General Info:
Leo J. Handy, my father, originally began work at Jerome Co-operative Creamery in Burley. He did not enjoy working at a desk all day, and in 1928 he purchased a milk-collecting route. With the help of Ernest, his brother, he was able to scrape up enough money to buy a truck, thus Handy Truck Line was originally formed. Dad continued to haul milk for the next ten years. During the latter part of the 1930’s, he would haul milk in the morning and anything else he could find to haul in the afternoons. In 1938-39 the Heyburn School was built, and Dad hauled in the cement for the building of the school. Cement in those days was packaged in big cloth bags. The creamery burned down in the early 1940’s. With World War II beginning, no construction supplies were available, so Dad had to haul the milk to Twin Falls and Jerome. He obtained another truck to keep up with the milk hauling, and every day he and the other driver would haul milk to Twin Falls or Jerome, work in the fields in that area in the afternoons and then come home in the evenings. In 1944, the government released International trucks to milk haulers. Dad’s trucks were worn out, so he was able to buy a K-7 International and a Diamond T. The war ended in 1945 and Dad decided he had enough of milk hauling, so he sold two of his trucks, keeping the Diamond T. In 1998, Ashgrove Cement decided to quit bagging cement in Inkom about the same time the Idaho Falls terminal manager retired, and so they allowed us to put a bagger in at the terminal site and, at present, David Williams manages the terminal and operates the bagger. In the forty-nine years that I have been involved with this business, there are a few things that have become very evident. One is that things do not “just happen,” you have to be “movers and shakers”. Another is that you must surround yourself with people of integrity, who have the best interest of the company they work for at heart. I have a strong belief in a Supreme Being, whom if we ask, will help us. In the past 55 years there have been many prayers offered in behalf of this business and those that work for it. I know that we have been blessed when I realize how many miles we run every year with very few problems.