00:03 It’s one of those situations where it’s sink or swim. If you have the presence of mind to get the mission done, to get the truck delivered, you’re going to solve the problem so that you can get the truck down the road, you know, cuz the customer is waiting for that truck. They paid a lot of money for that rascal. And they want their dialogone truck. And I understand that, you know, and I want to do the best I possibly can to get it down the road.

00:32 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. Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And those of you who have joined us on this space, you know, it’s a venue where we lift up, we elevate, we celebrate the truck driver, the ones that make the wheels go round and round in this country and in Canada. And they mean so much to our lives. Of course, here at Norton Transport, they are the backbone of our company. We wouldn’t have it without them. And they mean so much to us. And it’s a, you know, it’s a profession. It’s a life that sometimes is misunderstood and people don’t really realize what goes on.

01:25 So, we tap into the knowledge of the drivers who do the actual job and they share their experiences and their time on the road, what it’s really like so that you get a better idea of what driveaway trucking is like from the driver’s perspective. Again, this is the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We have a very special guest with us this evening, Mr. Robert Nebel. Robert, how are you this evening? I’m fine, sir. Hope you’re doing well yourself.

01:51 I can’t complain. So, Robert, what are you doing this evening? He’s joining us on a Friday evening. From his home, I presume. Are you at home right now, Robert?

02:00 Yes, I am. I was watching Fox News.

02:03 Now, where is home for you?

02:05 Well, I’m originally from I was born in New York City, but I grew up in the Poconos’s in Eastern Pennsylvania. Graduated from high school there and then joined the military in ‘ 67 and all over the country and all over the world from there.

02:19 Now, born in New York City how long did you live in the city?

02:23 Till I was six years old. I remember the day I moved out, 1953. I remember it.

02:29 What are your impressions or your memories of living in the Big Apple? Well, you know, of course the stuff that I remember is when I was from about maybe three, four, five, and six. I remember living in a twobedroom, onebath apartment. Of course, my mom, dad, my brother who was three years older than me. And you know, we lived up on the 11th floor of a tenement building. And I remember, you know, the fun times that we had as a family there. My dad was a butcher and he would come home and he was covered in animal blood and you know he always looked like he was always tired which he was.

03:13 Yeah, that’s tough work.

03:14 Yeah, I don’t know what my mother did. I don’t know if she worked or not. I don’t think she did. I think she was just a housewife. But my brother and I, you know, we go across the street, you know, without our parents back in the day, you know, in the early 50s. You can’t do that now. And we go and play in the sandbox, you know, and the public playground across the street. I remember that. And I remember the city would have movie night and they brought and they would, you know, show movies on the on the basketball court wall that was there. It was one color, you know. I remember that. And I remember the day we moved out, June 1st, 1953. It was a beautiful day. I remember standing on the sidewalk and looking up at the sky. I remember that clear as day and saying, “Well, we’re moving somewhere else. I don’t know where, but we’re moving.”

04:12 So, I’ll see you later, New York. And off we went to the Poconos.

04:16 Well, there you go. Now, at that time, Robert, you were sharing with me before we hit the record button. You’re 76 years young and so it was a 53—

04:28 When you left New York.

04:30 That was a good time in America, you know, post World War II. What was it like as far I mean it’s kind of hard, I guess, to put it into words being a young boy at that time, but it was a good time.

04:43 Yeah. We moved to the Poconos. We moved to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, which was a small town. There’s two towns, one right across the creek from each other, East Stroudsburg and Stroudsburg. And I had an idyllic childhood. We had a field right down the street, you know, where we played pickup baseball all day long. And I remember going to my friend’s house and knocking on the door. Hey, can Billy come out and play? You know, and we get some guys together. And there were a couple of fields that we would use to play baseball. And that’s all we would do all day long is play baseball. We play, you know grounders and flies. You know, you get six grounders, you get the bat. If you caught three flies, you got the bat. I remember that very, very clearly. And, my mom and dad had a mom and pop grocery store and you know, my brother and I worked in the store with mom and dad. And you know they enforced a saving program where they paid us each $5 a week for helping them in the store.

05:51 And that’s where saved up enough money to buy me a trip to Europe when I was 16 years old for a vacation study program where I lived with a German family that could not speak English for two months.

06:03 Wow.

06:03 That was really something.

06:05 Yeah. Traveling abroad, working you know, learning a lot from saving that money back in the day.

06:11 Yep.

06:12 What about that that type of experience as far as learning what a dollar is worth and the value of a dollar and being able to travel abroad at the young age of 16 to go to Germany and take in the experiences there with a family that didn’t speak English at all. Th all those together, how has that helped you now as you’re in your career as a driveaway trucker in this from the standpoint of as we both know in driveaway every day is something different and there’s a lot of unexpected things that happen. How did that prepare you for that?

06:49 That’s a really good question. John you know going to Germany as a 16-year-old who didn’t smoke, didn’t drink and all my classmates did and it helped me become a lot more self-confident about myself and able to think on the fly and be able to adjust to circumstances as they present themselves. And you know, when I was driving you know, just here not too long ago, I mean, you know, you have you know, we drive brand new trucks and brand new trucks break and you know, that’s very frustrating what they do. But on the other hand, you know, my experiences I had as a young child and a young man always helped me to be able to think on my feet, you know, and to resolve the situation, keeping in mind number one is to move the truck and the mission and do what it takes to get it down the road. You know, talking about that ability, which sadly a lot of people don’t have that ability, but do you think the ability to think on the fly, think on your feet, and what you really said there really underscores it.

08:01 You know, get the truck to safety, get the truck delivered.

08:06 That’s correct.

08:06 Do you think that’s something the thinking on the fly, thinking on your feet, is that something that’s natural or is it something that’s learned through experiences or some combination of those? Well, when you consider my entire, you know, background you know, I’ve done a lot of thinking on my feet and been adapting to situations as they arrive. And I think it’s partially learned, but I think it’s also developed, you know, because it’s one of those situations where it’s sink or swim. You got to if you have the presence of mind to get the mission done to get the truck delivered, you’re going to solve the problem so that you can get the truck down the road, you know, because that’s the most important thing because the customer is waiting for that truck. They paid a lot of money for that rascal and they want their dog gone truck and I understand that, you know, and I want to do the best I possibly can to get it down the road.

09:07 Absolutely. You’re listening to Robert Nebel here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Robert is one of our KG drivers. He’s got a lot of experience. He’s been doing this for a while. His life is a very fascinating thing which we’re going to break it out piece by piece and share with you here on the Six-Figure Trucker. Now, Robert, we talked before we hit the record button, but you’re no stranger to driving. You’ve been doing it for a minute.

09:34 Yes. I did work for another driveaway company and had a lot of fun there. And I did work for a tractor trailer company out of a Midwestern city and that was where I, you know, that’s where I got my CDL initially back in 2010 and I drove for them for a while. Then I got offered a better job and I left that the it was a great big huge job. I was a company driver there and I left that organization and went with a better job that was not driving but I got to use my skills and talents that I have to a greater extent.

10:10 Gotcha. You were able to implement what you have there.

10:13 Yes.

10:13 Now you said you started driving in 2010 and for another company and you were moving freight at the time.

10:21 Yeah. Whatever else. You know, I remember one load I had to deliver. It was from somewhere. I picked it up in Pennsylvania and it was batteries that were nailed to the floor, the wood floor of the truck and I had to deliver it at 3:00 a.m. In the morning because of the traffic in Bronx. Was it the Bronx or Brooklyn? I can’t remember. It began with a B. It was one of those in New York City. No, it was in Brooklyn. That’s where it was.

10:49 One of the burrows. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And driving that huge, you know, rig down those itty bitty roads was quite nerve-wracking to say the least, you know, because, you know, you want to do a good job and, you know, driving a big truck and doing blind backing is really tough and it’s in its exasperating to say the least. So, it was tough, but we move on. I was just going to say, how much does experiences like that being challenged with those kind of conditions and circumstances benefit you now here in 2023 as a driveaway driver?

11:28 Yeah. Well, that’s a really good question. And number one, I learned patience. And I always remembered that thing they taught us in CDL training. Goal. G A O L. Get out. No. Yes. Get out and look. Go O. Goal. And I remember this when I was nerving those batteries, boy, I spent so much time getting out of the truck and looking—

11:50 Cuz I didn’t want to hit anything, you know—

11:53 And it made me adapt to difficult situations to be able to get the job done correctly the first time. It may have taken me a little bit more time to do it, but I did it correctly and I did it to the best of my ability and I was really proud of what I was able to accomplish.

12:10 Gotcha. Now, as we’d been talking earlier before we got here on the Six-Figure Trucker, you kind of fell into driveaway. I don’t want to say happen stance, but maybe circumstance. Timing was right.

12:24 It was. It was. Yeah. I was driving Uber at the time in Northeast Pennsylvania and I was doing, you know, long trips to New York City and down to Philadelphia. And as it worked out, I picked up a driver for the other driveaway company and the bus spot where they dropped off the passengers in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

12:46 Mhm.

12:47 And his name was Fred. And so we struck up a conversation, you know, and he says, “Yeah, I drive for this driveaway company.” I said, “Wow, how about that?” Of course, I had no idea what he’s talking about. And our destination was the Mack trucky yard in—

13:04 In—

13:05 Macungie.

13:06 Yeah. Macungie, Pennsylvania. And we pulled into there and he says, “I want you to go to that building down the other end of the yard.” And I swear to God, there must have been two or 300 of these brand new, beautiful Mack trucks. And I’m like, “Goodness gracious.” He says, and I told him, I said, “Well, I have a CDL.” He says, “You do?” He said, “Well, here, call this number and they’ll hire you on the spot. I guarantee it.” And that’s exactly what happened. And before he knew it, I was driving for that driveaway company, driving trucks out of that Macungie yard all over the northeast US up to Portland, Maine, out to Long Island, you know, out to Kansas City and all over the place. So, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.

13:48 Haven’t looked back since.

13:50 That’s about right.

13:51 Okay. Well, what stopped me from working there was the COVID—

13:57 Right?

13:57 Because a lot of guys that were doing a driveaway, you know, they had a tow behind car.

14:03 Mhm.

14:04 To set up that rig, it’s about 2,000 bucks to do that. And I didn’t have that kind of money, you know, to be able to do that. So, I had to rely on public transportation to get back to where my car was in Allentown, Pennsylvania or Macungie. And you know when COVID hit you know the Long Island Railroad shut down on Long Island and you know there was the buses stopped running so I was stuck and so I couldn’t drive and that’s why I stopped driving. It was because of the co.

14:34 Right. Boy that changed a lot of things for a lot of people yourself included which kind of leads me to the next question. How did you end up with Norton Transport?

14:43 Well let me think back here now. I think I saw an ad on Facebook if I remember right and said it’s a driveaway company, you know, and yada yada yada. And I called them and I talked to Casey—

14:58 And she was just she could be on the phone and she says, “Yeah, we’d like to hire you.” And I went, “Holy cow.”

15:05 So, you know, off we go. You know, get my physical current and get my drug test. And, you know, I’m off to the races and I’ve been loving it ever since. You’re listening to Robert Nebel here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Robert is one of our drivers. He’s got a lot of experience. He’s hauled freight. He’s worked for other driveaway companies. He’s 76 years young, still on the road. He’s been with us when did you join us, Robert?

15:31 I started I think my first load was April of 22 if I remember correctly. So, you’ve been with us a year and some change there and we’re very lucky to have Robert on board on staff on the roster here. Now, Robert, we know that you had to take a little time off due to an injury and I know I wrote down here goal go out and look, but even to the best of us sometimes these things happen. Tell us what happened to you on the road and if I remember correctly, you were moving a truck from one of my accounts. Yes, I was moving a hyle front end loader garbage truck delivering it from Alabama up to the north side of Seattle, Washington and I pulled over to a rest stop in Oregon and I had to adjust the right rear view mirror because the door I opened up the door or something and the mirrors were out of adjustment.

16:31 So, I was on the right side of the truck and I completely forgot when I walked in front of the truck that those arms that they used to lift up the garbage cans were down. And I walked full force with my left shin into one of those extended square steel arms. And boy, it hurt. I mean—

16:52 Say that had to hurt.

16:53 It hurt bad. And it sidelined you for a while because it turned out to be, I guess, more severe than you thought initially.

17:01 That’s exactly right. You know, I went to my primary care doctor after I got home and he goes, “This is not good.” So, I went to the wound care center nearby and they provided me with expert care and got me back healed and the wound is completely healed now and I didn’t lose my leg, thank God. So, I’m okay. But that was a possibility. I mean, I guess that really in more ways than one got your attention.

17:28 Yes. Yes. The gal that was doing the treatment, she said, you know, if you were out in the woods or in desert somewhere and this happened and if you did not have the proper medical care, it would have killed me. So, it was pretty serious stuff.

17:41 Well, Robert, we’re certainly very thankful, grateful, and glad that you came out on the right side of that. And here’s a nice little caveat to that story. This happened in Oregon. You’re delivering north of Seattle in Washington. Was it Woodinville?

17:55 Yes, it was for Waste Management, I think. Is that right? It was a blue truck. I do remember.

18:01 Okay. Then it was for Republic.

18:03 It did. Correct.

18:04 Republic Way Services. But the thing that is really speaks to Robert’s wherewithal and stamina is you delivered the truck after this injury. How much farther did you have to go? Well, I was about the middle of Oregon when it happened. So, it was about another four or five hours of driving up on the north side of Washington up the north of Seattle there. And I kind of chastised Mike, my dispatcher, a little bit. I said, “The address that you guys had down for delivery for this thing is not correct.” And—

18:44 You can chastise me on that one. Well, you know, and I’m walking around in this building and I said, “Hey, I want to deliver this truck.” And the guy looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead. And he says, “What are you delivering?” And I told him, you know, I told him what I was delivering. He says, “Oh,” he says, “I know where you want to go.” So, he gave me directions. It’s about another three or four or five miles down the road, you know, and I made my way there and delivered it uneventfully from there. So, it was all good.

19:12 How much pain were you in? Well, believe it or not, I really wasn’t in much pain at all, you know, but I had a lot of blood. You know, because I cut myself pretty good on that square bar. But I just picked my sock. I was wearing white socks and I just picked my sock up a little bit, made sure the wound was covered with my sock, and I just pressed on.

19:35 There you go.

19:36 So, it was like it was just a bandage thing. So, you know, I was okay.

19:42 Well, that’s good to hear. You’re listening to Robert Nebel here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You mentioned Mike there. Now, I know from talking to Mike, one of our dispatch team leaders here. He’s a big fan of Robert Nebel. You guys, I know you’ve had some great conversations together. What’s it like specifically, I mean, to have somebody like Mike, on your team, and what’s it like to have that sort of relationship with the whole team? Well, it’s a blessing to be able to work with Mike Hand and Glove because we’re not just like an employee and employer type relationship. It’s a friendship and that goes a long way. And you know I tell Mike the issue about what’s going on and I’m honest and forthright and up upfront about what’s going on and you know he tells me he gives me his input and together collectively we make an intelligent decision about whatever the situation may be. An example was I was delivering a box truck and it was for to an account in Phoenix and the air brakes went out in it.

20:55 Well, the air brakes didn’t really go out. It’s just that the air system developed a pretty good leak.

21:01 You know, I could step on the brake and you could hear the air escaping from the system. And the brake still worked, but you didn’t have very many applications of the brake. So, you know, talking and like about it and all that kind of stuff, we discussed the situation and, you know, we got pretty technical about it and we decided that it was okay to just keep going, which is exactly what I did. And I appreciate the input from Mike, you know, to help me get it on down the road. Now, you work with Mike and also Haley and Sierra. Do you interact with them as well?

21:38 Yeah. And Stephanie—

21:40 Stephanie was on my team when I basically first started there.

21:45 Yeah. Yeah.

21:45 She was you was she was a dispatcher when I got my very very first CNG truck and that was an interesting experience and I had no idea I was getting a CNG truck and I go, what do I do with this? You know, Stephanie helped me out there a great deal.

22:02 Yeah, Stephanie’s wonderful. She’s risen up to she’s moved up a little bit in the promotions department since which is a testament to her abilities and the ability to work with people. You mentioned CNG. Now, I have an account where a lot of the trucks are CNG. Some drivers are apprehensive, but others who once they get the, you know, get it under their wing, it’s not a bad thing. What’s your perspective on CNG trucks?

22:31 Well, CNG, like any truck, you have to pay attention to the fuel mileage that you’re going to get. And you and I when I’m driving, especially a CNG truck, I’m sitting there doing mathematics in my head all the time about like I said, Stephanie helped me out by giving me that alternate fuel at that allows me to see where a CNG station is. Plus, the planning that Norton gave me to go to the next fillup station helps a lot. And you know, you just got to pay attention with a CMG. And I had a couple of close calls where I nearly ran out of fuel, but because of my skill in cunning, that didn’t happen.

23:23 That’s good. We’d like to hear that because we’ve talked to a number of drivers who have come back for repeated CNG trucks because outside of the West Coast, CNG typically is cheaper than diesel. Of course, we’re talking about a lot of volatility in both fuels, but right—

23:44 I mean I know the runs you made out west, that’s one thing, but if you can make one say from Fort Payne south down to Florida, you may stand to come out, you know, even better on your fuel surcharge.

23:58 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fuel I think in Fort Payne or where we go to Athens I think it’s a first fill up place and it was like a dollar 70 something a gallon there so that’s pretty reasonable but then you go to some places like in New Mexico it’s like $6 a gallon so—

24:18 Yeah the range and the volatility it’s out there—

24:22 It’s definitely sir—

24:24 Now wanted to ask you one quick question here 76 years young how much longer do you see yourself driving a truck. Don’t get me wrong, we are extremely delighted that you’re back on the roster and back out there moving loads for us, but obviously I’ve never met you, but you must be in pretty good shape.

24:42 Well, you know, I take care of myself. You know, my blood pressure is fine. Everything else is fine. You know, as long as I feel good, why not keep going? That’s the way I look at it. You know, your body talks to you. And when your body says uncle, it’s time to uncle. You know, that’s the way it is, you know. So, when I was in my previous avocation, I knew when it was time to throttle back a little bit, you know, and kind of let up. So God has blessed me with a strong body. So, I’m very blessed in that regard.

25:20 Those are some great words to hear from Robert Nebel here on the Six-Figure Trucker. 76 years young, still do it, still going strong. Robert, thank you so much for joining us. And we want to point out Robert has a very fascinating life, fascinating story. You’ve only heard just a sliver of it. Robert has joined us this evening. Now, tune in next week and you will hear much more about Robert Nebel’s life. And I’ll give you one clue. He’s been doing most of this on the ground, but he did a lot up in the air. That will be next week with Robert Nebel again. Robert, thank you so much.

25:56 Yes, sir.

26:02 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.