00:06 All of us other driveaway drivers are actually out here to help you. Yeah, we’re all in the same line of work. We’re all out here chasing loads, but we’re all still doing the same thing, the same hustle, and we’re willing to help each other out.

00:22 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 each and every one of you if you join us each Thursday you know this is a space a venue where we elevate and celebrate the truck drivers we like to lift it up and show you the inside of what it’s like to be a driver for Norton Transport some of the things they faces some of the challenge they face and we also like to dig a little deeper peel the onion back if you will and look at the personal lives of our drivers so that you get to know them better each and every week. Now, let me set the scene, paint the picture, if you will, of what’s going on. We’re at the home studios now. I’m at home sitting on the front porch and it’s cloudy, gray skies. We just had a storm blow through, but there were blue skies earlier. They’ve turned gray now. And I’ve got a cigar in one hand and some brown water in the other. That’s a Romeo and Julieta Reserve cigar and the Jim Beam Double Oak Twice Barrel Bourbon.

01:42 So, I’m set and we’ve got a very fantastic guest with us tonight. I’m excited about talking with Collin Little. Collin, how are you?

01:50 Good. How about you?

01:51 I can’t complain, man. You know, life is good. Everything’s looking well. And, as we discussed earlier before we got on the show, very excited to hear more and more about what you do. You’re a very seasoned driver and we want to tap into some of that knowledge and share it with some of the other drivers and wanted to start off first just the basics. Where are you?

02:12 Right now I am in Illinois heading to Iowa.

02:16 Okay. Now you guys were using you had told me earlier I guess you could call it the buddy system. Tell us ran into a bit of an obstacle this afternoon. I heard from your dispatcher Laura what was going on. Tell us what happened. So, I was dropping in Kabul, Missouri, and the closest rental car place to me was about 45 minutes away. There is no Ubers in the area. So, I found a taxi service that came and picked me up, took me to the Enterprise. And then when I got to the Enterprise, they told me that they were booked out on reservations for two weeks out and that they wouldn’t have a car for me. And then I finally sat there and waited and three hours later they finally were since I was being so persistent they got me a car and it was a last minute return. And then I went and picked up one of the other drivers up in Troy, Illinois because there was no rentals in that area either and we were both going northbound.

03:18 So I went and picked him up to take him to his next load up in Clinton, Iowa. And then I’m going an hour away from where he’s picking up to go pick up my next load.

03:28 So, I guess that’s persistence and patience paid off for you.

03:31 Oh, yeah.

03:32 Now, talk about that. I mean, what you and Kevin, is it Kevin that you’re riding with?

03:37 Yes, sir.

03:38 You’re going to be able to save some money because you’re splitting the cost of the rental.

03:43 Yeah, we’re splitting cost so they it doesn’t cost us full price for the rental. We’re going to both split it in half so it makes it easier on us.

03:51 That’s smart. Smart thinking ahead and we were talking about that thinking ahead and planning. Kind of peel that back for us about how you do that. It’s not just something you do occasionally. It’s I would assume I don’t want to assume but I would guess that’s something you do on every load. Usually we try and me and Kevin usually will sit there and we’ll go through and we’ll try and plan out our loads to where we’re either where we’re usually picking up at the same place and we’re dropping off close to each other or we’re going through and one of us is going to a load that’s dropping off a little ways before the other cuz then we do a buddy system to get to the next spot. So then for example, if he’s dropping off before I am, then I’ll meet up or I’ll follow behind him. He’ll come hop in with me and then we’ll go to my drop and then we’ll both drop be at my drop and then we go from there on getting our next loads together and it makes it so we can split our cost on food. We can split our cost on rentals and our Ubers.

04:52 That’s smart. That’s more money in your pocket.

04:54 Yes, sir.

04:55 Now, Kevin, he recruited you. Is that right?

04:58 Yeah. Kevin was actually the one that referred me to come on and start doing the transport over the road. And I was like I was already interested in it. I was just waiting to be brought in because of the fact of I was told at first that I didn’t have enough otr. But whenever they found out what my background was with doing CDL driving, then they went through and were like, “All right, I don’t know why you weren’t pushed through and you’re pushed through now.”

05:28 Yeah. I saw your background, your resume, if you will, and geez, you had like more than 10 years otr or CDL experience.

05:38 Yes, sir.

05:38 Now, you were talking about Kevin, you and Kevin sharing costs, rentals, Ubers, food. Do you guys ever share a hotel room if you got a really I mean, the way the trip falls out, does that ever happen?

05:50 Yeah. Yeah, we’ve actually done that a few times. We were both running we both ran loads from North what was it? North Carolina to West Virginia, West Virginia to PA and then PA we went back down to North Carolina and picked up a load that was going all the way to San Carlos, California. And we went through and we were riding together the whole time, staying with each other. So if one of us had any mechanical issues or anything, we could help each other out or we wouldn’t be stranded where we were if we ran out of any or had any issues if we ran out of fuel, anything like that.

06:25 That California load, that must have been a nice paycheck.

06:28 H it was good. Yeah.

06:30 How long did it take from West Virginia to San Carlos?

06:33 So no, it was originally it started out as it was a three unit load. So, the last load was from North Carolina to San Carlos on a Thomas bus.

06:47 Any air conditioning on that bus?

06:50 Oh, yeah.

06:51 Okay.

06:51 Air conditioning worked amazing.

06:54 That’s good cuz you know, a lot of buses don’t have the AC and you know, you’re it’s a luxury when you get one that does.

07:01 Oh, yeah.

07:02 Now, you’re on your way to Illinois to pick up. I know a little bit about this one, what it’s going to be, but tell us what it is, where it’s going, and I got a sneaking suspicion that you’re excited about moving this one.

07:16 Yeah. So, it’s a Freightliner M2 fire truck. It’s going to be it’s a pump truck, and it’s going from Alexis, Illinois all the way over to New Hampshire. And it’s something that I’m used to haul dealing with and hauling. And it’s going to be my first specialty with Norton. So, it’s like, all right, I already am familiar with these style units. I know what to do, what not to do, and how to deal with any situations with it.

07:51 How cool is it to drive a fire truck?

07:54 Amazing. It’s fun.

07:56 You could turn the lights on and go right through traffic.

07:59 Yeah. No, I’m not catching that charge.

08:02 Yeah, I understand. I was joking. Yeah, I was joking. Just to be clear about it. Just a joke. Now, Alexis, Illinois up to New Hampshire, what is that? A two-day run?

08:12 Yeah, it’s two-day run.

08:14 Now, the customer on the receiving end, he’s been working with you. They’ve been very cooperative from what I understand.

08:20 Yeah. So, originally it was they it was a hot load that they wanted picked up and dropped off by Friday. And Friday’s drop off did to my wheelhouse because of the fact that I already had two loads that assigned to me to get done—

08:38 But they needed the unit moved and I told them that I would go and pick it up on Friday and have it over to them by Sunday so that I can make sure everything was all set and done and they had their unit.

08:50 That makes everybody happy from the customer to the driver to the dispatchers to the sales team to the company. Everybody’s excited about that.

08:57 Yep. You’re listening to Collin Little here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Collin is a very seasoned driver and he’s about to step into a firet truck tomorrow. Very excited about it. All of us in the building are all of us in the company are excited about moving this fire truck. It’s going to be a nice one. Now, Collin, I was looking at your resume as I mentioned earlier, your background. Class A driver. That’s is that correct?

09:20 Yes, sir.

09:20 And tell me about some of your endorsements you have and special qualifications that you have. So, I have a TWIC card to go on to any maritime report in the United States. I also have experience with mechanical and stuff, so it helps out. And for endorsement wise, I don’t have any restrictions, so I can do manual or automatic trucks.

09:45 And you just got the specialty classification? Yes, I just got the specialty of classification two days ago—

09:53 Which opens you up to garbage trucks, fire trucks, and things of that sort. What do you think it takes? I mean, because there is a difference between driving a tractor or obviously a box truck, a sleeper, a day cab versus driving a fire truck, a garbage truck with has accessories to it. How would you break down the difference between those types of units? Just knowing what the wheelbase is so that you can know what your turn radius is going to be and what area you need to have to turn because the longer the wheelbase, the wider the turn’s got to be to get done properly and not damage the unit or damage anybody else’s vehicle.

10:33 Right. That’s a very good point. Very good point from Collin Little. Now, this is something we’ve talked to drivers about, particularly deck drivers, when they’ve got three in a piggyback, but also for a truck like you’re picking up tomorrow. I’m assuming somewhere along the way you’re going to have to stop for the night.

10:51 Yeah, along the way I’m going to end up probably stopping in Ohio area because I have friends over there so I can bunk over at their in their area and not have to spend cost on a hotel.

11:02 Now, will they have ample parking to get that bad boy in? Oh yeah.

11:07 I guess they know a fire truck’s going to show up at their door.

11:09 Oh yes, I already made the phone call.

11:12 How’d that go over?

11:13 It actually didn’t go bad. I told them I was like, “Hey, I’m hauling a fire truck from Illinois over to New Hampshire and you’re my middle ground area. So, do you mind if I stop in there?” And they had no problem with it and told me where I could park with the truck over at the yard and then go from there on my next day after I reset. Fantastic. Everything’s going to line up for you. Are these friends from college, your past? How do you know these this group of people?

11:42 Friends from back in the day whenever I was it was like about eight years ago.

11:48 Okay.

11:49 And we all started hanging out and growing old, growing up together and everything. And we got close to the point where like I can make a phone call and I know no matter where I’m at, they’ll show up.

12:00 That’s cool. Just a good reconnection. It’s great to have friends like that.

12:03 Oh yeah. I got friends in all different states and it helps out with expenses.

12:08 Yeah, absolutely. You were mentioning to me last night, yesterday, talking about helping out you and I don’t I can’t remember if it was Kevin or someone else. You guys have started your own Facebook page. Yeah, we started a Facebook page for drivers trying to make it to where like any of the Norton drivers can go onto the Facebook page and if they have any questions about something or if they’re new to the company and they have any questions or need a walkthrough on something so that they can get guidance from seasoned drivers with the company, then it’ll help them out better. Cuz I know a lot of the times the guys are like, “Oh yeah, I got my packet.” And they’re so excited to go out on their first loads and all that to get out of that probation area with their training recruit team and they’re get on the road, get to their pickup location and don’t know what they’re doing with the paperwork wise or don’t know the best situation if something happens or best routes, stuff like that. And helping them out.

13:09 Especially when it comes to like for example, I had never done one until about it was the middle of last month. I’ve never done a propane unit before. So trying to dedicate a route around prop finding propane. I had to sit there and go through and get referrals on where I should go, what route I need to take, and everything just so that I can do a propane run.

13:31 Yeah. I mean, you were talking about that introductory packet. You get that packet, but there’s really a book out there that you really need, I mean, so to speak, of all the things you could encounter.

13:42 Yeah.

13:43 Now, this Facebook page, what’s the name? What’s— How can people find this page?

13:48 If you actually go on and type in Norton Transport Drivers, it would pop up as a public group. Right now, we’re going through, we just started it two days ago. Me and Kevin or Kevin started it and then added me on as a moderator for it. So that I can do the editing and all that stuff on the group. And it makes it so that if anybody wants to find it, they can go through, find it, and join the group. And then as we go through, if they have any questions, anything like that, or if they get into a predicament where they’re stuck in an area and they can’t find any way out of there, see if there’s anybody in their area that’s passing through there even to try and help them out. And do it like the buddy system like me and Kevin do because it helps with expense. It helps with everything all the way around.

14:34 You guys also drop knowledge about taxi service, shuttle service, that kind of thing that may be in some of these remote locations. Yeah, I say like for example, today I went through and I g I sent two different business cards to Laura, my one of my dispatchers, and I told her, “Hey, can you put both of these shuttle services in the system because I know that some of the drivers will just ask their dispatcher if there’s any shuttle services in the area and they’ll be stuck out somewhere trying to find an Uber and they can’t find an Uber or Lyft or a taxi even usually. And there’s these little private companies that are mom and pop places that started their own thing. And like in Chillicothe, Ohio, there’s a lady that literally she used to just do Uber and Lyft and she found out she was the only person in her area and she’s like, I’m going to start my own business because of it. And she’ll go up to 150 miles away from the Chillicothe location and pick people up and bring them to Chillicothe.”

15:40 Wow, that’s cool because I mean there’s not a lot of traffic there as far as Ubers and rentals in Chillicothe.

15:47 No, there the closest area over there for Ubers and rentals is usually in Columbus. Like you can get a rental in Columbus, but that’s an hour away. And the next closest place is Jackson, which is still like 45 minutes away from there. So even if you’re trying to get to from the airport, if you’re trying to get from like the Columbus airport to Chillicothe, you’re not really going to be getting a rental from there. And a lot of the guys don’t want to drive the hour when it comes to Uber—

16:15 Right? That that gets expensive.

16:17 Oh yeah. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of expensive Ubers. I’ve had Uber that was $125.

16:24 Yeah. That that that bites, so to speak. But that’s I guess is that part of the inspiration for you to dig deeper and find the most efficient and streamlined way to do things?

16:36 Oh yeah, it definitely makes me sit there and think about okay, is there way a way I can make this work for me that’s more costefficient on my end and it’s something that can help others in the future.

16:48 Gotcha. You’re listening to Collin Little here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Collin, personal question for you. How old are you? I am 28 years old.

16:57 28 years old. And you have spent most of your adult life with a CDL. Is that right?

17:04 Yeah.

17:04 Gotcha. Now, we were talking about this, joking about it. Before we got on the air about you know, there’s some big dudes in trucking. There’s some really big dudes in trucking. But that’s not you.

17:17 No, I’m 5’9 and 150 pounds.

17:21 I got you. You said you get some strange looks.

17:24 Oh, yeah. I get strange looks at the truck stops all the time whenever I hop out of the truck because I’m smaller than most of the guys at the truck stops.

17:31 But you certainly hold your own weight, no pun intended.

17:34 Oh yeah.

17:35 Now, what’s next week looking like for you after you drop Sunday in New Hampshire? What’s up next?

17:41 After I drop Sunday in New Hampshire, I already have a load booked to pick up on Monday in Connecticut going to Maryland. It’s for Penske. And then after that, I’m going to grab a rental, go down to Dublin, Virginia, and then drive to Lima, Ohio.

17:58 Are you picking up a Volvo in Dublin?

18:01 Yeah, I’m picking up a Volvo VNL.

18:03 Gotcha. Now, you were talking about that New Hampshire to Connecticut. That’s one thing. The Northeast is a it’s kind of a it’s a puzzle of some sorts because some drivers don’t like to go there, but when you got a New Hampshire and a Connecticut, obviously there’s not much deadhead.

18:18 Yeah. I say it’s only the distance between my drop off location and the pickup location for where I’m going is like 3 hours—

18:26 Right? That’s not too bad.

18:28 No, that’s not bad at all. I’m do I’ve done almost six hours of drive time in a rental car today. So—

18:34 Gotcha. Now, are you in the car now or are you guys is Kevin driving? You driving? I know you got your headsets on.

18:40 Kevin’s driving. I was say I’m sitting in the passenger seat, but we’re in the car right now.

18:44 Gotcha. What’s the weather like where you guys are? 57 degrees and dropping.

18:49 Okay.

18:49 Sunny, sunny skies, but still cloudy. It was raining cats and dogs earlier.

18:55 Gotcha. Now, Kabul, Missouri. Pinpoint that on a map for us. Where is that in Missouri?

19:00 Kabul, Missouri is literally the border right about from the Arkansas border going south on the south side of Missouri. And it’s about an 2 hours east of Springfield or yeah, 2 hours east of Springfield. So it’s literally out in the middle of mountain country. There’s little small towns. You maybe have one gas station like last or yesterday when I got to Kabul. There’s one truck stop that’s right next to the drop offer location of where I was at. And I was going to stop at that truck stop and get some extra fuel in the truck for the customer and everything. And the truck stop wasn’t even in service.

19:43 Oh my. If I’m thinking right geographically, you’re sort of in the outer banks of the Ozark Mountains. Is that right?

19:54 Yeah—

19:55 That’s where I thought that was. I was picturing it in my mind there. Now, talking about you go through big towns, big cities, little towns, small ones. What’s your favorite place to drive? Or do you prefer in the country out in the open or dealing with city traffic, which it would seem that you’d want to be out on the open road? So, I do a mix between both because I’m I usually do I like doing night drives so I don’t have to deal with the city traffic as much, but I try and coordinate it around to where I can do night drives and then I sleep during the day and it makes it so I can get through traffic and all that stuff a lot easier and so I’m not to deal with everybody out on the road with work traffic and school traffic. But I’d mix between both. I like the country roads because it’s open. You get to see all the sites around you and everything during the daytime and get to see the mountain views.

20:52 What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in your 10 plus years of driving?

20:56 I’d have to say me it was when me and Kevin were doing a run. We were doing the pro some short buses for Thomas short buses and we had to do a 30-minute break and when we were stopping for our 30-minut break we actually ended up stopping over at the Route 66 National Museum.

21:21 Nice.

21:21 In Oklahoma.

21:22 Nice. That’s cool. I mean that you get the opportunity to do that and I’m sure that’s something that you wouldn’t be able to be afforded to do if you were in another line of work. Yeah, I’ll say a lot of the other lines are they’re strict on their how where you go, where you don’t go. And the fact of if you’re just a few minutes off your route, you’re not it’s not like super crazy because you’re doing your break. You’re taking your time like you need to for your logs.

21:52 Gotcha. You’re listening to Collin Little here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Collin, I’m gonna put you on the spot right here. Give us your top three things, areas, concepts that somebody would need to know if they’re on the fence about jumping into driveaway trucking. What are the top three things they need to know?

22:13 The top three things that I’d say they need to know is learning how to pre-plan your load and your routes because the routes can change at any time and always have a secondary backup route. Another thing that you would need to go through and focus on is the safety factor and making sure you’re not going down the road flying because at the end of the day, you don’t want anything bad on your MVR. You want to keep your MVR clean and do is always out and they’re always looking for somebody causing trouble. And then another thing would be making sure that if you need to and you’re doing a driveaway, you have any questions, all of us other driveaway drivers are actually out here to help you. Yeah, we’re all in the same line of work. We’re all out here chasing loads, but we’re all still doing the same thing, the same hustle, and we’re willing to help each other out.

23:11 You know, I love that. The same hustle. And I wanted to ask you this. We talked about this as we’re wrapping up here. We’re going to talk to you next week as well. But as we’re wrapping up here, I came across you. You were recommended by your dispatch team, Laura, Kelsey, and Haley. They all bragged on you. Big- time brag. And I’m assuming this is a mutual feeling.

23:38 Oh, yeah. I brag on them all the time. Like I told them the first time that I actually had a load that was coming out near the office that I was going to go through and coordinate on meeting up with everybody at the office and bringing them all Starbucks and hanging out and then I can get my merch and go through and just meet them more in person. And I ended up dropping in down there and meeting them all in person and everything. And they’re a real good team. They all stick together and if I ever have an issue, they make sure that they stay dedicated on trying to find a resolution for my issue. Like for example, today I was back and the forth on the phone with Laura and Haley both and they were sitting there hammering down coordinating on my next load being picked up because of my delay with my rental. Everything they were trying to coordinate me getting another rental from a different location if I needed to.

24:32 So everything was all getting pre-planned for me as a backup plan.

24:36 Gotcha. It takes I mean it’s a marriage.

24:38 Oh yeah, it’s definitely a marriage.

24:42 Now, I was going to ask you one other question here before we sign off for this week. We talked about the most important thing or the coolest thing you had seen on the road. What’s the worst thing you’ve seen on the road? I’d have to say honestly it was when I was going through or I was going through Tennessee not long after they had a big blitz storm where it was high winds and high rain advisory and flooding and there was tractor trailers left and right flipped over on the sides of the road in the medians in the road. And it was the fact of it seeing other drivers that are out here just trying to make a living not being able to do that because of the situation with the weather.

25:30 Makes you take pause.

25:31 Oh yeah, it definitely makes you take a pause and hope that they’re okay.

25:35 Well, we’re going to wrap it up with Collin here for week one, but we wanted to say as Collin kind of touched on there, he stopped in at the office before which is in beautiful Ringgold, Georgia. If you’re heading south on I-75, we’re right off the first exit. Collin mentioned getting merch. So, we want to say to every other driver out there, if you’re listening, if you come through, stop in. We got plenty of merchandise for you. And Collin, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you being on the show. I can’t wait to hear from you next week. And what we’re going to talk about next week, you certainly want to join it. Collin, you could say, was born into what he’s doing now. Collin, thank you so much. Thank you.

26:19 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.