00:08 Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking, and we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Let’s get to the show.

00:28 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Hope everyone is doing great out there. If you’re on the road, off the road, kicking back or letting the big wheels roll and making some money. And tonight we have a very special guest with us. It’s Benjamin Bernard. And Benjamin joins us now. Benjamin, we don’t know where you are, but I do know that you just got off of a plane.

00:53 That’s correct. I just got off an airplane in Sarasota, Florida.

00:57 So tell us, I mean, we know that you’re a deck driver, but there’s a lot more to Benjamin Bernard than just doing the deck driving. Tell us what you’re doing in Sarasota—

01:09 Currently transporting equipment to aid in the hurricane relief for Hurricane Ian. I once contracted through another company to fill up generators and do some hazmat work down in the Fort Myers area, Punta Gorda area, just to keep the lights on.

01:27 Gotcha. What does it look like down there? It’s been a little while since Hurricane Ian hit, but you’ve got a boots on the ground firstand look. What’s it like?

01:37 Oh, we first got down here, there’s a lot of road flows and a lot of destruction. Trees tipped over everywhere and we didn’t really get to see a whole lot right off the get-go right—

01:48 When we start driving around and seeing different things like down towards Fort Myers Beach. The whole beachfront was pretty devastated. Boats on top of houses just out in the middle of the road. It’s been interesting but definitely not a good situation.

02:05 Yeah. What’s that like to see firsthand? Well, it’s not a great thing to see firsthand, I guess. Total devastation—

02:15 Right? I guess. Is that some sort of motivation for you to do what you have to do as far as getting the equipment delivered and picked up?

02:22 Yeah. Put yourself in like everyone else’s shoes down here that just lost everything or majority of what they have. It kind of makes me feel good to be able to jump on a team and be able to help out knowing that if the roles were reversed that hopefully some people from other areas would do the same in my neighborhood if that were to happen.

02:44 Gotcha. Now, kind of break down for us what you do, I mean on a day-to-day basis in this hurricane relief effort. So we would be getting dispatched to basically clients that have purchased fuel to keep their generators running while they’re drying out places and re rejoining structures like people that need lights or dehydration units or drying everything out. We also fueled up thousands of bucket trucks and tree cutting down trucks like the one of the main companies that I saw down here was as blood basically assisting out FPL, Florida Power and Lights.

03:28 Gotcha. Gotcha. How did you come across this gig? I mean was it something you sought out or did somebody reach out to you? I grew up in state New York and we’re are pretty good at driving in all the horrible conditions of snow and ice and it doesn’t really phase us too much whereas people drivers down south really aren’t too comfortable driving in that condition.

03:53 Right. Right.

03:55 So, I had reached out and asked to see if they needed any other assistance. Sure enough, they’re like, “Yeah, come on down.” How long will you be down in the southwest part of Florida there?

04:07 I’m not exactly sure. I’ve been down here for like two and a half weeks now. And I think there’s probably still another week, week and a half before they have no more use for what I do down here.

04:20 Gotcha. How does it compare doing that type of work, that type of relief work to your day-to-day moving trucks?

04:29 It’s not as boring. Yeah. I don’t mean like moving trucks is boring, but there’s a lot more excitement. There’s a little more urgency.

04:40 Yeah. I don’t— It’s like almost like a totally different aspect of the truck driving industry.

04:45 Gotcha. Do you see yourself doing it again? Is it something that beyond the compensation is something that you would want to do as far as just helping out in the relief effort? Yeah. And actually I really do enjoy doing this and I will sign up as many times as possible to do this.

05:02 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now you had mentioned that Aspen was down there with the bucket trucks and you and I once together had a discussion, quite a funny one about a bucket truck you were going to move. Kind of take us back to that story. It would have been your ride out that may be surprising to some people. On the costsaving side, I was asking if it was all right to stick a motorcycle in the back of a bucket truck just so I didn’t have to spend extra money to get a plane ticket or an Uber or a taxi out of there if I could just bring my motorcycle and throw it on the back, which turns out they were not a fan of. But—

05:46 I believe, if I remember correctly, that was when it was a little bit warmer. It was back in the summer. Seems like the— It seems like the load was to Pennsylvania. It seems like if I can remember correctly, but you were convinced it would work.

06:00 Yes. And other than that load, there was another one where I did throw my Yamaha R six on the deck of a truck.

06:08 I saw the picture.

06:09 Three other trucks behind.

06:11 I saw the picture. Let’s go back to the bucket truck for just a second. We’ll go back to the one you just mentioned, but how would you have gotten the motorcycle situated? I mean, because you’ve got some experience, not only on the bike, but some other experience working wise that could have helped you.

06:31 Yeah. So, I come from a history of tow truck operating and wrecking and recovery, winching and stuff like that. And you get to use your mind quite a bit when it comes down to that. So, I probably would have just used the straps that we used to unveck the truck and attached it to the bucket and lifted it up and set it on the back of the truck and then secured the bike down knowing that the weight rating of the bucket you can most likely lift out 350 lb motorcycle.

07:01 So, you’ve got a crotch rocket. Is that right?

07:03 Yeah, sir.

07:04 Gotcha. Now, that would have been what was the return trip on that on the bike? That would have been eight and a half hours, nine hours on a raw trucket.

07:13 Gotcha. How long have you ridden that? I mean, what’s the longest junket you’ve taken on that bike?

07:18 That one I had just recently got I’ve had it for maybe a year and we hadn’t really been on too many long rides with it. So, I’d say maybe a two and a half hour ride with most of that. I had been on that bike in one sitting.

07:33 But, it’s worth the cost savings to do it. I mean, obviously you’ve done it as your way out—

07:39 Correct? Instead of like a out of Pennsylvania, I don’t normally have good luck getting out of there—

07:45 Right?

07:45 For under $700. So, even renting a car, you’re looking at $300 to 400. They don’t generally like to do one wage trips. So, I think it cost me about $60 to get home on the crotchet. That’s quite a cost savings there. Now, the one that you sent us the picture of, what give us the breakdown on where you picked up, where you dropped off, and where you took off on two wheels.

08:14 So, I picked up in Champlne, New York, and drove to Plattsburgh, New York, where I live, where I had already set up a way to get the bike on the deck of the truck on a little platform made out of 2x4s. And then I had secured the bike there. I drove to made all the deliveries down throughout Pennsylvania and I don’t remember the town.

08:41 This was a typical deck load that you had.

08:44 Yeah. Typical deck load. I think there was four trucks altogether.

08:50 Four trucks and a bike.

08:51 Four trucks and a bike. And it was kind of amusing when I got to the stops. Everybody was looking at me funny and they’re they said that in 25 years they had never seen anybody throw a motorcycle on the deck with a truck like that, let alone to drive it 8 to 9 hours home.

09:09 Definitely an original. And how you said it was an 8 to nine hour ride back.

09:14 Yep.

09:15 What were the weather conditions like? I drove through rain all the way there and I was thinking it was a bad idea about 3/4ers of the way down in the trucks, but luckily by the time I got there, everything had dried up and I had we were riding all the way back. It’s probably 75 80 degrees.

09:32 That’s perfect.

09:33 A nice ride all the way back.

09:34 Yeah, that’s perfect. Now, have you been able to do that more than once or is it something that you see in your arsenal as far as not only money saving, but something that’s fun to do at least while it’s warm?

09:47 I haven’t put myself in a position to be able to do that again. I’ve been taking a lot of loss that were out of like San Antonio or Bonorby and flying around. I would like to do that again. Probably all go on a longer trip or something like that on the bike. Now—

10:06 In the future, I guess.

10:07 Yeah. Being a New Yorker, a New York native there, a how late into the season would you go as far as time on the calendar or temperature before you would take the bike? I mean, where’s the cut off point?

10:22 Once the road start freezing, I’d say probably 45 50 degrees. Anything like other than that, you’re going to need some pretty good riding gear. I’ve ridden well into November before on motorcycle.

10:36 I’ve also wrecked a motorcycle in November because the roads were too cold.

10:41 We learned our lesson.

10:43 Now, when take us back to the wreck there. Did you obviously did you walk away from it?

10:49 Yeah. Well, I limped away from it and it wasn’t anything too impressive of a wreck. It was within a mile from my house. Just pulled out, hit the yellow line in center of the road, and they were too slippery, and we were accelerating a little too fast. The bike just kind of went to a low side, slid up the road sideways about 40, 50 miles an hour, and once the tarmac wore a hole through my jeans and started hitting skin, I pushed off on my left leg and put myself immediately into a high side and went tumbling up the road. It was not very graceful by any means. So, I’m picturing the way this happened here. I mean, essentially, you laid it down at 45 miles an hour. Is that what happened?

11:35 Correct.

11:35 Yeah. And you kind of pivoted yourself off of it once the denim wore away.

11:40 Yeah. It’s not a great feeling.

11:42 I understand. I ride myself. I know. I know where you come from. I’ve had a bad wreck myself. And it’s you certainly remember those when they happen.

11:52 Yeah. And they say there’s only two types of riders on motorcycle. Both that have been down and those that are going to go down.

11:59 Yeah, that’s exactly true. Now the second part of that question, you say 45 to 50 on the temperature scale, which I would agree with that. I won’t go below 50. That’s as cool as it’ll get for me. But what about distance? How far would you take that bike?

12:14 Depends if I was driving in the cold, like that distance in 50°ree weather or 40°ree weather. Depends if I really needed to ride the motorcycle that far. Or if I was driving into a warmer area, say I would be the New York and head it down, you know, to a southern area, that would be I would probably push it a little bit further. But if just riding around town or like local areas, I don’t think I would be out riding in the cold for very much longer than an hour or so.

12:46 I got you. I understand. Trust me, I understand. But let’s say theoretically it’s late spring, you’re picking up in Pennsylvania and you’re going to Tampa. Would you put the bike on? Would you ride it all the way back to New York?

13:00 Yeah, I absolutely would. It would probably would have become back.

13:06 Yeah, I could imagine.

13:07 I think that would be a lot of fun.

13:10 Well, you’d save a lot of money on fuel and other expenses and could have a good time.

13:15 That’s just it. While you’re down there, you might as well pick a day and just go cruise around Florida.

13:20 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, maybe that’s in your future. Is that something that you’ve kind of marked onto the calendar or something you want to do? I guess it would be next year probably at this time in the calendar—

13:31 Right? I’m actually looking to buy a new motorcycle somewhere down south. So, there is a chance that I might just end up doing it sooner than that, buying one down here and just riding it back.

13:43 I gotcha. Just take it back with you. Now, are you looking in the are you looking at a cruiser, a crotch rocket? What are you looking for?

13:51 600cc. I’m a taller individual, so I kind of look like Donkey Kong on the 600cc bike—

13:59 Right?

14:00 So, I’m looking for like kind of like a 1000RR CBR a little bit newer than what I have, something that’s got a little bit more power and some of the more userfriendly amenities.

14:14 I gotcha. What for you on that type of bike, what do you look for in amenities?

14:19 Something like a steering stabilizer. What I currently have right now doesn’t have like any the ABS braking or higherend shocks on it for a smoother ride.

14:33 So you’re looking at something that could give you a little, as you said, a smoother ride for a longer ride if you’re able to deploy it on some transports. Correct. Gotcha.

14:52 You’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport and here with us this evening, Benjamin Bernard. Just got off a plane. How many flights would you say you’ve taken this year or how frequently in a given week do you fly?

15:11 Depending on the week, I’m on a plane. Anywhere from twice to four times a week when I am out doing the transport stuff. This week I’ve been on three planes. It’ll be four tomorrow. It should be back in Houston tomorrow dropping off some equipment and then flying right back to Florida.

15:34 Gotcha. Now, do you feel how do you describe yourself as far as flying this much? Is it like living the life of a rockstar? How would you characterize it?

15:45 It depends on which seat I am in on the plane.

15:49 Do tell.

15:50 If I’m in the middle seat, then not so much a rock star. I’m a cramped individual.

15:56 I got you. How tall are you? Benjamin—

15:58 6’2 to 6’3.

16:00 Yeah, I saw you when you came into the office. I noticed you were a taller guy. Now, do you usually fly coach? Do you fly first class? Where do you like to fly?

16:08 I normally like to sit in the back of the plane. Seems like a funnier individual to sit back there and they’re more humble.

16:14 It’s a more enjoyable ride or at least the time goes by faster.

16:18 It is more enjoyable. There is depending on the leg room situation. I don’t know—

16:24 Now.

16:24 Doesn’t really matter I guess where I spend on the plane.

16:27 I got you. I understand. I mean, we’ve talked to a number of drivers here on the Six-Figure Trucker that have been able to because of the compensation they’ve received. Being a deck driver, they’re able to fly first class. I’m sure that’s something you could swing. Is it a priority for you or not necessarily?

16:46 Oh, we’re all going to the same place. I don’t necessarily have to sit in first class. It felt like it was there’s real big kickbacks to first class these days compared to what it was, I don’t know, 15 years ago.

16:58 Right. Right. Exactly. I understand what you’re saying.

17:01 So, if you’re going to spend an extra $130 just to get off the plane 10 minutes earlier, it doesn’t really seem worth it on the cost side.

17:10 You know, talking about on the cost side, it’s obviously something that’s in the front of your mind as far as, you know, if you’ll put a motorcycle on a deck unit. You know four strong and you’ll put a motorcycle on ride back and you know that the decision that you make between riding flying rather coach or first class when you’re laying out your ledger when you’re looking at okay I’ve got this transport coming up from point A to point B. How do you finance that or how do you manage your finances when you’re doing that—

17:44 Like start to finish?

17:46 Sure. Sure. Generally, I pick something that is around 1,00 to,100 mile range. Something you can easily do within about a day and a half. So, you can drive for your legal limit, which is about 11 hours. You can drive in one day, right?

18:04 That’ll get you somewhere around 700 miles, 600, 700 miles of that. And then you have an easy day the second half. And then you can generally get the truck unloaded or put yourself in a position a better position to be done within a day to you know two days to three days. Gotcha.

18:24 Then you’re not like stressed out about it. And generally once they give you the fuel surcharge right up front I use that just solely for what it is and we always keep money at the bank to supply the rest of the trip so we’re not paycheck to paycheck.

18:42 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, living in where you do in New York, upstate West New York, is that right? Where Plattsburgh is?

18:49 As far northeast as you can get, basically.

18:51 Gotcha. Gotcha. Does that have any impact on the loads you take or I guess on the back side of it? It may. Or do you are you wide open to anything?

19:01 I’m pretty much open for anything as long as the location is somewhere. I try to pick places that I want to go—

19:10 Right? And then see what else I can join onto it like to see if I can put myself near another load that’s going to be beneficial and then I’ll jump on two or three sometimes four within a two week span and then just go from there. Now sometimes I luck out and I’ll have the availability to pick one up right in Champlne, New York that’s headed south.

19:33 A single connecting load or a—

19:35 It’ll be like a deck staff headed down anyway. I think I took one all the way out to Denver one time from New York. But it makes it so you can make money on the way down and not just fly down to make money. You can make money all the way around.

19:52 I got you doing it on— Yeah. Coming and going. Talk a little bit about you. You had mentioned there some of the places you want to go. Now, is this places you want to go for the scenery or for the economy? Sometimes—

20:05 It’s for the culture like just I don’t know. I wanted to go down to Miami this year. I ended up finding kind of trucks going down there. So, I jumped on that, went down, got to see because I’d never been to Miami. What’d you do when you got there?

20:21 Oh, we unex trucks and then went and found a restaurant, had some food, walked around, just kind of checked the area out. Nothing too crazy.

20:30 Gotcha. Now, did you hit some Cuban food? What kind of food did you dig into? We jumped right into seafood. I would love to tell you the name of the restaurant, but I don’t remember. It was not a chain restaurant.

20:43 I’m sure the seafood was outstanding.

20:44 It was phenomenal.

20:46 Now, how long have you been doing the driveaway thing?

20:50 Just under a year I’ve been doing the driveaway thing. We just got started into it and we’re looking to probably continue doing this for quite a while.

21:00 Now, what did you do before you moved into driveaway? How did you get to driveaway and what factors led to your decision to move into driveaway?

21:08 So, I used to haul fuel and due to the restrictions of crossing Canadian border, I ended up removing myself from the company that I was hauling fuel for and went help my buddy out heavy wrecking company and we were undecking trucks for you guys.

21:28 Okay. And just talking with the drivers and drivers that work for the company and other companies was telling me about how they liked the availability and how lenient it was. I kind of make your own schedule. And basically, if you want to make money, the possibilities are endless. It’s up to you, which the more you work, the more money.

21:50 And that was going to lead me to my next question. And we’ve talked to a number of drivers here on the Six-Figure Trucker who echo what you’re saying about the flexibility and the potential for a nice income. I’m sure that’s attractive on both ends.

22:03 It is. Not like being forced to get up and going to work every day at a set time and you kind of just build your life around it.

22:14 Now talk about that as far as building your life around it. Kind of give us a glimpse into the life of Benjamin Bernard. Are you a single man, family man? Where does it where are you in that stance and how does this profession kind of intermingle with those?

22:33 I had a single individual. It doesn’t really affect me all that much to just take off for two weeks like they don’t have the obligations that like a married person would have or you don’t have kids. So—

22:48 I was going to say I would think it makes it easier in that regard.

22:52 It does make it a lot easier in my situation.

22:56 Yeah. I guess not really all that challenging. Now I would like eventually to not be a single individual but—

23:04 I got you. Gotcha. Now, how young are you right now? How young are you at these days?

23:09 I am currently 35 years old.

23:12 35? Well, there’s plenty of time left there. Now, how many in a given month? How many days are you on the road? And how many would you like to be on the road or do you have it right where you want it to be? So currently I work for about 10 10 days to two weeks on and then I take about two weeks off and I go home and I do various different things when I’m at home. I’m remodeling my house and I also do welding building a little welding business.

23:40 I think you had told me that when you stopped in here at the office here at Norton Transport that you were working on that. What type of the welding business is it connected to the trucking industry or not necessarily? So—

23:52 Essentially it’s like just fixing like tractor buckets so far and like equipment of that nature, but I want to get into building custom pieces and parts for tractor trailers for pickup trucks and stuff of that like side by sides.

24:10 I gotcha. Have you been welding yourself for some time?

24:15 Been playing with welding for probably about 15 years. Are we talking about MIG welding, TIG welding? What type of welding are we talking about here?

24:23 Started out with MIG welding. I ended up going to school for structural stick welding.

24:28 I gotta—

24:30 And I got into a little bit of TIG welding. Nothing too intricate yet. Purchased a stick jig combo and I still have yet to set it up and get it functionable in my garage.

24:46 But takes time. Yeah, I’m sure it does. Talk about the structural welding and where you’ve gone with that and where you want to go with it.

24:55 Kind of funny how I ended up into the structural side of that with stick welding. I was working at a company in Platsford, New York, and one of the managers asked me to weld something. And before I could even tell him that I knew how to weld, he turned around and told me, “I don’t trust anything that you could ever weld. Never going to hold.” I so I was like, “Wow, that was kind of a jerk thing to say, right?”

25:21 So, most of my work is pretty good. And I ended up signing myself up as an adult student for vocational school for welding and getting all the certifications that I could through that program.

25:35 Gotcha. You know, we’ve talked to a couple of drivers here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport who do have some other side projects going and I would suppose that it’s the same for you as it is for others that you’re able to do that because of the flexibility and time that you have at your disposal. It’s kind of one of those you have money and time—

26:01 And that is always the struggle. Either you have the time and you don’t have the money or you have the money and you don’t have the time.

26:07 Are you finding a nice marriage between the two now?

26:11 Yeah. So that’s like my schedule working two weeks on, two weeks off. I’m having the availability a lot time to like plan welding and doing house projects and stuff like that. And I’ve actually able to get things done whereas I’m not too tired to do anything.

26:28 I gotcha. Where does it stand right now as far as the welding adventure that or the venture that you’re looking into with the welding? Is it up and running or in the grassroots phase?

26:41 I have been doing some welding projects. I haven’t really advertised a whole lot with it, but people will that know that I do weld come up and they’ll drop off projects to me and like, “Oh, get to it when you get to it.” If it’s something that people only want me to do, then they’ll just be like, “Hey, if you have like a day or so, you want to come down to the shop or whatever location it’s at and bring your welder down and we would really like you to do this.” So, it’s pretty good setup so far.

27:13 Do you do all your welding onsite at your where your shop is or do you go on the road and do some welding? It depend depending on the size they the machinery or whatever it is they want me to work on. Like I rebuilt a land all trailer deck on the back side to the next gone through it. I did that right in my driveaway just cut it all out. But some things like you have to do in a bigger shop on the weather and stuff like that. Well, we want to take the opportunity here on the Six-Figure Trucker. You’re listening to Benjamin Bernard, a man who rides his motorcycle off of a transport load, takes it back home. It’s got a welding business on the side here. If you want to reach out there and kind of plug your welding business, there may be somebody out there who needs some things welded. Feel free to do so.

28:10 Yeah. Currently the name of the company is Bernard’s Metalworks. It’s located in Platford, New York. There is an Instagram page, Bernard Metalworks.com or not.com, but just on Instagram, not Bernard’s Metalworks. We do bunch of cool things.

28:29 Gotcha. Gotcha.

28:37 Now, let’s talk about you. You’re down in Florida now and I think you had mentioned you’re going to be there for a while until the need is met as far as the relief effort. When will you be back on the road as far as transporting trucks?

28:53 In the office just called me and was asking me and they forgot when they were that I was doing storm work. I think within the next couple weeks, probably two to three weeks, I’ll be back doing transforce stuff. Gotcha. You had mentioned that there’s a little more excitement in doing the relief work or it’s the urgency of it I guess compels you somewhat to jump into it a little bit more. But do you miss the transport at any point now that you’re doing the relief work presently?

29:28 Yeah. They both have their broch like two different animals when it comes to the like the driving industry. One of them is finding generators that need to be fueled up and the other one’s delivering brand new trucks. Got—

29:44 Somebody depended on generator having power so they can do what they’re doing and a lot of people have been waiting for trucks with the trucking market and trying to get brand new trucks right now and kind of a hassle and there’s a long wait. So, a lot of people have planned around that when it comes to getting their new truck. They found out stuff or they’re holding off. They’re not really all in that hurry to get their trucks.

30:09 Kind of paint a picture for us what it’s like for you. I mean, you’re taking three or four trucks at a time and delivering them. I mean, is it like your Santa Claus when you’re bringing them in and they’re signing that B or what’s it like on the receiving end when you’re delivering those trucks that are in such demand?

30:28 A lot of people are very fragile. Some of them are, you know, not all that excited. Like it’s just another day. It depends on the company you’re delivering trucks for. Like some companies are building dump trucks out of them and they’re already overloaded with all kinds of branded trucks and work. So some people look at it as, oh great, there’s more. Other people are like, yeah, we’ve been waiting for this truck and customers going to be so excited. It’s almost like a Santa Claus.

30:56 And how does it feel to be a part of that equation on both sides? I mean, you are the spoke in the wheel.

31:02 Sometimes it’s frustrating when the customer is not really all that happy or they have other things going on. But when you’re drop somebody’s brand new W9 off, like a $300,000 custling truck and just everyone’s mooing and aing over it, it’s kind of cool to be the guy who dropped it off.

31:23 Does that feeling ever get old or is it something that’s like, “Hey, I’m looking forward to this. I got a good feeling that these people are going to be very appreciative of it.”

31:31 Oh, I never get old. It’s always rewarding.

31:33 How long do you see yourself doing this? You’re 35 now. You’ve been in it for a year and I think you had said earlier you could see yourself doing it for a while.

31:42 As long as it’s feasible in my world. I mean, I’m sure at some point in time I’ll end up with a wife and kids and then it might become either an argument or—

31:56 A godsend to get away to get out of the house. We’ll see.

32:00 Right. Right. I got you. I got you. But right now, it’s doing more than paying the bills. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like from what you’ve told me, it’s been good to you.

32:10 Yeah. It’s allowing not only paying the bills, but it’s allowing me to put money in the bank and put money into my house and welding.

32:19 Gotcha. Now, you are you renovating your house now?

32:22 I am. Yes, I have been for quite some time. We’re making drastic changes to it.

32:28 Now, is this a historic house or just one that needed some TLC?

32:33 This was a very clothed 1950s house. Not very historic, but just very poorly planned out.

32:42 What kind of things are you doing to bring it back up to where you like it?

32:45 We’re just making it more of an open floor plan, knocking walls out, and making a lot of the unusable space more usable.

32:52 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, you were talking about you like to get on the road, go to places you want to go. What’s the coolest place you’ve been to?

33:03 I guess like I don’t know. I like I think they’re all pretty interesting in their own regard. When I flew in San Antonio, I ended up going and checking out like the Alamos. I just seeing stuff that I’ve always wanted to see and never had.

33:20 Are you a history buff? A history kind of guy?

33:23 Not really—

33:24 But it was just cool to go and see the Alamo site.

33:27 Yeah, we’ve always heard about it. I never actually got to wander around heat on the ground in that location. I guess—

33:36 Now when you’re moving, we’ve talked to a number of drivers about this here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We’ve talked to a number of drivers about when they get out on the road and when they pick a location where they want to go. What are some of the roads that are some of the best to travel and some of the worst to travel when you’re pulling three or four trucks?

34:01 Construction zones definitely are not very friendly with those steps.

34:06 Now, what about when you’re staying overnight and you know, a lot of drivers talk about this, you’ve got to find the accommodations that are going to set up well for parking. Is how do you go about managing that?

34:21 You generally want to find a location where you can dry out of there. You’re not really back in those sets up. So you just kind of sometimes you got to get out and walk the area to see if there is something that you can drive in and turn around and drive out. It can be a pain to get in and out of places.

34:42 I’m sure it is a pain in the ass. I mean, have you ever backed a setup? I’m sure you have.

34:47 I have. I did I put myself in a position where I had to do that twice and it was not the most fun thing I’ve ever done.

34:57 I’m sure—

34:59 But luckily it worked out in my—

35:02 Kind of walk us through the mechanics and the technique of backing up a set. What is it a— Did you have three behind you or two behind you?

35:10 Three behind me.

35:11 Oh my goodness. How did you do it? Kind of take us back. Paint the picture for us. Have to pick a location. I’ll give you one second. Yeah. So, when you’re backing those sets up, they kind of pivot like a hay wagon. Kind of real tricky. So, you have to kind of maneuver them and watch how they how they’re reacting to what you’re doing with your counter steering and whatnot.

35:39 How difficult was it on a scale of 1 to 10?

35:42 The first two tries probably an 11.

35:46 Yeah. But what was going through your mind when you were doing this?

35:49 I’m going to have to undeck these trucks right here and then reach back them to get out of here—

35:53 Which I’m sure—

35:55 At first thought—

35:56 And I’m sure you didn’t want to do that.

35:58 No. Cuz you have to call like a hecker or something to get down there and it would be all on the drive that point in time.

36:08 Right. That’s something you want to avoid pretty much at all costs.

36:12 Right.

36:13 Gotcha. So, what’s next for you coming up as we head into the fall season and into the winter? Do you have any big plans—

36:23 As far as driving or—

36:26 Driving or on the home front or in the business venture?

36:32 I’m kind of just playing it by ear, just kind of winging it to see how everything plays out. And I’m looking forward to see how these things react in winter conditions cuz that would be totally new to me.

36:47 I’m good at driving on ice and in snow. It’s a totally different aspect. But it looks like a lot of people that I’ve talked to, a lot of other drivers say they stay out of the north when it comes to the winter. They try to.

37:01 What about you personally? How do you feel about that?

37:04 I’m excited for it. I guess—

37:06 I like a challenge.

37:07 It gives you a leg up, too.

37:09 Yeah. It’s just like another skill that somebody from the northern aspect would possess or be more comfortable at doing than somebody, you know, has never really been in that situation.

37:22 It’s just not accustomed to driving in those conditions.

37:26 Correct.

37:27 Now, you had made you had said earlier about looking at bikes down there in South Florida. So, I didn’t want I was kind of reading between the lines there. Is that going to be your way home? Are you going to walk into the showroom and walk away with one?

37:43 That thought had crossed my mind. I think I’m going to be ending my journey in Houston, which brings me to a whole another level of vehicles that I stumbled across. I found a handful of military Humvees.

37:59 Oh—

37:59 So I find one for a great price. I might drive one of those though.

38:03 Oh, a Humvey. So, you’re looking what year model are we talking about here?

38:09 I don’t know the model exact. I think the HMMV or whatever it’s a 1985 is one of the ones that I had inquired about.

38:19 So you’re going old school here.

38:22 Yeah, I appreciate all kinds of different vehicle. The better.

38:26 I understand. So, how did you come across this? You were just looking or did it just something that you had an interest in or obviously you had thought about it before?

38:36 I used to own a Hummer H2 six, seven years ago—

38:42 Right?

38:42 And I really enjoyed that and it wasn’t quite the off-road machine that it was portrayed to be—

38:49 Right?

38:49 I guess the H1’s are a little bit more rugged.

38:53 Gotcha.

38:53 So I’d like to buy one and try it out.

38:56 So you do some off-roading?

38:57 I do. Yeah. I used the full potential of my personal vehicles.

39:03 It sounds like it. It certainly—

39:05 I guess abuse them maybe is the word.

39:09 Abuse them to tell.

39:11 Yeah. Make them do things that they weren’t intended to do. Put them up to the windshield and water.

39:17 Oh.

39:18 Drive their butt. Run over trees.

39:21 I gotcha. So, is the terrain and the location where you live there, is it advantageous for that type of thing?

39:29 Yeah, it’s not more not like a city setting so much as it like a lot of farmland and a lot of countryside—

39:39 Places where you can get up to the windshield and water.

39:42 Correct.

39:44 All right. Now, Benjamin, I don’t want to hold you up too long here because I think you’re you’ve got some pressing matters. How much time you got left?

39:54 We just pulled in, honestly.

39:56 Oh, good timing.

39:57 We’re picking up the equipment.

39:59 Oh, good deal. Good deal. Now, what are you guys picking up exactly tonight?

40:03 I’m going to be picking up a I guess they call them bobtails down here, but it the northern term is pedal truck. Y like a fuel delivery home to home truck.

40:14 I gotcha. Is it propane or what are you moving there?

40:18 This one is set up for fuel diesel, fuel oil, kerosene.

40:23 I gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, as we wrap it up here this evening, you’ve obviously had a lot of adventures, but if you were going to pitch this to someone who were getting into driveaway, give us your sales pitch.

40:37 Oh man, I would I’d have to think about that a little bit. To get into driveaway. It’s definitely worth doing if you want to make your own schedule and have the availability to go on adventures and have all the fun you can possibly have.

40:52 Well, it sounds like you certainly have. And does that go does that mesh with your personality?

40:58 It kind of meshes with my personality. I’m very sporadic as an individual. Kind of just blow in the wind, I guess. Well, Benjamin, we certainly appreciate you being a guest here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Thanks—

41:17 For having me.

41:17 And kudos to you for doing the relief work down in Hurricane Ian. I know there’s a number of individuals and companies that are grateful for what you’re doing down there. And we are very grateful here at Norton Transport to have you with us.

41:31 Yeah. And thanks for having me on the show. Hopefully I can get back on and chitchat some more one of these days.

41:38 Oh, we’ll definitely have you on again after you ride into your next adventure.

41:44 Yeah, hopefully it’s a vacation.

41:46 Absolutely. Absolutely. Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us. Be careful out there and we’ll see you on the road again soon.

41:53 Absolutely.

41:54 All right, take care.

42:01 Six-Figure Trucker is brought to you by Norton Transport. Norton Transport is a driveaway trucking company that customers can rely on. It offers excellent independent contract driving opportunities to professional, courteous, and qualified drivers that can provide the kind of service we deliver. If you’re interested in learning more about Norton or just want to subscribe to the show, check out Six-FigureTrucker.com. That’s Six-FigureTrucker.com.