Page 24 - ATR 5 2013

times get hard you turn to the Lord, “He just liked the big trucks and that all the time,” she said. “Trucking
and that’s what I did. I walked out there working on them, I guess,” Richards can be tough, but I feel like we have a
on our gravel parking lot, kicking rocks said, smiling when asked what pos- really nice office and some really good
and talking. I’d do that four or five sessed her husband to do that. “He employees.”
times a day.” never drove them much. He just liked No one ever told her to her face
Today, Rich Logistics is as robust fooling with them.” that a woman couldn’t succeed in the
as it was before the recession. But Betty In fact, D.W. was so intent on trucking industry, though, and that’s
Richards doesn’t take that for granted, working on his trucks that “we’d have probably a good thing for them, as she’s
not for a moment. trouble getting him to let them go out continued to lead Rich Logistics to suc-
“I try to give back,” she said while on a freight run,” she recalled. “He’d cess and recognition in the industry
sitting in front of an expansive picture follow them out the driveway hollering, well beyond the borders of Arkansas.
window in her Little Rock home that ‘You can’t take that truck and trailer But the work that went into assuring
overlooks the Arkansas River valley, now!’” that the company simply kept existing
across a back yard filled with bird feed- And in the fine tradition of many during those dark years of the Great
ers that are rarely unattended on an spouses of big rig owners, Betty wound Recession is never far from Richards’
early fall day. “We’ve been very blessed up in the business, by default. An thoughts.
at our company.” employee by marriage, if you will. “We got through that, and the
Based in Little Rock, Rich Logistics “Yeah, that’s how I got there,” she vendors worked with us,” Richards
today employs about 400 people and laughed. “I didn’t start out meaning to recalled with a still-audible sense of
owns nearly 300 trucks and 1,200 trail- be there.” relief. “Then those nine weeks started,

“we didN’t lay aNybody off. i just got out there aNd kicked rocks aNd
talked to jesus eVery day.”

—betty richards,
owNer, rich logistics

ers. They do a lot of “drop-and-hook” While the company was small, her I believe in May 2008, when [General
business and both rent and lease trail- major role was signing payroll checks Motors] actually shut down. And every
ers. In addition to the Little Rock home and doing billing, plus handling the set- time you got through a week, you’d say,
office, they have offices in Alexander, tlements “when Jay the settlement guy ‘Eight more weeks to go, seven more
Ind., and Burton, Mich., terminals in went on vacation.” It was 1990 before weeks to go.’”
Laredo, Irving, El Paso, and Brownsville she really felt ingrained in the company. How bad did it get? Well, unnerved
in Texas, and have “a new opportunity” That’s when they built a plaza in Bryant by the talk of GM’s bankruptcy and the
starting in January with Ford Motor and moved their offices there. In 1993 fact Rich Logistics was so dependent
Company. they purchased another piece of proper- upon the auto industry, Richards’ bank
“We’re an over-the-road long haul ty on Interstate 30, and in 1998, moved told her late in 2008 that she needed
carrier, and we mainly go up through to Scott Hamilton Drive and 65th Street to find another lender. That was a real
the Midwest from Mexico to Canada,” in southwest Little Rock. trial, said Richards, since other banks
said Richards, “We haul auto parts, “That’s when things really started were having it just as tough, but they
pretty much exclusively. Just about growing for us,” she said. found one early the next year.
everything that puts the car together After D.W. passed away, Betty “It wasn’t a perfect deal, but we
– engines and hoods and just all of it.” Richards found herself at the helm of were still there,” she said. “And so many
Rich Logistics was incorporated in the company – a woman in what was shut down at that time, so we’re very
1988, but it had begun a year before still very much an Old Boys Club. And blessed to still be here. That’s my bot-
that when D.W. Richards sold his she knew, even though she’d been work- tom line.”
Honda auto and motorcycle dealerships ing at Rich Logistics for a decade, she’d Three thoughts kept echoing in
and bought a 1984 Mack and then a still have to prove herself. Richards’ mind during the toughest
1985 Peterbilt. “Oh, yeah, I feel you have to do times and helped her keep going: She

24 arKansas trucKing report | issue 5 2013