This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellets chats with Dennis Oakley and Benny Weatherford in a trip down memory lane. Dennis is the President of Bruce Oakley Inc. while Benny is the Vice President of Oakley Trucking Inc. During the episode, Dennis and Benny discuss the evolution of the trucking business from its humble beginnings to its current success. They share personal stories, challenges, and milestones, including the expansion of the truck fleet and the diversification of hauling services. The episode also touches on their personal interests, such as rodeo and flying, and emphasizes the importance of hard work and smart hiring in the company’s growth. The conversation concludes with a nod to the legacy they’re building, the significance of passing the torch to the next generation, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Previewing Today’s Show with Benny and Dennis (1:01)
- Important Update on 2290s and using the website (4:36)
- Spreading the word about the podcast (8:10)
- Early days of working with Bruce Oakley (13:24)
- Experiences in the early days of the company (19:36)
- Bruce’s early work and ventures (22:26)
- Expansion and development (24:02)
- Involvement in the business (29:37)
- Expansion of trucking business (33:52)
- Trucking operations and challenges (37:17)
- Business development and recruitment (42:01)
- Expansion and Acquisitions (45:53)
- Company Growth and Challenges (47:02)
- Family-Owned Business (49:38)
- Reflections and Legacy (55:38)
- Final thoughts and closing remarks (59:25)
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
Benny Weatherford 00:12
When I came to I started trading soybeans, and I wasn’t very successful at that. So Bruce came to me and asked me if I wanted to take over the trucks, and at the time we had twelve trucks. I told him I would. We started with twelve and look at us now.
Jeremy Kellett 00:59
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. This is Jeremy Kellett, director of recruiting at Oakley trucking, and I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. On today’s episode, we’ve actually already recorded it. But I wanted to tell you a little bit about it. Before we get started, and it is with Dennis Oakley, president of Brooks Oakley incorporated and Benny Weatherford, Vice President of Oakley trucking and actually get them to sit down with me in here and talk about their career, the early days of Bruce Oakley, when Bruce got it going, and what they remember about that, how much that cost? And how much did that cost? Yeah, it was tough to get them settled down. To get them in here was challenging itself. But man, it was such a good conversation to hear stuff that nobody knows they know it, you know, but nobody else knows it. And it was just so nice to be able to get them to talk a little bit about it. And, you know, we discussed a lot of different things. And we’re going to hopefully continue this, you know, this be like part one. And we’re gonna continue this down the road. Because, you know, as soon as we got out of here, they say, oh, man, we should have talked about this should have talked about that. And that’s really good. And hopefully, they’ll want to come back and talk a little bit more. But these guys are so humble. You know, they’re so down to earth. They don’t want any spotlight. They don’t couldn’t
Megan Cummings 02:52
you couldn’t recognize him if he saw him on the street. No. And and
Jeremy Kellett 02:55
it was, it was a challenge. Just to get him to sit down here, but I’m so glad they did. And you know, because people want to hear that kind of stuff. So we’re gonna play that here in a minute. But first, we got a few things we need to do course Megan, I guess I need to apologize because I did that while you I
Megan Cummings 03:13
didn’t get in. I didn’t get out as soon as I got back from lunch.
Jeremy Kellett 03:18
Yeah, I didn’t get you in on that one. But yeah, I don’t know if these are played yet. But I was on vacation. And you did.
Megan Cummings 03:27
Maybe those we might say for the archives. I don’t know.
Jeremy Kellett 03:31
They made the cut
Megan Cummings 03:32
yet. Well, it’s just you get comfortable here. And then whenever it’s just and you know, you’re leading the conversation. That’s a whole different ball game. Which is strange because I love to talk
Jeremy Kellett 03:44
about you did a good job. We’ll see. Who knows how much you say what’s going on with Megan commentary with everything good about Ronnie Judy. They’re doing good.
Megan Cummings 03:53
Ronnie and Judy are good. Just it cats are good. I would like to redact my initial weekend statement because I was watching the podcast back over. And I think I said I like to nap. That’s what I like to do on the weekends. I do stuff on the weekends. I just wanted to put that disclaimer out there. Yeah, I mean, it’s a luxury. But I do get out of the house. Occasionally. I’m not a total hermit crab. So I just just wanted to
Jeremy Kellett 04:22
nobody thought that. Tell us about the big story right now that’s going on is the 22 Nanny that we sent out an email and we probably shocked a few owner operators a little bit. Yeah. But you’re getting some phone calls because basically the owner just to kind of explain this and you might have already done this with some of them but so all the owner operators you’re responsible for getting a copy of your 2292 us whereas in the past, Wendy and Megan have always helped you maybe done it for you or all the way and with a debit card and a credit card and pay for it, and they go in the website and all that. Well, I’m sorry to say that’s not going to happen this year. We’ve just got, you know, we got 920 owner operators, it’s just not feasible for two governments to do everybody’s 2290. But you’ve made it pretty simple. Yes. Oh,
Megan Cummings 05:20
yes. Okay, so, we’ve partnered, I guess, we have a partnership with Express truck tax. So we’ve got our own URL, and it is WWW DOT Bruce Oakley 22 ninety.com. So if you log on to that website, it’s the same thing as express truck tax, it’s just our affiliate link. So after you pay it, it’ll send it directly to us, you’ll still get that. I think it’s a 10% discount on the service charge for using the website. So instead of $14.99, it’s $13.41, or something like that. But the real reason we like for you to use that URL is you don’t have to worry about it. As soon as you click submit, it’ll send it straight to us. So that really cuts out on a lot of the work afterwards. You don’t have to worry about emailing it separately, or anything like that. But
Jeremy Kellett 06:12
So the biggest obstacle with the owner operator is probably going to be the Cyanea, creating a password or something like that.
Megan Cummings 06:18
Yeah, and most of I mean, if we helped you pay your 2290, whenever you lease on, will either create a login with your email that you use for, you know, for our communication. So there’s Forgot Password links that you can use if it doesn’t let you log in or one time codes to let you get in that way. And then after that, I was talking to somebody the other day. It’s really pretty easy, most of your truck information, if you’ve, if we’ve helped you in the past, your truck information is already in there. Your bank account information is already in there. You just have to follow the steps.
Jeremy Kellett 06:54
Yes, it’s my thing that it’s gonna take time to do it. Yeah. Oh,
Megan Cummings 07:00
I did mean to mention this. So when you’re filing your 2290 make sure you file it in the category V and that’s the heavy unit number or letter code. Okay. For 2020. Yes. V for Victor. Victory. Yes. A victory. Yes, that 222 nannies.
Jeremy Kellett 07:19
It’s super simple. You’re responsible for getting it done by the owner operator. So when can they start paying that? You
Megan Cummings 07:26
I believe you can start pre paying it now if you want to get on the website and just take a look. Kind of get comfortable with it. Yeah, you can pre file I know for sure you can pre file June 1, but they might have already opened pre filing for 24 to 25. But anytime after July 1 will be actual filing so you should be able to file your 2290 and see that deduction from your bank account. That same day. Okay.
Jeremy Kellett 07:52
So I hope that is clear. No settlement deduction, no Oakley playing it for you. I mean, it’s gonna you’re gonna have to get it done, which is pretty simple. Speaking of a little bit of that, what about our listeners? How can they spread the word about Oakley the Oakley podcast?
Megan Cummings 08:10
You know, on my lunch break today. I was flipping through my TikTok you talk about do you have
Jeremy Kellett 08:15
a TikTok? I do not. Okay, that’s probably good.
Megan Cummings 08:18
I swear. I could sit. That’s what I do on the weekends. That’s why I should spend eight hours straight on TikTok now. It’s so awful. Anyways, what I was what I brought that up to say was our TikTok is pretty bangin it is so I was giggling to myself in my car, which is, you know, that’s pretty big deal. Tick tock YouTube. I’ve got Ronnie and Judy on YouTube. She’s asking, you know, when the new episodes are? Yeah. And obviously Facebook. Yeah. I mean, I think we’ve, they’ve kind of restricted the group Facebook page lately, haven’t they? So you have to request to join? I don’t know. Well, but I see a lot of really helpful posts on the community Facebook page.
Jeremy Kellett 09:05
And that’s the best way to get the podcast out there is for everybody to share this stuff. And comment on the YouTube channel or the Facebook, the TIC TOCs come
Megan Cummings 09:19
into the office tell us you want to be on the pod. Yeah,That’d be great. Because I can forget as
Jeremy Kellett 09:22
Well we’re always looking, you know wanting to spread the word about the podcast and we do that for the listeners out there, your advertisers and that’s how we want to get the word out and we appreciate all you do. Just try to take that, you know, take that time to share it with a friend or you know, leave a comment or something like that. That helps a lot of course. Also, one other thing here to wrap up this intro is going to talk about our sponsor, Arrow Truck Sales. These guys, you know, they’ve been a part of the Oakley podcast and You know, of course, it’s it started, but they’ve been part of Oakley with us for years, you know, 15 plus years that we’ve dealt with these guys at Arrow Truck Sales out of Springfield, and you probably deal with Keith. I know you’ve met him several times. And it’s just Keith and Amy, do you think Amy? Does the paperwork? Yes. How easy does Amy make the paperwork? Oh
Megan Cummings 10:22
my gosh, that’s my favorite. Whenever I’m covering for the wind I’m taking care of the orientation guys for the next week. And they’re like, Oh, this guy’s buying a truck from air. I’m like, Oh, my God, my sweet a and he’s gonna come to the rescue. She just makes everything so easy. Yeah, they all do. They
Jeremy Kellett 10:37
do. And that’s a big deal. Because that example, like right now we had a guy buy a truck somewhere else and they can’t find his title. You know, so he’s scheduled to come to orientation. They don’t have the title. He’s in a panic, he’s ready to go to worry about this truck. payments come and do and they can’t get the title. And we got to have it to get a tag for it. So it’s a you know, that’s something you don’t have to worry about when you go with Aero truck sales. Man, it just works out to be so smooth. I’ve had those I’ve always talked about, you know, try and Keith and Amy being so good with our owner operators after the sale. Yes. And that’s what makes a difference with an arrow is because well, just like you buy a used truck. Anybody that’s ever bought a used truck knows that when you get in it and take off driving. That’s it. You’re gonna Yeah, that’s right. That’s it with most people. You’re going to find something wrong with it. You know you could drive it a few times you’re like man that noise something wrong this light came on this don’t feel right. You know, I mean, you just don’t know and that’s the best part. We’ve had it happen. guys buy a truck up at Springfield and arrow on their drive down. They realize errs not balling code lock came on something. And you know what most truck dealers would tell you about that? As if he is on your own? Yep, we call Keith. You know, he says bring it back up here. No, he says get it and shop down there we take care of it. Not a problem. Yeah, that’s why we use them so much is because they don’t leave. The owner operator hung out to dry on his first day. Yeah, first week, so it makes a big difference and I can’t say enough about our sponsor Arrow Truck Sales and if you guys need a good use truck, check them out. Trey and Keith up there Springfield, Missouri and they will definitely take care of you. All right, Megan, let’s get started on this little podcast with Dennis Oakley, big deal. So Oakley and Benny Weatherford absolutely can’t wait this will be a probably a first and a last that we’ll use we’ll make sure I get
Jeremy Kellett 12:49
I gotta fit in you’re gonna love this microphone for which I’ll see
Benny Weatherford 12:55
but I got my buddy here. Yeah. Hello my work
Jeremy Kellett 13:00
had y’all become buddies? Well, I’d like to know
Dennis Oakley 13:03
Oh, I don’t know we didn’t start out buddies.
Jeremy Kellett 13:10
whatnot
Dennis Oakley 13:13
kind of hard work folder for a while
Benny Weatherford 13:15
oh you don’t want either you just
Jeremy Kellett 13:18
you So you worked for him when you started with your dad or what how that works
Dennis Oakley 13:24
well I started that farm and where I went full time I went BB
Jeremy Kellett 13:31
and us running Blacet BB or he was working for you
Benny Weatherford 13:34
yeah well we just working together now
Dennis Oakley 13:37
I was running and I was working there how I was still in school when you had to me that pickaxe Oh yeah, I
Benny Weatherford 13:48
used to school for a long time that is usually he was go when you know you come back and start to Holland or headed Obata Oh call Furla right you still let’s go
Dennis Oakley 13:58
yeah
Benny Weatherford 14:00
you keep keep keep all the women Oh that’ll bump truck. Oh he’s hauling pastures around
Dennis Oakley 14:07
How little of my travels are better. Better disco bag romantic kind of guy.
Benny Weatherford 14:25
No international Bob truck. Load that thing now bag fertilizer. It all fits tight. Yeah, he’s in the trucking business.
Dennis Oakley 14:36
How old were you? There must have been 16. Same thing.
Benny Weatherford 14:40
Yeah, buddy Holderness I’m like that so that’s
Jeremy Kellett 14:42
when you started working full time. That it may be or we
Dennis Oakley 14:46
I know that it was just summer. Okay. When I graduated high school in 82. I went full time
Jeremy Kellett 14:55
at BB working
Benny Weatherford 14:57
with you with me for many years.
Jeremy Kellett 15:02
So what was going on at BB at that time? Oh,
Benny Weatherford 15:05
Well, at that time, start out with Jeremy in. I went to work on the 7th of February, the same day. Back then Bruce had purchased the property down here and started to do dirt work. So we only had that location in El Paso. But back then there was quite a bit of farming going on up there and we bought a lot of grain, Roro , a lot of soybeans, and a lot of wheat. But we were starting to bag some fertilizer. We cleaned and bagged a lot of seeds.
Dennis Oakley 15:47
And then yeah, I was working for you.
Jeremy Kellett 15:52
Because that’s what you were doing.
Dennis Oakley 15:55
He stacked we had stacked in soybean seed and Erlang he made a stack plumbed to the roof of LogMeIn. He came out there, looked up and said, Well, I think you can get one more layer. ” We had to get on Bailey’s and dragged him bags to get them stuck in their courses. You know, I don’t know if many knew it or not, but it was hot.
Benny Weatherford 16:20
I knew a bit out there. If you hadn’t been up there. I don’t like to get off the ground for years. So anyway, we’re bagging seed, buying wheat. And then the farmers came in and we sold a lot of buggy loads of fertilizer. So they’d come in and get hooked up to a buggy and we’d have a blender while it was an all concrete mixture. And we had to take the batch of the phosphate and potash and blend it together and make whatever plant food they wanted. And they will put a lot of chemicals on it. We put a lot of TREF lay and Bhasker and that kind of stuff, which they had up here and just pour it over there and blend it and then they’d go out to the field to spread it. And then we were rotting spreader trucks too. So we had two or three spreader trucks that stayed busy. Fertilizer seeds, dirt, farm and seeds. And I guess this is when Bruce was there every day. A lot of us back and forth out here can oversee and don’t develop in this. Yeah, here. Yeah, but he’s done there. A lot. Yeah. And they were spread. Back then we spent a lot of lab to we would add most I would do that on the weekends he would haul get people whole lamb in and then on the weekends, they would go spread like
Jeremy Kellett 17:51
How did you get a job with Bruce? So
Benny Weatherford 17:55
I was raised in an old grocery store. And that he sold the grocery store out so I had to get a job but I had a little money saved up so I happened to meet a good friend of mine whose name is dog Griffin that actually came and worked for us for a while. But anyway, I’d go out there and help him. He’d sent me up to BB to get a seat, you won’t fit the sacks of feed will, you’d backup or to get to the seed and they’ll throw it to the owner and you might get 40 Or you might get 80 You didn’t know what she’s gonna get. So we were and I was in a J season with a bunch of boys. There was Mike Fisher, who was working for Bruce and had some other guys. And we were at a beer jolla Drankin. One that and I told Mike, I said, Mike, you need to get you some help down there that can count. And he said, Well, would you like to have a job? But I said, Well, I can count. Only require me to set up their first framework. So first fair, Boyd 1978 When I started, yeah. So that’s how you got hard. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 19:08
And then I guess tell me about Bruce. I mean, Dennis, you of course grew up winning. He raised you. How, you know, a lot of people don’t know a lot about Bruce. And I think the more we can understand that I think helps a little bit because obviously he did a heck of a job. And I mean, he’s a smart man. I know you’re working with him all the time too.
Dennis Oakley 19:36
Oh, yeah. He you know, the first thing I know that he did was drive a milk crate. Pick up a meal, I guess pick it up from your diet. Yeah,
Benny Weatherford 19:54
years ago out there in that community. But Jerry made it. There was a dairy, a little dairy ball. Aren’t people probably made up of 3540 cows? And back then they didn’t have pipeline milkers; they put them in stainless steel milk cans and put them in a water cooler. And then on a certain day of the week, they take them out. And there was an old doc out there and everybody would take their milk out there and set it on the dock and have their name on the cat cans. Bruce worked for a company called kappa drove an old Bob truck and he’d come by and pick the milk cans up and bring it to Little Rock
Dennis Oakley 20:37
work forgot nine Dave poor SURE DID THEY poor Dave out selling firewood at home back fertilizer in the spring and then cutting sell firewood during middle school was going on. And we’d haul it down here to look we’re up. Sell it door to door. No kid and I knocked on the door and my buddy knocked on the door. I had been in his car. He gave it to him. And he told me to come up here and it was at night power that they had to use work for. So he bought three rigs.
Jeremy Kellett 21:17
That was a good day. He
Benny Weatherford 21:19
wasn’t a good night. You know, Jeremy, even back before that, I think I’m right about this. Bruce Bruce quit school when he was in 10th grade and joined the Navy. And I don’t know how long he was in the Navy. And you correct me then shout out? Oh,
Dennis Oakley 21:41
I don’t know if he went right when he quit school or not. But it was shortly thereafter if it weren’t a thank you. He was in the Navy for years.
Benny Weatherford 21:53
And then tell him about the San Diego thing. Yeah,
Dennis Oakley 21:56
Then he got out and he started a locker club. That’s where I think the sailors could leave their civilian clothes closed when I got off the ship. Many so and he ran it on blockers but ran into mockers. Yeah. And he sold stuff there too. So wedding rings and popular
Jeremy Kellett 22:24
a little bit of everything. So he’d stayed in San Diego for a little while and then made his way back to El Paso because that’s where he grew up. Right until he went to the Navy. I
Benny Weatherford 22:36
guess. In fact, he hitchhiked a few times, California here. He said a few heads your uniform home back in those days, it would add trouble to get a ride that stopped and get you Hey Jack, it
Benny Weatherford 22:47
was popular back
Benny Weatherford 22:48
in the day. And I’m not for sure. Dennis when he come back did is that when he started driving a milk truck or
Dennis Oakley 22:56
no he did milk before. Yeah, he must have when he started grabbing a milk crook I guess when he quit school
Benny Weatherford 23:04
Glue at Wash witness. So time to wash windows.
Dennis Oakley 23:07
I guess he joined the Nivea equity, grabbing the milk or the hallway.
Jeremy Kellett 23:13
So he came back and started the baby business. No,
Dennis Oakley 23:18
He bought a farm out there in El Paso, Arkansas. And he raised cattle for a while. That’s actually when I started working for him because he let me drive the tractor while he’s still high out. Okay, that and then driving prices shot up he started farming and then he was having trouble itself I think getting Lyme spread everybody was having trouble doing it. And so he bought a Mack truck front end loader no spread my frequent thanks started spread lab people know
Jeremy Kellett 24:02
They run up there and get a line to bring it back to the bicycle . Mike’s will get his lamb back and start spreading it for his neighbors or whoever needs it. Yes. And then ran into well in the guest the demand needed more different stuff and that led to the litigation. Yeah, and maybe
Benny Weatherford 24:21
well the kind of fertilizer thing. SOAP back then they were still quite a bit of bag fertilizer used in bulk for Lazar was just getting started in Bruce, I guess he could see business growing and he wanted to get somewhere where there was rail, so he could get in rail cars and that’s when he went to BB and put right eolian there, so he could bring railcars fertilizer and offload it and and sell it. But I’m not sure. Actually, when he started there, maybe Are you Dennis
Dennis Oakley 25:13
68
Benny Weatherford 25:14
Was it 68?
Jeremy Kellett 25:15
And you remember him buying this place down here? Yes. Oh, yeah. I mean, that had to be a huge step for him. Yes,
Benny Weatherford 25:25
I had done Bruce. We were all raised out in the same community. Now Bruce was a lot older, and I was but I knew him and his daddy Bruceville to think. I remember him building it down there. And they got going and he just kept growing and growing. And he bought this property down here. They were buying
Dennis Oakley 25:48
or was it? I don’t remember what year it will be.
Benny Weatherford 25:52
It was Dinesh, they were doing the dirt work and starting on the fertilizer building. In the spring of 78. Oh, god. Yeah.
Dennis Oakley 26:07
I remember when he bought property, because I went with him to the real estate lady when I was working for you BB. I was getting clean after grinding the pit. Yeah. And now I was in the car. And we pulled up to the real estate lady’s office. And she came out. He told me to stay in the car because I saw the lady come out and she’s like, tell that board to come out Callebaut come in. No, ma’am. He’s thankful.
Benny Weatherford 26:46
For you always did. I gave you the easiest jobs.
Dennis Oakley 26:49
Yeah. So I loved that job.
Benny Weatherford 26:59
So where were we? So we bought the property down here? Yes. Yeah. We were buying quite a bit of Green Bay and southern cotton whole. So here we’d buy the grain from the farmer. We had to haul it down here, our wheat Holly to Bungie to Augusta. And then sometime during that he had loaded some barges out somewhere down the river. And anyway, he had to, he knew that he probably needed to get somewhere on the river. So he could barge his grain out and barge the fertilizer in. Man wants to say that try it. Yeah,
Dennis Oakley 27:35
yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 27:38
What a smart decision back then looking now go, how
Dennis Oakley 27:41
Is it a big deal? Big deal. Big step for him. There’s we he always told me, you know, you never bet the farm. But I built that house after real Paso in the late 90s, early 90s. And then I sold it in 2000. And he had just let him build a house on a farm out there. I never checked anything. I just built a house. Anyway, I found out when I sold the house. It had a mortgage on it. Though. He did but far. Worked out. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 28:26
That’s a big step to be able to do this for sure. I mean, to get this down here and buy that, you know, 20 acres I’m sure was a big staff back then. And then all the money had to be put into it. I’m sure he had to put a bunch on. Oh, yeah. Well,
Benny Weatherford 28:42
you know, Jeremy, the original land. We didn’t have this over here where we’re at now. It was just pretty much a straight shot. We didn’t have this here. And we didn’t have that over on the side over there either. And I think prior to buying the land, he knew he was gonna have to get a permit from the corps. He struggled with that. There was a lot of politics involved in that. And there were some people that didn’t want him to adhere to a river. But he finally got his permit. And soon that’s what he started building. I don’t know whether he waited to get the permit. Or just started. I’m not
Dennis Oakley 29:30
sure. I’m not sure that could have gone either way with him. Yeah.
Benny Weatherford 29:35
Go get it. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 29:36
How was it working for Bruce? I mean, both y’all did for a long time.
Dennis Oakley 29:44
What’s good and it can be bad. It just depends on the date.
Benny Weatherford 29:48
Bruce’s catalog is like a second dad to me, you know him, you always wanted to please him. And he was easy to work for but when he told you to do something he did it. You know?
Jeremy Kellett 30:04
Do you learn that the hard way here?
Benny Weatherford 30:09
Well, you know, your dad can talk to you and get you straightened out pretty. Yeah. But Bruce was just a superclass ban and he instilled it in Dennis and I add me to that, you know, if you tell somebody you’re gonna do something, you done it, you, you give him the word and you’re stuck by it. He was easy to get along with. And he was very focused on being him. He knew he wanted to carry a cup, man. Yeah, go without a why
Jeremy Kellett 30:46
about you, Dennis? What do you remember most about working for you, dad?
Dennis Oakley 30:50
I mean, I always enjoyed it. We enjoyed working together. I mean, we disagreed. Sometimes, but you know, next time it was just when I was doing something stupid.
Benny Weatherford 31:01
He’d let you know the whole time
Dennis Oakley 31:06
I’m not even arguing that. My Oh, but now we enjoy
Jeremy Kellett 31:16
working together sometimes. You know, father and son working together doesn’t go very well. Yeah,
Dennis Oakley 31:21
We had a few moments here and there. You know he just had a way of letting you know what you better be doing when
Jeremy Kellett 31:31
He let you know we were going. You were coming along and being more part of the company and running it.
Dennis Oakley 31:39
That was slow so I didn’t even know when it was. I would run in a BB run baby for two to three years. And then he got sick. And I was really just getting more. I enjoyed running because I got my feet on the ground. I had to curl and get comfortable. And then he pulled up down there and told me to get in his car and told me I’ve come in lira. Oh, so anyway, that’s how
Jeremy Kellett 32:19
I always get a little more
Dennis Oakley 32:20
involved right in there.
Jeremy Kellett 32:22
I get Yeah. What year was
Benny Weatherford 32:23
Dennis and Bruce got sick?
Dennis Oakley 32:28
I don’t remember it would have been mid 80s
Benny Weatherford 32:32
or late 80s probably early 90s Bruce Ed had got cancer put his nasal passage in anyway they were serious deal they didn’t give him much hope. He
Dennis Oakley 32:49
was actually in his brain. It was an older Yeah.
Benny Weatherford 32:54
So like that’s when Dinesh got more involved in the no blue rock thing. I think a lot about that about them that he got him down here and started in and then the year already down here. Benny was had no I had worked at the NGO for years, five years we’d bought some property up in Marlton built a grain tank up the air had hired a guy and the guy we hired had had any experience in grain so I went up there and worked through wheat season and then I came down here so I guess it would have been an ad 283 somewhere on here.
Jeremy Kellett 33:42
Talk about the beginning of the trucking when did that I mean I know I guess it started when he started and bought a bob truck or spreader and all that but when do you start when you having company trucks in the beginning or just start with owner operator
Benny Weatherford 33:58
we had three or four co heads to hormone Max in a cab over Mack and we delivered fertilizer around to a few customers down hand in round locally really not we didn’t get that for all
Jeremy Kellett 34:17
the gel drive the truck
Benny Weatherford 34:20
anybody gravel back. So during the grain season, we had to hire trucks to come in and hold the grain oh we couldn’t hold it all fastened in there was some guys that were hauling for us and I think they had some pretty nice trucks and I think they were actually pulling our trailers but anyway they talked Bruce into gist least known wedding and that’s how it got started. Okay was surreal
Jeremy Kellett 34:56
and that was probably late at He’s market
Benny Weatherford 35:06
early on Mad it was probably almost say 8586.
Dennis Oakley 35:12
Like it. We’ve heard it, man, because I graduated 92 Cocoa High School. And it was going on when I was working iron Gillum
Benny Weatherford 35:26
Yeah, that was a little later on the first three, Mark Chrome. Yeah, that was in that old pitcher we got. Yeah. Prior to that, Dennis, there were three of us on board debtor Benton. There was a guy from BB and some other guy. But anyway, that’s how it got started. And then we started buying trailers and leasing trucks. So And
Jeremy Kellett 35:55
y’all, I mean, was that something y’all did together? Or you were pretty much Bruce and you’re doing the truck and beanie, or was Bruce doing it? No,
Dennis Oakley 36:04
actually, you started out trading show me meaning
Benny Weatherford 36:07
I did when I came from the LoRa to look at a little rock as trucks started trading soybean meal with soy beans. And I wasn’t very successful at that. So in the meantime, while I was doing that, there was a guy that had leased all of us. And he wanted to get off the road. So we had I think we had 1011 12 trucks. And he wanted to run the truck. So Bruce let him run the trucks. Well, that went over for a while and then he wanted to get back in a truck. So when he got back in the truck, Bruce said I think you would do better in trucking than you are trading soybean meal and soybeans and I said, Yes, sir. So when I took it over, I thought we had 12 trips. Label 12 Oh, man. And here we are now. Me here we are now.
Jeremy Kellett 37:09
How in the world did we go from 10 or 12 trucks to what we’re doing now with 920
Benny Weatherford 37:17
You know, go ahead Dinesh.
Dennis Oakley 37:21
I don’t know
Benny Weatherford 37:28
You know, we were starving to death. The only time we were busy was in the spring of the year. In the fall. You’re holding grain and fertilizer. And I don’t know how it happened. I think Bruce had got us on an account down in Nina’s Texas elk roofing, and we started hauling roofing granules out of three in Elk Enos and we did that for years. And then a lot in the winter. We would go to anus and then we would head to Carlsbad, New Mexico and pick up potash and bind the fertilizer back. And that kind of got us through the slope.
Jeremy Kellett 38:21
Speaking of bad, I have heard a rumor that you’ve been to Carlsbad in a truck. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about it.
Dennis Oakley 38:32
Oh. UPS like I’m still working in VBA by Monica out here but had John Hester. If he wanted off or something he’d let me grab his truck. Roy Hart. Let me drive a little bit. I
Jeremy Kellett 38:47
understand driving a little bit but to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Yeah,
Dennis Oakley 38:52
just what we’d hope granules granulosus anus mom and dad here to help Carlsbad. You Lopata I did pretty good. Golang Carl, Ben and Minnie. I’ve worked in Fort Benning again Grabbin Roy Hart’s truck. And I’ll never forget that I said he sent me to Fulton, Missouri with a load of some kind of rock. And I drove a few times out of Carlsbad, but I hadn’t ever been really in heels or anything. And I can’t remember John Hesburgh labor, probably six or so Watkins Moe was walking in. Anyway, we got out there at night. Oh, one of those big hills on highway 65 They got out and inspected your brakes and all that and I didn’t even know what to do. So I just kind of got down on my knees and said a little prayer. He got back into trouble. They’ve got a sawed off a really professional truck driver but I really was you who faked it last night? And it got real real quick fake it was over it was writing and I did have a bit of Jake brakes back you know
Jeremy Kellett 40:17
standing standing on the brakes
Dennis Oakley 40:18
yeah they like a tail I was pretty nervous and they gave me some guidance. We got through it and we got up there. And John hefter He goes zip around his corners and up my ass trying to keep up with him. And then we got where we were going. And I got in the sleeper and I laid down here and something went really bad. terribly wrong. And I just barely jumped out of the truck puke midair
Jeremy Kellett 40:57
What went wrong?
Dennis Oakley 40:58
I think it was my nerves but that was my nerves iNACOL Bini wanted me to call him. See what we are gonna do next. Sure you go up here and get a load corn standard standard gold standard and get a little corn I was like I don’t want
Benny Weatherford 41:25
you to come back.
Dennis Oakley 41:28
Anyway, we went up there and got me back because it always had a good bunch of drivers back then. I mean, everybody’s taking care of each other and they even Dr. Doe me got me madly over
Jeremy Kellett 41:48
helping you get through the drive much after that.
Dennis Oakley 41:53
A timer to
Jeremy Kellett 41:55
realize maybe the office is maybe less you know, back to the office. But
Benny Weatherford 42:01
Jeremy we got it back to the growing part. We just kept working and you know, we got the roofing, roofing granules and then ended up getting a few more and that got us out a little further and we kept branching it out.
Dennis Oakley 42:19
Gets Tanenbaum came into play there to Tenenbaum
Benny Weatherford 42:21
here we got talents scrap in it. You know we are in the hotel, we’re going back and forth to Carlsbad. A guy called me by the name of Mandalay Denton, and he said, Hey, you also blew Golang Dallas out toward Carlsbad. I said, Yeah, sure. So he gave me a few loads never done and he had called the given load low. And oh, Bailey was pretty sharp. He had been out in the world. In middle Mac, we had been out much we
Jeremy Kellett 42:58
owe Bailey’s you’ve done recruited Mac at this point,
Benny Weatherford 43:02
is working here by that time. So anyway, we got to load some stuff. And I told Manley, I said, Man, why don’t you come work for us? Now? You can’t pay me enough. So okay. So we were loading some loads. But we would deal.
Dennis Oakley 43:31
Blitzen now,
Benny Weatherford 43:33
let’s not Kate remember who bailed but anyway, they file bankruptcy. So I call mainly and that’s conversation and go real good. So we didn’t hear anything at all, mainly for oh, I don’t know for a couple of years.
Dennis Oakley 43:48
Is that when you said he was going with his
Benny Weatherford 43:53
I had never seen a man. Right. So a couple of years ago was bad. O’Malley cows. He said, Hey, I see you got trucks down here and Alabama said do these should do and Alabama. Yeah, he worked for a company called Bledsoe. He said you want splogs going where they are. Yeah, but I want the money. Oh, you will get your money. So anyway, we did and we did get our money. And then out of blue. In fact, man Dennis was riding horses. One that he called. And he said I’m ready to come work for you. So like long story short, he came. And it was really a huge asset to us because mainly he knew a lot of different customers all over and mainly was good at sales. And I always thought I was better at operations. And then I also made a pretty good team there. But as we got more freight And then we kept a few more trucks, you know when we got to. And then we got to add another employee. And it’s just been good. Yeah. Just kept going. Yeah. Yeah, we’re going to hard you went out a you
Jeremy Kellett 45:22
been going that way for 30 years now? It will be this Yeah. Real this December. Wow, she’s, yeah. That will seem like no, it does not seem like it, then it’s been something else to see what it’s done and how it grows. But how did the other side of it, Dennis, I mean, you know, I know both of you involved, but the you know, the more fertilizer, the porch, the grain, that stuff’s expanded greatly to me.
Dennis Oakley 45:53
It’s just been, you know, I guess an opportunity to nest. Places came up for sale that we thought were good logistically, and we’ve been able to buy and, you know, we’ve built a few over the years, and it’s kind of like the truck and just small steps and milestones worked out now.
Benny Weatherford 46:19
Did we Dinesh, we built a deal up at morrilton. And then we bought the Dardanelle deal. Is that right? Yes. And then we ended up buying the Crothersville thing? Yeah,
Dennis Oakley 46:34
We bought Crothersville and it was built in St. Paul at the same time.
Benny Weatherford 46:39
That’s right. I forgot about building St. Paul. And then we ended up getting a penalty deal. And then I guess, from there, we ended up getting bought in January.
Dennis Oakley 46:55
Yeah, that was January and acquisition was a big deal. Yeah. Thor has a big stamp. What? Yeah, that was a pretty big step that was betting the farm.
Jeremy Kellett 47:09
Win. But that was betting the farm but that was kind of maybe not as equal to your dad. Buying us 20 acres down here. Maybe that’s a big step or buying Jan Tran was no. I mean, as a big step for you to make.
Dennis Oakley 47:23
Yeah, but we were in a little better shape. By the time something wasn’t quite as. I don’t feel like it was quite the same as the lead to.
Jeremy Kellett 47:40
vaguely, yeah, especially when you sold your house. I realized how big of
Dennis Oakley 47:44
a big leap it was. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 47:46
Right. It’s a big deal. I remember, you know, when I started, Bruce was how Naiad came in, you know, once a month, pretty regular, but he had the house boat. And out here a lot of times, and then he would take it down to Florida. I mean, he would ride the River all the way down to the Gulf, right?
Dennis Oakley 48:13
Yeah. Yeah. He lived on it for several years.
Jeremy Kellett 48:20
I mean that was pretty intriguing. Something you don’t see. Every day. I remember I went on it once or twice, you know, while I had it parked out here at the dock, and it was pretty, pretty special. predict what
Benny Weatherford 48:33
Bruce loves being on the water. Yeah, he loved the water. I remember
Jeremy Kellett 48:38
you telling me the one story about him actually on the barge. That had
Benny Weatherford 48:45
all the broken bars, bro, bro. Yeah, we unhooked it and he got away from us. Quote, no. It is pretty dark. Brew smoke, smoke a lot of cigarettes. Without all you see is the red deal on that cigarette out there on that board we float away. At that time, we didn’t have a boat here. We didn’t own a boat to stay here. So we had to call the port. They had a boat to come fetch a barge and bring him back up to knock
Dennis Oakley 49:27
this one too long after that he started shopping for the fleet boat. Yep. There
Jeremy Kellett 49:33
you go. Well, it’s it. You know, the story of it being family owned is something that you just don’t hear every day especially when you go three generations now. You know, Bruce Dennis and now Justin’s taking a bigger role. I mean, a lot of companies screw that up. Real, real easy. If If you’re not careful was mean, to me, I think Bruce just instilled some really good qualities and standards of what this place is, which you guys have passed on down to, you know, mainly, and me and everybody else and we’re keep trying to pass them down so we can continue this thing going for the long haul.
Benny Weatherford 50:21
We’ve been awfully fortunate there, but we got so many good people, contractors, the employees, you know, it’s we’ve all we’re just very fortunate as a company to have so many good people and seems like good people attract good people. And we’ve just been very blessed. Well,
Dennis Oakley 50:50
not, not so much, dad. But Benny and I have always had a rule that, you know, we just hire everybody we hire needs to be smarter than we are. And we’ve been very lucky that we didn’t have to go over it boys
Jeremy Kellett 51:18
Yeah, that wasn’t hard. Yeah, well, that’s, that’s good. Go Bob. It goes. It’s me. smarter people, you know, better ideas and doing things right. And to me growing slow, will you know, there’s not just been a, hey, we’re gonna do whatever it takes to grow this thing to be a mega business. And that’s not been the that’s not been the case around here. It’s always just little bites, like you see it a little bit at a time which fits us because I know I have come into your office. Well both yells many times with some stupid ideas. And I got shot at the time they were brilliant. But you know, I get shot down at them because I’m wanting to make this thing even better. And right now. Yeah, yeah, hold it all right now and you know, it takes a while to see that’s not the smartest thing to do. Little by little, I think it has definitely worked for us. Now. What y’all do when you’re not working?
Benny Weatherford 52:28
Next question.
Jeremy Kellett 52:35
Well, you both got cows, right. Yeah. And the cow business Yeah.
Benny Weatherford 52:40
There again shows way very smart
Benny Weatherford 52:49
pretty dumb. Dinesh is really dumb. He’s got a lot of cash.
Jeremy Kellett 52:57
You got to do something, I guess. Yeah.
Benny Weatherford 53:02
Well, you know, horse, the industry just getting into it. But our kids are grown and they’ve got kids, and all the grandkids and the kids at one time rodeoed and then the grandkids have now they’ve all grown out of that. But you know, we chase them all. All over the country. Watch your neon. Yeah. And then of course, we’ve got like so we both got cows. And it keeps you pretty busy.
Jeremy Kellett 53:33
And you still live in the original house. You daddy live
Benny Weatherford 53:36
In the house my daddy built in 1951 We remodeled a little bit and now we got indoor plumbing. That’s nice. That’s
Jeremy Kellett 53:49
been out there a few times. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of things. People probably don’t know, didn’t she get the pilot license? Right. Right. fly a little bit. Yeah. Lambda helicopter in any mobile field that you didn’t know. Patented? Well. Sorry, I just remember you telling me that story.
Benny Weatherford 54:16
A bit as cold calling one that he is going home something happened he led it in the field up her growl Ridge
Dennis Oakley 54:28
Yeah, the weather got mad. Oh, me. Yeah, that’s right.
Benny Weatherford 54:30
But you didn’t know where he worked.
Dennis Oakley 54:34
Exactly. So
Benny Weatherford 54:36
a cop got you
Dennis Oakley 54:40
that some of that man took me home. That’s
Benny Weatherford 54:42
right. That may have taken you home and I could’ve got you next night. Yeah, we got to look at the helicopter confetti right.
Jeremy Kellett 54:49
What’s what we did go ahead? Well, you know Uh, we, we can continue this another time maybe and see but because I’d like to want later on get in to even more of the recent stuff, you know that we’ve been expanding and just been just how things have been going here in the last 10 years, you know that we’ve really keeping our standards keeping the people that we’ve had and getting more but we’re still growing little by little so I mean, it’s you know, sitting here I was really wanting to get more the what you guys told us about the early parts of Bruce and you guys started working for the company and still working for the company after 45 years, something like that. I’ll be in here working 47 For what he said. I mean, and you work 4040 to 40 Yeah.
Benny Weatherford 55:58
I mean, are you under Park? You wouldn’t do a whole lot prior to that. You dig railroad tracks out there for me? No.
Dennis Oakley 56:11
Pick me to clean them and practice out. Bolo. I did it one day and I made te and fi said that
Benny Weatherford 56:22
would be this week.
Jeremy Kellett 56:24
He took revenge on him. Dennis. I mean, I don’t
Dennis Oakley 56:29
i think so.
Benny Weatherford 56:32
You know, elevator legs are about although it is badly foot tall. Yeah. So, anyway, they break down. I got old when he climbed up there. Tell him what to do to fix it. You know? He’d always say bought Biddy. He’s smart. He knows how to do that stuff up. I’d every bit up there. And I would go
Jeremy Kellett 56:56
He found one that would go.
Benny Weatherford 56:58
He’d go. So one time we paired an alpha East Rasul Allah UNIAN. Oh, yeah. A lot. And this won’t have bruschetta got a little aggravated. So we were up there. And that’ll scale the house or they sample grain. We got to rasslin. And I gave him a little push. And it fell back into the broken glass door. A little about that time Bruce came in. And you can tell when Bruce is bad, cause he had that cigarette in it’d be red, start here to discos going up that cigarette. Burn all white ladies out there. But, Jeremy,
Dennis Oakley 57:48
He was a patient man. And he was
Benny Weatherford 57:52
I am very patient. I think like you said, we kind of got into it. Maybe we can kind of get it in if you always think about Thanks. Well, I
Jeremy Kellett 58:02
wished we’d have talked about this. We’ve left out Yeah, and we can do that. Yeah, that’s the best part about this. Yeah, this is anytime to sit down. And, you know, we think about some stuff that would be important, you know, that, hey, we ought to, we ought to talk about this. Because the best thing is, you know, once you do that, you get it recorded. And whether you do anything with it or not, at least you’ve got some of these old stories. Because, you know, I’ve talked to you a lot about my grandpa, you know, in the past, and I so wished I had some stuff recorded from him, that I could go back because I catch myself thinking dang it, I can’t remember what he told me about that, you know, when he was in World War Two, and all that kind of stuff, you know, and you don’t and now you’d like to have some of that. We could go back and pass it along. You know, that’s the whole purpose of this, you know, to have some stuff like that that we can remember.
Dennis Oakley 58:59
Yeah, we can just listen to this and
Jeremy Kellett 59:02
yeah, you know, we make some notes and yeah, I mean, Oh, fine. Yeah. Yeah,
Benny Weatherford 59:09
probably we’ll Yeah, we did right. It’d be fine. Yeah, I
Dennis Oakley 59:14
mean, Cooper eight a year inflated or no, we
Benny Weatherford 59:18
have not. You say stuff like that you forget all about what isn’t? We had a guy named Ed Burns that ran the El Paso facility. Yeah, he was a war two veteran.
Dennis Oakley 59:31
What made me think, okay,
Benny Weatherford 59:33
and what are
Jeremy Kellett 59:35
I remember you telling me about him?
Benny Weatherford 59:36
And I’m Teddy. When he spoke if you listen,
Dennis Oakley 59:40
and I worked for him, too.
Benny Weatherford 59:44
He had really been working for me. Yeah,
Benny Weatherford 59:46
Tell me what.
Jeremy Kellett 59:50
Pretty good guy. So hey, there you have it. A demon so CLI Benny Weatherford sitting down with me today. Talking about the early days of Bruce Oakley and what just a couple of great guys to meet you know, you sit down and you listen to him. And just get that feeling of man. No wonder this company is successful and has done what it’s done and appreciates everybody who listens to the podcast every week. Man, we try to bring you some good stuff every Wednesday, and we got some good stuff coming at you. We, like I said, we got some of our owner operators. That’s what we get most requests for is listening to our success stories with our owner operators. And we’ve got some of that coming for you in the weeks ahead. So stay with us and check us out every Wednesday. We appreciate everybody listening. Thanks. 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.