Ritchie Trucking Service in Fresno won Hauler of the Year for 2020 from 84 Lumber for its work with the building materials supplier headquartered in Pennsylvania. Photo contributed by Ritchie Trucking

A local trucking company recently won an industry award for its work with a Fortune 100 company.

Ritchie Trucking Service in Fresno won Hauler of the Year for 2020 from 84 Lumber for its work with the building materials supplier headquartered in Pennsylvania. 84 Lumber has 250 locations nationwide, including one in Clovis.

Towards the end of 2019, Ritchie Trucking Service partnered with 84 Lumber to deliver materials daily to its growing number of locations.

During 2020, Ritchie Trucking Service was operating out of three locations in California, and because business was going well, a location was opened in Kansas City and Boise. Ritchie also has locations in Arizona, Oregon and Washington.

The company started working with 84 Lumber in September 2019. Ritchie has a total of 200 employees between all its locations.

“We just started late 2019 with them, and they have about 50 haulers at one point, so to be recognized as the top hauler in our first full year of doing business with them was a pretty high honor, said Cole Scharton, executive controller at Ritchie Trucking Service.

Ritchie Trucking Service was originally founded in 1964, and in 2018, the owners sold the company —not to another company, but to its employees, becoming a 100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company in 2019.

Scharton said that since the lumber industry as a whole has been doing well, his company is fortunate to be able to partner with a business poised for growth.

Ritchie’s work with 84 Lumber consists of delivering lumber primarily to job sites for new construction, as well as a very small amount for residential construction. The other half of the work is appliance delivery and installation.

With more people spending time at home and working from home, demand for home remodeling and new appliances has increased.

With this new partnership, Scharton expects to see even more expansion with 84 Lumber.

“We have a good relationship with them, and we intend to bid on more markets and if they open new stores, we want to grow with them as much as we can,” Scharton said.