146: A Streak of Bad Luck: Scotty Smith’s Incredible Story

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Scotty Smith, one of our owner operators at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, Scotty shares his story of being involved in a serious accident, and the challenges he faced during the repair process. Despite the difficulties, Scotty remained grateful for the support he received from Oakley and his fellow drivers. Don’t miss this incredible story on this week’s episode.

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145: Reminders from the Ladies of Safety at Oakley Trucking

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett sits down with some of the ladies of the safety department. Vivian Boudreaux, Amanda Hadfield, Ashley Rabun, and Allison Sledge join the show to talk all things safety. The discussion includes DOT compliance, driver physicals, trailer inspections, Hazmat and TWIC reminders, maintenance reports, and more.

Key topics in today’s conversation include:

• Oakley Update: Discount updates for truck stops and good customer feedback (1:34)
• Background on Vivian, Amanda, Ashley, and Allison (4:02)
• Ensuring we are DOT compliant (8:36)
• Why safety comes calling? (15:23)
• Locked and unlocked status (19:59)
• Hazmat and TWIC reminders (22:30)
• Auditing logs of drivers (29:56)
• CDL requirements and reminders (38:34)
• Incidents and inspections (42:32)

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.

Transcription

Vivian Boudreaux  00:12

All of us have gotten this response. Hi, this is Vivian from Oakley trucking safety department. What did I do now? Yeah.

Jeremy Kellett  00:21

Goes like typically does.

Amanda Hadfield  00:24

Not always true. I will say,

Ashley Rabun  00:27

There are times when I know myself and Allison we call drivers just to say thank you your stuff looks good. We want to recognize the drivers that do their stuff correctly. We like making good phone calls. I don’t like to call a driver and say hey, I noticed this was wrong. And then, you know, get that same responsibility. I like to hear from the safety department. It’s not always a bad phone call.

Jeremy Kellett  00:48

Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business, and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley Trucking, headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner-operators and their families by giving them up-to-date information concerning Oakley Trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories. Also to give an inside to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, this is Jeremy kellett, director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking and I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family and this is episode 145. And in today’s episode, we got a little surprise for you. We are going to talk to the safety department. Now before you turn me off. Because of the safety department. We’ve actually got the ladies from the safety department here. So this is gonna be really interesting. And we’re going to cover a lot of things in this. We got Ashley, Amanda and Vivian here with us and we’re going to talk about, you know what their responsibilities are in the safety department maybe some of the common mistakes they see every day, give you some feedback on things that the owner operators here could change that might help or the safety department and just how important some of this stuff is. I think it’s gonna be great covering a lot of that stuff here in just a minute but first let me give you an Oakley update sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales. Arrow Truck Sales has been in business for over 60 years and a longtime partner of Oakley trucking and the Oakley podcast. Dre visor and Keith Wilson do a great job at putting you in the right truck to fit your needs and our needs here at Oakley. They carry all makes and models to choose from with on site financing through transport funding. So whether you’re a seasoned owner operator or a first time buyer, be sure to contact Keith Wilson at Arrow Truck Sales at 573-216-6047. And tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast. So the update today, a couple things real quick. One is that I sent everybody an email out a week or two ago . We actually got new pricing from Pilot Flying J truck stops. And they have really stepped up to give us all Oakley owner operators a good discount, and it’s a cost plus where it used to not be locked that was different in different states. So now it’s more of a blanket, they’re kind of stepping up with love and a TA Petro and given us an excellent fuel discount, so make sure you check TransFlo and you look at all the truckstops now because they’re trying to compete quite a bit. It’s actually a little bit lower. In the essay, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas have actually got a little bit better deal than the rest of the states. So keep that in mind anyway that the point of it is make sure you check it out. The discounts also had an excuse, I had an email from a customer on one of our owner operators and I just read it here Sean McBay, which is our customer out of Davis wanted to compliment Monica Boykin that she loaded there last week. She was very polite, knew her gauges and seemed like she had been trained on her gauges well, so congratulations, Monica. We appreciate you doing the right thing and representing Oakley well also the last thing this is the see when this comes out. This is the week, maybe two weeks before the Mid America truck show and I know I’ve been talking a lot about that on the podcast, but it’s gonna have a big presence at Louisville, Kentucky, the Mid America truck show and we want everybody to come show up. We’re going to have some podcast recording going on there and it’s gonna be fun and it’s just if you’ve never experienced the Louisville Mid America truck show in Louisville, Kentucky, you need to experience it. You just gotta check it out. It’s a little overwhelming. Check that out. It’s coming up now. Let’s get started with our safety talk. Appreciate you ladies, join me for this your A podcast debut.

Amanda Hadfield  05:02

Thank you for them by Yeah,

Jeremy Kellett  05:03

so I got Vivian Boudreau, Amanda Hadfield and Ashley Raven, here joining me and they all work in the safety department. And we’re going to talk a little bit about their responsibilities. But before we do, I always like to give a little introduction of your sales and how long have you been here and kind of what your what you do, you know, family hobbies, because I always like to include that because it helps get to know you in the beginning of the episode. So we’ll start with Vivian. Vivian. What? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Vivian Boudreaux  05:35

Well, I’ve been with Oakley for almost over 40 years on and off. So I’ve been here a long time from the very beginning. Family family. I’ve got two sons, one has just graduated and is retiring from the army this year. So I’m really proud of him. And coffee.

Jeremy Kellett  05:56

I remember Yeah, we started. Yeah.

Vivian Boudreaux  05:59

That’s a long time. I know time flies. So he’s getting ready to retire. He’s got his own family and got another adult son here in Conway with special needs and hobbies. We just bought 60 acres a couple of years ago up on Billy Goat Mountain Road. And that’s our hobby, I mean, land taking care of that. Playing on our playground, baby.

Jeremy Kellett  06:23

And we were talking just a second ago. She’d been here a long time. And we were telling her she trained me to do decals. So he was the first decal lady we ever had. And it was a little machine. We had it on a separate desk there behind us. And she showed me how to make unit numbers and VIN numbers that put on the trucks and then you had it we had a few colors I could choose from to put the Like, maybe

Vivian Boudreaux  06:47

nine colors, something like that. Nothing like it is now.

Jeremy Kellett  06:51

Yeah, it was a long time ago. Yeah.

Vivian Boudreaux  06:55

And I was the only one on a different podcast, but I was the only one in the office when I started. Just think about that.

Jeremy Kellett  07:01

Well, yeah. Because I mean, you were there with, I guess being

Vivian Boudreaux  07:05

three of us. Well, Mike Fisher, David Choate, I was the only one in the office in North Little Rock. Wow. Yeah. So we get it now.

Jeremy Kellett  07:14

You’ve hung in there. Yeah. Look at what we’re doing. That’s amazing. Okay, good. Well, how about Amanda, tell us about Amanda,

Amanda Hadfield  07:22

about Amanda. I’ve been here for about a year and a half. I am still working on the incident. But that’s what I originally worked on. Before I moved over to safety. I wanted a little bit more to do and a little bit more upbeat. And I’m enjoying every minute of it. These guys definitely keep you on your toes. Family, family. I’m not married. But I’ve been with my boyfriend for about a year. I have my dad and my sister and brother in their families. And mom passed away five years ago. But dad is happily with someone now. We accept her. Yeah, whatever. She’s an awesome lady.

Jeremy Kellett  08:00

What do you do on the weekends? Mostly?

Amanda Hadfield  08:02

Well, I don’t have a washer and dryer in my apartment. So I have to take my Washington, boyfriend towels, and he gratefully let me use it every weekend so I can have some clean clothes.

Jeremy Kellett  08:14

Well, that’s it. Hey, if that’s a hobby? A hobby, it’s just gotta do it. Gotta do it. That’s good. That’s good stuff. What about you, Miss Ashley, I know you’re looking forward to doing this.

Ashley Rabun  08:30

Absolutely. So I’ve been with Oakley, this will be my fourth year here. Only Ever been in the safety department. And I love it. I’ve been married to my husband for almost six years. But we don’t have any kids. But I will say this kind of goes into the hobbies, we kind of quit all of our hobbies. Because for the last year and a half, we have been working on trying to get our home open to start the adoption process. Oh, good. And first of February, they gave us the okay that we were open. So now we can follow through and, you know, start that process and hopefully, get a kid in our home good for you. It’s a hard process to do. So hopefully, once we get all that rolling again. And you know, get a child in our home that we can give a home to and love and all that stuff, we can start picking back up on the hobbies. So

Jeremy Kellett  09:18

It’s fantastic that it takes a lot to do that.

Ashley Rabun  09:21

It really does more than I expected. Absolutely.

Jeremy Kellett  09:24

That’s what our listeners need to understand where you girls are just real people to know oh my god last got jobs, good things do. I mean, it’s

Vivian Boudreaux  09:33

and that’s a good point. It’s our job. So when they get upset with us for calling and saying you’re not doing your logs, right or something like that. We’re just doing what we’re told to do. Yeah,

Amanda Hadfield  09:44

so don’t get mad at me for trying to help you. We’d like to do whatever you want.

Jeremy Kellett  09:50

got responsibilities. Well, let’s start with that and talk about being DLT compliant. I mean, that takes a lot of team effort from you guys of course. but it’s also got to take a team effort from the truck driver to, you know, water. I don’t know, what are some of the responsibilities you’re responsible for and concerning DLT compliant, to start with a boat

Vivian Boudreaux  10:17

physicals, med surg twig cards CDL CDL is maintenance on the truck, you know everything on the driver, the truck, the trailer, all of it.

Jeremy Kellett  10:30

So what specifically do you do? Are you responsible for maybe

Vivian Boudreaux  10:36

The biggest thing I do is the drug test, the random drug test, pre employment, and bookkeeping. I’ll do the medcerts, the physical, the part. Ashley, usually, an Allison brings the physical in, you know, make sure it’s correct and everything. And we submit it to the state. Make sure I make sure that the state has updated, you know, put the physical on their driving record, run their driving records annually.

Jeremy Kellett  11:04

Okay, so talking about the physicals, do you get any physicals that are wrong? What’s wrong with him,

Ashley Rabun  11:16

so the court could be more withdrawn, which could in turn delay the drawbar getting updated with the states, therefore making them sit longer than they had originally planned. That’s why it’s kind of important to not wait till the last minute to get it done to make sure that everything is good with your core that the state has you updated correctly, that if you get pulled over by the OE T, they’re not going to find that you’ve been mis updated or anything like that.

Jeremy Kellett  11:43

So when they renew their physical extension into you, you look at it as if you have to be in and then you have to submit it to the state.

Ashley Rabun  11:52

If it’s a state that we can submit it to you, I don’t mind one bit doing that to save drivers a trip to the DMV. But with that being said, not all states update the same way or the same calm. Some states are a little farther behind some sites that will update you in 10 minutes. So the longer you wait to get your physical done to your current expiration date, the more we’re going to recommend that you actually walk into the DMV to get that bait instantly. So

Vivian Boudreaux  12:19

technically, it is the driver’s responsibility, we just do it for them. It’s easy for us, you know, we can just know how to do it. For most states, every state is different, you know, all the drivers have to remember that. But there’s

Jeremy Kellett  12:32

still one walk in state, Missouri, you have to walk in, the driver has to actually take it to the DMV and get it. And it’s got to be certified because right when you submit it to the state, then you run the NVR what day or two later to make sure you says that the certified correct date expiration, that

Vivian Boudreaux  12:57

There are non excepted interstate that are Interstate is their driving type, and that they have the new physical on the driving record. And that’s the other thing. States have 10 days 10 business days legally to update it. So that’s another, you know, you want to get that in before minimum 10 days. Most of them don’t take that long. But that’s their standard. Yeah, that’s for the DoD regulation. They have 10 days 10 business days,

Jeremy Kellett  13:27

yeah, we’ve had had some guys sit around here and wait for it to get

Vivian Boudreaux  13:31

till the day of. And the other thing the driver can do on that card is look at it themselves. It’s real simple, real basic, make sure that they put all the information in that they check that little CDL box and that they’re marked interstate, those are the big things that

Jeremy Kellett  13:47

because that’s what the doctor does. And sometimes they do it wrong.

Ashley Rabun  13:51

So yes, and then something else that kind of falls in line with that is when you go to get a DOT physical, if it’s not someone that you have used every year or every two years to get your physical, you need to make sure that they’re on the FMCSA national registry. If they are not on the registry, then they’re not recognized as

Jeremy Kellett  14:11

we haven’t had any of those.

Ashley Rabun  14:14

Yeah, we had one yesterday, we had to look it up and kind of find out that doctor was no longer on the registry. So this driver had to go back and get everything done, and all that kind of stuff. So that’s another reason.

Jeremy Kellett  14:27

Did the doctor put their registry number on there? Yes, he had expired. Yes.

Ashley Rabun  14:31

So another reason why it might be a good idea to get it in a little early. So we could catch something like that. And it’s there’s several things that can go there. Yeah, there’s always something that can go wrong. This moral

Jeremy Kellett  14:42

The story is to get it done. Don’t wait till the last week to get your physical

Vivian Boudreaux  14:47

unless you want to be sitting. Well, you know, Midnight will set you down. You’re sitting there until

Jeremy Kellett  14:53

the other details. I mean, but that’s part of it. That’s what you got to do for sure. How about Amanda What about you is, what are you responsible for?

Amanda Hadfield  15:03

What am I responsible for? I work a lot with the maintenance reports. And I’ve been also making sure those guys turn in trailer inspection sheets, because a lot of them are not doing that. So whenever they pick up or drop off a trailer, they need to fill one out and send it there. TransFlo. So we can keep up with what’s going on with the true winners.

Jeremy Kellett  15:20

Okay, so they’re every time they draw one

Amanda Hadfield  15:24

pattern, every time they pick one up, they need to fill that out and transform it in.

Jeremy Kellett  15:29

So okay, two different shapes, the one I just dropped, need to fill out, you can even write

Amanda Hadfield  15:33

there, hey, this is one I picked up and this is the one dropped off.

Jeremy Kellett  15:37

Okay. And then they train. That is not, you’re not getting all that.

Amanda Hadfield  15:43

There are some trailers that haven’t been updated in a long time, because I haven’t gone into the workflow and looked at them. And there’s nothing there for

Jeremy Kellett  15:50

is in my watch the main purpose of that the repairs, and

Amanda Hadfield  15:56

It’s not only to keep record of the repairs done on the trailer, but it also helps to avoid being charged for the trailer damage. And it’s getting charged to the correct person. Because if you don’t fill one out, and there’s damage, and you’re the one who drops and pulls out in that shop, chances are they’re going to put your name on it. Yeah.

Jeremy Kellett  16:17

So it’s a great idea to do a walk around and fill it out correctly and send it in that way you we got record no one and when you drop the trailer, it’s in good shape, or here’s what’s wrong with it. I charge you to sound rattled. Sure.

Vivian Boudreaux  16:31

Yep, you go through and do that when you pick it up. And so you’re not responsible for somebody else’s damage?

Jeremy Kellett  16:39

Yeah, we’re talking about calling the drivers or them being mad. What is that? What do you call them about?

Vivian Boudreaux  16:48

Okay, let me just say this real quick. All of us have gotten this response. Hi. This is Vivian from Oakley trucking safety department. What did I do now? Yeah. Oh, oh, no. Every time of course.

Jeremy Kellett  17:04

So because I typically do something wrong. Yeah,

Amanda Hadfield  17:08

I don’t you’re not always true. I would say,

Ashley Rabun  17:10

there. There are times when I know myself and Allison, we call drivers just to say thank you, your stuff looks good. We don’t want everyone to always think that a call from safeties, we want to, you know, recognize the drivers that do their stuff correctly. It helps us you know, right, one last phone call we had to make we liked making good phone calls. I don’t want to call a driver and say, Hey, I noticed this was wrong. And then, you know, get that same responsibility. But I’d like to hear from the safety department. It’s not always a bad phone call.

Jeremy Kellett  17:42

So what about the search? We mentioned maintenance reports. Let’s go with that for a minute. And

Amanda Hadfield  17:47

those phone calls, because I want to call them and say, What did I do wrong on my maintenance report? Like, oh, wait, no, I saw what it is. I’m gonna fix it and send it right back to you.

Jeremy Kellett  17:58

So are you looking at him? I mean, pretty quick, when they send me in wherever they kinda, are they a week or two, or?

Amanda Hadfield  18:07

No, it just depends. So we gotta make sure that they have their truck number on there, that the month is on there, we don’t put an actual day when we fill it out. Because we’re going to call until you take that off. If your mileage is on there, that you’ve checked, okay, on all those boxes. Here’s a description for the brakes, you can write a check daily adjusted as needed. And I know another one we get a lot is with disc brakes. Well, I can’t do anything with those, well, then just say visual check. And then number one, make sure you sign it because if you don’t sign it, that’s another reason why we’re calling it. The receipts are important. So if you also do any repairs on your truck, if you do them yourself, and you just go buy something from Walmart, or Napa or whatever, you still need to turn that receipt in.

Jeremy Kellett  18:55

Just scan anything you did to the truck that whole month.

Amanda Hadfield  18:58

Yeah. For that whole month. Yes, yes. For us to keep up with it.

Jeremy Kellett  19:03

What do I mean, I know DLT requires a monthly maintenance report. But I mean, what are the yoti? Requirements? I mean, just that we have one of those every month on the driver and that we have the receipts to prove it. We all know is it

Rev. Beth Long-Higgins  19:22

to have maintenance to be able to provide that the main maintenance,

Amanda Hadfield  19:29

kind of like the maintenance records.

Vivian Boudreaux  19:31

There is preventive maintenance.

Jeremy Kellett  19:35

So we have to have that. I mean, because, you know, the maintenance report, the monthly maintenance report can come up in a situation when there’s an accident. Yeah. That’s probably one of the things that they look at. When’s the last time brakes had been put on this truck or tire or something like that. So it’s just another way you Have Coburn yourself as a truck driver and as a company having these forms and receipts, hey, you know, I’ve just done this. There’s no way this could have failed, you know, or something failed and hey, I’ve got proof that it did it. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. So we got to have a receipt. Yep. Because just putting it on there didn’t count. Just putting it on there. Not gonna. Not proof enough. I guess it held but having the receipt? Yes. monthly maintenance reports. Man, we have been talking about that since the day I’ve been here. You’re missing the big thing that we used to talk about? No monthly maintenance reports. Can you believe you haven’t said this yet? When are they due?

Ashley Rabun  20:45

Every month, the first week of

Rev. Beth Long-Higgins  20:48

the month? Yeah, the end of the first pay period is what it says.

Jeremy Kellett  20:52

We’ve always been, I gotta be here the first of the month. And then. And then driver, the dispatcher plays this game until the third tag team.

Amanda Hadfield  21:03

And they’re like, oh, can they just send this in on this pay number? Can you hurry up and unlock them? I’m like, Well, I’m on the phone right now I’ll get that just one second.

Jeremy Kellett  21:11

So a lock of what would tell the listeners what that means. We’ll know what locking and locking means It means they know what locking and unlocking

Ashley Rabun  21:23

it means they can then be dispatched. If you are locked up, you are not getting put on a load, it’s going to hold you up.

Vivian Boudreaux  21:29

We have a database with all the drivers and all their expiration dates for CDLs, physicals, twit cards, whatever it may be monthly maintenance reports. And if that expiration date comes, and they do not have that document turned in, we locked them up, that means they get shut down. They can’t be dispatched. Now drivers pay close attention to this. Your dispatchers know that these dates are coming up. And they can help you remember how they know it’s in TM W in that database. So they have all that information on all their drivers. So that dispatcher and, you know, they can say hey, so and so you know, your physicals coming up? In a couple of weeks, if you’ve gotten it?

Ashley Rabun  22:12

And the dirt list? And the dirt list?

Jeremy Kellett  22:14

Yeah, yeah, that’s, which is what I was getting at, actually is the dirt list, something that’s been in front of them for years and years, but you’re robbing them, you know, the driver has a tendency to think it’s the safety department’s fault. No, right.

Vivian Boudreaux  22:33

Now we have 800 900 drivers that we’re keeping up with. And technically, our job is not to say this is due, it’s to process it. When we get that document, it’s the driver’s responsibility to take care of his stuff. Nobody tells me when my CDL is due or my driver, you know, and then it’s the dispatcher’s job to help them keep up with it.

Jeremy Kellett  22:59

Drivers first responsibility, make sure all your stuff is up to date and not about to expire, then we actually have a report that helps dispatch to say, hey, here’s your guys, and it’s coming up. Just a reminder. And then it gets to it. And then we do the old lock them up.

Vivian Boudreaux  23:18

Now we get it. I mean, you know, I’ve been around a long time and drivers used to drive. That was their job. And now it’s I mean, they have so many documents and that they have to keep up with so we’re here to help you know, if we see, we call them we look at everything we try to look at everything and say hey, you got this coming up. You know, we’re talking to you about your E logs, but hey, your car’s gonna expire. So. So

Jeremy Kellett  23:46

What about hazmat and Twics? Get specific on what gives? You may have issues with that man, what’s the deal with the hazmat and the Twic?

Ashley Rabun  23:59

Actually, so the days don’t always, you know, at the same time, your twic may expire before your hazmat, vice versa. But if you go to reapply, or get your fingerprints or whatnot, for your hazmat for your Twic, make sure you send us a receipt because that’ll help prevent you from being locked up if we have a receipt showing that you have started the process of that weekend. Not necessarily with the hazmat but with the tweaks. We can kind of help you I guess not get locked up for it. I guess I’m not really explaining that right.

Jeremy Kellett  24:39

But you know, I think you’re blank. The hazmat is different from the twig right. And if it is required there’s good debt Allah aisle here on a table is required for every Oakley owner operator to have hazmat and a Twic card. That’s something I think they don’t understand. have tabs, because a lot of times they apply for the hazmat, we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt that if they pay the $86, or whatever it is $89 to do the fingerprints, then they’ll go ahead and complete it. But we’re finding out that not necessarily happens.

Ashley Rabun  25:17

Now. So like, for instance, for the twic card, I had one, I guess it was last week that he had applied for it when he was at least on the week of orientation. And here it is six, eight weeks later, and he still didn’t have it. So I got a hold of him. And I said, Look, you need to call this phone number, figure out what the holdup is, because you should have had it per their standard business, usually four to six, eight weeks, something like that. And if you don’t have it, you need to call and check on it. Come to find out his birth certificate was not legible once it got to the main office to process everything. So we rejected it. So he wants to start the process all over again. So make sure that if you don’t have your stuff within, you know, their standard business timeline, call and check on it.

Jeremy Kellett  26:08

Yeah, if you don’t have results by now and on the you know, the Tweak, I actually did this a couple of weeks ago, as I had an owner operator come in, and he was wanting to renew his tweak. And I actually did it. So I don’t really know, but let’s just do this together. And I did it online there at my desk and you know, he paid for it said it would be shipped to him and it was SIP was I will Oh really, I was thinking they had to go back to the you know, then to the location,

Ashley Rabun  26:56

No. So the way I understand it is like if he already had a current one, and he went into the office and got it the first time that way, the next time he can renew online and it you know, it’s simple, and it’s easy, saves him a trip to the twig office. But next time he goes to renew, he’ll have to go back to the twig office. But those were good, you know, tweaks. They’re usually good for five years. You know, depending on how long ago it’s been since they’ve gotten their initial fingerprint and background check done.

Jeremy Kellett  27:28

Is the hazmat and twig. I mean, is that a major issue with the safety department? We’re trying to? Are you constantly trying to get people to complete the process? Yes, constantly. Yes. What are the keys? Well, I

Ashley Rabun  27:41

I just haven’t made it home yet. Well, you gotta make Tom get home and take care of yourself. We can only do so much to help you in that, you know. And if

Vivian Boudreaux  27:51

They communicate that to their dispatchers, dispatchers can route them along the way. So they’re just not deadheading back and forth. No one can make it work for Oakley and the driver

Jeremy Kellett  28:00

colleague will use I’ll blame the dispatcher so

Vivian Boudreaux  28:03

don’t tell them though.

Jeremy Kellett  28:06

They probably don’t even listen to know I do a good job.

Vivian Boudreaux  28:09

We didn’t Yeah, we have really good ones and we have some ones that we have to stay after.

Jeremy Kellett  28:16

It’s easy with all that responsibility to portal.

Rev. Beth Long-Higgins  28:20

The web average can also get their explorations from the driver portal online

Jeremy Kellett  28:26

like Canada so you’re wondering if Allison’s telling us he can go into you can log into the driver portal and a lot of you guys probably do that to check your settlements but all the explorations are in there all your explorations of everything listed with Oakley is in there so keep up with that. We need to be sending oh my god a reminder or something? Do we not do that? Do we need to send them something like you know, if it’s a physicals coming up then it needs to shoot them a reminder though,

Vivian Boudreaux  29:00

that this is an IT thing where they can kind of automate that Yeah, we actually I think had something like that in the past might have gone to the dispatchers I’m not I don’t remember.

Jeremy Kellett  29:12

Anything we could do to get a callback you get a notification on stuff if you got one hate your physicals come and do more this month or whatever. Just something to help on maybe but yeah,

Vivian Boudreaux  29:23

maybe online. Can you do that? Yeah. Oh,

Jeremy Kellett  29:27

Wait, that’s a big discussion right now.

Vivian Boudreaux  29:31

Would be good. They just take their iPad.

Jeremy Kellett  29:32

You know, I talked to Patrick yesterday, matter of fact, and it wasn’t looking at potluck.

Ashley Rabun  29:38

It guys are busy each with

Jeremy Kellett  29:39

the transport people I think, oh, is where they’re running into issues. Okay, good stuff, man. This is good. Vivian Amanda. Ashley was in the psych department talking about things going on in the safety part? I think it’s good for owner operators and listeners to see how this I mean, you know, you’re not made mean, you’re not?

Ashley Rabun  30:53

No, I mean, look at us.

Vivian Boudreaux  30:57

There’s no way but we can be if we need to be

Jeremy Kellett  31:00

sometimes you. I bet. I bet they’re not. 

Jeremy Kellett  31:14

What’s the what about? I know, Roger mentioned that where we used to, we’re all taking logs now that we didn’t used to do. We always do. We did it outside of you know, somebody else did it. And then now,

Vivian Boudreaux  31:30

somebody else gave us reports, you had the ability to report it all in a report. But we’ve always auto checked. Yeah, fuel stops loading and unloading times their hours of service. Yeah, pre pre trip, post trip, just everything.

Jeremy Kellett  31:49

But put a little more. Let’s put a little more work on load for you guys. When you’re doing that, getting rid of the third party is still looking over the report.

Vivian Boudreaux  31:58

Now you’re absolutely yeah, man.

Jeremy Kellett  32:05

We do all three. Y’all do that? Or is everybody does everybody does it. Explain that a little bit.

Vivian Boudreaux  32:10

I’ll just start and let y’all get into the details. Like we said, we just audit them. If we find one thing wrong, if there’s we do have a couple of reports, you know, hours of service. If we have a driver that has a 14 hour violation or something before we call him we’ll check his logs to make sure he’s attaching and detaching shipments, loading and unloading fuel times are correct. pre trip post trip, what else? Anything, any bit better putting notes, anytime you’re on duty, there should be a note as to what you’re doing on duty if they’re using PC, right? Everything. We just tried to cover everything. So when we make that one call, it’s one and done, you know, and we’re not ever, you know, all of us calling them at a different time, different little aspects of their logs, but when we do we try to check everything to keep it legal. And try

Amanda Hadfield  33:02

to cover it all in one phone. Everything. Yeah.

Jeremy Kellett  33:07

So it’s I mean, you’re doing all 850 separating them out, and it just takes you how long to get through one person. You’re looking at what

Ashley Rabun  33:21

on how their log looks. Honestly, you know, if how many things we might see that is wrong, and

Jeremy Kellett  33:30

you’re looking at a weak slog.

Ashley Rabun  33:32

But roughly I would me personally, I go back about two weeks,

Amanda Hadfield  33:36

because that just with the fuel report is I go back to the very first time they got that fuel all the way to person day. Okay, if they do have a violation there, then we’re going to look really hard at what’s going on.

Jeremy Kellett  33:48

So it takes you what, five minutes, 10 minutes?

Amanda Hadfield  33:53

I wish it was just five minutes.

Vivian Boudreaux  33:55

Yeah, it depends. Like I said, if they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, you can see that and you can just go on down. There are some things we have to check a little bit closer. But you know, the bottom line is, you need to be logged in. If you do and what are some

Jeremy Kellett  34:10

of the most common mistakes you see Joe?

Ashley Rabun  34:13

Not there upon logs. Yeah, make sure those are verified everyday, make it part of your pre trip to verify your log. Young Drivers can get started for having one day unverified. That’s something that takes you 10 seconds to do, maybe not even that long, they will just be part of your pre trip. You only have 14 days on this login system to verify if your trucks in the shop login once a week, keep them verified, just to keep it caught up. They have to be verified. That’s a DOD requirement.

Amanda Hadfield  34:42

Then they want 15 minutes for the pre trip and around two minutes for post trip asset inspection.

Vivian Boudreaux  34:50

fuel stops you the whole time you’re on the fuel Island. You pull up you drive you stop, you go on duty, you may have to wait a few minutes to get to the pump and then you may pull forward and run into the truck stop to get your receipt and it takes you four or five minutes that four or five minutes still has to be on duty you don’t go off duty or into the sleeper and you can be in the sleeper berth and in the truck stop getting your receipt at the same time so when it says sleeper berth you’re in physically the sleeper berth. You’re not, you know, eating, you’re gonna be asleep. Yeah, you don’t have to be asleep but you got to be in that your body has to be in that sleeper berth if you log it that way. And I know minutes matter sometimes but possibly if you’re if you’re shaving minutes off to get it that close, maybe you’re you shouldn’t be in a rush. You know, maybe you’re just but I don’t know anything about dispatching but yeah, the whole time you’re fueling needs to be on duty. If you go into the store after an eat or what, shower whatever and You, that’s fine. That’s off duty. But that’s a big thing.

Jeremy Kellett  36:04

How does it feel? To look at some that are? Perfect? Nice. Fantastic. Do we have a lot of that?

Ashley Rabun  36:13

We Yeah, we have a lot that, that everything looks good I, there’s some drivers that I look, they’re logged out, man, I wish more

Amanda Hadfield  36:21

that they all could look

Ashley Rabun  36:24

for their paperwork, it’s all nice and neat. And we can read it and everything like that. But it’s a great feeling, knowing that they took the time to make their stuff correct. And it looks good, it looks wrong

Amanda Hadfield  36:35

and makes it easier on us

Vivian Boudreaux  36:38

that they take pride in what they do.

Jeremy Kellett  36:41

You can tell that by looking at logs paperwork.

Ashley Rabun  36:46

Absolutely, thank you for that.

Jeremy Kellett  36:48

Well, you know, the majority of our operators, I think do it right. They take care of their business and do things right. And they want to, it’s important. And that’s why he can’t let you know, just a group of people that don’t do it right. You know, you don’t want one bad apple making the whole bunch bad, because that’s not the truth. You took the word for it out of my mouth. It’s a, you know, the majority of the people here we have some fantastic owner operators, and I’m telling you on the recruiting end of it, it is hard to find these people, these good owner operators with a challenge. So we’ve been very blessed to have good owner operators at this company and continue to do so. But I like you know it, like we say before we were going to do this episode, we didn’t want to didn’t feel like we were beating up on anybody to do things. Right. I think that it’s an eye opener for owner operators to see what goes on in the safety department. What happens, you know, what people are responsible for? And how good a job you got to do and how good a job they do. I mean, it’s just what most of them do. I mean, most of it is just taking care of your business. And even

Vivian Boudreaux  37:57

When we call them, most of them are receptive. They’re Oh, I’m sorry, you know, I’ll start doing that. You know, there’s very rarely we, I think, generally get really hateful responses.

Jeremy Kellett  38:11

Like so yeah. But

Ashley Rabun  38:14

It also has a small safety department. And we have a lot of drivers between, you know, the eight of us out there. You know, a lot that’s,

Jeremy Kellett  38:24

that’s why I was saying I don’t know how to do it, all of them. You know, but I guess it helps when they’re all right.

Vivian Boudreaux  38:29

Yeah, because we don’t sit down driver by driver, we try to just start with a violation, and then drill down. And yeah, so it’s a lot of spot checking. We do have a few reports that we know, we catch a lot of it, and some of it, we don’t, but we will eventually, you know, eventually it will come out. And

Jeremy Kellett  38:51

so mom can be crafty, they

Ashley Rabun  38:53

definitely. And there are some that don’t even realize that they’re doing anything, you know, wrong. Like maybe a violation of a 14 hour violation, they may not realize that if they are using that sleeper berth rule that they may have forgotten to go into the sleeper berth. And they went off duty. And you know, they didn’t realize it, you know, that they call us that violation. You know,

Amanda Hadfield  39:17

That’s more of an easier fix.

Vivian Boudreaux  39:18

Yeah, some of them just say, Okay, you caught me, I’ll start doing it wrong.

Amanda Hadfield  39:24

Or they might accidentally hit you instead of the PC or vice versa.

Jeremy Kellett  39:29

Oh, yeah. I’ll tell you why. If I keep driving five, around this parking lot out here. I don’t like you gotta say, but I’m not in their shoes. I guess they got to creep around for five minutes or something. He can do that or so they don’t start to talk. I’m just kidding, guys. I’ll get to you like healing yourself like to cover. I believe we’ve done a great job, you have done a great job.

Ashley Rabun  39:58

I would actually go back to you. I meant to bring this up by going over the CDOs and stuff like that. If you get a duplicate CDO, or a new CDO, get it sent to us because it’s going to show up on your NVR whenever Vivian runs it. So if you get one, go ahead and send it. If it’s a cord, send it to your dispatcher. If it’s temporary, send it to us through the train.

Vivian Boudreaux  40:20

And it wouldn’t hurt to just give us a call at safety and say hey, I’m texting this to my dispatcher because they get it the dispatchers have a lot going on too and they forget to send it to us and then we don’t realize we don’t have and we have to call them back so that doesn’t hurt to just give us a call and say hey, I’m sending in my dispatcher. Can you make sure you get it?

Jeremy Kellett  40:38

Yeah, because we’re gonna have a current lady ill on file receives

Ashley Rabun  40:43

the hazmat with you know, temporary CTO. Send all that to us. Yeah, cuz we need to

Jeremy Kellett  40:50

temporary steel. This takes us to do a temporary CD.

Ashley Rabun  40:54

Yeah, Texas. They do like three I think and they usually all end up on a cord but they’re still Other states that do the paper temporaries that are okay to send to us their trains flow. But if it’s an actual cord, your twic card, your CDL, or the plastic card, please don’t send that to us their train’s flow, we’re not going to ever read it, text it to your dispatcher written back with a clear copy. Anytime you get a new one might say that we have the most current copy of it.

Vivian Boudreaux  41:18

And don’t forget to send in your D O T inspections, any citations, even if it’s in your personal vehicle, we need a copy of it. So just send it I guess, trance flow and not your personal vehicle. But if it’s in your CMB, it needs to be logged on duty

Jeremy Kellett  41:36

is an illicit Chase and another rabbit but you say send it in, which is really easy. But do they need to send it in under certain

Vivian Boudreaux  41:44

safety miscellaneous wouldn’t be high enough where

Jeremy Kellett  41:47

you think you can just go ahead and pay number,

Ashley Rabun  41:49

your last completed pay number. If it’s one year currently on, it could air out. We could never get it. But yes, don’t use all zeros. Don’t use your chart number don’t use one through five, six,

Amanda Hadfield  42:02

but don’t have that with them. They can call and ask us and we can get it to him. Yes.

Jeremy Kellett  42:08

Okay. Is it one of the biggest signs you’ll probably get if a Senate majority can get it? Right. And you think that’s because of the fight number? Yeah, majority of the time.

Ashley Rabun  42:20

And they’ll tell us that, you know, we’ll ask them what paint number they use, why didn’t they use one, let me give you your last completed pay number and resend it. So we did a little tidbit there. It’s also not instant, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get to as well. So if you’re on the phone with me and say I just resent it, I’m not going to have it right, then it’s gonna take a few minutes to get to us.

Jeremy Kellett  42:41

So a good little tidbit of info out there

Amanda Hadfield  42:44

and make sure not to dark in any of those documents, because then we’re gonna have to have you resend them, because we can’t read

Jeremy Kellett  42:50

them. Oh, they don’t look good on their phones. To see you back in there doing better probably,

Amanda Hadfield  42:56

there’s only certain documents that need to be darkened. And that’s going to be the ones that tend to colored like the yellow ones and the pink ones, like the carbon copies, yeah, dark, and then we can see the print there better. But if you darken a regular piece of paper, by the time we get some black, we can’t read it. And I’ve actually called a couple there. So make sure that they don’t darken their paperwork, the only time you need to darken anything. So if it’s like a carbon copy, and it’s on a colored sheet, it’s the only time that you’re gonna need to darken that document. Because I’ve got some that I can’t read and I’m waiting for them to send their maintenance reports back where they’re not so dark because I can’t even make out a trick number.

Jeremy Kellett  43:43

Good stuff. Okay. I think we covered a lot in that episode. I mean, I feel like he covered everything on our list. Joe,

Amanda Hadfield  43:51

Do I need anything on incidents? Are we good? Okay. I don’t care either.

Jeremy Kellett  43:58

Incidents will not work over. Yeah.

Amanda Hadfield  44:01

Yeah, that was really fun. Well, the lady that gets to take your money, let’s have some more fun. I think the trailer inspection sheet. People don’t feel that apathy. No, they shouldn’t. And I’m gonna tell you time and time again, if you don’t send those in, and it comes up, that trailer was damaged. I mean, those payments can even be split, I can still charge one driver and charge another one.

Jeremy Kellett  44:27

What’s that mean? Which we touched on critical on to what you mean with insidious trailer damage, because

Amanda Hadfield  44:34

I will go and look and see the last time when we’ve had a trailer inspection sheet turned in on those and the majority of them they’re not, not dated.

Jeremy Kellett  44:43

Yeah, we need more than I don’t think people feel that outlet. These two in the shop, I know they get in there and fix up or something’s wrong and they send the bill to the dispatcher, or you know.

Amanda Hadfield  44:55

They’ll send the pictures to shoot pics, and make sure there’s the incident that’s created. There’s already one created, then attach those short pictures to it. Make sure it has the right driver on their dispatcher and the trailer number. And then I wait for the work order from the shop. If the dispatcher doesn’t let me know who to build, probably within the first week I haven’t got to talk to the dispatcher. Because they need to get out and they need to get out quickly. But we do not email voices to the drivers. Or say how much it’s actually going to cost him so if they ever have any questions. They need a contact dispatcher they can call me and now can even email one to them. Since it needs a copy?

Jeremy Kellett  45:38

Good. Now please do that. Listen to what a man is telling you. Yeah, my good lord, she’s gotta go well with her boyfriends and do her laundry. She doesn’t need to worry about these treasures.

Amanda Hadfield  45:51

Laundry every week. Better hobbies.

Jeremy Kellett  45:56

I’m just kidding. Thank you all for joining me on this episode. I really appreciate the info link, it’s a little bit of change in the pace of what we normally do here. So that gets good information. And once again, it’s always targeted to our owner operators and to make it better, make them better, more successful us better as a company, so. Oh, good. Thank you for doing that. Thanks for everybody listening to the Oakley podcast. You guys are awesome every week and really enjoy it. Be sure to subscribe, comment, let us know what you want to hear on this million miles and can put it together. It’s always good to know that we’ve got a bunch of listeners. And you guys have responded every week and we really do appreciate it. Share it with other people. That helps a whole lot. And let us know what you think. We appreciate you listening to the podcast. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Oakley podcast: trucking, business, and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show on the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience, so if you’ve got a question, comment, or just want to say hello, head over to our website, theoakleypodcast.com, and click the “leave a comment” button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.

144: The New Era of Electric Vehicles

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellettchats with Michael Freeze, the Features Editor at Transport Topics. During the episode, Michael and Jeremy discuss electric trucks and fleets and how the EV wave is changing the industry. The conversation also includes challenges companies face in electric fleets, infrastructure needs for the industry, possible legislative mandates, and more.

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143: Keeping Your Rig Rolling: Tire Talk for Owner-Operators

This week on the Oakley podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chatted with David Covington, Fleet Solutions Sales Manager at Goodyear. During the episode, Jeremy and David discuss all things tires. From the availability of certain sizes, different materials tires are made of, tips for getting the most life out of your tires, and more.

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142: How Should Owner-Operators Prepare for Retirement?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Matt Ruttenburg, CMO & Shareholder of Life, Inc. Retirement Services. During the episode, Matt and Jeremy talk about retirement planning for owner-operators. From helpful advice on investments and insurance to practical steps to get started, the conversation covers all aspects of what owner-operators need to do as they look ahead to retirement. All that and more on this week’s episode.   

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141: All About APUs

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett chats with Ricky Duncan, Sales Rep at Thermo King. During the episode, Ricky and Jeremy talk about all things APUs. The pair talk about why APUs exist, the differences between different makes and models, why it’s important for owner-operators to consider an APU, and more.

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140: Recruiting Update with Kent Childers and Dustin Eagle

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Kent Childers and Dustin Eagle, recruiters here at Oakley. During the episode, the group discusses what’s going on in the recruiting department including the availability of trailers, why owner-operators leave Oakley, swapping trailers, and what you need to know if you would like to switch divisions here at Oakley. All that and more on this week’s episode!

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139: Altech Recycling: From Scrap to Smelter

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett and Jason Webb chat with Chad Chapman, the Facility Manager at Altech Recycling. During this episode, Chad talks about what Altech Recycling does, why the recycling business is important, the processes which allows Altech to handle over 2 million pounds a week, a new documentary, and more.

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138: Freight Update for 2023

This week on The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco, Bradley Simpson, Operations Managers at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, the group looks ahead at freight for 2023 and discusses some of the opportunities and outlook for the coming year. We also discuss the innovative ways Oakley keeps drivers on the road, building relationships with customers, ways Oakley is growing despite the competition, and more.

Read more

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

• Oakley Update: Spouse Gift Card Delivery and Shoutout to an Owner-Operator (0:55)
• Beginning of the year update from the pneumatic division (4:03)
• Beginning of the year update from the end-dump division (6:30)
• Dispatchers’ role in handling the busy season (8:57)
• Opportunities for growth for Oakley in 2023 (12:55)
• Building a relationship with customers (18:10)
• Recession in 2023? (23:17)
• Final thoughts and takeaways (32:32)

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.

Transcription

Scotty Crisco  00:12

People are like, wondering what is freight gonna look like in 23 Compared to 22? Well, it’s gonna look different. But that’s I mean 22 looks different than 21 and they were both Vanner years for both the driver, and Oakley.

Jeremy Kellett  00:26

Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley trucking headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner operators and their families by giving them up to date information concerning Oakley trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories, also to give an insight to outside truck drivers who might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, there’s Jeremy kellett director of recruiting at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This is episode 138. And on today’s episode, I got a few the operation managers in here that we’re going to talk to Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco and Bradley Simpson, and with the interrupts in the pneumatic division, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about what the what’s happening right now, what’s it maybe what we think’s gonna happen this year, give us a little perspective on the freight dealing with customers. Maybe, you know, maybe get off into a couple other things, you know, how we booked freight and what we look for. And just our goes as Operation managers and what they do every day to make sure that this company is doing good. And our owner operators are doing good. So that’s the plan here in just a minute, we’re fixing to get started on that. But first, let’s give you an Oakley update. So two things real quick on Oakley update. One is, so if you don’t know we, we give the spouse a gift card Ale on the owner operators anniversary. So every month we send out a batch of gift cards. Well, we are changing that. Still gonna get money. But it’s going to be either the money transfer cash at Venmo, or PayPal. So instead of sending the actual gift card to your house for the spouse, we’re going to send them a card explaining that how you got to access this money, you’re going to have to download the app, Cash App Venmo, or PayPal, one of the three. And then you email it to Vicki chastising here at Oakley, and she will transfer the money to you. So I’ll try to make it a little simpler might be a little difficult in the beginning, but we feel like it’s a whole lot more protected. To do it that way, then send in gift cards and then you don’t have to call about balances or anything like that. It’s gonna we hope it’s going to streamline things but may be a little challenging at first so but it is gonna make you download one of those apps if you want to get your money. So that’s the way that’s gonna work. Also, I want to recognize an owner operator with us. That’s been with us, Rob and Tracy Johnson from Parkfield, Missouri. And just, you know, I can’t say enough good about these people that they’ve just done a good job with this. The whole time they’ve been here they praise Oakley so much. And they, I mean, and it shows of what they’re driving. They’re driving a 2022 Western Star that that Rob and Tracy specked out for the job. They’re pulling in and dump with us and just to have been an asset to Oakley trucking and I just want to say they’re having their eight year anniversary this month in January. Just want to say thank you to them. We appreciate having you. Alright guys got rarely Sampson, Nick Crisco, Scotty Crisco, all returning guests, right. Yeah. So we don’t have to worry about, you know, getting, getting the nervousness out of the way. We’ll just get right into some of this stuff. Because I think the reason I asked you guys to come in here, you know, is because you’re in the, you’re in the trenches of what’s going on out there dealing with customers, and drivers, and dispatchers and all of it. And I mean, it is the engine that makes this thing. Go. Y’all are making it happen every day. And I mean, we came off of 2022 which was just an unbelievable year for trucking. I think everybody knows that. It was unbelievable for us as a company, but also the owner operators mean we see their numbers and how they’ve done I mean, it’s just been fantastic a year 2022 Now we’re getting, you know, getting into 2023 and everybody’s like, Oh, what’s gonna happen in 2023? You know, it could go any it could go anywhere because we don’t know but I’d like to talk a little bit about that. You know, coming out of the holiday, what things are looking like there what your customers are seeing freight wise, maybe and we’ll go from there. It was dark. Of course. This is what we got Bradley with an pneumatics so he can keep us in touch with that. And then Scotty and Nick Crisco, which are brothers, they are going to keep us in touch with the dump. So let’s start with the pneumatic first. Riley, what do you think’s going on? I mean, reflecting on through the holidays, and now that he’s crying back up, what’s going on? What are you seeing?

Bradley Simpson  05:18

I feel like it’s going pretty good. It’s held them strong from how we finished 2022 I think it’s carrying right along, you know, you always have like you said, Guess we call it a little bit of holiday hangover. You know, but lots of people, customers, and owner operators are off work. So there’s always a little bit of slowness from that coming out of the gate, but seems to be every week that we’ve been back from New Year’s, it’s continued to get busier kind of back to where we were before the holiday. So except plastics, yeah. Plastics a little bit down, swallows deals, it’s kind of if it’s hot, it’s really hot. And if it’s not, but there’s been some good signs in it, too. We’ve been doing a lot more plastic, keeping those guys busy on it. Austin, our dispatcher, he’s actually down in Houston this week with Colby Foster. They’re going to see customers every day all day, trying to drum up some more business and visit some old customers that we used to work for just to kind of see what their feel is about it. So I’m sure we’ll get a good report on it probably this Friday afternoon and Monday.

Jeremy Kellett  06:33

And just our listeners know, we have dedicated trailers for plastics. And then we also have other trailers that haul everything else. So you know, plastics when that’s not happening. Sometimes you got to grab another trailer, keep them busy. I guess if that’s the case.

Bradley Simpson  06:51

Yeah. Yeah, they can definitely. I mean, we use them to hook to our regular pneumatics all the time. And there’s a lot of the stuff that we do on the striker pneumatics that they can do with their vacuums. I know that cada it may discourage some people sometimes they’re kind of scared of it, you know, because they don’t have the vibrators on the trailer. And it’s just a little bit different moving it through there without that, but it’s something we’ve always done. And it’s good to have to fall back on because we’ve been needing help. So it helps us on the regular side. But it’s helped us pull through some of the slower times on plastic about Endo. Get Scotty Nick, what do y’all see in on on that boat for a man you

Scotty Crisco  07:30

know, lock was we’ve experienced some holiday hangover

Bradley Simpson  07:34

doesn’t seem like it’s getting longer every year. I mean, to get customers back to work.

Scotty Crisco  07:39

Yeah. And it’s, you know, even the ones in the middle of the year tend to drag on like your Easter’s, and your Thanksgivings. And your fourth of July’s customers closed down more. But

07:50

you know,

Scotty Crisco  07:52

as far as I mean, we’re still keeping guys busy, you might not have a load on your geo tab waiting for you.

08:01

When before you don’t,

Scotty Crisco  08:03

sometimes it’s taken us a minute to you know, sort things out and figure out where you need to go. But I mean, guys are still making money or saying, you know, I started getting some fertilizer orders, actually, this afternoon. I know we’re getting into spring so especially in dumps, or we have a lot of seasonal stuff. So you bounce from fertilizer season and then then the landscape and season and then you know, so but yeah,

Bradley Simpson  08:27

there’s nothing to worry about.

Nick Crisco  08:31

Yeah, like you said, I mean, the holidays used to seem like people would take customer who take a day off for a couple of days. And now they take off December 18 to the first of the year, you know, are you saying you were if it seems like you see more and more that you know, and then the first week of the year was a four day week, we’re really just kind of getting our bearings on getting back to a normal routine. Like you said, 2022 was incredible. 2021 was incredible, you know, so it’s really been, it’s been extremely busy busier than at any point that I’ve ever been here. And we’re still busy. But like you said it is transition some you can see a little bit of settling in the market as far as competition and maybe that post pandemic rush when everything came out of the pandemic and it was just insane. Like every, you know, all trucking markets probably experienced that to a degree. And it seems like that settling some we’re still, like I say we’re still busy. It just may. There may be times here and there. We might not have a load right that second. But you know, he might be waiting an hour or two, or we’re kind of piecing things together. That’s not happening a lot, but it is happening some there’s still plenty of work.

Bradley Simpson  09:51

So dispatch notifies you guys when they got a problem. Somewhere somebody needs a loan.

Scotty Crisco  09:56

We try to start the day every day late, you know lately when it gets like This, I mean, the only thing you can do is come in prepared. And one of the thing that we do is we make I mean, what’s kind of old school but we get out a long old piece of paper with state on it and pass the sheet around a dispatchers they write down, you know, this is we do this every afternoon for the ensuing day for the following day, they write down where their trucks are going to be empty, approximately what time so that we’re not just coming in here, getting blindsided every 30 minutes with empty trucks, I mean, we try to have some sort of game plan.

Bradley Simpson  10:36

Guys don’t have they don’t have a pre planned, pre planned load form. They’re telling y’all

Nick Crisco  10:41

and yeah, we make a list the afternoon product, we will this afternoon, when we come in tomorrow, a guy that’s not on a plan, you know, and we’re actively working together, the operation managers and all the fleet managers to keep the guys moving. You know, so it’s a juggling act. A lot of times with different guys needs and where they’re needing to get home, sometimes certain loads don’t fit where they’re needing to be you’re trying to get for the weekend. So you might we might have to, you know, just take a little bit more time to find the puzzle piece that fits for them. But, but yeah, as the guys are working on, or don’t have a plan for their guys, we’re actively working together to try to get a movement.

Bradley Simpson  11:25

Well, I think we just been so spoiled, you know, for the last two years, or more, all of us, you know, with having multiple loads for each truck, which where we’re gonna go to do it, and that we all know that even the truck driver knows that’s not reality. It is nice, and it’s nice while it lasts, but it’s not all. I mean, it’s not always going to be locked in. I mean, of course, but, you know, they, I mean, to me, I’m I, I still see what goes I look at the end result, and look at checks, and money made. I mean, people are making money. I mean, you guys or dig in harder, and you have to look other places, but you come up with it. I

Scotty Crisco  12:12

mean, you’re not gonna let a guy not work. Right, right. Right. How many fingers up that and Right, right? If I tell you what’s incredible, is just the, over the years that the vastness of the customer base that we’ve built here as a team, like you can go back and, you know, I was looking back the other day, I was scrolling orders for something in Tennessee, and I found some we had done like 180 loads out of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, going to Clarksville, Tennessee, you know, you almost kind of forget about and stuff like that. So you know, I mean, people are like, wondering what is freight gonna look like in 23 Compared to 22? Well, it’s gonna look different. But that’s, I mean, 22 looks different than 21. And they were both banner years for both the driver, and Oakley. So I mean, and I think that’s probably a product of us being so versatile, both, you know, with our equipment that we haul and the equipment that we own, and the ports and whatnot, we own I mean, you know, you can just, you can run it a lot of different ways and stick your hands in a lot of different pots. So

Nick Crisco  13:17

which gives us a good base to stand on. Yeah, the end dumps are was what we deal with, day in, day out or just are so diverse. Like I say a lot of it’s seasonal. But even in the slower of times that diversity of different things you can haul. And the amount of experience of years of guys in the office has changed a lot. The last 15 years, you know, there’s a lot a lot of resources and we have different ways and ideas and just figuring out ways to keep busy.

Bradley Simpson  13:48

We’re not a you know, a lot of companies are I mean, they build their company on one customer. And if that one customer collapses, then the company collapses. Thank goodness, we’re not like that. I mean, me different products am a different customers. I mean, does pneumatics deal with my hundreds. Yeah, for sure. The house, there’s no telling how many. I was thinking when they were talking, you know it, it always looks different. It always changes, especially from year to year. But I’ll go on vacation for a week. And I’ll come back the next week. And I may see some computer and I’ll be like, What is this? What is this down? Where’s this load? Where did it come from? here because we’re always looking to for something new to do to add to what we could always do. So it’s here we will have options going on for that right there. Braley would give our listeners an idea of the competition that you guys deal with other trucking companies, brokers, that you have to compete against, to get low I mean, is that a head ache? Is that something I made? Or is there just is? I mean, in my mind, there’s so much to do out there. We haven’t even tapped into the, you know, the dropbox business.

Nick Crisco  15:12

There is yeah, there’s a lot. I mean, there’s more than we could probably wrap our head around the other way. But we still see it and feel it. I mean, you can go on some of the load boards and things like that, that are public, you know, and see all the different brokers and three PL it seems like there’s more than ever, you know, people getting in and a good thing over the weird. We have the Troubled Asset, you know, that’s a feather in our cap that somebody figured out a long time ago, was the right way to go about it. But yes, there. It’s very competitive. Thanks for your question, man. Yeah, it’s when it’s super busy, you don’t feel it as much because you’re, you know, you’re looking at your, the demand for the truck, as you get more loads and you do trucks, when it starts to shift, you know, there’s more people trying to get in that same. Ball does a

Bradley Simpson  16:11

Go ahead. Just gonna say

Scotty Crisco  16:12

I think it’s a mirror image of, you know, probably what you guys deal with in recruiting. I mean, I can’t drive from the office to my house without getting behind the van trailer and that van trailer, having a sticker on it saying, how successful you can be by just calling this number, and we’re paying this and home on week, I mean, so what I’m saying is, if you’re a truck driver, listen to this podcast, and you, you’re driving down the road, ask yourself how many times over the last 3060 days, either a company has directly reached out to you, trying to get you to come over. Or just take note, look around and see how many different trucking companies are trying to pull you in their direction? Well, that is exactly what goes on with our customers, other trucking companies are contacting them and going after them trying to get their business that we’ve worked so hard to get, and that we have to work so hard to keep. So we pride ourselves on customer service. And they know when they’re calling Oakley, that they’re probably not getting the cheapest rate. But then again, we’re not paying our drivers the cheapest pay. So they expect good service. And you know, it’s like a lot of things in this world. You we try to stand on the route of you get what you pay for. So but yes, short answer. Competition is out there. And it always will

Bradley Simpson  17:30

be. Yeah, because they’re always coming after that freight. I mean, they know the same thing that we’re going for to a lot of times, because we know over the years, we’ve taken lanes from other companies, and they’ve taken lanes from us, you know, they gets into a bidding war sometimes. And there are customers, I’m assuming that Well, I know that customer service don’t mean crap to

Nick Crisco  17:54

them. That’s a good point. I mean, ideally, and we have a number of good customers that, you know, they send us the orders, we take care of it. We know they’re gonna send us something next week. Those are the ones that are ideal. We’ve also got a number of customers exactly what you’re talking about that you can work for months. And we’ll cut you for $1 for $2. Just because it’s I mean, it’s a cutthroat business at times. I mean, they’re they’re doing the same thing. Everybody else in business is doing. And there’s more so concerned about the money than they are the service, you know, so it’s a juggling act,

Bradley Simpson  18:34

they are in the beginning, they think they are I’ve seen many times y’all seen that word that I can call it back don’t like it goes out, you know, because we may be too high. Company B come in here and cut the rate and then they figure out dang it dang Oakley,

Nick Crisco  18:51

but those times, yeah, and those times, you know, the service becomes even more important, because if you’re, if we’re consistently late or contamination, you know, the net, they’ll have another company not adorable. And so that’s where it was imperative that were

Bradley Simpson  19:07

once you guys conversation, like with a customer? In other words, you promised them something that the truck driver has to deliver. What’s that conversation like to a customer that maybe doesn’t know us? Or we’re trying to earn their business?

19:28

I don’t know about these guys, but

Scotty Crisco  19:30

I tried to. Well, I do know about these guys. I know they do the same thing. Everybody just does it does it in their own little way. You know, like when you’re dispatching you. One of the most important things is develop a strong relationship with your driver when you’re in operations lockwise for developing a strong relationship with your customer. So, you know, if you’re chasing business, you know, I think persistence trying to feel them out. You know some no It’s kind of like when you go buy a car, you don’t want somebody hounding, or at least me, I don’t know about y’all. But when I go by truck or something, I’d like to just walk around by myself for a little bit. You know, let me know what you got, you know, and then I’ll seek you out. So you have customers like that, you know, you might want to stay at arm’s length a little bit. And then you have customers that you just need to call every day, maybe more than once a day. And as far as existing customers and repeat business, I think that relationship is just, you know, know what they like to do in their off time. Know what kind of liquor they like to drink, you know, know of, you know, how many kids they got, what they’re, you know, what, and stuff like that? I mean,

Bradley Simpson  20:36

that goes a long ways. Yeah. Well, he, bro. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s good to know Him, and know what they like outside of the office, you know, that way, whether you get something good to call them about or bad, you can kinda started off with a joke or, you know, ease into with them. Because you know, what they like, you can mess with them a little bit. But there’s some that are just like, here’s what you do. Yeah, you go do it, you know, and you don’t talk much. But there’s a lot of them that I’ve talked to that say every day, almost since I’ve been here, and no one really well know what they like, and they know how operate and it just makes it work better overall, you know, whenever you have a good relationship with him, I can talk to him and tell him what’s happened, whether it’s good or bad. You know, the, to me, it’s the product we’re selling. You know, Oakley mean? I always tell recruiters, you know, how’d you like to be recruiting for a company that you know, like, worth a crap? And takes advantage of drivers? Don’t treat them? Right. How’d you like to be that recruiter? Tough? Yeah, I mean, we have, you know, it’s great to be have the product sales itself, you know, we’re just recruiting paper pushers, you know, getting it done, you guys, I feel are the same, because you got an awesome product to sale, you know, Oakley trucking reputation. And, you know, if you had a budget, if you read a company, and you had a bunch of truck drivers, it wasn’t worth a dime, she couldn’t depend on and it make it hard for you to sail that customer and go, hey, we’ll take care of you. You know, and that’s the mean, that’s the best product with us is our owner operators that we got that we know that they’re gonna get it done. And it feels good, makes it easier, you know, to me, it would be for you guys to sell the product. And, and that’s why we get to charge we charge them a little bit more because of the good customer service, so that the owner operators that we’re sending in there, the equipment that’s going in there, the way that we’re, we, we take care of them. I mean, I was telling the recruiting class last late last week of you know, how over there when I started over in a dungeon note office, I mean, you didn’t leave until every load was covered, is you did not leave, you didn’t leave the building, I wouldn’t, I was maybe five or six hours that we wouldn’t have nobody’s leaving till this load cover, and how we’re gonna get it done, you know, and it was, but it was that instilled in that customer service, you know, and me and us, you guys, and you’re doing it on down the line that really makes a difference, I think, to where, like you were saying we’ve created this product now that is with all these customers, we just got, you know, so much it’s like it. I mean, it almost moves itself, if that makes any sense. I mean, it’s just so we’ve we over the years, we’ve created so many good customers, you know, and new customers who want me in it, and good owner operators, it’s just a it’s just a great product to be able to do so. And I couldn’t imagine selling man selling a bad company, you know, to somebody i this i That wouldn’t work. I could hell and so, you know, we I think we touched a little bit on this. But the I don’t watch the news. Almost purposely. I want some local news. You know, that’s about it. But you know, people tell me that it’s all going to crap up there gonna be a recession or we’re in a recession, supposedly they say how, how are you guys gonna handle that? I mean, people say we’re in a recession, the pay attention to it, or what would you tell our owner operators that hey, if a recession hits here’s how we’re gonna handle it.

Nick Crisco  24:38

I think you’ve got to pay attention to it and have it on your radar. Just because history says that it’s going to happen again at some point. It has happened here before and Oakley has been through it more than once. The way that we operate every day is a good way didn’t make it through it. The other way we talking about keep an eye on trucks, if a guy has been sitting for so long, you know, for X amount of time, you know, then it’s all hands on deck, we’ve got to put our minds together, get this going. Same way on book and freight, you know, have conversations about stuff we’ve done in the past that maybe we’re not doing being more aggressive on booking things maybe that we haven’t been looking at what’s out there that we’re not doing, and being aggressive and try to make deals, maybe weeks to months ahead of time, to keep the guy’s busy. You know, it’s the way we’ve done it in the past. It helps it helps have some guys, you know, you guys and or melees and scouts and everybody that has been here for years with a lot of experience in the office. It kind of gives you somewhat of a safety net. I mean, we’ve been through this before we’ll get through it. We know what it looks like, when it’s great. We know what it looks like when it’s not great. And then we’ve got a lot of owner operators that have been here for the same thing. You know, so it’s not? It’s just we’ll make it through it. If it does, I don’t think it will get to that point. I do think we will get to experience some slowdown compared to last year, but I don’t think it will get to where it was like 108 and that those times shaken desk, yeah,

Scotty Crisco  26:27

kind of took the words right out of my mouth as far as being aggressive and just taking it head on. I mean, that is literally how we, even when times are good. That’s our attitude, you know, attacking problems at the moment when that you know.

26:42

So when it’s when it’s

Scotty Crisco  26:45

a little slower, or, God forbid, a recession does happen, you know, I mean, there, you can’t hang your head, you gotta I mean, it’s proven that if you just get up, put your boots on every day and go to work and come in here and continue to give good service to the customer continue to get good service to the driver. Be honest with yourself, your co workers, your customers, and your drivers. I mean, honesty goes a long ways. You know, I know if a driver calls in and we you know, we don’t have him below, we just need to tell him, hey, look, give us a minute. We’re trying to piece something together.

Bradley Simpson  27:27

You know, just I mean, honesty. There’s really no, that’s what they mean. That’s what they want to hear.

Scotty Crisco  27:36

And I want one other thing I will say truth. Yeah, the truth. And like Nick said, we were going to be booking some stuff that you probably didn’t haul in 2023. You know, if that comes to that, you know, just reverting back to what I talked about earlier. And our versatility I wrote down here on this piece of paper, I just three commodities that I can think of that we’ve hauled over the last 90 days, that would maybe blow some people’s minds in the dry bulk industry, but we’ve hauled expired beer, Turkey guts, and then this has been a while, but we did haul pumpkin pies. So

Bradley Simpson  28:16

tell me, we will keep the best. Although nobody wants to haul it,

Scotty Crisco  28:21

and pick up that low, we’re gonna dig in and find you something we can promise you.

Bradley Simpson  28:26

That’s a great example. If we go find something to do, maybe we always have failed something. And, and to me, I’d like a definition. If it ever have a slow time at Oakley and Ben, we’re hauling different products with the gravy train is not there like it normally is, you know that I go back, get you another one, they go back and get you another one type deal. That’s, you know, when it’s gravy, then you start, you know, we start digging haul in different stuff, because it’s out there as a thing about it and the stuffs after it’s just a matter of expanding our customer base, which is huge already that we can do maintenance at. And that’s why I was asking that about, you know, recession. I mean, if I was an owner operator, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else then right here. That’s because I know is what I know, the owner operator that hadn’t been here or been through a bad time. They don’t know that, you know, like, they can jump the gun real quick, you know, have a bad week, and oh my gosh, you know, panic city. And

Scotty Crisco  29:34

but, and we were fortunate enough during 2023 to be able to pass a lot of that on to the driver with the 20 cent surcharge. Yeah. And, you know, so far so good and 2023 I mean, so

Bradley Simpson  29:47

I hope we’re able to continue that until late late. So keep keep them busy. I mean, and that’s the biggest point I think guys want to get across is to to our listeners and you know, just get information from you guys. As and how you deal with customers, you know, he’s our owner operators minds, you know of any bad news or stuff that they’re taking in that are negative. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. And right here working for Oakley, because I know you guys are in the middle of it and you don’t go home till everybody’s got a load. I mean, at least a direction ahead. And yeah, that’s the way it is. Maybe we, we’ve all worked together to make it happen. What about customers? Real quick, we’ll touch on that. I know Bradley said Austin and Colby were to invest in do we, we sin guys out mean, you guys go out very often. And drum up business talk to customers. Yes, some more than others. I’ve actually already this year be in Covina, we went out and we saw a handful in one day, just kind of around Arkansas, not too far from here, but it’s good to get out and see him, you know, put the name with the face voice with the face to see who you’re talking to all the time. But we do lots of people get out, you know, of course, the COVID stuff kind of put a little bit of a slowdown on that because a lot of people were working from home, they’re not, you know, in in a ghost. So that slowed it down a little bit. But I feel like we always have pretty good plans to get out and get around and see some of the people we work for. Because it’s good to do.

Nick Crisco  31:25

Yeah, just on the site, as we were talking about earlier, getting to know them outside, work, you know, they’re no different than us, you know, be sick of eating lunch or dinner, you know, get to know talking to them outside of work, what their hobbies are kids ballgame, through what you know, it’s good to do that just to establish relationship. Because they’re just like we are anybody else on the phone or email. It’s not the same as bass, bass. L So we do that. Like you said, the COVID Dale, same bat two years was bad. I’ll put on hold. You know, I remember, we went to Chicago guess it was the end of 21. And it seemed like every other person tried to call up there. You know, so I’m sure it’s sure it’s loosened up some but yeah, it’s good. It’s invaluable to get out and, and to have face to face contact.

Bradley Simpson  32:21

Yeah, thank you get to me, we, they might not want you to come. But once you get in there in front of them, I feel so honored. Just from the few I’ve seen. And from a couple of weeks ago, it’s amazing how little they actually know about us and what we do. You know, because they pretty much see you as what you do for them. So they don’t, they may not have any idea that we have all these guys just batch and end ups or we have all the river ports and all the stuff going on here. You know, we’ve had customers come here to see us. And they’re just like, wow, look at all this stuff. Ya know, it’s crazy, that they know so little about what we actually can do. So

Nick Crisco  33:00

yeah, that’s a good point that that comes up a lot in conversations seems like when you got talking is that you will get questions interest in our barging or our ports or they had no idea that we offer you know, so it’s just like he said he they might think Oakley ya know, I

Bradley Simpson  33:20

send them my loads to do X had no idea what else? Yeah. Oakley is a company can offer. Yeah, we’ve seen that a lot over the years. In front of all they don’t realize both Oh, we know how big we are. Anything else you guys got on your list you wanted to cover? Don’t get y’all together very often and then dumps in the pneumatics and we’re discussing customers freight that kind of stuff with Bradley Sampson, Scotty Crisco, Nick Crisco. So y’all got anything else you want to add? Did we want to talk about at all this detention pay, anything like that is that something or any paperwork that we need to any common mistakes that we need to tell our owner operators, I would

Scotty Crisco  34:03

say this on the detention thing. It is number one, when when you know, if you get to a customer and you reach that two hour mark, you need to be calling your dispatcher so that we can notify the customer. Now, there are some places for instance, I wouldn’t Corning Atlanta, where it’s kind of probably understood that there’s going to be detention, the one offs you get somewhere and you’re having to wait and you hit that two hour mark, you need to be letting your dispatcher know so that we can get with the customer and not just send them a bill two weeks later without any communication. And then obviously that you know, just the ABCs of your demurred sheet. You know, your pay number, your truck number what time you arrived. Try to find some sort of detailed reason as to why you’re waiting because what you write on that sheet goes with the invoice to the customer. So we need something a little more specific as Have you waiting to load and try to find out why you’re waiting to load? Is there a railcar in the way is there you know, as the scale down is, you know, whatever get a name and a signature and if they refuse to sign it then right on there refuse to sign.

Bradley Simpson  35:12

And that’s pretty much it. That’s pretty common all pneumatics he’ll get a Yeah, same for us. It seems like recently in the past, I don’t know how long but ones that we used to get detention with they they do want to be communicated. Now, as it’s happening, you know, because I guess it’s such a big occurrence that all these places they want to knows, because they may be able to make a phone call and get something done. So always communicate it to your dispatcher, even if you know you’ve been paid at this place before. Because we want to make sure and get your money, you know, maximize the money you can get. So always communicate it even if you don’t think it’s a big deal. But same deal, just much details you can put on the sheet, you know, and put the do both DNS the loading information and unloading even if you don’t have the tension on one end that way. It’ll help the customer whoever’s looking at that invoice in the future. Understand more exactly what it is. You mean, customers just don’t pay it. When he said to him, I wish they would be all over there. They demurred. They will send you a check now. Now, they want to know a little bit more, right? Yeah, so we can help yourself there. owner operators, any need to teach it by that you run into any make sure you communicate and details because that piece of paper you’re filling out is going to the customer for them to read and pious and so we can pay you. And if they don’t? Well, I guess that’s the situation if they don’t pay us we don’t buy them is pretty much standard. So I guess that’s every situation we were at, we figure out whether we have to or not so alright guys, hey, man, good stuff. I know it. I know, it felt like a little negativity in this episode. But to me is good honesty, stuff that we’re communicating to our owner operators. You know, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, I have confidence. And I’m sure you guys do too, because we’ve been doing this a long time. And I’m confident that it’s gonna be another good year. I mean, really am weather bad does come, we’ll still make it good. I mean, it’s just a, it’s a great place to be. I want our owner operators and their families to have that confidence to like we do that. We’re with a good company, and we’re gonna make it work. And you guys are the ones that are making it work every day with the phone calls you make and the people you talk to, and the rates you’ve come up with and the low G book and I mean, it’s a it’s something that is Mike’s this whole thing, tire, and I appreciate you guys doing your job what you do, because it that’s where it’s at, that’s where the money is. You’re gonna make the money. So all right, well, hey, be sure. And check out our episode we got we had free pass. Check out that if you got questions, it was a pretty good episode pre pass. The next one coming up, we actually got a customer coming in, we’re going to talk to, I believe is Chad with Alltech recycling. So gonna get a little more information about how their process works and what they do and how they work with Oakley trucking, so it can be pretty good episode there. I think so. And we got other good episodes in the works. Coming up. So everybody, be sure and listen to the Oakley podcast, do your subscribe, and comment and hit that thumbs up button that some reason mouth tells me to do that because it helps something. So helps us get out there to everybody else. But I can’t say we’ve got a lot more subscribers than we used to. So it’s coming on up every week. And I appreciate everybody doing that. But more than I never want to forget, and I’m never going to this podcast was created to communicate with our owner operators and their families. Yes, it’s turned into a little bit more. And it’s helped in recruiting and retention. But that’s the thing that it was created for us to communicate stuff like this to our owner operator. So they’re in touch with what we’re thinking and what we’re doing in here. And and I just want to continue that every week. I know not every week it happened but sometimes I struggle with some content. But this is all good stuff. And I appreciate you doing it and appreciate everybody listening to us. Let us know if you guys suggestions on things you want to wants to talk about or anything you come up with. I mean we’ll be glad to visit with you about it. Once again. Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode with Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience. So if you’ve got a question, comment or just want to say hello, head over to our website, the Oakley podcast.com and click the leave a comment button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening

137: PrePass: How it Works

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Don Reeves, a representative from PrePass. During the episode, Don discusses the benefits of PrePass, how it works and the details to make it a successful tool for our owner-operators.

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136: Are Warranties Necessary?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy chats with Mike Donnelly, an expert on warranties from Murphy-Hoffmann Company (MHC) Kenworth. During the episode, Mike discusses all things warranties including important information on what to look for in warranty information, the necessity of warranties and having an advocate on your side to interpret all the details of warranty coverage. All that and more on this week’s episode.

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Year in Review: The Best Moments of 2022

On this special bonus episode of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett looks back at some of the best moments from 2022 on the show. 

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135: Owner-Operator Highlight: Randy Kemp

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Randy Kemp, Owner-Operator at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, Randy shares his unique success story with Oakley, how he transitioned from a company driver to being an owner-operator, buying a new truck, and more.

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134: Be Heard with Adam Vazquez

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Adam Vazquez of Heard Media. The Heard team helped to get the Oakley podcast off the ground and Jeremy and Adam talk about podcasting, the expansion of social media, and more. 

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133: Owner-Operator Highlight: Jay Dearing

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jay Dearing. Jay has been with Oakley for six months and talks about his journey to becoming an owner-operator, getting TikTok famous, and more.

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132: A Word From the Captain: Charlie Johnson

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett joins Charlie Johnson, boat captain for Oakley Trucking, in the wheelhouse to discuss shipping logistics, what it’s like being a boat captain, and how the operation supports Bruce Oakley Incorporated. 

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131: Freight Update with Jason Webb and Scotty Crisco

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jason Webb and Scotty Crisco to catch you up on what’s going on here at Oakley Trucking. From freight and what to expect between now and the end of the year to working the holidays and some trailer service issues, here’s everything you need to know.

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130: Company Party Recap with Corey Huey and Kent Childers

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Corey Huey and Kent Childers to discuss what all went down at the company party that happened on October 22. From the truck and prizes to the food and band, here’s a snapshot of what a company party at Oakley Trucking is like.

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129: Owner-Operator Highlight: Mike and Wanda Durbin

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Mika and Wanda Durbin to talk about their success story with Oakley. From Wanda’s role as a truck driver’s wife to their financial freedom as a couple, this is an episode you’re not gonna want to miss!

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128: Owner-Operator Highlight: Jimmy Evans

In this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett hands the mic over to Miles Mason, who talks to Jimmy Evans about his experience with Oakley Trucking. Together they discuss Jimmy’s experience in the Marine Corps, the novelty of things well-worn, the necessity of trucking, and much more.

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127: A Word With The Arkansas Trucking Association

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, in honor of truck driver appreciation week, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Shannon Newton to see what Arkansas does for truck drivers and how truck drivers carry this country.

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126: Oakley International with Ivan Boasher

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Ivan Boasher and Bubba Vance to hear Ivan’s story with Oakley Trucking, from his Bulgarian origins to how he helps with international trade today.

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125: A Word From Our Oklahoma Terminal

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Justin Jolly to discuss what’s going on at the Oklahoma terminal. From who’s working in the office to the ideal truck driver, tune in to learn about all the potential at Port 33.

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124: Owner-Operator Highlight: Bruce Marks

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Bruce Marks to discuss some things that played a key role in his success in becoming a truck driver. From personal action to people who played a role in his journey, here’s the story of how he became an owner-operator. 

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123: Why We Work with Arrow Truck Sales

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Keith Wilson and Trae Viser to discuss used truck price trading, some examples that they’ve done, and how Oakley has partnered with Arrow Truck Sales. 

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122: Freight Outlook and Customer Service

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Shane Smith and Bradley Simpson to take a look at what the rest of 2022 holds. How much freight is there? Is it slowing down or not? Here’s an inside look at what’s going on at Oakley Trucking. 

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121: Owner-Operator Highlight: Tanner Sides

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Tanner Sides to hear about the YouTube channel he runs as a means to document his adventure here at Oakley. From his success story to how YouTubing helps him with his job, this owner-operator story is a little different.

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120: Orientation Explained: Randolph Rochell and Dustin Eagle

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Randolph Rochell and Dustin Eagle to talk about some details of what’s going on with orientation. From what to expect in orientation and how to get the most benefit from orientation, here’s what you need to know to be a successful owner-operator.

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119: Owner-Operator Highlight: George Gear

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by George Gear to hear about his success at Oakley. From miraculous bankruptcy recovery to making friends, learn why George is determined never to leave Oakley Trucking.

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118: Simple Steps to Improving Your Health as an Owner-Operator

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jon Slaughter to discuss their partnership with Healthy Trucking of America. From owner-operator success stories to physical-passing help, learn about the simple steps you can take today to improve your health.

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117: Owner-Operator Highlight: Lonnie O’diam and Paul Lorimer

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Lonnie O’diam and Paul Lorimer to hear their success stories, their experience at Oakley trucking, how they came here, and why they’re still here. The conversation covers money management and owner-operator do’s and don’ts, so be sure to give it a listen.

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116: Owner Operator Highlight: Robin Parks

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Robin Parks to hear about some of the things he thought about before coming to Oakley, him making that transition, and what he’s done since he’s been here— all part of the great success story of Robin Parks. 

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115: The History of the Hopper Division

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Bryan Hill to share the history of the hopper division: when it got started, how it got started, and what’s going on now. Tune in to hear how we went from nothing to the bustling division alive and well today.

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114: The Annual Company Party

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Tommy Mitchell to discuss Oakley’s annual company party. From when and where to what we’ll be doing and eating, here is everything you need to know about this renowned event.

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113: From a Welding Machine to a Trucking Company

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Mike Conny to talk about how MAC Trailers got started, the future of MAC Trailers, their relationship with Oakley, and more.

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112: Taking God’s Word to Every Truck Driver Out There

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by John Knoll and Gary Rayburn from Channel 21 Ministries to tell the story of what Lonesome Road Ministries is, how that started, and where it’s going in the future.

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111: The State of Freight and the Need for Drivers

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by operations managers Jason Webb, Bradley Simpson, and Russell Vallance to discuss the freight surcharge, high demand, responsibilities, and the critical need to communicate.

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110: Owner Operator Highlight: Shawnta Wortham’s Story

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Shawnta Wortham to talk about how she got into trucking and the success she’s found here at Oakley. Trucking may be seen as “a man’s world,” but Shawnta feels right at home.

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109: Making Sure We All Get Home Safely

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Lt. Doug Lafferty to discuss the CBSA inspection that’s coming up on May 17 and 19th, distracted driving, cameras, ELDs, and more.

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108: Health with Truck Drivers

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Dr. Steven Bennett to discuss all things physicals, truck driver health concerns, and more.

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107: Fuel: High Prices, Surcharges, Discounts, & Fraud

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Corey Huey to discuss everything from fuel prices and discounts to fuel card fraud. If you’re paying for gas (which most of you are), this episode will help you not only save money but tell you how some are actually making more.

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106: Sustaining an Owner-Operator’s Quality of Life

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Larry Ginsberg to discuss how CAG Truck Capital is helping owner-operators with everything from securing their first truck to achieving and sustaining their long-term goals.

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105: CAT Scale: Born Out of Listening to Drivers

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Heather DeBaillie, the vice president of marketing at CAT Scale to get the low down on what they do: company origins, how they’re helping drivers, their 45th-anniversary contest, and more.

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104: Recruiting the Next Generation of Drivers

In this special episode of the Oakley Podcast, we’re streaming from the Mid-America Trucking Show where host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Lindsey Trent to discuss how her company is connecting high school students to the world of trucking, changing their lives, and impacting the community. 

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What Makes a “Top-Tier” Driver?

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Garrett Duch and Jackson McNabb, an End Dump and Hopper Bottom dispatcher who have been at Oakley for under two years, to hear about their jobs, how they got into trucking, what makes a “top-tier” driver, and more.

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102: Louisiana Terminal Opportunities with Scott Cowden and Jason Webb

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Scott Cowden and Jason Webb, Operations Managers at Oakley. Scott and Jason talk about the terminal in Reserve Louisiana, what opportunities exist, and the upcoming crawfish boil!

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101: From a Small Town to the Big City: Cole Kellett’s Journey

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by his eldest son, Cole Kellett, to discuss how a boy from Bologna, Arkansas got a job in New York City, some of the challenges he’s faced moving to New York City, and how the world of trucking is playing a role in what he does at his current job.

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100: Bruce Oakley Incorporated: Present Realm, Future Plans, Global Business

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett celebrates 100 episodes by welcoming back Justin Oakley, the vice president of Bruce Oakley Inc. Together they answer listener questions, discuss the future of Bruce Oakley Incorporated, and share how global events are affecting Oakley’s business.

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99: Diving Deep Into Oakley’s IT Department

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Adam Clanton and Eric Peebles to dive deep into Oakley’s IT department. They discuss several things including IT’s role in communicating with Oakley owner-operators and Oakley’s technological advancement.

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98: Answering Your Tax Questions

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jeff Amen and Michael Schneider to answer your tax questions, discuss the benefits of ATBS as your tax service, and more.

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97: Helpful Tips and Information on Operating End Dump Trailers

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Cris Ponds and Welden Sylve to unpack operating end dump trailers. From how to prevent mistakes to required tools, this episode provides good insight for drivers who have never pulled a dump trailer before. 

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96: Catching Up with the Guys from Port 33

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Richard Naus and Jay Dozier, End Dump Owner-Operators out of Oklahoma, to discuss a little bit of everything from the origin of Port 33 in Oklahoma to new technology and more.

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95: Safety News, Violation Statistics, and Trucking Accident Verdicts

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jeremy Paul and Dustin Barnett from Oakley’s safety department to discuss trucking safety concerns, accidents Oakley has had, and more. 

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94: Dry Bulk Trucking is Booming

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Oakley recruiters Dustin Eagle and Kent Childers to discuss what’s happening in the world of recruiting from what recruiters want to how many owner-operators Oakley needs and more. 

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93: Truck Driver Yearly Income and How to Calculate Net Pay

In this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett shares the year-end numbers of a few owner-operators, explains settlement summaries, and more.

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92: Trucking Tips on Retirement, Free Health Help and the Outreach Program

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by John Haley who is an Owner-Operator with Oakley Trucking to discuss some tips on retirement, health help, and other topics. 

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91: Year in Review and Top 10 Owner-Operator Incomes at Oakley Trucking

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jason Webb, Operations Manager at Oakley Trucking. Jeremy and Jason put a bow on 2021 and tell us what they’re looking forward to in 2022.

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90: Owner-Operator Hits $240k in One Year “Without Even Trying” at Oakley Trucking

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Joe McCullough, an Owner-Operator at Oakley Trucking. Joe shares how he’s made $240,000 in his first year at Oakley.

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89: How Much Money Do I Need to be Financially Independent?

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Scott Inman who is a Financial Advisor with GenWealth on how to get ahead and save enough to retire one day.

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88: Hot Topics in Trucking

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Scotty Crisco, Operations Manager at Oakley Trucking to discuss some of the pressing issues facing Oakley drivers today.

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87: Old School vs New School

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Winston Guest (old school) and Brent Schneider (new school) to discuss how things have changed over their years at Oakley.

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86: Happy Thanksgiving!

During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, Host Jeremy Kellett discusses Thanksgiving traditions at Oakley.

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85: What’s It Take to Get the Best Drivers Out There?

On this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett discusses what it takes to get the best drivers around. He is joined by Aaron Mowery and Kyle Jernigan from Randall-Reilly, an advertising firm from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that provides data-driven solutions for sales and marketing in construction, trucking, and more. Aaron works as the VP of Strategic Accounts and Kyle Jernigan is a Digital Marketing Strategist, and together they have more than 30 years of experience helping organizations recruit truck drivers.

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84: What’s it Like Riding with an Owner-Operator for a Week? PT. 2

This week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast is the second episode exploring life on the road with owner-operators from a dispatcher’s point of view. Host Jeremy Kellett is joined by dispatchers William Lewis and Sawyer Floyd to discuss their week in the truck. Owner-operator Bobby Taylor stopped by the show as well to tell of his experience driving Sawyer around.

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83: A Special Surprise for Two of Our Owner-Operators

In this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett and dispatchers Russell Vallance and Brent Epley bring owner-operators Dean Baylor and Randy Fulmer, from the hopper and end-dump divisions, respectively, onto the show for a special surprise—to tell them that they’ve been selected as their Owner Operators of the Year! 

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82: What You Need to Know About Trucking Insurance

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett dives into the overlap of trucking and insurance with Trent Tillman, executive vice president of the transportation division at TrueNorth in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Insurance can be complicated to deal with, but Trent offers tips for how to avoid the frustrations.

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81: What Makes a Great Truck Driver?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, guest hosts Corey Huey, Dustin Eagle, and Kent Childers dive into a discussion about what makes a great owner-operator and what kinds of drivers Oakley wants to recruit. 

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80: What’s it Like Riding with an Owner-Operator for a Week?

On this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett sits down with dispatchers Alex Kin and Hunter Horton. Alex and Hunter spent the week on a ride-along with an Oakley owner-operator and are back to recount their time on the road.

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79: How’s the Trucking Business? Insights from Oakley Trucking

This week on the Oakley Podcast, operations managers Jason Webb, Scotty Crisco, and Bradley Simpson join host Jeremy Kellett for an in-depth discussion into what’s going on in the dry bulk industry and the trucking industry as a whole.

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77: Arrow Truck Sales: Relationships Mean A Lot

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Arrow Truck Sales branch manager Trae Viser and truck salesman Keith Wilson.

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76: Expressing Our Thanks to Owner-Operators During Truck Driver Appreciation Week

In honor of Truck Driver Appreciation Week, this episode of the Oakley Podcast expresses gratitude for our amazing owner-operators. Host Jeremy Kellett chats with Jason Webb, Scotty Crisco, Nick Delaney, Shane Smith, Bryan Hill, Roger Carson, and Dustin Barnett and asked each guest three questions:

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75: Updates on ELD’s and Other Safety Information

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett sits down with Oakley’s Roger Carson, safety director, and Dustin Barnett, safety manager, to get to the bottom of rumors about ELD changes at Oakley. 

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74: What Do the Young Bucks Think About Trucking?

In this week’s episode of Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by a special guest, his son Clay Kellett to discuss his perspective on how young people today view the trucking industry. Corey Huey from recruiting also joins in on the conversation.

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73: Pilot Travel Center Benefits with Jason Holland

Today on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Jason Holland, account manager at Pilot Flying J Travels Centers. They talk about the benefits Pilot Flying J offers to Oakley drivers and what separates them from the competition.

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72: Oakley Trucking Through the Eyes of a Customer

This week’s Oakley Podcast is the first episode to feature one of Oakley’s customers as a guest on the show. Host Jeremy Kellett and Oakley Oklahoma terminal manager Justin Jolly are joined by Crystal Clements, production planner at Malarkey Roofing in Oklahoma City. Crystal offers her unique perspective from a family-owned business that’s an Oakley customer.

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71: The Nuts and Bolts of Oakley’s Shop

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett talks with Oakley shop manager Toby Bishop. With more than 900 trailers and five bays, Toby discusses juggling Oakley’s shop, handling inspections, washes, blowers, and more.

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70: What does Oakley Dispatch Have to Say?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett talks with Oakley’s Nick Crisco, an operations manager, and Manuel Carvajal, an end-dump dispatcher. Nick and Manuel provide a behind-the-scenes look at how things work at Oakley in the end-dump division.

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69: Where Are All the Trucks?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett and Dustin Eagle get the low-down on the industry-wide truck and parts shortage from MHC Kenworth branch manager Todd Venable and salesman Adam Campbell.

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68: What Does It Take to Get Leased on with Oakley Trucking?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Dustin Eagle and Kent Childers, recruiters at Oakley, to discuss what it takes to get leased on with Oakley Trucking.

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67: Have you ever made a bad trucking decision?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett and Dustin Eagle, one of Oakley’s head recruiters, talks with Oakley owner-operators Gary Sizemore (pneumatic division) and Matt Naveau (hopper-bottom division). Both Gary and Matt had left their jobs at Oakley at one point, but they’ve since returned to Oakley and they discuss what brought them back.

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66: Arkansas Trucking Association, How Are They Making Trucking Better?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association. Together they discuss the state of the trucking industry today.

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65: Finding Success as an Owner-Operator with Ted Jansen

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett catches up with Ted Jansen who has been pulling an end dump for years. Ted, who used to serve aboard a US Navy submarine, feels right at home behind the wheel as an owner-operator for Oakley. Jeremy and Ted discuss how to find success while driving with Oakley.

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64: Do you Believe in Miracles? A Must Listen

On this special episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett visits with Jeff and Lorita Bledsoe about Jeff’s 96-day stay in the hospital with Covid and his tough road to recovery. Jeff, a hopper-bottom owner-operator with Oakley, continues to recognize blessings in his life despite the incredible trial he went through. 

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63: How Can You Afford a Brand New 2022 Peterbilt?

Focusing on trucking, business, and family, this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast features Oakley end-dump owner-operator Anthony Fowler and his wife Alicia. Host Jeremy Kellett sits down with them and discusses Anthony’s eight-year career at Oakley, married life, having a farm in Mississippi and more.  

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62: Oakley Fertilizer, The Ins and Outs

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Bubba Vance, vice president of fertilizer at Oakley. This conversation highlights one of the many Oakley divisions besides trucking.

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61: Success as an Owner-Operator Husband-Wife Team

Owner-operator Brian Gann and his wife Beverly Boliek join host Jeremy Kellett on this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast. Brian is making the change from end-dump to pneumatics and has had his wife Beverly on the road with him on a regular basis. Together they share stories of their experiences as a team out on the road and discuss how that has impacted their marriage.

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60: What’s Happening at Oakley?

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Oakley operations managers Shane Smith and Scott Cowden to get updates about what’s new at Oakley, moving to the new office, discussing freight and safety, reading customer reviews and more.

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59: Partners That Take Care of Owner-Operators on the Road with Jeff Porter and Landon Urban

On this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Jeff Porter, fleet sales manager at LubeZone, and Landon Urban, general manager at AllStar Truck Service.

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58: Making the Move to Oakley Trucking with Sam Muntean, Owner-Operator

On this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Sam Muntean, an owner-operator from the hopper-bottom division. Sam made the switch from being a company driver elsewhere to being an owner-operator at Oakley. Since then, he has helped recruit several drivers to the Oakley team.

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57: If You Want the Best, You’ve Got to Pay for the Best

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with listeners about the pay raise awarded to all owner-operators this May and discusses how Oakley combats the challenges of retaining drivers in an industry with high turnover.

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56: Honest Talk with Oakley Trucking Owner Operators

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett catches up with Greg Cink and Jerald Hogan, owner-operators from the hopper-bottom division. They provide a behind-the-scenes look at what being an owner-operator with Oakley is like.

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55: Taking the Show on the Road to Oklahoma with Kyle Haney and Colton Campbell

This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett takes the show on the road to Oakley Port 33 in Oklahoma. He meets up with Kyle Haney and Colton Campbell to get the low-down on the dump division there.

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54: Would the PRO Act Be Harmful to Owner-Operators?

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett sits down with Mike Matousek and Lewie Pugh, the manager of government affairs and executive vice president, respectively, of OOIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association). OOIDA provides a voice, representation, education, information, benefits and savings for truck drivers. Together they discuss the ramifications that the PRO Act has for drivers.

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53: What is the latest with the D.O.T? Plus Inside Info on LubeZone

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined first by Jeff Porter, Fleet Sales Manager at LubeZone, and then by Lt. Doug Laferty from the Arkansas DOT. In the show’s first segment, Jeff explains the services offered at LubeZone locations, and in the second segment, Lt. Laferty is back on the show to discuss trends and regulations. 

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52: How Do You Fight a Citation or CSA Violation?

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Brad Klepper, president of Driver Legal Plan, a national law firm dedicated to protecting commercial truck drivers and their companies.

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51: How Much Money Can Safety Violations Cost You?

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with Jeremy Paul and Dustin Barnett from Oakley’s safety department. Together they discuss how much safety violations can cost owner-operators in the long run.

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50: How is Oakley’s Orientation? New Driver Perspective

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett talks with drivers Rupert Deal, Tommy Dean, and John Dawson about undergoing the orientation process at Oakley.

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49: How Can I Stay Healthy as a Truck Driver?

On this week’s edition of The Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett speaks with Jon Slaughter, CEO of Healthy Trucking of America. Healthy Trucking of America provides free health and wellness services for drivers. 

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12: Insights from Dump Dispatch with Jason Webb and Scotty Crisco (Part 1)

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, is joined by Jason Webb and Scotty Crisco from dispatch at Oakley trucking.

Jason and Scotty talk about how the dispatch department works, how loads are booked, dealing with customer requirements, and share their personal histories with Oakley Trucking. 

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09: Exploring our Great Partnership with Murphy-Hoffman Company with Todd Venable and Mike Donnelly

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, is joined by Todd Venable and Mike Donnely from MHC Kenworth.

MHC Kenworth has been a trusted partner of Oakley Trucking for the past 25 years. The guys talk about working with Kenworth and how they can help our Owner/Operators : 

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08: Ways the Shop Serves Our Owner/Operators with Toby Bishop

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, is joined by Toby Bishop. Toby is the Shop Foreman for Oakley Trucking.

Toby is a 21 year veteran at Oakley Trucking and talks about the new services we’ve got for drivers, how to best use the Shop services, and preventative measures drivers can take for their trucks: 

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07: The Impact of COVID-19 on Freight with Nick Dulaney and Colby Foster

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley  Trucking, is joined by Nick Dulaney and Colby Foster who work in Operations at Oakley.

Nick and Colby share some updates on the reality of the trucking market as a result of the COVID-19 slowdown, and what they see on the horizon: 

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06: My Journey to Oakley with Daryl Hobbs

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, is joined by Owner-Operator Daryl Hobbs. 

Daryl shares his transition from a Company Driver to being an Owner-Operator within the Oakley family. He describes his experience working with Oakley, and how his career has benefitted as a result: 

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05: Important Safety Reminders for Oakley Owner/Operators with Randy Rymel

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, talks with Randy Rymel. 

Randy has been in trucking since the late ‘70s, and a member of the Oakley family for the past 12 years. He joins us to discuss the CSA program and its effect on our drivers: 

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04: One of Our Own Battling Coronavirus

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, talks with Todd, one of our owner/operators, about his battle with COVID-19 and his recovery.

Todd shares his experience battling from COVID-19, how he got tested on the road, and his journey to recovery: 

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03: CARES Act & Tax Implications with Todd Amen

Welcome to Episode 3 of The Oakley Podcast! 

In this episode, Jeremy interviews Todd Amen, Founder, President and CEO of American Truck Business Services (ATBS). ATBS is the largest owner-operator business services provider in the United States and has served nearly 200,000 owner-operators. Todd and his brothers sold their trucking and logistics company in 1998 and subsequently started ATBS. Their charter is to help owner-operators make more money and pay less taxes.

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Another Update to Owner/Operators as to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, talks with Nick Dulaney to give additional updates on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how the company is dealing with changes in recent weeks. 

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com

02: Exploring the Expansion of Oakley’s Facilities with Tommy Mitchell

In this episode, we sit down with Tommy Mitchell, office and accounting manager at Oakley Trucking to answer a lot of questions about our expansion and the new facilities we have.

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com

Update to Owner/Operators as to the Coronavirus Pandemic

In this episode, Jeremy Kellett, Director of Recruiting at Oakley Trucking, gives important updates on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how the company is dealing with changes in recent weeks.

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com

01: Continuing a Family Legacy with Justin Oakley

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Oakley Podcast! 

Our pilot episode of the show is an interview with Justin Oakley, one of the leaders of our family business. On this episode, we talk to Justin about his view on the family legacy and what he sees coming in the future for family-owned trucking companies like ours.

Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com

00: Welcome to The Oakley Podcast

Welcome to The Oakley Podcast where we discuss all the latest news and updates relating to trucking, business, and family.

This show is brought to you by Oakley Trucking headquartered here in North Little Rock, Arkansas. We’re a family-owned and operated trucking company, and we’re excited to begin to share a bit more from behind the curtain here at Oakley HQ.

To keep up to date with what we’ve got going on, be sure to subscribe to our show on any major podcast platform. Or, feel free to head over to podcast.bruceoakley.com to follow along and leave some feedback for the show.