This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Aaron Magray, one of our Owner/Operators at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, Aaron shares his journey of leaving Oakley Trucking to haul heavy equipment, only to return after facing financial challenges. He discusses the difficulties of getting loads, high expenses, and the realization that the new venture was not profitable. Aaron also recounts the emotional and practical aftermath of having his truck stolen, offering advice to fellow truckers. Jeremy and Aaron have a candid conversation about his experiences, emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making in the trucking industry and so much more. Don’t miss this episode!
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Aaron’s background and journey back to Oakley (2:05)
- Aaron’s experience with a different venture (7:17)
- The decision to return to Oakley (17:27)
- Aaron’s truck getting stolen (19:31)
- Insurance lesson and returning to work (22:17)
- Lessons learned (25:10)
- Final thoughts and takeaways (26:10)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Aaron Magray 00:12
I wasn’t getting loads back. So I was dead hidden a lot back of the hall Hall in one way. And that was the biggest expense right there.
Jeremy Kellett 00:22
I know people who listen to this probably think Well, man, you know, y’all know better match you up, but it’s so easy to get sucked in and out when you get sucked in. But I did.
Aaron Magray 00:32
I mean, I’ve been in this industry for 32 years now. I’ve been getting my CDL if I knew what I needed to do. It is what it is. I know what I need to do to survive.
Jeremy Kellett 00:43
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. Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business and family. Jeremy kellett I’m director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking and I am your host for this podcast. This podcast is here for a reason and as to bring you some good information, some good testimonials, some good success stories, some different things about Bruce Oakley incorporated that maybe you didn’t know. On today’s episode, we’re sitting down with another owner operator. And this is a little special episode I’ve done wanting to pass a long time ago but Aaron gray is actually with us. Six years I believe and quit and now he’s just coming back this week. So we’re gonna talk to him about his journey. Why he left, why came back, what he did while he was gone. But we’re also gonna throw in a little something that I’m anxious to hear about that I remembered happening, but it ever didn’t know the details. He got his truck stolen. We’re gonna talk a little bit about that too. And what took place then but first, as always I want to thank everybody for listening to the podcast. I appreciate y’all sharing it. You know, promoting it and spreading the word you know, we got to do. I don’t know who actually I think you said Feedspot. I don’t know who that is. Company. But we were number six in all of the trucking podcasts. Wow. And send us an email to you know, tell us about that. And we’ve made the top 15. We got to look in there and we were number six and all of the trucking podcasts. So pretty neat. To hear that to know that hey, it’s we’re actually working so we appreciate everybody listening to give him his comments and feedback. And what we’re doing here
Arrow Truck Sales Commercial 02:45
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Jeremy Kellett 03:31
let’s get right into this Aaron How are you man? I’m doing well. I appreciate you coming up here and doing this. I know I hit you up. Well, go and get time to kill. Yeah, little time to kill here this morning. So tell everybody who got here, McGraw. Yes.
Aaron Magray 03:44
Aaron McCray. 54 all almost 34 years old. Owner Operator,
Jeremy Kellett 03:49
they’ll tell you where you live. I
Aaron Magray 03:50
I live in Beach City, Texas. Then they’re about 10 years transplanted there from Salt Lake City Utah. live there.
Jeremy Kellett 03:58
Long. Wow. Yeah. Family.
Aaron Magray 04:01
The wife has three kids. Got 2128 and 35.
Jeremy Kellett 04:10
Oh, so yeah. Oh, empty nesters. Yes, very much. So.
Aaron Magray 04:13
Yeah, we replaced them with Dobermans. Okay.
Jeremy Kellett 04:17
I mean, have you got three? Really? As one to represent each kid? Yeah. Yeah. Did you name them the kids? No, I
Aaron Magray 04:27
don’t I don’t want to remember those names.
Jeremy Kellett 04:30
They’re gone. Yeah, they’re gone on their own. Yeah, we
Aaron Magray 04:33
got replaced y’all. So
Jeremy Kellett 04:34
That’s awesome. They live around there like clothes week. So
Aaron Magray 04:37
You know, actually, our daughter still lives in Salt Lake. She’s a RN, there at the University of Utah. And my two boys are active in the army. Oh, one stationed in Germany. One is stationed in Colorado Springs and he’s currently deployed in Poland right now.
Jeremy Kellett 04:55
Oh my so yeah, how often you get to see him.
Aaron Magray 04:58
The one in Germany. You A once a year, when they come to visit, they come and conveniently hang out for my granddaughter’s birthday party so they can have it at our house and we pick up the bill NASS tool of course, and my other son he comes. This deployment takes nine months, so it’s gonna turn into probably a yearly thing also, when we see him unless we travel to go, wherever he’s at.
Jeremy Kellett 05:24
I bet that’s tough. Mom and Daddy worry a lot. Yeah, yeah. It’s tough. I could understand. Well, I can’t. I don’t have one deployed. I got one in New York City.
Aaron Magray 05:34
Yeah, that’s that’s a warzone sometimes do their ad
Jeremy Kellett 05:38
on Cambly for sure. Now, what does air emigrate do on the weekends? What’s his hobbies?
Aaron Magray 05:43
Right now to stay in air conditioning? Pretty much. I like playing with cars and stuff and Macau cars. Yeah, I’ve got me and my brother, we run a 1966 Tempest that we run on the salt flats and like to speak trash beats. Yeah, it’s our older brother. He passed away. It was the car he built. We weren’t really that involved with it. And after he passed, and we took the car over, we tried to figure out what we were going to do with it. We decided to run it as a tribute to him because he always wanted his car to go over 200 miles an hour. So we tried. Put a little bit of him in the parachute and sent him off at about 160 for the engine light to go.
Jeremy Kellett 06:32
No kidding. What a fantastic story. Newton. It
Aaron Magray 06:36
was kind of cool. It was kind of surreal. But sorry, Chuck, we didn’t get your car up over 200. But we’re going to try again. Are you? Yep, we built a new motor and we are going to try her out. Probably not this year. Maybe next year.
Jeremy Kellett 06:49
It’s nice. Yeah, that’s great. That’s a good story. Yeah. So he worked at Oakley for six years. Yes, sir. As an owner operator, pull a pneumatic tight pneumatic that holds her. Okay. And then all of a sudden after six good years, he got wild hair and said, Hey, I’m going to dress up as a man. Yeah, well tell me what you were going to do. How did that come about? Well,
Aaron Magray 07:16
I got some people that I mean, they were kind of in my ear about starting to pull in RGN trailers hauling heavy equipment stuff and seeing how much money you know saying how much money they were making doing it and so on and so forth and found a deal on a trailer everything just started clicking. And I decided to try it out on my own and I’m not gonna lie and say that it was a pleasant experience at the beginning, middle or end?
Jeremy Kellett 07:48
Did you have to get your own authority and everything No,
Aaron Magray 07:51
I leased it to a friend of mine who was letting me use his authority or give him a little bit of money every month for pleasure. I must have tried her luck, which cost 85,000. There was a cheaper one that was brand new. So I’m into about 100 Grand i
Jeremy Kellett 08:11
explained to our listeners that they don’t know what that is. I mean, me and Annabelle orgy and try Oh my Canon Oba it’s
Aaron Magray 08:20
a remove removable gooseneck trailer where the separate the front door the fitness Xenos Yeah, the kingpin as you pull it off, and then it’s got ramps she pulled the equipment up on tied down and back up hook up and raise it up and take off sorry for anything that knocks the mic there now you
Jeremy Kellett 08:39
Yeah. And so the hall and just heavy
Aaron Magray 08:41
equipment, yeah, dozers, loaders, excavators, whatever, I get on there pretty much roller mills. And what was he gonna furnish you with all the freight? Yes, that was the initial agreement. And then as time went on, and I figured out how things work to stuff he’s gonna give me access to the load board using his MC number and stuff and I never was granted that access for unknown reasons. To me. It was kind of a control thing. I think he kind of advertised me as his new driver, and so on and so forth. And I was like, I’m not here for that. Then I was going to venture out on my own like with my own authority, I was applying for that and everything and I started looking at the load board and I couldn’t get anything north $3 A mile hauling heavy like that and Donald’s turn into you get to know somebody get the right rates. Everything’s you knew somebody he was supposed to be. Yeah, I got there on a selfish deal. They pretty much baited. I’m not gonna say he did it purposefully. But he was like, Well, you know, this guy coming in is going to take away from us, kind of thing. It’s it and being tight knit as it was the community around where I was, you know, they don’t like Sharon.
Jeremy Kellett 10:08
So she would thank me because he’s the one recruiting you. Yeah, it was over there to come to it.
Aaron Magray 10:14
Very confusing to me. And it’s like, what did I do to deserve this? I didn’t, you know, and I started thinking, maybe I just got in with the wrong people. I can make this work on my own. Like I said, I was applying for my own authority. But when I started seeing the rates, it’s like, I’m not going to survive doing this. I can go back to Okwe. And pretty much make this and get paid for deadhead miles back, you know, and it’s sad to say that I can afford keeping that trailer working for you guys. And not use it. You still got it? I still got it. It’s parked Tommy offered to house. He put it on the side of his house out in the pasture there.
Jeremy Kellett 10:52
So if somebody needs one of those trailers is for sale? Very much. So we all make a smoking deal. So maybe if you still got it when this episode comes out, we might have a yes or no. Yeah, it’s a 2024
Aaron Magray 11:05
contender. 53 foot three. Excellent. Yeah, I get it. So I’ll even throw in the change and
Jeremy Kellett 11:12
by how much money you think you spent on this endeavor.
Aaron Magray 11:17
When I left Oakley, I had probably about, I don’t know. 20 grand total saved up. Just, you know, for God, I just, you know, that. I mean, I had other money to take care of that. But that was kind of the I don’t know what to call it just extra. Yeah. Yeah. nest egg. There you go. Nest. Good. Good point. Yeah. And now I have about 1600 bucks in the bank. And yeah, and I was making money too.
11:49
I thought I was, but I was spending more than I was making. So it’s just, yeah. Just because of the all the expense that you incur, that she wouldn’t might be gonna be aware of, or just more than he thought,
Aaron Magray 12:03
well, and just the fact that given him the power to load me, and stuff, I wasn’t getting loads back. So I was dead a lot back. I was like, Hall Hall in one way. And that was the biggest expense right there. And either that or, you know, hanging out and truckstops stuff waiting.
Jeremy Kellett 12:25
It’s a It’s, I mean, I know people listen to this probably thinking, Well, man, you know, y’all know better not yet. But it’s so easy to get sucked in and out when you get sucked in. But I did. But it’s so easy to do that, you know, and think that oh, man, this is gonna be great. I’m gonna make a lot of money. Fast. Chan. I mean, I find some of those things when it comes to, you know, real estate or investing or all that kind of stuff, you know, and it’s just nine times out of 10 it is just sticking with what you got. That’s making you money. That’s slow and steady.
Aaron Magray 13:04
Yeah. And I knew better. I knew better, but what you laughed at? She stood with me. I mean, she didn’t kick me out or nothing. You know, it got a little tight there. I mean, she does all right for herself, too. She’s a contributor to the household also and has a good career. But it kind of saved me. She can support my truck and habit, I guess. But yeah. I mean, I’ve been in this industry for what? 3032 years now. I’ve been on my CDL for a long time. You’ve been an owner operator. Just with you guys since 2018. Okay, February of 18.
Jeremy Kellett 13:41
What did you do back before that?
Aaron Magray 13:42
Mostly company driver, right. Hauling crude oil, stuff like that. I was mainly crude oil for about crude oil, gas and diesel and stuff. I’ll just liquid tank from about 2002 up until the time we came up with Oakley. You
Jeremy Kellett 13:58
Remember that time? What made you pick Oakley?
Aaron Magray 14:03
Because of my goofy neighbor, Tommy Alfred. Oh, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 14:06
He’s done that to quite a few people. Yeah, he’s
Aaron Magray 14:08
made some money off of other people’s misery, all no misery. But no, it was right after her to hurricane Harvey. And as I’m also a volunteer firefighter, we were doing water rescues and stuff like that during that time. Tommy lived right behind me. Our neighborhood wasn’t affected. my pick of it broke down. So I started bringing one of the apparatus home to respond quicker. My wife was locked up downtown in the hospital. They wouldn’t release her because they called a camera, what they call it escapes some kind of name like an acronym. Carla, that’s a carload event. So therefore, they lock them down in the hospital, keeps all the staff that’s there to manage the patients and stuff. So she was locked up for like a week down there. I was home with my son and my nephew visited and he noticed the apparatus in there and he knows me coming and going all the time. And he, I come back and there’s this guy out there on his riding lawnmower with a cigar sticking out of his mouth. mow my grass, I was like, the heck is this? You know, like, like, I hate. I hate cutting grass. So it’s like, should I be mad? Just be like, what are we doing on my property? And so, he introduced himself and just started talking to him. Next thing, he brought his truck home one day, and I started asking him about it. And next thing you know, he’s calling me up. He’s like, are you serious about going on with Oakley? And I was like, Well, yeah, I guess I just don’t know how to go about it. I can’t afford any truck and stuff. You know, and I don’t want to start off with Bs John. Couple days go by and he calls me up. He’s like, what color you like, what he’s like, do you like silver, white or blue? And I’ll never forget this lesson. I don’t know, I guess, the blue arrow. He goes, Hey, do you mind calling Oakley? I called you back then and started talking to you. And the next thing you know, he’s, you know, he’s like, you get hired on. He’s like, I got your truck. You know, I’ll help you out. Get started and stuff like that. And he pretty much put his name on paper for me. I paid for the truck. But he? Yeah, he got me started last and stuff. And he just, I don’t know it. He’s one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet.
Jeremy Kellett 16:28
Yeah, Tommy’s been with us a long time. And he’s helped a lot of people. And he’s just got to get hard on him. Oh, yeah. He really does. And so I got you in the door. Yeah.
Aaron Magray 16:37
And he was I mean, and as far as Oakley goes with the recruiting, our recruiting orientation, getting you going on your first day? It’s pretty seamless. I mean, it’s. And that’s one thing I realized leaving was I needed a team at Wendy’s to handle paperwork and stuff, because it was just endless. And just so tiresome and just monotonous. Just, yeah. I didn’t sign that and rightfully so. I gotta go all the way back over there and do this. And you call these people the old stuff.
Jeremy Kellett 17:10
Yeah. challenge when you go out there on your own, and very much so very much. Sure. Well, so I mean, you got started in the pneumatic division. But you did that for six years. And now you just completed orientation coming back? Yep. He was gone. What? Four months? Yeah, almost four months, gone four months? So was it hard to make the call to come back or easy?
Aaron Magray 17:38
Well, I call Bradley Simpson. Yep. He was my previous role. Not previous. He was my first dispatcher. And I asked him and Bradley has always been there for me. He’s always been just a nice voice on the phone. When you have a question or something like that. And I called him I was like, what would you think about me come back and he’s like, man, he’s like, you know, call canton in recruiting and, you know, see what he says and everything and then they’ll come to us and do a yea or nay and all that and it’s wasn’t as hard as which Thank you. Well, I knew what I needed to do.
Jeremy Kellett 18:13
I just did well, you know, for a lot of people pride gets in the way. You know, and yeah, I wish people wouldn’t think that so much, but I
Aaron Magray 18:23
swallow it. It is just, it is what it is. I know what I need to do to survive and it’s a prize getting out and doing that. It’s like I’m not going to. I’m not going to, you know, throw to the side to throw. I mean, I’ll throw it to the side in order to do what needs to be done.
Jeremy Kellett 18:43
Oakley Trucking is a 100% Owner Operator company. We specialize in Hopper, bottom and dump and pneumatic drivers. 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 to 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 a competitive knowledge base 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. So you work in IT Oakley and I don’t remember what year this is. When this happened that we talked about in the beginning of the episode but your truck got stolen. Have
Aaron Magray 19:52
you remember what it was?
Jeremy Kellett 19:56
Tell the listeners how this happened. March
Aaron Magray 19:58
Oh, at 23 I parked my truck on a Friday afternoon where I always parked it because I was doing a local gig from Baytown to Dayton. I was loaded with a load of petroleum bed coke parked right next to Alford’s truck and had to Conoco truck stop there on 146 And I 10 and think anything of it. Sunday comes around and I get a phone call from Tommy’s wife going Hey, where’s your truck? And why are we talking about and she’s like, where’s your truck? And I’m thinking she’s talking about pickup or something? Yeah. Like it’s right here. She’s you have your truck at home. Oh, you mean my big trade? No, I didn’t get to know what you’re talking about. And she’s like, your truck is in here. As you’re kidding me, hit and nail a couple expletives later and stuff like you’re, you’re messing with me. And she puts down on the phone. He’s like, man, he’s like, your trucks are gone. He’s like, I was wondering, what are you doing because we never worked on Sundays. And uh, he had gone down, got his truck to work on his Bobtail home and brought it back that was around noon that day and brought it back around just for dark in to hook it back up. My truck was gone. So somewhere in that timeframe somebody had just come and snatched the drought. And I don’t know when it was and they found the trailer and like to truck and trailer now. Yeah, truck trailers load everything. They found the trailer in Sweetwater, Texas, had parked in the back row of a TA truckstop or something like that. I try to understand what I’ve seen, like, I remember that a little bit. I don’t know the details. But yeah, he had ground all the stickers off the side of it. And they were going to try to use a trailer but I don’t think they could figure out how to get the coke out of it. Because they had all the hatches open and it just piled up on the ground and it just stacked itself up when it came out. So I don’t know where the truck is, but I have my suspicions but it’s just never recovered. Never seen again. So I didn’t have any cameras. Now they disabled Geotab. It’s still meeting the truckstop Oh, no, of course not. Uh not where I was parked anyway, it was convenient but yeah, filed a police report. I just waited. Then one thing note is keep up on the current market value of your truck and don’t change your payout on your or your word insurance on your insurance. Because if you try to just save a little bit of money, you’re going to lose a lot if you get your truck stolen or totaled or something like that, because a truck was worth about 170 on the market back then. And I got paid out, I’d knocked mine down to like 125 or something like that. And I only owed $14,000 on it. When it cuts stole so
Jeremy Kellett 22:49
you would change the value on it.
Aaron Magray 22:52
of video, knocking it down, you know, do save on interest, save on insurance money. Yeah. And so to get back what you owed on it. Oh, I only owed $14,000 on it. I was almost paid off. Is that really stung? It’s like I was already counting the money. Had a new pickup truck order because I was gonna need some money for my truck payment. I wasn’t gonna have any more to pay for the new pickup truck. And now I got another truck payment.
Jeremy Kellett 23:21
So you get your insurance money. And then I
Aaron Magray 23:24
put some down on a new one. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 23:28
Yeah, come and get back to work. Yeah. How long was it? How long were you at work?
Aaron Magray 23:33
I remember it seemed like it was a while. It was , I want to say, a little bit over a month. Okay. Not as long as I thought, maybe a month and a half. Okay. March. It was like March 12. And then I would come back to work at the end of April. So you
Jeremy Kellett 23:49
don’t park there anymore to hell? No.
Aaron Magray 23:53
No, I don’t even buy fuel. There aren’t any leaks.
Jeremy Kellett 23:56
Don’t park our trailer there. Yeah, you know, that’s an experience that I hope nobody has to deal with. Oh, me too.
Aaron Magray 24:04
I wouldn’t want all your personal stuff in it. It had stuff in there with my dad’s tools and stuff and you know, little knickknacks that I’d had since I started you know, and just that’s what stung the most stuff I’ll never see again never get back this little trinkets. Yeah, that dragon will be replaced. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 24:24
Thank goodness you wouldn’t be in it. Or somebody tried. My wife
Aaron Magray 24:27
would probably like to have somebody’s domain
Jeremy Kellett 24:31
Do you like me? Nobody wants us now I’m gonna steal a guy he’s too
Aaron Magray 24:35
much and cries a lot. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 24:39
Oh my Well, I’m glad you came back to work here.
Aaron Magray 24:42
It’s good to be back. You know, I
Jeremy Kellett 24:44
know you didn’t get started yet. You freaking get started today but appreciate you telling your story and going through it and you know, I think people can resonate with that and understand, you know, hey, I’ve been in that situation too, especially as maybe not with truck stolen but as a Hey, I was thinking about leaving, you know, people were in my ear constantly. Is this gonna be worth it? Is this gonna be a good deal? And then it does not work out? Yeah. You know, that’s frustrating. And, you know with us, we don’t blame him by trying to better ourselves, which is exactly what you were trying to do. Yeah, yeah,
Aaron Magray 25:18
there’s no hard feelings in LA. I mean, the hardest part was peeling stickers off my truck and second guessing myself at the time, but I made a decision and I gotta live with it. Yeah, and it’s just, somebody started telling me that the grass is greener on the other side. It’s just, man, just look at your own grass. That’s just,
Jeremy Kellett 25:37
It’s so easy. We get spoiled. You know? For sure I do. I know, some owner operators do too. And you don’t realize it until you go do something else. And then you figure it out. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. But that’s okay. I mean, at least you’re back here now to continue on. And yeah, that’s the part that I want people to understand. I mean, there’s always that opportunity. Because, I mean, it is probably known. We don’t bring back a lot of people that have left us. Yeah. You know, we just, it just depends on the situation. Your situation was good. And we left on great terms you were lucky to be exposed to. And we welcome you back.
Aaron Magray 26:20
Thank you. It’s good to be back. Yeah, it was a good family. Yeah. man. I
Jeremy Kellett 26:24
I appreciate everybody listening to this episode with Aaron McCray. There’s a good story that you know that he’s got talking about his brother, and how he’s going to get that car going to your point here. Are you going to be driving this time? Yeah. Are you going to be driving it to your mind? I don’t do it on the street, because we got it tested,
Aaron Magray 26:44
tested somewhere.
Jeremy Kellett 26:48
But hey, I appreciate everybody. Listen to the LP podcast. Once again, bring you a good one and we’ll talk to you next week. 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.