00:08 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.

00:23 Let’s get to the show.

00:27 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport.

00:31 And you know if you join us each and every week, this is a format where we elevate and celebrate the drivers of Norton Transport. Without them, we would not be the company that we are. Got a very special guest with us joining us now from Dothan, Alabama, Sherrod Henry. Sherrod, how are you?

00:47 I’m doing okay. How about yourself, John? You’re doing great.

00:50 I’m doing great, man. Been doing a yard work today and some pressure washing. Didn’t finish, but I did do some of it.

00:57 Okay then, okay. Get some work done anyway, you know. I had—

01:00 Yeah, got to do it on the weekend.

01:02 Yeah, I had a busy day myself, so—

01:04 All right. We’re recording here on a Sunday before you see this. What’d you get into today?

01:08 Well, today, you know, I have my own Amazon I’m a own Amazon hub, so I have delivery drivers and things of that nature. So, I run that Monday through Sunday, so that’s a 7-day a week thing that’s going on, so regardless, I’m always if I’m not out there delivering trucks, I’m here running the hub, so I have that going on.

01:33 Tell us how that works. I mean, how do you do the hub? How do you set it up? And I get I’m assuming you got drivers that work for you?

01:39 Yes. Well, with me having an LLC from my podcast, I didn’t know how it worked. I didn’t know how it worked either, so I ran into it. I stumbled and fumbled over this. And then, with my LLC, it allowed me to become partner with Amazon. And so instead of me working for Amazon, I’m a partner alongside with Amazon. So I get all my packages like Amazon warehouse can get a whole lot of packages, but I’m only limited to a certain amount of packages because I’m just a hub. And with the LLC it allows me to get packages, hire drivers, and deliver for me because they pay elephant in the room so then I’m allowed to have employees too.

02:28 That’s awesome, man. That’s awesome.

02:30 Yes, sir.

02:30 That’s awesome. You know, this is on a Sunday. What’s the weather like down there in Dothan? Are you pretty hot?

02:37 Oh yeah, we pretty hot. We pretty hot, but it’s raining off and on so but it’s hot and muggy and sticky so but it’s the same I mean it’s better than being cold I like that.

02:49 Yeah, I hear you there brother. Now as Sherrod just told you he’s got an LLC and he’s also got a CDL obviously your Class A driver.

02:58 Now you’ve been on the road for a minute not too long with us but prior to us you were on the road for a little bit.

03:04 Right, right. Yes, sir. I’ve been on the road about it’s going on like eight years now.

03:08 Okay. What kind of freight have you pulled? I mean have you pulled any freight or just cabs and tractors?

03:14 No, I don’t pull all kinds of freight. I mean from coils to oversized buildings to tractors to loyal loads to farming material. I mean I don’t pull cars or parts. I don’t pull everything chemicals. I don’t have my share pulling everything. I mean—

03:40 Cool. Now you’ve been with us for about I was looking about two and a half months. Is this your first foray into driveaway?

03:47 Yes, my first time ever in the driveaway. I never—

03:49 What’s it been like for you?

03:52 Oh, driveaway is fun. I can say it’s very fun. Your own schedule. Figure out how you want to make your money. That’s what I like about driveaway. If you into hustling and making your way of how you want to make money and how you want to move, I mean it’s a great opportunity. I mean I tell I’ve been telling a lot of people about it. A lot of friends that I got this truck driving. I’m like, “Hey, you can get out of moving all this free. Make your own schedule. Have another business going on and driveaway at the same time to finance what you got going. You know what I mean? So I”

04:30 Oh, yeah.

04:31 Yeah, yeah. So it’s great.

04:32 And for all the drivers we talked to, one of the most attractive features of driveaway is the freedom that you have in your schedule.

04:39 Right. You have definitely have that. You have freedom. I love the freedom. I love it.

04:44 Now, hand in hand with that freedom is planning. I guess you probably learned that quick coming into driveaway kind of new.

04:52 Yes. Yes, planning. If you don’t have a plan game you’re going to crash. I try to figure out what I’m going to do from the time I get the truck to when I drop the truck. My in-between time I try to plan all the way around traffic. What time I’m coming through this city? What time I’m going to be in this city? Or what time— You know, you got to have the heavy always looking at my weather. I wake up in the morning, first thing I do is weather. I’m looking at the weather. That’s the first because the weather is going to kind of judge how your driving is going to be for that day. How long— How your drive is going to be. So that was always big for me. It’s all about the weather. Let me check the weather. Cuz traffic is going to be traffic regardless of whatever major city you’re coming through, you’re going to know traffic is going to be traffic in major cities. But the weather actually tells how traffic is going to be moving, accidents, things like that.

05:53 Now, you’d mentioned before about all that stuff that you’d pull in Class A and about planning, and I pulled a little statistics on you. You’ve only been with us for 2 and 1/2 months. Do you know what your on-time percentage is?

06:05 No, sir.

06:07 Well, you’re talking about, you know, your next drop and what next city that you’re in, you want to be there on time. You’re hitting the marks pretty good right now. You’re 79% ever since you’ve been with us, 80% for the month of May, and we’re heading into June now. So, you’re doing the right things, and what do you attribute that to as far as being on time?

06:29 Knowing what day I’m going to— So, I love the driveaway. It’s not about the time, it’s about the day. So, if I just know kind of figure what day I’m going to get there, so I can be there on time. That’s kind of like And then, Laura, I got to give a shout out to Laura. Laura great. She always said to give me a little cushion. Mark, too. Mark, a couple people that I talked to within Norton that been giving me good jewels. But, Mark and Laura and Kush, they always tell me to give yourself that little cushion, you know, don’t try to push it, don’t try to push it. Give yourself that little cushion so you can get your on time cuz that incentive is great. It is great.

07:15 Oh, yeah, absolutely. There’s a bonus incentive that comes with it. And that’s important what you talked about the cushion because and let’s say the place you’re going to is a dealership and they close at 5:00. You don’t want to try to get there at 5:00. You want to be there 3:30, 4:00 because they got to inspect the truck, check the truck out, and that kind of thing.

07:34 Right. So, that’s when your cushion come in to where if you know you can be there that same day or that you know it’s going to be tight, give yourself that cushion where you can get there, get there that day early in the morning, get the truck checked in and then you can find you a load and receive travel to where you can get to where you need to be to the next load until you can get started on it. So.

07:58 8 years on the road and you did a lot of freight, pulled all kinds of freight. How does freight compare to driveaway or how does driveaway compare to freight?

08:05 Ooh. Freight is hectic. The weighing the checking of the load making sure it’s secure. Drive away, get there, check it, do your pre-trip get your mirrors together and let’s get out of here and get this money.

08:25 Right. And with freight, I mean a lot of time you’re working under forced dispatch.

08:29 Oh man, you got to go. Like unless you’re owner-operator, I’ll be an owner-operator and it’s forced dispatch. So still even though you’re an owner-operator, you’re still forced dispatch at the end of the day because you want the money, you need the money, you’re forced to go do what you got to do. You know what I mean?

08:45 Right.

08:45 Driveaway, I can go take a truck and say, “Man, yeah, I’m getting out of here. Give me a rental car, catch me a flight back home.” And you’re done. It’s not forced. One load a month, you stay active. How great is that?

08:58 I got you. Now how stress-free is that not being forced dispatch?

09:04 Ooh. Yeah, you ain’t got the ankle bracelets around your ankle, you know? So You It’s a win-win situation. It’s not forced. You’re picking it yourself. Now, when you pick it, you’re forced to do it because you picked it.

09:24 Got you.

09:24 You know what I mean? So—

09:26 Right. You’re listening to Jarod Henry here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. He’s joining us here talking about time on the road. Now, Jarod, I wanted to ask you about your dispatch team you’re on. You’re on a McKenzie’s team, is that right?

09:40 Yes. Yes. Yes. I just got on McKenzie’s team the last couple days of the week. Just your—

09:48 Okay. Do you work with Jay, Courtney, or McKenzie, or all three?

09:52 Well, I talked to Jay. I talked to McKenzie. I haven’t really formed a relationship with them guys because I just got there, you know, so I’ve been more familiar about Laura and what she has going on as far how their group is because I was there for like since I started.

10:14 I got you. The onboarding group.

10:16 Right. Right. Right. So, I’m just hoping that my new members, my new dispatching group, get a understanding and we can roll and make the money that needs to be made for both of us.

10:28 Sure. I mean, every driver says the same thing. The relationship with the dispatch team is critical. And it is a relationship. A lot of drivers to cry it’s like a marriage. I mean, they got to know what you’re doing. You got to know what they’re doing.

10:43 All the time. All the time. You got to know what’s going on. They got to know what you’re thinking. They got to know when you’re talking about being home, how far you want to go, what’s your radius. They got— They just got to know what you want to do. Like they got to know how you want to move. Without them knowing how you want to move you can’t really move, you know, cuz you need them. So, it’s like you said, it is a marriage. It’s a compromising situation. And we have to understand each other. We got to care about each other more than the load. The load is there. That’s cool, but our relationship is more than what the load needs— You know, the load— We’re going to get the load. Load’s going to get there. The relationship that we need to have, that’s what gets it done.

11:31 Now, I was looking at notes, do you use a chase car?

11:37 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do a chase car. Yes, I do. I do a chase car. All this week I did chase car. So—

11:43 Okay, on short runs?

11:45 Yes, yes, my girl we vehicle she follows me to Fayette. We come back home. We get up. We take and drop the truck. It’s been working great. I love the situation. Only thing that’s making it hard for me with this because you know we have the delivery during the day. So, running that situation and then getting in the car and doing the chase thing at 4:00 in the afternoon running the Fayette 4 hours and then coming back. You know, we don’t get here till 2:30, 3:00 in the morning. Then I’m back up at 3:07 headed down to the Midway or Tallahassee to drop the truck.

12:19 Fayette is 24 hours, isn’t it?

12:22 Fayette is 24 hours. They always have a—

12:23 That’s nice. That gives you a lot of leeway.

12:26 I love Only thing about Fayette is they need to have some kind of Wi-Fi situation where we can link to their Wi-Fi so we can get it done because I mean we’re up there. There’s no service. So, you got to have the best of the best phone that’s going to give you the service that you need. But—

12:41 There’s not a lot in Fayette.

12:43 No, no, there’s not. You’ll miss everything. But, Fayette is a great opportunity for me where I stay at where I reside. It’s a great opportunity for me coming out of Fayette. So, I can’t be mad. And then you know it’s all about jobs in South Georgia. That’s the problem that we’re having with truck drivers of having jobs and being stable because when South Alabama there is You have to travel 100 miles to get a job mostly unless you get one right around here.

13:12 Right. That’s good steady money there working that Fayette the system you got running now.

13:17 Exactly, exactly. I wish they had another system where we can pick up all nights and all stays like that cuz a lot of them work and get down I’m sure.

13:24 Absolutely, absolutely. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned so far in your 10 weeks with us?

13:32 Mhm. The biggest thing that I have learned the planning of the travel, the travel. That’s— No lodging and planning of the travel. You know, I thought a couple times it was like, “Oh, I’m going to sleep in the truck.” Well, I’m 6’4 and what truck can I sleep in? You know what I’m— You know, so even the bus is like, “Okay, you think I’m going to do?” No, I got to get a room. So, it doesn’t even work. So, you have to plan your travel and you have to plan your lodging in between that. And you got to—

14:04 Any type of truck? I mean, being 6’4, have you taken a garbage truck yet?

14:08 No, I haven’t. Oh, I’m waiting on that. I just did it over with 5,000 miles. I think I reached it like last week. So, now I’m free to go ahead and go to special units. I can’t wait. Really because the fire truck is amazing. I’m like, “Ooh, a fire truck.”

14:26 Yeah, man. That’s true and have you driven a garbage truck in the past? I’m just— The reason I’m asking being 6’4, those cabs aren’t always the space aren’t the roomiest things.

14:37 Right. Exactly. Actually, I grew up in the garbage thing. My dad Waste Management just retired. B and I before that. So, I grew up since I was a kid in the garbage field. So, I have got the behind it. I have drove. So, I know how it feels. Yes, sir. I’m— And I heard about that hotel credit. So, I’m like, “Yes, I can’t wait.” I’ll take it.

15:03 You’re a natural, man. You’re a natural.

15:05 I like it.

15:06 Grew up around it.

15:07 Yeah, I like it. I like it, man. Driving way that hustle. I mean I love the hustle. So, and the load board gives you that hustle and getting out here and making sure you’re you time. That’s another hustle. I love it. It I mean Get you 36 months and go drive away.

15:30 There you go. That’s a great place to wrap it up there. Wise words from Sherrod Henry here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought you by Norton Transport. Sherrod, I noticed behind you there is a big elephant and I know you live in Alabama. That may or may not be about Roll Tide. Are you in— Are you a Tide guy?

15:50 I’m a Tide guy with Georgia. I’m Georgia.

15:53 Oh, yeah. That’s where I went to school. Love it, man. Love it. Go Dogs. But let’s talk next week about that elephant behind you and what that elephant means. Does that work for you?

16:04 Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

16:05 Thank you so much for joining us, Sherrod. Sherrod Henry here on the Six-Figure Trucker and be careful and safe out on the road on your next run.

16:11 Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I will. I will. I will do that.

16:18 Six-Figure Trucker is brought to you by Norton Transport.

16:22 Norton Transport is a driveaway trucking company that customers can rely on. It offers excellent independent contract driving opportunities to professional—

16:31 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.