At the Truck Stop

Josh Rickards was all of 8 years old when he caught sight of life on the road for the first time. Even back then he knew he’d found what he was meant to do with his life. “My introduction to trucking was with an uncle,” he said. “I rode with him in his Kenworth W-9 back when I was a little kid. “Yeah,” he said in remembrance. “He had an 18-speed, and he was teaching me how to go through the gears and all that. I fell in love with it at that point. I knew that trucking is where I was ultimately going to be.” Fast forward a few decades, and Rickards’ passion didn’t just pay off in a long-driving career. It paid off in a way that would fulfil the fantasies many folks might have had in their younger days — hitting the road with nationwide touring bands. From hip hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and Little Wayne to recent clients including country mega stars Luke Combs and Zach Bryan, Rickards has entrenched himself within his niche. “The thing about touring, is it’s really hard to get into but once you get into it, and you’re an experienced tour driver … well, that’s my thing,” he told The Trucker earlier this year as he navigated highway traffic en route to the East Coast, where he was joining up with Metallica on tour. Like a lot of people in the entertainment touring industry, Rickards didn’t start out hauling guitars and amps for the rich and famous to stadiums and venues across the U.S. He actually started out rocking a delivery truck for Boar’s Head meats. By the time he turned 21, he’d joined a West Coast record label doing marketing and promotions. The label hadn’t invested in a semi, so when they sent acts out on tour, they called on Rickards to drive the 30-foot box truck. In time, he went on to earn his CDL — and he learned all he could about business with the dream of one day opening his own company. “The label taught me the business side, both about the music business and about business in general,” he said. “In 2013 I left and started trying some different things, moved to Seattle, drove a tanker for a little bit.” By 2017 he’d bought his own truck, and he got his DOT authority in 2018. Rickards Transportation Services LLC launched a year later and has grown steadily, by design, from there. “During COVID, I was more about quality of growth and not rapid growth,” he said. “I know people that grew to 10, 20 trucks quickly — and now they’ve been caught in a down market for a while. The people that I knew that grew fast, they came down pretty hard. For me it was kind of more of a ‘the turtle wins the race’ type of thing.” One element of Rickards’ controlled growth was leveraging his previous contacts in the music business to start hauling for bands and performers. He said the niche offered a surprising amount of consistency, even in a down market. “We’ve done a lot of shows, right, like all these one-off shows,” he said. “There’s a lot of production companies that I work with that do a lot of corporate gigs, as well as the longer tours that can go for months.” In the beginning, a hungry and unattached Rickards practically lived on the highway to make a name for himself, but now that he’s paid his dues, he is more selective about the tours he signs onto himself. Being gone for months at a time is a serious strain on his family, so he’s learned the fine art of balancing his work life with his personal life. “When I used to tour nonstop, I didn’t have a wife and kid,” he said. “What I like about the position we’re in is that we are support for these tours. We’re almost like hired mercenaries in a sense, so we can pick and choose our own schedule as opposed to someone who works for a touring company full time. Those guys are out on one tour or another all the time.” Rickards chuckles at people’s reaction when he tells them what he does, saying that most people envision him hanging out with the performers and partying like a rock star. It’s not that glamorous, he says. Between being gone for extended periods and the demands of the work itself, it takes a lot of hard work to help bring the music from town to town. “I’m the one in the back of the truck, strapping the load in,” he said. “When you’re on a tour, the first week you’re trying to learn your pack so that it’s loaded the same way every night, after every show. After that, I’ll know every road case, I’ll know what’s in it, I’ll know the packing order.” The gig is perfect for night owls. “Another thing people don’t realize is, when you’re doing music tours, 99% of the time you’re going to be driving at night. You can have your daytime schedule when you’re on the off days during setup — but load out is always after the headliner is over.” Even though the road offers less conventional glamour than people think, to a dyed-in-the-wool driver like Rickards, there are perks that can only be found in this small corner of the trucking world. “When I rode with my uncle as a kid, I saw the comradery that existed out there. I fell in love with that, the whole thing,” he said. “When I’m out there, I’m not partying with the band, you know, there’s none of that — but I AM sitting around a campfire with a bunch of drivers on tour, telling stories,” he shared. “These guys have each other’s backs. For someone who loves trucking, that is actually as cool as anything. There’s a lot of passion in that.”

Garrett Steenblik’s story as a truck driver isn’t a typical one — but it is certainly inspirational. Just a few years into his driving career, Steenblik says he realized the sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits he developed on the road had placed him in a life-threatening health crisis. “I was trapped in a cycle of daily nausea, excruciating pain and sleepless nights, burdened with diagnoses of fatty liver disease and ulcers,” he told The Trucker. “On top of that, I battled crippling anxiety, depression and PTSD from a childhood consumed by abuse.” To cope, Steenblik started a regimen. Unfortunately, it was not a regimen that would lead to a positive outcome. He developed a habit of chugging three Mountain Dews a day and binge eating, desperately trying to escape the pain that consumed him. It didn’t take long for these destructive habits to take a toll on his overall health. A journey faced by many Steenblik isn’t the first driver to face health- and diet-related challenges on the job — and he certainly won’t be the last. By its very nature, over-the-road trucking presents unique barriers to balanced nutrition and regular physical activity. “While our society depends on the vital work of the trucking industry, truck drivers have scant support in maintaining their well-being,” he said. “This is a public health crisis.” Steenblik is matter of fact when he discusses the role motor carriers — at least those he observes — play in the lives of employees. “We’re expected to work 10-14 hours a day — over 70 hours a week,” he said, noting that this schedule leaves little to no time for meal planning and exercise. According to Steenblik, many truckers subsist on cheap, readily accessible meal options, such as fast food and gas station snacks — and he should know. He was one of them. Luckily, Steenblik reached a breaking point, one where he recognized he was caught in a personal health crisis. Unfortunately, many drivers never have that realization. “I decided to change while I was hunched over a toilet bowl, feeling defeated. I realized I was a victim of my own choices, and I refused to remain a hostage to my past” he said. “In that moment of desperation, I found a flicker of determination” he continued. “I channeled the same discipline I used to navigate the open roads into a fierce commitment to my own health.” Challenges along the journey Steenblik knew the road ahead would be hard, and he knew he didn’t have all the answers — but that feeling was not foreign to him. After all, he’d faced the unknown when he entered the trucking industry after leaving a sedentary, dead-end tech job and watching his weight grow to 360 pounds. Among the first challenges ahead was the financial cost of making personal health changes. As with many truckers’ health care plans, he says, his insurance plan’s coverage of preventative health care and weight loss treatment was inadequate — and his health had deteriorated to the point that the out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare associated with his wellness journey would be in the tens of thousands of dollars. On top of that, the monetary cost was actually one of the least of his challenges: Changing his lifestyle would take perseverance and strength from within like nothing he’d ever undertaken in his 24 years. “My demanding driving schedule necessitates long hours seated behind the wheel,” he explained. “The lifestyle impedes regular physical activity and encourages reliance on cheap, calorically dense convenience foods.” Steenblik knew he needed a strategy. The first order of business, he says, was to work on his diet and adopt an exercise regimen. “I lost my first 100 pounds simply by running in place for 45 minutes a day over 11 months,” he said. However, as he discovered, “I couldn’t outrun a poor diet.” Despite a rigorous exercise routine, his weight climbed as he continued to binge eat. “My breakthrough came when I learned about total daily energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate,” he said. “I began to understand how many calories my body burned daily and how to eat in a calorie deficit for weight loss.” Steenblik adopted a low-carb, whole-food diet, practiced intermittent fasting — and swapped hamburgers and fries for vegetables and lean protein. “As I improved my diet and exercise, my depression, anxiety and trauma began to lose their grip on my life,” he said. “I realized that mental health starts with physical health, and I found I could reshape my identity and heal.” A partner on the journey During his journey to better health, Steenblik says he received a lot of support from his wife — who also happens to have been Steenblik’s team driving partner for eight years. “My wife, Yvonne, is a powerful source of accountability and support. She’s played an essential role in my health journey through her love and encouragement,” he said, adding that his wife, who is certified in hazmat and tanker operations, is an active team driver. “We drive as a team, balancing the demands of our job with maintaining our health,” he said. However, he says, his wife faces additional challenges to maintaining her health on the road. “It’s not always safe for her to exercise outside alone, especially as a night driver,” he said. “Team driving is intense and requires immense coordination and trust. While one of us drives, the other rests, making it challenging to find time for exercise.” But together, they made the journey. “We both made it a priority to work out during breaks or while waiting to load — doing body-weight exercises regardless of conditions,” he said. It was a slow process — in fact, his journey spanned five years — but Steenblik eventually reached his health goals. And those goals were ones that anyone, regardless of their profession, should be proud to achieve. “I ultimately reached 155 pounds, primarily through keto (diet) and intermittent fasting,” he said. “It took years to lose 200 pounds through diet and exercise.” The massive weight loss left him with an extraordinary amount of sagging skin that could only be removed through surgery. This required time and money, not only for the operation, but also to recuperate. “I used weight-loss medication to manage the weight fluctuations during recovery, going up to 185 pounds and then back down to my normal weight of around 160,” Steenblik said. A continuing journey While his personal mission has been achieved, Steenblik says he continues to face daily challenges in order to maintain his weight and health. He wants to use his journey to inspire other drivers to take charge of their health. “My personal experience of fighting to get my health back while fulfilling my job requirements brought me face to face with the enormous obstacles that truckers face in maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” he said. “My story of returning to wellbeing while driving is exceptional, but it shouldn’t be,” he continued. “My mission is to bring attention to the unique obstacles drivers face when it comes to accessing health care and implementing lifestyle changes.” Steenblik hopes his story raises awareness about rampant health issues in the trucking industry. “I offer myself as a resource for fellow truckers looking to improve their overall well-being,” he said. “I connect and offer free health consulting in trucking groups on Facebook, reaching truckers on forums they can easily access.” Steenblik uses his personal story as a call to action for other drivers — and people in general — who are unhealthy. “I encourage readers to evaluate their own health needs and support wellness initiatives within the industry,” he said. “Draw inspiration from one another and join the movement toward better health in trucking.”

In March, Rosalinda Tejada, a driver for Phoenix-based Knight Transportation, was honored as a Professional Driver of the Year by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA). As she and four other drivers took the stage to accept their awards during the association’s annual convention, the group was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation from attendees. When Tejada was told she’d been selected for the honor, she was sure that there’d been some kind of mistake. “I was shocked,” Tejada told The Trucker. “I thought they were jiving me!” But jiving they were not. “They told me that it was because of the help I give to others and the dedication I have to my job,” she said. “Knowledge is power — and if we have it, we need to pass it on to others. It’s not just for me to keep.” Tejada’s personal story is one of strength and resilience. Surviving abusive relationships, dealing with the diagnosis of both lupus and fibromyalgia and the tragic shooting of a sibling, Tejada has turned those experiences into a life of serving others and training the next generation. Born in Arizona, part of a military family she spent her formative years in Germany. “I started first grade in German school,” Tejada said. “Back then they didn’t have American schooling for us. We were there when the Berlin Wall came down. My mom actually has a piece of the wall. I remember hiding in a bunker for three months because they thought there was going to be a war. I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time, and that experience has always impacted me.” When her stepfather retired from the military, the family moved to Kansas and opened up the first Mexican restaurant in the area. Ready for a new start in America, Tejada’s life soon became turbulent. After escaping an abusive relationship, she decided it was time to take control of her own life, and she started looking for a way to support herself. As she was making those plans, tragedy struck her family. “My brother got shot by his best friend,” Tejada said. “His best friend was trying to commit suicide. My brother was a Christian, and he went over to try and talk him out of it. He ended up shooting my brother in his neck. The friend took him to the hospital and just dumped him out; then went into hiding until he was found and arrested.” While her brother survived the shooting, he was paralyzed from the waist down, and Tejada took on the task of caregiving for her brother. With mounting medical bills, Tejada said, “I felt like I was drowning.” At one of the darkest moments in Tejada’s life, a light revealed itself. Her uncle, a driver for Knight Transportation, suggested that she get her CDL. While she was hesitant to do so at first because of her family responsibilities, Tejada realized this was her chance to achieve her dreams. Driving a big rig would allow her to take care of herself and her family. “The traveling aspect appealed to me the most,” she said. “When I was deciding which company to go with, I looked into different companies. The reason I chose Knight over all the other companies was their safety,” she said. “I love their history. I talked to other drivers. I went to other places to visit too, but I really liked what Knight stood for,” she continued. “They have an open-door policy. I love their (dedication to) safety and that they do hair follicle drug testing. When I started out elsewhere, companies didn’t have that. You had people out there driving on all kinds of drugs.” After driving for five years, Tejada had to take a break and help care for her brother once again. During this time, she became certified as a registered certified medical assistant. She was instrumental in not only caring for her brother, but also being a part of a team dedicated to caring for COVID-19 patients and helping to spearhead vaccination clinics. Working alongside Dr. Cara Christ, the director of health for the Arizona Department of Health Services, Tejada had the opportunity to promote vaccinations. She even vaccinated the likes of the Arizona Cardinals, Mike Tyson and Michael Phelps. She received an award from the state for her efforts and received a FaceTime thank you from President Joe Biden. Now back in the trucking industry, Tejada says she sees training others as an essential part of her job. “I try to put myself in their shoes,” Tejada said. “I remember being nervous and scared. I also give everyone a welcome pack to help them feel more at home. It’s kind of like a beach bag with pockets and I load it up with snacks, drinks, Advil, Tums, just things you are going to need. I want them to feel special and welcome in my truck.” Another way Tejada gives back is pouring wisdom gained from her personal experiences into the lives of other women. “I volunteer at a women’s shelter, and I take my truck,” Tejada said. “I talk to the ladies about truck driving — how it saved me. “I let them know that there is hope and let them know that they gotta find their self-worth,” she continued. “(I tell them) they could be independent, and there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.” In the little free time that she has, Tejada says she and her husband Ed love spending time outdoors. “For fun, I love to go fishing. I like the outdoors and I like going camping riding my Can-Am (ATV) — get some dirt dust therapy as I call it,” she said with a laugh. Whether volunteering at a women’s shelter, driving for Knight, spending time with her family or getting a little of that “dust therapy,” one thing is obvious: Tejada sees her life as a testimony that allows her to help those in need. “I want to be a message for others,” Tejada said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but all of the struggles that I went through made me a stronger person, a wiser person, and I want to pass that along,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone to guide me through those times. I want to be that person who helps guide others, so they know they are not alone. I want people to know it’s going to be okay.”

Sam Landrum didn’t get into trucking for the scenery or any personal acclaim. In fact, the way things started out, he might not have been that long for the industry at all. But the Piggott, Arkansas, native stuck it out and then some, racking up decades of driving and covering millions of miles en route to being named Maverick Transportation’s 2023 Over the Road Driver of the Year. “I’m incredibly impressed and encouraged by Sam Landrum. As much as anyone in the company, he knows how far we’ve come and how far we can go if we continue to work together and strive to make the driving job better,” said John Coppens, Maverick’s vice president of operations. “Sam is a great addition to the Driver of the Year group, and I look forward to working with him as part of our ongoing advisory councils.” While it’s not his first driver recognition award, 67-year-old Landrum says Maverick’s award is a particularly meaningful one. “What was so special about being named Maverick’s OTR Driver of the Year is the fact that other drivers voted on it,” he explained. “It really meant a whole lot to me when I had fellow drivers come up to me to say, ‘Man, I hope you get it. I voted for you!’ Just to be known and liked by fellow drivers meant a lot.” While Landrum discovered trucking early in life because several family members were involved in the industry, he didn’t seriously consider it as a career for himself until the bottom dropped out of farming in the 1980s. After graduating from high school in 1975, he worked on the farm with his father until 1981. “Interest rates went to about 21%, and we had a drought in 1980 so we were losing money,” he said. “We had gone backwards the last two years that we farmed. “The banker wanted to know if I wanted to continue. He was afraid my dad was going to be out on the streets without anything. They were getting scared, so I decided to quit farming,” he continued, adding that he and his wife moved to Dallas in 1982. “My wife and folks were from Dallas, so we went down there. I got a job working in a factory, building cabinets for houses and stuff,” he said. “The first four years it was all right, but the last two years I hated even having to go to work.” Then, opportunity knocked. A fellow church member offered Landrum a job driving a local delivery truck. After Landrum proved his skills, Landrum’s friend asked if he’d ever considered driving a semi. Landrum said he hadn’t. “He said, ‘Well, get in, drive around the block a time or two. You’ll learn how.’ So that’s what I done — that was my driving experience,” Landrum said with a chuckle, adding that he was asked to step in because the regular OTR driver was taking a vacation. “My first trip was to Colorado. I don’t think I slept the whole week because I was so nervous. I had to go through the mountains and all that stuff,” Landrum said. “I’m my own teacher. I made a lot of mistakes and I learned from mistakes,” he continued. “Of course, things are different now. Before anybody will even look at you, you’ve got to go through school and all that. I learned it hard-core.” A funny thing happened after that initial “baptism by fire.” The more Landrum drove, the more he found he enjoyed the job. He especially liked the brotherhood drivers shared, knowing that, at any truck stop or over the CB, he could connect with someone willing to share some knowledge or help him get the job done. “When we started out, we didn’t have no GPS, didn’t have no cellphones, no nothing. We had to buy a suitcase full of city maps,” he said. “Back then, drivers would talk to each other. So, if you went to a truck stop and said, ‘Hey, man, you ever been to this area?’ they might say, ‘Yeah. Avoid this road; there’s an old bridge here.’ Everybody talked to each other a whole lot more than they do now.” Landrum has driven for Maverick for the past three decades, and he says his love for the job has only intensified. His dedication has not gone unnoticed by the carrier and his fellow drivers: He’s been nominated as Driver of the Month four times — and, of course, he’s a current Driver of the Year. These days, he delivers materials for the construction and automotive industries within a 700-mile radius of his home in Piggott. “I have a real good wife who held down the fort while I went out and made more money for our family,” he shared. “I tell you what, it takes a special woman to put up with a truck driver! “I also want to say that Maverick was a godsend to me. I couldn’t have gone with a better company,” he continued. “That’s why I’ve been here so long. I’ve got 30 years and 3 million safe miles with them, and I can only say good things about Maverick.”

Even as a child, Josh Giesbrecht knew his future lay on the open road. He can’t remember a time when he didn’t love trucks and the idea of traveling from one end of his native Canada to the other. “This is what I always knew I was going to be doing, ever since I was a kid and went on the road with my dad in the summer between school seasons,” he said. “It was just a given to me that this is what I was going to do. “I got my regular driver’s license at 16 and I immediately got a job delivering pizza in Winnipeg,” he continued. “At 18, you can get your CDL — we call it a Class 1 in Manitoba — and as soon as I could, I got that and I got to trucking.” In the 17 years that followed, Giesbrecht achieved his dream and then some, having touched all the Canadian provinces and U.S. states reachable by truck. The endless journey has racked up a million accident-free miles and counting. That million-mile record is impressive enough for anyone, but another aspect of his trucking career is what has made him a recognizable face to people around the world. For 12 of his 17 years as a professional driver, Giesbrecht has steadily built a worldwide audience through his vlog persona, Trucker Josh. Through that medium, he shares the joys — and sometimes the perils — of the job he’s chosen and the life he loves. “(The vlog) started because I wanted to show people who weren’t in the industry what I actually do out here,” Giesbrecht said. “A lot of times, I’d go to a party or go to some friend’s house and people would ask, ‘What do you do for a living?’ I’d say, ‘I’m a truck driver,’ and they’d give me that look, like, ‘Oh, you’re JUST a truck driver. That’s easy. All you do is hold the steering wheel all day.’ “Well, actually, I’ll show you what I do!” he said. Thus, vlogging became a regular activity for Giesbrecht, chronicling his life as an over-the-road driver for Keystone Western. As Trucker Josh, he quickly discovered that telling tales from the road came almost as naturally as his day job of driving. “I’ve always enjoyed the camera. I’ve always enjoyed sharing stuff,” he said. “I’ve never had any second thoughts about that. I’ve had a very good audience over the years. I haven’t had any instances where I felt uncomfortable or threatened — although some people are a little TOO friendly.” Over the past 12 years, Giesbrecht has grown his audience to 300,000 to 500,000 views per month — or, at this writing, nearly 55 million lifetime views. Part of what has driven his popularity is the authenticity he brings to each vlog, whether he’s speaking in wonderment about the scenery or sharing his feelings about deeper topics that he knows all truckers face. “Some things weren’t really topics that I wanted to talk about,” he said of the Trucker Josh vlog content. “I guess no one really wants to talk about when they’re down,” he said. “I really love what I do, so I wasn’t showing the hard parts of leaving home, or the struggles in a marriage you go through, or other things that got too personal with the audience.” He quickly realized that his audience wanted to see and hear the whole story about life as a trucker. “I started to get feedback from people, ‘You’re hyping (the job) up. You’re making it all sound amazing, but this is also true, and this is also true in the industry,’” he explained. “I took that to mean maybe I should be at least addressing these other things so new drivers don’t come in and think it’s going to be just amazing every day,” he said. “When they hit those issues and they have those struggles, I don’t want them to think, ‘Oh, it works for Trucker Josh; why is it not working for me?’ I’ve learned I can show them I’ve dealt with those same things too, just like you. I just push through it.” One thing that has set Giesbrecht apart from the field has been his willingness to bring viewers into his personal life when it’s appropriate. His wife, Brittany, and young son, Theo, show up in episodes here and there, which further humanizes Trucker Josh for his audience. “Britt has always been very supportive. She’s actually more open than I am about sharing,” he said. “Since we’ve had our kid, we’ve had a lot of discussions about, ‘Where is that line? What do we share with the internet, especially when it comes to our son?’ “This is different,” he continued. “We realized, ‘It’s not me. It’s not you. This is a kid who doesn’t know what’s going on yet, and he’s going to be going to school and people are going to know who he is because of something Daddy did.’” The 12 years on the internet have brought changes, both to Giesbrecht the driver and Trucker Josh the program. On the driver side, he’s scaled back to a dedicated route that helps him have more home time to spend with his family. On the program side, he’s had to adjust to the loss of one of the vlog’s brightest co-stars, his dog Diesel, who has recently stepped into retirement. “Probably 99% of my viewers tuned in to see Diesel. They loved him,” he said. “It’s a shame I can’t have him in the truck. He’s an old guy now, and he can’t get in the truck anymore. He was definitely the star of the show. He’s now living his best retired life at home, getting pampered every day.” As for the future, Giesbrecht sees no end in sight, either as a driver or for the Trucker Josh program. Even after a dozen years, he’s still energized by finding out about drivers who joined the industry specifically because of what they’ve seen on his vlogs, as well as drivers for whom the road is made a little less lonely when away from loved ones. “I want it to be a storyline that continues through my whole life. I’d like to keep doing this as long as I live,” he said. “That would be great to have my whole adult life documented, something that can be put somewhere into a time capsule and future generations down the line can have it to look back on. “Who knows, maybe in 200 years — if they’re still watching videos at that time — they can see how one of their ancestors lived 200 years ago! I think that would be pretty cool,” he continued. In recognition of Giesbrecht’s contributions to the trucking industry, he was inducted into the Howes Hall of Fame in March 2024. The announcement was made during the Mid-America Trucking Show, held in Louisville, Kentucky. “There are people who have grown up watching Josh that are now becoming drivers themselves. There are others who get to live vicariously through him, traveling to places they may never have the chance to visit on their own,” said Rob Howes, president of Howes. “Many are inspired by his commitment to positivity and his endless search to find the good in every situation, for his dedication to trucking, and for offering a personal and candid view into the life of a trucker,” Howes continued. “Howes is proud to welcome trucker Josh into the House Hall of Fame. For Giesbrecht, it’s not about fame. He simply wants to make a difference in the lives of others. “I want (Trucker Josh) to be a positive influence for other people in the industry,” he shared. “When they’re so alone on the road all the time, they can watch the videos, wherever they are, and know they’re not the only ones going through what they’re going through. “We all have our unique struggles but if they can see someone else is going through the same thing they are, they’re not by themselves. Some days are good, some days are bad but we’re all out here together,” he concluded.

SALISBURY, Md. — You might say Robert Timmons is one “clucky” guy. Not only has he achieved 4 million accident-free miles as a professional driver — he’s driven every one of those miles for the same employer. Timmons, better known as “Holly Trolly” on the road, has driven for Perdue Farms for more than four decades. He is only the second driver to achieve this milestone in the company’s almost 104-year history; the first was Alvin Smith. The fourth-generation, family-owned food and agricultural products company employs nearly 800 professional drivers. “I am so excited that I achieved 4 million miles of safe driving,” Timmons said. “I’m excited and proud that I was able to do this while working at Perdue.” Perdue’s drivers take pride in their safety records. The company has had 184 drivers reach 1 million accident-free miles, 45 have traveled 2 million safe miles and an even dozen have achieved 3 million miles. “Our drivers are among our most visible brand ambassadors and have the most direct contact with our customers,” said Tim O’Hea, senior director of transportation for Perdue Farms. “Robert achieving 4 million safe driving miles in just 43 years is no small feat and is a testament to his dedication not only to Perdue but also to our customers and those he shares the roads with every day.” During his time with Perdue, Timmons has delivered dressed poultry from Salisbury, Maryland, to Lewiston, North Carolina; delivered live haul and oil; and has been an over-the-road driver delivering as far west as Iowa and throughout the Perdue marketplace. He currently delivers local short-haul loads. Perdue Farms wasn’t Timmons’ first gig. He started his career hauling litter for Holly Farms using a large pneumatic trailer. It was there that he earned the call name of Holly Trolly, and, he says, the name just stuck! When he’s not on the road, Timmons enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren. He is an avid carpenter and is currently building an addition to his Maryland home. He also enjoys taking cruises — a lot. He’s been on 16 cruises so far.