00:04 My idea was that, you know, there’s roughly 13 chapters in this book. My idea was you throw this book on the back of the toilet and every day by the time the 13th day is over with, you’re a little smarter.

00:17 You’re expecting a male audience if you’re if that’s your reading location.

00:22 Absolutely.

00:24 It’s too funny. 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 you guys all know if you listen to this show each and every week, we use it as a platform to elevate and celebrate the truck drivers. It’s not always that case in the out there on the roads for them, but we really like to lift them up because I mean, quite frankly, we wouldn’t be in business without them. They make the wheels go round and around for our company and of course for this country and they’re a very important part of the economy and we are very grateful for what they do for Norton Transport. And if you’ve been listening here lately, you can tell that we went on the road. We went to a big truck show in Louisville, Kentucky. Of course, that would be the Mid-America Trucking Show.

01:25 And we’ve got a very special guest with us here, and that is Scott Lay. Scott, welcome.

01:30 Thank you.

01:31 Now, how was it getting here? Was you had I think from when I talked to you last, you had some stuff you had to do and then get in the car and drive. Yeah, not too bad of a day, but had a little bit of a list this morning to take care of and felt like I was running late, but I think I’m good.

01:48 Oh, you’re here. Good. And we’re glad about that. You came in from Somerset, Kentucky.

01:53 Somerset. Yep.

01:54 About how far from Louisville is that?

01:56 A little over two hours.

01:58 How was the drive?

01:59 Real good. No, no problems.

02:00 Gotcha. Now, you live in Somerset, right?

02:02 I do. Yeah.

02:03 Gotcha. Now, Scott has only been with us for roughly four months now.

02:09 About four months. Yeah.

02:10 What’s it been like?

02:11 It was a little tough getting started. I stumbled a little bit in the beginning, but I kind of knew I was going to have trouble cuz I just went out and did like a trying to get my feet wet kind of thing. Just went out and did a run just to see what, you know, how do we do this and how we do that. And when you do that, all of the things that are different about the driveaway kind of all hits you at the same time. Like I was like I’m looking at it like there’s no way you’re going to make any money doing this. You know, and then when I got a feel for it, I was like, “Oh, okay. Here we go. Now I understand.”

02:45 Yeah. It’s there’s I no offense, but a little bit of a learning curve. Sure.

02:50 And every driver we talk to here on the Six-Figure Trucker talks about planning and planning is such a key part of it. And when you know it is something you’re new to but once you know get your feet underneath you know that’s when you start making money.

03:04 Right. Right. And then you know like I said 4 months into it I’m still don’t know the ins and outs. You know there’s a lot of things that I’m sure that I could be doing differently or doing you know doing things in a better way to maximize what you’re doing when you’re out on the road.

03:21 Now Scott’s a Class A driver so he can drive just about anything. And I guess that helps you in a lot of ways having that CDL being able to drive both nonCDL and CDL.

03:32 Yes, you don’t have to worry too much about what it is. Just, you know, the only thing that— Let’s see. I’ve had a there was a right-hand drive garbage truck that I passed on.

03:45 Right. Hey, if you’re not comfortable with it, that’s smart. That’s smart. That’s smart. Now, we were talking about four months with the company, but you’ve been driving for a long time. I have about 10 years 11 years in total.

04:01 Now what was it that you drove before or what method of driving was it?

04:06 So I started out driving later in life. I come from a family of truck drivers. My dad was a truck driver his whole life. My uncles, you know, I the first time I was in a truck, I was 6 months old. That was my first trip in a truck. So—

04:21 That’s lifelong dedication here. I’ve been around the trucking industry my entire life, literally. But, as far as actually doing it myself, I was I started out later in life. I started out driving a Class B 48 states in Canada. It was an expediting company out of Habin, Kentucky. And, that it was just it was an awesome job. I loved it. Had a really nice truck, sleeper, you know, set up real nice. And the really cool thing about that job was that at that time expedited freight was paying really good. And they didn’t even worry about back calls. I’d go out—

05:02 Just one way.

05:03 Yeah. One way. And then I’d call them and say, “Hey, I’m done.” They say, “Come on back.” I’m like, “Okay.” You know—

05:10 Were you whatever you want?

05:11 Bumping docks at that time.

05:12 I was, but it was mostly expedited freight. So, it was like, yeah, just, you know—

05:18 Never knew what you were going to get, but got—

05:20 But it was grab something that needed to be somewhere quick and that was it, you know.

05:24 And you did that for up until 200—

05:27 About 2010, I think it was.

05:30 The economy was bad and they ended up trying to tighten their belt and laid a few people off and I happened to be one that was farthest away.

05:40 So, I was the very first one to get laid off. So it was just, you know, the way things worked out.

05:46 How’d you transition out of that being laid off?

05:48 So I just I decided I was going to go in a different direction. You know, I wasn’t real sure that I wanted to stick around in trucking and I tried a few things. I have done so many things in my life. It’s amazing to think about all the stuff that I’ve done. But eventually I decided that things were, you know, in a position where I wanted to get back out and do some trucking for a few years and try to get myself situated to retire.

06:24 Now, how far away from retirement are you?

06:27 Who knows? I don’t know what I don’t know how to answer that. I would like to think that I could get myself situated to slow down some within the next few years, but that’ll all depend on how things work out. You know—

06:46 You were talking about even 4 months into the job, one positive attribute of it is gives you the flexibility to work your way to your schedule that you want to have leading towards retirement.

06:58 So, when I first got my when I got away from trucking, I let my CDL go. I had to start all over again. And when I got my CDL again, that was one of the first things that I started looking I saw Norton and I’m looking at their, you know, their stuff on social media and different things and I said to myself, you know, that’s something that I think I want to do. Because it’s something that you can work when you want to. You can, you know, you do it at your pace, whatever you want to do.

07:32 A lot of flexibility.

07:33 A lot of flexibility. And I was thinking to myself, you know, if I can get myself on with a company like Norton, when it comes time for me to slow down, if I only need to work a week in a month in a particular month or that’s all I want to work, that’s all I’m going to work. If I need to work two weeks to pay the bills, then I’ll work two. But, it what I guess what I’m saying is it’s kind of a semi-retirement plan where you can you’re not punching a clock and you got to be there every day kind of thing. And that’s what drew me to it.

08:10 Gotcha. You know, a lot of the drivers that come on our podcast and that we meet in person at the office describe pretty much in detail how Norton transports a family. Now, that’s the way we like to be thought of. That’s the way we like to handle our operations and present ourselves with being in it only 4 months. Do you get that kind of vibe?

08:31 I don’t know many people. I know Rachel, my dispatcher, awesome. I can’t say enough about her. I believe she’s kind of new to the company also. I’m not 100% sure about that. I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about it, but I think she came in maybe about the same time I did. I may be completely off base here, but anyway, Rachel’s awesome. Does a great job. She’s always looking at the board. And it feels like she’s probably doing it for a whole lot of people, but it feels like she’s looking at the board for me all the time. So, I can’t say enough good about her.

09:08 So, you’re on Megan’s team as far as—

09:10 Correct. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Megan’s got a she’s got a good way with drivers. Good. Treats them right. And we’re, you know, we’re committed to doing that with our drivers and we appreciate what you’ve been doing with us. Wanted to go a little different gear here, change gears a little bit here. You said living in Somerset, Kentucky, you’d always wanted to come to one of these shows, and now you’re here. What are your first impressions of the Mid-America Trucking Show?

09:33 I haven’t been here long, but I’m eager to get walking around here and looking at some stuff. I’ve heard about this show. Like I said, I’ve been around the trucking industry my entire life. I’ve heard about this show many, many times, but I’ve just never had the opportunity to be here for one reason or another. And yeah, looks like a lot of fun.

09:51 A lot of bright lights and pretty trucks—

09:54 For sure.

09:55 Yeah. And I mean, we’re just in over in the west wing. Of course, there’s the east, north, and the south halls. And I was blown away about how big the thing is. I mean, you know, you got to walk half mile to get here.

10:06 Yep. Yep. I’ve always heard, you know, it’s big and it’s a lot of fun. So, we’re going to try it out and see what happens.

10:14 What are your expectations from this show to see?

10:17 I just want to kind of look at some of the booths and mainly, you know, some of the trucks. I saw some older trucks as I walked in and you know that that kind of thing kind of that kind of interests me a lot.

10:30 Just down from us, you haven’t seen it since you came from the other direction, is a 1962 truck back there.

10:35 That’s I’m headed there.

10:37 Yeah. Yeah. Of course, you got all the nice ones here. And this one right across from us. Gentrian Sons did a custom build on it and it was wrecked when Weston Champlain bought it and then he turned it over to Gentrian Sons and they you see what you got here. That’s a nice truck.

10:54 Really pretty truck.

10:55 Yeah, it’s a nice Peterbilt there. I mean, look at all the chrome on it. If you look over here back on the frame here, you can’t see it from this angle that we’re at, but it’s got a chrome top all the way down to the back.

11:06 I’ll get up and check that out. All right. We’ll take a picture of you over there. Now you said you’ve been doing this with us for 4 months and it leads kind of toward your retirement stages. Way on down the road. I can tell from looking at you’re not—

11:21 I’m a little older than I look. I’m 57.

11:24 Oh, you don’t look 57.

11:25 Thank you.

11:26 And but what in the in your what have you seen on the road that keeps you rolling, keeps you moving, keeps you motivated?

11:35 I that’s a good question. I enjoy being on the road.

11:40 Although being on the road is very difficult. It’s not—

11:43 It can be tiring.

11:45 Yeah. It’s not an easy job for anybody thinks you’re just driving whatever it is you’re driving and that you know there’s a whole lot more to it than that. But I enjoy it. I’ve always enjoyed it. It makes it a lot easier. You know back when I was driving back in 2010 and before that I had three small kids and I you know didn’t never did want to be away from home I wanted to be you know so it was you know when I left I was like how quick can I get back home you know that now that things are different you know I’m the kids are grown up they’re out on their own doing their own things got five grandkids—

12:26 Life has changed life’s changed a lot and it’s a whole lot easier to go out and stay for a week or two or three or four if you want to, you know, you don’t feel like you want to be or you know you need to be anywhere else. So it takes a lot of the pressure off—

12:44 Little freedom.

12:44 Yeah.

12:45 Now you’ve been in trucking all your life and now you’re in the driveaway space. Do you stay in touch with the industry, the technology, and the laws and the rules that are always changing?

12:53 Laws and the rules that are always changing. I seem to be able to keep up with that. Really through, you know, whoever you’re working for or working with, they—

13:05 The emails you get—

13:07 They keep, you know, keep you up to date on all that stuff. The industry I don’t really follow that closely. I never really have just, you know, knowing what I know from people that are working in the industry, but I never really took a deep dive in into you know, pay paying close attention to what’s going on from day to day.

13:29 I would say as long as you’ve done it and being in it all your life, you probably know a lot of it just naturally—

13:35 Naturally, right? Yeah. Trucking is a way different thing than it used to be in the ‘7s and—

13:45 Back when books were cooked and travel logs were—

13:48 Right—

13:49 Not exactly accurate.

13:51 Well, you know, I am old enough that there wasn’t ELDs around when I first started either and paper loss.

13:58 It was a completely different game. I enjoyed driving with the LD. I mean there’s a lot of older guys that complain about the electronic logs and no not me. I’m—

14:14 You see it as easier than keeping—

14:16 Much easier. You get in and touch the screen and go or you don’t even have to touch the screen in a lot of cases. You know, of course, you know, at Norton here, we’re using on using them on our phones. So, I have to remember, you know, get—

14:31 Where your phone is. Grab that phone and push a button, you know. But it, you know, the electronic logs that I was used to when I was driving for companies, just get in and as soon as you put it in drive and start rolling, it kicks you over on, you know, and all you got to do is look at the thing every now and then. I love it.

14:50 Yeah. It keeps you I guess it keeps some accountability for you.

14:54 Sure. Sure. And it forces you to go by the book, right? And that makes life easier if you learn how to operate within the rules.

15:06 It’s really easier—

15:07 And you don’t have anything to worry about.

15:09 Right. Exactly.

15:10 I guess, you know, in a way, of course, you hear people complain about it, but in a way I would think as a driver, it gives you an extra degree of comfort.

15:19 Always. Yeah. I There was times that I was not real sure what was going to happen if I got stopped. But you—

15:27 Way back in the day, but now you don’t have to worry about that. Everything’s cool.

15:31 It is what it is and it’s right there in front of you.

15:33 Right. Right.

15:34 Now, what’s the plan for Scott Lay here with us on the Six-Figure Trucker to do here at the show? What do you want to do? What do you want to see?

15:43 I, like I said, I’m just going to walk around and take it in. I’m don’t know what I don’t not sure what’s here. I’m just going to check it out.

15:51 You know, there’s a saying, it’s in I think it’s in a Route 66 book. There are two types of people. You have a traveler and a tourist where a tourist follows a map and goes to a pre-planned locations. Traveler goes where the road takes him.

16:05 I am definitely a traveler.

16:06 I can tell that. I mean, you never know what you’re going to see around the next corner here.

16:10 Right—

16:11 Now, outside of work, you’ve got some interests out there. I mean, you’ve got grandchildren, you got children. You’ve written a book or you’re writing a book.

16:19 I am writing a book. Yes.

16:21 Tell us about what you can about that book. And first off, what’s the title of the book?

16:27 The title of the book is 13 Days on the Toilet.

16:32 Where did that come from?

16:33 Well, this book has literally been in my head for 20 years. And we won’t go too deep into it because there’s there is a degree of politics in it, but basically what the book does it kind of reminds workingclass Americans how difficult it is to navigate life—

16:58 Changing society—

16:59 Right? And you know how hard it is to make a living and you basically got to bounce out of bed at day break and go go go till midnight every day in order to make enough money to make sure you got the bills paid for the month and life didn’t used to be that way and we’ve allowed this to happen to us and I believe that we can change it and that’s basically the book lays out you kind of what the struggles are and what maybe we can do to fix it.

17:33 Struggles and solutions—

17:34 Right—

17:35 Now. That’s inspirational that you think we can change things and flip the coin around a bit. And I was going to ask did it just come to you to have the 13 days title or how did that come?

17:48 So the 13 days title was it’s everybody has to know you know what where did that what’s that all about? Where did that come from? But so when I first had this thought 20 years ago cuz you know before self well cell phones were around but you didn’t really have smartphones. If you were going to read something it was probably not going to be read on your phone. You were probably going to order a copy of it and read it. And—

18:16 My idea was you know there’s roughly 13 chapters in this book. My idea was you throw this book on the back of the toilet and every day by the time the 13th day is over with you’re a little smarter.

18:30 You’re expecting a male audience if you’re if that’s your reading location.

18:35 Absolutely. That’s too funny, man. That is too funny. When is the book expected to be completed or what are you shooting for?

18:42 So my editor has it right now and she’s thinking that she’s going to be done with it about the 28th. So that depending on what I need to do, you know, the corrections that she thinks needs to be made and whatever. I would expect that within a month or two.

19:00 Wow. Wow.

19:01 Yeah.

19:02 Well, you can’t forget the title, so it’ll be out there online marketing, I’m sure.

19:07 Yep. Oh, yeah. Anywhere you can get a book, it’ll be there.

19:11 Now, 13 chapters, about how many pages are we talking about?

19:14 It’s going to be right about a hundred, I think. It’s not a very long book. You can do it in about two hours. That’s a quick read.

19:19 Yeah. It’s not, you know, if you got a flight somewhere or something, grab it and read it on the way and it’s not a you know, deep dive, but it’s just it’s I think I’m pretty proud of it.

19:34 I was going to say it sounds like from our brief interaction here, it’s going to be inspirational. I bet there’s some humor in there, too.

19:40 A little bit. I would have loved to have put a lot more in there, but I’m not I’m not really as creative as I think I am sometimes. Writer’s block.

19:50 Did you run into any writer’s block so far or you?

19:53 So when I first got started with it and like I said, this is this has been rolling around in my head for 20 years. So, I mean, it’s all been there the whole time. I just—

20:01 Had to put pen to paper.

20:02 I tried several times to make it happen and I never did. And but when I got started this latest time, which was only a few months ago actually, the first three chapters just fell out.

20:15 Just came out.

20:16 And then— Yeah. And then it started getting a little harder after that. It a little more when I whenever I finally closed it up and went to bed, my head was sore there for a few days.

20:30 Now, are you going to use the pen name or is it just going to be your—

20:32 No, it’s my name.

20:33 Okay.

20:34 Yeah.

20:34 Gotcha. This is obviously your first boat.

20:36 It is.

20:38 Do you enjoy riding?

20:39 I do enjoy riding. I’m not really I don’t I’m not really confident with my writing skills, but I think I write well enough that like when I do give it to an editor that that—

20:53 They’ve got something to work with.

20:54 They don’t have to go, you know, they’re not going to lose their mind over. I think it’s good enough that they’re going to be okay.

21:01 Well, Scott, we certainly enjoy you joining us here and we hopefully we see you tonight for dinner. If you don’t have dinner plans.

21:08 I don’t have dinner plans, but—

21:09 Well, we’re staying at the same place. So, you know, we’ll get something arranged.

21:14 Very good. Very good. I’m going to get out here and walk around a little bit.

21:16 Absolutely. Scott Lay on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport and we’re on the road at the Mid-America Trucking Show. We’re wrapping up and Scott, thank you again for joining us.

21:25 Thank you, man. Nice to meet you.

21:26 You, too.

21:31 Six Truckers 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.