This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett welcomes Robert Palm, the Founder of Trucker’s Final Mile, an organization dedicated to helping truck drivers and their families in times of crisis. Robert shares his personal motivations for founding the non-profit, which include his own experiences of loss within the trucking industry. The organization assists with bringing deceased drivers home, aiding injured drivers, and supporting families during medical emergencies or crises. Despite operating solely on donations and facing financial limitations, Trucker’s Final Mile strives to alleviate the burdens faced by truckers’ families during tragedies. The episode emphasizes the importance of preparedness, financial planning, and having difficult conversations about life insurance and documentation to ensure families are cared for after a driver’s passing. The call to action encourages listeners to support the organization’s mission through donations. Don’t miss this episode.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Introduction of Robert and Truckers Final Mile (1:26)
- Robert’s personal experience leading to the founding of Trucker’s Final Mile (5:35)
- Programs and assistance provided by Trucker’s Final Mile (8:34)
- Organization and volunteers of Trucker’s Final Mile (11:58)
- Efficiency in providing assistance to families and drivers in need (12:25)
- Limitations and costs of assistance (14:23)
- Responsibilities of truck drivers in crisis situations (17:12)
- Challenges and limitations of assistance (20:14)
- Lack of industry regulations for driver assistance (21:33)
- Getting Drivers Home (23:58)
- Preparation for Tragedies (25:00)
- Challenges After a Loss (26:21)
- Family Pre-Trip Preparation (29:14)
- Next of Kin Chain of Command (32:01)
- Donating to Make a Difference (37:07)
- Final thoughts and takeaways from the conversation (41:21)
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
Robert Palm 00:12
The trucking industry is set to be an $800 billion a year for profit industry. There is no law regulation, statute, mandate or anything, requiring any company to get any driver home for any reason. The trucking industry is one of the only industries that will leave an individual deceased, severely injured or medically incapacitated out on the road. It’s a dang shame what goes on in this industry.
Jeremy Kellett 00:44
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 at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. I appreciate everybody joining us every week listening to the new episodes that we got coming out, some of them from the truck show, actually this one was gonna be recorded at the truck show. But unfortunately, they couldn’t make it. But we got him. We got him on zoom this week in going to talk to Robert palm with truckers’ final mile. And this is something that I think not a lot of people think about, but it does happen. And he has a charitable organization that helps get truck drivers from when there’s a crisis. I mean, even death if a truck driver passes away on the road. A lot of people don’t think about how they get back home. And he has the answer for that. And not just that but another crisis that happened and Robert bomb is gonna give us some information on what his organization does here in just a second. But first I want to talk to you about our sponsor. You know, Arrow Truck Sales has been a sponsor for the Oakley podcast since day one. And I just can’t say enough about this. I want y’all to know, though, we don’t. I mean, even if Arrow Truck Sales wasn’t a sponsor, we would still be talking him up and sending guys to them to get their trucks. They have a, you know, a great selection to use trucks. It’s very important to us that when we refer a guy to a company about buying a truck that we get confidence in him, and that it’s a good one. And we’ve experienced this over the years with Arrow Truck Sales, and they’ve got just a great selection of use trucks, they really have. I can’t tell you how many first time owner operators that we have sent to aero truck sales, and are still currently at Oakley and have been successful, and have made a great living. And it’s helped them get their business started and become a successful owner operator. And we appreciate Keith Wilson, we try visor we’ve dealt with for years and those guys do a good job. So if you’re interested in a used truck, give those guys a call up there in Springfield, Missouri. Alright, let’s get started with our episode with the truckers final mile. Well, I’m sorry, I didn’t get to meet you at the Truck Show. Yeah, we
Robert Palm 03:36
didn’t make it down there. It was, you know, we could do more to help bring drivers home and we can spend the money to go into a shop. So that’s what we chose to do this year.
Jeremy Kellett 03:49
Yeah, that’s probably a good choice. Because it is expensive to do that. Yeah,
Robert Palm 03:53
it is, you know, you take time off or you lose revenue, you know, as an owner operator, and then plus everything else you have to do pretty much during that week. And you know, we could do more for the families of the industry than we can, you know, down there to show so we just chose not to go this year.
Jeremy Kellett 04:11
So let’s, let’s jump right into this if you want to. I’m very probably limited on time, but kind of if you Yeah, if you would introduce yourself, give yourself an introduction of who Robert palm is and we’ll get started.
Robert Palm 04:27
Well, my name is Robert palm. I am the founder and CEO at truckers final mile.org. We’ve been in operation since May 1 2014. And we have assisted with bringing home more than 600 truck drivers to their families. And Yamo. I’ve been an over-road driver since March 81. And here we are doing our thing to help our brothers and sisters out on the nation’s highways. Now.
Jeremy Kellett 04:57
I guess you were a truck driver. And then you came up with this idea.
Robert Palm 05:03
Yeah, I was kind of when you’re driving a truck, you see a lot of things, you’re involved in a lot of things out on the road. You know, my first year driving 1981, I began on March 81. And my father passed away in June of 81. And because of the obligation of the industry, you won’t be out there on a truck, I was not able to make it to my dad’s funeral. And then in 93, we lost my step brother out on the road in a tragic accident report, Pennsylvania. And, you know, families had to get together because there were no organizations at that time. And so we all got together and got Joey home. And, you know, to mom, and everything, in 97, I crashed in Columbus, Ohio, and they nearly had to get together and come and get me. I spent several months in rehab. And I crashed in June and 97, and didn’t get back to work until March of 98. So that affected myself and my family and all that I’ve had my appendix rupture, when I was out on the road. You know, I’ve had issues that I’ve seen, you know, you see things every day when you’re out there. And then in 2012, rescued the young lady that had rolled her truck out near Buffalo, Oklahoma, and helped put her on a lifeflight, helicopter and all that. And coming up out of that ravine where we put her on a helicopter, it was like, the Lord spoke to me and said, Hey, Robert, or something else I’d like you to do. So I spent all of 2013, researching what was available in Indian history, took a couple of courses on nonprofit flat fees, and, and everything that needed to be done in order to put the strategic plan and all the documents and all that together. And so we did all that we got everything together with the board of directors, the whole nine. And we began assisting families in May of 2014. Or like I said earlier, we’ve assisted more than 600 families right now. And we do it all by donations. No one in the organization takes any financial compensation for what we do. And, you know, 10 years later, here we are truckers
Jeremy Kellett 07:28
final mile. I mean, that’s how it got started back in 2013. I think you said 2012-2013, you had that idea. And you had circumstances that made you come up with this, which is great. I mean, it really is a need out there and a great thing that you’re doing because we see it ourselves. I mean, I’ve, unfortunately, been to a lot of funerals. We’ve had owner operators pass away while they’re on the road, and you don’t really think about it until right then how do you get them back home? How what’s their families going to do? And the families are asking us, what do we do? You know, type deal. And it really makes you step back and think about a truck driver and his life. You know that he’s living away from home and what can happen. And it just sounds like a great organization that you’ve got going on here. So tell our listeners a little bit about what all you do. You know, what does the trucker’s final mile do?
Robert Palm 08:34
Well, what we did is we put together a strategic plan to be hopefully all encompassing, when a tragedy or a crisis occurs out on the road. The experiences I had during my trucking career, you know, not being able to go to my dad’s funeral, losing my brother out on the road, being involved in a major collision myself and experiencing all of those I did not know at the time. But those were actually experiences that were molding the programs of the organization. So we assist and we’re most known for assisting a family with the costs of bringing a DCS truck driver home to be laid to rest, any preparation, ground transportation fees, airline fees, death certificate costs, all of those are what we assist with those costs. We do not transport anybody home, but we do assist with those costs. It’s our mission to eliminate that cost to the family of a truck driver. We also program to if a driver is severely injured out on the road, then we assist once he or she is released from medical care in getting that driver home to continue his or her recovery. Are we program three should a driver experience a major onset medical episode such as a heart attack or stroke once they’re released from care again, we help get them home it may be to the home itself, or it may be to a rehab facility. Number four, program number four is to assist to get in a driver home should something occurred to a household member or the home itself in that, you know, helping to secure to secure shelter for the family should a tornado take out the home or what have you, and then helped get him or her back to the truck to get back to work. Program number five is a mobility program where we assist young drivers go home . We get contractors, we get materials and all that for a wheelchair ramp room and shower pocket door etc. And then we also have a program that assists. We have a nationwide network of Chaplains should there be a need for grief counseling for the family.
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Jeremy Kellett 11:53
Robert, with your organization, I mean, are you doing this full time I guess? Yes, sir. Yes. And do you have a group of people helping you? I’m assuming to be able to put all this together?
Robert Palm 12:05
Yes, sir. We have a board of directors, we have some volunteers that work to help us with phones and logistics in contacting funeral homes and airlines, etc. Now, because
Jeremy Kellett 12:15
I’m sure it’s got to be quick. Is that something that you try hard to make sure that this happens fast?
Robert Palm 12:25
Well, yeah, you know, when, particularly when there’s a loss of life, that family sitting at home, you know, could be hundreds 1000s of miles away. Yeah, they want their loved one home, we try to work as expeditiously as possible with the funeral homes, and we want to be able to facilitate getting that driver home to Billy the rest. We just did assist with one of your drivers, and they recently passed away. And it was awesome. To work with the driver was an organ donor. So that process was able to be done expeditiously. And you know, he was home the next day. Sometimes it takes a little while if there’s an investigation, but generally, three to five days’ drive can be home.
Jeremy Kellett 13:14
Well, you know, I was wondering not gay, we gave the information to his spouse. Was that just what happened a couple of weeks ago? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Oh, well, good. I’m glad to hear that. That work? Yeah, he was able to. Yeah,
Robert Palm 13:31
He was an organ donor. And one, one of the things about that particular company is that they are quick in doing what they do, and they were able to transport him home, at no cost. And it was phenomenal. And went real quick. Everything was good. Family was happy. And, you know, they go with the results. And, you know, got.so we’re there for them. And we’re there for any driver out there right now. What’s
Jeremy Kellett 14:05
some of the situations that you don’t help with, you know, that people may think you do because you talk about it being a crisis, but lawyers got it. You can’t help everybody. It’s gotta have some rules. There are some, you know, some sort.
Robert Palm 14:22
Yeah, the only thing that prevents us from helping everyone that comes to us, is cost. Our average cost in the situation of loss of life. To get a driver home is approximately $3,400. That would include the recovery costs from where the loss of life occurred. That would include any ground transportation costs, for example from the medical examiner to the local funeral home that’s going to do the preparation for the preparation itself, which may include autopsy repair and may include per costs may include the cost of a death certificate, it may include the cost of heal involving ground transportation to certified airfield, the plane fare to the hometown, and then the cost for the local funeral home to recover the remains from the airport. So pretty much anything we do is the cost involved from the location of the loss of life, to the hometown funeral home to their front door, we do not do it on camera, because there’s too many requests or are too costly for any Memorial or funeral services, we cannot pay, we just can’t do that. But our mission is to eliminate the cost burden of getting a driver for a local loss of life to their hometown funeral. And like I said, our average right now can be near 30 for $3,500. Of course, there are some situations where it’s less, there’s also some situations where it’s more. So we have a limit of $5,000 per instance, you know, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will tell you that approximately 850 drivers of commercial vehicle occupants lose their lives in collisions alone each year on the nation’s highways, truckers final miles just were, you know, last two years, we’re bringing home 100 drivers a year. And we do it with donations only. And so our costs, you know, our ability to do what we do depends on the funding we receive from our regular donors, company donations or company sponsorships. That’s what limits us if we had more funding, we could do a lot more. And
Jeremy Kellett 16:55
y’all do? Of course, I know talking about there, if somebody passes away, but you do other crisis situations like have you ever done like if a company just leaves a driver hanging out there on the road, like they go out of business or something, and drive to try to help get a guy back home? Well,
Robert Palm 17:12
Unfortunately, Jeremy, there’s too much of that. Yeah, as Drew, there’s way too much of that, as a 501 C three charity. You know, like you said earlier, we can’t help everybody all the time. If you are driving a commercial motor vehicle, if you hold a CDL license, the driver themselves have some responsibility for what they’re doing. If you know that you’re leaving Tampa, Florida, for example. And you’re going to Tacoma, Washington, you should have some type of preparation as part of your pre trip, that you have funds to be able to get yourself home, whether you’re an owner operator, and I motor blows or rear axle goes out or whatever, and that trucks going to be in a shop for three or four months. You know, what are you going to do as far as hotel time, if you’re a company guy and the company goes belly up, you know, they’re not going to tell you with any advance notice, they’re just going to shut it down. And they’re going to let you worry about getting yourself home. And you should be prepared for that. Whether you’re if you’ve got any history in the industry whatsoever, it happens on a regular daily basis that a company will shut down. They won’t pay their insurance, they won’t pay their employees and drivers themselves, we need to be prepared, figure out what it’s going to be to get ourselves home, because truckers final mile will not do it. We can’t do it. We don’t have the funding reserve to be able to get everybody a bus ticket or plane ticket. If you have your animal with you, you know, you need to make sure their shot records are current because you’re not going to get on a plane or a bus with any pet, you know, get to the point where you could save up enough funds. So you know that whatever further distance you go from your hometown, say, Okay, I’m going from Tampa to coma. And you’ve figured out what it’s going to take to get yourself home in a rental vehicle so that you can get yourself a sloughi and you can get all your personal belongings out of that commercial truck and get your home yourself safely. And in some type of cover. Your wages are all over the board in the industry. You know, some companies are promising 1215 $1,800 a week, you could set aside 600 $800. You’re going to be able to get yourself home from wherever you are in a country. And that should be part of a pre-trip every time because truckers’ final mile is not the place. If you’re being terminated if you’re being laid off if you’re quitting if you are abandoning equipment, we are not the organization call, we cannot do that.
Jeremy Kellett 20:08
I guess you make a decision when you get a phone call and whether you’re going to help somebody or not.
Robert Palm 20:13
Yeah, and I’ve, I want to help every family that’s lost their primary breadwinner, their loved one. Alright, you know, I know what it’s like to go get a family member. And I know, I don’t want any family to have that financial burden. This industry has been great to me, and it’s been a good career. But I want to find a way to pay back when you lose someone out on the road, you know, the military, for example, they have programs in place that no man left behind. And that’s what I want to bring into the trucking industry. There’s no law, there’s no statute, there’s no regulation, there’s no mandate for any company or carrier to bring any driver home for any reason whatsoever. They don’t have to. Yeah, I’ve seen where a company is called, we need help getting this driver home because he was logged off duty. It’s not our responsibility. You know, when he had a heart attack and died in his truck, we have situations where a veteran transition from the military into the trucking industry, that veteran drove for several years with a dry Box Company and wanted to expand on his career and say, you know, I really would like to get into hazardous materials. I’d like to get into a tanker, the company says we don’t offer that. So he had to resign his permission position with a dry Box Company and hire a tanker company. And there’s that 90 day window where your benefits don’t kick in. And a poor gentleman passed away in his truck on his 82nd day, there were no benefits from the company. He had been given no benefits from the new company. He was a military veteran, he was an organ donor, you know, he served our country three separate ways, as an organ donor, as a commercial vehicle driver, you know, keeping ourselves stuck. And as a US Army soldier, defending our freedom. I want every driver, every family that comes to truckers’ final mile, to be assured that we can get their driver home and do it with dignity and do it with respect. The only problem is the funding. Yeah, there’s no requirement for any company to get their driver home. Well, there’s no requirement for any company to donate or sponsor our organization. But we are steadfast in what we’re doing. We have a great strategic plan. We’ve got phenomenal programs for these drivers in this industry. And we just need to frankly, we just need to help you, you know, our average is $3,400 per driver. And we’re bringing home 100 per year. And, you know, if we could do more if we had more, I’m sure our donors, and the sponsors that we do have are phenomenal and their support and their loyalty to us. And we love them, and we try to make it known that we love it. So we’re here for the dark,
Jeremy Kellett 23:43
while locked away that you’re, you know, you’re thinking with that direction of taking care of the drivers. Because there needs to be something I kind of now that see, I hear you say that. I mean, it really does need to be something to try to help them get them home. I mean, we’ve had course examples here at Oakley that we’ve done. We had an owner operator. He was up in I want to say Pennsylvania area up in the Northeast. And he lives down in Mississippi and his daughter and two grandkids tragically passed away. He was distraught, you know, luckily we were able to get a plane to fly up there, pick him up flying back home, you know that day, so he could be with his family right then and, you know, you just think not every company can do that. Not every company is going to be able to do that and we can’t do it with everybody but you sure want to try to help the best you can. And me having to deal with some of this router that I’ve dealt with over the years here at Oakley. I’ve had conversations with spouses of, you know, their husbands on the road he passed weigh in. And she’s like, What did I do? Jeremy, what do I do? Now? You know what, and it’s very eye opening to you to realize, you know, you do need to be prepared that this is going off in a little bit different direction. But what do you think they could do to be prepared? The spouses, the driver, the spouse at home? What would you suggest that they do to be prepared for something like this, whether it’s, you know, life insurance, whether it’s sharing information, you know, when it comes to the truck, and the bills and that kind of stuff? What’s your recommendation?
Robert Palm 25:38
My recommendation is do not assume that your company is going to take care of you. Yeah. And be prepared. I mean, have family conversations, you know, you go into an orientation. And it’s like, okay, sign this form, check this box, do this. Life insurance was never intended to get anybody home. For any reason. Life insurance was initially set up to benefit the family. Because back in the day, you know, the primary breadwinner was out on a road, or factory, what have you, and then it should, he or she passed away, everything happens to the family, I have families, that once we’ve gotten a driver home, they lost their home, they lost assets, they had to downsize, they had to move, they had to bring family members in to assist with child care, you know, a lot of the companies will and will say, Okay, you come to orientation is what we’re going to do, we’re going to pay you so much money a mile, we’re going to provide a $10,000 group life plan for you, that’s going to help get you home, if anything happens. And if you paid out $3,400, to get a driver home, and then you pay in our 6000 for a memorial service as simple memorial service anymore. What’s left for the family, you know, some companies take 45 days to get your last settlement, or your last paycheck, is there access to a bank account, all this goes into the planning. Because in the trucking world, if there’s a loss of life, say in Utah, and a family lives in Georgia, the first death certificate is issued in Utah. And it accompanies that remains back to Georgia. Occasionally, there may be a temporary death certificate issued, in order to facilitate that transportation to get the individual home, that official death certificate may not come to three months down the line. You know, because there may be a toxicology report, there might be an investigation, there might be a delay in getting an official signature, what have you. And so if you’re sitting in Georgia, and it takes two months to get the death certificate, you’re not going to be able to file a claim on any policy until you have that official, certified copy with you. You know, so it may be months before you could file a claim on that life insurance policy. And a life insurance policy at $10,000 is really no minuscule. You know, the recommended level of insurance should be 10 times the annual earnings so that you’ve got, you know, the surviving spouse may have to enter the workforce, or the surviving spouse may have to go take educational courses in order to initially enter the workforce. So I mean, there’s so many dynamics that change in a family unit, once you lose your loved one that people don’t realize after the fact, your company’s not going to do anything. In most situations, it costs a company just to go recover a truck and a trailer and get the load delivered, which is going to be their priority. You know, it’s going to cost them four or $5,000. If they have to pay a toll bill, they have to pay storage fees, etc. So, being prepared is number one thing, it should be a family pre-trip, you know, usually even Georgia for the first time and you’ve never been to California, it’s going to be a wake up call. And if something goes wrong, you know we do in trucking, we’re all super truckers. It’s not going to happen to me. It’s going to happen to the other guy. He’ll Pourcel you know rest in peace and and all this you see a truckling in the media or what have you, but you don’t see the afterwards Until you’re involved in that after effects, which I’ve been involved in the last 10 years.
Jeremy Kellett 30:04
Yeah. Speaking with a couple of our spouses, oh, it’s probably been six, eight months ago, Robert, I was talking to them, because I was thinking about doing a podcast with them, and to help prepare people for it, because, you know, they told me, you know, the wives told me said, Well, you know, we wished we would have shared information on expenses on the truck, what do I need to do with it, if something happens to you, you know, putting it in her name, or both, or names, or just little things that she needed to know on how to handle stuff, if something happens, you hate to have those conversations because like you said, we’re all super truckers, it’s not gonna happen to us. Right? When it does, you know, it’s, it really opened my eyes and talked to the spouses, and how they, you know, were, they felt like, Man, I just wasn’t ready, you know, to handle things. And I think, you know, course life insurance sure helps. I mean, like you said, you need to have, you know, five or 10 times the amount, for sure, because, especially if your spouse at home didn’t work, would you still have enough life insurance to, that she’s gonna receive to where she still doesn’t have to work? You know, and that’s, you gotta think about that kind of stuff. And it’s unfortunate, but, you know, it’s gonna happen one day, I mean, there’s 100% chance, we’re not gonna be here forever. So on this planet Earth, so you know, you kind of got to get your ducks in a row and plan a little bit better, even though it’s a conversation nobody wants to have, but it sure is nice. When you have it, you have things in order, then you can feel confident on going out on the road. And, you know, this is the plan if something happens, and I feel good about it, instead of you know, I don’t know what will happen. Let’s talk a minute about that. Oh, go ahead, go ahead.
Robert Palm 32:02
And I’d like to mention one other thing, you know, being truck drivers that we aren’t, we’re all super truck drivers, or we’ve all got the best of the world. You know, one other thing that I want to mention is the next of kin chain of command. Because a lot of people, particularly in trucking, for some reason, we all have girlfriends and every port. And you know, sometimes that right along, that’s with us on the truck, may not be married, may not be a spouse. And, you know, yet, when there’s a loss lay and we’ve had the situation come up several times. Well, you know, that driver has been estranged from his family for so long. But she’s been on the ride along and has been on the truck for six years. But the ride along did know that the driver was previously married and never divorced. That spouse has happened more than once, or the only surviving child in the family is a daughter that’s been estranged from the Father for 10 years. And when it comes to the chain of command for the next of kin, well, the ride along with a significant other did not know of the daughter, that ride along with a significant other might have different ideas about what the final wishes are. But the daughter is the one that’s legally going to be able to make those decisions and the only one, he also for Valentine’s Day, we always put out a little video, hey, take his significant other design bet on a truck with you, for Valentine’s Day, take him or her down to the courthouse and get at the very least a living will or some type of document, giving them authorization of what your last wishes may be. We recently had a driver that had a significant other on the truck, not spousal. And that individual, they did go get written documentation and the family was totally left out. And it was everything that went to this girlfriend. And that was it. There was nothing the family could do because of the way it was structured. So that’s one thing to look at when you’re preparing your pre-trip, make sure you’ve got, you know, funding to be able to get back home. Regardless of what your company is going to do for you. There are some phenomenal companies out there. They will do everything for you. But there’s other companies that you know, if you’re in a collision, and you lose your life there are Some companies in our industry that will not even have the courtesy to palletize your personal belongings and ship them to your family. I’ve seen companies throw personal belongings in the trash can, because the family was not able to get to the terminal estate and a half away within a 30 day period. So those are questions you asked at orientation. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 35:24
That’s sad too. Yeah. Yeah. So you gotta be prepared. And I mean, I can’t say enough that you know, talking to the truck driver, it is your responsibility to make sure this stuff is taken care of. Don’t leave your family mess. You know to figure it out after you’re gone, get it taken care of and get it cleared up for everybody and have that difficult conversation. So it’s not a mess if something were to happen. Oakley Trucking is a 100% Owner Operator company. We specialize in Hopper, bottom and dump and pneumatic trailers. We provide the trailer free of charge and you provide the truck. We have a large customer base that reaches the whole United States as well as parts of Canada. Our owner operators live anywhere from Texas to North Carolina to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and everywhere in between and we get them home weekends. We take it seriously when you join Oakley trucking because we need you to be successful. Oakley offers great benefits and competitive mileage pay. So you know that when your wheels are turning, you’re generating money. No matter if you’re loaded or empty. We understand that you want to make a good living and that you make our living. We only take on independent contractors and to be honest with you, we are very particular on who we lease on. You must have a good driving record, good work history, and a clean, dependable truck. So if you’re interested in Oakley trucking or just want some more information, you can go to Oakley trucking.com. Listen to our weekly podcast, the Oakley podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Let’s talk about fundraising real quick before we do this because that’s the biggest part of this whole charitable organization is you have to have the money or you can’t help people. Right?
Robert Palm 37:06
That is correct. That is correct. The trucking industry is said to be an $800 billion a year for profit industry. There is no law regulation statute, mandate or anything requiring any company to get any driver home for any reason. The trucking industry is the one of the only if not the only industry that will leave an individual deceased severely injured or medically incapacitated out on the road. And it’s a dang shame what goes on in this industry? I think you would be pressed to find 20 legitimate 501 C three charities in the industry working for the truck driver themselves. And we combined. Yeah, $800 million a year industry and combined, I think you’d be hard pressed to see that all of the charities combined are supported with 10 or more million per year combined. And that is a miniscule percentage of what the for profit sector gets from this industry. The organization’s you know, everyone is full of need. Every organization, you know, truckers’ final mile. We’ve had to turn people away and say no. And how do you build a vital resource for these individuals that are our industry? You know, the man or woman behind the wheel of our industry, the veterans that transition into our industry, the new younger crowd that’s coming into our industry, they are our industry. You know, there’s no company without the truck driver, none. And our organization has several others support those individuals as much as we possibly can. But we do it by donations. And those donations, you know, our budget for 2024 is probably going to be in the $400,000 range. And you know some of the programs that we have like doing wheelchair ramps and helping drivers get home after a tornado or what have you. Some of those programs we do not even promote because we don’t have the funding behind them. We’re asking every single day for donations, because we have to have, you know we’ve had? Jeremy, we had a time last year in October, we had six requests in one day for deceased drivers. And you’re looking 30 $60,000 To get these ladies and gentlemen home. And so we had to take a 30 day break last year, we had to stop accepting any request last year for 30 days, and we turned away 16 people during that period of time, because of the ebb and flow of the need. The request is always there. www DOT truckers final mile.org. Every donation is tax deductible. And we need company donations. We need companies sponsor Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 40:51
I was just on your website, you know, been on it this morning. And it’s super easy to donate. I mean, you have a you know, donate now tab for everybody to go to and donate to this. Awesome fun that Robert palm is, is running. I mean, I appreciate you, you know, being passionate about what you do and taking care of truck drivers. Because I’m a truck driver supporter, too. I want them all to take care of them and help them in any way. Absolutely. They take care of us.
Robert Palm 41:21
Yeah, absolutely. Without a truck driver, where are you going to be? Yeah, whether it’s owner operator, and they need support, because they’re taking the greatest risk. And particularly in 2023 2024, the owner operator model is being attacked from every angle. And those ladies and gentlemen that are out there doing that. They’re taking great risks. And you know, the company guys as well, they’re taking a great wet risk, because, you know, I understand two companies just in California closed our doors over the weekend. And we lost 9000 companies in the first half of 2023. And, you know, there’s companies that come in one day, and the next day, they’re gone. And you have no idea what’s going on internally with these companies. And so you know, company drivers take just as much risk, as an owner operator does the same thing with the owner operators. He’s footing the bill. And, you know, at the top of our page, it says, respect and dignity for North American Truck drivers. And that’s not just a phrase, that’s our creed we live by that. We bet out there. I’ve been out there since at one high of 4 million miles of driving. And now I want to be able to assist my brothers and sisters in this industry. Because I considered each and every single one of them, my family. And I want to do the best for them to continue. And like I said, I preach every day. And I ask every day, the only way that truckers’ final mile can continue to do anything for any of these drivers is with the generosity and compassion of those that support our mission and our programs.
Jeremy Kellett 43:25
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you coming on the podcast and talking to me about a tough situation, a tough topic that needs to be discussed. And hopefully you’ll get it. Get some donations out of this for sure. Because we want to be able to help y’all we can, Robert.
Robert Palm 43:42
Well, sir, we appreciate the opportunity to you know, bringing awareness to our organization. You know, it’s a taboo subject, a little bit in the industry about getting drivers home that have passed away. You know, we’ve had them in truckstop parking lots, we’ve had them in collisions. We’ve had drivers that have been murdered. We’ve had drivers that have committed suicide, you know, we’ve had the full spectrum of when a loss of life occurs. In order to get them home. We’ve had injuries. We’ve had drivers that have had amputations and collisions, everything that we could do as much as we could do. We want to be able to do and like I said, and I know people get tired of hearing it from me. But truckers’ final mile just like any company out there would not exist without the truck driver. Truckers’ final mile does not exist without donations, their tax deductible. You can find our website www DOT truckers final mile.org. And, you know we need sponsors. A company can say how much they support the drivers. You know, truck driver appreciation is every single day at truckers final White. So, again, Jeremy, thank you so much for allowing us to spread your awareness in a word about what we do and what we need. Thank you.
Jeremy Kellett 45:09
You bet, Robert, I appreciate you coming on and educating us about the truckers final mile. So, Everybody listen up the truckers final mile.org Because you’d be helping your fellow truck drivers in time of need. So I appreciate everybody listening to the Oakley podcast every week. You guys are awesome. Keep it coming. And we’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Oakley podcast: trucking, business, and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show on the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience, so if you’ve got a question, comment, or just want to say hello, head over to our website, theoakleypodcast.com, and click the “leave a comment” button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.