This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with William Burdine, one of our Owner Operators at Oakley. During the episode, William shares his success story and how he grossed $308,000 last year. Jeremy and William talk about the trucking industry, having a good family-life balance, the value of community and friendships at Oakley, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Fuel mileage (2:41)
- Working in trucking while having a family (3:11)
- William’s journey to Oakley (7:40)
- Unusual loads (13:40)
- Trucking in extreme weather (14:32)
- Importance of friendships at Oakley (15:46)
- How William grossed $308,000 at Oakley last year (18:02)
- Social media and trucking (19:19)
- Importance of the relationship between driver and dispatcher (22:52)
- Advice for young people to get into trucking (26:01)
- Opportunities in trucking (35:22)
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
William Burdine 00:12
I saw a TikTok the other day of a driver and he’s a fairly new driver as well. And he’s got a beautiful truck so like then he’s doing a really good job of explaining Oakley on TikTok as far as the pay and stuff like that you had a very good job of pretty accurate. Maybe someone commented on his TikTok about I’m making $7,000 a week, you’re making chump change. I commented I’m making that now and I don’t have any trailer fees, no trailer maintenance, don’t operate authority. I’m showing you cheaper fuel and everything else. Yeah. And of course I shouldn’t comment but I did it anyway.
Jeremy Kellett 00:42
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, there’s Jeremy kellett director 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 148. So on today’s episode, we’re gonna listen to one of Oakleys owner operators’ success stories and he’s from the younger generation. William bar Dan from Kentucky he tells us about how he wanted to be an owner operator from a young age and wanted to do something different in the trucking industry. William also talks about some of the unique products he’s hauled and what they’re used for. There’s some great couple of interesting stories with that. And joining me is Miles Mason. We’re gonna sit down with William and one of Oakley’s finest and talk about how he grew $308,000 Last year, so be sure to stick around and listen to this episode. It is sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales. Arrow Truck Sales has been in business for over 60 years and a longtime partner of Oakley trucking and the Oakley podcast. Dre visor and Keith Wilson do a great job at putting you in the right truck to fit your needs and our needs here at Oakley. They carry all makes and models to choose from with on site financing through transport funding. So whether you’re a seasoned owner operator or a first time buyer, be sure to contact Keith Wilson at Arrow Truck Sales at 573-216-6047 and tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast
William Burdine 02:41
was locked oh but my truck scenes are a little better of a pilot fuel I can usually get and
Jeremy Kellett 02:50
you know you would think trucks go in there I mean delivering fuel. It ain’t like the
William Burdine 02:54
I guess it’s just a blend maybe because I get about a half a mile a gallon better out of a pilot cuz I can go to heart miles. I would think it feels like my truck. I have to get fuel. And that matters. I have you know half a mile again. Yeah, it really counts up.
Jeremy Kellett 03:11
The fuel mileage is I think a lot of people do not realize how much money that is from six miles per gallon to eight miles per gallon.
William Burdine 03:20
It matters. I wish my truck would get 10 Miles. Yeah, I’m a tandem. Of course I had my other truck then. And I was getting seven, seven and a half out of that retro with that tandem. No kidding. And that was me going 70 miles on air. You know what kind of truck you get now. A 2018 QR t 880. Okay, I bought it. December of last year. I replaced it with a 2016 Kenworth t 680. And it was not a medic, and it had a lower gate like the gears are more for fuel modules and more for poorly you know, we’re always 80,000 pounds. So you get two hills or I live in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and the hills. I was feel like I was gonna get push it up the hill sometimes as a day but it made for that, you know, this one here, there’s a lot better as far as
Jeremy Kellett 04:04
so you kind of knew you just got your truck to get in and or you had that truck we came over
William Burdine 04:09
because I was pulling the drive and I was pulling the drop outs and I was still getting good fuel mileage and when he was only like 30,000 pounds 25 So really, it done they sent me it wasn’t no pull a champ up the hill but it didn’t decent, you know? And I came over here and it’s just even if I could have 4748 with the other truck in tandem. So that’s a lot of white. A lot white. Yeah. That’s a total woman. Yeah, so I did like it. What were you doing? Prior to coming to Oakley you’d
Jeremy Kellett 04:39
said some down there you worked at DirecTV and well you went
William Burdine 04:44
Yeah, I went to get my CDL and then I went and there’s a place by the house that I grew up in in my truck . Now he owns his own brokerage business. So he you know brokers that loads of work that well, the poor for him driving history of foreclose and about a house payment I came over there, and I would take him up to wherever. And then I had to, I had to shoot out. Kaymer was now in debt. And you would go up there and you Fatima loads back to back to her that was to pick at the port Livesey and then go back up. Okay. I’ve done that. And I said Siva had it, and then Ryder bought it. And it just dropped the rates by almost $1 When we’re doing that, because even the back because at the time backhauls were us doing this enough to let cover up to get back. And that was it. Yeah. So you were driving the truck for Direct TV? No, that was fine. It was at a time but then I quit there and then bought my own truck when my grandpa passed away. And we got some inheritance money, you know. So I put that as a pre hefty down payment on that rate truck and started my trucking business. Good for you, grandpa. Good the way he was, I’m alive. Yeah. Let’s do this now. So what did he do? If he was a
Jeremy Kellett 06:03
Is he still alive? Okay. I think so. Inheritance. I thought you Yeah, let’s see. Yeah, lucky might still be
William Burdine 06:09
here. He was a maintenance worker at Okinawa Cable who kept me in Richmond for 16 years. And every day he retired, and we had a pretty big farm when I was growing up. So I say the biggest 100 and some acres, but pretty good. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 06:22
And your dad was
William Burdine 06:23
He was a truck driver as well. So but he passed away, he arrived right out of high school. And then my grandma passed away and my grandpa passed away last. Oh, so all of them are gone perfectly as my mom and my sister and my aunt. Let’s get them all over there. And, Emir from where? Houston to Kentucky, Houston to Kentucky. Okay. I’ve been there. I lived on the side of the county where I married my wife and then we moved all the way to the other side of the county.
Jeremy Kellett 06:49
Family all around that area. Those who get family around pretty close. Yeah,
William Burdine 06:54
yeah. Her family lives. Like I get full rock and get back at her grandpa’s farm, though. Nice to be married, how
Jeremy Kellett 07:01
Have you been married?
William Burdine 07:02
been 10 years and married for or do you hit her for 12? He was highschool sweethearts. You could say also, kids for you got
Jeremy Kellett 07:11
to work out. How are you kids?
William Burdine 07:13
10 than six and four or three? I’m sorry, three.
Jeremy Kellett 07:16
Oh, wow. That’s great. Mama Z locks it when you come home. She’s probably worn out.
William Burdine 07:22
She’s busy. She’s a busy woman because my eldest really helps out a lot to watch all my kids really, they’re really on my show none of my kids really. So as far as I can take care of ourselves. So like they’re pretty good kids makes
Jeremy Kellett 07:35
It’s nice. I get a little bit older. What do y’all do in your spare time?
William Burdine 07:40
That’s what we summon in our nothing really, unfortunately, I get home and I’ve kind of just, you know, sit down and relax and play video games that fortunately when I’m at home some to some like that near to summer. We like to do things like boiler rides and stuff like that. Usually I just made my wife because we can’t fit all the kids if I’m too cheap to buy a cyber slot or something. I can save that much for something you just want to use on the weekends.
Jeremy Kellett 08:07
I can’t either. I can’t do those things. We’ve gotten ridiculously but
William Burdine 08:11
I bought mine. I got a 20 to 2100 form and I bought it. Kelly’s red coat is a little bit after COVID like $7,700 and now they’re like 885 for the same thing. They said they still can’t get them crazy. And
Jeremy Kellett 08:27
yeah. So people just buy them.
Myles Mason 08:31
I ended up
William Burdine 08:32
I couldn’t see buying. I can’t pay for a raise. You’re like 20-30,200 towers are like 26,000 for a four seater hotel. I
Myles Mason 08:40
I can’t even drive it on the road. Maybe half of it. Is that just the status? Being able to buy one,
William Burdine 08:44
I guess. But yeah, I thought you had to have a pretty hefty truck to pull that plus a 16 foot trailer at least to pull that 16 foot trailer. Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m saying 18,000. Maybe more I don’t know. And then big hat or big auto insurance? Yeah, insane. It is. It was money. Well, mine and I got problems like
Jeremy Kellett 09:08
They act like they got money. They’re probably all broke. So you were doing some of this stuff before you found Oakley what? How did you find Oakley and what made you want to come to Oakley?
William Burdine 09:20
Well, I want to do something different. Really? Because you know anybody can hold robots. I want them to be a little different. As you say cooler I guess as you see, you see it in WCM big Peter Bosco in a row with a big W knives all lit up and stuff you know, I want to be so coarse. But that was because I just wanted something different. Something different. And this is very different. This is nothing like I’ve ever done
Jeremy Kellett 09:46
before. Said you ran into one of our owner operators somewhere you heard us on the radio, the first
William Burdine 09:50
rgl on radio and I looked at the YouTube videos that the owner said that you guys had a customer who was all on air but it was notable because you’ve been here three years. Yes sir. Yeah. And like having interest because you don’t have some of the videos they show doing it and stuff like that and talking about it. Then you say you bumped into Andy Zimmerman. Yes sir. And you serve up there and the love rap rap brings it to Detroit, Michigan. Got up there. You saw him sitting there and went after Yeah, part of it came apart, nice tamer, a couple of rows down from him, and are taller. So we spent about an hour and a half talking about Oakley. And he showed me how to do the trailer and kind of gave me the runaround and stuff of it. And he put my information on the website and I give you the hangers the next day or the day after Dustin called me and I was
Jeremy Kellett 10:41
starting talking to you recruiting you Yeah,
William Burdine 10:42
you love at first sight. It was there. If I remember right, it was winter. It was like, came with exact time but it was like November is when he put all that stuff in. And I couldn’t come to Atlanta initially it was April and then they had some cancellations does come into that you want them earliest and sure they obviously are the first week of December of 2019. So when I started will tell us about
Jeremy Kellett 11:06
you know working you know you went from Drive and I guess to you know it’s their job to come into this you wanted something different well you got something different at it. Yeah. What’s so different about it? You know, compared to that
William Burdine 11:20
mostly just a product you haul really and you know you’re getting it from aluminum chips to rock to aluminum Carlin’s alloys, you name it, we hot in here, and just a lot different than backing up to a doc and you never know what you’re getting. And this is I mean, this your, you’re interactive with it, you know, you’re kind of like saying what’s your haul and may have to move it around? You know,
Jeremy Kellett 11:42
interesting to see what it goes into to
William Burdine 11:45
exactly I got ever realized. Like, like, I know, raw materials. You know, I like some of the stuff that I’ve talked to these places I never would have imagined that went into the process of, you know, like steel alloys you take depending on what you’re making. Make the steel of it, how thick the steel and stuff is. And like I never would have imagined them little rocks could make that steel either. You know how thick it is?
Myles Mason 12:07
Did you watch the Alltech episode that we did? I did? Yeah. I thought that was very interesting. It was
Jeremy Kellett 12:13
Yeah, that was good. You know, I saw him at the tacos for life last year. Really? Yeah, he was he Oh, man. He had the rest of his crew there. Yeah. As soon as I went up to the table, I forgot his name, actually. But I said hi to him. And he said, man, how are you? Good. Hi, how are you doing? I said, good. And then this other guy stood up and said, Hey, I know you’re on the radio. Are you already on the YouTube podcast?
Myles Mason 12:37
Introduce me to a bunch of them too. And they’re all super nice people. Yeah, that’s cool. It’s like seeing where all of those loads go. Yeah. You know, that scrap? The whole process of? Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 12:51
Glad to know. You’re a piece of that. Right? Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We take pride in it. I mean,
William Burdine 12:56
I did a load here that was killed months ago. I probably spent about a month ago picking up an avalanche field and ash wood lamp up here. So what are we doing and we took it to another land field in Alabama. Mike, what are you doing with it? I went there to you know, get to the customer and deliver it and he said that Ash. It’s got five metals in it. And he said they’re from Denmark, I believe is what he said they were from. And he said that they got three different places in the states and there’s a bit of one in Michigan. So he wants some Tange product from Michigan brought down to Alabama so like I said he wanted to build a place up there, but he had a pyromania about five foot tall, and maybe 10 foot wide. That’s about $300,000 sitting right there. And it was lacking metals that they had gotten out of Ash No kidding. Yeah. And I worked this out. I had a really big dumpster sitting there to the side for that product that he’s taking to a recycling center. Yeah, yeah, I mean, who would who would think I never would imagine they put it to his big tiny like how tech does with their scrap and they get the trash big machines that yeah, that’s what they did with it and I had three Bandy city fan and they’re like conveyor top deal. The thing is, I only put it in there and I had to find that it kind of turns around Okay, and it goes down through the machine and they drop it into different bands depending on the size of the product. He said, Get More candy and I asked him at the end of a conveyor what he was talking about, and they put lodash back onto us and we took it back up to landfills in Michigan and dumped it back in the landfill.
Jeremy Kellett 14:27
That’s crazy. It really was it is
Myles Mason 14:30
Can we ever have a load freeze on you?
William Burdine 14:32
Here was my first year here like it came here was like March or something like that. It may owe you something about February so we might have been more so he was in Georgia picking we’re talking about Georgia tickets to Scotts Eagan Missouri believe it was little rock it was like 80 degrees down there. Go halfway across through there and it was zero and snowing. Oh my gosh. Yeah, we got there. I got there this morning to unload it and it was like But shorts there were frozen. No.
Myles Mason 15:01
So how do you even deal with a situation like that? Where are you all frozen solid?
William Burdine 15:08
Yeah, well, I got lucky some of it came out. I like the walls he had really, and he was gonna get a shovel and go at it. You know, Oakley workout programs that could use it to your
Myles Mason 15:20
I remember when I was talking to Jimmy a couple of weeks ago he was talking about when he had a when he was I think he was going up to Manitoba. We’re talking about Manitoba earlier. He had a load freeze on him and he was just in the back just shoveling it. And then he saw a shovel get thrown over the side into it into his end up and another Oakley owner operator was just hopped in. Didn’t even know him. It just started helping him. shovel it.
William Burdine 15:46
What’s good, is
Jeremy Kellett 15:48
we were talking about that you’ve made some good friends over three years you’ve been here now have
William Burdine 15:51
you got more friends from Oakley that do anywhere else? Really? Yeah.
Myles Mason 15:56
You still keep up with some of the guys that you went through orientation with right?
William Burdine 16:00
I got one guy here though. I remember the only like, there’s only three left that I can remember that’s still here. But I still took it up with a guy that went to come in to talk to the guy.
Myles Mason 16:11
Community. You can edit the
Jeremy Kellett 16:16
Have you ever talked to Andy anymore? Yeah. And get recruited? Yeah,
William Burdine 16:18
I saw he had a great picture on Facebook. It was last week. Yeah, he got saved by a customer. And they got talking about drones. And, he said I got drones in the truck here. And he went out and he got some cool pictures on Facebook. No kid, and I’m really cool. Really cool.
Myles Mason 16:34
They were in Tazewell, Tazewell. protectable Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 16:38
I think he’s Andy on the calendar. I believe he was Yes, sir. He might have a calendar this year.
Myles Mason 16:43
Calendar Man. Oh, yeah.
William Burdine 16:45
He’s a good guy. I first started he’s I wanted to talk to the FBI and got sick and tired of me probably. Because I was called and asked for help man, you know, I didn’t know. You know?
Jeremy Kellett 16:53
Yeah. Yeah. It’s good that you’ve got those contacts here. Because they can help you get in and out of places. I’m assuming? Oh, yeah. You can call some of these guys around. And they know how to get in and out or what time to go or what? More probably better of what not to do. Right. Yeah.
William Burdine 17:09
I’ve heard some of the places you have you have certain places you go to that the address is here. But they want you to come in on the back street to come in or something like that. And you know, and that’s good to know. Talk to people that get that kind of information that you need to do.
Jeremy Kellett 17:22
Yeah, we see trucks here. A lot of times, not necessarily our truck. Some of our trucks sometimes come out through the front parking lot of this office and go to go down the side. Street. Don’t come down Gribble Street. If you’re in a tractor trailer coming to Oakley don’t come down Gribble Street. You’re gonna watch what it says come down Lincoln Avenue.
William Burdine 17:44
I usually put it in 100 Oakley drive, and it brings you right to the front door right? Oh, does it? Yes, what I do. Of course, I’ve got Jim Ross by now but it’s another player mostly just for a time when I’m gonna get their stuff you know? So
Jeremy Kellett 17:58
How was last year, you know? You’ve been here three years and I didn’t
William Burdine 18:03
I didn’t really get my time off last evening. But the issue is my truck hit me in the year after I got here. Well done up and faced. I’ve done really well. I grossed late was 308. Last year.
Jeremy Kellett 18:14
Gross. While not that’s a single owner operator and how often do you go home?
William Burdine 18:20
Usually I think I’m stressed out more than I usually do. But usually every week. Okay. So
Myles Mason 18:27
and you mentioned that you’re thinking of switching due to pneumatics.
William Burdine 18:30
I thought about that. But I shouldn’t have. I think it’d be a lot cooler. I mean, I say cooler, but something different, you know, but I think I like the option of being able to go home if I need to go home. Like every weekend, you get four kids, I know. You need to be home. That’s why I’ve had some drivers tell me you need to go home and say well, they can and later on maybe switch yourself. And so
Myles Mason 18:50
I know a lot of guys talked about how they like science. That is the challenge and the science of running the pneumatics is just like a different problem every time. Right? Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 19:01
I haven’t caught up with Jimmy Evans on his YouTube channel. But he made that change. And I’m sure he’s talked about a monitor that probably need to go see I talked to
Myles Mason 19:09
him a couple of weeks ago. He says he loves it. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 19:13
I think Jimmy loves anything. Yeah, he’s good. He’s
Myles Mason 19:15
a great different animal, man. Yeah, he’s a character. Yeah,
William Burdine 19:19
I’ve watched some of his videos and Tanner’s as well. There’s a couple guys doing TikTok to now say that’s doing a really good job of displaying Oakley and stuff like that. That’s I
Jeremy Kellett 19:29
I mean, that’s great to hear it if you know, to get your name out there for sure. I guess I also can get a bad one. If we
Myles Mason 19:36
get in today. Don’t watch it. I’ll get into that. Did
Jeremy Kellett 19:39
I have to tell miles to the detail?
William Burdine 19:43
Do you ever get in the ditch now? Not yet. Now. I’ve been in beta for a very long time and ever had an oval ranch are
Jeremy Kellett 19:49
these two different things. So we talked about when we talk about getting into deeds, we’re talking about going down to somebody’s level to argue Oh no, I gotta put in some comments out there and you know that are not
Myles Mason 20:02
arguing with people on the internet. Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 20:06
Miles wants to and I was like
William Burdine 20:08
I’m with miles I agree with wills don’t
Myles Mason 20:11
just want to get down in there and it’s in the ditch
Jeremy Kellett 20:13
that will get stale. Did
William Burdine 20:15
I say that TikTok the other day of a driver and he’s a fairly new drivers well and Ryan Lang was Yeah, and account beautiful truck so like that he’s doing a really good job of spain Oakley on TikTok as far as like to pay and stuff like that agenda very good job. It’s pretty accurate. And someone commented on his TikTok that I’m making 7000 a week you’re like a chump change. I comment on it or so. I’m making that now and I don’t have any trailer fees, no trailer maintenance and no operating authority. I’m sure I’m gonna get cheaper fuel and everything else. Yeah. And of course I shouldn’t comment about it anyway. Yeah, the day he never called me back. So you know, he just didn’t want some. I’m just trying to get you started. Uh, yeah. So Overwatch has made me startup so
Jeremy Kellett 20:58
stay out of stay out of the internet been here three years you’ve had some ups and downs I’m sure Oh yeah. Yeah, it’s like any other any other job you’re gonna have some problems ups and downs with some of the worst problems you had with
William Burdine 21:13
this as far as my truck issues really? You know, I bought that truck and a month into it they had some issues with it but Sausalito like that as far as we paid for Prop bought it, they didn’t fix it. So anyway, Bigeye stepped down and drove it for a month as I needed to make some money and had been off for a month. You know, we have to sell mother trucks in a wicked way and that kind of stuff you know, and bought this one and grabbed a month. We like that. Then I went to the shop and had it fixed and took care of it. Within it had been sharpened, some like you know hidden chatter chatter going on. And I took it to the dealership and they said your camera’s scarred and other types of motor I’ve got you take the motor completely out and pull the camera out from the back of it in order to replace that cam alone that took us down for over a month with it. I was down for a week from Uganda in a wait for my motor out. And then they got the wrong cam sent to him because that was during Kenny’s still kinda in the park issue that they’ve still got going on pretty much. And so they came to the wrong camp. So they take it all back apart. They came back out. And they overnighted another one. It was the right one. And finally two weeks later, they finally got it figured out and stuff like that.
Jeremy Kellett 22:25
So other than truck problems. Yeah, as far as that’s what’s the worst thing? Worst thing at this job? Job you do. What’s the worst thing?
William Burdine 22:35
The worst thing? Man there’s another really terrible thing about this job. Man. There’s some stuff that you know that I don’t like scrap yards because nobody knows stuff like that. Yeah, that’s Lowe’s obvious. Yeah. As far as Oakley, I like Oakley pretty well. So,
Myles Mason 22:49
How’s your relationship with your dispatcher? Man? Well, not good. Not good.
William Burdine 22:54
This kid made him get along really? Well. We’ve only had a few miscues. But, uh, that was just, you know, that has been it, we’ve been pretty good together.
Myles Mason 23:03
What do you think is the secret to a T now having a good relationship with your dispatcher? is
William Burdine 23:08
I have to say communication and to communicate you know, we’re gonna be late gonna let somebody know, we got issues going on at home. Well, if you don’t want to reveal what it is currently, you know, tell him I got stuff going on with the home you know? Yeah. But I just communicate. I say Be honest. You don’t know, don’t lie and say something’s going on. And it’s not you know? Yeah. It goes
Jeremy Kellett 23:26
without saying I mean, honest
Myles Mason 23:29
Communication has been good with your dispatcher since you started Oakley. Just certain it is three years strong.
Jeremy Kellett 23:37
We couldn’t get him to come up here. We
William Burdine 23:39
tried to get him to he said he wasn’t going to
Jeremy Kellett 23:41
bail him out the last time we got him. Oh, yeah.
William Burdine 23:44
He’s expecting until you see he’s had that pressure till you may have passed out this stuff.
Myles Mason 23:49
That wouldn’t have been good. And let’s talk about your dad because you told me earlier that your dad was a truck driver. That’s correct. Yep. So what kind of do you know like, how he got started and why he wanted I’ve kind of what your experience being a kid
William Burdine 24:07
Oakley runs where I live but there’s not really much to do in a factory or fast food that’s gonna be better yet. So you know, he drove just to make more money. Pretty much he did it for a long time. And then there a couple years for his passing. He went local and was hunting for oil gas on propane around the houses and stuff.
Myles Mason 24:27
So and that’s what kind of primed you to have a desire to well,
William Burdine 24:31
You know, it’s crazy. I didn’t come here. It’s like third or fourth grade. You know, they go through school and like, what do you want to be when you grow up? My dad was always a truck driver for some reason, I guess because of him being worn and stuff like that. And still miles earlier downstairs. My wife has been you know, we could see her through high school so she got pregnant at a high school so I always wanted to be a cat cat 13 I was taking classes in high school to be a mechanic. I was pretty good too. Like why are you so like that? Yeah, I was very good at it. So I want to go to school to pursue that. And we’ll have had to go get a factory job, you know, kind of do schoolwork to do it all. So
Myles Mason 25:06
we’re talking about how expensive diapers are. Yeah.
William Burdine 25:09
I told him I said after 10 years I will find you to stop buying diapers. My youngest son just got out of it. So hallelujah. That’s right.
Jeremy Kellett 25:16
There’s a lot of things.
Myles Mason 25:18
How many kids do you have? Jeremy,
Jeremy Kellett 25:19
I have two boys. They’re still in diapers. Just kidding.
William Burdine 25:24
I mean, what a podcast. Is he one of your sons who moved to New York? Was that right in New York City? Is he still living up there yet still there? So he loves it. Really? That’s a fast paced it
Jeremy Kellett 25:33
it is. I was so glad that the other night he FaceTimed us and said he’s coming home to see us in April, like April the 20th. So I was relieved, because I wouldn’t want to go back to New York City. He didn’t really want to see him because we hadn’t seen him since Christmas was coming. We need to see him but glad to hear he’s coming. Yeah. coming to see us. What would you do if you’re pretty young? How old are you? I’m 3030 years old, sir. And you’ve been driving about seven years? That’s seven years. So can you tell? I mean, what would you tell somebody, young people maybe coming out of high school, you know, because I guess High School, there’s not a lot of, you don’t get introduced to trucking, and, you know, a whole lot in high school, and then you’ve got that time from the time you graduate 18 to, you know, you can actually run across the state line right now, until you’re like, 21. So, you know, 18 to 21? You have to do that in state stuff. But what would you tell a young person might be coming out of high school? How, what it’s like to become a truck driver and how good it is, or how you go about doing it maybe the best way some of the challenges you had, you know, because it’s obviously mean, you gross $308,000 Last year, I mean, you could make a good living driving a truck,
William Burdine 26:53
you definitely can’t, you just can’t be me big mega carriers, you know, I’ve heard some that people were making fairly good money and stuff like that, but that was probably the easiest route to go. You know, it’d be the eight year experience to get your, you know, your license. Surely bigger companies don’t carry and give you, you know, put you through schooling and stuff like that. But I was saying, so you got your spirits to get out of that, and start doing something better. You know, because most of the good companies, I say, get most of the better companies. And they want you to have at least two years experience. So I would say just buy your time and do the experience and pay your dues, get your
Myles Mason 27:30
feet wet with the mega carriers and then move on to Yeah,
William Burdine 27:33
That’s what I did. I went to CR England, unfortunately, and got my license out and swore I got my license. And I was making $400 a week. And I was sitting almost at home with my wife to pay for the bills. And at first. So you know, so I was eating maybe ramen noodles and a little noodles in a box? Or using points at the time to just about make it work? Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 27:59
So but you could see that it’s gonna
William Burdine 28:02
get better. Oh, yeah, the longer you’re in and the difference gets better. Allows you want to better yourself like you no doubt say some are discouraging. Like you have to, there’s always something better out there. He said,
Jeremy Kellett 28:12
so well. I just think I’m thinking of young kids coming out of high school. You know, what, how could they get into trucking? You know, and what made you get into it? Obviously, your dad was into it. So you third grade your whole class. You wanted to be a truck driver when I grew up. And that’s probably a lot of it. But you know, a lot of these kids coming out of high school are not introduced to trucking. Right. And you know, they gotta eat, they need to understand that there are those options out there. And truck driving is a good occupation. It is. Yeah, man keeps America moving. Yeah, I mean, it definitely does. And the earlier they can get introduced, the better it is, I think, yeah, obviously 30 years old.
William Burdine 28:55
Yeah. As far as I’m trying to thank
Jeremy Kellett 28:59
you. I know a lot of them just go to CDL school they’re in town or something, get their CDL and then try to get on with somebody right and lo to train them or I guess then go through like you did with a CR England or somebody like that. And then you probably pay for it and you get to stay there for so long. Right? How
William Burdine 29:17
that works. Yeah, it stayed there. It was a year later. He was in the military for nine months.
Jeremy Kellett 29:23
Okay, so you get to stay with him a year. Yeah. But she was nervous when I turned you lose for that. CDL and said Here take this fabulous trip to wherever Chicago
William Burdine 29:34
Oh, my first Dawson’s. Gary, Indiana is where their place was. So we have our trainer. Finally we went to Chicago, picked up and went to New York City. Oh my gosh, I went to Queens and the Bronx. So we’re gonna do a little sink
Myles Mason 29:49
or swim to a
William Burdine 29:50
little bitty meat place. They’re
Jeremy Kellett 29:52
in the Marine Corps. Do you hit?
William Burdine 29:53
I ain’t none, thankfully, but I don’t know how you did. Well, there’s one place I didn’t turn. As I was saying, like my first time, a couple weeks ago I went to turn pulled up. It was to take it right into the tank, right? You’re like, No, you can’t do that. You got to swing out what? As I forgot to do that, it was kind of rough. The first little bit was stressful. Yeah. It is a first Do you have a good trainer? Yeah. Yeah, he was alright. It was alright. Are you sure? Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 30:26
He is pretty much self trained really? Well.
William Burdine 30:29
He was with me for like, years like he’s posted with you for three months. And here’s what happened. He quit and went and saw how he was from California. Sir Hello, Jimmy moto. JB Hunt intermodal did that.
Myles Mason 30:40
So who trained you when he came to Oakley, you remember?
William Burdine 30:44
We are in Raleigh? I’m not sure we still here and I’ma talk to him and
Jeremy Kellett 30:48
Dan Raleigh had that white Freightliner? Was he his day in Raleigh, or was it his son?
William Burdine 30:54
It made me say it was a grain Freightliner. He was from that
Jeremy Kellett 30:58
San Antonio area? I think so. Yeah. So that’s the younger day in Raleigh. We had a William Danwon rally. He’s passed away now. Oh, really? Yeah. He worked here for a long time. But I think it’s his son or his nephew who came and he had the same name. Okay. I don’t think he was assigned. But he’s still here. I’m pretty sure.
William Burdine 31:19
Okay. I don’t want to talk to myself for 15 years. I’m like,
Jeremy Kellett 31:22
Oh, well, then. That was the older guy. Oh, really? Yeah. He
William Burdine 31:26
They had to watch and he showed me why just let us run the bars, train them to see and it’s criminal at the time to run it back and forth as my training. And we stopped going that dark too soon. We’re just talking, you know, he said, This is my watch. I’ve had I’ve gotten in a jacket and stuff like that.
Jeremy Kellett 31:42
It was tough on those watches. Yeah. It was William Dan Riley. Great guy. He passed away. Really? I didn’t know that. I want to say last year. We went to the funeral. I didn’t
William Burdine 31:54
know. Yeah, they tried me. He was a great chair. I stayed with him. It was two weeks. Pretty much. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 32:01
He was really great. Yeah, yeah, he was. Yeah.
Myles Mason 32:03
Who is that person that you immediately called? If you had an issue?
William Burdine 32:07
Well, there for at the beginning, it was AND there for a while, until I got stuff figured out on my own. But like bugging, I kind of figured it was common sense. You know, but you know, I was trying to learn the product and stuff like that, how the best way to load it, like Ruby on Rails, you know, on the middle, and stuff like that. So just pin on placement of the product. It’s kind of one of my questions was
Jeremy Kellett 32:27
Yeah, and I guess that’s it. I mean, you gotta learn that on the go. Because different products, you put different parts of the trailer, whether it’s gonna fill the trailer up, or it’s not even gonna cover the for the trailer,
William Burdine 32:37
right. So like salt and set a select that kind of stick you don’t want the nose, because if it gets to that stage, it might come out at the bottom, but if you get around that nose or in the doghouse, it will stick and it could lead to disaster. And unfortunately, so yeah. So like that it’s kind of stuck. I push it a little bit further to the back. So it’s not sticking to my nose. You
Jeremy Kellett 32:57
gotta have some common sense working here. Don’t you be sure, I mean, you gotta know what’s going on. It’s just not to get in there and drive from point A to point B
William Burdine 33:04
Now this is a different ballgame because you might look at it might go up somewhere it might look level, you get to try to go out into the air and you know, especially on Grand like farms and stuff. It might keep away a little bit you might start you gotta you got to pay attention. Just common sense. So like, I’ve been over three years, and I haven’t had any anti hippo rats. I’m a little close. But I’ve never had one. You know, the opera forgot to take the fall. You
Myles Mason 33:28
see some crazy videos. Trailers falling over. Yeah, it’s like, that’s a nightmare.
Jeremy Kellett 33:34
So you saw one? Yeah, we were talking about one. Yeah.
Myles Mason 33:38
On the community page on Facebook yesterday. One
Jeremy Kellett 33:43
guy though. No, you’re talking about though somebody was still in the air driving? Oh, yes.
Myles Mason 33:49
They were going down the road. Yeah. And they had their trailer up in the air and they hit an overpass. Oh my gosh. Just threw dirt all over whatever he was hauling.
William Burdine 33:57
How do you not see that in your mirror? So
Jeremy Kellett 34:00
I don’t get what I don’t know. Just to clarify that was not an Oakley.
William Burdine 34:03
You know, I’ve seen that video too.
Myles Mason 34:05
It was a meme. It was a meme that somebody posted. Oh, good.
Jeremy Kellett 34:07
Good. Well, good. I just if y’all don’t get anything yesterday,
Myles Mason 34:13
do use your CB radio.
William Burdine 34:15
What’s the CB radio? Now? Yeah, I wave Oakley drivers too. So that puts that out there?
Myles Mason 34:21
I was gonna ask. Some people say they’re like, oh, Oakley drivers don’t wave at me anymore. Going down the road. Well,
Jeremy Kellett 34:26
Does he wave it to anybody anymore?
William Burdine 34:30
Oh, I said I was waiting with somebody on my way back. I’m like, forget you Daniel. I have it no more awkward for the rest of the day. And then that’s how I see Oakley. He’s waving real big at me. And I’m like, Well, I feel like
Jeremy Kellett 34:42
you got away with each other.
William Burdine 34:43
Yeah, you’ll be friendly. And also people like you but the team out here and so. Yeah, I know. At one point I lay up and watched as well. When the youngest owner operates here. I’m not sure if it still holds true or not. But you’re close. I know a couple of other younger drivers. That’s Pretty close to be of employee of I’m still a little younger than then there’s a
Myles Mason 35:02
guy a couple of months ago.
Jeremy Kellett 35:03
Yeah, we’ve got someone in their 20s. Yeah, that is young. And that’s, that’s always good. You know, I would say fascinating for me to hear, but the young guys are, you know, that’s why I asked you that earlier. I don’t think young people know the opportunity that you have. In the trucking world.
William Burdine 35:22
It’s definitely a wide open opportunity. This, the problem I feel now with people is like, they don’t want to leave and go out and leave their family. So like that, you know, like, that’s the biggest hardship we try to find drivers is they don’t want to leave. You know, yeah. Leave out, you know, for their family for a whole week. Two weeks. Depends on where you live. I believe that’s the biggest downfall. I guess. People don’t want to do it.
Jeremy Kellett 35:45
They have four kids. They have four kids. They want to leave for a week. Just kidding.
William Burdine 35:51
No. Unfortunate. So
Myles Mason 35:54
good. If you have a want for adventure. Definitely. It’s not a truck drive.
William Burdine 35:59
I go to Canada too, as well. So with the end is definitely, definitely see some country out there. I made trips. You made a player. I made five or six this year already.
Jeremy Kellett 36:09
Oh, nice. Yeah.
Myles Mason 36:11
So were you up there with Jason Dobler. motor running up in Canada.
William Burdine 36:15
What was running? I don’t even remember. I try not to? I’m not sure. I’ve been hauling alloys from Marietta up to Hamilton Ontario swapping in a lot of that hot scrap out of Ontario coming back down to Wabash. So Mike, did that a couple times?
Jeremy Kellett 36:31
Yeah. keeping you busy. Thanks for listening to the Oakley podcast. As always appreciate you guys tuning in and commenting and subscribing to our YouTube channel and, and talking it up to everybody else out there, please. You know we’d love it. When you spread the word about Oakley. If you’ve got questions or comments, man, send them to me. Go to our website, go to our YouTube channel. You can call me here at the office at Oakley trucking. I’ll be glad to visit with you about my facts. I’ve got a couple of guys that always call me and tell me about the good and bad episodes. And I enjoy that. So y’all reach out to me and do that to also check out our previous episodes. There’s a you know, we’ve been doing this now for three years, I guess. And there’s a lot of good episodes in the past that we have. We have put out you need to check those out. And also we got some good ones coming up in the future. A lot of stuff from the truck show is coming up. Be sure to check us out next week. Thanks for listening. 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.