00:05 You don’t look at the money that you’re making in this job. You look at the interest. Do you like it? Do you love it? Is this something you really want to do?

00:13 I’m assuming from what you’ve just said, you like it. You love it.

00:17 Yes, sir. I like it. I love it. And it’s very helpful. It’s very good. 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.

00:44 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And each and every one of you who join me each week know this is a format, a venue where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that make Norton Transport the company that it is today. Of course, they are the backbone of the company. We couldn’t do it without them. And we’re very honored to have a very special guest with us this evening, Mr. Segun Davis. Segun, how are you?

01:08 I’m all right. How are you?

01:10 I’m doing well. Doing well. Seen, now I know you’re on the road, but you’re not driving right now. Tell us where you are and where you picked up and where you’re headed.

01:19 Right now I just got to Bait Town, Texas. Because it’s late night and quite a lot of traffic. The driver was so very hard. So I have to shut down. I shut down once it’s getting dark. So that gives me enough time to be able to rest and get ready for the next day. Pick up Venomi, San Antonio, Texas.

01:42 Gotcha. Now, how when did you make the decision to not drive at night? It—

01:47 It just depends. Just growing up after a couple of years driving, I just felt like it’s always very better with this kind of to drive daytime. This helps you to have proper vision and also during the night time when you’re about to find a place to park. Mostly most of the hotels are very difficult to find because of the length of the truck. So it’s always better to quickly find a place before it gets too dark. Then you have to park and driving at night with this kind of truck is not advisable because of proper vision.

02:27 I gotcha. You’re listening to Segun Davis here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, second, if you haven’t picked up just yet, he is a deck driver. Now, what does your deck set look like this evening? Kind of walk us through what you got behind you there. What I have behind me is a day cab, three dayc cabs and of which each one of them are laying on each other sitting on the saddle and properly attached of which we have to check this to make sure that it’s properly mounted and all sitting properly in the in an adequate way that it should be.

03:06 Gotcha. Now you’re in Texas now. Where are you going with this load? I’m heading down to Fellale, New York, and also to Morgantown, PA.

03:19 So, you’ll drop in New York first, then last in PA?

03:23 Drop in at Morgantown, then to New York.

03:29 Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. How long does it take to for you to break down your set, your deck set? It depends on if we have to break down normally if I have to do just only one it should take me more than 45 minutes clean up and also if you have a hoist and that make it much quicker electric hoist make it more quicker.

03:53 Oh sure—

03:54 1 hour max—

03:55 Instead of having to bring a record.

03:57 Yes. If I have to wait for a record, then what I do is put everything set and then prep up and then call for the record. But sometime it’s always good to call the record company so while you’re setting up the record will be on the way. So it gives you adequate time to do what you need to do.

04:17 I got you.

04:18 So pretty much we’re looking at maximum time of 3 hours for three trucks. I gotcha. I got you. Now, for those people who don’t know, deck drivers, obviously you guys make more money and but there’s more work involved. How do you balance the two?

04:39 Well, it’s based on interest. Like I said to people and like I’m a trainer and I always tell most of my students, you don’t look at the money that you’re making in this job. You don’t look at the money. You look at the interest. Do you like it? Do you love it? Is this something you really want to do? So when you look at what you want to do and if it’s something you’re interested in doing, so it really don’t make any different because you love doing it. The fact that you have to do some mechanical job, putting your hand in the diesel, smelling diesel all over you is very interesting. It’s very interesting.

05:14 I’m assuming from what you’ve just said, you like it. You love it.

05:18 Yes, sir. I like it. I love it. And it’s very helpful. When it come to physical parts cuz you’re going down underneath. You’re doing everything that you got to do to make sure that you do a proper job. It’s very good. It’s interesting.

05:32 What about it do you like and love the most about being a deck driver?

05:38 What I love most is seeing places. I mean normal driving. You go to many places, many states and then driving around the country going to Canada cuz I drive go to Canada, come back and then coming back to break it down on decking and doing the on decking process is very interesting cuz you’re looking at yourself putting hand into this job and at the same time enjoy driving. Gotcha. Then you hop in an airport and fly back to Texas and do it again. Very, very good. Very good. Because that right there, you don’t have to sit too much on one truck. So, you’re going back to pick up and then going to another destination and then hopping up on the on another plane going traveling from place to place is very interesting.

06:31 Very interesting.

06:32 Now, how long have you been driving a deck sets? How long have you been a deck driver? We know you’re a deck trainer, so obviously you’ve been doing it for a while. Yeah, for a while. I started with truck movers. I wor with them for a while, almost three years. Then I went to a deck school. I have to train myself. I went to another deck school there with Junim and Kimber. So, which is going to almost about seven or eight years now with Norton Transport. And I don’t work for two or three companies. No, I work for just only one company which is Norton Transport and that’s it. If I’m leaving this job for something else, then I’m leaving. I love Norton Transport and I can’t trade Norton Transport for another company.

07:22 We love to hear that and we’re love we love the fact that you work with us and that you’re loyal to us. We’re very thankful for that and that you love what you do and you like what you’re doing. You love it. Now, when did you move into becoming a trainer? I never lose interest becoming a trainer. I still train and I still love to train and I love to train so much because most of my students up to this moment, they are all good. They’re all best everywhere because I give them all I have cuz like I said, I went to deck school and I helped myself out there. I was trained by a lot of old people in this job. Most of my trainers are all old people. I’m talking of age of 70 80 years old men that I come across. I got a lot of training from many places and even I got training from active in Canada. I went there also for more training to be able to do this job effectively.

08:27 So that’s why I love to train. I love to put back what I have going back to them to make it easy for them to be able to drop to on deck or to deck. Either way they want to do it. I teach them how to on deck and to deck this on this job.

08:43 What do you see as the most important traits of being a good trainer? What does it take from you to be an effective and efficient trainer?

08:53 Listen properly. Be able to listen to them. Be patient with them. No matter what you come across or any kind of student you have, you just have to be patient with them because it’s not easy to grasp everything at the same time. Give them time. Be a good listener. Help them to understand it. Put yourself in their shoes sometimes. Help them to understand what it is to be a deck driver. And then never think about the money because most of the time we lose time training and then sometimes I could pick up a job and I spend more days because I have to train. So you have to be able to give all you have be patient. That’s just it. Love them. Be patient. Be a good listener. Then you’ll be a good trainer.

09:48 And what do you think it takes to be a good trainee, to be a good student? What do you look for in a student? I mean, you talk about patience from your standpoint, but what about from a student’s standpoint?

10:01 Well, from a student part, a student must be able to give it back. Also, be patient because we you talking of two adults here, two people coming from two different angles. One, they want to they’ve been a driver. I’ve heard people tell me, but I’ve been driving so many years and I do this, I do, but this is so different. Then I say yes it’s different you have to help them and then for that student also be able to give it back patient no matter how much you’re trying to get it I’ve seen students who get worked up and they snap the stuff on the floor and they like no I don’t get it or sometimes you see their hand hooks up to the saddles or they trying to put in axles and they get caught up between the whole thing and the pain and everything.

10:55 So they get aggravated. Patient. Just take it easy. Don’t rush it. Be patient. We don’t rush after time. Take your time in everything you do. Just take your time. So we want the student to also know that I’m giving you my time. So don’t worry about your time. We do it together.

11:14 That’s true.

11:14 Just for you to be able to know it.

11:16 That’s some great advice from Seen Davis here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, you mentioned some of your experience in the past as far as decking and driveaway driving, but I see that you have almost 10 years of experience before coming to us, but it’s actually more than that before you came to Norton Transport. Is that right?

11:38 Yes, sir.

11:40 When did you first get into trucking and how did you get into it? I got into trucking by do by doing the hub because I was running a hub for truck movers. So when I was doing that, they pulled me out and then gave me proper training. Then I start training people to run the hubs. So after which they pull me up and send me for another training to become a deck driver. So I went back and I trained on their yard and then saw how they deck and on deck and also went to one of their yard in Orlando Troy to also learn how to deck and on deck. I saw everything. So it makes it to be very easy for me to do. I’m during all this time I’ve been doing all I have to do and then working with trucks putting them together and then putting them back down makes it so interesting. I find it so easy.

12:39 You were talking about Orlando. You live in Orlando and you’ve also—

12:43 Yes, sir.

12:44 You’ve had a driving experience there in Orlando, is right?

12:47 Yes, sir. I drove in Orlando for many time. And also me and my brother, we have a car hauling business that we run together also for many years.

12:59 Do you still have that car hauling business?

13:02 No. No, because I concentrate on my job now and I can’t put two things together.

13:09 Yeah.

13:10 And most of the time, you know, it’s not a time there’s no time for that.

13:15 I got you. Now, you drove for Disney. Is that right?

13:18 Yes, I used to drive for Disney and I drove for Mears Transportations. Mears Transportations and Disney are together. So what we do is we take the coach buses to various areas in Orlando shuttling all the tourists from the airport to various resorts and then sometimes we take them all the way down to Key West which is almost about 3 to four 5 hours 7 hours drive and we come back and also I was training for them. I was training people you know how to drive the buses and also the coach bus. They have two kind of buses then they have the coach bus and the regular buses like the regular buses for passengers.

14:12 Gotcha.

14:13 I train people to do that. Yeah.

14:15 What was that experience like driving buses driving tourists around?

14:20 It’s a lot of difference. It’s a lot of difference. Driving truck is more a professional and more concentrated job. You have to be very very cautious of everything you are doing. Mostly if you have to drive a dexed, you have to be very careful. You have to be a very safe driver. A very very safe driver because a lot is happening on the road, you know. So you got to be very careful with how you drive, what lane you have to stay on. And when you’re driving, how do you maneuver? So, it’s a lot compared to when you’re driving the bus. It’s just a straight thing. Bus is just a straight thing. The only difference is it’s tall and I mean, it’s just like a van. You’re driving a van. You know, the coach bus is just only longer that takes more passengers. That’s all it is.

15:13 Sure.

15:14 So, you can still drive that. Yeah.

15:15 Sure. Compared to the deck set. The deck set is a lot of experience you need to drive the deck set.

15:23 Did you ever meet anyone famous down in Disney or Orlando as far as being one of your passengers? Well, there’s a lot of things I was doing there and I got a lot of because they gave me some award safe driving award and a lot of stuff that I got even when I was doing the trolley for them too cuz I used to draw to drive the trolley and I became one of their field drivers doing that too cuz I’m a I’m always a people’s person. I love people. So when it comes to communications and people, I try to make everybody smile. So I do a lot of things out there, so that makes me a little bit famous.

16:04 I got you. Well, you’re listening to Segun Davis here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And you may have picked up Segun’s dialect is a little different. He and in part two next week you will hear from Segun about how he came from his home country and how he landed in America, what brought him here. Segun, we appreciate you joining us here on part one and we look forward to hearing more about your past life and how it blends into your current life. See, thank you so much for joining us.

16:38 Thank you so much, sir. You’re always welcome, sir.

16:44 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.