RISS

Any old timers here remember RISS Trucking?

 

Ya mean Crooked R, out of MO? Big R (Roadway Express, Little R (Ryder Truck lines), Crooked R (Riss).

 

Yeah, looking at old pics the other week and came across some of my daddy and his COE White Freightliner. Brought back found memories of riding in that bucket of bolts.

 

my dad drove for them when they went under. He lost his truck and fought the rest of his life to get her back. If anyone could give me information on where unit C8011 international eagle with the big sleeper went I would love to find her, in what ever shape she's in and restore it as a memorial to him. I've been hunting for it for 20 years

 

Riss bought Johnson Motor Lines out of Charlotte, I believe somewhere around 1978, and then shut the doors in 1980. I was with Johnson when all this happened. Riss was out of Kansas City, non-union, ,made up mostly of owner-operators, Johnson was union, mostly company drivers and the "merging" of the two companies certainly did not work out. So, Riss shut the doors on Johnson.

 

My Dad was a owner operator but when they called everyone in to the terminal his truck was painted Riss colors and they took it too the bull pen and brought him his personal stuff. He told then that the truck was flying Riss flag it was his. They said take them to court. He never got it back

 

At the time of Johnson Motor lines closing the doors, I was an owner/operator with a "lease to purchase" tractor and the program that Johnson had was the very best in the business and I have never seen or heard another "lease to purchase" plan that even comes close to what we had at Johnson. But anyway, when the doors were closed, all the "lease to purchase" drivers were given a choice, they offered us a financial plan if we wanted to keep the tractor or they offered us the money that we had in escrow and our maintenance fund. I took the money that I had in escrow and my maintenance fund and walked away with a tear in my eye.

Riss came in and completely "gutted" one of the finest trucking company that ever moved a pound of freight. I know what I am talking about, because for 5 years I was the "little boy" for the President and CEO before Riss bought Johnson. I drove him around in his million dollar coach(bus). I was fired in Quebec because him and me became involved in a "cuss fight". After Riss bought Johnson, I went back as an owner-operator.

 

Do I ever? Bob Riss was a close friend of my father and I will never forget the time he picked us up at our home in Lawrence, Kansas in the Riss International Trucking company limo complete with a phone on board. Not a big deal you say?! This was in 1972! Having a phone in your car then was unheard of and we truly felt like rock stars. As a friend of the family, both Bob and Ned Riss, we were always on the lookout for Riss International Trucking rigs and I remember a particular road trip where we literally counted over 100 different rigs going both ways in a nnine-hour drive from Lawrence, Kansas to Denver, Colorado. They were a giant and perhaps my memory serves me incorrectly but I could swear that my father told me that it was the largest trucking firm in the world. Is this true?

 

Wow, talk about digging up a dinosaur!

When I saw a notification stating someone posted to this topic, my jaw dropped.

However, thank you for taking the time to reply.

Have a great day and be safe!!