00:05 You know, it’s huge. You’re this little man sitting in this humongous piece of equipment and you know, I’m in control of it. It’s my deal. Number two, it’s pretty. You know, I’m a pretty man sitting in a pretty truck. That’s how I’ve got for you. There you go.

00:18 I’m going to take you at your word that you’re a pretty man there. I’ll take you at your word. 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.

00:46 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And those of you who join us each and every Thursday, you know that this is a format where we lift up, we elevate, we celebrate the drivers that make this world go round and round, particularly specifically here in America and even more precisely for Norton Transport. We could not do it without the men and women who hop into these trucks, these box trucks, these tractors, these sleepers, the cement trucks, the dump trucks, the garbage trucks, the cranes, the bucket trucks, all those trucks. Without the men and women who drive those trucks from point A to point B and then pick it up and go and do it again, pick it up, go and do it again or fly somewhere and do it again. We wouldn’t be in business without them and we are eternally grateful for what they do for us. And we got a very, very special guest for us tonight. I’m joining you from my home outside here smoking a fine cigar. And joining us on the road at a rest stop is Rodney Clay.

01:50 Rodney, how are you?

01:51 Hey, what’s going on, John? How are you today?

01:53 Man, if I were any better, I’d have to sit on my hands to keep from clapping.

01:58 I got to sit on my hands because it’s cold out here.

02:01 Where are you? I’m actually on Interstate 90 about 25 miles. I just crossed from what is that? South Dakota into Minnesota. Headed on back to catch the airflight out and do it again as you say.

02:18 So you’re at a rest stop right now.

02:21 Absolutely.

02:22 What’s the temperature?

02:26 It’s 25 degrees.

02:27 It’s warmed up from what you were telling me earlier. Yeah, that was this morning it was like 13 degrees when I woke up to pick that take that truck into a place over in Gillette, Wyoming. Yeah.

02:39 Okay. Did you come out of Savage, Minnesota?

02:42 I did. I did. I made that ride and took it straight on over there and it was pretty cold over there at the time also. Really bad snowstorm on my way over there. So, but we made it in there and got it done.

02:53 Was it a tractor? It was like one of these big tractors that that’s just you know the tires and wheels were as big as my house and but we made it on in there. Absolutely.

03:04 I got you. Now what was it like adapting to 13°?

03:08 Well, once you feel your skin start to tingle and burn, that’s when you know it’s cold outside. That it’s pretty different from where I live and the cold there. You know, you’re freezing at 60 degrees where I live down in Florida because of the precipitation to where you get over here in the mountains of Wyoming and it’s 13 degrees and you got the snow just across the road and you walk outside and the snow and the wind is picking your carry across and you know 13 feels like negative 13 degrees. So, it’s it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge.

03:41 I’m sure it does. I mean, let’s talk about you were in Minnesota when you picked up. I’m sure it was very cold there. What was it like doing your pre-trip inspection because those take what about 30 minutes?

03:53 Well, yeah, it’s according to kind of what truck that you know, you assume you might do 15, but doing everything you need to do to prepare yourself to take these trucks to where you got to go and trying to familiarize with a brand new truck that’s sitting right there in front of you and putting your tags on and all the dot stickers and everything you need and checking everything that you need underneath. And then when you start it up, you smell this smell of brand new things burning. You’re like, “What is this? What’s going on here?” You know, what’s that smell? Is it broken? Is something wrong? And then— Yeah. So, it’s any it could be anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes actually before you actually pull that truck out of the lot.

04:30 Yeah. I mean, if you got some sort of fluid dripping down on a manifold somewhere, you know, you’re going to smell it. I mean, there’s no no cause for harm, but you smell it still the same.

04:40 Absolutely. You got it. Absolutely. And I think most of the smell is from the manufacturer that they’re building these trucks and the oil and the grease and they’re just popping that engine in there and you’re the one who gets to smell all that as you’re going down the road. Yeah.

04:55 So that one you picked up in Savage, Minnesota, was it brand new?

04:59 Actually, it was brand new. It was I think it had like 19 miles on it or something like that. It goes and they use that that type of truck they put into the sand pits and the coal mines and they’re pulling like double trailers, you know, over 100,000 lbs. And so it’s massive and it uses a lot of fuel and a lot of oil. So you can feel the power in it as you’re going down the road. You know, it’s the first time I’ve driven something kind of like that outside my military career.

05:28 Now you said it was a big truck. Is it a Kenworth Pete? What kind of truck was it? His truck was a Western Star family of Freightliner.

05:38 Oh yeah.

05:38 So it was humongous. Yeah.

05:41 Really nice. You know this—

05:43 This is not a Cascadia we’re talking about here.

05:46 Oh. Oh no. Never. You know it’s like a limousine. You know the heated seats. It’s very all this all you know the computers and the cameras and the and it’s just like you’re sitting in a big airplane and all everything is just around you and you’re looking at it like wow. Now, Kelsey—

06:03 Where we come to—

06:04 Kelsey, your dispatcher, was telling me you actually like that run from Savage, Minnesota to Gillette, Wyoming for various reasons. What makes it appealing to you?

06:14 I love that run because for one, it’s a straight shot. You know, it’s an 11 hour 10 and a half to 11 hour straight shot. Two, it’s big. You know, it’s huge. You’re this little man sitting in this humongous piece of equipment and you’re and you know, I’m in control of it. It’s my deal. Number two, it’s pretty. You know, I’m a pretty man sitting in a pretty truck. That’s how I’ve got for you.

06:37 There you go.

06:39 I’m taking a selfie of myself before I get in and say, “Hey, look what I’m driving. I look good.” You know—

06:44 I’m going to take you at your word that you’re a pretty man there. I’ll take you at your word.

06:49 That’s too funny. Now, you’re driving this big truck. Now, you’re working your way back in a rental car now.

06:56 Yes. Actually, when I get to Gillette, you know, the rental car place is just like a mile and a half. So, they pretty much well know me. They say, “Hey hey, you ready to go?” So, they’ll take me mile and a half up to the Enterprise place. And I walk into the Enterprise and they say, “Hey, Rodney, how you doing?” I’m like, “You know what? I’ve been here too much.” Because you guys know me by my first name, but that’s not a good thing right there.

07:16 So, it’s a really nice run. Yes.

07:19 That’s cool. That’s cool. Now, you’ve been driving for a minute.

07:23 Yes, I have.

07:24 How long have you been driving?

07:25 A long time. Oh, maybe 30 plus years. Wow. Somewhere around there. Maybe longer than that. All of my military career, most of it. And since I’ve been out of the military, I’ve been driving, you know, out here on and off, you know, I go from the office because I was a general manager. I went from a I for a garbage company. I thrown garbage on the back of a truck. Got into the truck. Became a supervisor, became an ops manager, got out Dallas, Texas, became a general manager, you know, all the hats of the corporate world. I said, you know, you know, 20 million hats for I had 450 drivers. I had 10 supervisors. I had six dispatchers, three safety guys from Tampa, Florida to Dallas, Texas to PMPO, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And so once I got tired of the office, I’m like, you know, if I can do all this, I can actually drive my own truck—

08:23 And do my own thing. So that’s when I actually came out on the road out here and started driving.

08:27 So you were with this ascension that you went up into the corporate world that was with a garbage truck company. Yes, I was with I started with waste management on the back of a truck part-time throwing garbage for $5.75.

08:41 Oh my goodness. Those are the green and were they green and yellow trucks? Were they green and yellow back then?

08:46 They were green and yellow. You hit it with the threeman trucks. You hit it right on the money down in Fort Padelli.

08:51 I got I did.

08:53 What was that like was slinging trash into a truck? Well, look, you know, my you know, even being a strong military man, it’s not for the weak. It’s not for the weak. My first day out, you know, you know, they hunt a lot down in South Florida and you know, the carcass of animals and you know, I just straight threw up inside the back of the heart hopper, you know, and the guys were training me, they just laughed and said, “Okay, he’s good. Let’s keep moving.”

09:19 You know, so I didn’t think I could handle it, but I did. I did. I did pretty well in the garbage bin. That’s cool, man. That is too cool right there. Now, you’ve been driving for 30 plus years and you and I were talking before we got on the show here. You can drive anything.

09:36 Absolutely. Absolutely.

09:37 Tell us about your endorsements and what you can drive.

09:41 Well, back when I think it was like in n in ‘ 92 when they first came out with the CDL and that the government changed it. I think they were called chauffeers license. So, I’m in the military and they’re asking, “Clay, you can drive everything, right?” I said, “Sure, I can.” So, you know, I have everything that a CDL license can give you from tankers to hazmat to triples to doubles to school bus to motorcycles to did I say hazardous? Yes. Just everything. So, I’ve literally just about driven everything that there is to drive. Yeah.

10:13 That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. And I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of things, driven a lot of things. Probably seen some things you didn’t want to see and probably saw some things you never thought you’d see.

10:25 Right. Absolutely.

10:26 Tell us about some of those. I guess we a common topic we talk about here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport is the scenery and you kind of touched on it on the way out to Wyoming, but what’s been the most majestic place you’ve seen?

10:43 Oh, the most majestic place I’ve ever driven through myself is driving through Oregon. Oregon is one of the most beautiful places that you could drive through coming from Idaho to because I go out there quite a bit out to Portland up into Washington those mountains and you just look and you see the curve that’s coming down out of the mountains and you’re on top and you see down the bottom and you know and you see the other cars and then sometime you’re on top and you can see just the cloud just over the city that’s down below you. Then once you get down in that city, you can’t you look back and you can’t even see on top of the mountain because it’s so cloudy. And it’s just a really you look like you’re like what has nature done right here. This is the most beautiful site. And then the thing that comes through your mind is like how did man how did we get in those mountains to build these roads cuz it’s just crazy. It’s just crazy how we did this to come down through there to drive these trucks through here.

11:38 Yes. That that’s the best scenery that I that you can see is through for me is Idaho and Oregon. Now, brother, there’s nothing that compares to seeing it firsthand, seeing it with your own eyes.

11:51 Absolutely. Absolutely.

11:53 Now—

11:53 Absolutely.

11:54 We were talking at the very beginning of the show. Let me look at the band here that I’m smoking here. This is a—

12:02 You’re making me jealous with the cigars.

12:04 Oh, sorry about that. Laflur Dominica. Now, I we had talked before. You enjoy a fine smoke every now and again. I do. Absolutely. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. I’ll get home and I’ll grab a an acid cigar from the closest cigar shop down the street and I’ll get in my hot tub and look at my pool and I’ll sit there with a iPad and I’ll watch sports and have a nice little drink in my cigar and I’ll, you know, I’ll get out there. I’m in Florida so we can I can do it like all the time basically all year round. And I’m out there and then there’s nothing else that that that gets in my way until my wife hits me in the back of the head and say you are you all right? Yeah.

12:49 Sounds like you enjoy it. You enjoy it a lot.

12:51 I do. I do. I do. I do. I really do.

12:54 Now, you were telling us you live in Tampa and you were telling me earlier this pool is not a small pool.

13:00 No, it’s not. My wife and I, we decided, well, she decided that she wants to buy a new house and I’m like I just bought my house like two years ago and now you’re ready to— So, you know, I have no say in it, you know. It’s like, yes, ma’am. Okay, we’ll do it. Whatever you do, you know. So, we built this humongous house. And so she has the inside, I have the outside, and I said, ” can I get a hot tub?” She says, “No.” She like, “What?” So, we went to Hawaii on vacation. And then when we came back from Hawaii, I just went ahead and built this humongous pool that took up my whole backyard. And it’s just humongous. I got pavers. I got one little strip now of grass. And I have the trees and I think we have over 60 60 plants and trees surrounding our pool at the moment.

13:55 I gotta now I’m going to jump out on a limb here. Let’s say you’ve made a run from Savage Minnesota to Gillette, Wyoming came back and then you got another load if the stars line up from Minnesota that’ll take you down to Texas or maybe you’ll take one from Texas on over to Florida. Point being, you’ve driven five days out of the week, maybe six, and you’re ready to get home. Kind of walk us through the process that leads you to that pool, to that hot tub, to that cigar, and what cigar is your favorite one to curl up with? And what’s in your I’m assuming you’re right-handed. What’s in your right hand, and what’s in your left hand? Kind of walk us through the whole process. Well, what’s in my wife what’s in my right hand is my wife’s hand because that’s where it starts at. It all for me, it always starts at home.

14:46 Well, you’re smart.

14:47 When it starts at home—

14:49 Absolutely. When it starts at home for me and I leave home with a very good attitude and I include my wife, you know, my whole trip is like almost, you know, nothing’s perfect. My whole trip, I’m g say, is 80% perfect because she knows every stop, every incident, every DOT inspection, every person that pulls out in front of me. She knows because for me that’s a relief.

15:17 When I can release those things to my family, then it’s easier to be out here. It’s easier to do what I do out here on the road. It gives there’s no for me there’s no stress. So it starts at home and I said, “Okay, lab, you know, I’m leaving out on Monday.” So it start usually starts for me on a Friday. I said, “I want to leave out on Monday.” So we start looking on the board. We look, we find something. You know, you’re fighting or you’re with a bunch of other guys. So you have to be really aggressive on picking what you need. I try to make sure that my life is balanced out between the trucks and my wife. So if my wife is smiling, then I know I’m doing a good job out here. So, we look for a load, we get it, we bid. I kind of been here for I think I’ve been here for a little bit, four months or so. And now I know what deliveries or what pickups are close to what airport or what rental car place or what train station. You know, me and my wife, I always laugh. It’s either you got to get home.

16:19 Plane, trains, or automobiles. You know, how however you got to do it, you got to get there. In between these stops, plane, trains or automobiles, you got to do it. Whether you got to get a U-Haul to go to the next town because there’s no Uber there, bam, you gotta— So, you make all these plans and 90% of the time for me, I make the plans after I get awarded the work. So, then from there, you know, I, you know, I kiss my wife on the forehead. I’m out on the airplane. I it’s either Uber from my house or I’m parking my car at a air airport and it’s boom. I’m out. I do my first load. I do my pre-trips and my inspection. I talk to Kelsey. She calls me every day. She’s faithful to call me and say, “Hey, Rodney, how you doing?” I’m like, “Hey, I’m good. I appreciate it.” I tell her all the time, she’s awesome. I say, “You know what? You’re awesome.”

17:07 As long as she’s happy, I’m happy.

17:08 Oh, she’s awesome.

17:09 She is. She is. And she’ll call me and if I need anything within I’mma tell it’s no joke within a minute to five minutes it’s taken care of with her you know and that makes it easier for me and my wife to go through that and you know nobody’s perfect I might get out there because I’m trying to get to that next node and do everything and she says okay Rodney did you do this yep she said nope you got that right there like oh man let me get this right there I get that right there could take two, three seconds. So, it’s and then from there it’s on the next stop, but all the time in the back of my mind, my wife’s in my home and you know, I have my 93 year old mother-in-law who lives with us. So, I have to make sure that she’s okay because my wife takes care of her and we got certain things that go on in our home and that are all good.

18:01 So, my house is a happy home and if my house is a happy home, I’m happy out here. So, everything is good. And then when it’s time to come home, you know, I make sure I’m home when I tell my wife I’m home. So if something happens out here, whether a breakdown, a cancel load, or a customer says I don’t need that right now, or the truck’s not ready, you know, she knows that. So she’s not popped with a surprise. So happy life, happy wife. You know how that goes.

18:28 Oh, yeah.

18:29 And she always tells me, she says, “So have you talked to your second wife today?” I’m like, “Who’s that?” She says, “Your dispatcher.” She said I was like, “Yeah, I talked to her and everything’s good. She checked on me today.” So, it’s a it’s an awesome Norton’s an awesome place to be at, but you can make it like you want and you have to have the patience and you can’t get stressed out here with this because, you know, for me, when I walk to a customer and hand them the keys and they’re smiling from ear to ear, I feel like a Santa Claus and I’m there for 10 minutes and my Uber is already ready and they’re like, “Do you need a ride?” I’m like, “No, I’m good. I got my Uber right there. And you really do with inside yourself, you feel good because they’re smiling. You know, right before Christmas, I took a vehicle to a guy out in Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, and I handed it to him. He said, “That’s the best Christmas present I could ever have.””

19:19 That’s awesome.

19:19 You know, so those three or four minutes of looking at their faces when they see this brand new vehicle, they were like, “Man, I wasn’t expecting that till now, you got it today cuz here you go.” And they’re smiling. That’s the best feeling right there. You want to do it over and over and over and over again.

19:36 That’s a rewarding feeling, I’m sure.

19:39 Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

19:41 Now, you know, you were talking when you were recounting all that, you kept saying we you and your wife. But it’s more than just you and your wife being one union and into it. You had kind of shared with me earlier she’s got a vested interest in it in addition to the well-being of her husband. Tell us a little bit about that.

20:04 You don’t even she don’t take my money as a wife takes the husband’s money. She takes my money because she earns it. For me, I use my wife. I’m not going to say use cuz she might hear it. She might be listening. But anyway, she has she I get her involved in what I do. Sometimes she’s like a finder fee. I tell her, you know, you can get 5% if you find me a good load and you let me know and we get it. Sometimes these things get expensive. I’m like, she’s like, she calls me Clay because I was in the military for a while and she’ll say, “Clay.” I’m like, ” what?” She say, “It’s just business, but where’s my 5%.” There we go.

20:44 She’s got to get paid, man. She’s got to get paid.

20:46 Yes, she gets paid. So, she helps me. The more she helps me, the more she’s involved, the less stress I have out here on the road. And I when I’m going down the road, I’m smiling. You know, I’m going down the road. It makes having those headaches or having a cold or having a back pain or you know, you know, nubbing your finger while you’re or paper cuts. It makes all those things easier because my family knows, you know, we also have a thing called 360 where we know where each other’s at all times. So, she knows that I’m here, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here. Oh, you stopped for McDonald’s? Huh? No, babe. I’m at a pilot and it has a McDonald’s in it. So, I’m not eating McDonald’s today. But so, it’s a good feeling to know that I’m not by myself—

21:34 Right?

21:35 That my family, my daughters, you know, they know where I’m at. My son, they can relate. You know, they felt their hands up. Okay, Pop. You know, my wife, she always know, she always knows my whereabouts with these trucks. So at night time when I’m sleeping, she knows that I’m sleep somewhere or I’m taking a break or did I drive too long? Don’t forget your break. You got to take your 30-minut break. You got to do this. So she’s pretty much involved with her finder fee. And then when the paycheck comes in, she takes, you know, she takes that too. As long as she’s smiling, I’m good.

22:08 That’s cool.

22:10 You’re listening to Rodney Clay here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rodney’s laying out how he makes this job not only profitable but rewarding to him and how much his wife is a part of it and how smooth things go on the road. Of course, you know, that’s not always the case. Breakdowns happen. Sometimes trucks are not ready, but that’s just things I guess you got to be ready for.

22:31 Absolutely.

22:32 Now, Rodney, I was going to ask you this question. How did you get into driveaway? You’d kind of laid out for us that you’ve been doing this for more than 30 years and you were an entrepreneur. Is that correct?

22:45 I was. I owned my own 18-wheer, you know, my own truck and I was independent contractor with another company and I you know did my deliveries across the Southeast and you know you make good money doing it but it could be challenging. You know all the maintenance was on you, all the headaches, all everything’s on you. Plus, you know, even though you’re a entrepreneur, you still have to maintain all the safety and the all the things that need to be done for the company that you’re with. So, my maintenance you know, the overhead get high sometime and all the new rules and the regulations and the things that’s going on out here in the world. You know, I after 30 some years in the military and being out here on the road, you know, it was time for me to put that truck to bed. And I had some buddies of mine actually tell me about Norton and the driveaway. And one guy, he tells me what he makes and what he does.

23:49 Clay, you can come and do this. You can do dude, you can pick your load. You can go out and work. You can work a week. You don’t have to work. You won’t do one load a month. You can do this. But he’s a workaholic, so he’s always working, you know. And I’m like, “Get out of here.” I said, “No way.” They said, “You break down, you’re good. They’re gonna take care of you.” I’m like, “Get out of here.” I said, ” I don’t have to wait.” I said, “No.” He said, “This company is going to take care of you as long as you’re doing your job.” And I came out and I tried it. Within a month, I sold my equipment. And you know, it’s just like he says, I work when I want. I do things the right way. And I do what I run. And I make these deliveries. I steady looking and I’m just out here just having fun with it. And it’s amazing, you know, my full 30 plus years of driving. This is one of the best and it’s one of the most rewarding that you could actually do with the company, you know, even though they give you the space to actually be your own entrepreneur and they tell you work when you want, do this, you do this.

24:53 I think I’m a workaholic cuz I just keep going and I just keep going cuz it’s that rewarding for me. You know, a lot of challenges and there a lot of things that’s new to me, but driveaway to me is, you know, it’s like another move for retirement in my, you know, once I get a little older, you know, maybe I will slow down a little bit, but now know I got to keep moving. Yeah, it’s a good deal. Well, Rodney’s not stretching the truth here in any form or fashion. We pulled up—

25:25 No way. Absolutely not.

25:26 We pulled up some stats on Rodney here out of the system. And by the way, you’re listening to Rodney Clay here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, Rodney, you average 8,000 miles a month for the most current data we have.

25:42 So you definitely do burn up the roads.

25:45 Wow. Yeah. I don’t think about it. I just do it cuz you know outside of working I do have responsibility at home so you just keep moving and then you know when I go home and I sit and I see my wife working from home and she’s waving her finger because she doesn’t want me to talk you know it’s time to go on and burn some more road and go make somebody else happy and so I just keep moving it’s rewarding to me not stretching the truth as you said I do have those buddies who find it hard to you got to know how a juggle between looking up the next airflight, looking up the rental cards, getting with your dispatcher, telling them this or knowing your moves instead of wasting the downtime. You go into all that and it’s the more you do it, the easier now. It’s like it’s just habit for me to do it. It’s just it just creeps up on you just it’s like habit. Let’s do this. Let’s do this. And every now and then I need a little help.

26:44 So I’ll call Kelie and she’ll go her go two sent in and she said okay you need to do this or did you do this today and so it is rewarding not stretching the truth it is—

26:55 Let’s talk a little bit about Kelsey in particular the relationship between you a driver and the dispatcher you have clearly you’ve laid out that you and Kelsey have a great working relationship—

27:06 Right I do even though we don’t talk much we do have a good relationship—

27:11 How important is that as a driver to have that homebased dispatch.

27:15 Wow, man. It’s when you have that she’s like she has my back as my wife says. She says, “Have you talked to your second wife today?” She has my back. Kelsey does. You know, I like that she’s able to know where I’m at cuz, you know, cuz that way it’s like if I make her happy and I ask her for things and she need and I need something done or Kelsey what’s going on up here, she’s not hesitant and I know there’s more drivers than just me out there. She handles she had a lot on her plate, but she handles things within a matter of seconds. And you know, it’s not always peaches and cream. She may say no, can’t do it today or no.

28:02 So, you kind of strange up and you’re like, “Okay, I’m not the only driver out here. She’s got other people that she needs to take care of.” But she’s one of those people. When she says she’s going to do it, she’s going to do it.

28:13 Oh, she’s I when I first— Oh, yeah. When I first came here, they wanted to put me with another dispatcher. And I, you know, I didn’t know anybody, but my buddies who do work here, they said, “You need to get Kelsey.” So, I asked my recruiter, “Hey, can I have Kelsey?” They said, they said, “Sure, you’re on Kelsey’s board now.” I’m like, great, there we go. And I have no idea who, but I just heard about her and the things that she does. And she is she’s awesome. She is she’s really awesome.

28:39 Now, we kind of touched on you are burning up the road and you do it right when you’re on the road. Let me lay out a couple of stats, a more impressive stats for Rodney here. You got a 91% check-in rate and an 82% completion. How do you hit those stats and how do you keep them up there? Because you were telling me that your wife saw you on the leaderboard. You were up there. You know, it’s like you’re a sports fan. If you’re in the top five, you’re doing well, man.

29:08 Wow. Yeah. She t she called me one day and she said she calls me Clay. She says, “Clay, you’re number five.” I’m like, “What is that?” I’m like, “What do you mean number five?” She says, “You said you’re ranked number five.” So, I called Kelsey and she says, “Yeah, you’re number five of all the drivers that we have.” I said, “Get out of here.” I said, “Well, you know what? I got to get to number I got to get to number one. I made it to number two, but I wasn’t the way I do it. I don’t think about it because, you know, I do it because I that’s my job. And the more I work and the harder I work, it’s you’re rewarded at the end. And I just want to get this one done the best way I can, safest way I can, and move to the next one. The more I money I make for the company, the more money I make for me and my family. And I’m good. I’m good with that. If I make I made it to number two for like maybe 20 seconds. I got there, you know, and I came back.”

30:03 So, it’s the more you the harder you work, the more of a reward that that you are going to receive from the company, from the people in your life, from and especially within yourself. Because once I know that I could do those things, you know, that’s like a pat on my back that, hey, I can do this, you know, and I’m gonna keep doing this, you know, and keep moving forward. So, I really don’t think about it until, you know, it’ll pop up in my face as I’m on that board looking for the next load. Oh, I’m looking at— Okay, long as I stay in the top 10, I’m good.

30:37 Cool. Cool. Cool. Well said, brother. Well said. Now, we were talking about this. You live in Tampa. Got the pool, got the hot tub, love a cigar. And for the people who smoke cigars and have been to Tampa, Ybor City is kind of like the—

30:50 That’s kind of like the epicenter of cigars in this country.

30:52 Oh my god. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

30:54 Take All right.

30:56 Rodney Clay’s—

30:57 Parked his car—

30:59 And he’s got the main street that goes through Ybor City there.

31:04 Walk us down the street. Walk us down the street and kind of let us see what you’re doing as far as the cigar shop you go into, the smokes you get. Kind of describe it for us.

31:15 Man, let me tell you, my wife and I, I have a Jeep Rubicon and I take the top off. I take the doors off. I got my glasses on. I got my wife sitting over there, you know, she’s got her, you know, these great big glasses, sunglasses, and we’re riding down the street. I probably live maybe oh about seven miles from Ybor City. And so we, you know, we park in the parking lot. You come out and it’s just like walking into another world. You know, there’s restaurants, there’s it’s like the Hollywood strip of Florida of Tampa Bay. You know, you’re walking down this street and every other building is a restaurant. Every other building is a cigar shop where you got a guy sitting out there who’s probably between 70 to 80 just rolling these cigars, man. And he’s got a million cigars behind him and you just smell these cigars and you walk inside and you’ll say, “Hey, what’s good?” He’ll pull you something out and you’re looking and you’re lighting it up, you know, within 20 minutes you got to sit down.

32:23 You literally have to sit down and enjoy your cigar and take in the sights of all the people. You know, you got some days there’s shoulderto-shoulder people walking up and down city. Other days you got a big parade with the pirates and the pirate ships and the kids and the bees and the you know the Tampa Bay Buccaneers people throwing things all over the place and you got the cigar in Yore City and it’s just like another world and you’re enjoying yourself and you’re just you could get caught up from 2 hours to 8 hours just sitting there enjoying yourself in Ybor City with thousands of people.

32:59 You’re listening to Rodney Clay here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rodney has laid out many of the great adventures he’s had on the road, some of the great times he’s had at home. And we certainly enjoy you, Rodney, being on the program with us here this evening. And you know, you’ve told us so many things that about driving a truck, where it’s taken you, and what you’ve learned, how much reward it’s brought into your life, and the for your life and your wife’s life. And it’s fascinating everything you’ve told us, but as you guys have been listening in, you’ve heard Rodney mention a lot about his time in the military. Now, that’s a whole another chapter and there’s many pages in that chapter. And we’re going to hear from Rodney next week about his distinguished career in the military. Not only one branch, but two branches of the military.

33:47 So, make sure you tune in to us next Thursday. We’ll hear from Rodney again. Rodney, I’m going to leave it wide open. Anything you want to share with us as far as counsel to other people who may be considering jumping into driveaway?

34:02 Man, driveaway is a great place. If you want stress stress-free working, stress-free atmosphere, beautiful sightes of the country, I’m literally from Florida to New York to the new to the to New Hampshire up to Portland, Oregon, back down to Texas, man. The driveaway, especially with Norton, they’ll give it to you. You know, you make yourself happy. You know, from the driving to the equipment to the relaxed at night in the hotels to the great food that’s out on the road, man, it’s you can’t beat it. It if you just want to be your own entrepreneur with great people around you, Norton’s the place to be. I enjoy it myself. Thank you very much, Rodney Clay, on the for being on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Not only for being on the program, but for everything you do, for the money you earn for yourself, the money you earn for the company. We are very proud, very honored to have you as one of our drivers, one of our best drivers. The numbers say that. We know that firsthand from working with you, you working with us.

35:03 We certainly appreciate everything you’ve done. And stay tuned to next week’s episode with Rodney Clay because he had a very distinguished career in two branches of the military and we’ll break down into that next week. Rodney, thank you so much.

35:18 Yeah, you’re welcome.

35:27 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.