This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Joe Summerford & Kyle Woodward. What began as a conversation by Jeremy’s desk turned into a full episode conversation as Kyle is potentially looking to join Oakley while Joe has been an Owner/Operator with Oakley for over a year. During the episode, Joe shares his journey, including his transition to Oakley and the support he received when his wife had a stroke. Kyle, a prospective driver, expresses his desire for a better work-life balance and asks about Oakley’s culture. The conversation emphasizes the importance of professionalism, family, and community within Oakley Trucking, providing valuable insights for current and prospective drivers. This episode gives you an in-depth understanding of the recruiting process and what it’s like to potentially work for Oakley Trucking.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- From Desk Conversation to Podcast Recording (0:12)
- Meeting Joe and Kyle (1:11)
- Joe’s Trucking Journey (3:04)
- Transition to Oakley Trucking (5:49)
- Kyle’s Experience and Desire for Change (6:39)
- The Importance of Home Time (8:29)
- Family Atmosphere at Oakley (10:26)
- Questions About Routes (11:17)
- Discussion on Appearance (12:23)
- Truck Weight Management Tips (15:59)
- Orientation and Training (18:44)
- Customer Interactions (21:28)
- Importance of Dispatch Communication (24:53)
- Pros and Cons of Trucking (26:34)
- Safety Practices (32:15)
- Building Relationships in Trucking (34:14)
- Final Thoughts and Takeaways (35:48)
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
Joe Summerford 00:12
I had to go tee for a long time in Utah about man, it was rough trying to shave that off, but after a while, it’s habit.
Jeremy Kellett 00:21
You think customers receive you a little bit better.
Joe Summerford 00:23
You go in there, they’re gonna look at somebody that’s more presentable than somebody that looks like they fell on the park. They’re gonna be more willing to help that guy that looks better you’re representing. First of all, you’re representing the company you drive for, absolutely and if you look nasty, you can only imagine what your truck looks like. I’ve always said you gotta take pride in your ride. That’s true.
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. So we’re just throwing this one together here, and I want to have Joe this Joe Summerford. We’re going to meet him here in just a second. He came up to me while I was talking to Kyle. Kyle walked in here to talk to us about leasing a truck and wanting to talk about coming to work here. So I’m sitting there talking to Kyle, you know, showing him some stuff at my computer. We’re visiting, seeing if we can meet his needs and all this stuff. And Joe comes up and wants to do a podcast with me. So hey, that’d be great. So Joe starts talking. We start talking about what the podcast Kyle sat standing on my desk, and they start talking. I said, Wait a minute. Let’s just take this upstairs, and let’s just have an episode where you’ve got a guy that wants to come to work here, that has heard about us, and you have an owner operator that’s been with us for a year and a half, and he’s telling him all about it. And I thought that’d be a great episode right there of us just sitting down and visiting and talking about it, and you can see, you know, Kyle asking the questions that probably everybody wants to ask out there. That’s the crew that watches the episode. So we decided to get up here and visit a little bit. So I have no notes of any kind up here today, and we’re just gonna wing this one, and hopefully it’s a good one. It has already started out to be a good one down at my desk. So I just wanted to continue it up here and also talk a little bit about Joe’s story. So welcome to the podcast. Guys got Joe summer for Thank you, Kyle. What’s your last name? Woodward. Woodward. Okay,
Kyle Woodward 02:52
just talk to Ain. Okin to me,
02:56
hidden. Okay. No kin to Kyle. Oh, my
Kyle Woodward 02:59
Ken’s in southwest Georgia, okay. But you live now in Alexander, alright. Where
Jeremy Kellett 03:04
do you live, Joe, I live in law and oak. Now you’ve been with Oakley for a year and a half, and tell me a little bit about you. Well, I
Joe Summerford 03:11
I started out when I was driving. When I was 19 years old, I saw a mill. Paul told me, said, Go get that dump truck, get that track goal, fill it up, deliver it. I said, Well, I don’t have a CDL, he said, the back of the head. He said, I ain’t gonna tell you again. So I went and delivered it. My first log truck was an old GMC, white bubble with a heater box in between the seats. And if you wanted an air conditioner, you rolled it down and man, from there, it just took off. Driven Tiger, oversized loads. Met my wife about 25 years ago. Wouldn’t trade her for nothing. Well, maybe a pickup or something. No, you would not have five kids, got grand babies. And lo,
Jeremy Kellett 03:56
Did you say you lived in lo Carlton?
Joe Summerford 03:57
Yeah, all my kids have gone to Lo. All of them have gone through Lora high school and everything, and raised our kids on the farm, and now we live in my mother in law’s house. She passed away, so we live there now, but raising our grand baby, I wouldn’t trade effort. No, yeah, the first grand baby. Yeah, she’s the first one, first one to call me pop, first one to keep me broke, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 04:23
yeah. Gets what she wants. Yeah, she
Joe Summerford 04:26
does. All she has to do is say, pop I want. Bob gets, I mean, she said that she wanted a pony behind the house, fenced it off, fixed the fence. She got a pony behind the house. I got horses at the farm. She got a horse at the house. So yeah, the baby, this is, this is gonna be trouble for you down the road. Oh, yeah, she’s blonde, with little blue eyes. Yeah, she’s trouble.
Kyle Woodward 04:52
No retirement site,
Jeremy Kellett 04:54
no retirement Ah, that’s
Joe Summerford 04:55
my quiet time getting in the truck. But I wouldn’t trade anything. We’re coming here. I
Jeremy Kellett 05:00
I mean, what’d you do before you came here? Start there.
Joe Summerford 05:03
I drove for land first. I drove for landstar. I was gone all the time, three months out of time, staying out, running all over the country in a dry van. And before that, I worked for a buyer man. Before that, I was a mechanic for Tri State Mac for almost 10 years. Oh, really, yeah, I worked on max and bubbles for that, a Razorback concrete and then before that, land star, my mother in law owns the truck, so I started driving for her. And that’s when I married my wife. She’s calmed me down a lot over the years. Oh yeah, oh yeah, good for you. Yeah, she’s the boss. So,
Jeremy Kellett 05:44
So what made you look into coming to Oakley? Well,
Joe Summerford 05:47
for one, kept on seeing everybody was home all the time. Family atmosphere camp tried to recruit me. For years, they had hot springs to Louisiana load, and I was trying to get on it, trying to get on it. And then whenever I was gonna make the jump to come over here, my wife had a stroke, hmm, so I called Kent. I was like, hey, look, my orientation date was, like, three or four weeks out. I told him. I said, my wife had a stroke. I’m coming in. I need to bump it up. Had no problem. Bump it all the way up.
Jeremy Kellett 06:16
How’s she doing now? When was this? This was so a year and a half ago. Yeah, she
Joe Summerford 06:20
Yeah. April, right before in April, she had a stroke, and she’s doing a lot better now, but when I called Kent, he didn’t hesitate bumping it up. I mean, everybody’s running really well with my wife having a stroke. If I need to be home, ain’t no problem getting home. Stay busy. Well, living in Lone oak, I mean,
Jeremy Kellett 06:42
you’re right here, so that’s gotta help some. And that’s what you know, was asking me questions about getting home, and that’s one of his needs, is he’s needing to be home more to see his kids more and stuff. So, yeah, I’ve
Kyle Woodward 06:57
been OTR for the last five years. What have you been doing? Kyle, just flat, bed, here, there, everywhere. On authority, own authority. Ran my own gig. You know, I’ve done well at it, made good money, and found a balance. You know, kids want me home more. They’re getting a little bit older. You know, I have a daughter in college, and four boys in high school and junior high. So twin ball and sports and that girl, they keep me busy. Yeah, get ready to move her back into her dorm next weekend. And where she is going, where she stays up at Jonesboro. Alright, so you’re trying to get home more for the boys, absolutely.
Jeremy Kellett 07:34
And how often you home now, every week or two couple weeks every chance
Kyle Woodward 07:41
I get it. But, yeah, I’ve been doing a two on two off schedule for a while now, just, you know, being home through the summer and, you know, just trying to be a little more present, right? And that’s what, that’s the freedom you get. You know, working for yourself, but you know, it comes with its sacrifices. You know, that’s two weeks of no pay, that’s two weeks all your insurance, and everything’s still coming out, you know, when you’re not bringing nothing in to cover it, yeah, so, so you’re looking for something a little steadier, little little more steadier, a little more closer to home, you know, not, hey, you’re going to Montana today, and we’ll see when we get there,
Jeremy Kellett 08:19
right? And that’s what Joe was telling us.
Joe Summerford 08:21
Yeah, I was, look, well, my wife had her stroke, I was in Salt Lake City, and my world kept crashing down. And look, I love being able to be home. I missed being over the road a lot. I mean, it’s like one day my kids were small, the next day they’re all grown, and now I get to see my grandbaby grow up too quickly, but she grew up and just made more money. I make more money now running the less miles than I did when I was with land star mate, running 4000 miles, 3600 miles, and I’m bringing home more I’m more comfortable you got your ups and your downs, but I mean, for the most part, it’s pretty much even
Kyle Woodward 09:11
you ever have the chance to check out the tool Army Depot out there in Salt Lake.
Joe Summerford 09:16
I was always running Detroit automotive parts run, turbos and engines out. Run right back to Ohio, back and forth. It got old real quick three months after being gone. I love being home, so that’s your best part. It’s home time, yeah. I mean, you can’t beat it. I mean, with five kids growing up, and then now my grandbaby, you miss a lot. I mean, would be at home every weekend, or at least be through the house. I mean, it’s a world of difference. I mean, you’re not going to find anyone you can come into the office to talk to. It’s like talking to your next door neighbor. If you get along with your next door neighbor. I mean, obviously, because he walked in the door and we brought him up here. Yeah, we’ve been talking to him.
Kyle Woodward 10:05
That’s actually how I went up here to begin with. My next door neighbor is a 30 year trucker, and he actually recommended me, Oakley.
Joe Summerford 10:13
Well, it’s a good place to work, good family atmosphere.
Jeremy Kellett 10:16
I mean, so you’ve been watching him, Kyle, or you’ve been visiting with him,
Kyle Woodward 10:19
He sees me. I see him. You know, he pays my kids to detail his trucks. Okay, so they make a little money off of him. Go there, cut his grass. And you know, he’s been trying to take care of his mama. She just passed away a couple weeks ago, but she’s just been on that elderly downhill slope for a while. So, real, good guy. You know, something I can relate to him with being another trucker. We need to know who he is. I can’t, not sure of his last name. I just know him as Ray, and
Jeremy Kellett 10:46
He lives in Alexandria. We can find that out. Some of us probably know. I’m sure. Do
Joe Summerford 10:51
Do you have any questions you need to ask me?
Kyle Woodward 10:53
I mean, without getting too site specific, what’s the what places you see the most alt
Joe Summerford 10:59
tech three into a lot of roofing granules. Certain times of the year you do a whole lot of that’s all around here, though, yeah, more outbound urea. Now, you
Kyle Woodward 11:10
mean where you going, yeah, not site specific, you know, like, what
Jeremy Kellett 11:14
state you running?
Joe Summerford 11:15
Central States. So you’re within, usually, I’m within the ear shot of the house. Okay? I mean, I can go anywhere, mostly where I go. I’m usually within a day. I could be home in like, maybe 10 hours. So it’s pretty much I stay around here, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, yeah, Florida, Tennessee, Florida. Once in a while, don’t do I don’t go to New York. None of that.
Kyle Woodward 11:43
Did you lose a couple pounds of hair too when you came on? No, I
Joe Summerford 11:47
was already bald like this before I came on. Being married 25 years
Kyle Woodward 11:53
I’m going bald.
Jeremy Kellett 11:59
Well, he was, of course, I’m sure people are watching this going well. Anybody told him he’s going to have to cut his hair and shave his beard? Yet, you know, they’re all wondering that. But he’s aware of that. Tell him what you was telling me while ago down there the
Kyle Woodward 12:12
so one of my sons, my 14 year old Caleb, came to me about four years ago when, I guess the mullet kind of came back. I was like, Dad, I want to grow my hair out, but, you know, kind of afraid to do it alone. I was like, man, all your buddies are doing it. Go ahead. He’s like, Well, will you just do it with me? This that’s my twin. He looks exactly like me, identical. And I was like, Yeah, I don’t care. I already have, you know, semi longer hair, but nothing like I got now. And we started growing our hair out. He, you know, turned 1314, years old, started growing his facial hair, and now he decided he wants to join the military. He’s joining ROTC at the school, and they said, Well, you know, you have to cut the air off and shape your face. He’s like, damn, I just, I just ain’t gonna do it. I said, Well, it’s your decision, son. And so he decided to do it anyway. This past week, he finally sat down. He’s like, Dad, I’m gonna do it. And then I was told to come up here and talk to Oakley. Well, doing my research. This is the other I’ve seen on the website, that was one of the requirements, you know, wearing a respirator, sometimes, this and that. And I said, Well, son, look at how God works. I said, Now I’m offered a job opportunity where I have to cut my hair off and shave my face too. I
Joe Summerford 13:16
said, so it looks like we’ll be doing this together as well. That’s a great story. Yeah, I had to go tee for a long time in Utah about, man, it was rough trying to shave that off. But, I mean, it’s just after a while, it’s a habit to just shave. I mean, it’s like second nature. You just,
Jeremy Kellett 13:34
you think customers receive you a little bit better,
Joe Summerford 13:37
a lot better. I mean, if you go in there looking like you just fell down in the parking lot and you haven’t shaved in three months. They’re gonna look at you, lower your pajamas, yeah, and flip flops, Crocs and camo, yeah, it gets feet up on the dash. But if you go in there, they’re gonna look at somebody that’s more presentable than somebody that looks like they fell on the park, they’re gonna be more willing to help that guy. That looks better because you’re representing, first of all, you’re representing the company you drive for, absolutely and if you look nasty, you can only imagine what your truck looks like. I mean, I’ve always said you gotta take pride in your ride. That’s true. So, I mean, I don’t get out of the truck looking like I just fell down in the parking lot. Yeah. What
Jeremy Kellett 14:25
What kind of truck did you get? Joe,
Joe Summerford 14:27
I got a 579 Peterbilt Dominion mobile. The what? Minion mobile. Minion mobile is yellow. That’s a 579 with an 80 inch sleeper. Love my truck, man, I’m tall enough where I can get up and go to the bump you said. You surprised me when you even said it was lighter. Yeah, it’s actually lighter than my freight liner. Freightliner Coronado or Cascadia, yeah, Cascadia and it weighed Cascadia weighed in 19 six, and my or Peter red weighed 18 six. Yeah. I can’t believe it’s lighter, but it is. That is good, yeah. So,
Jeremy Kellett 15:04
I mean, tell Kyle why it’s important to be light.
Joe Summerford 15:08
More weight you can haul, the more money you make is as close to 80 as you can get without going over. How hard is that? Sometimes it’s pretty hard, yep. I mean, you can get right there. But if you get the scales on your truck and the scales on your trailer spot on, you’ll never have a problem.
Jeremy Kellett 15:29
You won’t have to worry about being overloaded. So, Kyle, we’ve got an air gage on the trailer, and we put one on your truck that comes with the price of a wet kit, okay? And it’s a right way box, and it’s got your air gage in there, so you can you we try to dial those in before you leave orientation, so you can see when you get loaded, it’s easier to see how many, how much weight you have on the trailer, and how much you’re getting on the truck to where you’re not over axled, just pressure based, yep,
Joe Summerford 15:59
and they’re actually, some are actually, if you see some, they go by air and stuff like that. These are actual weights. They’ll, I mean, like, if you got 31,000 on your front Gage, you got 31,000 so, I
Jeremy Kellett 16:16
mean, yeah, it actually says that, you know, the needle says 30 or 31
Kyle Woodward 16:21
Okay, so liquid. I’m running 30 psi, so it’s no, you know, times 2.47
Joe Summerford 16:27
converted over. No. They’re actual weight, their actual weight. And the biggest thing is, once you figure it out, you’ll figure out where your sweet spot is, like, how do you load it? Because if you load it too heavy to the back. It’s gonna be like a bucking bronc, yeah, hotel whip, yeah. You’ll get the whole shake of your teeth loose. I mean, it took me a while, but I got a spread axle, one trader for another. I love my spread. My life is easy. Oh, yeah, a lot easier. Rides are easier. But
Jeremy Kellett 16:58
all these places have scales too that we load out. Yeah. So it’s not just, I guess there’s few places that don’t have scales that you run into, but you’re
Kyle Woodward 17:06
not just winging it right. Some
Joe Summerford 17:08
places will load you on the scale so you don’t have to. You just tell them what you want. Makes sense, truly. Yeah. So, I mean, if you get you’ll get your trailer and everything, and if it’s tandem, you’ll get where, you know, how much you can put on, like with this trailer I got now, I can put over 23 and a half tons and still have a little better wiggle room. But, yeah, you’ll get, I mean, I had no problem with my tandem. Sure wouldn’t want to go back. Made it easy, isn’t it good? Oh yeah, it’s a lot easier. I mean, the coming over here, done if you’re gonna end up. Biggest thing I can tell you is find a flat spot when you dump, don’t dump when you’re crossing the wind, because you’ll turn over. If you don’t feel like it’s safe, don’t do it. Nobody’s gonna push you to do it. So,
Kyle Woodward 18:01
I mean, I’m sure you know, as well as out of there’s a few places in this country it just stays windy,
Joe Summerford 18:06
yeah? But you gotta adjust for that wind when you’re dumping
Kyle Woodward 18:10
park into the wind, well, yeah,
Joe Summerford 18:13
or it’s hitting you to the back when you’re dumping and raising up, it’s hitting the back of your trailer. But don’t ever Park show cross went, Yeah, because you’ll turn that over quickly.
Jeremy Kellett 18:22
It’ll get your attention. When you finish up orientation like all day, Thursday is out here, hooking up to the trailer and raising it up in the air, letting you get a feel for how the PTO works and the trailer works. And, you know, Randolph does a good job going out here, you know, climbing in and out of the trailers, taking the bowls in and out. How the tailgates work is a little bit different. Some of them have a cold shot that you unload out of some of them most of the time, you just swing the door, like we call barn Doorn around and chain it to the side, and then raise up and unload the product. And then show you how sometimes, most of the time, Randolph actually loads you out here with a load of gravel or dirt or something, and then unloads it out here. It’s not the same as going into some of these places, but it helps give you an idea of how it does because it gets your attention. Now, when it raises up in the area, it’s up there, yeah, 40 feet straight the air is a little bit different than as you go down the road, because you got you lock the trailer brakes and yeah, and pull the truck back to you. It pulls the truck back to you, up under it. Now, if you get into a spot and you’re dumping, like we had an experience we were down in Houston, we’re dumping coal, and few times you get stuck just,
Joe Summerford 19:36
I mean, let that trailer just, it’ll push you out of that hole. Or you can, what you can do is let it push you and then set your truck brakes and then work your way out so you’re not stuck. But sometimes you just bury it up. But now that place in Houston, it was pretty tricky. I mean, there were a lot of soft spots, but we had to watch everybody. That’s when nobody’s doing. That job for a few weeks down there. Yeah. I mean, the best thing you can do is help each other. I mean, watch the guy behind you. Made any friends here? Yeah, lots of guys. I mean, sometimes I run with dump guys running local and everything. I mean, a good group of guys. When you run an end up local, you better be ready to roll, because you’re going to keep up with those guys. Get you? Oh yeah, I can keep up with them. But, I mean, everybody’s really friendly to help you. If you have a question, don’t just be afraid to ask. Have you always run? Nope, I’ve run oversized loads. No here, no here. Yeah, I’ve always ended up running. From day one, I was supposed to be hopper. When I came and I got switched, they just switched me to end up. And didn’t have a choice. But I do like to end up too. I liked it first. I was wanting, really wanting a hopper. And I really do, like, end up because, I mean, you get to a job. Sometimes you’re weird. 10 minutes you’re done, sweep out, going to the next one. Sometimes you gotta sit. But for the most part,
Jeremy Kellett 21:14
That’s what I was telling Kyle Joe was at a lot of. We put a lot of responsibility on you guys, yeah, to take care of. You get to a place to load or unload. I mean, a lot of it’s up to you to make sure it’s done right, especially the unload, I’m assuming, don’t they just, hey, unload over there. Then you gotta go do your thing, and you gotta make sure you’re safe, you put it in the right place.
Joe Summerford 21:35
Oh yeah, they, I mean it, they’ll tell you, Okay, go or dump over there, you’re like, okay, and then it’s your responsibility to find a safe place, a way to dump it, because they’re not going to be over watching you. We’ve got some places that will watch you that for the most part, they tell you, and that’s it. Customers pretty friendly. Oh yeah, I haven’t met. I mean, say I can. I’ve met some. It’s more been security guards that have had the attitudes. But customers, man, are really friendly. I mean, nobody’s gone. They’re usually pretty happy to see us, especially if you go to the little mama pop fertilizer places or they love you. They’re like, Oh man, what did you get for me? Like, I gotta load the UI. I’ve been waiting for that. I get, we got it sold now, soon as you dump it. I mean, oh yeah, I’ve had to pick up in Hayti and take it to Memphis. A load of money and nitrate. They had a sale. I could get there as soon as I dumped it. The guy was loading up. I mean, so they’re usually pretty happy to see you. And usually, like, I went to New core and they had driver appreciation. Didn’t think of anything about it. Lady walk, I walked up there, and lady goes, What size are you? I told her. Said, Hold on, come back. Gave me a shirt. I was like, Oh heck, yeah. Ain’t used to this. And then some of them will give you a gift bag, like maybe just chips, granola and stuff like that, just telling you to appreciate it. Yeah, I’m a big hat guy. I
Kyle Woodward 23:23
might forget one of them, a pretty Oakley hat. Yeah,
Joe Summerford 23:26
I’m a really big headed guy.
Jeremy Kellett 23:28
Everybody is, we supply half of the United States, I think in hats. Yeah,
Joe Summerford 23:33
I love my hats. I get about four of them. I got more now, but I got four that I usually don’t wear. This is one of them. I usually don’t wear them.
Jeremy Kellett 23:43
It’s crazy how we are about our hats. That’s a whole other topic.
Joe Summerford 23:46
Oh yeah, but yeah, you’re gonna look. I mean, you gotta sacrifice the hair in the end. It’s all worth it because you’re really you’re gonna make some really good people here, family orientated, if you out sick or something like that, or you have a death in the family, don’t forget about you a youth
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Jeremy Kellett 24:53
How’s dispatch work?
Joe Summerford 24:54
Oh, man, I have an awesome dispatcher. He is. Top Notch. I’m bragging to you. Dylan mines out of reserve. Even though I live in Little Rock I got a reserve dispatcher. I would not have had a little rock dispatcher, and now I got him down there. Wouldn’t trade for nothing. He communicates well with him. That’s the biggest thing. You gotta talk to your dispatcher. I mean, if you got a bad rapport, you guys don’t clack, click, yeah, I mean, and he’s got to know you want to run. If you’re going to sit at the truck stop all the time, you ain’t going to make no money. Truck stops ain’t good, bro, for two things. We’re sleeping and taking a shower. That’s about it. But he runs, I would say, filling up in food. Yeah, I got food in the truck, so. But, I mean, if you get a good rapport with your dispatcher, you could call him, and feel like you’re talking to somebody that is like a friend. I mean, I consider Dylan her friend, yeah, so. But you think that’d be hard, Kyle, for you to go from dispatching yourself for five years to having somebody dispatch you.
Kyle Woodward 26:08
I welcome you. Open
Joe Summerford 26:10
audience, well, we did it at land star. My wife did it for almost over three or four years, and my wife, before that, she dispatched me to where Atlanta started the first time she dispatched me, and when she found out that she didn’t have to dispatch any more, oh man, she was happy. She’s like, thank goodness.
Jeremy Kellett 26:32
She likes you over here at Oakley, huh? Oh
Joe Summerford 26:33
yeah. She said her driver was a butt hole. Soon, like, dispatch an email, which would you? Yeah, which was me, but, yeah, I love, I mean, she loves it being over here. I mean, because we’re close to home, that’s the biggest thing, close to home.
Jeremy Kellett 26:50
What other questions do you think of Kyle?
Kyle Woodward 26:52
Well, where there’s good, there’s always bad. I’ve heard a lot of pros. What’s your column? There you go.
Joe Summerford 26:57
Oh, there it is. Now, the pros, you’ll make money. The cons, you gotta kind of interpret what everybody’s saying. You gotta do your own thing. You can’t listen to everybody, because you’re always going to have a negative Nancy. Anywhere you go, you’re going to have one guy that’s going to beat everybody else down saying, I ain’t doing this, I ain’t doing that. There’s always some reason why they’re not, either they’re spending too much time just sitting the trucks up or, well, I don’t want this load. I don’t want that load. I don’t turn down a load unless it’s a place where I can possibly damage tires or my truck. So you don’t go to the scrap yard, though I do all the time, but I know which scrap yards to go to. Well, we’ve got some that we go into clean. I ain’t cleaning places. We got some too. We go with our nightmare. You have to walk through and kick stuff, but it’s up to you how much money you want to make. So scrap yards
Jeremy Kellett 28:08
are a con, yes. What else is getting dirty? I’ve heard people say, man, a little dirt hurts.
Joe Summerford 28:15
Never hurt, nobody. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I have days where I stay pretty clean, then I have days where I’m dirty, then I’m gonna find a shower.
Kyle Woodward 28:24
I must be that new generation, a truck driver. I guess I died one time when I was a kid. My dad told me, walk it off, yeah,
Joe Summerford 28:32
rub a little dirt on, you know, yeah, a little dirt never hurt anybody. I mean, but,
Jeremy Kellett 28:37
but we do have cons. I mean, Kyle for sure. I mean, we’re human beings, absolutely, just like everybody else, we make stupid decisions. We say stupid things. I mean, it’s, but it’s probably, we’re probably one of the best companies to communicate with, like he’s talking about Dylan, you know, we’re probably good when you have that problem, because you’re going to have a problem here. When you have that problem, we welcome it to figure it out, you know, and how to get through it, and how to if we can solve your problem or not. And, I mean, it’s the same as if we have a problem with you guys, you’d want to know, would you absolutely I mean, yeah, so we can work through it.
Joe Summerford 29:15
I mean, ain’t no company perfect, right? But you’re gonna feel more at home here than you would, let’s say land star, or any other company. Because,
Jeremy Kellett 29:27
Let’s disclaimer, we’re not bashing land stores. LandStar is a good company. No,
Joe Summerford 29:32
did a lot of work for him. LandStar is a good company. It’s just that I needed something that was going to be closer at home. I made money with a land star. Have no problem with land stars. It’s just that I needed something that was closer at home, yeah, where I could be home more. I love my time at land star. I still got friends at land star. I got recruiters that called me and checked on my wife. So, I mean, yeah. I
Kyle Woodward 29:54
I mean, as you get older and you really start to get those treasures in life of having a family and children and grandchildren, you know. That home time is more important, yeah, because you can’t bring back, you know, when you’re is that where you’re, is that where you’re getting that now, kind of, you know, I started out young with my kids, and, you know, I had them a little earlier than I should have, but it is what it is, and I’ve made it work. You know, when you’re a young man chasing those dollars, all that matters, you know, you’ll leave here, go over here for 50 cents more, just because, hey, 50 cents. 50 cents. 50 cents. But once you start to get a little bit older, you start really looking into, you know, the community part. You know who’s going to take care of you. You know what company is truly going to look at you as an asset instead of just a number.
Joe Summerford 30:32
Yeah, you can’t bring back time that you miss with your kids. You know, you die tomorrow, your
Kyle Woodward 30:37
the job will be posted for your obituary. Hits, yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 30:40
Unfortunately, Oakley Trucking is a 100% owner operator company. We specialize in Hopper, bottom end 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 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 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 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. Good questions, good conversation, absolutely. So I hope it helps that may we now, I guess we need to get an application
Kyle Woodward 31:52
on you come out, some paperwork
Joe Summerford 31:56
you see around. I mean, likewise, there’s a lot of good people here. I mean, like I said, I never walked in the office. I’ve never walked in there and anybody not say hi to you, shake your hand,
Kyle Woodward 32:10
you give me your last name. I’ll put you down with my reference on my application.
Jeremy Kellett 32:15
How about safety wise? We didn’t discover that. I mean, a lot of people worry about somebody, man Oakley is too hard on them. Or what do you think about that? Joe hell, quit. Look,
Joe Summerford 32:26
if you do what you’re supposed to do safely, a call will remind you, hey, look, you need to do your inspection on your truck, or you need to send your inspection in. If you’re like your ELF messes up, they’ll call you and say, Hey, what’s going on? What’s the problem? Just in the dead zone, and then it’ll reconnect later, or if your tablet messes up, goes haywire, to help you fix it. Safety is I know everybody gets that phone call from safety. My God, what do you want? But they’re not going to eat you So, but you got the cameras in the truck, they help you a lot. There will be sticklers on safety. Just watch when you’re climbing on things. Just watch your footing, where your hands are, and everything else. They’re here to make sure that you get home at the end of the day. Well, absolutely,
Kyle Woodward 33:22
That’s what’s most important. Yeah, you know, we’re all out here just to make a check to make it back home to our families.
Jeremy Kellett 33:29
And you understand, because we talked earlier, you got your own authority and your own insurance. Yeah, my boss has been a real stickler for the last five years,
Kyle Woodward 33:38
too. She’s at the house, and somehow, you know, I’ve made it through no loss, runs, no violations, no issues. You know, that’s good. Never dropped nothing off my trailer, other than dirt. That’s good So,
Jeremy Kellett 33:50
and that goes a long way. So, you know, history, background, driving record, all that plays a big part. And then, course, you know, coming up here face to face helps tremendously on just being able to get to know each other and understand what’s going on, and then Joe pop in and answer all your questions better than I can, because
Kyle Woodward 34:09
absolutely, you know, I was raised face to face, my handshake is a whole lot better than phone calls. Good,
Joe Summerford 34:13
yeah, yep. They need to bring that back. A lot more. Handshakes used to mean something, now they don’t, but
Kyle Woodward 34:21
you got your word and your handshake in this world once one goes to shit, yeah? She uses the language on the podcast.
Joe Summerford 34:28
No, I look at it this way. Don’t lie to me, and I won’t lie to you. There you go. Treat me the way. You won’t be treated to simple stuff. Yeah, not complicated.
Jeremy Kellett 34:38
But guys, I appreciate anything else you like to add, Joe, I just You came to me wanting to do a podcast. I’ll make sure you got it. Get it out.
Joe Summerford 34:46
I’ll just welcome aboard if you decide to come and everything. And hope you have a good time. Meet lots of good friends and everything and make lots of money.
Kyle Woodward 34:56
Well, if I come aboard, I’m gonna tell them. Day one I want to go with Joe. You. Oh,
Joe Summerford 35:01
God. Well, run with Joe. I’ve already trained a few people, and the people that I’ve trained are a really good group of guys. I met some interesting people training them. I mean, I’ve never been one for patients. A few of them had tested my patients. But look, I think the guys that we got here are a pretty good group of guys. If you need some help, people always have tools. Got tools. Hey, man, I’ll help you or something like that.
Jeremy Kellett 35:34
I appreciate Kyle. Appreciate us putting you on spot. And no work coming up here. And I think it’ll, you know, it’d be a good little episode for everybody to see. So Joe, appreciate you sitting down with Hi. No problem.
Joe Summerford 35:44
I didn’t have anything else today.
Jeremy Kellett 35:46
Thanks everybody for listening to the Oakley podcast. I hope this helps some, some of you out there that are thinking about coming to Oakley, being an owner operator with us, and you get to hear it straight from one that’s wanting to come and one that’s been here a while. So hope you enjoyed it. 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.