10-4 Magazine May 2023

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss For most of us who have been around trucking for any length of time, it’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. However, some of the new people entering this industry today sadly do not share that sentiment. They are just here for the job and the paycheck. That is not the case at all for this month’s cover feature trucker Richie Foster (49) of Pittsburgh, PA. Richie has been driving since he was 17 years old, and truly embraces the old-school traditions and attitudes, and has made it his personal mission – at least in his sphere of influence – to keep the drive alive! Born and raised in and around Pittsburgh, Richie did not come from a trucking family or background, but his mother did have a friend who owned a trucking company with about 40 garbage and roll-off trucks. Richie loved going out with this man and his drivers when he was a kid, and although his first experience in a truck at the age of three did not go well (he cried the entire time until they stopped and bought him a toy truck), his love for trucks began then and never left. From then on, he knew driving a truck is what he wanted to do, even though everyone around him told him not to do it. Raised in a family with three older sisters, Richie was the lone son, and a bit of a mama’s boy, at that. His dad was a workaholic, and not around much when Richie was young, and he was a lot older than most dads. In fact, Richie’s dad was 58 years old when Richie was born! He died in 2004 at 89 years old when Richie was 31 years old. One of Richie’s older sisters married a man who star ted a trucking company, as well, and they eventually built it up to about 40 trucks. Richie spent a lot of time in those trucks, and later star ted his career driving for them. While still a junior in high school, Richie star ted driving a dump truck at a local steel mill hauling the burned coke (a coal-based fuel used in the steel manufacturing process to provide the heat to melt the ore) from the ovens to a nearby dumping location. Since he never left the plant proper ty, he didn’t need to have a license. After graduating high school in 1991, he went to work at a local car dealership, detailing the new cars, to earn money to go to truck driving school. At 19 years old, he successfully completed truck driving school, and then got his CDL. Now that he could drive, his brother-in-law hired him to work at their company, Latimore Trucking & Supply, and purchased him a 1977 Autocar triaxle dump truck to run, complete with a roof-mount A/C unit and an 8-track cassette player in the dash. This thing was totally old school – for real! Hauling stone, mulch, and asphalt, Richie did this for about four years, until he was 23. At this time, Richie and his then girlfriend had a baby, and she decided to move back to New Mexico, where her mom lived, to help her raise the baby. Wanting to see his daughter, Mikayla (28), he took an OTR driving job with Covenant Transpor t and began pulling a van coast-to-coast, which allowed him to get through New Mexico to see his daughter and attempt to salvage the relationship he had with his girlfriend (but that did not happen). Driving for Covenant for four years, in March of 1999, after meeting Amanda, who was the daughter of the woman who ran the Covenant 10 10-4 Magazine / May 2023 terminal in Dallas, TX, Richie left Covenant and star ted driving locally for his family again. He also went to his first Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in Louisville, KY as a spectator. Pulling a tanker and hauling liquids to local asphalt plants, Richie’s new girlfriend Amanda moved from Texas to Pennsylvania to be with Richie. Together for over 20 years but never married, the couple has two daughters – Bryauna (20) and Rylie (11). They are no longer together, but strangely enough, Amanda is still Richie’s dispatcher. In 2002, Richie moved over to another family-run operation owned by one of his uncles called BRS (Burke Rolloff Services) Transpor t, driving a cream on cream Peterbilt 379, pulling a MAC half-round steel bucket, hauling scrap. Eventually, Richie began doing terminal transfers for one of their big customers who had locations in Chicago, IL, Decatur, AL, Houston, TX, and Philadelphia, PA, which allowed him to stretch his legs a little bit. He also did one dedicated run a month, pulling a flatbed to Pueblo, CO and back. This run was like a vacation to him every month! Richie worked at BRS for ten years. In 2012 a few things happened. At just 49 years old, his brother-in-law, the one he had worked with in the past, had a massive hear t attack and died. His sister sold everything and let the company go. Around this same time, the scrap business was beginning to slow down, and Richie decided he needed a change. After driving a tanker for a friend’s dad’s company for a shor t while, Richie and his family moved to Texas, where Amanda was from, and his plan was to take a month off, get a job at FedEx or UPS, and then go on to live a stress-free and happy life. Well, that didn’t exactly happen. When he ran out of money, it was time for Richie to go get a job, and he ended up driving for JB Hunt. Some of you might think this was KEEPI NG T HE DRI V E ALI V E