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!
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Oakley Update: company party, be on the show (3:22)
- Introducing Mika and Wanda Durbin (6:44)
- What all they’ve added to their truck (13:06)
- Why the Durbins came to Oakley (17:30)
- How the Durbins are liking Oakley today (22:26)
- Mike’s experience with Lubezone (29:52)
- Wanda’s experience as a truck driver’s wife (32:07)
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
Wanda Durbin 0:12
We don’t have to worry about whether we can afford anything or not. I’ve paid off our automobiles this year. It took us two or three years to build up to that, but I paid off our automobiles this year. We don’t have a mortgage, but if we’d had a mortgage, we’d have been able to pay a lot down on it. We have money in the bank. We have working capital, we have emergency capital for ourselves. It’s just a world of difference. We’re making a profit by him working here.
Jeremy Kellett 0:37
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 129. You’re about to listen to or watch on YouTube.
On today’s episode, I sat down with Mike and Wanda Durbin. They are owner operators here at Oakley trucking and they talked about their success story. And I tell you what’s really interesting. They’re an awesome couple, first of all, and been married for a long time. But I think it’s just really interesting the role that Miss Wanda plays as the wife of a truck driver, and how she’s all in I mean, she’s just all in and it’s really good to hear their story. And what’s really interesting throughout the episode, wait to hear what Mike bought her for their anniversary that really gets you, but first before we get started with the Durbin’s let’s get Oakley update sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales.
Let’s listen to one of Oakleys owner operator experience with Arrow Truck Sales.
I called Kenworth offer for 40 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 trust that right there said a lot to me. You know they’re you were willing to step outside of their comfort zone to get my deal done. I’ve never felt like a customer. It was more like a family feeling. Hey, he took care of every every aspect of the deal. He was completely transparent. There was no hidden, no hidden nothing.
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.
The update this week is the news about the company party. And I’m sure everybody’s heard a lot about it. But one of the things that I think is really needs to be noted. I mean, there’s a lot of awards given out and a lot of people recognize but a couple of main ones I think is is one Dennis Oakley, the owner of the company got his 40th anniversary award been here 40 years at his company that tells you a whole lot about this. This family that owns this company so congratulations Dennis Oakley for 40 years also we had a mainly didn’t he’s he’s overall operations here at the trucking department and he got his 30-year anniversary. Congratulations. We’ve been here a long time and him been working together for a long time and also Randolph Rochelle celebrated 30 years of working at Oakley trucking. So just you know three great people that helped his company go around and make it what it is today. So I just want to say thank you and congratulations on your award.
Also, you know everybody in the truck show was just fantastic. It just was. If you haven’t seen pictures or you went in there I mean you really missed the show and it was something great and and you know everybody’s already talking about wanting to do it next year. So I’m sure that will happen because it turned out so well but just a great truck show everybody that participated in I can’t thank you enough for doing it. I know it took time off work in you. You spent hours upon hours shining on that truck and money and it does not go unnoticed. We really appreciate that here at Oakley Trucking.
And also one shout out to Mr. James willowridge who cooked gumbo for that day. We were out here last Saturday of the truck show and he had gumbo cooking from beginning like early that morning to Everybody waiting around to eat at like one or two o’clock that afternoon and he did a fantastic job and, and we appreciate him doing that. And I know he’s looking forward to doing it anytime he’s sitting down, he can cook for people. He’s all in. So thank you guys for doing that.
One other thing I want to say before we get to this conversation is I want to thank everybody for listening, and subscribing, and commenting on our you know, whether it’s listening to it on YouTube, or social media, or any of your platforms that you listen to podcast, we really appreciate that. And if you’re interested in being on and want to tell your story, give me a shout. And the best way to do that is go to podcast.bruceoakley.com. That’s podcast.bruceoakley.com. And you scroll down and it’ll say leave a comment. And you can, you can send me whatever you want, it comes directly to my email. So tap in there, whatever you got on your mind and also share this stuff with your friends. You know, if you talk to somebody out there, and they’ve never heard of Oakley podcast, basically our own rock players because that is where we want to be able to get to every one of our owner operators and I know a lot of them don’t listen to it, whether they don’t know how or don’t want to. But it’s simple and it’s we try to bring you good information. So be sure to share that with all the other owner operators here at Oakley trucking so they’ll be listening to the podcast. So appreciate everybody out there. And we’ll get started on our conversation with Mark and Wanda.
I’ve got Mark and Wanda Durbin sitting with me here today and we’re going to talk about their truck. This is this is the day prior to the company party and we’re talking about we’re gonna try to talk to everybody and get some details about their truck. But right now I got Mike and Wanda Durbin sitting in here with me and we’re gonna get information from them first. If y’all would tell us where you’re from, how long you’ve been with Oakley, what division.
Wanda Durbin 6:48
Good morning, Jeremy.
Mike Durbin 0:00
Good morning.
Wanda Durbin 6:51
We’re from Florida. We’re from Central Florida.
Mike Durbin 6:55
And well tan Ocala Omi crystal road.
Wanda Durbin 6:58
Okay, well locanto Is the actual town but we’re close to Crystal River and just a little bit south of Ocala. Little north of Tampa. If anybody knows where Wildwood most truck drivers would be more familiar with wild. I’ve heard that. Yes. Not hard, because that’s where the center of Florida is. And that’s where their truck stops.
Jeremy Kellett 7:20
I’ve heard that about truck stops.
Mike Durbin 7:22
I got from shopfloor.
Wanda Durbin 7:24
We’re 20 miles west.
Jeremy Kellett 7:26
Okay. And you’ve been with Oakley…?
Mike Durbin 7:30
Be four years this January.
Jeremy Kellett 7:33
And what division?
Mike Durbin 7:33
Pneumatic.
Jeremy Kellett 7:35
You start out there?
Mike Durbin 7:36
Yep. Yeah, sorry. I’ve got that in my own pneumatic Franktown and the Bucha Yep, that’s right.
Jeremy Kellett 7:42
You’ve done it before. Great. So what kind of truck do you guys own? Tell me a little bit about it.
Mike Durbin 7:49
We own a was just some partnership now I want everybody to understand CS is much partners it’s like a name we’re not team drivers but he takes her business partner 560 2021 Select truck and danger Bill fuel row and reason I got the 567 was not a lot of them around. Okay when I go to trade it in I’ve talked to dealers and say yeah, we want it you know when we go to trade and I started putting lights on it I didn’t want my time I put my time we chromed the Rams out we had Polish we keep always add something to it new and and we just found out here a little while ago it’s on our calendar it’s really a pretty I would really flabbergasted by the Oakley calendar and flattery, flattering, very flattering, and I appreciate it every day everybody’s doing and looking forward to the truck show.
Jeremy Kellett 8:45
Now this truck, what engine transmission is it got?
Mike Durbin 8:49
It’s got a 13 Poulter old transmission. What 450 cap, I mean, 450 comments in it.
Jeremy Kellett 8:55
Okay. And you guys ordered this truck?
Wanda Durbin 8:59
Yes, we ordered it out of Fitzgerald, Peterbilt. Yep. And our spected out. I had talked to another Peterbilt salesman over here in Arkansas, that we ended up going through Fitzgerald but he kind of helped me figure out how to spec it out and I understood once I understood how to set the truck out. He told me what he wanted in it and I kept going back and forth with salesmen until we got it right and then we were kind of disappointed that because we wanted to double bunk we didn’t get our double bunk but we got it back window. We were kind of thinking about turning the truck down but we couldn’t do that at the time. So there were certain circumstances.
Mike Durbin 9:45
We didn’t even know we was weird to talk about. I had cancer my neck two years ago.
Wanda Durbin 9:50
But anyway, yeah, we weren’t sure, but we did spec get it SPECT out my back. I went back and forth, back and forth with the salesman until Oh, we got all the little details that we wanted in the truck ironed out and he had wanted to lower roof one of the reasons we wiped the fire that he liked the 567 was because of the lower roof so he can get in and out of some of the factory facilities as easy easier and not worrying about his like the with the 579 we had we did start out here with a 579 pin it was a 2016 579 About the same color as the truck that we have now which is a legendary red and the new new legendary red has glass flax and instead of metal flax, which is unique. Is that really makes it stand out. It’s pops even whenever it’s dirty. The Sun hits in that flat just shine.
Jeremy Kellett 10:55
Shine, yeah. What’s the big difference in the 579?
Mike Durbin 11:01
The aerodynamic is up on top.
Wanda Durbin 11:05
The difference is is the whole the scoop. Remember what that aerodynamic. And then the very fairings all down below. Okay. And then, you know, we didn’t have plenty of height in our sleeper. It’s a stand up sleeper. It just doesn’t have that arrow on the top. Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha. Then it doesn’t have the fairings down below. He was having a really tough time crawling because of the pneumatic blower getting underneath that truck degree of the reason every time and I was really concerned about him doing that because sometimes he would pull it up on a piece of wood. When we ordered the new truck. We decided that we’re going to raise that up that get a truck underneath and get under there. And the lightness of the truck is there’s there’s a difference in the weight. I don’t remember exactly what the difference is.
Mike Durbin 12:12
With the trailer and me in a tank of fuel 31,200.
Wanda Durbin 12:15
There wasn’t a difference between the 579 and the 567. But there was a weight difference.
Mike Durbin 12:24
Yeah. And I even talked to you about you. So no, we just what we did. Well, we want to kind of stay in our comfort.
Jeremy Kellett 12:31
So you’ve had it how long? When did you get it?
Wanda Durbin 12:34
We got it in 2000… Well, the end of 2021. It was a 2021 truck.
Mike Durbin 12:42
Two years.
Jeremy Kellett 12:43
And how many miles get on it?
Mike Durbin 12:46
212,000 right now on it. Runs like brand new. Change the oil on it. That’s all we do: change the oil and work.
Jeremy Kellett 12:55
How many trucks do y’all have?
Wanda Durbin 13:00
We started out with one and this one’s our second one.
Mike Durbin 13:03
I had five dump truck 16 years ago and it was a nightmare.
Jeremy Kellett 13:06
So what extras have you added to this truck? I mean, did you did you add extras when you ordered it? Or have you added them?
Wanda Durbin 13:17
We added a few extras when we ordered it? They they messed up our bunk? Like I said we wanted to double bunk that didn’t get that we didn’t get our double bunk. We we wish that they had prioritize the second bug instead of the window. I mean, that was upset what the salesman did for us was the the Peterbilt that we missed our dealership that we got it from said okay, well, what didn’t get the double Bock we don’t want you to decline the truck if you don’t, you know, you want to draw we don’t care we do we do anything about it. So they put the Shiny Hiney and the lights and the lights on the back of it and then they put cab lights underneath the cab and sleeper lights.
Mike Durbin 14:04
I put the lights underneath the frame. I put lights on the back of the frame I put lights around the back I put lights up on the bumper, I’ve got it where are you seeing the picture? You know it lights up.
Jeremy Kellett 14:15
Yeah, because the calendar picture is at night.
Mike Durbin 14:17
It’s at night and I started I’ve had the one I was unloading the people at a refinery Come on, geez, man. They’re looking at it.
Wanda Durbin 14:26
One of the things that we’ve done is we were pretty close with the people down 75 Crown shop and he knows he can trust them to wire that up the wiring and everything correctly. But one of the things that he’s done with the lights is they’re not just decorative. He made sure that they they go along with his blink his turn signals and his brakes. It really helps with visibility with cars going down the road, right somebody to run into.
Mike Durbin 15:03
And what I like about it, we’re both in it. As you can see she watered the trough. I mean, a lot of you didn’t do it. I was sick. I was we was dealing with all that and the truck is it’s a nice truck. And we just put a bug screen across it.
Wanda Durbin 15:21
A bug shield on the front part card. He was going through windshields right and left.
Mike Durbin 15:27
I went through three— I’ve been through three windshield since I’ve had to truck.
Jeremy Kellett 15:31
Oh, my.
Wanda Durbin 15:32
So I said, Well, let’s get let’s see, I got to thinking about it. And I said, you know, this truck doesn’t have it’s got the bug screen on the grill. But that doesn’t help anything. So I got a Chrome Bug Shield on the hood. You know, just except a little ways. And so far, it always let a lot of lag on me. I took it and I gotta wrap it on it. America Schlag rap. And that’s unique.
Jeremy Kellett 16:00
That’s awesome. What do you plan else to do to it? Got any other things planned?
Mike Durbin 16:07
I want to put a couple more when I go back home, because the next time I’ve talked to Chrome Shop, I’ve got I wanted to put the white six on the back, like you see on a TV. Yeah, she ordered me a set, while the guy the shops and the king do them. But I’ve done figured out where we can put them. And I’m gonna put them on there to get them put on. I was wanting to put his show, but I didn’t want—
Wanda Durbin 16:28
Yeah, I was hoping to put them on and have some little American flags on top of them. Yeah, that was that would have been nice. But we haven’t gotten that done.
Jeremy Kellett 16:37
So what made y’all enter this pride and polish show?
Mike Durbin 16:41
I’ve never had a truck that I could enter anywhere. I could enter in a junk dealer. You want the junkiest truck? Well then, I’m your man.
Wanda Durbin 16:53
It’s just we finally have a new track and it’s something we can show up and be proud of.
Mike Durbin 16:58
One guy said, “You want to win?” I don’t care. I don’t know. No. I am very grateful.
Wanda Durbin 17:06
We’re less concerned with winning, we’re just flattered with the fact that we have something that we can be proud enough to enter in.
Mike Durbin 17:13
That’s all. That’s all I care about.
Wanda Durbin 17:16
If it weren’t for working here, I couldn’t do it. We wouldn’t have the means to purchase a truck like this. And we wouldn’t have the means to to do what we do.
Jeremy Kellett 17:27
So let’s talk a little bit about that then. Tell me about your story, if you can think back here four years ago in the process of coming over. So you made a decision to come to Oakley for some reason.
Mike Durbin 17:39
She called me. I was in that really dissatisfied. Whatever you can talk to you. I was and I was working at allegedly plum tanks in my home. And I told her, I just want to be home. I just want to be home.
Wanda Durbin 17:52
Not only that, but he wasn’t getting paid for what the time he was putting in and what he was doing the miles he was driving.
Mike Durbin 18:02
And Dustin and call me. He he called everyone already contacted. He’d call me every once awhile. And he called me one more time I’ve talked called he said, I said Redash. I said I’m thinking about doing he said, You welcome Come on. I called her and I said you know, I want to do this. And she said, Well, let me let me do something. Let me take care of so she called me she said if you’re ready, we can do it.
Wanda Durbin 18:27
I had been working on our credit and I knew that if we were going to get if he was going to become an owner operator, we needed to have good credit. And we needed to hit get where I’m thought would be able to have working capital and to where we would be able to have some money to put down on a new truck or new or used she wanted me to buy a new one. I said I wanted him to start off with a new one. And he was too nervous about it. He said the payment would be too high. And I said well you don’t know until you check. We’ve come to find out we would have been smartest to give him the start off when the new truck and and and. But just know that we started off with the we started off with the 2016 579 It was 100 Bill restaurant. And we actually bought it online. We’d never bought a vehicle online before and I talked salesmen into doing a Facebook wall you own this truck. So and we were really, really nervous coming out here. He was really happy with the fact that you guys were willing to let me come to orientation.
Mike Durbin 19:44
Y’all treated her like a bride.
Wanda Durbin 19:47
I was allowed to ask questions. I wasn’t dismissed.
Jeremy Kellett 19:53
So that made a little bit that made a difference.
Wanda Durbin 19:55
It really did. He had already made the commit. You already made the commitment. When you come to orientation orientation, but you have the opportunity to make that final decision whether you want to stay.
Mike Durbin 20:06
And they treated her. Paid for her meal.
Wanda Durbin 20:08
But also the pay scale here makes all the difference in the world, and you guys do pretty much everything for us. It’s like getting Laquan it’s like getting a franchise. It’s similar, very similar to getting an Uber that you guys, hey, help us handle the heavy road use tax. I don’t have to go to the tax office and sit there and wait in line and go down there and pay. I know I can call Wendy, or if Wendy’s not in, one of the other ladies in the office and y’all can handle it. Don’t do it. Don’t y’all get that done for us. You take care of the tag on the truck. Whenever we tat when we tag our truck when we first titled y’all handle that you get as the least expensive tat intact as an insurance, the tag the insurance is handled for it for a pass, you put your pre pass. We do pay for some of the tolls, of course, yeah, but not all of them.
Jeremy Kellett 21:13
So this was your first owner operator experience?
Wanda Durbin 21:18
No, it wasn’t. But also the fuel. You guys help hold the credit together for us to be able to get our fuel if we don’t have good enough credit, which we we do actually did at the time. But we had the confidence of knowing that we were always going to be able to afford fuel because Oakley puts their credit on the line for the driver to be able to get the fuel you make sure that we can get our fuel and go from point A to point B. And y’all pay for our miles. MTN autoload that brighter day for the drivers waiting time.
Jeremy Kellett 22:03
So think back four years ago. Nervous? You said—
Mike Durbin 22:08
Oh, I was nervous. I said it to Petro. When she left orientation. I sat down that truck. And I looked at myself soon. Who am I gonna call when I break down? I was scared!
Jeremy Kellett 22:24
Sure. Then so you think about four years ago, starting this journey coming to Oakley nervous wreck to where you are now four years later. And what’s the difference in how you felt four years ago to how you feel now?
Mike Durbin 22:39
I’m going anytime I mean that I had to have and I ended up I had to come in to safety. They’re doing their job. And I made the comment. I said, What do I need to do to correct whatever I’ve done wrong? I have no problem. Whatever it is, I’m going to cry. Because I go home and tell her. I’m not working at Oakley no more. Let me get my bags and leave right there. Let me leave right now. I mean, I wouldn’t try this. Or differences. When we go into store or go somewhere? Can we buy this? Of course.
Wanda Durbin 23:14
We don’t have to worry about whether we can afford anything or not. I’ve paid off our automobiles this year. It took us two or three years to build up to that, but I paid off our automobiles this year. We don’t have a mortgage, but if we’d had a mortgage, we’d have been able to pay a lot down on it. We have money in the bank. We have working capital, we have emergency capital for ourselves. It’s just a world of difference. We’re making a profit by him working here. There’s a you and I don’t have to go to work. He works at home. And my job is to to check the bills and make sure he does get paid correctly, which 99% of the time? He does, there might be one little thing that is missed. And I call up and I put in my email you guys I’ve actually talked to you once or twice even because I couldn’t get a hold of somebody in the office. But there’s always somebody whenever you call, you’re going to get an answer on the phone. You may not get the person that you thought you were going to call but there’s gonna be somebody that answers that guy’s phone if he’s away from his desk. Yeah. And you get transferred to somebody that can give you an answer. And it’ll get corrected like that. You take care of it.
Jeremy Kellett 24:32
What about the job, Mike? As far as doing pneumatics you know, a lot of people are a little timid about doing that a little nervous about doing that the blowers expensive to get into it. What would you tell somebody that’s thinking about doing a pneumatic tank that never heard has before but are interested in doing it? Do you think it’s a something they should do?
Mike Durbin 24:53
Yes, absolutely. I mean, I can teach anybody how to pump that tank on. It’s not learning how to do it. So I’m learning If what you’re hauling and how far you’re pumping it all out open that valve of how to not to put too much product and understanding what you’re doing getting a routine down. Yes. I would tell anybody to come here. If you want to do pneumatic Yes, the blowers $10,000 investment. We paid for it. We put it on there we have gotten an extra blower, but still, it’s great. And if you’re not comfortable with that, you got other options. Guys, make it so easy for a driver. I’ve taught the drivers here lately. I’ve talked to drivers when the money was up here, what three months ago when a wheelbarrow now they’re saying how much are you making nothing. And I show my numbers don’t like how it ends right there.
Wanda Durbin 25:53
It’s just an whether they want to get out there and irrelevant.
Jeremy Kellett 25:57
Yeah, that’s a big difference if people want to work or not.
Mike Durbin 26:00
I say about a month. You know, the whole week y’all never saw you never said always get home whenever? Yes, I asked. So I just wanted to tell them. He gets me home. He gets me that. He gets him that work. I do it. Money’s there. Every week. It’s just it’s like she said I said he I bring the building. You put your name on it. It’s like a franchise. I don’t care. what anybody says all the money is here.
Wanda Durbin 26:29
Y’all have the safety department. Y’all handle that for us. Yeah, we don’t have to handle that. You put the ELD in the trucks. ELD. Right.
Jeremy Kellett 26:40
Yeah, the Geotab Yeah. Geotab drive. So I can tell I can tell that one. I hate to tell you this month, but you’re spoiled rotten with this one.
Mike Durbin 26:52
See, you know, somebody says your wife works. Yep. Where she works. She works with our business, because he takes care of everything that we’re I don’t have to take her.
Jeremy Kellett 27:02
You have enough to worry about driving down the road. Driving down the highway these days you have enough to worry about and loading and unloading the trailer making sure the customer is taken care of.
Mike Durbin 27:13
They feel good. For sure. There’s days that are you know, oh my gosh, and I don’t feel it. And she’ll say, hey, look, what what do we need to do?
Wanda Durbin 27:22
He broke down the other night with a tie. Oh, my gosh, and wanted to drive to that tire? I said, No, no, no, no, he was all nervous and worried about getting to his delivery on top. I said, But honey got to get there safely. Number one, I said, don’t worry about what your dispatcher is going to think about whether you get there on time or not. Think about what you know, the safety issue is they’re there. Their number one concern is safety. Anyway, so let’s just give me regrade you calm down, you just I was in the truck and get you some rest for a few minutes. And about 30 minutes later, I looked around on my, on my, on the GPS on my phone. And I tried to come up with a company where he was located. And I looked on the GPS to see what’s around there. And I call Peter Well, I’m gonna use the truck app. I can’t remember what the app is called.
Mike Durbin 28:23
I know what you’re talking about.
Wanda Durbin 28:24
Anyway, we were going to use a truck app to find a location to get a new tire from but I looked and he wasn’t very far from the Peterbilt in Tallahassee and I lived in us all. Well, there have been many until midnight. So I called them got their phone number and I told him I say called him up. They’ll put you on with up with somebody with a new with and I thought myself that, like you said, it’s my job to support you.
Mike Durbin 28:52
And I called Oh yeah, I had a guy got it resolved.
Jeremy Kellett 28:57
Let’s take quick break in listen to our sponsor LubeZone.
You’ve been hearing me talk about lube zone 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 29:10
The price is great. The service is great. From time when I pulled in the door. What a 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 that showed me that all they had all the Horsham owned renters showed me my rear end wall on paper and they did their job. They were just it was very nice to go somewhere. Get what you wanted done and and go I was very pleased by it. And like I said very satisfied. I won’t go out of my way from now on to go there.
Jeremy Kellett 29:45
Check out lubezone.com for all their services and all their locations and tell them you heard it on the Oakley podcast.
Was it you who told me you had a Lubezone experience?
Mike Durbin 29:55
Yes. One hour. Drive in
Jeremy Kellett 29:56
What LubeZone was this at?
Mike Durbin 29:59
It was in Texas. No, no it’s Oh, it is Houston I would say I forgot Dan BI H town Baytown get them people I pulled in and I’m a Tron girl come out there here didn’t they was on it and I timed it and I someone just said they’re 59 minutes I was out the door. Great discount the girl I had a discount card. She said no. I’ve got a better discount for you Oakley gets $100 off. Really? I kept my $50 card put it she put that back and use it nighttime. Three it was it was below 320 $330 For a full blown or changing filters blew everything. Awesome. One hour I was in and out as worse. He had more of a morale.
Jeremy Kellett 30:56
Well I’m glad you tried it. We like to have some feedback.
Mike Durbin 30:59
Yeah, they’re great. And another one of y’all is vendors good year. Rather, we’re here Mark had a problem getting an estimate from another tire shop. She wanted she so I got to see the numbers. I want to see the numbers.
Wanda Durbin 31:14
This was right after he got the head the balloon tire road already planned on getting some new tires.
Mike Durbin 31:18
And so I said Oakley out of Bengal there were good year so I called Mark marcha. Yep. Well how many tires Johnny nine. He said here send an email price. He said fine. Anything you bring your truck down. We’ll take yours off. I’ll give you X amount of dollars after experience was great also took good care of us.
Wanda Durbin 31:40
And they were willing to send me Oh, he told him a credit estimate not some scribbled out piece of paper.
Mike Durbin 31:50
And he told me, she’s I said, Well, I’m gonna pay what he paid for him tomorrow. Something might. I’m thinking but he you know, you guys really have a lot of trust in me locally, Robert? Yeah. And I told him, I said, Why don’t we pay for it? No. That’s fine. You can pay for it now, tomorrow.
Jeremy Kellett 32:07
Okay, so Mrs. Wanda, do you ride with him very often?
Wanda Durbin 32:11
I haven’t gotten to you very often. I think I’ve ridden with you on fear five occasions and four or five occasions but whenever I have, it’s really enjoyable. The first dispatcher he had sent us one of the most memorable rips out of the the top like the eight week period now was with you to me was when mica sent us over to Durango. And we went up through the mountain. He ended up in Green River, Wyoming. It was just beautiful. We got to see everything and I really enjoyed going with him and I like going out and seeing the country I like to see the places where he goes and loads and it’s interested in the process.
Mike Durbin 32:58
Oh, she loves it. Yeah, and most of the companies are talk to us. Oh yeah, we were digging out this mountain.
Wanda Durbin 33:04
I’m allowed to get out of the truck or most of the places but I don’t mind because it gives him a chance to get out there and do what he’s got to do. And I’ll fix them a meal or something so whenever he gets back in the truck gets ready.
Jeremy Kellett 33:17
So what do you what do you guys do when you’re at home on your time off?
Wanda Durbin 33:20
Oh man. We have grandkids. Take them out to eat.
Mike Durbin 33:26
We take an ice cream run. I open up my truck, I let my grandkids get up in there and we do an ice cream run and they know grandpa’s home. We’re gonna do ice cream is just a few minutes down the street down the street. They load up. I eat down there. They’re sitting there with their ice creams and they all know grandpa’s truck means ice cream run.
Wanda Durbin 33:51
He’s allowed a short period of the CIO he takes advantage of that.
Mike Durbin 33:57
Ice cream run Yeah, I like to go with him. Yes. And then she’s you know not taking nothing away from what I do. But we’ve got 10 acres Okay, we just bought.
Wanda Durbin 34:10
He bought me guests because over my anniversary gift What is it is not an anniversary rating or anything like that. It was an anniversary tractor.
Mike Durbin 34:21
Oh, bad boy tractor with a grappler front end loaders he put a buzzer we got where they had we cheered they had another tractor or dad gave or had any intention to drop anyone mower by bonding. She’s out there.
Jeremy Kellett 34:33
How many years is this anniversary so I know.
Mike Durbin 34:37
39 years this we just had yeah and and then next will be 40 years and we’re going to do something.
Wanda Durbin 34:42
I think. Neither one of us was very good at keeping up with the date.
Jeremy Kellett 34:47
39. That’s awesome.
Mike Durbin 34:49
She’s put up with a lot. I am telling you. I’m telling you right now.
Wanda Durbin 34:58
I’m not easy to live with.
Jeremy Kellett 35:00
I hope I can get away with buying my wife a bad boy tractor.
Mike Durbin 35:04
No nobody else has rode the tractor she’s been the only one out there and and the bus he gets out and Moses and the neighbors.
Wanda Durbin 35:11
I’ve used the grappler a few times my daughter and I we cut up a tree two weeks ago it fell and wow, just very narrowly missed a fence and she got out there with a chainsaw and our we got out there with a chainsaw and a hole saw and cut tree up small enough for my tractor to carry it.
Mike Durbin 35:29
And you’re off for ice cream.
Wanda Durbin 35:37
We wouldn’t have been able to get that tractor had he not been worked for…
Mike Durbin 35:43
I mean, ice cream runs very important that cause Yeah, trouble were there.
Wanda Durbin 35:50
We’ll have to put a wrap on the truck that says this truck makes ice cream runs or something.
Jeremy Kellett 35:57
I love it. You guys are awesome, man. It’s fun to talk to you.
Mike Durbin 36:04
I’m gonna say and I wouldn’t decision for this company. And I’m not saying that just to say I am telling anybody that watches one of these signs. You want to make money? Come over here. Bring your truck. Your take care of it.
Jeremy Kellett 36:20
It’s not that complicated. No,
Wanda Durbin 36:22
no nice. Make it so easy. I’ll do well, they’ll be you
Jeremy Kellett 36:25
haven’t people like y’all make it easy? on us? I don’t think you understand how easy you make our job two, that makes a big difference. I haven’t people that take care of things. I mean, you know, you’re you’re very sensitive to safety and customer service. Yes. And you take care of things with the paperwork and making sure the checks are run and everything like that, and you give him support. And this support is what, unfortunately, a lot of people are missing. I think in a good marriage that y’all have and the support y’all do for each other. That makes a huge difference and profiting and being a success.
Wanda Durbin 37:00
If, if the wife or partner can get on board and understand that she’s part of a team, we’re only going to benefit her the fact that
Mike Durbin 37:11
you’re both. You’re both here, if you want going that way and one’s going that way. We don’t work. Once you say I mean, I mean, I mean I don’t care but and even
Wanda Durbin 37:21
if even if it’s the wife out there driving and supporting her kids, she’s got somebody back at home to support her. No matter who it is. The man or the woman or both of Meson team, team, even team drivers, they gotta be able to support one another and be on the same mindset.
Mike Durbin 37:42
And the one thing you come to hopefully, you will look around this short today. Young, we don’t have jump or jump around good looking truck to either the drivers are robbing banks or making money.
Wanda Durbin 37:58
Well, that’s another way they’re not robbing banks. Right. It’s another reason getting back to one of the subjects that we you asked us about was one of the reasons why we bought the truck that we bought, instead of buying a used truck. I got hooked, we had our used truck to start off with and we got to the point where sure the payment was in the truck. It wasn’t the truck payment is beginning to get more and more maintenance and more and more maintenance. And I sat there and I did the profit and loss margins on what we were spending on maintenance. And it was getting upwards of 5000 on average. And then it was starting to get where it was moving up towards $10,000 a month. And I said oh no, no, no, I said, You’re right, we need to go on a truck mechanic. And our truck payment is under 3000. And whenever we knew I knew that we could, we were spending we could Fortis pin by $1,000 a month on maintenance and truck payment combined, that if we could do that we could certainly afford a new truck, which would not have all the breakdowns that was costing us so much money and now we’re actually making more money, right? Because we’re having less money out of pocket.
Jeremy Kellett 39:14
That’s a great way to look at it.
Mike Durbin 39:15
I don’t you’re either
Wanda Durbin 39:16
going to have like we say all the time, we’re either gonna have a truck payment, or you’re going to have mechanic payment, I hope so. If you’re got your downtime, that means you got less time that you’re making money. Also, you’re losing money there as well. Yeah, real good point right there. I
Mike Durbin 39:33
hope that anybody watching this, as of right now, I’m over 200,000 Money in the Bank that I put in from hopefully making some more money. That’s awesome. I don’t know what else to tell anybody, Jeremy.
Wanda Durbin 39:48
I mean, it’s not even the end of the year.
Jeremy Kellett 39:50
Here October
Mike Durbin 39:51
and y’all make it I mean, we’re sitting over here and I know some of you will see that all they’re just blowing smoke
Wanda Durbin 39:59
out the air I don’t have a settlement. And that’s nice that we can we can share. I can show that information. I
Mike Durbin 40:05
look at it like, well, how can we
Wanda Durbin 40:08
recruited a few drivers and so
Jeremy Kellett 40:10
you got to work to do that, though, Mike. That’s the key. I mean, that’s why, you know, so you’re told you last night you were top three, number three in the company on pneumatic blown away. I mean,
Mike Durbin 40:21
we were surprised. I was humbled. And then this picture, I’m humbled. And then the
Wanda Durbin 40:27
show. It’s nice that y’all recognize drivers too.
Mike Durbin 40:30
And the show and you don’t want I don’t care. I don’t care about wow, I really don’t. Right. I’m just out there. Oh, who stops that? Oh, pain. That looks good. I’m happy to do
Wanda Durbin 40:41
that. And that’s for the fun of it. That’s one of the fun things y’all do in the company party. Is something fun that y’all do for us. And I know that y’all give out hand out a lot of prizes and recognition awards.
Mike Durbin 40:56
And one more thing before I know we’ll probably almost done end of the year. Y’all hand the driver, a chest X amount of dollars. Oh, yeah. So don’t have to pay it. We’ve already been paid for the mouth. That’s
Wanda Durbin 41:11
free man. Many drivers say I’ve heard I worked. I used to work.
Jeremy Kellett 41:15
Let me clarify. They’re talking about their anniversary. Yeah, that’s
Wanda Durbin 41:19
how many drivers I’ve heard because I worked at a truck stop selling barbecue behind the seven cow chrome shop from Wildwood years ago. And I talked to drivers every day. And they would say I wish I had a nickel a mile or even just a penny a mile for every mile I drove. Well, are we really does it
Mike Durbin 41:39
does it I mean y’all give us a check. I don’t know we got paid it’s already here.
Jeremy Kellett 41:45
It’s it’s that is a super you know sometimes the mileage bonus that we give every owner operator is based on the loaded miles you’re on in a year’s time and on your anniversary date. We just cut you a check for that and it’s not
Mike Durbin 41:59
it’s free money this money I don’t care per night.
Jeremy Kellett 42:04
It just gives you something to look forward to every year to get it so three way you guys
Wanda Durbin 42:09
you guys compensate drivers for for recruiting? Oh, I mean, you reward us for every logo. Every little thing.
Jeremy Kellett 42:20
You can get Oakley podcast hat for coming. Yeah. That’s how we broke last year appreciate y’all taking the time to come up here and visit with me it’s really good stuff. I’m a really good stuff. I know we were just gonna talk about the truck in the beginning but I love I love to just keep talking with y’all about your success story here. Thank you very authentic and they just means a lot and I really liked the more we had this conversation. I like the wives perspective. Yeah, a little bit more and I think that’ll carry a lot of a lot of weight a lot of people
Wanda Durbin 42:55
whenever I know he’s here because I’ve been here, it feels like home to me almost like a second home to me. It’s in it’s like kind of like a little vacation place too. And the drivers lounge even though the old drivers lounge wasn’t as nice as the drivers lounge that is here. It made me feel good that I knew that he had a place to go to get a shower and wash his clothes and then someplace safe and just not eBay can just walk in and out of there. I see that new drivers line lounges
Mike Durbin 43:28
all Banaz themed with come on up here.
Jeremy Kellett 43:32
I’m glad you’re here. Yeah, the weekend. Yes, I am. So better let y’all get out there. Yeah.
Mike Durbin 43:40
I want to get down that group down. All down there as I’ll tell him but tell him Yeah, I
Jeremy Kellett 43:44
was in them up here. I go get them going. Jeremy. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate y’all doing it. I really do want to thank you. Appreciate it. Good stuff. We enjoyed being here. All right, we’ll talk to you. Thanks, everybody for tuning in to the Oakley podcast. We appreciate everybody listening SUBSCRIBE, LIKE comment, share with your friends spread the word about this thing. It really helps a lot and and we’ll come at you next week with another one appreciate you.
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