Pub. 1 2020 Issue 2

24 Kentucky Trucker Kentucky Trucking Association How did you become part of the trucking industry? Did you always aspire to be part of this industry? When I graduated from high school, everyone was try- ing to get into the trucking business because of deregu- lation, so I thought that was the right thing to do. Happy Rakestraw hired me to work in an old barn on some old trucks. I was supposed to be part-time, but I worked 90 hours the first week. I told Happy not to make me a fulltime employee. After that, I worked my way up in the company. Happy decided to retire and he wanted me to take over. He told me that if I didn’t take the job, the company would bring in someone else. I didn’t want him to bring in someone else, so I finally accepted the job. Roger Waddle Q&A Describe your educational background. My formal education stopped at high school. I worked in construction doing odds and ends and I worked on trucks. After that, my friends and I worked hard to build Super Service. It became a big, well-known company. I never thought Super Service would be gone, but it is. However, I am still working together with my friends in the trucking industry. We’ve been blessed. Are there any specific individuals who had a major impact on your career? My mentors were Happy Rakestraw and Harvey Gainey. I learned hard work never killed anyone from Happy and I learned generosity goes a long way from Harvey. Both men are retired now, but I am still trucking. What is the most rewarding part of your career? The whole reason I started Hidden Creek Trans- portation was so I could create jobs for the people I worked with at Super Service. I am excited to go to work every day because of them. • Bobbie Hawk is vice president of operations and Ruth Skaggs works part-time administration/ finance. They are sisters. We went to high school together, but we never knewwe would all work together to build two different trucking companies. • Bruce Ellington is the first driver Super Service hired. I asked him if he wanted to come aboard Hidden Creek, and now he works in operations as a dispatcher. • I’ve known VJ Begley since grade school. She is a dispatcher now, too. • Our safety director is Jeff Knabusch. I’ve known him since the early days of Super Ser- vice in the 1980s. • Bobbie’s daughter, Robin Burnett, works in operations for her mom. • David Skaggs works part-time in billing. He was also a high school friend. • We currently have 38 drivers. We treat them like family.