00:04 This isn’t a job. You are an independent contractor. You are essentially working for yourself and you’ve got to treat it as a business. So don’t go into it as a job. Run it. Run it as a business and you can be successful at 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.

00:43 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. I’m your host, John Madewell. We’re joining you on a Saturday outside back behind my house here on the porch. We may have some storms rumbling through. They look like they have passed, but if you hear the rumble, that’s what it is in the background. And of course, you guys and gals that have listened into the Six-Figure Trucker, you know, it’s a platform where we elevate and celebrate the truck driver, everything they do, what they mean to our company, what they mean to our nation, what they mean to our economy. Of course, and those of you who are familiar with Norton Transport, we’re a driveaway company. We don’t move freight, but we move the trucks that move the freight. And a very important part of the process. And we’ve got a very special guest with us this afternoon, Mr. Donald Vivier here joining us from his home. I believe he’s off for the weekend. Donald, how are you?

01:33 I’m doing great. How much so?

01:34 I can’t complain. Can’t complain at all. Now, do you go by Don or you go by Donald?

01:38 Donnie is fine.

01:40 Donnie, it will be. Donnie, now where are you joining us from? We know you’re joining us from home, but where is home? Home is in Jacksonville, North Carolina. For reference, it’s if I basically Camp Leon Marine Base, if I went right through the base and went all the way to the end of the base, I’m at the beach. So I’m pretty close to the ocean.

02:03 I was going to say, how far from the beach are you?

02:05 I mean, if I go through the base, I can be there in a couple minutes. I don’t personally have base access, but I can be there in 25 minutes from where I sit. That’s a pretty nice perk.

02:16 It’s not bad.

02:18 What’s it like there life in a military town? Kind of give us a set the scene for us.

02:22 Honestly, I mean, it’s a revolving door. You know, I mean, this particular place, it’s a nice little town. You know, we’ve got a little country club. We’ve got more restaurants than you could possibly imagine, more barber shops, tattoo shops. You know, if you’re in all of that sort of stuff, we’ve got a bunch of it. Are you sporting a high-end tide haircut?

02:44 No, not me. Kind of. I mean, I keep it clean. Like I said, I wasn’t in the military myself. My grandfather was. And it just so happens I ended up living in a military town. You know, here I am. But it’s not a bad place to live though.

03:01 I got it.

03:01 I feel safe, that’s for sure.

03:03 I bet surrounded by Marines there. I didn’t know if the haircuts might be contagious there. The hairstyle there.

03:08 No, not at all. Now, how long have you been stepping into the cab of a truck there?

03:15 Well, I started driving in 2021. Had a little time off for an injury. And, when I came back in 22 so just last year, I was just kind of researching what was going to be going on for me and stumbled across driveaway. I don’t, honestly, I couldn’t even tell you how I did. I think I might have been online looking for something and somebody had mentioned it and well, you know, you go down that rabbit hole and before you know it, you’re you know, researching all aspects and so basically I’ve been doing driveaway since I guess around October of last year.

03:54 Okay. Now, you and I were talking before we hit the record button. You had an unfortunate injury that happened, but that kind of opened up some doors for you.

04:03 Yeah, you know, it did. It did. I mean, I you know, the injury, it stunk. Like I said, it took me out for a year. I mean, it wasn’t like a little simple here’s some Advil and go about your business. It required injections and physical therapy for 15 weeks. And you know, I was given some opportunities after that. I wasn’t sure if driving was going to be one of them. And you know, unfortunately, the distance for some of these opportunities were a little too far away. And they didn’t pan out quite like I wanted them to. But said then I found driveaway and realized I even though I can’t do a lot of raising and lowering of landing gear anymore like I probably should be at my age. I stumbled into this and I can still drive and do everything I want to do.

04:54 Well, you landed on your feet into the driveaway space. Now, you don’t have to name the company, but did you land on your feet with Norton Transport, or did you go to another company, then come to us?

05:02 No, I started with another company. I did maybe one or two runs with them with, you know, kind of dove in head first and but I think I if I remember correctly, Norton was right after that. I don’t I think I kind of needed to regroup for a little bit after those, you know, couple of runs as a new guy trying to figure it all out and I think I still need some finetuning, but it was Norton right after that. And I’ve tried two other companies, one that I’m with pretty regularly now besides Norton and the other one didn’t quite pan out like I wanted it to, but I’m pretty comfortable right where I’m at right now. You know what I mean?

05:48 Well, that’s good to hear and we hope that Norton is we hope it’s your favorite.

05:52 I enjoy it. I enjoy him. My dispatcher there, Courtney’s great. You know, if I tell her where I need to go, she takes time to get me where I need to be, you know, so it works out.

06:04 Well, I got to confess, your name came up as a candidate for the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport from Courtney. And she had informed me and some others in inside the business inside the building rather that you stay plugged in to the connecting of the dots in our company in our industry rather. Tell us a little bit about that because on some of your runs you’re not just you know doing the job of transporting the truck but you have a curiosity that’s connected to that. Well, yeah. I mean, you know, we got to talking, her and I, and you know, she asked me, I always tend to end up it seems every run I get always takes me to around the same area. And, she asked me, you know, hey, I don’t want to butt in. Why exactly is that the area you always go to? We got talking, you know, and I also do, you know, I do an RV side of it, too. I like to I go to one location and I know when I go to that location, I always have a place to get something else that takes me where I need to be and I can turn right back around and do it all over again.

07:21 It’s not really I mean it wasn’t really by design like I told her. It just so happened that, you know, you go to a place like Indiana, which is the RV capital of the world.

07:31 Mhm.

07:32 And, you know, there’s plenty to do there, you know, I mean, so, you know, where I’m dropping off, I’m dropping off like for example, cab and chassis that are coming from Freightliner or coming from wherever going to Indiana, those are turning into RVs and fire trucks and everything that are in turn going somewhere else. And I tend to, you know, I’m able to connect the dots by just I basically make one big giant loop. You know, I it works for me and you know, I suggest that anybody who’s in this don’t look at it as, you know, hey, this is going to X and it’s making X, you know, and then you get there and you’re scratching your head figuring, well, how the heck do I get out of here?

08:18 Right. You’ve got one waiting for you.

08:19 Yeah, I usually do. I mean, if I call Courtney tomorrow, for example, I mean, obviously it’s the weekend, but let’s say if I call her Monday and I say, “Hey, you got something going up, you know, to that area?” Yeah, we sure do. We’ll assign it to you. Well, as soon as that’s assigned, I’m looking and I’m going, “Okay.” Well, let me see what I got coming back or let me see what I have somewhere else if I can line that up. Obviously, the next question is, “Okay, Courtney, what can you help me with? You got anything in this area?” You know, and I never try to wait till I get where I’m going to be—

08:53 Right? You’ve got to have a plan in place.

08:56 I absolutely do it. I mean, I think that’s the only way. You know, maybe it works differently for some other people in this business. Again, as I’ve said, I’m new. You know, I am new to this. I’m, you know, I’m not even a year into this, but maybe some people, they like to do it on the fly. Everything I do, even, you know, at home, I like to have a plan and I don’t like to be stuck in figuring out on the fly what I’m going to be doing.

09:26 And how long will you stay out on the road on a given time? I mean, you know, we’re talking about one leg to the next leg to the next leg. How many legs do you like to run at a time?

09:36 Call me lazy. But I’m not one of those people that like to be out there for two, three, four weeks at a time.

09:42 I wouldn’t that’s reasonable. I don’t you know some people they do you know but me personally I’m really after about 7 to 10 days I’m about ready to be home I mean when I came home Wednesday for example I had left the following Wednesday but in that time I moved five vehicles you know it wasn’t like I went up to let’s say Indiana sat there for two days and then found something, you know, literally like I went from Indiana, I mean from Mount Holly, North Carolina to Indiana. Then I took a shorter run that went to Michigan. Then I went to Indiana again, came back down to North Carolina, back up to Indiana, and then finally back up to North Carolina.

10:35 So, I mean, I was in a vehicle every single day of the week.

10:40 And you made it back to your home state.

10:42 And I in and exactly I made it I again I made it, you know, I think actually, let me rephrase that. The last run I did ended up dropping me off in Virginia, but even so, I was only, you know, three hours away from home.

10:56 Yeah, that’s good.

10:57 You know, and—

10:57 That’s good.

10:58 And having a tow car obviously, you know, again, that’s something, you know, invaluable to me. I mean, you know, three hours I unhooked after I got checked out, put some fuel in it, and I was home in three hours.

11:13 You know, we had talked about this before we started recording. Not only have you got these legs figured out where you’re going you know, connecting the dots in the journey, but talk about that toe behind. You know, we talked about it before we started recording there. Have you had that ever since you’ve been in driveaway?

11:29 No, I actually didn’t. I mean, like I said, I started without but I realized for me in my situation and the way I like to do things, it wasn’t going to work out. Fortunately, being again being in a town full of Marines, not only do you have incoming Marines, you have outgoing—

11:50 And it just so happens after the second run, I kind of was like, “All right, you know what? I need to regroup. I know I want to do this, but I really need to step back for a second. Let me see if I can put some kind of car together that will work for me. And it just so happens after searching for maybe a couple weeks, I stumbled across the little Ford Fiesta that I currently have now a Marine and his wife were they were getting out and moving back home. And for 1,800 bucks, I got this little Ford Fiesta withund I don’t know 70,000 miles on it, 180,000 miles on it. It’s right at 200 now. And for 1,800 bucks, you know, and then I was fortunate enough that I, you know, I’veworked a little bit where I’ve talked been able to talk to, you know, veteran drivers that have been doing this 8 10 years 20 years in some cases. And, you know, I spent the money and bought the base plate.”

12:52 Fortunately for me, I was able to do it my the install myself. I’m mechanically inclined enough where that didn’t bother me.

13:00 I would imagine it’s paid itself off time after time.

13:05 Yeah. You know, and I had a veteran that gave me a killer deal on a used toeb bar, you know, and so I bought that, you know, and when it was all said and done, I mean, just as an example for somebody who’s been on the fence about this, my entire car, including buying a brand new pinch hitch, you know, from a you know, a company out there in Goan, Indiana, I’m only maybe $3500. $00 into it, you know, and that’s including the price of the car, you know, I mean, and that that may even be a little bit high, you know. So, so for even at 3500 though, for 3500, I don’t worry about, you know, where I’m going to go and how I’m going to get there, you know, I just get in and turn the key and go, you know, and so it doesn’t have to be expensive, you know.

14:05 That makes the whole planning process, I would imagine, a lot simpler, a lot easier, and a lot more straightforward—

14:11 I think. So, I mean, you know, even down to the food I eat. You know, I don’t like all that fast food. I have a freezer in the car. I have a portable 12vt freezer. So, before I go on the road, what do you think I do? I prep everything. I prep all my meals. I freeze all my meals. I stick them all in this freezer.

14:32 Give us the dimensions of this freezer. What’s the configuration there?

14:35 Gosh, you know what? I think it may only be about a 30 quart. It’s not big. It’s basically your typical like cooler size, you know, like a regular ice chest, you know? I mean, it’s not big. I don’t have the exact dimensions off hand, but it’s put it this way. It’s big enough where it doesn’t take up the entire back seat—

14:58 Which, you know, you’d removed some of the seats in the car.

15:02 I took— Yeah, I took all of it out. I mean, I took the back seat out. I took the passenger seat out. I’ve built a little platform in there. So, you know, not that I’m opposed to sleeping in a hotel. But you know how it is. I mean, sometimes you’re you’re more focused on driving and by the time you realize, man, my clock is almost out. There’s the rest area. You know, sometimes it’s just easier to, you know, pull off the side of the road, I got a, you know, memory foam little mattress in there and I sleep like a baby myself. Again, not for everybody. Some people will argue, you know, you’re sleeping in your car, what kind of life is that? But, you know, that’s a another story. But, it just all works out. I mean, I bring everything with me, you know, and so I’m not spending the money at truck stops. I’m not spending the money at, you know, every fast food place I come across. I’m actually trying to not only, you know, save a little money, but eat healthy.

16:05 I mean, let’s be honest, it’s not a, you know, truck driving is not a very healthy lifestyle in general, you know, and I mean, why add to it if you don’t have to?

16:15 You know, sleeping in the car is a money in the bank.

16:18 It is, you know, and I know the I understand the arguments. I mean, some people will listen to this and say, “Yeah, but you know, it’s a write off.” Well, it is. You’re still outlaying the money right then and there, though—

16:28 Right?

16:29 You know, I mean, let’s be honest. I mean, you’re still handing a hotel chain, you know, 80 or $90 to stay in a hotel that night. You know, I’m just not doing that. You know, I have a car that doesn’t leak. I mean, it’s, you know, water doesn’t get in it. It stays cool. It stays warm. It, you know, and it works for me. You know, I’d rather save the money, you know, initially and not have to worry about writing it off later.

16:58 It does the trick. Now, on a given week, let’s say you’re not opposed to staying in a hotel, let’s say in a let’s say a given month. How many nights would you stay in a hotel in a month on the road?

17:09 I mean, I can tell you now, I’ve only stayed in a hotel two or three times.

17:12 Okay.

17:13 Since last year. And I’ll be honest with you, I think the couple of times that I did were either an orientation I did or you know something like that where you know I just felt I it was probably a better option for me. But again I mean who doesn’t you know while they’re on the road want to go sit by a pool every once in a while. Oh—

17:39 Sure. You know, you know, I mean, you’re in a truck for 11 hours a day, you know, but if I need to do it, I’ll do it. But right now, I you know, I sleep like I said, I sleep like a baby in the car. Why do I worry about a hotel?

17:56 Gotcha. Now, in your short time on the road, what’s the best trip you’ve made as far as best memories made, most intriguing sites you’ve seen? Just all inspiring things. What’s the best place you’ve been to?

18:12 Well, I don’t know. You know, it’s funny. I don’t know if it’s the best memory. This last trip I took, I the you know, you know how GPS’s act sometimes. I was in an RV and you know, get those typical messages that hey, you can save 10 minutes by going, you know, this way. And me. Of course, I hit that button real quick. Well, this was in Pennsylvania. What I didn’t realize is this thing was going to take me through the mountains and little two-lane roads in the mountains. So, here I am for two and a half hours in these little tiny mountain roads up and down. Beautiful views. I mean, you know, I mean, as many times as I wanted to pull over and just sit there and stare, you know, between the mountain farmland and the you know, everything else, it was quite amazing.

19:16 And I mean, in most of what I do, I also carry a dash cam with me—

19:22 Right?

19:22 Again, little insurance policy for myself. I you know, you never know who’s going to decide they want to, you know, jump in front of you.

19:33 Cover yourself. Yeah, absolutely.

19:34 Yeah. So, I mean, you know, I got some pretty cool footage of me going through some mountain roads, you know, that I wasn’t really expecting, but yeah, I mean, I don’t know that I’ve had anything like amazing yet. One of these days I’ll hop in a vehicle and go cross country. You know and in that case there’s a lot of places I’d love to see out west you know but yeah I’d say that was the most like memorable but it was also kind of that oh crap moment as well you know and then the same would go with I mean the route I take through like West Virginia I mean at one point you’re 3500 ft above sea level you know you see the sign that says you’re at 3,500 180 something feet up in the air, you know, and you know, you’ve got a 7% 8% 9% grade to go down. You know, it’s like, oh, okay—

20:34 Probably should keep an eye on that one. Yeah, exactly.

20:38 Well, you know, a lot of times you may be mistaken not for a driveaway driver, but a vacationer. If you’re taking an RV and you got a tow behind you there, it’s like, you know, people on the road may think, well, I wonder where that guy’s going.

20:49 Yeah. Yeah. You know, it’s funny. You get a lot of especially when you pull up like I had sent Courtney a picture of one of the cab and chassis I picked up in Mount Holly, North Carolina dropped off in Indiana. And then about a day or two later, I actually had picked up one of the what they call a super CRV. And basically what that is is it’s a, you know, like if you know what a class CRV is, picture a class CRV on steroids and they’re on Freightliner chassis. They’re also on big Ford chassis, but you know, you’re talking a 33,000 pound class CRV. And the one thing that always is fun is, you know, you’re pulling into a fuel station or something and not only do you get people looking, but that thing is so cool. Can I look inside? You know, and it’s like, yeah, I don’t mind if you look inside. Please don’t touch anything. Don’t rub against anything, right?

21:47 You know and then you tell them how much one of these things cost and, you know, it’s a $379,000 sticker price on it, then they’re really quick to just step right back out—

21:59 You know, like—

22:01 No finger no fingerprints.

22:03 Yeah. I don’t I mean some of the vans you take, you know, that are the little RV, you know, conversion vans are almost $200,000—

22:12 Right?

22:12 You know, I mean, this is the kind of stuff that we can all I mean, we can all drive them. I mean, you know, obviously, it just depends on who you’re driving with, you know.

22:22 Now, you got your CDLs back in 21, is that right?

22:27 21. Yeah. I got them locally. I It was funny. I was working for a medical equipment company. You know, basically like durable medical equipment, CPAT machines and all that stuff. And I had always wanted to get my CDL. My father drove trucks when he was younger. And something I always wanted to do, but for some reason I went different paths. I worked on cruise ships. I did this. I did that. And I never got it. And then I was sitting there at work one day and I’m like, “Man, I’m really bored with this.” And I went home that night and, you know, I talked to my wife and said, “Hey I found out that the community college right down the street has a CDL school. It’s six weeks long. It would require me to be out of work for six weeks. And it’s only 900 bucks. What do you think?” My wife being, you know, as understanding as some of the crazy things I’ve come up with over the years, she said, “If that’s what you want to do, do it without hesitation.”

23:31 Well, that’s good to have that kind of support.

23:33 Yeah. And so I basically gave my job a notice and said, “Hey I’m going to start CDL school in June.” And, here we are in miday, you know, and they were kind of happy for me. And, well, good. Do what you want to do. You know, you should. But, and there you go. I, you know, I mean, it was 900 bucks. I, you know, I mean, thought that was a pretty good price when I heard what some other people pay, you know.

24:03 Right. Right. Now, you’d mentioned there in your path to getting your CDL in the in your career history there. You worked on a cruise ship. Was this when you were a young a younger guy?

24:14 Yeah, I was in my 20s. I did. I did five years, actually. I worked on steamboats up and down the Mississippi River, the Ohio River. I worked on coastal ships that would go from Canada to Costa Rica, Bise, Bahamas, and then I worked a contract on a big—

24:34 I mean, well, you know, well-known, you know, like mega cruise ship company. Again, it was one of those things. It was a whim. It seems to be that that I don’t know if it’s just me. That everything I seem to do for career moves always kind of is like this looks like it’d be really fun and then a week later I’m on a ship you know or in a truck or you know whatever it’s just but yeah we’re talking you know 20 25 years ago now got—

25:10 You know long time I—

25:12 I was going to ask you know from the outside looking in a lot of people would see working on a cruise ship is a dream job. You did it for 5 years. Is it a dream job or is it have its ups and downs? What’s it like?

25:22 Pure hell.

25:23 Okay, elaborate.

25:26 Yeah, don’t get me wrong. Very good experience. And actually like workwise, you know, like actual hour-wise, not much different than trucking to be honest with you. I mean, I would work 12-hour days, 7 days a week. When I worked on the American flag ships, like these steamboats, it was four to six weeks at a time. And then you’d be home for two weeks. But for those four to six weeks, you literally worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. You never got a day off. For six weeks, you did not get a day off. When I worked on the bigger ships, like the foreign flag ships, those were eight-month employment contracts, that was eight months, seven days a week, 12 hours a day.

26:24 That would get old.

26:26 Yeah. And that’s why I said I worked a contract. I did one eight-month contract on a big ship. And that was actually that was at the end of my five-year career. I was by that point five years of doing that. Great experience. I got to see some really neat places. I saw parts up and down the Mississippi River I never thought I’d see in a million years. And it was actually kind of funny because I had recently taken a vehicle to Missouri and went right through where one of the places we used to talk was, you know, and it was funny to see that name and go, man, I haven’t been here in 25 years.

27:16 Wow.

27:16 You know, and the truck just happened to take me. That’s where I was going. I was going in that general area right across the river.

27:25 That’s cool—

27:26 You know. Yeah, it was really neat. It was something neat to see after all those years, you know.

27:39 You’re listening to Donald Vivier here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. He’s Donnie to us and to his friends as close ones. Now, he is at home this weekend, this Saturday in Jacksonville, North Carolina, about 20 25 minutes from the beach. But Jacksonville has not always been home for you. Is that correct there, Donnie?

27:59 That’s correct. Originally born in little town called Lawrence, Massachusetts. They’re they were an old mill town. And then from there my family actually transported transplanted to Orlando, Florida. And I spent most of my adult life. That’s where I was based. Even when I worked on the ships, I was based in Florida. And I’ve only been here in North Carolina since about 2015. Is when I came here. So, not too long now.

28:42 Now, it was an interesting story we talked about before we hit the record button of what led you back to North Carolina. You know, a lot of people move because of jobs, but that’s not what happened for you.

28:54 No, no. My now wife is what brought me here. I’ve known her for many years. I’d say since I was about 18 years old. I’m gonna be 49 this year. So I mean for 30 years I’ve known her. Funny little story. We used to roller skate together. How about that?

29:20 Could you skate backwards?

29:22 Yeah. Yeah, sure did. Sure did. She was a very big not only roller skating, but she was actually a professional figure skater.

29:34 Oh, wow.

29:35 And Yeah. Professional ice skater and you know I mean we lost touch and then we reconnected when I was managing a business that I was managing in Orlando and we reconnected and then after that was winding down for me we made the decision that I moved here and we got married and the rest of that part is history.

30:12 That’s fantastic. Congratulations on reconnecting with a with an old acquaintance there and becoming one in the marriage there. Now, we were talking just a few minutes ago, you’ve had not only working on a cruise ship, you’ve had some exciting ventures in the past, and one of which involved engines, motors, but not driving a truck. What was, what was it that how did you get into that venture we’ talked about earlier?

30:45 Yeah. Yeah. So, I actually while I was in Orlando, I guess I’d say it was let’s see 2008 is when it all started coming together. We I opened up a racetrack. I shouldn’t say I opened it up, that’d be wrong. And some investors in the area. There was a big street racing problem in the area in Orlando that we were at. And what started the whole thing was a there was some street racing going on and some spectators watching these street races. Some guys were hanging out, you know, on the sidewalk while they were racing and car lost control and that car hit this person and killed this person. M—

31:31 And some investors, some industrial investors, mainly commercial real estate and stuff like that, they had the idea to kind of build a small little track. Well, I mean to make a long story short, they were real estate people. They were not I guess it’s easy to say they weren’t business people. Like they didn’t run businesses. They owned real estate, if that makes sense.

31:54 I got you. So after building all of this I had met them through a friend of mine who was one of their accountants and I ended up managing it and we expanded from just a little go-kart track to a eighth mile drag strip. And then we actually I had been working with NOS Energy Drink who was owned by Coca-Cola and we got them to sponsor building a drift facility. By that time the I was leasing the entire property about 22 acres running the day-to-day operations of this basically a little motorsports complex four and a half miles from Orlando International Airport.

32:49 What was that like managing that? I mean seeing that dayto day.

32:53 It was wild. I mean it was a wild thing. You know, when you look at it, you know, it’s easy to look at a racetrack and you know, oh man, look at all those people. This is making so much money. You know, behind the scenes you know, I had a full head of hair when I started it and it started thinning by the time I was done. But it was fun. I mean, you know, when you’re seeing, you know, you’re seeing a thousand people on any given like Friday or Saturday night testing team coming to a place that you’ve, you know, put all this time and effort into. You know, 200 cars a night, you know, and then you’re doing these drifting events that are bringing in two, three, sometimes 4,000 people, you know, to watch, you know, and you know, you sit back and, you know, it’s like, wow.

33:54 I mean, we were doing IH, you know, like bracket racing finals we were going to and you know, a lot of really cool stuff, you know, and it I never in a million years thought I would be doing that. Like it never even crossed my mind that at any given time in my life I would own a racetrack.

34:18 That’s, you know, it wasn’t even a thought.

34:20 How many hours would you put in a week? A whole bunch. You know, when you think about it, your average racetrack, you’re open, you know, Friday, Saturdays, sometimes Sundays. I was there seven days a week, you know. I mean, it I get into it, you know. I mean, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to do it better, you know? I’m taking advice. You know if I’m not actually working I was doing you know I was going to conferences I was you know I wanted to be the best at what I was doing and so that required 10 12 15 hours a day during an event I you know like a Friday or Saturday event a Saturday event for example I mean I might get to the track at six o’clock in the morning and not be leaving until 1 or 2 o’clock Sunday morning.

35:23 That’s a full day—

35:24 You know. A very full day—

35:27 You know, and then be right back there on Sunday morning to clean up the mess from Saturday.

35:32 Absolutely. I gotcha. Yeah. You know, a lot of times for people from the outside looking in, you know, whether it’s owning a racetrack, working on a cruise ship, whichever it may be, it sounds to me like driveaway trucking. You’re an allin kind of guy.

35:46 I would say so. I mean, I’ve been fortunate, you know, and I suggest for anybody find some people that have been doing this for a long time, you know, find a handful of people or find a couple people that have been doing this for a long time and pick their brain. You’re not going to get it right. You know, you’re not going to get it right the first time. You are going to screw this up. I’m just being honest with you. I don’t Especially if you’re new. If you’re old, obviously you know better than anybody, but you know, latch on to some people. I’ve been fortunate enough where I’ve come across some really good people you know, that have helped me tremendously, tremendously. But I don’t stop there. I mean, I know, you know, just when I think that I’ve got this all figured out, there’s another curveball. You know, there’s something else that you have to navigate. It just does it doesn’t end, you know, but I enjoy it, but it’s always something new.

36:50 You’ve had your CDL for a little over two years. You’ve been in driveaway for about that time frame. What are some of the tricks of the trade that you’ve learned already? You talked about, you mentioned there are some curve balls that have been thrown your way and you know I would imagine those curve balls learned in turned into lessons learned—

37:08 Man. You know, I mean, I think one of the biggest things that I think anybody should learn right off the bat, you know, I won’t get too much in the money obviously because results for everybody are different, but before you even say yes or before you even hit that request button, make sure whatever that is is going to work for you. You know, make sure your paperwork is in order. Make sure you know you the biggest thing make sure you have an out. Make sure you’re you know what’s next. You know these are all things that I think everybody makes that I think even new people I mean older people make that mistake. You know I mean sometimes it’s just like I said sometimes it’s just you look at that number. Yeah, no problem. I’ll do that and then you’re going crap why did I do that? You know, and I mean, the other big thing is take advice, you know.

38:13 I mean, you’re not even if you’ve been doing this for 20 years, you may realize that that new guy has a way they’re doing it that you would have never even thought of—

38:24 Right?

38:25 You know—

38:25 Always be receptive.

38:26 Actually works better.

38:28 Be receptive and open to different ways of doing the same thing.

38:31 Certainly.

38:32 Now, you’re 49 years young. How long do you see yourself behind the wheel? It’s a good question. I mean, I right now I enjoy what I’m doing. I like to drive. I mean, it’s something I’ve always liked to do. I could see myself doing this many, many more years. I like, you know, particularly the driveaway thing because I like the freedom, you know, that that kind of comes with it. You know, you’re picking your own, you know, you’re picking your own kind of path, you know, and that’s one thing I like, you know, that whole, you know, punching a clock tomorrow and then punching a clock the next day, the next day. I think that’s kind of over for me, you know? I don’t I work better this way, you know.

39:23 I got you.

39:24 But for years, you know, definitely.

39:27 You’re listening to Donnie here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You may hear a little background noise. We’re doing this episode from my back porch here on a Saturday and the storms that we thought had passed, they may be coming in here. You may hear some thunder off in the distance there, but just making you aware of what you’re hearing in the background there. And you obviously have found something you like. You’ve tried a lot of different things. What’s most appealing? I mean, you’ve really touched on it already about the freedom that you get in driveaway and making your own decisions, making your own plans. Anything else that’s really appealing to you in the driveaway sphere?

40:07 Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean I like that I can almost I’m never going to be in the same vehicle on any given day, you know? I mean, like I said, I last week I did five different vehicles, you know, three different RVs, two different kind of Freightliners. It’s never the same. And you get to control that, you know? I mean, I don’t you know, if you ever wanted to if you ever wanted to drive a garbage truck, you know, I mean, go go go book a garbage truck, you know, if you wanted to drive a fire truck, book a fire truck, you know, I mean, just drive, you get to drive what you want. You get to do what you want. You get to, you know, operate the way you want, you know? I mean, obviously there’s, you know, you’ve got some time restrictions and, you know, if you say you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time to pick up and deliver, I mean, that’s, you know, you have to do that, but you know, I mean, you’re free.

41:12 You operate this the way you want to operate it. You know—

41:16 You’ve got that freedom and also having that tow behind car. How much does that help you in terms of punctuality?

41:21 I mean, it helps me a bunch, you know. I mean I you know because I try to me personally like we discussed I tend to stay the same kind of route. You know I don’t really deviate much from the area I’m in but like I know honestly one of the closest places I can pick up in my area is about 4 hours away. You know and I mean I know that you know I know they happen to be open till 2:00 Monday through Friday. I can time it where I know I’m not going to be late. I’m not relying on anybody. You know, I’m not relying on Uber to get here on time or a bus to get here on time or a you know, anything like that. I’m just I’m saying, “Okay, I want to be there at 10. I need to leave my house at 6. Bam, I’m there.”

42:12 Yeah. You don’t have a lot of outside factors are not going to impact you.

42:17 No. And obviously that I mean again it’s not the end all. I mean, the car could break down. I mean, I’m, you know, obviously there’s some, you know, stuff happens, but I’m not relying on anybody. I’m relying on myself.

42:30 Gotcha. You’re listening to Donald Vivier here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. He’s been telling us, if you’re just joining us about working on a cruise ship, owning a racetrack, and now driving away for us. Now, Donnie, as we wrap up here, just wanted to ask you, what would your thumbnail advice be to someone who’s considering moving into driveaway who may be coming from a different industry or starting fresh? What would you say to them as far as how would you approach it?

43:00 Well, I mean, the first thing I would do is I would really spend some time and research. I would really look into some of these companies. Seek some advice. You know, try to talk to some people who’ve been doing this a long time. I’m not going to call out companies, but obviously you’re going to get good and bad info on you know, if you get on Facebook or you get on anywhere else, just like anything else, you may have a hundred people that say, you know, such and such restaurant’s great, but then you’re going to have 50 that say it’s the worst place ever and they never want to go. Same thing goes with driveaway. I mean, you’re going to, you know, you’re going to have all these mixed bags, you know, and you know, so so really research that. But the biggest thing that I think people need to understand is this isn’t a job. A and I know that that gets lost on a lot of people. And what I mean by that is, you know, you’re you are an independent contractor. You know, you are essentially working for yourself.

44:05 And whether it be Norton or any of these other companies, you really have to look at it as Norton is your customer, you know, and if you’re telling your customer you’re going to be there at such and such a time and deliver at such and such a time, you’ve got to honor that. But the biggest thing here is like I said, it’s not a job. This is a business and the only way you can actually do this successfully is first you have to have the mindset that this is a business and you have to operate it as such. You know this isn’t like I said you’re not you’re responsible for a whole bunch more stuff. I mean, you can look at the, you know, whatever you’re being paid, you know, and normally if you’re working a job, I don’t care what your career is, you know, that check you’re seeing is after everything is taken out, everything you’ve accounted for. They’ve already taken all your taxes, they’ve taken, you know, your health insurance, your all of this, and what’s there is what’s left.

45:11 You know, with this, you’ve got to treat it as a business. Because none of that is, none of that’s removed. That’s all on you to get, you know, to get figured out. So, don’t go into it as a as, hey, this is a job. Run it as a business and you’re you can be successful at it, you know—

45:34 And you know, you touched on one point there. I wanted to kind of dig a little deeper on being an IC and owning your own business. How do you approach it? Or do you think some people may not take that into full consideration when they take the job about, you know, you’ve got to take care of your taxes and your expenses, how you manage that, how you streamline it, how much time do you dedicate to doing that, and do you file quarterly? Do you file yearly? How do you approach it?

46:05 Well, I mean, this is going to be my first full year you know, as far as driveaway. So, my biggest thing as far as filing and you know, and all of that tax side of it, I’m going to be just completely blunt and honest. Get an accountant. Just get an accountant. Don’t worry about, you know, doing your taxes. Don’t do anything. A good trucking account is going to be who’s going to tell you how this needs to be done correctly. Not that you can’t do it yourself, but I mean, I can tell you how I do things. There could be 10 accountants that are going to tell you, you know, that that shouldn’t be the way they would that wouldn’t be the way they would do it—

46:49 Right?

46:49 I mean, for the couple hundred bucks you’re going to spend at the end of the year, let somebody else tell you the best way to do it. I have my system, but again, I also do have some experience, you know, with a pretty much cash business and owning a racetrack—

47:07 Right?

47:08 You know, I mean, so I have a, you know, I obviously I’ve had regular jobs, but I dealt with a million dollar a year business. And I mean, it’s not to brag, it’s just is a million dollar a year cash business, you know? I mean obviously there’s a lot of accounting involved when you’re doing that but I mean at the end of the day still you know I mean you save everything—

47:36 You know even if right now you don’t have an accountant like right now if that’s the furthest thing from your mind get yourself a basic accounting app I mean there’s some out there you can get just for your phone you know and input everything you know what I do yeah I might spend an hour or to you know in a course of a week just up uploading my bill of ladings and my you know the receipts that I do keep you know but then don’t concern yourself with right now you know hey should I do a standard mileage deduction or should I write everything off you know get an accountant to decide on that you know with you know but that doesn’t mean just take a receipt and toss it in the trash spend the, you know, spend the $9 a month and get some basic. I mean, Hurdler, for example, I mean, you know, not to plug any one particular, you know, company out there, but they have a little phone based accounting app and web-based that it’s like $9 a month, you know, and you can upload every receipt, you can track all your mileage, you know, if you have a tow car, for example, and you’re going that route.

48:50 I mean, it’s $9. Again, it’s like the camera. It’s an insurance policy. N bucks—

48:55 Right?

48:55 You know, you know, spend an hour or two. Just make sure you keep everything. I staple everything. Every trip I do, receipts bill of lighting, you know, any paperwork I get, I staple it and I put it in a, you know, a closable clipboard, you know, and then when I get home, I just input everything and file it all, you know, so I can look back at it later.

49:16 Rock solid advice from Donald Vivier here on the Six-Figure Trucker, brought to you by Norton Transport. Donnie, thank you so much for joining us. We enjoyed all the great stories you told us there and the great advice you’ve given and we wish you well and we certainly appreciate you joining us on the broadcast here and what’s your next run? Do you have one planned out for Monday already?

49:39 No, no, I think again like I said, I’m a little you know I’m probably going to take another week. Might be the end of the week before I go back out, but most likely I’ll be heading out of Mount Holly, North Carolina and heading towards Indiana.

49:57 So like I said, unless I told Courtney that unless she has anything that she absolutely needs to, you know, get out somewhere and I can help her out, then you know, I’ll take that into consideration instead.

50:10 Donald Vivier here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Donnie, thank you so much for joining us.

50:18 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-Figure Trucker.com.