dave McNeil, a
local paving operator since 1974.
Today, Danny’s son John Mundall runs
the company along with help from John’s
wife Kim, their two daughters Jessica and
Jaime, and their son Jarid. They currently
have a fleet of 40 trucks and a team of 55
employees, but as the Mundall family

worked to pave some of Arizona’s most
prominent roads, paving their own road
didn’t come easy.
While the company enjoyed early
success with its two, 10-wheelers during
its first decade in operation, the great
floods of the 1970s nearly washed them
away. “You couldn't travel anywhere to
jobs because roads and bridges had
washed away,” Danny recalls. “It wiped
everything out and I can remember my
father came real close to just losing
everything.”
But Mundall Trucking survived and
Danny vowed to stay debt-free as work
resumed once again. Although the floods
were the first major challenge, they
wouldn’t be the last. Mundall Trucking has
thrived in spite of everything from the
early 1980s recession to the recent
economic decline. “In 2009, we lost 50
percent of our business,” John said, “and
in 2010, we didn’t want to go out of town,
but that’s where the work was.”
Still, with its philosophy of remaining
debt free, Mundall Trucking not only
weathered the economic decline, but
actually thrived. In 2011 and 2012, the
Fall 2015