Meet the driver
69 years old.
His own authority.
His last career.
Bill Ihrie has run his own authority for two decades out of Hickory, North Carolina, USDOT 3269668. Before the trucks, he raced a paved oval at Hickory Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. A NASCAR license was needed to be on that track, and there is a trophy and a victory lane photo to prove it. Long before that, the family name was on a potato chip truck in Baltimore.
He will tell you he is not a tech guy. He will also tell you the honest part is easy: "True facts and stories are fairly easy for me to tell." That is the whole reason this is him talking and not a brochure.
"The only constraint is TIME! When I leave home and I'm behind chasing running clocks it's very stressful."
The family name
It started with forty cents and a sack of potatoes.
The grandfather of Bill drove a bread truck in Baltimore. A fire truck hit him and broke both his legs, and the money stopped. His grandmother spent their last forty cents on potatoes, fried chips in her own kitchen, and sent their five children, the father of Bill among them, door to door to the neighbors. That became Mrs. Ihrie's Potato Chips. This is the plant and the fleet, years later.
Still around, if you know where to look
A Baltimore panel truck, and the tins that outlasted the company.
The rules, in his words
Fair. Friends.
Family.
Bill wrote that himself, about how this ought to work between everybody involved: "let's be Fair and remain Friends and Become Family." He also prayed about it before he said yes, which he will tell you plainly. These are the floors, and they are his, not ours.
Keep it simple, stupid
His words, his capital letters: "Truckers have 0 patience (zero) and are always rushing (under the gun)." If it needs a manual, it is already wrong. If it cannot be done while the truck is loaded, it is not done.
The Truth Ledger
Also his name for it. Every number traces back to where it came from, and it is worked out the same way every time. Nothing you type leaves your device unless you choose to send it.
Help, do not take over
The tools do the typing and the arithmetic. The driver stays in the seat and stays in charge. Nothing gets sent, posted or filed without a person saying so first.