00:03 It’s going to be up to them what they like it. I mean cuz you know stuff you like I ain’t going to like and stuff I like you ain’t going to like but like again I say it’s what you make of is how you want to act around people what they going to react to you.

00:16 Right. Exactly.

00:17 That’s very good advice from Eddie McTheney.

00:24 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.

00:51 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. This is a podcast where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that move trucks all over the country and up into Canada on occasion. Now these are the drivers of course from Norton Transport in the driveaway field where we drive the trucks that move the freight eventually. We don’t move the cargo, but without the trucks that we move, it wouldn’t happen. Now, joining us this evening is Eddie Mcini. Eddie, how are you?

01:25 I’m doing good, sir. How are you?

01:27 I’m doing great. Can’t complain. Now, are you on the road right now, Eddie?

01:32 No, sir. I’m in Boon Beach, Miami.

01:34 Boon Beach, Florida. What’s the weather like here on this 13th day of March as we’re recording this?

01:41 It says 93. 93. You got to be kidding.

01:46 That’s what my truck’s been. I’m sitting inside my pickup truck. So that’s what this says.

01:50 Oh my goodness.

01:50 Might be a little off.

01:52 Now Boon Beach, kind of give us the geographical orientation. That’s down there toward West Palm.

01:57 That’s West Palm. That’s Palm Beach County.

01:59 Gotcha. So you’re right there next to it.

02:02 Yes, sir.

02:03 Now, do you live on the beach? Are you close to the beach? Are you a beach guy?

02:08 No, I’m close. I’m close to it. I don’t have that kind of money to live on the beach.

02:12 Not yet. Not yet.

02:14 In fact, no. In fact, I wouldn’t even want to live on there because that’s the first place the hurricane hit.

02:18 Gotcha. So, you’re not a beach guy?

02:20 No, sir. And I had my time during the beach when I was younger. But no.

02:24 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, you said you had your time on the beach when you were younger. How young of a man are you right now?

02:33 I’ll be 60 the 21st of May.

02:36 60. 60, huh?

02:38 6.

02:40 Okay, I got you. Any big plans coming up as you hit the six decade mark?

02:48 Yes, sir. I’ll be in Bimini the Bahamas on my 60th birthday.

02:53 Oh, nice. You going there with anybody special?

02:57 Yes, me, my girlfriend, my son, our family.

03:01 Oh, okay. Okay. How long’s that trip been in the works?

03:08 Probably about five months. So, you’ve been planning that and remind me again when your birthday is and when you guys are going down for the trip.

03:16 May 21st. We’re going to leave that Friday. I think May 21st is on a Sunday.

03:21 Okay. How many days down there?

03:24 From Friday to Monday.

03:27 Okay. An extended weekend there.

03:28 Yeah, we’ll leave Actually, we’ll leave Sunday. Get back Monday. Monday morning. Yes, sir. That’ll be a weekend.

03:35 That’ll be nice. That’ll be nice. Have you ever been down to the Bahamas? Yes, there two weeks before Christmas.

03:43 So, you must have had a good time if you’re going back.

03:47 Yeah.

03:48 Now, in the I hear you chuckling there. Eddie McTheney, what’s a good time for Eddie McTheney? If he’s with a girlfriend and her family, what’s going to be a good time?

03:58 Most of his time you can catch me. I’m a fun person. I you know I love it when I’m home and then if when I get down to Von Armory I love to mess with Dave down there I dispatch Thomas then occasionally I see Michael and I you know they know the type of guy I am I you know another mad it takes a lot to get me mad and you know I always joke—

04:23 Gotcha that’s a good recipe I would think for keeping a healthy lifestyle healthy in the sense of your sense of being your temperament. Is that something that works for you is having that kind of temperament in this kind of job?

04:39 Yes sir. I found out that it you know you can keep going you don’t you know sometimes it goes on you know you might not like with the job. Of course I mean for you know you might get a load you don’t might not like but I hardly ever seldom you know get mad because you can’t take out on dispatches or you can’t take out on Norton because it’s not their fault. I mean, you know, we get some messed up loads sometime, but it is what it is, you know, and I just try to take it, you know, I let Thomas know that I don’t like something or whatever, but you know, I don’t raise my voice at him cuz, you know, that’s a big old boy.

05:17 You’ve seen Thomas in person? Yeah—

05:20 I Yeah, I hang out with him in the gate Florida game at the tailgate with him. Yeah, that’s a big guy.

05:26 Yeah, he is. We’re going to circle back to that Georgia Florida game, but I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your temperament and demeanor and you know sometimes truth of the matter driveaway trucking it’s not all I mean some loads are not desirable loads but is it to you is it a balance or a sense of scales there as far as good with a bad? It is because you going to have to I mean sometime you think about man I’m done with this man but then at the end of the day when you finished you load everything over with and then that money hits that card you have a second you know you pay no man I ain’t going nowhere—

06:08 That everything changes when that money hits that card doesn’t it—

06:12 Everything changed when that money hit the car—

06:14 Now you’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport we’ve got Eddie McTheney 59 9 years young on the horn with us tonight. And Eddie is kicking back at home, Boon Beach, Florida, down there towards West Palm. He says it’s 93 degrees here on March 13th. Of course, he is down there deep in South Florida. Now, Eddie, when’s your next load and where you going?

06:41 I don’t know. I hadn’t seen nothing yet. You know, I’m on the board and of course they know if it’s not Florida, Georgia, Alabama, it’s not me.

06:52 I got you. You’re a southern guy, huh?

06:55 Yes, sir.

06:56 Now, you were talking about von Ormy. How many do you run out of von Ormy there?

07:02 Well, I mostly I’m save 95% of my loads come out of Von Army here. Every now and then I might get them out of Denton and every now and then I get them out of Cali.

07:11 I gotta gotcha. Now give us kind of a for those people who may be listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport for the first time, first couple of times. You’re a deck driver. Do you ever pick up any singles?

07:26 I’ll do single. Sometime I’ll get one maybe by out of Florida going somewhere and then I what I try to do is when I finish my deck load if I finish in Jordan somewhere close to P I’ll try to grab a new dump truck coming back to Florida and that take me home.

07:44 I got you. So just to kind of complete the trip.

07:47 Yes sir. I said but if not I’d like to end up in Orlando or Tampa and then I get Amtrak for like 30 bucks and come home.

07:55 Talk about that for a minute. 30 bucks in your home. You’ve been doing this, how long have you been doing this?

08:02 I’ve been with Nor going on four years and I’ve been doing this since 2010. I think I started in 2012, 2013 doing deck loads with Unimar. But you know, I work for a couple more company and then I end up with Nard through some friends and then I end up with Thomas. No, meeting Thomas. So, and— So, I just here I am still here.

08:29 Well, the reason I asked that question about how long you’ve been doing it, obviously you’re pretty savvy. If you’re finding an Amtrak for 30 bucks, talk about transportation in and out and how you find ways to save money. And when you’re saving money, you’re making money for Mr. Eddie.

08:47 Well, I pretty much know what I’m going to do. That’s why I do the same runs when I can get them over. You know, I you know, I got the H for Amtrak, Greyhound, you know, all the airlines. So, you know, I pretty much plan my trip when I once I leave and, you know, see how I’m going to get back home cuz that’s one thing. I don’t like to be stranded, you know. So—

09:13 Yeah, that’s a bad feeling being stranded.

09:16 Yeah. Yeah, it works out. I mean, I hadn’t had no problem here, especially with Nard and you know, if I can get a load, they’ll sign it to take me. If not, I just wait to one come up and you know, like I say, they pretty much know where I like to go and no problem.

09:33 Now, you were talking about you don’t want to be stranded, then I’m guessing, it’s only a guess in your time in the business, which is pretty extensive. You’ve been stranded before. I came across like not been with Norton, you know, I’d have been out there somewhere when I first started doing it because you really didn’t know how to get around there. You get some places that there’s no no kind of public transportation to get you back, you know, to close to a bus station or whatever, you know, and I, as I recall, I remember a customer, he had to drop me off, you know.

10:09 How far?

10:09 That’s not a good feeling—

10:10 Right? How far of a ride did the customer take you to get you to your—

10:15 I think it was like 40 to 50 miles. I think that that was like 40 or 50 miles.

10:20 Gotcha. Well, that was nice of the customer to do that, but I guess it’s not a practice you want to get into too often.

10:26 No, sir. No, sir.

10:28 Gotcha. So, how much downtime have you had here? We’re talking to Eddie McTheney on a Monday evening here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Eddie, how much downtime have you had? Did you work last week? Did you finish up last week?

10:45 Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Actually, I just I went to Cali, too. Got picked up two way. I brought one to Alabama and dropped one in Georgia. Then I went up and grabbed a dump truck in North Georgia. And I delivered it today because they wasn’t open Saturday. But I don’t know if I have no downtime. You know, I always call it a vacation if I ain’t got nothing. I gotta—

11:10 But they really they have loads now. I mean it ain’t no thing if they don’t have work. It’s just what I prefer to do.

11:16 I gotcha. It’s you pick your schedule.

11:19 Yes sir. Yes sir.

11:21 Where did you deliver that dump truck to? Did it go down to Florida? Did you get to Georgia? And—

11:25 What? No. Well, I didn’t have no D. I had a garbage truck. It went down to Deerfield Beach. Oh—

11:30 Okay. Well, that’s pretty close.

11:32 Yeah. I could have walked back home if I wanted to if I was young as I used to be. Oh, that’s good. That’s good. Now, you were talking about making your own schedule. Now, have you been the longer you’ve been in doing driveaway, have you gotten better at making your own schedule as far as coming up with some tricks of the trade?

11:56 Well, yes, sir. I mean, to be honest with you, and not saying it because, you know, I like Thomas, which I call him fat man. I you know you get to see your loads and then you know you can plant them. It ain’t you know they a offer you nothing you know like you had to call in they tell you got this they got that they you know they put the board in front of you and see what you got or what you know so it’s up to me whether I want to take it or I don’t want to take it. So and I found I feel like this you know this the best company I done been with doing driveaway you know I can’t complain. How many companies have you worked with in driveaway? Not naming the companies, but the number. How many companies have you worked with?

12:41 Probably five.

12:44 Okay. Well, that’s good to hear.

12:46 Yeah. Done through three. This is my third day company.

12:51 Okay. Well—

12:53 You know—

12:53 I’m sure I mean, we’re certainly glad to hear you say that we’ve been the best and we I mean, we wouldn’t be the best without drivers like Eddie McTheney. Right.

13:03 It’s a two-way street, obviously. Now, I thought we were going to hold off on this for a little bit, but I think we’re going to go ahead and jump right into it. You live down in Boon Beach, Florida, right there in the Palm Beach, West Palm Beach area, and we I looked up on your driver profile. Your handle is Gator. Now, you’ve kind of alluded to it already. I’m assuming you’re a tried and trueue orange and blue Florida Gator.

13:32 I was born in Gainesville. Yes, sir.

13:34 Born in Gainesville. H.

13:37 Born in Gainesville.

13:38 Now, if you were born in Gainesville and you’re 59 years young, did you ever come across by chance the path of a gentleman by the name of Tom Petty?

13:49 No, sir.

13:50 Are you a I was born there. I wasn’t raised there. I was just born there. So—

13:55 Oh, okay. I got you. I got you.

13:56 Well, I heard Tom Petty in Heartbreak.

13:59 Yeah, I didn’t know if you were a fan because he’s he was kind of a beloved son there in the Florida fandom there, but Tom Petty certainly obviously a big time star, but are you a fan of Tom Petty?

14:15 I like I mean West, so you know. Yep.

14:19 Now, we were talking about Thomas. Now, Thomas told me, he told me earlier, you’ve made your way up to Jacksonville before in years past for the what they call the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party.

14:34 Yeah.

14:34 Well, they don’t actually call it that anymore, at least people that know. And of course, if you’re not familiar with the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party in Jacksonville, Florida, that is the annual game between the University of Florida and the University of Georgia. Did you make it up this past season?

14:54 No, I had car issues and so I didn’t make it, but I bought a brand new Ram pickup so you best believe I’ll be there this year.

15:05 I got you. Is it good for tailgating this Ram truck you got?

15:09 That’s right. Everybody know can no bulldog sit on the back of it.

15:14 I gotta— Well, you’ll have to keep Thomas off of it. Now, Thomas did tell me that you guys tailgated together or you went to a game together. I guess if it wasn’t this past season just a couple months ago or a few months ago. It was in 21—

15:28 Last year.

15:29 I got you.

15:30 Last year I went.

15:31 All right.

15:32 And we tailgated and the year before that there, you know, it was the pandemic, but the year before that was my first year going. That’s when—

15:40 Yeah, I think that’s when I met him.

15:42 Okay. Now, you guys knew each other obviously from work and he’s got your number, you’ve got his. What was it like tailgating with Thomas?

15:51 He’s a real straight-up guy. I love him. You know what I’m saying?

15:55 Yeah.

15:57 Now, take I never seen him mad or nothing. You know, he don’t he always smiling. So, he’s a good guy. I really— And I told him if he leave, I’m leaving.

16:07 He’s your guy here on the inside, huh?

16:10 Yeah. Yeah. He’s a good person. Well, he said the same about you before I walked in here to get set up to do this. He said, “Eddie’s the real guy.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s good to hear.” And I wanted to kind of paint a picture for us what that tailgate was like as far as before and after the games.

16:30 Okay. Well, the first time when I got there, Thomas told me how to get out park. So I had two suitcases and you probably know what suitcases they was and so I paid a guy through the bic taking away Thomas for that. So you know we sitting drink and everything. Oh man, but they had to wait after the game where we got ready to leave. I started I had to pay somebody to take me find my car. I couldn’t find my car. Right. If you know what I mean. Yeah. I do know what you mean, dear. I mean, that’s a long day. That’s a long day.

17:10 No, I’m like that movie, Dude, Where’s— My Car?

17:15 Yeah, I understand. You got twisted around there.

17:20 And then the second time I did it again, but this time I took pictures of where I was at, so I found it.

17:27 That’s good. That’s smart, man. To take pictures and a little—

17:31 Reference points there where you can go—

17:34 Now. You’ve told us about your admiration for Thomas, one of our dispatch team leaders here, leads the shift here at Norton Transport. Now, did you guys talk shop or did you talk football or a combination of the two?

17:51 We talk combination to both too, you know. You know, he pretty much let me know, you know, what they expect of me. You know what’s going on. You know he never led me in the wrong direction you know so and you know like I say you know what he don’t like or whatever. So I said okay no problem I said I can get along with that.

18:14 Cool.

18:15 And so that’s how we get along with no problem.

18:18 I got you. Now you know here we are in March. You got spring ball coming up here. What are the Gators going to do in 23? Well, if they don’t beat nobody, no two teams they gonna beat this year if I had to play.

18:35 That’s Georgia and Florida State.

18:37 Yeah, those are the two that matter to the Gator.

18:41 Them two doesn’t matter. Well, active Florida State. I mean, you can’t take nothing from the Bulldogs. I mean, hey, you know, you just can’t take nothing from they’re good.

18:52 Well, thank everybody. I was going to ask you, looking forward to 23, you got that new Dodge Ram truck. What color is the truck?

19:02 It’s like a dark gray.

19:04 Dark gray. I got you. Now, when did you get it? And obviously, it had something to do with moving trucks for Norton Transport.

19:12 Of course. Like the day the first day of payments I got like 45 days ago.

19:18 Oh, so it’s brand new. Still got that great smell.

19:21 Yep.

19:22 I gotcha. Now, is it a four-wheel drive, fullsize truck? What do we got there?

19:29 No, it’s not a four-wheel drive, but it’s—

19:33 It’s a big photo with the Hemi.

19:36 Oh, okay. Okay. It’s a big truck.

19:38 Yeah.

19:38 Got the Hemi going there.

19:40 Now, you’re going to the Bahamas in May.

19:44 What are you going to do? Are you going to work—

19:46 Straight through up until then, or you going to take a little time off? You’ve already made it clear you if you’re not working, you’re on vacation and you kind of pick your own schedule. What do you see in the next I guess six weeks to a few two months out?

20:02 I’m going to work.

20:04 Yeah. Like I say, as soon as I come over, if they have anything for Florida, Georgia, Alabama that I give, you know, if nobody else beat me to it, I get it. I, you know, I do it. I used to do one every week, but you know, I think a lot of things were going on. A lot of people don’t want to come to Florida. They come to Florida in the winter time, but they don’t want to come in the summertime. So, it’s sometimes it be hard to get loads, you know.

20:27 I gotcha. Now, you’ve been doing this, I think you said 2010, 2012 is about when you started in the driveaway space. Did you always kind of gravitate toward staying in the southeast or have you worked the whole country?

20:43 No sir, I stay on because I used to have my own truck, but not, you know, just one truck. I know multiple trucks. I used to have a dump truck at one time, Titan at one time. So I just stayed local.

20:53 Now tell us about that dump truck and tractor you had. Do you have a business going or what was the reasoning behind that?

21:01 Well, I had when I had the my first dump truck and then it’s like it just the business just bought like I had it right before 911. It seemed like after 911 it just you know everything started going bad. It was you couldn’t make no money and I end up buying a brand new Peterbilt in 2000 right before 9/11. So it just it wasn’t feasible. So I end up you know getting rid of and getting a tractor.

21:31 And so now the company that I usually haul for and stay with them so many years they got bought out by Crawley. So you know they end at that. I got you. Gotcha. What was it like? I mean the comparison between owning your own business and your own company there versus what you’re doing now. What are some of the pros and cons of that? What the pros was, you know, you your own boss, you know, pretty much when you and you still got to work, you know, you got to work every day with them hours off on the weekends and you know, but you was s with a certain amount of money. Of course, you know, you know what you going to make. But and then with this here right here, you can you don’t have no payment. You don’t have no expenses—

22:24 You know, like I did when I had my when I ran my truck. But you know, you pretty much can make your own salary over here.

22:34 That’s got to be advantageous for you. And I wanted to back up and ask you one question. You didn’t have the payments back when you owned your own company. Which one of these two carries the most stress or pressure? And how do you cope with it? And which one obviously do you prefer?

22:54 I had my own payment yesterday. I had payments, but it wasn’t bad. But the dump truck was the most expensive. I had like 2,000 a month payment on because that truck was brand new when I bought it. Doing this ain’t bad. The only thing is, you know, it’s now I’m getting, you know, getting kind of old older, you know, so it’s sometime get rough on you. But when I, you know, with my old truck, all I did was, you know, son, I ain’t had to do nothing but, you know, drive. But—

23:24 Well, being 59 years old and I’ve seen your profile, I’m assuming you’re in pretty good shape, but like you kind of touched on there, it there’s some physicality to it, some physical aspects that you got to do. It’s part of the job as a deck driver. What’s that like manhandling those saddles?

23:43 I guess I thought the years you learn how to do it. You got, you know what I’m saying? You know, you got to be smart about it. You know, if they got a horse, you take, you know, you use a horse to take them off the trucks. Sometime you might have to push them off and then you take a strap and pull it, you know. I can’t pick them up—

24:00 You know. They just— Yeah, they heavy, you know. But yeah, doing you got you ex explain to people obviously you and I know what the horses are and the saddles and that kind of thing, but for people who may be listening to this, I want to let you kind of walk people through what a horse what a saddle is in a three-way or a four-way deck set. Kind of paint that picture for them of what we’re talking about there in the driveaway truck world there.

24:31 Okay. The horse is what they call we call the A frame. That’s what we drive on. That’s what either it’s manual and a lot of us hate them manual but you know it’s electric you know that’s what we hook you up hook the straps up to the bumper the frame what however what you got and then you know you lift the trucks up and you before you lift them up you got to go underneath that’s where the saddle at then loosen the bolt J-bolt and you know once you get all that clear then you know— You pull up on a little bit and make sure there’s, you know, nothing like the oil pan. One of the biggest thing about when you’re undecking it is the oil pan if they too low that saddle will bust them.

25:17 Yeah.

25:18 So, you know, once you get ready, once you get ready to pull out, what you need to do is just ease out a little bit—

25:25 And get out that truck, go in a little, you know, and sometime you may have to, you know, play with that horse a little bit. Raise it up, raise it down or whatever. And then once you see that you’re good, then you just don’t go ahead and pull out. You might have to get in and out a couple times, but you still want to make sure that you just don’t get in there just take off—

25:44 Right? You got to make sure your clearance is there.

25:46 You make sure you clear because if not, you won’t this oil pad you about to pay for—

25:51 And that’s expensive—

25:52 You know. Yes, sir.

25:54 Now, it’s a little bit different the decking between new and used from what I understand. Kind of lay out the differences between a new truck and a used truck.

26:04 Well, now I can’t tell you about the used trucks cuz I don’t do them. They the new trucks are already deck. All we got to do is undeck them. Every now and then, but you right. Every now and then you might have to redeck one—

26:16 Right? But it’s pretty simple because n if you redeck it, the saddle going to be in the spot that it was. So, you know, you got to make sure that saddle is center or however you don’t want one truck leading to one side or one swapsided. So if the saddle’s already there, you and you pretty much can tell where the whole other saddle is at on one of the trucks. So you know, you try to back it up, but of course you can to that spot where it was already there before, but field decking. That’s what they call field decking. I don’t do field decking.

26:49 Gotcha. How did you get into decking? What kind of give us the chain of events that led you to become a deck driver?

26:58 Well, I was doing singles. I used to work for quality and I had some old friends that I met cuz you meet a lot of guys out here that you know that you could always pick up points from. And that’s the thing about it, you know, that’s why you got to be friendly to people because you never know when somebody going you gonna need somebody. But I they brought me to own with another company doing the deck nose and they were sending us more money, you know, and all that. So that’s how I end up doing the getting into decking.

27:30 Gotcha. Now you’ve done all decking with us, is that right? Or did you have singles with us before you started into decking?

27:39 No, I came over doing decking.

27:42 I got you. Now, not to throw out a figure, a money, a dollar figure, but what’s the contrast, I guess, as far as, you know, it’s like decking pays x amount more than singles because a lot of guys want to get to decking. We all I always think of it kind of like this. You’ve got the major leagues and then you got the minor leagues on the singles level. Would that be a fair comparison in your world or how would you compare the two as far as from the financial standpoint and balancing that with the physical aspect of what you got to do on the deck side?

28:19 Well, on the deck side, you know, okay, the fuel they, you know, they cover the fuel. I mean, you know, you could reimburse or however they supposed to do it. I’d rather do decks with more money obvious. And you know just doing the singles you might you know do good. It depends on what you get. You know if you get a big garbage truck you know of course you’re going to burn fuel. You get a if you get a tractor single tractor you know it’s going to be good on fuel. Gotcha. Do you miss the singles life doing the singles? I do them to get home. I mean, either if I have like say they got something in Florida and I got a load that I need to pick up in Texas and it’s going to save me money.

29:14 Well, it’s not going to cost me back money. I can make money going out there with a single. I’ll take the single out there.

29:20 Sure.

29:20 And you know that’s money both ways.

29:23 Oh, yeah. You’re making money on your way out to Von Ormy and obviously on the way back out of Von Ormy.

29:28 On the way back. Yes.

29:29 To and from. Now, I wanted to ask you, what’s the coolest thing you’ve seen on the road, the open road, in your 10 plus years doing this? Well, it’s more than— Yeah, definitely more than 10 years. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen?

29:45 Ah, man. I done see some of everything. I mean, I done cuz I, you know, when I first started, I been by Presley House. I done to Wyoming way the Sundance Kid was at James Dean. I’ve been through the you know right here like they got a museum. I never been there but I’ve been seeing the signs or where B and Clyde got bamboo museum. So—

30:15 That is too cool.

30:16 Yeah. What’ you think of Graceland when you did you get a chance to check it out?

30:23 Yeah, I went to I took a friend. We stopped in Tupelo because I was telling about we stopped in Tupelo and then went to the Rain Hotel where Martin Luther King got killed all that. Then went over to the Grace Man. And so, you know, it was just it was something to see on, you know, everything. You know, you hear about stuff, but then when you see it, you know—

30:48 Kind of brings it home, doesn’t it?

30:51 Yeah. I’ve been to Vegas. I finally got to go to Washington a couple years back. I took a dump truck up there. So I finally went to Seattle.

31:02 Got.

31:02 So now I done drove in every state you can drive in.

31:05 That’s cool. That’s cool. Now I was going to ask you about Vegas. Were you able to put any money down on the slots in the slots or on the tables? Roulette, any of that kind of stuff?

31:19 No, sir. I just when I’m on the road, I’m on the road for business. I don’t do pleasure. I get rid of them trucks like I got supposed to cuz I don’t want to be responsible for nothing.

31:29 I got you.

31:30 And then when I done if I’m going to spend money, I’ll spend money home. I you know I got enough casinos here. I Florida. I don’t need to, you know.

31:38 I got you. I got you.

31:40 Do you ever make your way out to the casinos?

31:44 Florida?

31:45 Yes, sir.

31:47 Oh, yeah. I had been in a while, but yeah. I mean like casino like 40 probably 40 minutes from me.

31:52 That’s not bad. Not bad at all.

31:54 Yeah, we got them in pumping Miami. So, you know, it’s just—

31:59 Now, I wanted to ask you, how did you get into the trucking business in general? I’m sure that Eddie was doing something before he got into trucking. And what led you to the trucking industry? Well, when I was younger, before I turned 21, I, you know, I did his job, you know, construction, whatever. And I’m the type of person I don’t like to be in one place. I like to go cuz like when you in one spot, time it, you know, times—

32:29 Stand still. You know what I’m saying?

32:31 Yeah. Stand still. So, I think I had moved to Orlando for a while and then we moved back and then I was talking to a friend. He had just finished truck driving school. Up there in a little town called Chipley, Florida. And he told me about it, but I wasn’t 21. I was 20. So I had to wait till I turned 21 and I signed up for it. And but I had to get a chauffeur license at during that time. So when I turned 21, I went ahead and it cost me $280 to go to school.

33:04 Wonder what it would cost now.

33:08 I don’t even know. And the trucks we had a lot of younger out they don’t even know anything about them training in cabovers—

33:16 Right you know a lot of kids don’t know what a cowboy is and you also I’m sure you trained on manual transmission.

33:25 Yes sir.

33:26 You know that’s kind of different now because a lot of the manufacturers you know a lot of the guys in schools are training on automatics. What’s your stance on that as far as what a driver needs to know as far as both transmission types?

33:42 I think you really need to drive both. I really do. Now, I like automatic right now when I’m pulling deck flats, but if I got if I’m pulling a trailer, you know, I want to shift gears. That way, I feel like a real trucker, you know. I don’t— But doing the decks is all, you know, that’s fine with automatics. I did want to ask you, speaking of trucks, let’s kind of dig down into that a little bit. What’s your favorite truck to drive and the least favorite truck to drive?

34:15 Well, I like both of them. I like the— Well, I like all of them because when you know when they’re living the only thing I don’t like about the Detroit Hills when they up in there, they lose prime. They hard to start with the Detroit, but you get the Cummins, defeated Bills, and Kenworth, you know, they fly right up. They don’t lose their prime, but—

34:37 Not so with the Detroit.

34:40 Yeah. I mean, when I first started doing it, you know, I was trying to start them and I really didn’t know about prime, man. It took me like an hour to get a truck started. Now, if you had, let’s say you walk into a large parking lot truck, a big truck stop, you’ve got your choice of truck to drive. You’ve got an International, you got a Peterbilt, you got a Volvo, you got a Mack, you got a Kenworth, you got a Freightliner. Which one are you going to grab? I mean, let’s say they’re all same condition, same year models. Which one would you grab and why? I might grab a freight line because I’m that’s what I’m in most of the time.

35:25 If I Yeah, if I had a chance for a dump truck now, I’ll get I’ll probably get a Pete.

35:31 Gotcha.

35:31 Or either a Kenworth for, you know, the dump.

35:35 I got you. Now, does it make a diff I mean, do you see much difference between the manufacturers out there as far as the quality of the trucks or are they similar across the board?

35:47 I think they’re similar because you know, emotion with the new trucks in both line you can have something go wrong with a brand new one. So—

35:57 Let’s talk a little bit, not to talk about bad news, but let’s talk about breakdowns. You’ve been in the business a long time. I’m sure you’ve seen some breakdowns. Yes. Not too many though.

36:08 Well, that’s good. That’s good. How do you handle a breakdown and how would you tell a new guy or girl coming up, say, you know, it’s part of the business, something you got to be ready for. What was your what would your outlook be? It’s like, okay, you’re out there. Let’s say you’re in Wyoming, truck breaks down. How do you handle something like that? Well, first of all, you got to call DSG. And they tell you that every time you get your load tells you they’ll call DSG. And that’s who you need to call because they going to tell you where they want to go. You know, whatever you need. You know what I’m saying? It’s up to them—

36:51 Right? They’re going to set the boundaries and set the game plan. But how do you deal with it? Yeah. And they going to— Oh yeah.

36:58 Oh no. I was just going to ask you how you deal with it personally.

37:02 Well, don’t none of them like it because you know it’s holding us up and you know you don’t know what’s you know what you going to do. You might have to undeck one of the trucks or you might have to sit there and wait on you just don’t never know.

37:17 Gotcha.

37:17 You know if it’s the last truck that’s fine cuz you’ll just undeck that last truck and drop it.

37:22 Right. But the problem is if it’s the front truck and front truck is a Cascadia then you the rest of your truck is young tools and then a lot of time you can’t drop them because if you drop that when that once that second truck come down it’s going to be too long and it’s going to hit underneath the other the third truck you know it just— Yeah. So you pretty much have to unck.

37:52 Yeah. So break down major.

37:53 Yeah, breakdown can be very problematic on a deck set depending upon—

37:57 Yeah. Come time. Yeah.

37:58 Gotcha. Let’s talk about the other time. Let’s talk about the other side of the spectrum. You’re on a deck set now. Do you do normally three ways or four ways or a combination?

38:08 It just depends. What’s coming back to Florida, Georgia, Alabama?

38:11 I got you. Now, how would you characterize the week? Let’s say we know you want to get back to Florida and let’s say you find a great three-way run or a four-way run and a single back and you’re able to do all that within 3 4 days. What kind of feeling does that give you?

38:30 I’m good. I know I’ll be home by the weekend.

38:34 Gotcha. Are you usually home by do you not work on the weekends?

38:39 I really don’t, but I do if I have to. I might pick a load up and deliver it like early part of the following week, but usually I’ll try to pick up on Monday and do what I need to do and be done by Thursday or Friday and then I’m home.

39:01 Gotcha. Now, when you’re away from home, where do you like to stay? Do you have a preference of where you lay your head?

39:08 Nah, I usually, like I say, I usually stop in Dan, Louisiana. They have a hotel right there in the little truck stop. If I stop in the Panahan one, I stop at Chip for the Super 8. They got truck parking there, you know. That’s area that I know I’m coming with, you know, so that’s why I like running.

39:29 Gotcha. Now, when you stop in Louisiana, you know, that’s a state that’s known for its food. Have you found some good places to eat when you’re stopped? Well, I’m very finicky. I don’t eat seafood. Okay.

39:46 I don’t eat no gumbo. I mean, I’m very finicky. So, basically chicken or something, you know, it’s something simple. I mean, you can get that truck stop. Ain’t nothing like homecooked food, but you know, I survive. But—

40:01 I got you.

40:03 Hey, I don’t eat Cajun food. So—

40:06 Now what kind of food do does Eddie McTheney like here? You’re listening to Eddie McTheney on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You said you’re a finicky eater. What do you like?

40:18 Basic a certain type of fish got to be fried. You know, like pork chops, hamburgers.

40:27 Good steak, you know. Steak. Yeah.

40:30 Good steak. Now, do you are you a barbecue guy? Do you barbe do you grill? Are you a guy that has your own grill there? I can do a little something, but my brother is about the best. So, if I can get him to cook, I’ll get him to cook. But now, my job is to buy.

40:50 So—

40:50 You buy it, he cooks it, and you both eat it.

40:53 I buy it or whoever cook it. I You know what I’m saying? I buy whatever y’all want me to get, but I ain’t doing no cooking. I ain’t the grill.

41:00 I got you. Gotcha. Now, did you have a— Just coming off of a three-day weekend, is that right? Well, I got on Saturday morning.

41:09 Okay. Okay. So, you’ve looked at the board. What are you looking for? Something to get over to San Antonio there.

41:18 Yeah, if they have something. I mean, they probably know between now and the weekend or whatever. I had to go Saturday. I get what it just depends on what show up that I like or whatever, you know, I’ll request it.

41:32 Gotcha. So—

41:34 Now we asked you about the coolest thing you’ve seen on the road. What about the craziest thing you’ve seen in your days on the road?

41:47 We had one.

41:48 I don’t—

41:50 Oh, go ahead.

41:50 I don’t want to put that one on the air because that was in Chattanooga and I just— No, there’s nothing that I need to say. But it was crazy—

41:59 What I saw somebody doing. So, it was crazy. Yeah. Broad daylight.

42:03 Well, you’re you can’t let that out of the bag and not finish the story where anything goes on here. It’s wide open. Okay. It happened in Chattanooga. I got an idea of what you’re talking about, but I could be wrong. So, kind of tell us what happened or what you saw. Well, I’m headed back to Atlanta and all of a sudden this SUV passed me and the guy was driving and the lady was naked. And he was thanking the lady while she was leaving his lap. I said, I just eat. I couldn’t believe it. With the windows down.

42:42 Why? My goodness. How long ago was this?

42:46 It’s probably been about four years.

42:49 And you were coming through Chattanooga, saw this on your way heading south. What was your first reaction?

42:57 I looked I said, “No, I know I that ain’t what I think it is.”

43:05 Anything’s possible, I guess, particularly when you’ve got that up high Eagles vantage point.

43:12 You can see everything there.

43:14 Yeah, I wasn’t seeing or nothing. I was saying it was actually happening—

43:18 With the windows down like it did. They didn’t care.

43:21 That’s a carefree couple right there.

43:25 Yeah.

43:25 To say the least. Now Eddie, you’re gonna do a little run this week and then we’re that’ll put us into mid March and that Bahamas trip will be getting ever closer.

43:40 Yep. I can’t wait.

43:42 Now, not being a beach guy, what are you going to fill your time with when you’re in the Bahamas?

43:49 We going we’ll walk on the beach over there. Then, you know, like I said, we this what they used to do is like once you dock, they’ll let you off and then last time we went to Nassau and we had to be back on the boat by 4:30. Gotcha. So, I mean, you know, you can go we go to, you know, buy everybody look over there cheap, but actually now it begin to be the same on the boat. So, we, you know, we just walking around and doing a little shopping and all. So—

44:20 Gotcha. Now, what’s Eddie’s drink of choice when he’s in the Bahamas?

44:27 On the I’m a Long Island man.

44:29 Okay. Bahamas or anywhere?

44:32 Anywhere. Yes.

44:34 Okay.

44:35 On the boat, they give you pay the price. I think it’s like 200. And you get up to 15 drinks a day.

44:45 How many drinks will Eddie have? I try to get them all when I That’s hard to do though. Trying to drink 15 drinks a day. That’s hard.

44:54 Well, you know, you can’t day drink unless you start early.

45:00 I said 3 or 4:00 last drinking.

45:03 You stayed up that late.

45:06 Yes, sir.

45:06 How’d you feel the next day?

45:09 I was good cuz they, you know, they have food all night, too. So—

45:12 So you were able to keep it balanced out there? Yes, sir.

45:17 I gotta— Well, Eddie McTheney, I just wanted to ask you as we wrap up here, let you have the floor here. Anything you’d like to say to anyone who’s considering driveaway trucking? Obviously, we’d love them to come to Norton Transport. What would you say to them as your piece of advice? You’ve been doing this a long time. You’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly. What would you say? What would you offer up as advice to someone who may be considering this? Well, you know, I’ll tell them get definitely get nothing to try. I mean, it’s going to be up to them what they like it. I mean, cuz you know, stuff you like, I ain’t going to like and stuff I like you ain’t going to like. But, I mean, if you get my dispatch, you which he not taking on nobody else. And then, you know, Mike and his father and all them, I think, and Stephanie, my dispatch, I that was a cool crew. And then Dave and Von Army, you know, but like again, I think it’s what you make of it, how you want to act around people, where they going to react to you, you know?

46:22 Right. Exactly.

46:23 That’s very good advice from Eddie McTheney here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We’re going to wrap it up here, but Eddie, after we get off the air here, I got something I need to share with you in private. So, don’t hang up just yet, but after we get off the phone there, after we get off the recording session there, I’ll chat you up with a couple of things here, just laundrying matters. But Eddie McTheney joining us on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Eddie, thank you so much and good luck to you on the or have a good time, I should say, when you make your way down to the Bahamas and good luck to the Gators this year.

47:00 All right, thank you. Take care.

47:01 All right, see you Eddie. 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.