00:05 I would repo like 60 cars by myself.

00:08 Wow. Wow.

00:09 I got pretty good at it. Learned how to get a little bit more stealthy.

00:13 Hey, stealthy is right. Middle of the night. Middle of the night.

00:17 That’s right.

00:24 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.

00:47 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport where we join you each and every Thursday and those of you who listen to us on the regular you know this is a space where we elevate and celebrate the drivers. We couldn’t do it without them obviously they are the backbone of our company and without them it would not be possible and we want to just lift them up for what they do because it’s not an easy job out there but it is a rewarding job if you do your homework. And last week we heard from Clive Williams telling us about his professionalism, his job on the road, and he joins us now this week. And Clive, how are you?

01:21 I’m doing great, man. Just out here trucking, baby.

01:24 Out here trucking, baby. I hear you, brother. Now, you are you’re in a dump truck right now. Is that right?

01:30 Yes, sir.

01:31 And you picked it up in Alabama?

01:34 Yep. Fayette up there out there. Ox Body.

01:38 Ox Bodies. And you’re headed now to Orlando. Is that right?

01:41 Yes, sir. How far along are you right now?

01:43 I got about six hours left.

01:47 Okay. So you’re about not quite halfway, but somewhere in between. What’s top speed on that dump truck.

01:54 So I haven’t really I haven’t pushed it. I think it I know it’ll go 70. I haven’t really pushed it past that, but it’ll definitely go 70.

02:03 You know, when you’re driving—

02:04 Cruising at 68 earlier—

02:05 I got you. When you’re driving a specialty vehicle like that, be it a dump truck or a crane or a cement mixer, garbage truck, there’s a nice balance where you want to hit that sweet spot where you’re not going too fast. And the fuel consumption, is that something you think about? It’s like, you know, if I push it to 70, if I put the, you know, the foot through the floor here, am I going to lose money in fuel consumption? So, with the mixers and the box trucks, well, not the box trucks, but the dump trucks and the mixers and stuff like the utility trucks, I found that like, you know, it’s kind of I know people may say it’s slow, but 62 somewhere like 63, you know, I wouldn’t really go too much past that if you know, if you want to still kind of move, you know, the steady pace, but, you know, keep those RPMs down. That’s kind of like a that’s a nice little speed right there.

02:51 Yeah, because—

02:52 Driving those type of trucks. Now, are you in a Mack right now or what kind of truck are you in?

02:57 This one is this a Pete.

02:59 You got you a Pete. Okay. What kind of mileage you getting off that or MPG are you getting that? About four or five?

03:05 Actually right now I’m getting about seven.

03:07 Oh, that’s a win in a dump truck. If you’re getting seven miles to the gallon, that’s a win.

03:11 I know. Now, Clive joined us last week and told us about his time on the road. He’s got his hazmat license. He’s got his tanker license or tanker credentials. He’s got his ones, he’s got his doubles, got his triples, he’s got his TWIC card. You have all kinds of credentials across the board, dear. I was looking at your on-time percentage and all those numbers check off. You check all the boxes and you’ve been driving let’s see almost what 10 years before you came to us.

03:42 Yes, sir.

03:43 And tell us about your endorsements that you have and why you have them.

03:47 I have I got into hazmat for a while there. I was actually was with a company total transport and very good company. I was doing what they had a they call a farmer’s business network. So I was delivering like chemicals and that was interesting. You know being out in the middle of nowhere and the GPS never worked because you on a farm so you had to kind of figure out you know which field of corn you had to pass to get to where you was going.

04:14 Yeah. Which direction you were going. Yeah.

04:17 Yeah man. So I did that with I did that for a while almost about a year and then I used a little bit my tankers working with Cutrale over in Auburndale. That’s a orange juice plant that we have over there. I did that for like about three and a half seasons. You know just so I could be closer to my son.

04:36 That’s down in Orlando. Auburn.

04:38 Yep. Yes sir. Yeah. It’s kind of close to Orlando.

04:41 Yep. Gotcha. Now you’ve got your tanker endorsement. You got your has— Well, you had your hazmat, but you’re going to get it back. You say?

04:49 Yes, sir.

04:50 And you’ve got your doubles, your triples, and your TWIC card.

04:54 Yeah.

04:55 Now, I’m thinking outside, just thinking out loud here that obviously you want all those things to open up your range of possibilities, meaning from that standpoint, there’s not a load that you can’t handle.

05:07 Yes, sir. Now, I guess you know, how does it feel to have that that in your back pocket that that kind of inventory to pull out if you need it?

05:16 Man, it feels great, man. You know, like I said, when I got my CD, I was just like a kid in the store, man. Got my steer. I’ve done towing. I used to repo. I did repo for about a year and a half, too.

05:28 The repo, man. Clive, tell us what that was. Tell us what that was like.

05:33 Oh, man. That was down in Florida. Oh, yeah. That was interesting, man. Well, the good thing is I never got shot at. I got threatened a couple times, but I never got shot at.

05:43 So, what did you have like a carrier car and you went and picked up cars or—

05:46 So, we had so what we would use to do the repos, we had like what they call a snatch truck. Got the little claw on the back of it.

05:52 Oh, yeah.

05:53 So, yeah, that’s what we used to repo in and then because I was a truck driver, I used to haul the cars off to the auction every Saturday.

06:01 Gotcha. Now, tell me about the times you got threatened there. I’m sure it was a little uneasy.

06:05 Oh, yeah, man.

06:06 What happened? Yeah. Well I didn’t really like, you know, repoing too much cuz it kind of got to where it was a couple of scenarios where some people just really struggling. I was like, man, you know what? I don’t really I really don’t like doing that. You know, I know some people they don’t care cuz it’s like it’s just a job. But for me, I would get a little emotional sometimes because you could just tell some people are really just struggling—

06:27 Right?

06:28 So that’s what kind of made me like not want to do it anymore.

06:30 I gotta— Yeah. It’s a tough job. I mean, there’s the danger component to it and the human component to it. You’re taking, you know, people’s cars from them. And I mean, it’s nothing on you. It’s just, you know, they hadn’t paid for them, so you got to take them. And, but I can understand where you’re coming from, your perspective. It’s like you see people when they’re down, you know, kind of down and out.

06:50 Yeah, man. Yes. We I had some had a couple of you know, really rough scenarios where people were like, you know, threaten me or whatever. And it was mostly the rich people.

07:02 Taking nice cars.

07:03 Yeah.

07:03 Taking nice cars.

07:04 Oh, man. That was it was a wonderful experience. I guess it’s a little awkward to say that, but I learned a lot, man. I learned a lot about you know, how important you know, transportation is. For one, I a lot of people were actually working. A lot of the cars that we repo, they were doing like you know the gig work, Uber, Lyft, Door Dash, all that kind of stuff. And so you know there was you know at one point in time when you repo a car you just losing a car because you used it to go to work or use it for leisure. But now a lot of people, you know, they’re using cars to work with. So, you know, that was kind of like that was kind of bittersweet, man. And, but, you know, like I said, I learned how important transportation is. And, the other part was you know, repointing ain’t it’s not fun, but it’s not as dangerous as people think it is. You know, it’s not like how it is you see on TV where, you know, people getting shot at all the time. It really doesn’t happen that way. It’s more so if you, you know, if you’re courteous and, you know, respectful.

08:06 A lot of times you won’t get those negative reactions. But yeah, I had a couple of I had a couple of crazy, you know, interactions, but I had this one lady I had to beg her to get off my truck, man. Oh my god, that was crazy.

08:19 She’s trying to get that car.

08:21 Yeah, man. She kept saying she was a Spanish lady, too. She jumped on the forks of my truck. I was like, “Listen, man. Please get off my truck.” And I was just begging. Her kids are outside and she was like, “No, if I move, you’re going to take my car.” I said, “Ma’am, listen. I’ll leave the car here. I just want you to get off my truck. I want to go home, man.”

08:40 Mhm.

08:40 We was I was out there negotiating with her for like almost an hour and a half.

08:44 Oh my goodness.

08:46 She would not get off my truck, man.

08:48 You’re like, I don’t know if I signed up for this.

08:52 Oh, you’re listening to Clive Williams here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Clive’s telling us about his life and times as a driver and also working in the repo world. And you said it wasn’t necessarily the threats that got to you, but it was the emotional thing as far as seeing how it hit people when you had to come get their cars.

09:14 Yes, sir.

09:15 What was that like? I mean, I guess it had to be tough on you, too.

09:18 You know, like I said, it was bittersweet. And you know like I the most important thing is I didn’t realize how many cars and just trucks, cars, anything. I didn’t know how much stuff was moving around the country. And man, we repo so many cars like I know there was some weeks I would repo like 60 cars by myself.

09:43 Wow. Wow.

09:45 Yeah, man. Yeah, I know that. I know what I’m saying. I got pretty good at it, you know, and I to be honest with you, I didn’t mean to. It’s just because I’m the type of person when I’m doing something, I like to, you know, perfect it. So, it was it came it over became like a challenge for me.

10:02 I got you.

10:03 You know, so—

10:04 That—

10:05 Yeah. Learn how to get a little bit more stealthy.

10:08 Stealthy is right. Middle of the night. Middle of the night.

10:12 That’s right.

10:14 I understand. But key word you said there, perfect. How has that that inspiration to be perfect to perfect your craft? How has that bled over into driveaway for you?

10:26 Man, man, in so many ways. Because the biggest thing when I first started here while just doing driveaway, I was thinking like, man, it’s going to be easy, you know. Oh, man. I mean, getting to the trucks and stuff has challenging. It’s, you know, I don’t have a tow car, so I haven’t got one yet. So, it was like me trying to get to this truck or that truck. It was the, you know, getting the Ubers and the lifts and the buses and the trains and the planes, you know. I was like, man, I never traveled this much in my freaking life, man. So, man, I can say I’m pretty good at it now. So, man, I have actually I was telling my mom about it yesterday. I said, “Mom, I ain’t never caught this many buses and trains and Ubers in my life.” And she said, “You,” she was like, “Why are you doing all that?” I said, “Well, I don’t have a toe car.” And I was like, “I could get one, but I kind of like this, too, cuz it’s really challenging doing it like this.”

11:24 I got you.

11:25 But—

11:25 It’s all about connecting the dots.

11:28 Yes, sir.

11:29 All right. You’ve heard it from Clive Williams here on the Six-Figure Trucker joining us here. Clive, thank you so much for your time and your expertise that you’ve shared with us, the wisdom, the knowledge. We appreciate it. And be safe out there on the open road. Yes, sir. Absolutely.

11:48 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.