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.

Key topics in today’s conversation include:

  • Oakley Update: recruiting cards (2:35)
  • Meet Lonnie and Paul (5:07)
  • Trading trucks (9:26)
  • Pneumatic tanks (11:38)
  • Paid per mile vs percentage (16:28)
  • Making friends at Oakley (18:33)
  • Technology changes (20:51)
  • Money management advice (23:14)
  • A challenge that’s worth it (26:54)
  • What the future looks like (30:50)

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

Paul Lorimer  0:12  

I had a hard time making a decision coming here because I didn’t know anything about pulling anything over here. I was pretty nervous ‘cause I was going to a new company I didn’t know anything about. I just thank God they put me in the right place. It’s definitely where I wanna be.

Jeremy Kellett  0:28  

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 episode 117. So on today’s episode, we sit down with two of Oakleys finest owner operators, Lonnie O’diam and Paul Lorimer and we’re gonna talk to those guys about their success stories, about their experience at Oakley Trucking, how they came here, why they’re still here. Some good details. Even talk a little bit about their money that they’re managing and some of the do’s and don’ts as an owner-operator. So some good information good stuff from them. So we’re gonna but first let’s get a Oakley update sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales.

Keith Wilson at Arrow Truck Sales in Springfield, Missouri is currently offering $1,000 off your first month’s payment when you finance with transport funding, or $1,000 off the truck price if you bring your own financing. They’re also discounting the cost of an extended warranty by $500. Arrow Truck Sales has been a longtime partner with Oakley Trucking and that’s because they specialize in first-time truck buyers, they don’t do any leases, they have the best-used trucks money can buy (because used trucks is all they do, they don’t sell any new trucks), and the biggest reason that Arrow and Oakley are partners is service after the sale. It is very important to us at Oakley that when we refer you to a company, that they are a good company with good people, they do what they say, and they understand our requirements. So give Keith a call at 573-216-6047 for a good used truck and tell him you heard about it on the Oakley podcast.

On the update today, Oakley update, we’re going to talk to you about recruiting cards. A lot of people still not sure how this works. And I want to try to clear it up and explain the best I can on turning in recruiting cards. So basically Oakley we pay you $200 for turning in a recruiting card just to give us a good contact and name phone number or an email address where we can get in touch with the guy and they are legitimate truck driver, then we send you $200 on next week’s check. Now, if we end up leasing the person on, then you get a $5,000 recruiting bonus and $2,500 paid after the first 45 days they’re here and $2,500 paid after the second 45 days they’re here. If you Oakley escrow wet kid blower then that that money for that bonus goes towards that first than any leftover, we cut you a check or we actually put it on your settlement. So the thing with the recruiting cards and the $200 just for the name. And number, that’s huge for us, we just need somebody that we’ve never talked to before. If they’ve worked for us before, if you send it in and that person’s in the computer system, and we are we’ve had a conversation with them already, then you won’t get the $200, but chances are they’re pretty slim anyway. So keep sending in names and numbers. If somebody comes up and talks to you, try your best to get their name and phone number. I know that’s not easy to do. But keep in mind it’s worth $200 if you can get it to so and more than likely you gotta turn in a bunch of them to get somebody released on and it just helps if you stay in touch with them also because as we know, we get our best people from our owner operators. You guys are our best recruiters and especially the ones that are active and doing it and we appreciate you doing it. Just keep them coming. If you got any questions about recruiting cards, recruiting bonuses, give me a call up to office and we’ll explain it.

So I got Lonnie O’diam and Paul Lorimer here with me today. They’re Oakley owner operators and we’re just going to visit with them a little bit on things that are happening Oakley, some of their success stories that they’ve gone through here at Oakley, and give you guys just some good details of what’s going on. We’ve got some good information coming from them so stay with us as we get going on that.

First, you guys introduce yourself. Lonnie, introduce yourself to everybody. Where are you from? Where do you live?

Lonnie O’diam  5:11  

Farmers, Ohio. It’s just outside of Dayton, Ohio. I grew up on a farm so have the farm or sons do all the farm work now along with my brothers I try to do a little bit when I get back but they got all this new technology now they gotta show me what button to personally know how to how to get the come on to go down to the field as they do. Got a wife. 43 years. Four kids, three boys and my daughter’s youngest. Just got married. Five grandkids, three boys and two girls.

Jeremy Kellett  5:49  

What kind of truck do you have?

Lonnie O’diam  5:51  

I got a Kenworth t 660. actually went and watched them build it up until call to heart as they say and build it. Got one point for me and it’s kind of time to move on.

Jeremy Kellett  6:04  

And how long you’ve been at Oakley?

Lonnie O’diam  6:05  

It’ll be 11 years in August, I believe. Started out it was a polar reefer kinda did the farm and then the truck and whatever I was doing, but as farmers I figured out I’d be driving a truck making some money if I was in the truck. I second everything on the farmer should be doing so I kind of give it up my brother’s farm as well. And they pretty well set up my end and my son zu as well. You’re the only one in the family in trucking. Yep, my dad had trucks. That’s really how I got into it. He had drivers he didn’t. He drove some that I would fill in for them. I mean this in a bad way to make a living. I don’t have to worry about what grain prices are and if it’s gonna rain or not rain.

Jeremy Kellett  6:48  

Right. What do you do in your off time when you’re home?

Lonnie O’diam  6:52  

Follow the grandkids around, whatever they’re in. Actually. there’s a hog show this weekend in Springfield, Pennsylvania. They get to this show hogs I guess it can okay though. Yeah, pretty, pretty active. My one oldest son, they’re up there. They’re pretty active in that on a national level.

Jeremy Kellett  7:09  

That’s nice. Gives the grandkids something to do.

Lonnie O’diam  7:12  

Yeah. And then they do sports (baseball, soccer) and it’s enjoy them when they’re around and take care of the yard when I’m home and got a pretty big, pretty big yard to mow on a farm to take care of. So there’s always something to do.

Jeremy Kellett  7:27  

What about you, Paul? Where are you from?

Paul Lorimer  7:29  

Oh, gosh. Let me tell you, I ain’t got as much as Lonnie going on. I’m originally from the West Coast. I was in California, then moved to Washington, then moved out here to Arkansas. So been around a few places I’ve been driving since 97 Mainly pulled step decks RG NS had a friend of mine tell me about here. sold my truck I thought I was done trucking at one point never you’ll never be done trucking. Once you’re in it, you’re in it. You end buying another truck. Kind of look for a cheap option because I wasn’t sure about Oakley value. He’s told me Oh it’s good. It’s good. I said Well alright, let me give it a shot. So I went a different route on a truck and I wish I’d been here in 97 How long have you been? I’ve only been here for about a year and I think we’re close to about a year and a half or so. And the best move I’ve ever made. I got a wife and three kids. It goes boy, girl, boy. My daughter was always in school with one of them we moved out here because grandma got sick and so we moved out here took care of her for a while and inherited her house so we decided to stay and we love it. In our off time, we do as much camping side we got side by side we got to do that and then I tried to get my mowing in too but I go side by side before I go mow.

Jeremy Kellett  9:01  

You got your priorities straight.

Paul Lorimer  9:02  

Yeah, definitely. We go to a place up in Missouri a lot called Cloud Nine Caulfield Missouri and it’s kind of like a side-by-side resort nestled. We do that a lot. I just switched trucks.

Jeremy Kellett  9:18  

Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say. We actually timed that disrupt because both you guys are trading trucks right now. So what kind of truck you got and what are you getting?

Paul Lorimer  9:29  

So I just traded in yesterday. We’re doing all the stickers and everything today but I went from 16 to an 18 Both of them are Freightliner Evos that mid-ROCE same motor same transmissions. They got the DD Thirteen’s, 10 speed, I’m actually impressed with I didn’t think it was going to be good. Like I said, I went the cheap route. Prior to I’ve always driven a hood, Peterbilt hoods, and so I know maybe after a little while, probably going to go back to the hood. But this is it’s been awesome here, trading my truck and going back to another one and knowing that I’m always gonna be successful here. It’s allowed me to grow everything at home makes it easy to upgrade. Yeah, it’s easy. I gotta say, I’m so thankful that I’m here at Oakley

Jeremy Kellett  10:22  

Now you pull a hopper bottom.

Paul Lorimer  10:23  

I pull a hopper.

Jeremy Kellett  10:24  

And that’s what you’ve done since you started.

Paul Lorimer  10:28  

I tell people I’m pretty lazy. I mean, I don’t leave the house before 730 on Monday and I get home on Friday and still make my truck payments. Button things can pay my pickup side-by-side house payments, and still go have steak dinner with my wife.

Jeremy Kellett  10:46  

That’s got to feel good, doesn’t it?

Paul Lorimer  10:48  

It feels great.

Jeremy Kellett  10:49  

Lonnie, what kind of truck are you trading into?

Lonnie O’diam  10:51  

Actually getting a jean Howard’s Turkey, passed away a few months ago and then working with his family and haven’t quite got the deal done with getting ready to test drive this afternoon. But they got it all having fixed up on the damage and it’s a W 990 Kenworth. So I had a W 900. Before I got this T 660 But a few one to $5 I thought then I need to get some more aerodynamic and now going back the other way so I don’t know.

Jeremy Kellett  11:19  

Well, that’s the new style.

Lonnie O’diam  11:22  

Yeah, hopefully it gets a little bit better fuel mileage good. I think I can afford us like he was saying he’s easier to pay bills now. I am actually working with my bank, banker home my loan officer and he said, Well, your credit score looks really good. And I said, well it’s easy when you pay the bills.

Jeremy Kellett  11:38  

Makes a difference. Now you’re doing pneumatic tanks.

Lonnie O’diam  11:41  

Yeah, pneumatics. I’ve been ever since I started here. I started saying up in Pennsylvania shorts. I seen what brought me to Oakley if I see these op Chartio down the road Ross Foner for reefer before came to their hair. And I see Oakley Chartio BI mas nice looking truck. They must be making good money bill for those trucks. So I got in touch with recruiting grant and Randolph as far the first one that I spoke with and he gave me some people to talk to and talk to one of so Arabic Jim was talking to him.

Jeremy Kellett  12:12  

That frac sand back then, that was a different beast. And that’s when you came in. It was hot and heavy.

Lonnie O’diam  12:19  

Different life had to live up on top of a mountain. I remember you came up at one time. Yeah, we were kind of moaning about the rates or something and I said man, you see the outhouses here and we got to go 60 miles to get a shower and I said he might make more money and he said well, it’s not for everybody. But it was worthwhile. But then when it slowed up I started I went on the road and it taught me pa who was now had dispatch taught me like going back on sand for a little while did that for about two months. That’s enough I’m back on the road I’d like to be able to no one want to sleep no one I’m going to work instead of somebody wake me up middle of night time It’s time good works.

Jeremy Kellett  12:59  

So a lot of people don’t are not familiar with pneumatic tanks and there’s a lot of responsibility goes into that when you pull in a pneumatic heating, isn’t there?

Lonnie O’diam  13:08  

Yeah, you got to watch torture gauges they’re all got different rules about pressures and different products there are different ways to unload it and turn it keep it from plugging anything up so it’s not terrible as far as that goes it’s just a little bit extra.

Jeremy Kellett  13:23  

Did you learn the hard way?

Lonnie O’diam  13:25  

Actually Big Jim told me one time when you plug one up as it’s a little bit of a challenge I guess to get it to unplug how you do it with air pressure and stuff and I was asking Big Jim about at one time I said how you do it or something he went over and shut the air off to the bottom line he said you’re plugged up now figure it out but yeah, it was a trial by fire I guess but nothing you had guys work with this down here I ran down here for a week or so and for some guides to help you get started, learn the ins and outs.

Jeremy Kellett  13:57  

What kind of different products you hauling on there? What some of the easy stuff and hard stuff?

Lonnie O’diam  14:02  

Salt’s the easy stuff. I like that I live in that by Dayton or close Cincinnati 5050 mile north of Cincinnati love salt comes off the river there and Brian salt gonna lose brain tanks. He only takes about 35 minutes to blow it off or blows off his it’s pretty easy. Then you get in some feed salts and some of them are going up a silo 150 feet up in the air or something that takes a little longer victim thought Coke, petroleum coke, a lot of vest don’t in the refineries and stuff. It’s surprising I actually hold when I was doing saying that’s all he’s ever done San was really easy to it blew off real easy. They had me pick up a load of her Pennsylvania going over to Indiana some steel factory and some kind of coal nugget coal or somewhat to call it that. It’s like yeah, sure I’m big nuggets. I guess I could get you to half in diameter. So you sure I get that? I don’t Yeah, but it went out except for the rocks. I had ended up having a little bit of a challenge. had to get somebody in early climbing or one time at a rock about six inches or hammer they got in there somehow and it wouldn’t go out they had to come from the climb down from the top and go get it.

Jeremy Kellett  15:10  

Oh, man. Well I know pneumatics are different beasts but it’s one of those niches I think at during the dry bulk industry that a lot of people don’t realize it can be really good once you get into it, but you gotta like doing it because you get different products and stuff.

Lonnie O’diam  15:27  

I got my favorites I like to do and ones I don’t like to do, but to kind of take the bad with the good. And you travel all over the country, I guess. Pretty much car filled up Canada quite a few times and have been out California but not to Washington. Couple of times, I guess. I don’t really miss California, so that’s no big deal.

Jeremy Kellett  15:45  

Yeah. What about you, Paul?

Paul Lorimer  15:49  

I pulled the hoppers and we do a lot of the roofing granules. And I like to reframe granules, they come out pretty easy. It’s pretty, pretty cake doing rough and granules. The worst part about that is sitting and waiting to load. And sometimes sitting and waiting to unload, but again, Oakley has made that very easy detention time. A lot of places. I’ve been my entire career. Oh, yeah, yeah, we’ll get you detention time. You’d be lucky if you buy a candy bar with that detention pay you hear in BI pickup with that money to pay. Oakley definitely stands behind there.

Jeremy Kellett  16:26  

And that’s something that I didn’t think about. You guys might put in your two cents because you probably were paid different before you came here. Was this one of the first pay-per-mile jobs that you had? Because I get a lot of guys that go from percentage. They don’t want to get off a percentage. Going to mileage to them is a difficult mindset to do. They can’t get that out of their head that deadhead is not good, but deadhead here is great.

Lonnie O’diam  16:57  

It’s great. Yeah, that’s why as soon as he talks about the merge and stuffs like I don’t mind sitting there, I’m getting paid. Absolutely. Now the mileage thing was I was on percentage with phone or reefer. But in no $0 on deadhead. So, he kind of had to watch how far he had to go to get next load. So here it didn’t really matter. I get faded away. So and then emerge makes a big deal a lot of places you go. Some more than others, but it sure helps.

Paul Lorimer  17:29  

Yeah, I’ve done both. I’ve done percentage mileage. And I’ll tell you that Oakley’s the most transparent. A lot of companies it’s— I don’t try to knock nobody but, seems like they’re pretty shady on things. They hide it here, hide it there, take some here, take some there. It’s a rough ride sometimes. I can pull up my pay sheet and I can see everything plain as day, so I love that. And I’ve driven with mileage companies and they’ll cut you some miles here and cut you some there. And you’re like, hey, this ain’t adding up. Here, if you ever have a discrepancy, call your dispatch and he’ll work with you. If you think you should get a little more a little less or whatever— well, nobody ever says a little less, but they’ve made adjustments according to if the route was a bad route and you had to go around something or something. They’ll kind of help you there. And so it’s been good. It’s been really good. I like it.

Jeremy Kellett  18:33  

You’ve been here a year, you’ve been here 11 years. Y’all made some good friends here?

Lonnie O’diam  18:38  

I’ve got a list on my phone. I just put everybody’s Oakley first. And there must be 100 numbers I have mainly from saying I don’t really yeah, I’d have to go back and look at CMAs a lot of them are hearing more but a lot of them still are. I could call.

Jeremy Kellett  18:55  

Why is that reckon, Lonnie? Why do you make so many friends here?

Lonnie O’diam  19:00  

Oh, when we were up there we lived with each other for weeks at a time. We hang out at night together and just it was a family really cooked out we cooked out my gosh I had the Easter dinners up there somebody I can’t remember who it was. Came back one time they had about 10 TV dinners that they brought it about a walk all the turkey dinners from Walmart for Thanksgiving and handed them out to everybody and we had a cookout some got a Jenner hair on my truck and had a hot plate and everything we cook breakfast is yeah Big Jim could tell you stories about that but it just you’re there together all the time. So in Alabama now I don’t I don’t really see that many people occasionally I do and probably don’t talk to their show. I don’t talk to them that often. I just kind of do my own thing. When you’re saying that they’re you’re always worried about what the other guy was doing. How’s he gonna be for me? I got here for he did. Up here. It’s like you have to worry about what everybody else is doing.

Jeremy Kellett  20:00  

You made any friends, Paul?

Paul Lorimer  20:01  

I got a handful. I say I’m pretty lazy, but once I leave the house, it’s just clockwork. If we’re sitting and waiting, you’re taking a nap and we hurry up and run over needing a certain weight and unload sometimes. And then, well, depends on where you go. You’re taking a nap or sleeping or so I got a handful that talk with but I pretty much like lawn Yeah, just do my thing. I get in, get out, get over the next one and move on. Like, I probably two or three. That’s about it. But I know a lot. I’ve read a lot Hey, how you doing yada, yada, do little yakking, but on a daily basis, just very few. I don’t try to catch naps when you can because we stay pretty busy.

Jeremy Kellett  20:52  

We’ve gone through changes. You’re always going through changes, but definitely I know Lonnie’s seen a bunch of changes. This company went from the Qualcomm to the logs on the app now on your phone or on your tablet. And the cameras in the dash. How’s that transition been for you guys?

Paul Lorimer  21:12  

I didn’t want e-logs back when they were starting to put them in, but I get more sleep with them. Now. I get more, more personal time being on the road with electronic logs than I did before. So I do like them. The cameras, they don’t bother them. They’re all forward facing. I still drive the same way. I do what I do. If you’re a knucklehead driver, then that stuff’s gonna bother you. If you drive like you’re civilized is not going to bother you. It’s just another thing in the truck. If he was facing inside I would have a big issue with that sir, but the outward facing saves me.

Lonnie O’diam  21:55  

That’s what I figured. If something happens I got to save me.

Paul Lorimer  21:59  

And I run my own camera also. So they’re still faced outward and I’ve been running one for several years. So I E logs I like them. Matter of fact, when I swapped my truck, I had to go to a paper so I’d really think about what I was doing again because it’s been quite a few years and I really had to think about oh shoot I got to do all this and keep track of time but it’s nice you just click and say what you’re doing, that’s it, so I do like the logs.

Lonnie O’diam  22:30  

That’s the way I felt like I got out or sleep driving on the road and Sandvik so we’re limited that hours but on us phone reefer it was whatever you get away with you start to log you started and then throw it out the next day and start over again.

Jeremy Kellett  22:46  

I asked the last guest I had on here I was he was one of our owner operators too and I was asking him how he manages money because he said all that can be a whole nother episode and I said yeah, but a lot of owner operators just getting started. We do a lot of first-time owner-operators getting their truck and figuring out how the best way is to manage money. And you guys been doing it a long time. I know you’ve had years before and of course, Lonnie has too. What would you tell somebody starting out?

Lonnie O’diam  23:20  

Put money back in savings.

Jeremy Kellett  23:21  

Is that it? They gotta keep it separate, don’t they Lonnie?

Lonnie O’diam  23:24  

Well, I have a savings through Oakley and I just have money taken out each week and I remember going through orientation and like read off or something I put it up on board somebody’s settlement so much goes into savings like what he can afford to put money in savings. That’s for taxes and insurance or repairs. I pulled out for repairs and that’s one of the reasons I’m a newer truck I think I save on repairs in Texas hopefully but I figured out with our money I’ve been putting back in savings will help just by not having those repairs and be able to afford a truck payment a lot easier.

Jeremy Kellett  24:02  

What about your weekly— So we direct deposit your weekly settlement and you break it up?

Lonnie O’diam  24:07  

No, it goes into our checking account at home my wife divvies it out.

Jeremy Kellett  24:13  

Okay, so she probably plans.

Lonnie O’diam  24:15  

Oh, yeah. We got a budget. We know what payments, house payments.

Jeremy Kellett  24:21  

Do you pay yourself?

Lonnie O’diam  24:22  

No, I never have done that. I did it for a while. There was some kind of government thing where we could I can’t remember what that program was but I actually had to show getting paid every week to be able to qualify for it and I did that while I had to and then ever since I have that now just money there are needed she’s that when she has to pay the bills and stuff and with the farm stuff it’s quite a bit of a payment on the farm payment to so income coming off that side as well.

Jeremy Kellett  24:52  

What about you, Paul? You got a system?

Paul Lorimer  24:55  

We don’t save one through Oakley. As soon as it goes in, my wife divvies up. She pulls out so much to the house, we live off of that. Leave the rest in there. The lease program I do on my truck has a maintenance account on that. So when I make my truck payments, it also goes into a maintenance account. So that’s where my main does. You’re asking about what would you tell a first-time owner-operator? First thing is you’re not the boss. You don’t just go to work when you feel like it. You go to work. It’s just like any other job. I think one of the first things a lot of people when they lease a truck are going to that they think that while in a truck, I can go home. I can stay home. I can be home for a week, two weeks. I make money now. You got to go to work. That’s the biggest mistake guys make I think.

Lonnie O’diam  25:52  

I feel like the opposite. I can take off when I want to take off.

Paul Lorimer  25:55  

Right, but they think they can go home in the beginning. When you first buy your truck, you got to be making payments. You gotta get your money stacked.

Lonnie O’diam  26:04  

I got Hunter as a dispatcher now. He knows I like to be home a lot, especially during the summer, trying to keep up with the grass and everything. I still got to pay my bills, but—

Jeremy Kellett  26:14  

Y’all gotta a set amount aside for emergencies or truck problems or tires or anything? You got the maintenance gas so that pretty much takes care of that. You always make sure that it’s at a certain level.

Paul Lorimer  26:27  

Yeah. And then when our taxes my wife she always pulls that out too. Yeah, first thing we do is she figures our taxes all that our tithing than our than our house income.

Jeremy Kellett  26:37  

A lot of guys forget about taxes.

Paul Lorimer  26:41  

Yeah, but we definitely put ours back. 33% pretty average number and every time we do our quarterlies, they’re perfect.

Jeremy Kellett  26:52  

You gotta be a smart businessman when you get in to become an owner-operator. It’s a challenge to a lot of people because it’s a little overwhelming when you go buy a truck and now you got a truck payment coming and you got taxes you got to account for and a lot of responsibility coming to it. A lot of people are worried about that, and I understand that. It’s a big step going from a company job to becoming an owner-operator. It’s a big step, but is it worth it?

Paul Lorimer  27:23  

Sometimes they don’t know how to handle the money because it’s definitely a lot more money but the expenses are a lot more to go it’s absolutely worth it, especially if you come here. I struggled most of my career.

Lonnie O’diam  27:36  

Before I came here and just fell out of the truck payment every week because like know that I’m not going to do that and then always have it sometimes you had to wait a little bit after coming here. I think I always told people my wife would divorce me if I quit here.

Paul Lorimer  27:49  

I would have never thought it was this easy. Would you have thought that, Lonnie?

Lonnie O’diam  27:55  

I wouldn’t call it easy, but the money part, as I said before, when you got money to pay your bills, it makes things a lot easier.

Paul Lorimer  28:02  

I would have never thought that it could be this easy on the money side.

Lonnie O’diam  28:06  

And it was hard to have to pick that up. I was leased to a company close to home and come into this company though. Seven 600 Miles whatever it is away. Not knowing much about the industry at all. I wasn’t sure about it. My son was kind of like, Yeah, you can do it, Dad. I said, I’m gonna be gone a lot more. He was like, Yeah, it’s alright.

Paul Lorimer  28:28  

That was me too. I had a hard time making decision coming here because I pulled step decks our DMS I didn’t know anything about bomb anything over here. And I was pretty nervous because I’m going to a new company I don’t know anything about and I just think they put me in the right place. It’s definitely where I want to be.

Jeremy Kellett  28:46  

That’s good to hear. And that goes a long ways when you make that change.

Lonnie O’diam  28:51  

And it was easy to talk about the pneumatics and stuff you put me was the guys that had been here a while and everybody is very, very helpful to the egg questions or anything and even now I see some guys that train me. They’re still here. No, no, don’t officers. I don’t know if he’s in or out. But oh, what’s his name? David Brothers was one of them to help train me so you can get here. They’ve good guys. And then everybody I’ve met here. It’s been real good. So and then the too many knuckleheads.

Jeremy Kellett  29:27  

We’ve got some good owner operators here. We really do. I brag on it all the time. But more than that I like for our listeners to hear from our owner-operators. Because you guys, I mean, I literally hit you up this morning to come in here and do this. So there’s no script to it. It’s just off-the-cuff answering questions. And I think that goes a long way with people that not just owner operators wanting to come here, but owner operators that are here already. Right and can hear your story. As any trucking company, we got problems. We are not the perfect company. We got some crazy stuff, crazy rules, do things different here, that’s just part of it. But the end result, our goal is for y’all to be successful. And we got to try to give you that the tools to be successful and we can only do so much like managing your money, as you said. A lot of people don’t. I think that’s great that you said you struggled before you got here your whole career. How am I gonna make that truck payment? Well, now, you’re here and it’s got to feel good that you can, hey, I need a tire. I can get a tire. I need to fix the air conditioner, I can fix the air conditioner.

Lonnie O’diam  30:42  

I look back on my repair bills it’s like, how did I pay that? It’s always there to take care of what you need to take care of.

Jeremy Kellett  30:50  

So what’s the future look like for you guys? What’s your plan for the next 10 years?

Lonnie O’diam  30:57  

Well, hopefully in 10 years I’ll be done, but at least five to seven years.

Jeremy Kellett  31:00  

How old are you now?

Lonnie O’diam  31:02  

Only…64? I don’t know. I stopped keeping count when I got to 21. From there on it doesn’t matter.

Jeremy Kellett  31:11  

It doesn’t matter, does it?

Lonnie O’diam  31:13  

Going into this new truck, I at least got to get it paid off before I could quit. Yeah, I figured someday I’ll have to slow down. I don’t know if I’ll quit work but go back to farming maybe. I try to do that a little bit now. It’s nice not have to worry about the money on the farm when you’re out here though.

Jeremy Kellett  31:34  

What about you, Paul?

Paul Lorimer  31:36  

In 10 years I plan on being debt free. Like house, vehicles, everything except for truck. I’ll always have a truck payment, get it paid off. But my ultimate goal is to go back to a hood like I used to. So I know, I’ll be probably by then 300,000 in debt on that stupid thing. And it just helps with truck payments, you got to write off that way. So it’s definitely a good thing. But 10 years I plan on being debt-free, having everything paid for toys, everything we’re getting ready to buy some more property connected to our property. So that’s gone in effect. So awesome. That 10 years I think will be pretty dang close to debt free. The worst would probably be house and truck, but everything else will be—

Jeremy Kellett  32:26  

 Well, you can get there.

Paul Lorimer  32:27  

Oh, yeah. I’m thinking in five years we’ll be halfway there.

Jeremy Kellett  32:31  

There you go. Good plan. Well, I appreciate you guys taking time out to join us here and doing the Oakley podcast. I know y’all listen to it. You got some good information. eggless do you say that? Listen, everybody give you a hard time. I always got your little be calling yet but it means a lot to us to be able to do this. And we try to get good information out to everybody that listens to the podcast. So I appreciate you guys hanging in there and joining me today.

Paul Lorimer  32:59  

Appreciate you.

Jeremy Kellett  33:00  

Alright, thanks everybody for listening to the Oakley podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe, comment on us, and spread the word about Oakley Trucking. If you got any questions, give us a call up here at the office. We’ll be glad to talk to you. Talk to you next week.

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.