This week on the Oakley Podcast, co-hosts Jeremy Kellett and Dustin Eagle welcome John Welch, one of our Owner/Operators at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, John shares his journey in the trucking industry, including the recent purchase of a new Kenworth truck. He discusses the challenges and successes he’s faced, emphasizing the importance of reliable equipment and family support, with his son also being an owner-operator at Oakley. The group also talks about the upcoming company party, safety practices, issues truck drivers face on the road, the importance of customer service, and so much more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- The Upcoming Company Party and Truck Show (1:49)
- John Welch’s New Truck (6:11)
- John’s Family Background and Trucking Journey (8:35)
- Coming to Oakley Trucking (12:49)
- The Importance of Communication with Dispatch (15:01)
- Choosing the Right Truck (19:00)
- Life on the Road with Family (21:30)
- Exploring the Country (22:14)
- Mechanical Knowledge for Owner-Operators (24:17)
- Using Technology for Truck Issues (25:25)
- The Importance of Customer Service (31:45)
- Advice for Handling Customers (33:21)
- Final Thoughts and Takeaways (35:21)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
John Welch 00:00
If you’re looking for someplace to go, you see these companies, and they have these trucks with defenders falling off of them and everything else, and bungee straps like, Man, I don’t want to work there, right? Ain’t no money there, he can tell. But it’s been great over here at Oakley. We’ve been here for four years. In December, I put so much faith in Oakley. After three weeks of working here and the first truck went down, I told Dustin to just gonna buy a new one. I Worked there three weeks and bought a brand new one and ran it out to 400,000 miles.
Jeremy Kellett 00:38
Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley trucking, headquartered at 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 insight to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hey, welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business and family. My name is Jeremy Kellett. I’m director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking, and I’m your host for this podcast. And in this episode, we are going to sit down and talk to one of our owner operators, Mr. John Welch, who just purchased a new kW this week. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. We’re going to talk about its history. Get his history getting into trucking, just kind of another success story here at Oakley on you know, from how he started driving a truck to end and up here, and some of the things he does to be successful. So we’re going to visit with John here in a minute about that. I got Dustin Eagle hanging out with me this time. Finally got him in a chair for a little bit to help me with this. Actually, he, actually, he volunteered John and I volunteered Dustin. So that’s how it works. That’s how it works around here. So he helped me a little bit on this too. But first, before we get to John, I want to talk. I want to talk about the company party. We’ve got our Oakley, our annual company party coming up October the 19th, here at North Little Rock terminal, and it’s for all of our owner operators and their families. It’s for all Bruce Oakley employees. We come from all over to hang out for one night right here. But some of the things you need to know that’s going on is this is our third annual Truck Show. So we have about 2025 of our owner operators signed up. They bring their trucks, line them up out here in the parking lot. They are shined up to the tee. They are looking fantastic. They spend a day or two early a lot of times, and get to clean them, and we have them set up out by the tent, and it’s just a good time. So what happens is, everybody that attends the company party has a vote on who the top truck is, which one looks the best, my favorite. So, you know, these owner operators, they’re out here trying to buy your vote. I’m telling you, they got their secret way. They’re trying to buy votes because we’ve got some stakes, I mean, some high stakes prizes, you know, giving away. We got these fantastic trophies we’ve made for first, second, third. I mean, it’s just a good time. And everybody eats. We have a big recognition of, you know, accomplishments, 510, year, you know, 20 years, all that kind of stuff for owners, operators and employees. I mean, it’s just a fun time. There’s some fish. Got a band, got a band. I mean, we have a band. You tell me we are not, we’re not getting it going on, so it’s a good time we you know, I have to stress, though, it is just for Oakley, owner operators, their families and Bruce Oakley employees. I would hate for I wouldn’t hate it, but it would be, I might get in trouble. If 45,000 subscribers showed up,
Dustin Eagle 03:46
we might run out of food. Hey, I
Jeremy Kellett 03:48
listen to the podcast. I’m here for the party. Like, oh, wait a minute. Did I have a problem there? So? But anyway, looking forward to that October the 19th, reserve your room at Holiday Inn, or in Little Rock across from the airport, and also the Windham here in North Little Rock. We got some special rates. What is it? Oh yeah. Starts at 530 Saturday evening. I would get here early. I would get here because to see 2025, trucks. How many have we got in it? You’re really going to need to have time to walk around and see them all. So I’d get here. What time actually? We’ll
Dustin Eagle 04:24
be out here all day Saturday.
Jeremy Kellett 04:26
What time’s rags down? 3222, or three o’clock? They gotta quit. Yeah, they can’t do anything to their truck after two or three o’clock. I’m not sure which one, but I will get here. But we’re gonna be here that day. We’ve even got who’s cooking for James Wilbridge is real. Willridge is cooking. James Wildridge talked to him yesterday. He’s cooking that day for the guys, the people that are in the truck show. So he comes up from Louisiana and has a big pot of, I don’t know what it is, but I don’t know what it is, but it’s good. I mean, it’s sausage, chicken gumbo. Out stuff. I mean, it’s fantastic. He does a great job doing that. So have that out in the driver’s lounge. It’ll be at the driver’s lounge around noonish for all the contestants. So it’s gonna be a great day. I mean, we just have a blast. So everybody come, get here early, look at the trucks. Be sure and vote for the best one before you get a piece of fish. No fish if you haven’t voted right,
Arrow Truck Sales Commercial 05:23
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Jeremy Kellett 06:11
All right, let’s get with John West. John, what’s going on this morning? What are you doing?
John Welch 06:13
All right, yes, sir, I’m doing good this morning. It’s a little stressed out getting a new truck deal done. Man, challenge,
Jeremy Kellett 06:18
isn’t it? We were talking a little bit about that a while ago. I mean, what do you have to go through to get a truck?
John Welch 06:23
Well, financing, finding the truck, and then the dealer getting a truck to you, the one they say they’re going to do, but it’s usually, like a week later than that happens. It’s just hoops after hoops. But, I mean, it’s worth the process to stay under the new equipment. I’m a firm believer. I come in at Oakley with an old truck with Dustin. And I said, Dustin on the trade this truck when I will just bring it on. So I came in with a white one. First trip out, we got lights with a Dell system, and it hadn’t broken down in six months. So we waited three weeks. We got the red one. We ran the red one for nearly four years, and then went in on a breakdown and came out with a new one. KW,
Jeremy Kellett 06:59
yeah. What’d you get now? What’s this truck you do? That’s
John Welch 07:01
2025, kW, WL, w9 100. L, so nice? Well, it’s a nice truck. It’s got a lot of upgrades, a lot of really nice, nice. It’s nice to have the room. My wife’s always with me. She didn’t win with me today because she didn’t like the camera. Oh, she rides with you all the time, all the time. She does the paperwork. I’d have to go back through orientation without my wife,
Jeremy Kellett 07:21
man, we could have made her famous come
John Welch 07:23
this morning. Couldn’t get her up here. I couldn’t Dustin tried, and I did too, and she’s like, No, I don’t have a clean shirt. Peter, built a shirt on right now.
Jeremy Kellett 07:33
That’s good. That’s alright. So yeah, with trading trucks, there’s no, no easy task. You gotta get APU. You gotta get your foot on kit, all
John Welch 07:41
that stuff, took off, put back on. We got to coordinate like three shops getting all that done. And the only people that have done what they said they were going to do on this trade is Oakley shop. They are great. They get you in and they get you out. Everybody else they get you in, but they don’t get you out.
Jeremy Kellett 07:56
That’s a challenge. Doing all that right? Well, tell us about your family.
John Welch 07:59
Me and my wife, we’ve been together. We have one kid. I got my son over here. He’s owner operator at Oakley. I brought him over Wesley nearly two years ago, and he’s doing real good. He hit the struggle though he’s like me, coming in with an older truck, but he went with an older model because he’s staying away from death issues. And was like, Dad, this will be alright. It’s an old cat. We had to overhaul it nine months in 46,000 I mean, it’s just, there’s nothing worse than a shop payment downtime and a truck payment at the same time. Amen. It’s just it’ll kill you, you know, but he’s doing good. He got pretty well afloat, doing pretty well with it. So, and that’s the only, that’s the only boy, yeah, where you live? We live in Gilmer, Texas, okay, just a little bit out north of Tyler, about 30 miles, right? There, been there. We bought a new house in Gilmer in December. Moved from Hallsville over there, just spent money like crazy this year. I think I need my head examined.
Jeremy Kellett 08:54
Well, man, that’s the way the world goes around. Well,
John Welch 08:57
We were locking the warranty blanket on the new truck. I mean, with all the death issues and everything you’re just telling me, you run them 504 and 500,000 get rid of them. And just if you can stay underneath that warranty blanket and stay on a low truck note at the same time, you’re pretty good. But
Jeremy Kellett 09:13
How many? How long is the warranty? So warranty
John Welch 09:15
on this one’s four years, 500,000 miles, and that’s the engine and after treatment and everything on the so it’s we really excited about that. I’ve never bought an extended warranty. That last truck came with a 300,000 mile bumper to bumper, but I went ahead and stepped it up this year because of all the death issues. You know, they’re getting better than what they were on the isx, but the X 15 has gotten a lot better. But it still scares you, that first truck, we got 17,000 of death repairs in 13 months and all the downtime to go with it.
Jeremy Kellett 09:44
That’s a whole nother episode right there that we sit here and talk about all day. We have dealt with that. I mean, it’s a daily issue for us in the office, yeah, and we don’t even own a truck, but we have to, you know, try to get guys that it’s killing them and good on our operators. It’s a whole nother. We don’t want to start off with that pretty deep that’ll go down in a ditch that we can’t come out of. John, all right. Man, what got you into trucking? How long have you been driving? Man,
John Welch 10:11
I started. I grew up on a 4000 acre cotton farm in the seven dishes. So I was either running equipment or something about 12 years old. I drove a tractor by myself. Or you grew up on that, or a whole handle chopping cotton. I mean, way back. But I started driving for a gravel company when I was 18, and they started hauling gravel, local and stuff like that. I started off at a mag truck. It was nearly as old as I was. It was two years newer than me when I started no air conditioner, no five speed, no window or wind in the back, no air conditioner, nothing just that’s what we started in. And I just kept moving up from there. And by the 90s, I was running cross country, started running out to California and stuff on produce and stuff like that. And just kept going from there. And here I am just doing it your whole life, my whole life, I’ve either been working on one or a mechanic or driving one for my whole life. So you mechanic, yes, sir, 13 years in the shop. I worked for cats for a few years, and I started a guy’s shop with him. Jerry severe out in Lubbock, severe truck service. Anybody ever out in West Texas? Great guy. I worked with him for about 13 years. And then I got tired of being on the concrete, of course. You know, I’m a pretty good sized filler, and my knees got aching pretty good. So I sat back down in a truck, and I started doing heavy haul and stuff like that, oversized. And then I bought a truck, because with Booker transportation, this place to get in with a truck. We’re not going to talk about them. But anyways, and I called Dustin, and I just like the atmosphere up here, the people, I mean, they treat me like family. I walk in here and talk to you or Dustin, just any day of the week. It’s like a family environment. You know, we like the environment. The money’s good, the work’s consistent, the equipment’s good. I mean, did
Jeremy Kellett 11:55
Did you know anybody here before you came? No,
John Welch 11:59
I want to know how I found Oakley drivers. And I was watching the parking lots, and I saw an Oakley truck pull in, all shined up trucks, and big trucks show that there’s money to be made, because a lot of people are trying to drive trucks like that, and they don’t. And you look and see these big trucks, nice trucks, clean trucks, happy drivers. And I just out of blue. Just walked up to one. I don’t remember the guy’s name. I just walked up to him. I said, Well, is it over at Oakley? And he just told me a little bit about it and everything. I didn’t get his name or anything. And then I called up here, and I got JP first. That’s when he was recruiting. And then he transferred me to Dustin, and me and Dustin we talked, like, once every couple of weeks, anyways, just to talk, you know. Yeah, check catch up. But that’s how I got started. But I wish I got that guy’s name, but it was just an advertisement from seeing the nice trucks and stuff. You know, it makes sense. That’s I mean, if you’re looking for some place to go, you see these companies, and they have these trucks with defenders falling off of them and everything else, and bungee straps. You’re like, Man, I don’t want to work there, right? Ain’t no money there, he can tell. But it’s been great over here at Oakley. We’ve been here for four years in December, one through two, three trucks over here. No kidding, yeah, but I had one for three weeks. I put so much faith in Oakley. After three weeks of working here, and the first truck went down, I told Dustin just gonna buy a new one. Work through three weeks and buy a brand new one and run it out to 400,000 miles.
Dustin Eagle 13:24
That wasn’t stressful.
John Welch 13:26
Was it that? Yeah, that was it. Really it wasn’t. Because Roy Bailey, the salesman over there, I’ll just come get it, and I bought it out of Shreveport. They brought it from Memphis down and over here to Dobbs. And I walked into Dobbs, didn’t tell him my name. I said, I’m here for the red Peterbilt. And they throw me the keys. Week later, I sang papers on it, but you may see it wasn’t that way. They hit everything to a tee, you know. And everything had to go before.
Jeremy Kellett 13:52
But did you get to the MHC here? Or no, or I got it
John Welch 13:55
in Van Buren? I wonder. Yeah. I wasn’t even looking for a truck. It sort of went out on a truck. And we pulled in there, and I said, Let’s just look at one of those trucks. Them trucks. And he said, I’ll make a good deal on it. We got to talking, and it happened. So truck payment went down $400 a month. So it was a week
Jeremy Kellett 14:11
later. Here you are, a week later. Here I am fixing to get started today,
John Welch 14:15
I guess. Yes, sir, yeah, we’re probably going to work a few weekends. Make up for some makeup for some downtime. You pulled the end up the whole time you’ve been. I’ve been with the end up the whole time I’ve been here. Yes sir,
Dustin Eagle 14:28
and you’re dispatched out of Katusha for Kyle Haney
John Welch 14:31
was my dispatcher. He was a low coordinator. Kyle’s great, super good guy to work with. He’s very knowledgeable, and when he dispatches, everything just clicks. Boy, I like it when he does it. Like that. He’s a good guy. Yeah, he
Jeremy Kellett 14:45
I got a lot of experience too. He
John Welch 14:46
does to be no older than he is. My son’s older than he is. Oh, really, but Kyle has got it down. Boy, I mean, he is a good guy. I really like that. That relationship is important, and it is a dispatcher, leader, make you or break you. And I mean. And if you have a good conversation or communication intake with your dispatcher, back and forth, and you can work together. Of course, this is trucking. Everybody’s going to have a temper flare. Everything’s not going to go right every week. No, you’re going to have bad weeks. You’re going to have good weeks. And I heard a guy on here on the podcast, he’s man you get mad. He said, take a week off. Don’t quit, take two weeks off. And that made more sense, because I was struggling right then. I was kind of aggravated with things, and of course, I didn’t take any time off till now. This is my vacation. But I thought, Man, that guy had got it dabbled with some good advice that I heard right here on that podcast that goes, take off if you’re mad, and that sound advice instead of quitting or going somewhere else. Because everybody gets tired.
Jeremy Kellett 15:41
Lot of things change when you step back and relax and get out of the situation and go home and think about it. You know, get your stress off, get on your tractor or whatever, yeah, and then, you know, time kind of heals that a little bit. Yup,
John Welch 15:55
but we’re all grown men and everybody, man, we
Jeremy Kellett 15:59
all say stupid stuff. We all get aggravated. I mean, it’s part of the process. Yes, that’s truckin ‘you just and that’s why we stress communication so much here that we are. You know, we’re on a we’re really on it big right now, because we’re bringing owner operators back in here every three months, every six months, and having a sit down with them. Oh, and we’re having to sit down and just, and it’s they’re all, you know, everybody’s worried about. I don’t want no confrontation. I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want to have a meeting with them, you know. But it’s every time you come out of there, it’s good. And when you start getting those good meetings, well then you want another one. Yes. And it really helps break that wall down with dispatcher and safety, even going in there with us and and the dispatcher, I mean, in the owner operator, it just helps communicate a whole lot better. You get past that and you feel like you can talk to us. Well, encourage it. Yep,
John Welch 16:54
dust is like my personal counselor, or anything. I have a problem with Dustin. What do I need to do here? You know, on which channel do I need to hit these good listeners? And he’s a good listener, and he’s turned out to be pretty good friends through the whole deal, you know? And he’s always been there and helped me anyway, so I’ll continue to do it.
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Jeremy Kellett 18:00
What’s some of the biggest challenges you face as an owner operator? John,
John Welch 18:04
I mean money. Getting Started hard. It’s hard. You got to get in. Everybody got to get in with what I call a starter truck. Try to get something low mileage, something sound. Don’t worry about the big ride. It’ll come later. Get in and get started like that. Save your money, try to have 30, 40,000 put up at all times. Try to stay under the warranty. Blanket experience, I mean, I’ve never had a short experience. Part of it, I started out on an end dump, and I would or I started out with a dump truck, and then I went to an end dump. That’s how I cut my teeth. But just getting started, it just takes time. And it’s not overnight success, it’s you’ve got to stay at the grind for a couple of years. And I mean, they tell you, when you start a new business the first two years, you better stay on top of your business. You know, you’ve got to stay hooked and but then it’s easier where you can do that and go home on the weekends, and still, if you got a good disburser, he’ll get you, get your miles and get you in. And that’s the main thing. But
Jeremy Kellett 19:00
Even when you know, you talk about, I like what you said, of getting a starter truck, oh yeah, to come over, which is one of the reasons we do. We’re believers in that too, because we send a lot of guys to arrow to get trucks, and they get some good used trucks. And I tell
Dustin Eagle 19:15
guys every week that you know you need to go out and find you a good used truck, start a truck, you know, no, break the bank, right out of the gate,
John Welch 19:25
right? Well, and
Jeremy Kellett 19:26
My other thought is that you really don’t know what kind of truck you need for the job here. So you’re true if you’ve never done an end up, for instance, or a hopper. Well, when you go buy that truck after you do the job for a while, then you go, here’s what I need, right? Here’s the kind of motor I need, transmission I need, yeah, kind of, you know, weight on a truck I need. You figure that stuff out, and then you go, get your truck. You go get, yeah, exactly the one you want, yeah.
Dustin Eagle 19:52
I mean, that’s the number one thing we stress here, though, you know, when we call in, because, you know, that kind of shows we care about you right out of the get go, you know. We say, hey, yeah, we want you to go buy a brand new truck. Go spend, you know, $200,000 but that’s not who we are here. We want you to succeed.
John Welch 20:08
I like to deal with Earl too, because y’all can get the, I mean, I’ve been watching this. Y’all can get the extended warranty and stuff. And the guys, he’s got a truck payment, but he doesn’t. He’s not just paying a shock payment, truck payment downtime at the same time. So,
Jeremy Kellett 20:24
I mean, that has been something I’ve done since day one. We used to do with those Maverick trucks over here at Freightliner, all time, great starter trucks, you know? And that worked out great. And then they get to figure out what kind of truck is best for the job. Because, I mean, it’s
John Welch 20:36
a learning curve. It is here, because you load so many different kinds of material and weights are so different. Like you get some of that scrap that’s really heavy, or you get some roofing granules or something and spreads out, or fertilizer, it’s just you’ve got to learn. It takes you a good six, seven months to get it down to paperwork, and it’s a big learning curve, even for me, coming over here with experience, learning how to load the trailers and get the weight. I mean,
Jeremy Kellett 21:00
you had to bring your wife with you. Yes, she does all
Dustin Eagle 21:04
she still does. Do you even know how to do it today?
John Welch 21:07
I do not know how to pray for work. I just drive. She gets loads. I talked to Kyle, but that’s about it. But she tells me, you know, she says she doesn’t drive, but you ride in a truck or listen to cameras. Turn here, slow down driver. She took me,
Jeremy Kellett 21:23
That’s good. You need a good co pilot. Yeah,
John Welch 21:26
She’s good. She ‘s been in a truck for five years every day.
Jeremy Kellett 21:29
That’s awesome, yeah, how does a I mean, I don’t want to say that. I mean, that’s being, you know, having your wife in a truck is a pretty confined area every day. That’s got to be a good, strong marriage, doesn’t it? It is. It
John Welch 21:46
takes a strong marriage when it’s the right person. It works. I mean, it’s everybody, like, How do y’all spend that much time together? But now I’ll get home and I’ll get in a pickup and go to the store or whatever she’s calling me, or I’m calling her. It’s like, it’s just not that we’re insecure. It’s just like something’s awful. We’re not together because we spend so much time together. We love it because the kids grow them. We go, I mean, we go and do we’re together and, I mean, we’re just blessed to be able to do
Jeremy Kellett 22:11
that. Do you ever make time to go sightseeing?
John Welch 22:14
Not really. We need to. But we, like, when we were with that other company, we would run out to Oregon all the time, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and we would go out there. And I love that Columbia River that runs a whole man. It’s a beautiful country up there. That’s my favorite part of the world. Is Sydney, West and far as I go, Really, but that river is just, it’s gorgeous. And, I mean, we did stuff like that, stayed out there. They like
Dustin Eagle 22:39
to go riding on the motorcycle. Yes, we
John Welch 22:41
do a lot of Sturgis a couple years. Oh, yeah, I’ve been to Sturgis every year for like, the last five years. But this year I didn’t go. My best friend, he had grandbabies. He was my Ridinger. He hadn’t had grandbabies ever, and he got two, three months apart. And his oldest daughter’s, like, 30. So he stayed home this year. This week, I’m supposed to be up in Rogers, Arkansas to bike Raleigh. We took out the room reservations, everything like three months ago. Well, we bought a new truck with a gang all like so this is vacation.
Jeremy Kellett 23:12
Well, I figured it’d be nice to, you know, if you got time to go see a few things while you and her out there all these in the country, you know, but Oakley keeps you two strapped man,
John Welch 23:21
When I get through my work day at Oakley, I’m ready for bed. I’m like an 830 kind of dude. Four o’clock in the morning kind of dude. And it gets past 8: 30. It’s gonna have to wait till tomorrow.
Jeremy Kellett 23:32
What else y’all do besides motorcycles? So motorcycles,
John Welch 23:34
We fish and hunt. My sister’s got about 700 acres out there at Hallsville. Hers, my brother in law and him have it. I got about a 10 acre pond on it, and I like that pond fishing better than I did lake fishing because it doesn’t take me nearly on to get around the hot spot right. Go out there and throw a few and say catchers, they don’t just go back up to the house.
Jeremy Kellett 23:56
That’s a nice man back on, you know, since this is an owner operator company. I like to talk about being an owner operator, because it’s not, not everybody has the patience and mentality and knowledge to do it. I think you probably had an advantage, John, because you’d worked on trucks for 13 years. Did that not help you?
John Welch 24:17
Yes, it did. Having a mechanical background helps a lot. It saves you a lot of likes, some guys can’t even fix, like a little airlines or airbags. I do all my airbags, anything I can do at the house, I still have all my tools, so I do it, shocks, airbags, brakes, all bus tires. And I got too old for that. That’s too hard work. I can do it. But, yeah, I mean, I can run my own overheads. I can do all of
Jeremy Kellett 24:41
that. But don’t you think an owner operator needs to have a little bit, you know that knowledge? What would be the minimum stuff they need to know how to do, man, just
John Welch 24:49
air leagues, a little how to fix air leaks, how to fix air leaks, a little electrical work. Know how to change your fan belts. I mean, if you’re checking your fan belt or something like that, that’s a good rule. A thumb. Know how to inspect your equipment. That’s a biggie. I mean, know what you’re looking for. Know what you’re looking for. A lot of guys blow through it, you know? I mean, a lot of guys just don’t have the advantage. But if you’ve ever worked in a shop, you get a lot more knowledge about how the truck works and everything, and just keep up with your fluids and your oil changes, and you can be good. But, yeah, man, you
Dustin Eagle 25:19
never know what’s gonna happen. You never need anywhere, anytime, man. Little knowledge goes a long way. Yeah, and
John Welch 25:25
Oakley, like my truck, broke down the red truck and threw the code. And I think that’s a handy system y’all got, because I called up here to safety, and I was like, you can tell me what code my truck’s throwing so I know what’s wrong with it. So going into the shop, I already had an idea. It was a knock sensor on the red truck. When I went to Oakley, they told me what it was, but they said it couldn’t be. You know, they’re not 100% sure, but it looks like this in the code. So if you go to a dealership. So I called safety, and then I couldn’t remember the code number 1183 or something like that. So I googled 1183. I knew what my truck was needing before I got to the shop. So they didn’t show me, you
Dustin Eagle 26:01
taught me something I didn’t know. I don’t know.
John Welch 26:03
Really know that. Man, that is a hand.
Jeremy Kellett 26:07
So when your truck throws a code, when
John Welch 26:09
you get a check engine light on your truck, when we’re plugged into the Tres flow, call JP, or anybody in safety, and they can go on there and they can pull up the code number that your truck is throwing so you’ll know what’s wrong with it, because they don’t tell you the code number check engine light, but you can call safety, and they can get the code number through the trans flow plugged into your truck. Then you can look up the code number. You can look up the code number if you got a Cummins engine or whatever, just Cummins, code 123, and who’s to make somebody not know that. So that’s the handiest thing I’ve used several times. I knew
Dustin Eagle 26:44
I volunteered you for a reason, teaching us, I
Jeremy Kellett 26:47
won’t say John’s the only one that knew that probably. So I haven’t heard any other things I haven’t even heard talked about in the office.
John Welch 26:54
Yeah, that’s the handiest system. I mean, I was like, Man, I like that because you go into some shops and they’re going to show you a whole bunch of hooplas. You don’t I mean, if you don’t know what you’re looking at, and I’m going, Well, I think it’s a knock sensor. Yeah, I’m showing a code for a knock sensor, like plugging in the NCI knock sensor, right? So, okay, let’s share. Let’s change it.
Jeremy Kellett 27:14
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. Let’s talk a minute about driving on the interstates, on the highways. These days, you’ve been driving since you were 18 years old. I’m 56. What in the world has changed?
John Welch 28:26
The traffic has got no respect. Drivers used to help each other. Now they try to cut each other off. It’s just like these bigger companies or whatever. I mean, I have people come over on me. They don’t want to stay in their lane. They’ll turn a blinker on. It’ll flash about three times. It’ll be like four feet off your front end and just come right over on you. It didn’t used to be that way in the 90s and stuff. I mean, they would flash you, flash the next guy, talk to him on radio, bring him over. Traffic’s got 10 times more congested than it used to be. But other than that, it’s got your head on a swivel all day long. Yep, I hate to drive between Memphis and Little Rock. Oh, I hate to drive on our 40. It’s just a good place to get run over.
Jeremy Kellett 29:10
How important is safety to you, John?
John Welch 29:12
It’s very important because,
Jeremy Kellett 29:14
and how do you maintain it? Every day,
John Welch 29:16
I check my equipment. I try to keep, I mean, I’m really bad. I drive under the speed limit. No, I do. I will drive over the speed limit when the traffic pattern allows it, but like in big cities or whatever, I’ll try to make traffic past me to where I can keep a big hole in between me, more stopping distance, and just stay in your lane. Because there’s just so many people that don’t stay in their lane, they bring their trailers over on you, and what you got to watch the other guy, worse than you gotta watch yourself, is what
Jeremy Kellett 29:45
I feel like that, you know, we stress safety here, of course, all the time, and we don’t in the office know how hard it is to maintain your lane. I mean simple things and just maintaining your lane. What do you want? Tell the general public out there that’s driving next to you now, keep it clean. What do you want to tell them? Man,
John Welch 30:08
give the trucks a little space. Don’t be trying to cut them off. Give them a little extra time. Take five seconds out of your day and let the truck go, you know. Or even the trucks Be courteous to each other. That’s what I want to say more than anything, because just getting so many people out of truck robbing school these days, and they wouldn’t, I came up with old school guys, and that’s kind of how I started. I started following around guys, 40 and 50 years old, and listening to their conversations and stuff when I was 18, starting and trying to figure it out. And then they just, there’s a lot of that ethic. That was,
Jeremy Kellett 30:41
How about other Oakley owner operators?
John Welch 30:43
Man, most Oakley drivers I’ve ever met are always willing to help each other. Over here. If you just say, Hey, man, I have a question, the guy might be like, he’s like, short on time, like, Man, I gotta go. You gotta respect that. You know, he’s but 99.9% of the time. If you ask an Oakley driver for help or talk to him about a situation, he’s going to go out of his way to help you. And that’s why I try to help all the new recruits. You know, if I see him struggling or whatever, I’ll jump out and try to screw him up like this. Made a lot of life, a lot of friends here, yeah, and I’ve met a lot of people, Jim Oswald. I met Jim Oswald. He’s great. He just started, and we were stumping over there, and, yeah, he wasn’t here yesterday. Yeah, I was helping him out. Now he calls me about every once or two weeks. A great guy. You know, you’ll make a lot of friends over at Oakley. If you’re a people person. My wife shows me I’ve never met a stranger. I don’t shut up.
Jeremy Kellett 31:34
That’s that’s a good trait about
Dustin Eagle 31:37
Well, I know here at Oakley, you know, customer service is a big deal for us here in the office. You know, how important is that to you?
John Welch 31:44
That’s your paycheck, man, it’ll be 100% that’s your paycheck, right there you need to make. There’s a lot of truck drivers, flip flops, don’t shave, don’t bathe. My biggest thing, don’t bathe. I mean, you go into a customer. This guy is your customer. He’s not only Oakley’s customer, he’s your customer, and you want to make a good impression on that guy. So, you know, always over here pretty well shaving. I mean, everybody’s taken it over here, but you go in there and you make a good impression, they’re going to use you again, being on time, being well mannered. Yes, sir. No, sir, yes. Ma’am. No. Ma’am goes a long ways, because that’s not in the today’s market anymore, hardly
Jeremy Kellett 32:23
ever. No, it’s a challenge. But you know, all of us over here, you know, you know that’s what we shoot for every day. We got a great reputation out there, and we want to keep it that way. And it all starts with y’all, yeah, I mean, we constantly preach customer service. And I think you hit it just right when you said, it’s not just Oakley’s customers, it’s your customers. Yes. And if you can get every owner operator to think like that, then the man will all do better. Yes, sir, we’ll all because I’ve said this many times, I can be in a bad mood and I can go into this customer and I can screw it up for a lot of people. Yeah, you can lock
John Welch 33:01
horns with people. I mean, just people being in the wrong mood at the wrong time, and it can be a bad thing. My biggest problem is that I run into it. I’ve got a customer a little sideways here or there. Well, sir, let me call my dispatch, let him deal with you, or let them talk to you. It’s not my place to line it out. My place to soothe him, but it ain’t my place to chew him,
Jeremy Kellett 33:20
you know, yeah, because we’re probably not talking to that guy, you know, they’re somebody in operations here is talking to somebody in a high rise in Chicago or something, yeah, and not even, exactly, you know, not even dealing with that. So if you got
John Welch 33:33
a sideways customer, just turn him over to dispatch. Don’t blow it for everybody else. That’s my advice, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 33:37
yeah. Because customer service is what I talk about. We talk about it daily here, but I mean, it is so important. And I think the owner operator, he has so much power in his hands every day when he goes into a place. I mean, you got the power, yeah, you know. And it’s how you look, how you act, how you take care of them, how you do your daily job. And it makes a huge difference. So respect
John Welch 34:01
on time and be helpful. It just, if you go on a job with that attitude at a customer, it goes a long way. It makes your day a lot easier to know, if you go in there soured out, and he’s going to look at you crazy, and you’re going to look at him crazy, and it’s just going to go from there, and then you’re going to call Dudley. Yeah, he’s a good listener. Yeah, Dudley, take care of this guy.
Jeremy Kellett 34:23
Yeah, alright, man, anything else you’d like to cover? No, sir,
John Welch 34:27
I think Jesse, yeah. Are y’all coming to the party? Yes, sir. We’ll probably be here. We’re
Jeremy Kellett 34:31
putting your new truck in it.
John Welch 34:32
I don’t like it so much. Downtime, I don’t know, two days I’m kicking it around, yeah? But
Dustin Eagle 34:39
Maybe it’s not too late. That’s cool. Well, we had a couple I think that had to fall out. So we probably could do it. If you want to do it, we probably should figure it out.
John Welch 34:49
All right, I’m excited about it. I’m ready to drive for two weeks. And last night’s The first night I spent in it. It’s been in the shop the rest of time getting ready to go. Yes. I
Dustin Eagle 35:00
I appreciate you coming up here. John, you’re natural. Man, yeah, great. Thank
John Welch 35:03
you all. Man, y’all just always been great. I like the family atmosphere at Oakley. Anybody’s coming up y’all, come on. Man, great people to work for. We
Jeremy Kellett 35:11
I appreciate it. John, yeah, thank you. Hey, thanks everybody. Listen to the Oakley podcast. We appreciate you every week. Man, tuning in and don’t forget to go back and check out some of our past episodes, we’ve got some good stuff. I mean, we’ve really had some great owner operators. We’ve had President Arkansas Trucking Association. We just always come up with some good stuff. So we appreciate everybody listening to all of them, and get some new ones coming at you pretty soon every week. So thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in 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, the oakleypodcast.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.