00:06 You’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And thank you for joining us for this brand new drivers of the year series. We hope you enjoy these bonus episodes. And maybe we’ll see you in the winter circle real soon with a fat check in hand. And some of these drivers will be stopping by the office for some festivities, photo ops, and you know that fat check. Now, this is one of course our drivers richly deserve for all they do for Norton Transport. Let’s go.

00:51 Hello everyone. Welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And each and every one of you know and if you join us each week, this is a space where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that make Norton Transport go round and round. They’re such a key part of our success and we’re certainly grateful for them and everything they do. And if you’ve been checking in with us for the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a bonus section. This is for our drivers of the year. Now, there’s not just one, but we have one for each team, each dispatch team. They nominated these drivers, CDL and nonCDL. And joining us now is one of our CDL drivers of the year, Larry Altice. Now, Larry may be a familiar guy to you guys because he’s been on the podcast before. And Larry what does it feel like to be nominated and to be one of the drivers of the year?

01:40 I mean, it really was a surprise. Just to get that phone call out of the blue. I didn’t know what was going on at first and it has been nice to be able to be recognized and everything. Just to be able to know that Norton has been looking out for us and everything and they see all the work that we’ve been doing throughout the year and they definitely want to appreciate us for doing everything that we have been for them.

02:02 We took a couple pictures with you here at the office. You were able to stop in and with the check so to speak there. What was it like to hold that check for a thousand bucks?

02:12 It’s great. I mean like I said I’ve never even really had the opportunity to hold a giant check like that. I mean, just makes you feel even, like I said, more appreciated to say you know, hey, you know, Norton wants to recognize what you’ve done and let you know that, hey, you know, they see what you’re doing and want to make sure that you’re feeling like you are appreciated again.

02:31 As we were saying, Larry did drop in here at the office. Where were you going? How were you able to drop in here at the office?

02:37 So, I was coming out of pretty much Nashville area, Mount Juliet, and came down to College Park area for Atlanta. That’s where I’m headed right now with an Amazon truck and I you know, as mentioned on the podcast before, we have our own tow car. Was able to get over there after dropping a truck in La Vergne and picked that truck up and now like I said, making my way down to Atlanta to try to get down there and get this Amazon delivered.

03:00 Certainly worth the stop here. We’re right off the freeway. Stopped for a thousand bucks. You want going right by the exit.

03:06 Yep. Yep. Worked out great. Now, the way the program works, as we were mentioning there, the drivers of the year, they’re nominated by each dispatch team. And right now, just to kind of set the scene, paint a picture for you, we’re in our podcast studio here at the home office, and we got Larry, myself, and his dispatch team leader, Michael Chandler, who was kind of leading the charge in the nomination of Larry. Now, Michael, tell us what was your thought process in nominating Larry as one of the drivers of the year?

03:34 So, a lot goes into it, John. We kind of look at their performance through the whole year. Larry’s very gracious to really help us out when I’ll call him when I’m in a bind like, “Hey, can you move this load for me?” And he always pulls through for me. May not be exactly what he wants to do and it may be a little persuading sometimes, but he’s always there. He runs it. If he runs any kind of issues, you know, he communicates with us and he just works for us every day. A lot of it is just the best ability is availability and Larry’s always available.

04:06 Michael, you’ve worked in logistics for some time. What does it mean? How do you put a price value on that type of flexibility that Larry has?

04:14 I’ve been in the industry for over eight years and it’s hard to find somebody who is willing to go the extra mile every time they’re out there. And that’s what Larry does. Him and his dad both helped us out tremendously and really built up some customers that we kind of got our foot in the door and they’ve helped us bust that door open. So, we’re very appreciative for that. It goes both ways. They’re appreciative for us for looking out for them and we’re appreciative of them for doing everything that we asked them to do.

04:42 Now, how long did it take to reach the decision? Did it come pretty quickly?

04:45 Absolutely. As quick as I could type out a name on email—

04:49 And I’m sure it was unanimous with your team.

04:52 Absolutely. Everybody knows what kind of hard work he puts in and you know like I said we’re very appreciative of it and you know he’s always there to do what we need him to do.

05:02 Larry, we talk a lot about we talked about this in the podcast about the relationship between a driver and the dispatcher. How would you describe your relationship between Michael and of course he’s standing right here now and the whole dispatch team?

05:14 Well, I mean it’s been pretty great so far. I mean, we got switched over to Michael. I think it’s close to about a year now. And, it’s been working out great for us and everything. He’s really understanding when stuff comes up and we have issues or something happens and everything, he works with us as much as he can and everything on trying to resolve what might be the problem. If it’s something as simple as, hey, your logs are getting messed up right now. You need to go back in there and correct it. He’ll try to figure out what’s going on. To as far as, you know, trying to see what he can do on setting us up on a load. He’s been a great dispatcher for us so far and we really do appreciate everything he’s been doing for us.

05:51 Now, I just wanted to ask you Michael, have you had a chance to meet Larry in person before, or is this the first time to see his face?

05:58 Oh, yeah. This is the first time that I’ve met Larry, and he typically stays busy on the road. And a lot of what he does keeps him away from this area, but knowing that he had this the bonus to pick up and to come take a picture and meet us, we’re able to get something lined up for him to get through. So, it’s first time I met him, but we talk what, every day, I would say.

06:18 Mhm. Yep.

06:19 So, same question to both of you guys. Did each of you look the way you pictured that the guy you talk to every day would look?

06:26 It’s kind of hard to put that under there. I would say no. No.

06:31 And probably in the same idea. I mean, I’m pretty much the same way. I was like, okay. When I first saw him, I was like, definitely different from what I was thinking. But, I mean, I had a kind of an idea of what he was looking like. What’s that like to put the face with the person there?

06:44 It’s good. I mean, like I said, when you don’t see your dispatcher, I mean, all these other companies out there, let’s say you’re just doing logistics in itself. They don’t even know what their dispatcher looks like, and they won’t for years. And to be able to finally be able to do it’s nice. It’s nice to be able to see what, you know, put the face to the voice and everything.

07:04 All right, Michael, I’m going to let you go and I know you got to get back to work and dispatch some loads. Anything you want to say to Larry on the way out? Just appreciate everything you do and keep up the great work. We appreciate it.

07:15 Now, Larry, you know, we when Michael’s talking about keeping up the great work, we know you do it because we’ve seen it day in day out, it’s always you’re doing a great job for us. Is that something that comes naturally to you or was it learned? How did you come about being that reliable? Well, I mean, my dad always kind of told me to do the best that you can and also just certain things he put me through throughout my life to be able to kind of learn basic skills. I mean, I always had to try to be in the other person’s shoes. I try to think, okay, if Michael’s having a hard day right now, if like say we’re calling in, hey, we can’t get this load to be picked up, we can’t do this, we can’t do that right now. He’s trying to figure it out. And that’s why I always think, okay, what’s Michael going through right now? And I need to think like, okay, he’s probably trying to figure it out. Give him a minute. Like I’ve just, it was always trained or instilled into me to try to think about what the other person’s going through—

08:12 Just to have that understanding mindset.

08:14 Yep. Yep. Now, if you listen to us each and every week here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport, you heard Larry and his father Tony Altis and you guys many times run together both towbehind drivers.

08:28 Kind of refresh us on how that works and how that’s a good money-making process.

08:32 Yeah. So, I mean, with having the vehicle behind us, we don’t have to worry about possibly running into situation where we’re out and about and there’s no rental car agencies nearby or there’s, you know, they’re closed because it’s a late drop. So it’s great for us to be able to just have that car to as soon as we get to our drop, get in and go. With us having each other we are set up to where we’ll alternate, too. So, I will tow behind it one day and then he’ll tow behind it the next. So, it kind of like eases up on each other because we don’t have to worry about it every single day that you know, I’m the one having to pull, he’s the one having to pull.

09:12 You know, one thing we picked up on the podcast where you shared with us a few weeks back there was your love for music, live music particularly, and I want to kind of paint the picture here. He’s in the podcast studio with us, that being Larry Altice. Got a Bonnaroo shirt on. Big Bonnaroo fan.

09:28 I sure am, sir. Been going for 2 years now ever since co kind of let things back up and everything and I mean it’s been pretty fun. I’ve really enjoyed everything. Whenever I get the opportunity to be able to go out there they call it the farm out that way and just to be able to enjoy the time out on the farm and just get away from life. I mean we disconnect from pretty much everything and you just everybody’s out there to enjoy all the live music and it just the people that are there. They’re so friendly and everything and that’s what really has made me happy to be able to keep going every year. And luckily enough, I have a job that allows me to be able to do that because if I want to take off in June when that festival is, I don’t have to worry about anything. I can just take off and it’s perfectly fine.

10:10 You led me to my very next question, which you already answered it, but to have the flexibility and the monetary advantage to be able to do that. And I’ve noticed you’re looking at the watch. You got to go. My truck I believe is parked in front of somebody right now. They’re trying to—

10:25 Okay. That’s the life of a driveaway truck driver. He’s got to be on the go. And Larry Altis, thank you very much for joining us. Congratulations for being driver of the year.

10:34 Yeah. No, thank you very much. Thank y’all so much for everything y’all do for us and definitely going to keep on at it.

10:39 All right. Thank you, Larry.

10:45 Hey—