ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996               TAG: 9610080063
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER

HOW'S MY DRIVING? PRETTY GOOD, TRUCKING GROUP SAYS

Tractor-trailer driver Danny Richards of Salem knows that providing good customer service is the key to a successful transportation business.

"Everyone can get their freight moved for basically the same amount of money," he said. "It boils down to who's going to give them the best service."

The Virginia Trucking Association named Daniel W. Richards this year's Virginia Truck Driver of the Year at the group's annual convention and safety conference Sept. 12 in Williamsburg.

Richards, one of 145 drivers for Howell's Motor Freight Inc. of Roanoke, was singled out, among other things, for his long record of safe and courteous driving.

Not many drivers - truck, car or otherwise - can boast that a police officer has called their employer to brag about their driving skills. But Richards could, if he was a person prone to boasting, which he doesn't seem to be.

A Waynesboro, Pa., police officer, who had followed Richards' truck for 20 miles in the snow on I-81, called to tell the driver's bosses what a good job he was doing.

And then there was the woman in Anderson, S.C., who telephoned to say that Richards had kept her from hitting a school bus. She started to pass his truck and would have hit the bus but didn't pass after Richards turned on his emergency flashers, she said.

"We have customers who call in and say, 'Boy, he's got a great attitude,''' Howell's President Harry Norris said of Richards. "It's a tough job and takes a really unique person to be in it day in and day out."

Howell's drivers earn about $40,000 a year and have a benefits package that includes health insurance and a retirement savings plan.

Besides the Virginia honor, the Interstate Truckload Carriers Conference, a trucking organization based in Alexandria, picked Richards in April as one of its top 10 drivers of the year, nationwide.

Richards, 52, has driven tractor-trailers for 28 years and before that spent three to four years in smaller trucks. He's been with Howell's for seven years and has worked for Conway Southern Express and Lawrence Transfer of Roanoke, where he worked for 14 years.

His parents were Roanoke County school teachers and his grandfather was a Norfolk and Western Railway mechanical engineer. He recalled that he would sit on a wall at the family farm west of Salem, watch the trucks go by and dream of being both a farmer and a truck driver.

Richards transports candy and other commodities for Howell's, travelling to manufacturers and grocery chain warehouses as far north as New Jersey, south as Georgia and west as Chicago. He works five- to six-day weeks, sleeping in the cab of his Peterbilt 377 truck.

A part-time farmer, who still lives on the family farm, Richards said he likes to be outside and, in a way, driving is outside work. "I'd rather drive a truck 500 miles any day than drive a car 500 miles," Richards said.

And he doesn't do a lot of driving on his days off or on vacations, he said. That, he joked, would be like a postman going for a walk on his day off.

One thing that helps keep him close to home is his 3-year-old granddaughter, Sarah, whom he says with an obvious understatement is "sort of special."

One of the biggest changes he's seen during his years as driver is the quality of the trucks, Richards said. Both the cab and his driver's seat have air suspension for driver comfort. His truck also has cruise control and, like others in Howell's fleet, is equipped with satellite communications that allow company dispatchers to know where the trucks are at any hour of the day and to communicate with drivers if they need to.

As far as other drivers on the road are concerned, their driving skills are as good as they used to be but they have become more aggressive, particularly people in passenger vehicles, he said. "Everybody," he said, "wants to be first."

Richards also trains other drivers for Howell's and helps the company, which doesn't hire anybody with less than two years experience, break in new drivers. Although he's driven tractor-trailers an estimated 3.1 million miles during his career, he's never been involved in an accident in which either the police or his employer found him at fault.

The key to safe driving, Richards said, is having a positive attitude. "Just doing a good job," he said, "is the most satisfying part of any job."

LENGTH: Medium:   85 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  NHAT MEYER/Staff. Danny Richards of Salem recently was 
          named Driver of the Year by the Virginia Trucking Association. 
          Richards works for Howell's Motor Freight Inc., which ships candies.
          color.