Rickie Perteet will never forget back in 2002 when he was outside mowing his yard and his neighbor said to him, “I’m sorry about your job.”
The veteran trucker didn’t have a clue what his neighbor was talking about. Then the fellow said, “You better go inside and see CNN.”
That’s how Rickie, who had been driving 13 years for Consolidated Freightways, found out he was not only unemployed, but the large carrier was no longer in business. The nation’s third largest trucking company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was Labor Day, September 3, 2002. The Vancouver, WA based carrier had 15,500 employees at the time. It had been in business since 1929.
A resident of Portland, TN, Rickie has now been a company driver for 28 years and hauls produce for Freeman Logisitics.
I caught up with Rickie several weeks ago on the Atlanta State Farmers Market where he had just delivered a load of tomatoes from Nashville, TN. The product was being hauled to FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., a wholesale and foodservice operation.
The company driver has a regular run where he pick ups a load of produce in Nashville on Sunday night for delivery to Atlanta Monday morning. He typically makes two to three round trips per week.
Prior to joing Freeman Logisitics Rickie had made a couple trips to the West Coast hauling chickens westbound and produce back, but says he prefers the trucking he is doing now – and spending more time at home.
He drives a 2003 Peterbilt with a 475 hp Cat diesel and a 13-speed transmission on a 286-inch wheelbase. It pulls at 53-foot Great Dane with a ThermoKing reefer unit.
Rickie, 55, says he learned trucking from his dad. He also has a couple of uncles and an aunt that own a few trucks.
Over the years the aspect of trucking he liked least was being away from home and his kids so much, missing ball games, etc. His children are now 18 and 21 years old and he gets to spend more time with them due to his regular haul, even though the kids no longer live at home.
One fact that saddens him about trucking are the drivers coming into the business. There is a lot of inexperienced drivers on the road who lack professionalism.
“The other day I saw a driver on the highway with a book on the dash and he was reading it while going down the road,” he says.