From Hauling Freight to Hauling Waste: Graham’s Unusual Journey to Fulfillment
March 07, 2025 | By Staff Writer
Graham Tully never imagined that his life’s purpose would involve a tanker full of piss. For years, the 38-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, chased the classic American dream behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, hauling freight across the Midwest. But after a string of mishaps—missed deliveries, a fender-bender with a cow, and an infamous incident involving a load of frozen pizzas that mysteriously thawed in July—Graham’s career as a truck driver screeched to a halt. Fired from his last gig at Big Rig Haulage in 2022, he thought he’d hit rock bottom. Little did he know, his real journey was just beginning.
“I was a terrible truck driver,” Graham admits, leaning against the gleaming stainless steel of his new rig—a custom-built tanker emblazoned with the words “Pee-Freight Solutions” in bold yellow letters. “I’d get lost, show up late, or forget to secure the load. But I loved being on the road. I just needed the right cargo.”
That cargo turned out to be urine. Yes, urine—the stuff most people flush away without a second thought. But for Graham, it’s become liquid gold, both figuratively and, in a niche way, literally. After his trucking career imploded, he stumbled into an oddball opportunity while drowning his sorrows at a roadside diner. A stranger at the counter, overhearing Graham’s woes, mentioned a growing industry: transporting human and animal urine for medical, agricultural, and industrial use. Intrigued—and desperate—Graham dug deeper.
Turns out, urine isn’t just waste. It’s a resource. Pharmaceutical companies use it to extract hormones for fertility treatments. Farmers swear by it as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Even some tech firms are experimenting with urine as a renewable energy source. The catch? Getting it from point A to point B requires someone with a truck, a strong stomach, and a willingness to ignore the occasional raised eyebrow.
“I thought, ‘Why not?’” Graham recalls. “I’d hauled worse—spoiled meat, leaky chemical drums. Urine’s just… honest. It’s what it is.”
With his last $5,000, Graham bought a secondhand tanker, got the necessary permits, and launched Pee-Freight Solutions in early 2023. His first gig was hauling cow urine from a Nebraska ranch to a fertilizer plant in Iowa. The pay was modest, but the freedom of the open road—and the lack of angry dispatchers yelling about late pizzas—felt like a win. Word spread, and soon Graham was fielding calls from hospitals, research labs, and even a quirky startup trying to turn urine into biofuel.
The job isn’t glamorous. Graham’s rig smells faintly of ammonia despite rigorous cleaning, and he’s heard every pee-related joke imaginable. “People ask if I’m taking the piss,” he says with a grin. “I just tell ’em, ‘Yeah, about 2,000 gallons of it.’” But the work suits him. He’s his own boss, sets his own routes, and has finally found a rhythm that his old trucking days lacked.
By mid-2024, Pee-Freight Solutions had grown from a one-man operation to a small fleet of three tankers, employing two other drivers—both of whom, like Graham, were trucking washouts looking for a second chance. Last year, he cleared $120,000 in profit, a far cry from the $30,000 he scraped by on in his freight-hauling days. He’s even started a blog, Urine on the Move, where he chronicles his adventures and dispels myths about the trade. (No, he doesn’t drink it. Yes, it’s sanitary if handled right.)
Graham’s story is a testament to resilience—and a reminder that sometimes, success lies in the strangest places. “I used to think I was a failure,” he says, gazing out at the highway stretching before him. “Now I realize I just hadn’t found my lane. Turns out, it was the yellow one.”
As he climbs into his cab, bound for a pickup at a medical facility in Kansas City, Graham offers a parting thought: “Life’s funny. One day you’re hauling pizzas, the next you’re hauling pee. And somehow, it all works out.”
