15/12/2023
Today I had the honor and privilege of driving in a convoy of JTT trucks as we escorted one of our family, Mr. James Hill, on his last trip before retiring after 27 years of driving with us.
There is not a day in my professional career that I haven’t worked with James. He started driving for my dad in 1997, (a year before I went to work there). When we left to start Justin Time, Mr. Hill was one of the very first to come with us…never even asking what we were going to pay him, only “when can I start?”
James has driven well over 4 MILLION MILES with us! That’s the distance to the moon and back nearly 10 times, or around the entire world 170 times.
Mr. Hill celebrated his 80th birthday this year and can still “out-truck” nearly every 40 year old I know! He is a proud veteran of the US Army, having served in Vietnam and he retired from the Red River Army depot prior to starting his truck driving career. You would never know if James was having a bad day, regardless of what was happening, it was happening with a smile.
As Mr. Hill dropped his final load at Tyson Foods this morning and we escorted him across the Arkansas state line and back to the JTT terminal, (which is less than a 1/2 mile from my dad’s old terminal where we all started together), I could not help but reflect on our many conversations, (all of which either started or ended with a new joke) and how proud I am to have been able to work with, and learn from him all these years, and judging by the tears and smiles on the faces of the rest of our family when we made it back to the terminal… I know that everyone else feels the same way! 💜
It’s a bittersweet day as we wish him the best but know how much he will be missed!
Thank you James from the bottom of our hearts! We love you!