This week on the Oakley Podcast, hosts Jeremy Kellett and Megan Cummings reflect on the past year on the show and discuss New Year’s resolutions and goals for 2025. They emphasize setting realistic, manageable goals over ambitious resolutions to avoid disappointment. Jeremy shares personal struggles with overly ambitious goals, while Megan highlights the importance of small changes for overall well-being. They also discuss driver-specific resolutions like staying hydrated, maintaining contact with loved ones, and incorporating physical activity. The episode concludes with an invitation for listeners to share their own goals, fostering a sense of community among truck drivers, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Reflections on 2024 (1:08)
- Christmas Celebrations (2:59)
- Thanksgiving Recap (4:46)
- Reflection on 2024 Goals (6:34)
- Company Milestones (11:01)
- Company Office Changes (13:24)
- Goals vs. Resolutions (16:11)
- Driver Resolutions (19:14)
- Health and Hydration (21:32)
- Eye Care for Drivers (22:13)
- Mental Health and Exercise (25:57)
- Learning New Hobbies (28:16)
- Looking Ahead to 2025 (31:41)
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
Jeremy Kellett 00:12
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 insight to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hey, welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business and family. This is the first episode of 2025 Welcome back everybody. Hope everybody had a good holiday, good New Years. Finished up 2024 like you wanted to. And getting ready to start 2025 man, I got excited about it, and in this episode, actually, that’s what we’re gonna do, me and Megan’s gonna sit down, and we’re gonna cover a few things. We’re gonna reflect a little bit on 2024. We’re gonna talk about 2025 and what’s upcoming. We’re also gonna tell you a little bit later on some of the upcoming podcasts and the new content. We’ve got a new studio we’ve got coming up that’s gonna be happening here in a week or two. So we’re, we’re just super excited. You know, we appreciate everybody hanging in there with us through December, because we know we did some, some repairs, some of the best ones that performed throughout this past 2024 and appreciate y’all being patient with that that gave us a little bit of a break. And get kind of, I guess, what would you say? Creative juices. Get the creative juices flowing. Kind of get to, you know, the mojo back and feel good about it. So I’m excited for this year, a
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Jeremy Kellett 02:32
You know, we everybody just got through the holidays. Megan survived. Yes, I’m assuming you did. You had a good holiday? Good Christmas. My teeth, yeah, good. New Years.
Megan Cummings 02:42
Yeah, it was good. We didn’t, I guess, I guess we should ask each other how our Thanksgiving works. That was the last time we were in here. Was it really? Yeah, let’s don’t go back that far. Okay, Christmas. Christmas was great, good. And you saw your boys, didn’t you?
Jeremy Kellett 02:55
Oh, yeah. So people that don’t know my boys, they’re 26 and 24 and when they got out under mom and dad’s thumb, authority, whatever you want to call it, I mean, they didn’t just leave town. They left the state, both of them, yes. So I got one in Mississippi, and I’ve got one in New York City. So we get clay Mississippi. He comes home, you know, every couple of weeks, at least. We could see him pretty regularly. But Cole is in New York City. Don’t get to see him very often. But he flew on the Friday before Christmas, and then his girlfriend came in that Monday, so she spent Christmas with us. That was really good. So it was us five, yeah. I mean, Elizabeth and Colin Clay and Cole’s girlfriend, Serena. We just had a blast. I’m telling you
Megan Cummings 03:44
no proposal or anything like, no, really, I don’t integrate. I was really, I asked you about anybody. I asked you about it before we left. Do you remember that I was like, You think he’s gonna propose? You know, who knows you? It’s Do you do she get that you guys have met her before that? Oh yeah, yeah, several
Jeremy Kellett 04:04
times. Yeah. Great girl. We really like her. So you never know about CO. He’s a man on a mission in New York City, and he is a man on a mission.
Megan Cummings 04:13
Does he miss coming when he comes home? Does he talk about how he misses it, or anything like that? Really,
Jeremy Kellett 04:18
He got in the car with me. We went driving down the highway, and he said, Man, you can see a long way here. You know, through the field out there a long way. Man, you see a long way here. He’s used. How long have you been gone?
04:32
It’s been, what, two years, three.
Jeremy Kellett 04:36
So he’s been up there for three years now. Now he’s a city boy. He is. He came home and we had a cooking contest. We had steaks and stuff for Christmas day. Okay? We didn’t do the, you know, Turkey and all that stuff kind of already. He did want a ham, but got a ham, and we cooked steaks. And then I said, Well, it’s fine, you cook yours, and I’ll cook mine, and we’ll just see who’s got. The best steak, because he fries it in the skillet on the stove. Yeah, and I do mine on the grill.
05:05
We don’t all have the accessibility of a grill, right? And,
Jeremy Kellett 05:08
you know, so we cooked him up. And he even admitted mine was better.
Megan Cummings 05:12
Okay, well, it was in your house too. Did you try this? Yeah, pretty good, pretty good, pretty good.
Jeremy Kellett 05:17
We had a good time. It’s all families, you know, it’s just fun when they’re gone out of state, and get back home and you see them, you know, growing up and starting to ask dad some questions, and you’re like, maybe there’s a glimmer of hope. There is, of course, there is. They’re great boys. How about yours?
Megan Cummings 05:37
We had some. My brother came in from Texas. We all, well, this was for Thanksgiving, but we all met at my other brother’s house. I had Thanksgiving. There were a bunch of families that came over. Christmas is just pretty, pretty chill, pretty basic. You know, all the kids have kids and in-laws and stuff like that. So we used to make a big deal out of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and now it’s just kind of, it’s a lot more mellow. So I’ll have a Christmas dinner. And, well, you’re getting older, see, I mean, you’re growing up. Yeah, I hate that. Well, you missed the worst thing ever. And then on New Year’s, you got to do your black eyed peas, do your black eye piece.
Jeremy Kellett 06:18
We did, but we probably can’t tell you that, because my wife will get mad at me. What will she get it to go to? We went and saw our friends, Mac and Sandy up at Greer’s ferry, and then we didn’t cook anything. And so said, We gotta have some black eyed peas, honey. Yeah. So we ran up to the eight mile store, a convenience store, and they had some black eyed peas.
06:37
They have it at eight miles. Oh yeah, I bet it’s good. I love the eight mile store. Oh yeah, that’s good. So
Jeremy Kellett 06:41
We did that last night. You know, I fried some hot chocolate, deer, tender
Megan Cummings 06:45
one. Oh, did you have any salt pork or anything? Yeah, she
Jeremy Kellett 06:50
picked up pork chop. Okay, so, yeah, we had
06:54
good you know, Elizabeth deserves a break. After
Jeremy Kellett 06:56
all the cook she does, she does. She’s fantastic. She does deserve a break. Lovely Lady.
Megan Cummings 07:00
So Jinx. What about I’m sorry I cut you off. Go ahead.
Jeremy Kellett 07:04
No, that’s good. I’m just gonna, before we get into this, you know, I want to talk about some 2025 goals. We’re gonna reflect a little bit on 2024, talk about some common truck drivers, and resolution slash goals for 2025. I thought we’d give out some of those and kind of see and we and read some of our listeners. Annabelle, put it on social media, and we had some good responses from some people and what they’re doing for their goals or resolutions. But you know, the important thing is, what did you get for Christmas? What did I get for Christmas or give?
Megan Cummings 07:44
Well, I really am trying to milk that whole thing, because until I’m married, Ronnie and Judy feel bad for me, so they get me Christmas gifts in Italy. Yeah, I cash it on that every year too. And this year, I was like, oh, that’s strange. Mom hasn’t asked me what I want for Christmas. And I started, like, like, cold sweats, like, got a little nervous. I’m like, Okay, well, it’s no secret to anybody that I’m in a five mile vicinity of that I’m not married. I like to make that very known, so you still have to get me Christmas gifts. Anyways, I just reached out to her because I had already bought theirs. They were on their way in, and I was like, Hey, you guys gonna ask me what I want for Christmas anytime soon? Or are you getting me Christmas gifts this year? Because I’ll return yours. I have no qualms about it. It’s fine. Anyways, um, she got me some really nice pots and pans. And I also have a nugget ice maker on the way. Hey, nugget ice Mike, yeah, it’s a countertop, like Sonic ice, and that was one of the things I specifically asked for. Yeah, and she says that she ordered it in plenty of time. But it is January 2, and it is still not here, so I’m beginning to wonder if she’s facing a little bit of that. She was listening, see, yeah, she was, well, I gave her specific things just to help her out. Ronnie and Judy racked up this year. I was watching them open their gifts. I was like, and then I was opening mine. I never buy gifts just to get something in return. But I felt like I outdid them a little bit. I was like, okay, all right. Well, we set the standard next year. We know, yeah, they got tool boxes and fancy whatever. Well, I
Jeremy Kellett 09:22
We were exchanging gifts on Christmas morning, well, about noon, and I noticed the boys were giving each other some pretty, really fancy, expensive gifts. And I’m like, where’s ours? Well, no, I thought, well, we didn’t get on that stuff that cost that much. They got each other more than what we got them, you know. And I thought I told Liz, I said, we gotta step it up a little bit, I guess. I mean, he got him, uh, they started playing golf. He got him a golf range finder. You look forward, he is, I’m like, what the sun they can’t see in the woods. That’s where your ball is all the time. Anyway, we had a good time, and we got there. Each other. It’s just, you know, basic stuff. Yeah, choose some. I don’t know, hunting bag. What do you get the boys when
Megan Cummings 10:06
Will they come home? I mean, for Christmas,
Jeremy Kellett 10:09
you get them. I don’t even know what Elizabeth got on, to be honest with you, do they ask
10:13
for anything specific? Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. So they stopped in their Christmas list. So
Jeremy Kellett 10:18
we got to get to this. I know people don’t want to hear this stuff, but we got to get there. But so Cole, my New York City boy, sends us an email because Elizabeth asked for, you know, a list of some stuff you guys want. Yeah, I’m telling you, he sent an email and specific things I’m talking about. I should pull it up and read it to you. And not only does it say golf driver, but it’ll say the exact one with a link to it and how much it cost, really, I ain’t kidding you. And then he goes down to some shirts or something, and he’ll have a link to it and exactly what to order. And I’m like, holy cow, we’re not getting all
Megan Cummings 11:01
this. You know, it’s really nice, though. That way you have no questions about it. He’s like, here, I provided the link.
Jeremy Kellett 11:07
He did. He emails in an email form that’s very interesting, email or text. I can’t remember
Megan Cummings 11:14
what it was, but we’ll just stick with the email
Jeremy Kellett 11:17
better. It was funny, but I should do that next year. You got some of that stuff. But anyway, I anyway, well, let’s reflect on 2024 Yeah, how about that? Yes, you know anything? I mean, you think about it. And when we were asking each other this question, I was thinking, and I sent out an email, just kind of reflecting on 2024 and I thought, You know what? What happened in 2024 pretty much. I mean, you think golly, we’ve had a whole year go by. What were some, really, maybe milestones, but, yeah, just something to acknowledge that it was a productive year, and it just wasn’t going through the motions. Yeah, I mean, and you think about it, and I’m talking about Oakley. Why? You know, it’s what I’m thinking. What happened here at Oakley in 2024 that really is something we should reflect on. Do you think of any?
Megan Cummings 12:12
First thing I thought of was this year, whenever we did the we swapped the well, I guess we could go back earlier. Do we have anything earlier? I was just thinking about the 22 nines. Oh, yes. And that’s a good everybody loose and saying, All right, take care of
Jeremy Kellett 12:30
it. I know that was a little risky and a little bit everybody’s a little uncomfortable with that,
Megan Cummings 12:35
but it went well, yeah, yeah. A lot of the guys we didn’t even have, you know, we obviously told them, If you have any issues, give us a call. But I’d say, well, over 75% of the fleet, if not more, because, I mean, we have a lot of drivers, get it all taken care of, send it to us. I was like, Look, see they can do doing it the whole
Jeremy Kellett 12:54
time, and we’ve, yeah, people are, some of our listeners are going, What are you talking about? Well, it’s a 2290. It’s a heavy roll use tax that an owner operator has to pay the IRS every year, and you have to have it done every year by a certain date. And you know, we’ve been helping them all this time, every year with the website and everything, but this year it was just too much, so we made them all do it themselves. And of course, there’s very intelligent operators. They get it done. So the 2290s was something new. We acquired, you know, one of the big things was we acquired a feed products and service company out of Illinois, up there by St Louis. And I’ll tell you what, that has been, a good little shot in the arm. There were a bunch of great people up there. It’s created a lot more freight for us. It’s created some local, slash regional St Louis stuff. I mean, that is something that, to me, is one of the biggest things that happened in 2024 that’s gonna benefit the company greatly.
13:56
Yeah, I talked to Keith a couple days ago over email. Oh, did you okay? Colby got me set up with Yeah, yep, yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 14:04
Great people up there, for sure. Oh, tore down the old office.
Megan Cummings 14:08
Yeah. Everybody’s been coming in whenever they come out. What’s going on? What is going on? Jeremy,
Jeremy Kellett 14:13
well, that’s we’re building a new Toby’s building a new wash, I’m sorry, wet kit. Good. Great. Building a new shop. Okay, Third time’s the term, yeah, so I don’t know all these details he’s going to have, you know what things I think it’s going to be trailer based, mainly fixing all the trailers, I’m sure. But he is fired up about that. And, you know, just the sad part is the old office is gone. And, I mean, it’s gone. Now, we had the one section, you know, keeping there for a little while, but we’ve moved the scales. We kept a bunch of the brick until we kept a bunch of the brick from the building. And, yeah, maybe gonna make a couple things out of it. But you know, that had been there a long time. It was there when I got here. Yeah, it’s kind of sad to see it go. But, you know, I sure like working out of this office all up. But yeah. Yeah,
Megan Cummings 15:00
I remember when I first started, I had to go over there to train with Tiffany, and this is where I started. So coming from here to there, it’s a little scary here. It’s just a bunch of dispatchers. They were yelling. It was kind of sticky in there, just like a little warm, like, strangely warm, you know, and being in there. And then whenever I came back over here, they’re like, Yeah, we all used to be in there together, like, There’s no way.
Jeremy Kellett 15:24
Oh, we were crammed in there. But I’m gonna tell you about that old office. We sure had some good times there. Yeah, we have had some good times over the years. It’s a sad CEO, but I’m glad we moved on. Yeah,
Megan Cummings 15:35
so it’s all good, absolutely. Hold on before we move on from that, I want to talk about what happened at the company party. Oh, yeah, did you get a Yeah, special recognition?
Jeremy Kellett 15:45
I did. I got my 30 year plaque. Yeah, been at Oakley, 30 years, 30 this year. I know, I know I don’t even look 30 years old. I understand that, but I’ve been here 30 years, four
Megan Cummings 15:59
years before I was even born. Isn’t that scary when I was just a twinkle in my dad’s eye? 30
Jeremy Kellett 16:07
years have been great I mean, you know, what can you say? I’ve seen a lot in 30 years here at Oakley, and it just
16:13
does it feel like it’s gone by fast.
Jeremy Kellett 16:15
Yeah, it has, you just, you think the first 10, you know, 15 is never going to come. And the next thing you do, I look up, and it’s, you know, 25 and 30. I’m like, 3030 I’m only 53 years old. I did I started when I was 23
16:36
crazy. Yeah, maybe that’s a good sign. I started when I was 23 Wow, look
Jeremy Kellett 16:41
up. It’ll be bigger in 30 years. Be like, what has happened? Wow.
Megan Cummings 16:46
I think we should do, I think we should do an episode about Jeremy Kellett.
Jeremy Kellett 16:51
That’s pretty much it.
16:53
Nope. We’re gonna start all the way at the front. But
Jeremy Kellett 16:56
wasn’t much to it. All right. Moving on. This is something that, you know, I mean, I’m not really as much on resolutions as I am goals, yeah, I kind of put that in there, you know, 2025 goals slash resolutions. I mean, I’m kind of more of a goal oriented person. Me and Elizabeth were talking about our goals for 2025 the other day, you know. And just making sure you kind of just think about what you just did in the past year, and what can I do differently in 2025 to improve, you know, just quality of life and big picture mental and big picture stuff, you know. And Elizabeth said, she said, You know, I think I’m gonna break mine down monthly, because that’s a good idea, yeah, because she has stuff that, you know, I need to get done. She’s talking about, she’s been talking about it forever, putting pictures on. She’s got all these pictures, and she needs to put them in a safe place or on a DVD or something, and it’s anyway. But that’s just an example of trying to do stuff and maybe do it monthly, because if you do it, hey, this is what we need to get done this year.
18:07
Hell, you know, it’s too big.
18:09
It can. It’s way easier
18:13
to say, yeah, we’ll try in 2026, but
Jeremy Kellett 18:15
Jeff, what’s some of the, what’s some of the? You did some research
Megan Cummings 18:20
again, so it’s funny that you said that Elizabeth had mentioned monthly, because everything I read, I wanted to see what people I mean, it’s, you can kind of guess what everybody says they want to make their New Year’s resolution, you know, right, eating healthy, going to the gym, stuff like that. But I wanted to see, you know, what’s, what’s a way that we can make it more attainable. Because I don’t normally do that either. I feel like it’s a recipe for disaster. So one of the things they were talking about was focusing on goals instead of resolutions, and making it smaller so it’s more attainable as far as your resolution goes, like
Jeremy Kellett 18:59
Instead, I need to lose 40 pounds this year. Well, how about I just lose five?
Megan Cummings 19:04
How about I lose five and a half pounds, reward myself with some cake, and then we’ll work on the next 35 There you go. Increments, yeah. And I mean, I think the biggest thing that I’ve come to terms with myself is making it more manageable. Like, is this really realistic for me to you know, I know something big. Like, I don’t want to say that I was about to say going to the gym five days a week, but I don’t want to make myself sound like an elk slob. But if we’re all being honest with each other, between me and the fence post, not gonna set a resolution like that, because I know me. I know me better than anybody, yeah? So start out small, like, should read a little bit more, yeah? Or I should, you know, have some more quiet time in the evenings, less screen time. No caffeine before six after 6pm or something like that. That, there you go. You know, smaller things. And it also brought up. We were talking this morning about stuff specifically for drivers. Yes, we also asked our drivers what they were doing for their New Year’s resolution. Well, they tell you, did you get some printed off? Let’s go through some of them and see what everybody’s thinking. Shall we? Let’s do it. Here’s Steve Miller, I weren’t sure he just traded trucks,
Jeremy Kellett 20:22
didn’t he? He did, yeah, he just got a new truck. Steve says,
Megan Cummings 20:25
keep the tires rolling and try to keep my pockets full and be kind to people. I really like that last edition. Betty
Jeremy Kellett 20:32
stewman, her and Eddie, you know, they used to work here. She said, Never make resolutions.
Megan Cummings 20:37
I think that’s probably, I think Miss Betty’s got the idea. I just think you’re, are you jinxing yourself? I mean, unless you’re saying something like being kind to people, that’s very attainable,
Jeremy Kellett 20:50
Let’s see. Kylin Davis says, Say no to cheap for eight. Benjamin,
20:53
Oh, yeah. Better keep on. Keeping on. Little
Jeremy Kellett 20:57
shout out to Ben. He’s down and out for a little while. Right now, he’s had some health issues, so I hope you get to feeling better, man, but yeah, get better. And keep
Megan Cummings 21:08
on, keeping on. And he’s always in a great mood. He is. He does a good, good job. Lots of comments about getting healthier. And then Dwayne Johnson says, continue to be fat and happy and laugh about my debt, and I think Dwayne has
Jeremy Kellett 21:28
Dwayne is not going away. Man, laughing and being happy and fat about going away, sometimes that’s
Megan Cummings 21:36
just what you have to do. And there’s also a comment from someone named Steve Cook. He wants to come work for Oakley and May. Did you see that? I
Jeremy Kellett 21:44
did see that. I bet we can make that happen. Vernon Neville says,
Megan Cummings 21:47
I don’t make them see I’m telling you, I think people are starting to get the idea
Jeremy Kellett 21:51
What are some good resolutions or goals for truck drivers? You know, I know it’s for people in general, but, but you did a little research on goals for actually truck drivers. And I think that’s that’ll hit our audience more than resolutions for everybody else. I think you know truck
Megan Cummings 22:11
So some of these are, I mean, you can kind of guess where it’s going, but America truck driving.com gave me a list of five new year’s resolutions for truck drivers. Drink lots of water. I think you should pay attention to your water intake. We all should probably do that, because it’s more than eating healthy, and there’s a lot of scary things that can happen to you whenever you’re dehydrated. So keeping up with your water, staying in touch with family and friends. From what I hear from a lot of people. I think a lot of our guys don’t have any issue with that home time calling, you know, calling home and talking to the wife and kids seems to be a pretty big deal to everybody, but I think that probably I mean being out on the road by yourself, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t imagine what they go through. You know, so prioritizing that and making it a point to do that.
Jeremy Kellett 23:03
You had one on here that I thought was pretty unique, and that was, take care of your eyes, yeah? And I thought, You know what? Yeah, that’s pretty important. A lot of people, we talk about taking care of ourselves health wise, and some physical activity every day, but those eyes. I don’t know what they I don’t I mean, well,
23:24
Jeremy, tell us with your eyes what it says. Well,
Jeremy Kellett 23:26
I’m gonna have to keep my glass.
Megan Cummings 23:28
Okay, gimme, you know, UV damage, oh yeah, sunglasses, if you’re supposed to be wearing your glass. I mean, drops, yeah, we get a lot of, oh yeah, hydrated and refreshed. We get a lot of strain from our computers too, you know, and eventually your eyes will deteriorate, unfortunately, as you could see, or Jeremy’s got his Raiders on. Well, it’s
Jeremy Kellett 23:55
because he printed us all so small.
Megan Cummings 23:58
So that’s something that I thought was really interesting as well. Well, I think,
Jeremy Kellett 24:03
you know, the things that are associated with truck driving, you think about it. I mean, you just gotta, you gotta take care of yourself, for sure, getting some physical activity, which is not easy to do when you’re driving 1011 hours in a day. And then you got, I mean, make yourself try to get out and do some physical activity. There’s all kinds of programs out there to help you do that. And everybody, I mean, you can’t do enough of that. No. I mean, we all know, and the news tells us that truck drivers are one of the unhealthiest people in the workforce because they have to sit all day and drive. And it’s not, you know, it’s not that they want to be right by no fault of their own, but it’s, I mean, it’s kind of like us sitting at a desk. I mean, we have to make some changes to increase physical activity and just be healthy. Year over overall. And I’m not, of course, as you know, I don’t go to the gym all the time, I don’t exercise all the time, but I can tell you little little walk, yeah, but I do tell you when I do, I feel so much better. You can just tell how it makes you feel. It makes you think better, a little bit sharper. Now, why I don’t want that all the time, I don’t know, but that’s just human nature with us. I guess you know it was so good, but, like, I don’t want to do that again. Yeah, and we can’t. We have to tell ourselves. I mean, that’s what is in making those goals. Like, you were talking about making them small enough that you can attain them in a monthly time. Whether it’s, Hey, I’m gonna, all right, I’m getting three days in this week of physical activity, yeah, whether it’s walking something, I’m getting my heart rate up for three times this week. And that’s just that’s small enough to figure out you can do it, then you just have to make the time to do it. So absolutely, I’m preaching to myself, but
Megan Cummings 25:59
me too, you know, speaking of physical activity and how it makes you feel afterwards, there’s a lot of things geared towards drivers, talking about mental health. You know, we were just talking about how lonely you get while you’re on the road. And you know, one of the biggest things, if you ever look up, you know, I’m not really feeling right. I’m feeling a little sad, feeling a little anxious, depressed, whatever. One of the first things that any search engine will tell you is to get more exercise, because it releases endorphins, and even if it’s just something as small as 30 minutes a day. I mean, you know, there are lots of places that you have to go and wait to get loaded or unloaded. Why not be
Jeremy Kellett 26:37
so dumb?
26:38
I don’t know. I just think we got fat and happy. How is this?
Jeremy Kellett 26:42
We talk about that too, and we continue to, I’m talking about me. And, you know, we get the guys in the office here who always talk about that. We continue to eat bad stuff, bad food for us, yeah, drink bad things for I mean, we continue this. We don’t need to get off on that, because that’s a road. Let’s focus. Really depressing, I know, but our owner operators, truck drivers in general, have a big challenge of trying to stay healthy, because they have to be sharp all the time. And can you imagine? I mean, okay, let’s say you sit down at your desk and you work. I’m talking about working for 10 hours, 11 hours on that computer. Yeah, maybe stop, get you some lunch and get back in there. But you’re continually working on that computer. You’re gonna do it. It takes a lot of brain function. Yeah, you think about driving a big truck, like, like they do for 1011 hours, and being you got to be on your game while you’re going down that highway, because there are so many things that can happen if you’re not if you let your guard down for one minute. I mean, it’s a challenging job. Megan,
Megan Cummings 28:04
yeah, defensive driving, keeping your eyes open, getting rest. That’s another thing, is getting the proper amount of rest. If I don’t have enough sleep in the morning, everyone’s gonna know, yep, I promise. And I can imagine, you know, you can control your temperature in your truck. Get comfy. I mean, I’m sure these people have, these guys probably have, I’d
Jeremy Kellett 28:25
I like to hear some of the things that they do on the road to help stay active. Maybe keep their mental health good. Maybe, you know some of them, yeah, stay alert. I’d like to get some feedback from truck drivers out there in general, just to tell us what they do, you know, to do that. I mean, you got to do something. Or you can think, if we
Megan Cummings 28:47
complain about it being in the same place, you know, and these guys do it while they’re on the road, well,
Jeremy Kellett 28:54
and they’re, you know, they’re limited with food, you know, limited where they can stop, yeah, and they just got to make, you know, that we, I could just imagine taking your own food. Well, you got one here to learn a new hobby. Yeah, I thought that was interesting. I did too. It made
Megan Cummings 29:11
I think of Brian Lang and his bracelet. Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s right, stuff like that. And, you know, little things like that can be so rewarding for some reason, it just is, and that gets you off of your I feel like I could sometimes I’ll talk to my mother, and I’ll have, I’ll stop, and I’ll have, like, five different things going at once. And I think it’s like, is it because I’m trying to avoid having a single thought, I’ll have my phone, TV, something else going, you know, and I’m like, That is disgusting. It’s awful. And so taking a break from the screens, you know, reading a book, a lot of guys will listen to audio books. Yeah, Kenny Mitchell always talks about, I’ve read many books this year, whatever. Oh, did you read them? Or did you listen? Do you listen to them? Yeah, listen.
29:59
Po. Podcast. Always feel a little smarter up here. Watch a podcast,
Jeremy Kellett 30:03
yeah, yeah, something out of you know, getting a little bit out of your comfort zone, yeah, I need to do that too. I get out of my comfort zone a little bit and do other things, learn something new, yeah? Like Luigi was talking to us about learning a new language, yeah, yeah. I don’t know if you want to go that extreme, but
30:18
That’s starting a software company, right?
Jeremy Kellett 30:22
Another suggestion is getting organized. Yes, you know, you just let stuff pile up and then at some point, you know, you’re like, All right, I’ve got to clean this out. Yeah, you know, like my car, I drive to work every day, you know, if I don’t watch it on this, the back seat will be full of, you know, stuff, that crap all week. And I’m like, I’ve got to clean this out. I got to regroup, yeah, wash my car, get everything. I feel so much better. And when I see these owner operators, I see these guys come in that have traded trucks, yeah? And they’re worn out from getting everything out of what the old truck into the new truck, yeah? And they’re like, holy cow, and y’all had so much stuff. But I think just getting organized and cleaning up true does help my frame of mind when I’m ready to absolutely, yeah, I think a little bit sharper, a little bit
Megan Cummings 31:11
better. I think if my house is in order before I go to bed, I feel like I subconsciously think about it, and I can’t get a good rest all night. You got to think these guys are, that’s your home, your office. You know, that’s everything. So it’s understandable how it can get out of hand. But, oh yeah, keeping things organized, purging. One thing Judy likes to do is purge too, man, you haven’t used it in three weeks. Throw it away. You don’t need it.
Jeremy Kellett 31:41
I’ve got to keep an eye on her. Yeah, Ronnie does too, because there’ll be some stuff missing, and you only
Megan Cummings 31:48
ever need it after it’s thrown away, though, isn’t that, right? Well, I’d say about two and a half weeks after something’s thrown away, you need it, yeah? Like, where’s that one cord that I had in that one drawer? And
Jeremy Kellett 32:00
it’s so rewarding when you find then you start keeping everything, yeah,
Megan Cummings 32:07
yeah, purging, cleaning stuff up, especially this time of year too, with allergies and flu season and stuff like that, you want to keep everything a little tidier.
Jeremy Kellett 32:16
Yeah? Well, I hope some of these tips, you know, suggestions, help truck drivers out there, you know, and help them get ready for the new year. I’m excited about 2025. We’ve got some content, new content in the works. It’s going to be some good episodes coming out. The one next week is actually one that we’re doing with safety, and it explains a lot that’s been going on right now at Oakley. I think that’s going to be very informative, especially for our owner operators here. And then, you know, we’ve got stuff lined up coming up. It’s going to be good. We’re going to get the dot officer back in here. Yeah, it’s been a couple years since I had him, and we’ll talk about some of the latest changes with that. You know, we were always going to grab an owner operator and talk to him about his success being here and some of the challenges that he has, he or she has. We’re going to continue to do that, because I think that’s some of our most popular episodes is when we sit down and you hear from a real person that has gone through but also we’re, you know, and you mentioned this morning, when we were just talking about doing, getting out of our comfort zone and researching some topics that we think our owner operators want to hear. Yeah, you know, whether it’s, I don’t know, what did we say this morning? Whether it’s, I don’t know, buying a truck, leasing, purchasing a CPA account, it is always going to talk about the marijuana thing. You know, he’s gonna do research, just researching, just some stuff that pertains to independent contractors. And we’re gonna do, we’re gonna do better. We’re gonna have a really good year this year. I’m excited for it to come out. I’m excited about our new set. Yeah, I don’t know this probably a couple more weeks in at Annabelle, we go get us a new set in here, and we’re gonna look
Megan Cummings 34:06
like a real podcast,
Jeremy Kellett 34:08
right? It’s gonna look good. So, yeah, so it’s gonna be good. Megan, you know, we got to work well together this year. So absolutely excited. We’re excited about it. We’re gonna, we’re gonna put a lot more effort into this podcast this year, because it’s been a great tool for us. It’s a great recruiting tool, great retention tool, just a communication tool that we use, and we’re looking forward to it. So anything else you’d like to add before we here’s to 2026
Megan Cummings 34:38
I mean 2025 I mean 2025. We spent so much time talking about maybe next year. I guess it is next year. It’s already 2025, it’s gonna be great. I’m excited. Don’t forget to let us know what you guys want to see. I don’t always say that’s right, but comments. We love this whole reading the comments thing. That’s my favorite. Yeah, I love doing that. So make sure you comment. Give us some things that you want to see and suggest.
Jeremy Kellett 35:01
I love it too. All right. Appreciate you guys, and looking forward to this new year coming 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 and 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 Oakley podcast.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.