00:04 You make really good money. I’m talking about you can make as much money as you want. You can I feel like you can be in the same range as some of the lawyers. You know, you can you know you make the money and you also have the freedom. Why would you not do it? 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.

00:44 Hello everybody. Welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And those of you who have joined us on this program know that it’s one where we elevate and celebrate the truck drivers that work for Norton Transport and all those in general for all those guys and girls who make the world go round and round do so much for our economy and of course those of you who are familiar with driveaway transport. We move the drivers to the trucks, different types of trucks and then they move the trucks from point A to point B. And it’s all connecting the dots we like to say. And tonight we have a very special guest with us. His name is Rodrigicar and he can correct me on that last name if I got it right or not. But Rod, how are you?

01:27 I’m good. I’m good. How are you?

01:28 Good. Good. Give us that last name once again so we can know that and commit it to memory.

01:33 It’s pronounced.

01:35 Okay. Now, what’s the origin of that? What is the origin of that name?

01:39 Well, it’s a name. It’s a country in central Africa. Yeah. It means getting close to it. That’s what that’s the meaning of the name.

01:49 Getting close to it.

01:51 Yes.

01:51 Is that something that you kind of live by?

01:54 Yes. You know everything that I do, you know. So let’s say if I set a goal to buy a house, you know, I kind of like use my name to kind of like hustle to get the money to get the house.

02:07 That’s awesome, man. Do you mind if we just call you Rod just for simplicity sake?

02:12 Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine. That’s what my team called me anyway.

02:14 Okay. Okay. Now, Rod take us back to Africa. Tell us what it was like. And you were born in 94. Is that right?

02:23 Yes.

02:23 Okay. Take us back to 1994 in the life of Rod. Kind of take us back right there.

02:28 Okay.

02:29 Yeah. Take us back to the beginning. So I don’t really know if I can tell you 94 but I was a baby but my mother told me in ’94 we were in Congo in this little city called Oira and so there was a cool basically you know there you know what a cool is where the president—

02:50 Oh yeah—

02:51 Was trying to take over by force and it was really bad so in 94 my parents had to move from Congo to Burundi. It’s a little bit far but they according to them they told me that they had to walk from one country to the air and I was basically a baby. They were carrying me on my mom were carrying me on her butt—

03:15 During that period.

03:17 That’s quite a story particularly a way to start your life moving out under oppression there from the government. And what happened from there?

03:28 Yeah. So from there they move north to this country called Bundi. It’s really tiny country. You can’t even see it on the map. And then that’s where I grew up. I grew up in Bundi. They speak French, Kirundi, Swahili. So I speak about four or five languages.

03:42 Bust out some bust out a couple of those languages on us. Let’s start in French. Tell us what you do for a living and tell us in French.

03:54 Now give that to us in English. I’m a truck driver.

03:58 And give it to us in your country where you grew up there.

04:01 Nothing big truck.

04:04 Okay, that’s cool, man. That’s— So you speak three or four languages?

04:08 Yes. In Africa we have like a— So French is kind of like a general language for all eastern appetite cuz they’re all colonized by Belgiums and then every country has their own, you know—

04:20 Oh, sure. Dialect and that kind of thing.

04:23 Yeah. My country alone. My country alone has over 200 languages. That’s one country.

04:30 Wow.

04:30 Over 200 languages. Yeah.

04:32 Is it hard to discern there? Is there a lot of differences as far as the dialogue?

04:37 It’s a lot of difference though. It’s a lot of difference. For example, my dad if my dad want to talk about my mom in his language, he can. And my mom won’t hear nothing about it. And my mom can also do the same to her language where my well my dad but they’re all concrete but they have different tribes and they speak different languages and as even me as a kid I don’t know my dad’s language or I don’t know my mom’s language I just know the principal language that they both speak.

05:03 Gotcha. Did you hear a lot of each language growing up as a child?

05:07 Only when grandmothers are visiting.

05:10 Oh okay. I got you. So it goes back a generation.

05:13 Yeah.

05:14 Gotcha. Now, how long did you live there in Africa before coming to the States? How long were you in Africa?

05:21 I think I moved there when I was 15. 15 16. It was in 2009. Yeah. October of 2009 I came to America.

05:33 What part of America did you come to?

05:35 In Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

05:39 Now, did you come with family? You said you were about 15. Tell us some of the circumstances that led to you coming to America.

05:46 Well, my mom was sick and so we asked for government help to kind of like you know help my mom with surgeries but there were no doctors qualified to do their surgery back home. So then they start a case for us to see for we can come here. It kind of like get the medication that my mom need. That’s why we came here but we ended up getting here and it was too late. They doctor they were too late to do the surgery so they could just manage her with pain medication and that was that.

06:26 Now what was the nature of her ailment at the time?

06:30 She had a clinical is it you know when now you have pain that it don’t go away. Basically, she had a surgery in Africa and it was it wasn’t well done. The doctor didn’t do a good job—

06:45 And so the surgery had to be stick by a you know very special doctor and they couldn’t find the doctor on time. By the time they found by the time we came here was too late to fix the problem cuz he was already permanent.

07:03 How did that impact you as a young man at that time? I’m assuming it happened when you were roughly a young teenager.

07:11 Yeah, she was sick for a very long time. By the time I come here, she was already, you know, sick for like 8 years.

07:19 Mhm.

07:19 So, he was always it was she was in and out of the hospital all the time. That was kind of like my life. Me and my brother, you know, some of us go to sleep in hospital and another person go to sleep the next day and my dad would just, you know, keep paying for our tuition cuz in Africa you have to pay for school from kindergarten all the way to university. There is no government help.

07:41 Mhm.

07:43 You’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. He is a man of congalles origin and lives now in America and drives for Norton Transport. He’s kind of taking us through. We’re up to about his point when he was about age 15 when he came to America to Erie, Pennsylvania. And I’m going to let Rod take it from there. What happened after your mother’s prolonged illness?

08:07 Well, so the you know, first thing that we kind of realized when we got to America was the cold. No, it was the first time seeing the— No.

08:18 Oh, yeah.

08:18 Cuz they told us at the airport in Bologni that you guys need a jacket cuz you going to Pennsylvania and it’s very cold. But we don’t know what it is. Like we don’t know how cold it get. We just think is a regular cold cuz over there cold is just rain. You know, you get little rain and you get chilly. All you can wear is hoodie and you’re good. So we told the these guys I think there were some white guys that was preparing that you know the life in America and they said that’s nothing compared to what you going to get to over there. So we decided to just keep going with the hoodies. By the time we land in JFK it was so cold. I have never felt anything like that in my life. My ears were frozen. I was just like what is this? They say, “Yeah, the cold tree is not cold to get.”

09:16 You’re like, “What have I done?”

09:18 What is this? What is all this white thing? Cuz all we see is it’s on TV. We just think that one day we want to, you know, we want to get to see the snow, but I didn’t know that the snow is actually that cold.

09:31 I’m assuming you came in the winter when it was snowing obviously. How did you adapt to it?

09:37 Oh, I never did that. Most of that. You said, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m out of PA.”

09:45 I moved to Dallas because it was too cold. It was too cold. My first time playing snowball, I used my bare hand, right? And I was playing with this kid that we used to live together. And then basically my hands were so cold and what I did is I went to the store, right? And then I tried to dry my hands. They told me that’s the worst thing—

10:08 You can do when your hands you know, it’s like this and then basically I felt like my hand was falling off.

10:15 Yeah. They tell you to do the opposite, which it doesn’t it’s it doesn’t make sense to you as far as the pain you’re in. And like you said, you felt like your hands were falling off.

10:27 Yeah. Yeah. So, so I’m thinking the opposite of cold is hot. Why are you telling me not to use the hat, you know, to kind of like better myself?

10:36 Gotcha. So, how did you end up in Dallas? I know you live in Dallas now, but what took you to Dallas from Pennsylvania?

10:44 Well, I lost my mother in 2018, approaching after they hit me, but she battled so long.

10:50 I’m sorry to hear that.

10:51 Yeah. Basically I went to high school in Erie, went to Penn State University. Graduated from Penn State University, then I got a job offer in Dallas.

11:05 Big Nittany Lion fan, I’m sure.

11:07 Yes. Go Penn State.

11:11 You know that speaking of Penn State, Beaver Stadium something else. Did you take in any games while you were there? Did you get to go to Beaver Stadium?

11:19 Oh, yeah.

11:20 It’s likeund 110,000 people there.

11:23 Yeah, it’s crazy. My first time, you know, when Berkeley was still up, it was so crazy. So, I’m sitting on the stand, right? Mind you, I’m an African guy. I know nothing about the culture, but we have to sit on this student section—

11:40 Right?

11:40 And these people is kind of this kind of like they’ve been practicing. They know everything. Somebody will just mail something and everybody just answers.

11:47 Mhm.

11:47 I’m just like somebody said something, everybody’s standing. I’m still sitting. I’m like, “Okay, what’s going on?”

11:54 Sounds like you enjoyed it, though.

11:56 I did. I really did. I went back like almost every home game I went to watch.

12:02 Good deal. Now, you said after Penn State, you got a job in Dallas.

12:06 I got a job in Dallas. Cuz I went to school for management information system.

12:12 I got you.

12:12 I went to Dallas, I started working, but I just hated it. I kind of like hated working for somebody because it reminded me of school. You go to work, they tell you to take some paperwork at home and you have to go. And it reminded me of school. I’m like, I just finished going to four years of studying and now you’re telling me I have to do this again to get paid.

12:40 It just didn’t add up for you.

12:41 It didn’t add up. So, somebody talked to me about driving. That’s when I had to pull my degree on the tide and start by driving.

12:50 Now, you talked about somebody talked to you about driving. How did you fall into it? Because I mean, with a management information system degree there quite a different turn of the coin there. Yeah, but it’s it was all to me, right? It was all about money because as an African guy, I can tell you that all we think about is families back home. What can we do to better, you know, back there, you know? I want to build houses for people. I want to do big things back home than I want to do in America. You know what I mean? So—

13:24 Oh, yeah. That’s ad that’s admirable for you to have that goal. So, somebody reaches out to you about doing some truck driving.

13:32 Somebody reaches out and told me, you know, you have to put your pride aside and I know you went to school and, you know, you dress up and stuff like that, but you don’t make as much money as me and I never went to school. And it was hard for me to believe until he showed me his 1099, right? He showed me 1099. He said, “Look, I made over 200 grand.” Mhm. This year. And then I looked at mines and it said like 60k. That was—

14:01 That was it for me.

14:03 That’s a game changer.

14:05 Yeah. When you met him more than me and I went to I said okay I’m coming it—

14:12 Didn’t take much to persuade you when you see the difference that you can make—

14:17 Versus what you were coming from.

14:19 No I f the money I said okay I’m going to school—

14:24 Now. What year? Let’s see. You’re in Dallas. So, what year are we looking at where you’re going to get your CEO?

14:32 Yeah. So, I graduated in 20 2017. We came here, started working in December of 2017, but by August of 2018, I was already you know, on the driving schools.

14:48 Gotcha. How long did it take you to complete your CDL certification? At the time it was very easy, you know, like now it only took me two weeks to complete it. One week to get my permit and then the other week to learn how to drive the to.

15:08 Gotcha. Now, what’s your— Are you Class A? I’m— Well, I’m assuming you are.

15:13 Yes.

15:14 Gotcha. Now, so you’ve been driving since 18, is that right? Did you get a job right after getting your license or passing the test? I don’t know.

15:23 How did you start off in the driving sphere? What type of driving were you doing?

15:28 When I started I did a I did teams I think I did team driving. Because at that time the companies were paying you know like I think 20 cents or 30 cents I can I can’t remember if you do single driving and so I realized that I can make more team driving. So my friend Aruna actually also works for Norton right now. Teamed up. We went to school together. We got to know each other from there. So we talked to each other. We said, “Hey, let’s just do a team.” So we just did a team for like six four to six months and we were done with that.

16:06 You’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now Rod, we’re very grateful to have you on the program with us and you were talking about team driving. Now, most of our listeners are very familiar with the jargon, the terminology, but kind of break it down for those who may be new about what the team driving aspect is.

16:25 Oh, the team driving is basically when the trucks basically don’t stop. One driver drives 10 10 hours, another as soon as you park, another driver wakes up and take overs—

16:38 Just non-stop—

16:39 And just do the over non-stop over and over. It’s very tiring if you ask me. There’s only so much quality sleep you can get in a sleeper or in the passenger side.

16:48 Yes.

16:48 And now, how long did you do the team driving?

16:50 I only did it for four to five months and I just— But the guy that I did it with is my best friend like I think we killed together. Even American kill now. But we started getting tired of each other like him all the time. You all the time—

17:05 He’s looking at you eating. You’re looking at him eating it too much.

17:09 Yeah. 24 hours in a tractor together is can—

17:13 Yeah, that can grow short quickly.

17:15 Yeah.

17:15 Now, do you stay in touch with your best friend?

17:17 Yeah, my best friend his name is Aruna. We know we actually came at the same time.

17:24 Gotcha. Now, you went from the team driving. What happened next?

17:29 I wanted to take a break from over the road. So, I started driving local here in Dallas. Also did that for a little bit and then I got into unbeing with a different company forest to learn how to unbe and then I came to NS.

17:47 Gotcha. So how long have you been with us?

17:49 The beginning I would say the beginning of 2019 or the end of 2018. It didn’t take me that that long. I started driving at that time. No one was not requiring so many years of experience and they needed drivers. They needed drivers and since I already knew how to unk they just took me in and just starting from there.

18:13 I got you. So you’ve been with us since 19.

18:17 Yes.

18:17 And you already knew how to undock. So did you do any singles driving when you came on board or did you go right into decking? No, I was already— Yeah. No, I was already certified as a deck driving.

18:30 Gotcha.

18:30 So, I didn’t do anything.

18:32 Now, you’ve been doing the deck driving with us for 4 years. What’s it been like?

18:38 It’s been a honestly it’s been a life changer for me. Even though sometimes you kind of like want to do something or something different, but since the contracts, you know, it’s always better or you can, you know, pick up a load in one month and keep your contract is always a life changer for me because I invested in the company, right? Myself, I invested in myself, right? And then it was a horrible investment and I went to my saving this is just like last year I went to all my savings thinking that you know I’m going to make the money back and I decided I went all the way to negatives and period I didn’t even know how I’m going to pay my next bill you know for my rent.

19:26 Now what year was this going on now?

19:29 This was just last year.

19:30 Okay. 2022. Yeah, I started my own company. And I got a contract with the wrong people without knowing, you know how it actually works. So, things are not going well. I got a contract with the company that you like to talk all my money and you know, you know, sometimes when you try new things, you keep hoping it’s going to get better, right? You see your money going down, but you say, you know what? Oh, maybe next month is going to be better. Maybe next week. So, I end up, you know, going through my savings, even took a personal loan to try and get this business going. But, at the end, I just had to call it quit because I was losing so much. But thankfully, you know, I had months.

20:20 So, I just, you know, got back to it and started driving, you know, full time again. And I’m just now catching up on everything. You know, thankfully I’m good now. And—

20:33 You were talking about earlier before you went through that rough patch, it was a game changer. What is your lifestyle like now that you’re back in above, you’re not swimming below water, but you’re above water. To anybody who you know would want to join nor anything I always tell my friends because I’ve got a lot of people you know in the company it’s such a you know it’s such a big no but you have so much freedom you know you have so much freedom you can go on vacation anytime you want nobody’s going to tell you nothing you can make your money and go spend it or you can spend or you can make your money and save it that’s why I said reguction changer for me because nobody want to work 24/7 and only get 2 weeks off, you know, in 12 in 12 months cuz that’s what these people are getting in or whatever you are or even worse as a truck driver. They give you home time for like in 4 weeks you go home for 5 days, you know.

21:41 And now you’re—

21:42 One hour.

21:43 You’re a family man. So, have you been able to take some vacations that have been memorable?

21:49 Yes. Yes. Yes. I went to I went in the Caribbean place called Toxin Kle.

21:58 Oh, yeah.

22:00 Yeah. I went to Toxin Kles. It was really nice there. I actually went to me and my other friends that that drives for Norton. We went on a Vega trip recently. I stayed there for like a good five days.

22:16 Oh, and a trip to Vegas.

22:19 Yeah, we did. I almost all my family works for N. My brother, my brother, my best friend, my in-law, my cousins, we’re all there.

22:29 They all work for Norton, you were saying?

22:31 Yes.

22:32 Wow. Keeping it in the family. That’s awesome, man. I wanted to— Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to back up for just a second there. Turks and Caos. Was that a good time for you to get your toes in the sand? Did you have a drink with an umbrella in it? Tell us a little bit about Turks and Caos.

22:49 Yes, I did. I did. We had people come. We had some shape came and cook where we were staying caring. We had some island drinks, some coconut water with tequila in it. It was a refreshing times. I had a really good time.

23:11 Good times for Rod here. You’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now Rod, you said you went to Vegas with some of the people here from Norton. Tell us about that trip.

23:22 Oh, that that trip was it was very hot. But we managed it was about five guys and out of the five it was about seven. Out of seven out of four works for n and three are my friends from 10 ft.

23:40 Okay. Okay.

23:41 Yeah.

23:42 So, you were surrounded by friends there.

23:44 Yes. Yes, I am. I watch.

23:46 I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you had a good time in Vegas.

23:50 I sure do. Now, I’m not sure if it was Vegas or not, but I understand word on the street driving a truck working in management information system is not the only thing you have done.

24:05 Oh, no. I’ve done quite a bit.

24:09 Please tell us.

24:11 Oh, the during the pandemic when everything was shut down, I discovered that I was funny on Tik Tok. YouTub. So I started doing shiny videos on Tik Tok and you know kind of like build a fan base started building a fan base and you know went from 10,000 to 20 20 to 30 Tik Tok reach out to me basically start paying me what to do start paying me and I was making good money at some point I was making about $200 for video.

24:46 Oh wow. This was on Tik Tok.

24:48 Yes. I think we were going to call it tick tock.

24:52 That sounds good.

24:53 Absolutely. Now, how long did this go on during the pandemic? Well, he I think the entire pandemic was it was actually going on and so the only the thing that made him stop is that at some point they become controlling you know they people in China or whatever cuz they used to call me from all the way from China would have meeting but I started doing things that I wasn’t enjoying anymore because they basically telling you what to do now which songs to play which drink to have on your hands and it just—

25:28 They were taking all the fun out of it.

25:32 Yes. So they took the fun out of it. So I stopped doing that and then I went into modeling. Started doing I started doing some underwear modeling and—

25:42 Underwear modeling.

25:44 Yeah.

25:46 Hey truck driver from underwear model to truck driving. Now who did you do the underwear modeling for? Well, I did a Calvin Klein or that was just the one underwear that I did. My fiance at the time did not like me being naked on half naked on camera. So, I just did that one photo shoot and then I was done with that. I started doing some actual clothing model.

26:12 Now, you were a legitimate underwear model for Calvin Klein. That’s bonafide. That’s the real deal. Now, was it briefs or boxers?

26:21 It was Buxford.

26:22 Gotcha. Are you now in real life, in your day-to-day life, are you a briefs or boxers guy?

26:27 I’m still a boxer guy.

26:29 Was that a lucrative thing modeling for Calvin Klein?

26:33 It was they you they paid so basically a lot of people don’t know about modeling. It’s exhausted, you know, like they pay you good, but you have to go, you know, do this photo shoot for the entire day. You know, sometimes you don’t even eat. You just sit there and do positive after positive. And out of all those positives, they only going to pick like two pictures—

26:54 Right?

26:55 And the rest are going to be trash. You spend all day over there, you change to this outfit, you change to this underwear, you come by, you take picture, you take pictures.

27:04 By the time you go home, you’re really exhausted. So, you know, I take my hat off for models. It’s a hard job. It’s not all the glitz and glamour that people think it is.

27:17 No, it’s not. That’s what I’m saying. Every job, every job has, you know, some good and bad to it. You know, you know, we modeling, you might have some fame or that comes with it, but behind the door is a lot of work.

27:30 Gotcha. What’s some of the good and bad of driving a truck there? I mean you’ve obviously done it for a while. You’ve been doing it for us for four years. What’s your gauge? What’s your assessment of it? Well, we with Norman outside like the good about it is that you schedule yourself. Nobody is telling you when to deliver. Nobody’s telling you when to pick up. Before you pick up the you tell them, “Hey, I’m picking up on Monday. Dropping off on Friday. Nobody’s going to ask questions. If you’re going to keep a load for 7 days, you can keep a load for seven day. If you want to keep it for 3 days, you can keep it for three days, right? And also, you don’t get to clip in truck. You don’t get to see you drive your 10 hours or your nine hours whatever your schedule you know whatever how you drive”

28:18 And then you basically pick a hotel—

28:21 And sleep there wake up eat good breakfast in hotel and continue driving—

28:27 We—

28:27 And then at the end of that trip you flies—

28:30 We like to take care of our drivers and be honest be transparent be completely transparent from your standpoint do we take care of you guys—

28:39 Yes I always tell everybody nation Uber I don’t even pay for my own Uber don’t pay for my flights don’t pay for my hotels the only thing that I do on the road is it’s food which is a normal thing for everybody you got to feed yourself but other than that—

28:56 Everything is taken care of—

28:58 Now when you think back to when you graduated from Penn State and you had your degree and now you’re doing what you’re doing now when you look back on it how do you put that into perspective I mean you had a totally different type of degree than what you’re doing now. But how do you put it into perspective?

29:18 Well, I look at it is that I can never tell nobody to get education, right? I think I got something out of it, you know? I got knowledge. That’s all I got from Penn State Fate. I got knowledge now. I think I can make good financial decisions. I can do some, you know, something because of the education. But now that I look into it, I feel like if I known that they this type of jobs out there before I went to school, I would have take it. Honestly, that’s just my opinion. If I known that there’s a job that’s known somewhere out there after high school, I would have go to my driving to driving school bands and that will save me a lot of money on you know, education. Till now, I’m still paying for it.

30:05 Right. You would have started much sooner if you had known the rewards that were coming and instead of taking out those student loans to pay to go to school. But let me ask you this question about Penn State. Do you ever make your way back there to take in a football game?

30:19 No, I haven’t been back. I went I haven’t been back for a jam per se, but I went back to visit my old teachers and Gotcha. Gotcha.

30:28 Yeah. You’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. He’s been with us for four years. Has a very interesting life. As you heard, he was a underwear model for Calvin Klein, a guy that wore boxers. Now, we had talked earlier. That’s not the only thing you’ve modeled.

30:52 No, I Yeah. Yeah. I also did H&M. H&M is they have a clothes for boys, girls basically for everybody. I did a shoot for them. That was actually on the H&M website H&Man website for quite some time until they took it down whenever they achieved and was over but he was going to for the summer time.

31:17 Gotcha. Do you see yourself modeling some more? I mean is that behind you? You’re still a young man. I don’t know what the age range is on models, but is that something you can still do?

31:29 I still I do it for fun, you know, just for my sake. I just do it for fun. I like looking at myself, you know, buy some good outfit, take pictures and post them. I do it for fun. But if any opportunity for money comes one day, maybe. You never know.

31:46 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, do you still do anything on TikTok related to the modeling or otherwise? No, I don’t do tiny videos no more. I just I do regular videos that’s not for the crowd for myself.

32:01 Gotcha. Now, I hear a small child back there. I’m assuming that’s yours.

32:05 That’s Junior, I bet. That’s a—

32:09 How old is he?

32:10 He’s three.

32:11 Is he your only one? How many do you have?

32:14 Yeah. Yeah, that’s my only one.

32:16 Okay. Okay.

32:17 Yeah.

32:18 Lives there in Dallas with you? Yeah, he lives with his mother, but they all stay here in Dallas. So, unfortunately, we’re not together with his mom at the moment. But—

32:29 Now, what’s it like for your son, 3 years old, I’m sure has he seen you get into one of these trucks?

32:36 He has seen it. He hasn’t gone in any of it yet, but he has seen it.

32:40 He knows that I drive now. So, every time I call him on video—

32:43 How does that strike him seeing dad in a huge truck? Yeah, he can’t believe that I drive something that big.

32:50 Right—

32:52 Now, you’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rod is one of our deck drivers. Kind of walk us through the process. We’ve heard it from some other deck drivers. Actually, truthfully, it’s been a while since we’ve heard from a deck driver, but pros and cons of deck driving. Give us the cons first.

33:11 Okay. So I feel like being of when you bacon right being safe cuz a lot of new drivers I don’t think they you realize how the job how serious the job is and they can per say you know driving you can drive you know you can drive for 10 years but when you start and it’s with a different experience you know we dealing with you 150 lb saddles and stuff like that and you have people that day and flip flops and forgetting that if that thing falls on your toes.

33:48 Mhm.

33:48 You know—

33:49 It’s a workout. I mean, let’s be straight about it. It’s a workout.

33:52 Yeah, it is. It is. Like the money is there. They you know, you guys take care of us, but at the end of the day, you really have to work. You have to work. It’s not a joke.

34:01 It’s not a job for the weak, physically weak, and it’s not a job for the mentally weak. I mean, it takes a lot of thinking and planning—

34:11 To be a deck driver. Tell us kind of walk us through the mental aspect of being a deck driver.

34:17 People a lot of people think is it’s kind of like just a driving job. That’s why whenever before I tell somebody about my job or somebody’s interesting in my job, I kind of like prepare them mentally. You’re not just going to walk in there and think you’re going to drive and drop four trucks and fly back. You better walk that way, you know, and you have to be prepared. You know, you have two stops or three stops. Now, you have to drop this truck here, you know, you have to take the title and you have to book your second stop. Especially sometimes you get your flight, you get your flight before you finish your load. And I would advise people not to do that because that would put pressure on you to not miss the flight. And so mentally you feel like okay can I really do this cuz you have four stop three stops now you have to drop this one here and then rush to the next one so you can make a 6 p.m. Flight you know you could have just fly the next day or you could have wait and finish and dick and just you know and then book the flights.

35:21 Yeah especially when we pick up the bill for the hotel. It doesn’t make sense to rush.

35:25 It doesn’t make a lot of driver do that. A lot of drivers do that and that’s where you know that’s where injuries come from because you’re rushing into things. You can’t pick up a th rushing. You’ll break your back or you know hurt something.

35:38 Yeah. The injury the injuries that you could sustain are serious.

35:44 Yeah. Especially with the th me I’m always think. Okay. So the other thing with the truck. So the truck moves right. The truck moves when you uning whenever you starting to unco the tool bolt that’s holding the truck that’s on the top to the throttle. Right. If is not fed in the middle or if one side is little bit on left side and the other side is down. One is up and one is down.

36:11 So what happens is that when you loosen it up—

36:13 The truck swings—

36:15 Right?

36:16 And so some drivers go between the tires.

36:19 And when you go between the tires, what happens is the truck can crush you in there. You know, I always tell people to stay right in front of it and never go in between the tires because whenever I slide—

36:30 You know, your strength can never stop, never stop by truck.

36:34 If you have to move in a hurry, you need to be in a position to do so.

36:37 Exactly.

36:38 Now, we’ve talked about some of the cons. I mean, it does involve some work. It involves some critical thinking in safety obviously that you’ve addressed, Rod. Let’s talk about the pros. Obviously, there’s one at the top of the list.

36:54 Well, the pro is first of all is the money. You make really good money. I’m talking about if you really like want to make the money, you can’t. And if you don’t, you’re not. You can make as much money as you want, you can I feel like you can be in the same range as some of the lawyers, you know. You can if you really want to drive. That’s the first thing that I like about it. You know, and the second thing is time. You have time to yourself. You have time to your family. Norton will never tell you not to go to your son. They will never tell you not to go to a wedding. Matter of fact, sometimes if I even have a wedding in Ohio, I had a wedding. My cousin got married. I called my dispatcher said, “Okay, so on my next load, I don’t want to book a flight. I just want to go there with a load. It’s going to a while.”

37:48 So they found me a load going to a while. I end up going there and just Ubering to the way without spending any money.

37:54 That’s awesome.

37:55 I made money and also got to attend at my cousin’s way—

38:00 And also not north and pay for my flight back.

38:03 That’s awesome. I mean, we love to hear those stories. So, you dropped in Ohio. I’m assuming you went to your hotel, got cleaned up, went to the wedding.

38:12 Yes, sir.

38:13 That’s fantastic. Now, you’ve told us some of the great stories of your life. How about some great stories on the road? You’ve been on the road with us for four years. I’m sure you’ve seen some crazy stuff.

38:26 Oh man. Be so on the road. I’ll feel like sometimes you there are things that you don’t especially in the winter, right? The crazy accidents that you w I’ve witnessed in my life. Once one was in I think it was in Pennsylvania and everybody was just going so slow but I realized that I can’t go over so I pulled over I stayed on the rest area and I just started seeing trucks piling up lighting they can’t stop one after another after— Not I think it was like 15 or 20 trucks that was there, you know. And—

39:19 What kind of things were running through your mind? You’re like, you know, I made the decision to pull over here in this rest area and wait this out. If there’s a lot of other drivers who did not make the same decision.

39:29 I all sometimes I ask myself, I said, “My life is way more important than the trucks that I’m going to deliver tomorrow.” You know, I don’t care if I’m late. I don’t care if I don’t get my bonuses for on-time delivery. As long as I wake up and I’m okay. That’s all that I care about. Cuz I feel like those guys, they are rushing. But you’re rushing for no reason. You know, the money you can still make it the next day. You can still make it next week.

39:59 Exactly.

40:00 But if you lose your leg or you lose your arm, that’s it. You’re not driving no more.

40:05 This is true. Now, you talk about rushing, drivers that rush, and we like to be very transparent here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You’re listening to Rod here. Rod, you know, we’ve talked a little bit about the rushing, but as much as we offer you guys the flexibility and the scheduling time that works best for you, there is some pressure to deliver on time. Talk a little bit about that from your standpoint, seated behind the wheel.

40:32 Yeah. So new. So basically when you set yourself to deliver on time, let’s say if you had a goal to make some amount of money, you know, in the week and you’re looking at it and you say, “Okay, if I don’t rush, I might not be able to do the second mode this week.” So now you’re putting in your mind to rush and you have already maybe you told dispatchers that you’re going to deliver on Wednesday and when you get on the road you see that you know it technically you’re going to deliver on Thursday. So now you’re putting yourself in a situation where you want to get the bonus you want to rush to try and deliver one day so you can get the bonus—

41:11 Right? So you drive long hours, you know, a lot of people drive 8 hours and go to sleep. But when you’re rushing, you drive the entire 11 hours, you know, whether it’s the night, whether it’s the daytime because you want to make it the next day or Wednesday so you can get a bonus, you know, and sometimes that’s really like hard on your body because you drive overnight, you wake up in the morning, you unbake and then right after unbaking, you start looking for a flight so you can go back to get another load so you can get to your goal for the week.

41:45 Gotcha. Are you an eight hour a day guy, 10 hours a day? What’s your—

41:50 I’m a full all the hours that I can.

41:54 Okay.

41:55 I’ll drive all the hours that I can especially sometimes I pass by home obviously because I live in Dallas. I pick up most pick up in San Antonio—

42:05 And almost all the load that I do they go east. I have to pass through Dallas. I get to see my son maybe spend the night here and then wake up in the morning and start driving. I always drive the four five hours, get here, go see my son, rest, go to the gym in the morning and then I’ll do the long drive after I rest at my house.

42:27 You know, you made a good point there. We’ve talked to a number of drivers here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport who talk about exercise and the importance of it. Obviously, not for the obvious examples of exercise, but how it helps you to stay sharp, stay loose, and stay energized for that time on the road.

42:47 Yeah. Honestly, it’s unhealthy. You know, I feel like driving it’s unhealthy. We sit for so long and we don’t eat good meal, right? So you sit for 11 hours you thoughts to a lo check stops or you know pilot whatever check stop it is you get a sandwich you get a you know it’s either peace burgers or chickens—

43:11 Right—

43:12 That’s it and then once you finish driving all you’re doing is speeding for 11 hours or you can smoke you know take a 30 minute break do your safety checks and all that stuff but mostly you drive for 11 hours and then right after you finish you go again you sit in flight for another 3 hours. That’s why I like to take, you know, 2 hours, go to the gym, run, you know, that way I don’t be tired as much when I’m baking and also it also good for my health. Get the good when it’s good. You know what I mean? Now, let’s talk a little bit about Africa here. Do you get a chance to go back? Do you still have I’m assuming you have family there. Do you get a chance to visit?

43:55 Yes. Yes. I you when I started working for men, that’s when I had the flexibility to start going back. I started going back at some point. I was going back every year until 2021. I went back in 2021 and I came back very very sick with malaria cuz there’s a lot of especially in East Africa, there’s a lot of mosquitoes. I’m talking a lot.

44:18 So, it’s crazy. I you know, I’m taking some medication here, you know, I go with it in Africa. So when you shower, you just apply to your skin. That way your mosquito bite don’t do nothing. But it’s so many you can avoid all of them.

44:34 Yeah. I was supposed to fly on Sunday the evening of that Sunday and then I started throwing up in the morning of that Sunday went to the hospital. They say I have malaria but I cannot tell the airline that because then they will delay me. They’ll try to tell me to stay till I, you know I get better in Bondi and then fly back to America. They just take fight and wait till I get here went to the hospital and then cuz here they really don’t know nothing about malaria, you know—

45:12 It’s not you can’t give it to somebody, right? It’s not me you can say you can give it to your son or you can give it to somebody next to you. It’s nothing like that. If you have malaria, you have malaria—

45:23 Right? It’s not—

45:24 You the only one that’s going to have it. Yeah—

45:26 That’s right.

45:27 So, I came here, they that’s the last thing they look, right? Because obviously it’s America, they in their mind, they’re not going to go straight to, you know, to malaria. But those weeks that I was in hospital, they were just giving me water, you know, like fluid.

45:44 Cuz I was losing a lot of water.

45:46 It sounds like they were kind of missing the obvious. I mean, if you came back from Africa. Yes, you came back from Africa but every country different they there’s another—

45:56 And you’ll be surprised in America every doctor is focused on different things.

46:00 Oh yeah.

46:01 Oh you know the doctors that were trying to you know give medication they were focusing on different things until a specialist came and actually asked me which country were you in I just said I was in Bundi and then he left and said oh okay you have malaria and give me three pills and that’s it. That’s three pills. It was that simple. That simple.

46:21 That simple. I saw your malaria. Just two pills, then you’re done.

46:24 Wow.

46:26 Yeah.

46:26 Now, I haven’t looked at your actual birth date, but I’m doing the math. You’re 29, 30 years old.

46:33 28 28 29—

46:34 28 29.

46:36 Okay. Okay. Now, you’ve been a model, male model. We’ve established that for H&M, for Calvin Klein, did the boxer thing and a successful driver, deck driver. We’re very lucky to have you. What’s the— If we open up the curtain, look behind the curtain and Rod’s going to look down the next 10 years. What do you see yourself?

46:59 Right now, I think I tried a lot of ways to make money and I feel like the most thing that I want to do right now is focus, right? Focus on one thing, one thing at a time. The mean the older I get, the wiser I get, right? I know I can stay in money for this long. At the same time, I’ll try to start some cuz I’m not a guy that sees myself working for so long. I want to retire maybe at 40 if I can. I want to retire at 40, you know, at that time hopefully invest. I’m trying to get into investing or, you know, make some money return and put in something that way I can be able to ste my money, you know, multiply.

47:44 So, you’re seeing yourself working another 10 years, but during that time making some wise investments. Are you at the point now here with Norton Transport that you’ve got some money to play with in the markets be it in you know bonds CDs in the stock market anything like that 401k anything you could set up like those Roth IRA is that something you’ve been able to dabble with already—

48:10 Yeah know so my first investment for money was buying a truck I bought a truck for myself I still have it right now if that’s part of the is really bad over the road. I bought a truck cash, you know, because I was working hard and I didn’t really want to make payment on the track if I had the money. So, I bought a cash that was my first investment and the truck was working on 20 2020 2021 2022 until the market was bad. So, I t it. And now I’m into cryptocurrency and also trying to do the Airbnb.

48:55 Oh, yeah.

48:56 Yeah.

48:56 Yeah.

48:57 Have you got a place for the Airbnb?

49:00 No, actually was one of the reason I went to Vegas, right? I went to ask some houses and the areas and how much money they make in Airbnb because you can’t really do it in Dallas. You have to find a vacation place. Miami, Vegas, where people go is all skin.

49:16 Yeah. You got to find a destination.

49:19 Yes. You find a destination. Now, I feel like Vegas is a good for me cuz the houses are not as expensive as Miami.

49:27 Mhm.

49:27 So, if you were to take if I was to take a mortgage, I would do it in Vegas. And then over there the house is still in the range of 400 to 500K which is the in Texas anyway you know and then the mortgage is going to be around 23 27 but Airbnb you are making about that amount in a weekend—

49:51 Right you make it all back and you’re knocking out your principal and making money after that.

49:56 Right. Right. Now, is this something you’re going to venture into in the next few years?

50:04 That’s right. That’s my focus right now. Actually, my focus right now is to save up some money. Maybe the, you know, 20% of the house and go to Vegas or if I find another destination that’s better than Vegas, I’ll put down on the house and rem the house, put some furniture in there and get to Airbnb.

50:24 But for now, it’s wheels on the ground and keep on trucking. Right now. Right now, I will drive till I achieve everything. Yeah.

50:31 What’s it like for you in the cab there when you do three trucks or four? Usually—

50:37 Four. I like four.

50:38 You do four. What’s it like sitting in the cab when you got three behind you?

50:42 It takes a lot of focus. You know, a lot of people don’t understand because as soon as you moved, right, as soon as you move the first truck, all three trucks, it’s is like a snake.

50:54 Mhm. So yeah, you can never go fast in traffic. You always have to go really slow because if you go outside the lane which are force trucks and you try to swing back in the lane, the back truck is going to be worse. The back truck is actually going to swing and can hit another vehicle back there.

51:17 You just have to be cognizant of it the whole time.

51:20 You really have to stay in line all the time. And if you try to swing, especially if you’re going 60 65 or 65 or 64 miles an hour, you swing just a tiny bit, the bus trucks are just everywhere.

51:34 Yeah. Yeah. You’re listening to Rod here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rod, we’ve we’re reaching the end of the program here and just one thing I wanted to ask you. Common question we ask a lot of our guests here on the Six-Figure Trucker is what would you say to a prospective driver, someone who’s never done driveaway and obviously you’re a deck driver, but kind of address both points. If you want to come in as a singles driver or if you want to work your way up to be a deck driver, what would your advice be totally candid, totally transparent, what would your advice be to someone who’s considering it? Well, I would say I can’t speak much about single because I’m a deck driver, but I would say on the deck side and if you are just a driver, experienced driver, you would get your time here and if you are a big driver, you have everything that you want. The most thing that I fight for I feel like in my life is time, you know, cuz I like my time to see my family.

52:36 I like my time to do whatever I want without somebody calling me to tell me, “Hey, you got to come back to work.” You know—

52:44 Just that freedom.

52:45 You that freedom, you know, you make the money and you also have the freedom. Why would you not do it? You know, if I drive a trailer, I’m forced I’m basically forced to work three weeks in a row. Sometimes some people even go on the road for a month and your company tells you, “Okay, now you are qualified for five days at home.” In a month.

53:10 Yeah.

53:10 His friends call him Rod. He’s been a great guest for us here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, Rod, I got to ask you this last question here as we head into we’re going into late summer. Any vacation plans for you and the little one?

53:26 Oh, yeah. I wanted to take him back home to Africa but his mother say is he’s is a very young so we should wait till he’s 5 years old but I want to take him to Disney World soon here when the heat is not too much.

53:44 Gotcha.

53:45 And I myself want to go to London cuz I’m a Manchester United fan.

53:50 I want to go to London to watch them play. I watched a little bit of the World Cup. What was that a couple nights ago there? The women in the World Cup. I know you’re a Manchester United fan, but do you follow the World Cup?

54:02 Yes. Yes. I’m a tackle fan period. Even now the women woman cup is going on right now and USA is actually doing good.

54:12 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They came up with a draw against the Netherlands there. But Rod, we appreciate you joining us. You’ve been a fantastic guest here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Anything you want to say before we sign off?

54:24 No. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate talking to you guys and I hope that my story inspire somebody to do good in life and if you’re thinking about driving, you know, Norton is the place to go.

54:37 Thank you very much, Rod, for being on the show. We really appreciate it.

54:40 Thank you for having me.

54:45 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.