Ivan Reick’s grandpa always said, “You gotta be ruff and tuff and hard to bluff” – and he was right! Ardie Reicks is turning 92 this month, so he knows what he’s talking about. Something else he told Ivan (29), “You get a lot farther with honey than you do with vinegar.” If you’re having trouble with dispatch or problems with a shipper/receiver, talking things out is always better than just yelling. Another grandpa saying was, “You can’t get bit by a shark if you never step in the ocean!” That one always makes Ivan smile when going around the scales. Ivan grew up riding with his dad Dan in a 1996 Volvo with an N14 Cummins and a double bunk, running around the Midwest, delivering torque converters to local repair shops and taking the junk ones back to be rebuilt. Grandpa Ardie also took Ivan and his brother and sister, in an 80s model Freightliner cabover, to haul grain out of the fields. The kids would sit on the doghouse, and he’d tell them when to yank back on the shifter. Ivan learned the mechanics of how a transmission worked when he was 11 years old, what to do with the gas, and when to shift at the proper rpms. “My dad taught me how to send a truck down the road right. I guess it’s the wisdom of three generations that built this truck here!”
