ROCK HILL, S.C. — It was a job loading trucks at a Walmart Inc. distribution center that convinced Erick Hawkins that he should get into the transit business.
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“For about a year-and-a-half or two years, I loaded trailers,” says the transit administrator for My Ride Rock Hill, the all-electric, free-fare bus system that went into full service this week. “It gets very old. Working full time, going to school full time.” At the time, he was attending the University of Wisconsin, playing football and working at that distribution center.
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When his employer offered to pay for training for him to earn a commercial driver’s license, Hawkins began to think about a career in moving people instead of moving supplies to Walmart Super Centers.
Fast forward 15 years, and Hawkins was named to lead My Ride Rock Hill in February with a fleet of seven Proterra all-electric buses in a $6.6 million bus system.