10-4 Magazine October 2023

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss After Eric was born in 1971, his dad did not want to be out on the road as much, so in 1972 he took a driving job at Freres Lumber. He did that until about 1989, when he got the bug to buy his own truck and be an owner operator. Star ting with a dump truck, he eventually pulled the box and went back to DH Trucking, pulling a flatbed, but this time as an owner operator. Over the next 25 years or so, Danny had some cool trucks, including a 1980 Kenwor th W900A, a 1978 Extended Hood W900A with a Cummins KTA engine, a 1994 Peterbilt 379, and a 2000 W900L Kenwor th, which he sold in 2015. Going back to Freres for about five years to finish off his trucking career, Danny retired in 2020. Some people just love trucks, some people love owning their own trucks and customizing them, and some love the trucking industry and the people involved in it. And then there is Eric Griffith – a driver at Freres Engineered Wood Products out of Lyons, OR. Undoubtedly, he probably loves all that other stuff, too, but what he really loves is driving a truck. He loves being out there on the open road, in a clean truck, and watching the sun come up. It really doesn’t get much simpler than that! It’s not often we feature a company-owned fleet truck and its driver, but Eric (52) is pretty special and has a sterling reputation in the Pacific Nor thwest, and the Freres family (and company) is pretty special, too. In business for over 100 years, Freres is a multi-generational family-owned lumber operation. Eric has been a driver for Freres for 27 years now and still looks forward to going to work every day. And even though the company has three full time people that do nothing but wash trucks, Eric still does all his own washing, at least once a week. Born and raised in Lyons, OR (the same little town where Freres is headquar tered), Eric and his younger brother Craig grew up riding along with their dad Danny, who was both a company driver and an owner operator, over the years. Eric’s grandfather Bill also did some trucking. Migrating west from Oklahoma, Bill Griffith and his wife Betty settled in central California, and Bill began hauling produce down to the markets in Los Angeles in the 1950s. After doing that for a while, he switched over to the paving business, and never looked back. In the mid-1960s, he relocated his family (which included Eric’s dad) to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where they still reside today. Graduating from high school in 1969, Eric’s dad Danny married his mom Ginger that same year, and Eric was born shor tly thereafter in 1971. And, over 50 years later, these two are still married! After high school, Danny got into the paving business, but not long after that he began trucking. Working for a company that hauled doors and windows in vans, driving an older Mack conventional with a Mercury sleeper, Danny ran throughout the Pacific Nor thwest. A few years later, he went to DH Trucking in Lyons, OR and began running a cabover Freightliner truck and trailer (this was a big step up), hauling lumber to Salt Lake City and Denver. 10 10-4 Magazine / October 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF TRUCKING