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.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Oakley Update: calendar, heat strokes (3:20)
- Get to know George Gear (5:26)
- George’s trucking history (11:38)
- What makes Oakley different (15:58)
- Money management advice (19:44)
- The worst and best at Oakley Trucking (22:57)
- Success at Oakley Trucking (24:55)
- Making friends at Oakley (29:10)
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
George Gear 0:00
If there was ever a success story, I’d say that I’m living it and I’m loving it. I hate to sound like a commercial for Oakley or whatever, like I’m trying to just pump everybody up about the company but—I think you’ve probably heard me say it in the past—they’re gonna pull my dead ass out of the sleeper because I’m not leaving Oakley.
Jeremy Kellett 0:32
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. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast: trucking, business and family. And this is episode 119. So on today’s episode, I have another one of our owner operators in here, Mr. George Gear and we’re gonna talk about his story.
One of the reasons I’ve had some of our owner operators on here lately, the last few episodes, but I want everybody to know what kind of owner operators we have here. I mean, it’s just good authentic, hard working people that I think really gives you an insight to Oakley trucking when you hear their story you talk to the I guess you listen to them and I talk to him but it’s just a great it’s a great way for us to communicate better with our owner-operators our families helping recruiting, retention. You hear that guy on the episode you go, hey, I can relate to that. I can understand what’s going on there. So we’re gonna visit with George about his story and talk a little bit everything with him. But first, let’s do Oakley update sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales.
Let’s listen to one of Oakleys owner-operator experience with Arrow Truck Sales.
George Gear 2:03
Called Kenworth off of 440 called Peterbilt. Call Freightliner. None of them wanted to work with me. So Jeremy kellett got me and got me over to Trey. Trey visor, me and him had a conversation. He’d sent me to Keith Wilson and never looked back from that point. I was upside down 29,000 and change. They paid off all but $5,000 of my loans on a blown truck. That right there said a lot to me. They were willing to step outside of their comfort zone to get my deal done. I’ve never felt like a customer. Yeah, it was more like a family feeling. He took care of every every aspect of the deal. He was completely transparent. There was no hidden nothing.
Jeremy Kellett 3:11
So if you’re in the market for a used truck, you owe it to yourself to call Keith Wilson at Arrow Truck Sales in Springfield, Missouri. Tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast.
So the Oakley update real quick is just a couple of quick things. One is the Oakley calendar. I think it’s been a while since I mentioned this. And for all the new guys that are here, and even the older ones that might have forgot. We do an Oakley calendar every year and you send pictures in to us of a particular setting where your truck and trailer is. It’s just a neat picture, whether it’s whether it’s out west, whether it’s in a customer’s facility, whether it’s while you’re loading or unloading, just something where you can get the whole truck and trailer in there. You can see it good, a good a good camera good picture. I mean most of them are sent in by cell phones of course but just something that you think is pretty neat sometimes with the weather comes into play but Miss Vickie is the coordinator on that. And she is the final say so on what pictures make the calendar so there’s there’s only 12 That’s gonna make it and but we do it every year and we send it out to all of our customers all of our owner-operators and it’s just some good to get you guys involved and portray your truck and trailer. So get to taking pictures, send it to them, send it to Vicki’s email address.
The other thing, it’s hot outside. It’s very hot outside. I think my truck said 103, 104 work. I got back from lunch so I’ll be careful out there and take care of yourself. It’s so easy to get overheated real quick doing this job too. And as we all know, it’s not just sitting up there driving all day. It is there’s some work involved in as you all take care of yourself. Stay hydrated as best you can and keep that in mind. You don’t feel Good, don’t do it. Tell somebody also frights good, just this morning down here with dispatch. I mean, they’re constantly hollering at us need some trucks. And it’s a good problem. Have a guess, though freight looking good for everybody. Hopefully that keeps rolling through the rest of the year too. So it’s really good.
All right, let’s talk to George Gear. Hey, George. How are you doing?
George Gear 5:20
Not too bad. How you doing, Jeremy?
Jeremy Kellett 5:21
I’m doing good, man. Appreciate you coming on. Doing this podcast with me. Tell everybody where you’re from and a little history on you.
George Gear 5:29
Originally, I’m from Midland, Michigan, but moved down to Gulf Shores, Alabama about five years ago. That’s where I live now. I have a wife, four kids. 29 year old, 24 year old, 22 year old, and a six year old.
Jeremy Kellett 5:45
Oh, wow.
George Gear 5:47
Yeah, we got them spread out a little bit.
Jeremy Kellett 5:49
That is good, though. Now, what made you go from Michigan to Gulf Shores, Alabama?
George Gear 5:57
For two years of freezing my butt off was enough for me. I decided laying underneath the truck and getting everything on thought just to get going in the wintertime. It was getting hard. I mean, once you hit 40 years old and at ice and snow, it doesn’t get any warmer.
Jeremy Kellett 6:12
Now, how long have you been at Oakley?
George Gear 6:15
I’ve been in Oakley for three and a half years.
Jeremy Kellett 6:16
And what do you pull?
George Gear 6:19
Right now I’m in the process of switching from end dumped to the bulk pneumatic.
Jeremy Kellett 6:23
Oh, good. Good. And what kind of truck you own?
George Gear 6:26
Wobble.
Jeremy Kellett 6:27
How many trucks you had since you’ve been here?
George Gear 6:30
Two. Last one was a Peterbilt 386.
Jeremy Kellett 6:34
Alright. Now you got a Volvo.
George Gear 6:36
Yeah, some people might think I downgraded but my paycheck upgraded.
Jeremy Kellett 6:43
Why is that?
George Gear 6:45
Better fuel mileage. Repair costs are down. Downtime is down. That’s the name of the ballgame.
Jeremy Kellett 6:52
What year/model did you get?
George Gear 6:53
2015 Volvo BNL 64T. It’s done an amazing job as far as fuel mileage anywhere between 687 to depending on where I’m running out that week, but repair costs. Like I said, way down. Downtime is down, less downtime, you have more time you have to make money. I’m not sitting around waiting on parts. It’s been a whole lot better scenario that Peterbilt about broke me.
Jeremy Kellett 7:21
Yeah. So moved from Michigan down to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Then you found Oakley and— How long you’ve been here? What did we say? Three and a half years. And you pulled dump the whole time, but now you’re fixing to make the swap to a pneumatic tank. What is that all about?
George Gear 7:39
Something different. I’ve never done it before. So I figured why not give it a shot. Everybody keeps telling me that it’s more money and less work. I can’t really see how do you have more money with less work? I’ve never experienced that.
Jeremy Kellett 7:52
But what’s the real reason, George?
George Gear 7:54
That’s it.
Jeremy Kellett 7:55
Oh, I thought it was because of Austin.
George Gear 7:57
Nah. Austin thinks it’s Austin but it’s not. Derek’s done a hell of a good job. I can’t complain about what he’s done either. And keeps me moving. Just like Austin did long as they keep me moving. I’m happy.
Jeremy Kellett 8:12
So for people listening out there who don’t know, Austin was dispatching end dumps and he was dispatched in Georgia but then he we moved him to pneumatic tanks. And I don’t know how long ago six months ago or so. And he’s been a bank trying to recruit some of his guys he laid under dumps to swap over to pneumatics which is a good plan, good idea, and it works.
George Gear 8:33
Work with people that you’re comfortable with.
Jeremy Kellett 8:35
Yeah, and I think so too. I think it’s a great. The good part about it is you never leave the company. You never leave Oakley. You can go from an end up to a pneumatic and keep everything.
George Gear 8:44
It wouldn’t matter. I’m not leaving Oakley. Y’all will have to pull me out of here kicking and screaming. It’s just not happening.
Jeremy Kellett 8:50
That’s good to know, man. Me neither. My wife wouldn’t let me.
George Gear 8:52
Yeah, and my wife would divorce me.
Jeremy Kellett 8:55
Mine too and I don’t know what we’d do.
George Gear 8:57
We could go out on my boat go fishing.
Jeremy Kellett 8:59
That’s a good idea. Hey, I like that. Gulf Shores, Alabama. So what do you do down there? Is it what you do in your off time?
George Gear 9:06
Yep. Spend time with a six-year-old. We hit the pool lot but at the time we spent out on the boat do a lot of fishing offshore and in-shore.
Jeremy Kellett 9:15
So you’re down there close where you can get to the Gulf?
George Gear 9:18
I’m right on the water. I go right out through Bon Secour Bay or I can take the intercoastal over to Perdildo Pass and Orange Beach and go out into the Gulf that way.
Jeremy Kellett 9:27
You got a pretty good boat that can get out there and handle the waves?
George Gear 9:30
I got a 24-foot walk around Cuddy Cabin. Got two pieces of Suzuki on the back. It does a pretty dang good job.
Jeremy Kellett 9:37
Nice. What of fish you catching out there?
George Gear 9:40
Right now, Spanish macro, king mackerel, red snappers on if you want to go out 25, 30 miles to the different reefs, but I mean, you can get some of them that are closer into shore but they’re hard to find too many other boats. But it’s a good time.
Jeremy Kellett 9:55
That’s interesting that they’re to be able to do that then around the Gulf when you go home. That’s a far cry from Michigan.
George Gear 10:04
Michigan wasn’t bad either. We got out on the Great Lakes and do salmon fish and walleye fish and whatnot but it’s not quite the same as getting a hold of something that could literally eat you. One of my other friends, Tony Hollingsworth. He went out with us over Labor Day weekend. Yeah. And on Memorial Day weekend, this past one, whatever it is, in May, Memorial Day. He hooked up on what I think was a hammerhead shark because it was huge. But he hooked hooked up on it and a little itty bitty icon pompano rigs. And all it is is mono with a real light hook. I mean, the lightest tackle that you could possibly run and the Gulf of Mexico and he fought that thing for like 10 to 15 minutes for it broke off. Yeah, I reached over and I tighten the drag a little bit because he was about to spool the. Yeah, he bent out. Yeah, he was about to spool it. I tighten the drag a little bit and he snapped it off right away. But he had never been good to look at. It splashed around up on top. It was huge. It was big. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was but I knew it was a shark.
Jeremy Kellett 11:11
That’s the thing about down there. You never know what you’re gonna get.
George Gear 11:14
Not till you get it. I’ve got video— As a matter of fact, I just showed Garrett today at lunch, a video of me and one of my other friends Brian. We were out there messing around. We were about 15 miles out. Got a hold of an eight foot bull shark. It took us about an hour and a half. We had it up next to the boat for a cut it off. It was a lot of fun.
Jeremy Kellett 11:33
Yeah, you never know. That sounds like a lot of fun. Well, what I wanted to talk to you about was working here at Oakley. A little bit about your history before you came here because three and a half years… I mean, how long have you been driving?
George Gear 11:46
I’ve been driving for 24 years. I’ve been an owner operator for 21.
Jeremy Kellett 11:50
So owner operator for 21 years. What kind of job were you doing before you came here? What’s your history?
George Gear 11:56
Before I came here, I was leased to a company called Universal. They do the whole Landstar model, and I’d been leased to Landstar in the past as well. You know, basically where you’re finding your own freight off of their boards. What ended up happening, it seemed like you’d start out making really decent money and it just kept going down and down and down to the point where I was almost bankrupt when I came here. I told Austin, when I got done with orientation and we were doing our driver dispatcher meeting, I told him, look, this is the last go around. I mean, if it doesn’t work here, I’m done. I’m not gonna be in trucking anymore. I’ll find something else to do.
Jeremy Kellett 12:44
So you were in that bad of shape financially?
George Gear 12:45
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was bad. And wife was not happy with me. I wasn’t happy with me. I wasn’t happy with the entire situation. And it was really bad. Everything was month, month and a half behind. I mean, it was it was bad. I let Austin know what the situation was. I was honest with him.
Jeremy Kellett 13:05
What made you pick this place? Because you got all those places to pick. Did you know somebody over here?
George Gear 13:11
No. No, as a matter of fact, it was JP Yeah. And boy call me every week or every two weeks for about a year straight bugging me to come over here. And I finally said, you know what? I don’t have anything to lose. I might as well let’s just go see what it’s all about. Even though I’d never pulled an end for pneumatic or Hopper bottom in my life. thought what the hell? It’s something different. I’ll try that. I’m glad I did.
Jeremy Kellett 13:38
So you come over here broke. You told Austin, “I got to work.” This is the last call.
George Gear 13:42
That’s it. And within a month— When I came on, it was the week before Thanksgiving.
Jeremy Kellett 13:50
Oh. That’s a tough time to start. The holiday’s right there.
George Gear 13:54
He deadd headed me out of here over to Oklahoma picked up a load going up into West Virginia. And that was what I got in for that week. Because when you get out orientation on Friday, you basically have the weekend. We got that one in and I got paid on that. And I ended up going home for Thanksgiving Day. The day after Thanksgiving, I was right back out on the truck out and go home again until Christmas. By the time I went home for Christmas, I had all my bills caught back up and I had money left over to buy my kids Christmas presents and my wife’s happy with me again. Life is good. But yeah, he he worked his tail off for me and I worked my tail off for him and that’s pretty much the way we’ve done it the entire time.
Jeremy Kellett 14:41
It’s not easy coming in here to pull a dump trailer and do that. Because it’s there’s a learning curve there to figure it out.
George Gear 14:48
Yeah, I had to get around that curve pretty quick, man. I didn’t have time to mess around.
Jeremy Kellett 14:54
You had him knocking at the door.
George Gear 14:55
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was bad. It was I was in pretty rough shape. Like I said we got it squared away pretty quickly. And after that, it’s really been a good thing. I mean, I went from dang near bankrupt to now buy my own home a couple of different vehicles a different truck paid that truck off within a year. I don’t have the truck payment. And I’m going to keep it that way.
Jeremy Kellett 15:18
Boat?
George Gear 15:19
Yeah. Big old fishing boat. Big boat.
Jeremy Kellett 15:22
Oh, big boat. Good. Good story.
George Gear 15:25
Yeah, it’s if there was ever a success story, I’d say that I’m living it. And I’m loving it. I hate to sound like a commercial for Oakley or whatever. Like, I’m trying to just pump everybody up about the company. But I think you’ve probably heard me say it in the past, they’re gonna have to pull my dead ass out of the sleeper ’cause I’m not leaving Oakley. That’s just the way I feel about it.
Jeremy Kellett 15:50
You had 20 years prior to coming here being an owner-operator. What makes it so different?
George Gear 15:57
Well, it’s the people. It’s all convinced it’s just the people because they’re willing to work hard for you, if you’re willing to work hard for them and everything just seems to come together here correctly to where you can make what you want to make other companies, it’s not how much work you put into it is how much you’re gonna get out of it, how you could work your fingers to the bone at some of the other places and bring home nothing. Whereas here, you put the time and effort in and do the work you’re gonna get paid. And the three and a half years that I’ve been here, I don’t even know who runs payroll. And that’s a good thing. Yeah. Because I’ve never had to call them. I’ve never had an issue with my checks. Every other place that I was leased to, it doesn’t matter. Landstar. Universal. Couple other companies that are gonna remain nameless. That wasn’t the case. I was constantly on the phone with payroll trying, trying to get things straightened out.
Jeremy Kellett 16:57
There’s nothing more aggravating than the wrong paycheck.
George Gear 17:00
It doesn’t just aggravate me. It aggravates my wife. Everybody knows, if mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy. And when she’s finding things that are wrong, my wife is in banking for 15 years. So she is very good with numbers. She’s very astute.
Jeremy Kellett 17:20
Is that what she does now?
George Gear 17:22
Heck, no. She raises my son. She doesn’t—
Jeremy Kellett 17:23
She’s not working now. Nice. What’s her perspective of Oakley?
George Gear 17:29
If I leave Oakley, she’ll divorce me. She’s basically said it. She loves this company, man. She has nothing but good things to say. If somebody says something bad on Oakley’s webpage, Jennifer will get them. If she sees it, she’ll come right back after them.
Jeremy Kellett 17:46
Oh, good. We got a little social media police there.
George Gear 17:49
She doesn’t like that. She has the utmost respect for this company and the people that work with it.
Jeremy Kellett 17:53
Well, that goes a long way because she’s part of it.
George Gear 17:56
And she feels like it, too. That’s why. And she should. I mean, the job that she does at home, it’s crazy. Raising a little six-year-old at our age. I’m not going to— That’s going to be remain a mystery, too.
Jeremy Kellett 18:13
Now the other ones are gone? They’re out and gone, most of the other kids?
George Gear 18:17
My oldest one lives up in Michigan. He’s doing well. He works at a machine shop in Bay City. He’s got a little baby girl that’s coming down to see us in July. And the other two, the daughter is 24 years old. She’s married to a guy that’s in the Navy. And he should be coming back in the next month or two. And then she’ll be going off with him again, I guess on our two that are hurrying the middle of somewhere getting an apartment together right there around Gulf Shores.
Jeremy Kellett 18:43
And so they’re down there with you though.
George Gear 18:45
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they stay pretty close.
Jeremy Kellett 18:48
Family is important to have around.
George Gear 18:50
Oh, it definitely is. But the little guy, he’s the sparkplug. He’s something else.
Jeremy Kellett 19:00
That’ll be a neat future for him having such older siblings. I like that’d be pretty cool.
George Gear 19:07
Yeah, he’s progressed pretty quickly because it.
Jeremy Kellett 19:12
Probably spoiled up.
George Gear 19:13
Yeah, he is. No doubt.
Jeremy Kellett 19:15
One thing I like to ask everybody and you give us whatever detail you want, but managing your money. Everybody does it different when they start making money, trying to prepare for what’s next down the road and plan for another truck, plan for repairs. Do you have a certain way of managing your money? You and your wife manage your money that will help?
George Gear 19:44
Jeremy, I have the best way that you could ever manage your money.
Jeremy Kellett 19:47
Tell me.
George Gear 19:49
Give it to your wife.
Jeremy Kellett 19:51
Some people will disagree with that. But if she’s in banking for 15 years, I’d say she’s probably trustworthy.
George Gear 19:59
What we do, what I try and do, my bare minimum that’s kept in my checking account, but I do at the end of the week, my checking account holds $5,000. That’s the bare minimum that ever in my checking account, everything above that goes into savings. Next week, same thing $5,000, rest and savings. And that’s how I do it. That takes care of my taxes, that takes care of breakdowns. I take takes care of any emergencies. And I always know that I have money in my checking account to pay for anything that might come up where I let your checking account. Yep. That’s, and I basically run them together.
Jeremy Kellett 20:41
Do you pay yourself?
George Gear 20:42
Yes. Yeah, but everything comes out of the check. You see what I’m saying? I have one bank account that I use, for me and for the truck. And I run everything right out of that I’m not a lot of people try and do multiple accounts. And I think that’s where they screw up. And they get themselves in trouble because they lose track. What do I have in this account? How much do I have to move over the day to meet this? What do I have coming out of here? Should I move it from— I don’t want to do all that. I like things nice and neat and simple. And the only way to be nice and neat and simple. One account, multiple accounts that I’ve learned over 21 years, it’s gonna get me in trouble. Just keep everything together. Keep it nice and neat. I have my savings and I have my tracking. Keep five grand in the checking, move the rest into savings. It’s there when you need it.
Jeremy Kellett 21:35
And the savings is for whatever you need?
George Gear 21:37
Exactly. For taxes breakdowns, the raid parts neutral sub market, any buy mama a washer and dryer when she needs whatever, then, yeah, it doesn’t have to all be about the truck you can and you can’t have it all be about the truck, you got to take a little time for yourself, too. I sent it to Austin, I don’t know how many times I do not live to work. I work to live my life. It isn’t in that truck, looking out the windows. That’s what provides me the opportunity to live my life and Gulf Shores with my wife and my kids. That’s the way that I approach and how often you go home. What I try and do is I try and go home two weekends in a row and then I’ll stay out for a weekend. That’s the way I was doing it within pneumatic. Apparently I’m gonna be staying out for two and a half, three weeks at a time and then going home for five or six days, whatever.
Jeremy Kellett 22:34
Is that what Austin told you that you work best?
George Gear 22:39
Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 22:40
A little bit of it. Just gotta try it and see what works.
George Gear 22:43
It’s kind of what I figured out. Not too worried about it.
Jeremy Kellett 22:46
What’s the worst thing at Oakley Trucking? What’s the worst thing?
George Gear 22:52
Worst thing at Oakley Trucking. ABC coke in Birmingham, Alabama.
Jeremy Kellett 22:59
I’ve heard that before.
George Gear 23:01
It tried to eat my finger.
Jeremy Kellett 23:03
Oh, it did?
George Gear 23:04
Yeah, it was my fault.
What’s the best?
The best thing? People. Hands down. Everybody here. I have not had a bad experience with anybody in the office, whether it’s dispatch, safety, whatever. I haven’t had a bad experience with anybody. I haven’t felt like somebody’s undress me or I’ve had to undress them. You know what I mean? I just haven’t had any bad experiences.
Jeremy Kellett 23:31
By people, Miles, I think he met the recruiting department. Specifically, the best thing.
George Gear 23:38
Now Randolph left me at David’s burger joint there when I was in orientation. That’s probably the worst thing that happened to me.
Jeremy Kellett 23:46
Ran off and left you there.
George Gear 23:47
He ran off and left me there.
Jeremy Kellett 23:48
That’s not a bad place to be left.
George Gear 23:50
Now luckily, the orientation guy was there. He gave me a ride back.
Jeremy Kellett 23:53
You’ve been hearing me talk about LubeZone for a couple of years now. Well, now it’s time you hear from one of our owner operators. Listen to Mike Durbin talk about his experience with LubeZone.
Mike Durbin 24:04
The price is great. The service is great. From time when I bought him the door all the time I pulled out with less than an hour best I’ve ever had as far as an owner operator having more chains, checks the wall but showed me all they had all the Horsham owned or renters showed me my rear end wall on paper and they did their job. It was very mindset go somewhere. Get what you wanted done and and go be I was very pleased about it. And like I said very satisfied. I will go out of my way from now on to go there.
Jeremy Kellett 24:39
Check out lubezone.com for all their services and all their locations and tell them you heard it on the Oakley podcast.
Good stuff from George Gear, one of our Oakley owner-operators here coming to visit with me a little bit and talk about his success story. It’s good to hear. I had no idea that you were about bankrupt before you came here and that is really a success story now that you have recuperated and get things paid for and truck paid for and you feel good and comfortable now that you’re confident enough to switch divisions to go the pneumatic division, buy a $10,000 blower to put on your truck, and try out a new division. I think it says a lot.
George Gear 25:19
I’ve never had anybody lied to me here about what was possible. When JP was talking to me on the phone before I ever came to Oakley and he didn’t know me. He, he didn’t have any any motivation whatsoever, any reason to call me every week or every two weeks and say, Hey, come on, man, you need to get down here, you need to get down here only only the fact that I think he was getting the vibe from me that things were getting steadily worse where I was at. And I think that’s why he kept kept calling. And that’s what it goes back to man. And so people. And every, every one of y’all that I’ve dealt with here have treated me pretty much the same way with respect. As long as that happens, I don’t know why anybody would want to leave. You told me earlier. You don’t want it to sound like a commercial. And I’m like, Man, I don’t have anything bad to say. I mean, what do you want me to do?
Jeremy Kellett 26:12
But it’s authentic. You’re saying this stuff that you mean, and that’s what we want. This podcast is not a commercial. I like for people to understand our owner-operators and hear their story, whether it’s at Oakley Trucking or not. You can be almost bankrupt and still come out of it. And still there still hope to be successful. You just got to find that rock company. Yes, of course. I think this is the right company. I do too. But it’s not. It’s not for everybody, for sure. It’s not drybulk business. It’s not gonna fit everybody.
George Gear 26:46
That’s one thing I will say to anybody that’s thinking about coming over here. If you’re afraid to work, don’t come here because we do work. We don’t. It’s not all about just driving down the road, we’re not a bunch of steering wheel holders. For one, we maintain our equipment, that’s work. We take care of Oakleys equipment, that’s work. Sweeping out every once in a while, you’re gonna have to operate a shovel a little bit, God forbid, he might crawl around on top of steel, he might be caught crawling around on top of coke. You never know what you’re going to be doing. But his hot. It’s dirty work. It really is. Most the time, I don’t look like this. Usually my face is black is night, been hauling coke everywhere. And at the end of the day is all you can think about is man, I can’t wait to get in that shower and get this stuff off me. But the rewards are there. Because the pay is there. And the people treat you with respect, they understand what you’re doing. It’s just the best situation for me personally, that I could be I anywhere else. Where I’ve been before and past, the work is appreciated like that. It’s not reflected in the paycheck like it is here. That means a lot.
Jeremy Kellett 28:06
Yeah, to most people. The reality of it is, you got to make a good living. You got to make money to be able to prosper and do what you want to do. I mean, that’s what it boils down to. Because if you’re working your tail off, and you get in the direct deposit rolls in, and it’s not mighty, it doesn’t make you feel good. It makes you feel like you’ve been taken advantage of, then that’s not a good feeling. That’s something I’m glad to hear to do all the time that it’s rewarding. It’s worth every penny of it.
George Gear 28:38
It really is. There’s a lot of guys and I know that I’ve met my life and trucking. Like I was telling Garrett earlier, I’ve dispatched out brokered freight I’ve been on that side of the ballgame. I know what that’s about. That’s why I don’t get upset when things change. But a lot of the drivers that I met when I was doing that, Jeremy, I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t want them here because they wouldn’t make it. There’s a lot of work involved. And a lot of drivers don’t want to work. And that’s a huge issue.
Jeremy Kellett 29:10
Have you made some friends here?
George Gear 29:13
Yeah, I’ve made of some. Oh, yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 29:14
Good owner-operators?
George Gear 29:15
Oh, yeah. I’ve met some excellent owner-operators guys little pitch and help you out in a heartbeat. Most everybody will. Anyway, guys, if you have questions, all you have to do is ask somebody. I haven’t met anybody that’s not willing to talk to you.
Jeremy Kellett 29:28
We’ve got some good owner-operators. I mean, I hear that so many times that people that make friends, as they go through orientation together. They instantly make friends. They exchanged numbers, and then they keep up with each other. As they go through, a lot of times that happens.
George Gear 29:46
I think I’m the only one left from my orientation. I think I am. I think I’m the last man standing.
Jeremy Kellett 29:51
Did you get everybody’s number in there?
George Gear 29:52
Yeah. Yeah, but I know quite a few of them left. It didn’t take them long either.
Jeremy Kellett 29:59
They might not have met the criteria.
George Gear 30:03
Well, I think the work kind of got to them a little bit.
Jeremy Kellett 30:06
It weeds them out.
George Gear 30:07
It certainly does. Hey, if you want to get out of the trip and you want to stay in shade, it’s the place to be. If you don’t want to get in shape, you don’t want to work, it’s not the place to be.
Jeremy Kellett 30:19
A truck is a good workout program.
George Gear 30:21
Yeah, heck yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 30:22
So when we go on fishing?
George Gear 30:24
Whenever you want. You just give me a date and a time make sure that I’m there.
Jeremy Kellett 30:27
Alright. I’ll get you a heads up. We’ll have to do that. I’d love to go do that, catch few things.
George Gear 30:32
Shoot, I’d love to take you, as long as I take some dramamine the night before.
Jeremy Kellett 30:36
Yeah, I don’t want to be doing that.
George Gear 30:39
Everybody that goes out on the boat with me ends up heaving over the side at some point.
Jeremy Kellett 30:43
No thanks. Maybe we’ll stay in a little bit.
George Gear 30:46
Ah no, that’s not the full experience. Come on now.
Jeremy Kellett 30:52
Well, George, anything else you’d like to add?
George Gear 30:54
No, I think I’m all good.
Jeremy Kellett 30:56
I really appreciate you doing this. It means a lot. I know we just asked you the other day. We know he’s gonna be in here swapping to pneumatic. So it really helps us and helps us this podcast. Getting out good information from our owner-operators like yourself and telling your story. And not everybody wants to do that all the time. But I appreciate you telling your story and letting other people out there hear and know what’s going on.
George Gear 31:20
Oh, hopefully it helps get good people in here. Good people are hard to find. They really are.
Jeremy Kellett 31:28
That they are, very hard. Well, I appreciate everybody listening to the Oakley podcast this week. Once again, it’s a great one that we get some we just get some good owner-operators. Working here at Oakley trophy and unlock for you guys to hear as many as I can get on here. But you share and comment, subscribe. Check us out on YouTube. Let us know what you think about the Oakley podcast and spread it to everybody you know. Get it out there. We’re trying to do our best to get it out there. So we can use it as a communication tool to all our owner-operators. And I know there’s some out there, some of our guys miles that still don’t know how to listen to the podcast. So we got to help educate them on that because we need everybody especially Oakley on our employers and their families listening and watching this and it sure would be helpful if you’re getting questions, getting suggestions, let us know here at the Adelphi podcast, give us a call. And if you are interested in leasing on with us and you get questions, please give us a call up here to office and we will answer all your questions and give you a bunch of information to look over. So once again, we appreciate everybody listening. We’ll talk to you next week.
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