My husband and I began the business in July, 1958, with little knowledge of what was necessary to operate a trucking company. There are so many hidden expenses one never thinks about until the situation presents itself (blown engines and tires, fines, accidents, taxes, insurances, ect). Unaware of these additional costs, we under-quoted our mileage rate in our first lease agreement proposal, necessitating an immediate request for an increase from the shipper, which to say the least, put us in a very uncomfortable position. Our only plea was ignorance. Working through these obstacles, Lee Brass, gave us our first load on July 27, 1958 destined for Boston, Massachusetts.
          In the beginning we had no terminal facilities. Mr. Williams negotiated with a local oil company to use some of their property for parking and maintaining our equipment. Finally, enough old tarps were pieced together to improvise a tent to work under to give protection from the weather. Since Mr. Williams had no access to a telephone, it was a common occurrence at all hours of the day and night and in all kinds of weather for me and my babies to drive many miles relaying messages from drivers who needed help, money, advice etc.
         We began the business with two new 1958 B-61 Mack Tractors, but within six months one of them was totaled in a wreck in a snow storm. We had no money to replace it, and it took months for the insurance company to settle the claim. Mr. Williams had to get out and rent, lease, beg and borrow vehicles to service the shipper or else we would have lost our lease.
In 1963, we were audited by the I.C.C. We were operating as a leased (private) carrier, but the I.C.C. informed us and the shipper that we were operating as a contract carrier without authority, for which we and the shipper was fined. Ignorance, again, was our plea since we thought that our operations were in compliance. We applied for authority, which we received in September, 1965. Needless to say, during the intervening months, we were closely scrutinized by the I.C.C. During this time I retired from my teaching profession to help get the I.C.C. authority and run the growing business.
        In December, 1965, our terminal (located in Oxford at 610 Main Street) burned, resulting in the death of my husband and one employee. I was devastated at the loss of my husband together with two little girls, five and eleven years old, to rear alone. The equipment out on dispatch, the office records and a small section of the building on the south end were the only things saved. All of this loss was uninsured. We set up an office in the remaining building and rented an old building from the railroad across the alley to maintain the equipment. I will be forever indebted to the employees who worked under such dire circumstances to keep the company operating and, also, for the support and counsel given me by my attorney and accountant. It can be truly said that the business was, indeed, salvaged out of the ashes. In 1966 the company moved and we built the first repair shop in 1968. During that year the company was incorporated and I was installed as the first President on August 1st.
         In the late 1960’s, we had two loads of Lee Brass fittings stolen from our terminal. This theft resulted in reward money to the FBI, cancellation of our insurance, putting us in an assigned-risk situation at an exorbitant cost, and the installation of the Babaco Alarm System on all of our trailers(the maintenance and operation of the systems were almost financially prohibitive) however, without the systems, no insurance company would insure us. I thought, for sure, this time we were gone, but, again, we finally came out on top.
         There are many other situations I could relate, but through them all, many great lessons have been learned since we know that “Experience is the best teacher.” Also, without these adversities, it would be much more difficult to appreciate the successes, I am thankful for B.R. Williams Trucking…, but I challenge all of you to remember where we have come from so that we can appreciate where we are now and where we wish to aspire in the future.
I truly appreciate all of you and am confident that we are where we are because of “God’s Amazing Grace” which has been and is more that sufficient!

*The majority of this article was published in the B.R. Williams, Inc. NEWS in the summer of 1995*