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

00:31 And you know if you join us here each and every week, this is a format where we elevate and celebrate the drivers of Norton Transport. You can see here joining us with his Norton Transport shirt on is Corey Harris. Corey, how are you?

00:45 Doing great. Doing great, man. Glad to be here.

00:48 I can see you’re in your hotel room, so obviously you’re out on the road.

00:52 Yes, sir. I’m in I’m in South Bend, Indiana. I’m like right by the Notre Dame University the stadium. I actually walked over there. It’s crazy.

01:04 Going to say, did you check it out?

01:06 Yeah, man. First time like ever seeing it. Kind of like a surreal thing, you know.

01:12 Did you see Touchdown Jesus?

01:15 No, I ain’t see that. I got close to it, but I guess you know they got it closed up and everything like that, but I did walk over there.

01:21 A big statue of Jesus there. They call him Touchdown Jesus.

01:24 Oh, yeah.

01:25 Oh, yeah. Yeah. I guess you probably couldn’t see it if it’s closed up, but it’s on one end. You can see it from the stadium there, but anyway, we wanted to point out this is Corey Harris. This is Corey A. Harris. We got more than one— We got more than one Corey Harris in our stable of drivers, but this is Corey A. Harris and he’s a Class A driver and a Class A person. Corey, thanks for joining us.

01:51 Thank you.

01:52 Yeah, I’m I brought it outside because I’ve got a little smokey treat here—

01:58 That let go out.

02:00 You can’t let that go out.

02:02 That’s all right. We’ll get it going here. We’ll get it going here.

02:05 And let those go out, man.

02:07 Corey, do you smoke cigars?

02:09 You know what? So, funny story. My brother-in-law I was just in Macon, Georgia for the 4th celebrating with them. So, he takes me to this cigar bar. He was like, man, you got to get on these cigars and things like that. My brother actually has a podcast with him and three of his co-workers that all they do is like evaluate different cigars.

02:34 Mhm.

02:34 So, never been a big person on it. Y’all, let me be honest with you, Zander. The first time it they clipped it, I lit it up, I damn near choked. So, I No, I’ve never been a big—

02:46 It? Did you inhale?

02:48 Yes. And that’s what he was telling me. I almost had to have CPR done on me on the floor. I learned that you don’t inhale like that.

02:57 No, you got to do the Bill Clinton move. Don’t inhale.

03:03 Definitely. So, it was definitely an experience, but it’s something I can see myself getting used to trying.

03:09 I got you. Corey Harris joining us here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, Corey, you’re on the road now and that’s not uncommon because you are a road warrior. I looked up some stats on you. You like to stay on the road, don’t you?

03:26 Well, I mean, I like to stay on the road, but it you know, I tell most guys, man, I man, I’m going into this year October make 18 years. So, I pretty much done seen a lot of things. Some of like I was saying the noted thing I had never seen a state number before, but it’s more of a challenge to me than anything, you know. I call it almost to myself like a friendly competition. Yeah.

03:53 I got you. 18 years on the road?

03:55 18 years driving in total. Like Yeah, I started in 2008.

04:02 Oh, wow. Wow, that’s a long time on the road. And I wanted to do something in the introduction here. A lot of the guests we have here on the Six-Figure Trucker are recommended by their dispatchers. Corey is a little different because I mean, I know your dispatch team loves you, but Corey comes to us recommended by a customer and a pretty big customer at that. And he was really bragging on you. Of course, this is Jeff. You and Jeff have hit it off big. Jeff up in Cleveland.

04:32 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Jeff’s a great guy. Everybody at the Premier Trucking from Kaylee, receptionist, like all of them good. They’re very great people there. Man, I probably have 10 t-shirts from them and all kind of things. So, you know, like I guess, you know, like I always tell people, you know, quality and being respectful always, you know, it overrides everything. So, I come from like a military background. My mom did 20 years in the Marines. So, you know, we’re more on a yes, sir, no, no, ma’am type thing. More respectful things. Trying to be punctual and things like that. And I guess, you know, that’s just how Jeff and them liked it about him. So, I remember one day Huh?

05:18 Go ahead, Corey.

05:19 I just remember one day I was out there, I was checking in the truck and he came out there and him and another guy and he was just like, “Hey, man, I want to meet you. I want to introduce myself to you.” And I was like, you know, I told him who my name is and everything. He was like, “Yeah, man, you moving a lot of trucks for me, man.” He was like, “You know, I really like the way you do things. You know, I feel like I can depend on you.” So, I said, “Hey, man, you know, I try to do my job as best as I can, you know? Try to stay positive, respectful, you know, and do things with integrity, you know? So, like I said, trucking to me is it’s not only my livelihood, it’s something that I really like doing. So.”

06:02 I can tell you firsthand cuz I talked to Jeff quite a bit. He is a big Corey A. Harris fan, and he said some of the same words you did when he described you. He said he’s dependable, he’s reliable, he’s respectful. He said he gets the job done, and he requests you quite a bit for trucks. He’s like, “Anyway Corey can get this one?” I said, “We’ll do what we can.” And that’s a testament to you and your work ethic, and also it’s a blessing for us at Norton Transport to have drivers like you. I guess it’s important to you.

06:36 Oh, yeah. It’s definitely important to me. All those type of things that Hey, I thank Jeff for the love for those kind words, man. I’m just thankful for Norton putting me in certain situations, you know, to showcase my talents and not only, you know, showcase the company and the whole— You know, so.

06:56 Now, Corey, let’s talk a little bit about your background here. I did some research on you, and you got some great stats. I’m not surprised cuz we know you’re a great driver. 100% check-in, so you’re always ready to show up for work. 93% completion. On-time percentage is at 67, I believe. It’s been higher in the past, but you know, that’s a fluctuating number, which you can— How important you know, you’re talking about punctuality. How important is it for you to be on time for the customer?

07:27 It’s very important. I mean, on-time things can fluctuate based off of like certain scenarios, you know, either something I moved to a different location, or, you know, just traffic things, and normal things that happen in driving. But it’s very important because I feel like the more that I’m on time where I’m doing exactly what I said I’m going to do, the more opportunities that come my way. So, like I think you don’t build trust with someone by telling them what you can do. You build trust by showing them what you can do. So, I think mainly the thing with Jeff and them was just, you know, showing them what I could do. Like, you know, if I tell them, “Hey, he called me and said, “Well, I may have some trucks going down to Augusta. Can you do them?” “Sure. I need them there this day.” “Okay.” Trying to do my best to get them there that day.”

08:20 You create your own success.

08:23 Yeah, pretty much. I mean—

08:26 I started off saying you were a road warrior. If you had to guess, how many miles do you think you average a month on the road? I’ve got the number right here, but I want to see what you what your guess is.

08:40 Yeah. 8,000 to 5,000, something like that.

08:45 Well, you’re good, man. You got to go with your first gut instinct there. It’s 7,700. So, you were right on it, man. 7,700. And I was talking to Hunter today, and Hunter is your lead dispatcher. And he talks about how you’ve got a plan when we stage some of those trucks that go to Cleveland, you get there early in the morning, and I guess you prefer driving when there’s less traffic on the road, which makes perfect sense.

09:12 Mhm. Yeah, because you know, in normal DOT hours, you have about 11 hours. Well, you got 11 hours, right? But you Of course, you know, you got a 30-minute break that comes in between that. You got traffic that can stop that, all type of things. And my plan of things is if I leave at midnight, I really don’t have much traffic on the road unless there’s an accident, construction, things like that. So, it gives you time to fly through and to be able to put down more miles than you would in the daytime. So, I would say like if Ringgold to Cleveland is 598 miles, me, I feel like that’s done in a 10-hour shift. It’s really done in my eyes in 8 and 1/2 to 9 hours. Based off of traffic.

10:02 Now, if you’re doing that from 12:00 a.m. Into the morning, you know, you flow through these cities. You flow through Cincinnati where traffic can back up. When you catch the right now, you flow through Columbus. So, you get into Cleveland and you, you know, you just going right on through. And to my plan, it’s more of a the quicker I get there, I jump back on another flight. I’m back in Ringgold to make some happy people.

10:30 So, you do it again?

10:31 Yeah. That’s I was always taught that if the wheels ain’t turning, then, you know, you ain’t making no money. So, I like to turn the wheels.

10:39 You ain’t earning.

10:40 Do you know what I’m saying? So, I like to keep it moving as much as I possibly can.

10:44 Well, that’s maximum use of your time, efficiency as you talked about. I mean, you know, cuz you’re the DOT regulations cap you by time, but you’re making up, you know, better time cuz there’s no traffic.

10:56 Right. So, that’s what I try to tell a lot of guys that ask me, they’ll— Well, how you getting these places so quick? And I’m like, my truck goes the same speed as yours. I just choose a different time to run.

11:08 That’s right. That’s smart. That’s smart. You’re listening to Corey A. Harris here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Corey’s joining us from South Bend. He’s in Indiana there. Just out there at home of Notre Dame. Now, Corey, I looked you’re Class A driver, been driving 18 years, and your list of qualifications is top of the shelf. You got your TWIC card. Do you do much in the ports? Do you deliver much to the ports?

11:36 Yes. Yes. I mean, outside of Norton, I’ve been able to obtain a few trucks of my own. So, yeah, I’ve I used to— We used to run a lot out of Savannah Port, Jacksonville Port, and the port up in Norfolk, Virginia. Actually, I used to do some things out of California just until, you know, gas prices went through the roof, but mainly on the East Coast, Norfolk, Virginia, Jacksonville, Savannah Port.

12:12 What’s that like checking a load into the ports? I mean, sometimes you got to wait for a long time, sometimes it’s smooth, but what’s it like from your perspective?

12:21 From my perspective, it depends on the port. So, like it depends on the port, it depends on the city, the size of them. So, let’s say like Jacksonville Port. Yeah, you’re going to wait there all day. But, Savannah Port is such a it’s such a bigger port that the check-in lanes, the whole structure of the port is set up differently. Jacksonville, you’re more like coming in, it’s two lanes. Savannah, you may have 15 lanes. It’s just that big. And you’re pulling up to a machine when you pull up to it, you press a button, you talk to operator, they shoot a ticket out. When they shoot the ticket out, you go to the next gate. And that’s when like security checks you, you open up your doors of your box or whatever. Or if you just bare with a chassis, and you just come in that way. Jacksonville is a lot— It’s a smaller port, so it’s a lot more time-consuming. Let’s just say this. Yeah, a lot of the guys that run for me, they hate to go to Jacksonville.

13:26 Because what I tell you, sometimes, man, you’re sitting in that port you’re you’ll be in that port for 6-7 hours.

13:34 Yeah, I’ve heard some of the horror stories of some drivers that have been there all day. And when they say they close it for.

13:42 Oh, yeah, they close it for. So, that’s the thing like when you do Savannah cuz I used to have a account that went to it was a Samsung account. It picked up at the port in Savannah. And it goes to a Samsung in Groveland, Florida. And we basically completed that each day. So, it was like you get up early in the morning, you want to be to the port early. Everybody knows that. So you want to be there 4:00 in the morning. The Port of Savannah probably doesn’t open until 6:00. But on certain days is when it fluctuates.

14:17 Right.

14:17 So, like a Monday, it’s packed at the port on a Monday. You see what I’m saying? A Monday a Friday, super paydays. But more like a Tuesday, Wednesday you can just I mean, just flowing straight through there. You know, but a Monday and a Friday, you know, it’s packed like that.

14:35 You want to be at the front of the line.

14:37 Oh, oh, yeah, you definitely want to be there.

14:40 Trust me, you definitely want to be at the front of the line at the ports. But yeah, I mean, it’s all interesting, you know what I’m saying? It’s interesting to learn the commerce of different things and how things come about, you know.

14:53 How one fits the other.

14:55 Yeah. Cuz that’s a lot what I like about what I do here with North. North has given me experience and opportunity to see things in stages. So, what I say about that is like you may pick up a fire truck. She may pick up the cab and the chassis. That gets delivered to another place and then you may go to that place and pick up the whole truck itself. But then that gets delivered to another place that where they finish the truck where they put holes and stuff they put the sirens, they put the ladders all that. Then you finally see it as a complete stage. You know, sometimes you see these things I tell a lot of people sometimes you see a fire truck or you see an ambulance or you see a garbage truck, that’s your city garbage truck. It goes through a lot of stages to get to that point.

15:47 Oh, yeah.

15:47 And I see with Norton and with the driveaway situation like you get to see those stages and that’s interesting to me like—

15:56 Yeah, the stages of production. And you’re talking about fire trucks, I know you also the li- deliver fire trucks. What’s it like when you deliver a fire truck to a fire department? I know they’ve got to be thrilled to see that coming in.

16:10 It’s a it’s really amazing because even when you go pick it up you have so many different fire divisions there where they’re like picking out different trucks where the designs and the stages and things like that. So then it’s like when you roll in with that brand new truck to them it’s like they like a kid in the candy store. Like they looking at it like and they like, “Wow, this is so you know, going all through it and it I mean to be honest it’s amazing to me to see because as a kid I’ve always been a into trucks like fire trucks crane trucks, you know, the things you play with so I ain’t going to lie to you but my first time in it I had to step on the horn thing to hear it do the make the noise. I ain’t even going to lie to you, man. I was in traffic and I hit it one time.”

17:01 So I was just like, “Wow.” Like it and I literally text my son and told him, you know and sent him a picture. I said, “I’m really driving a fire truck.” And he couldn’t believe it.

17:13 How old’s your son?

17:15 My son’s 9 years old. So—

17:16 9 years old, he’s got to be digging that.

17:19 Oh, yeah.

17:20 And then so you got your manual certification, specialty qualification, and then of course that specialty qualification allows you to get in the fire truck, but I wanted to kind of hone in on the garbage truck. You kind of take out the trash for Norton, man. You drive a lot of garbage trucks.

17:39 Yeah. Well, I Let’s say this. I tend to see I don’t know. I kind of just like the garbage trucks. I mean even when I got on the team that was on the— They were even asking me. They were like, “Why you like to do so many garbage trucks?” I was like, “Well, you know throughout my career I’ve done you know, sleeper trucks flatbed and you know, containers. I’ve done all that type of stuff. So, the garbage truck’s just different. And it’s just something that kind of like just piqued my interest. So, I was like “Hey, I’d rather just— It didn’t like I tell you, it’s more of a— It’s more like an inside competition with myself, man. Just to see how many of them I can actually do, you know, like—

18:25 I got you.

18:25 How many can you do?

18:27 Man. You’re winning.

18:29 I said you’re winning.

18:30 I mean, hey, I compete with myself, man. I look at— It’s the same [expletive] I’m just being honest. Like it’s like a competition like a almost a I don’t know, man. It’s like a race car driver, you know, when they get in the track. Like if you ever got a chance to drive around the 500. That’s something, you know, if you come to Daytona one time, John. But it’s doing the 500, man. We’ll do it one time. Like you can actually pay to drive around it. Like for real, man.

19:02 That sounds great.

19:03 Yeah.

19:04 Now, 18 years on the road, what’s the craziest—

19:07 Thing you’ve ever seen? Something that really stuck in your mind that I’ll never see something like that again.

19:14 Well, I remember one time I was riding through California. I was on 40 and just to besides California, it was seeing just on the side of road just running and seeing crystal blue water running next to you in the desert. That That freaked me out and I was coming back from California and I remember just this thing like it was like probably year three of me driving and I was coming back from California and I remember seeing we was coming through like Arizona, the desert part going into Arizona. I remember seeing all these trucks pulled over and all these cars pulled over and all these like people with high definition sonic like cameras. It was like National Geographic and they was filming a herd of some type like animals coming down and I remember pulling over and just looking at it and pulling out my phone and calling my mom was like, you know, I was just telling her like, “I can’t believe I’m seeing some of the things that I see out”

20:22 Oh, yeah. That’s cool. Wide open country, man.

20:25 Wide open and just— Yeah, I say this a lot. I don’t mind traveling over broad overseas or whatever, but I think more people should take the time to travel in their own in the United States cuz there’s a lot of things that you would see that would really amaze you.

20:42 Yeah.

20:42 Yeah, a lot to see and I’m going to guess over that 18 years near nearly two decades—

20:47 You’ve met some cool people out on the road. Give us a an example of some really cool people you’ve met.

20:54 Oh, man, I but I meet cool people all the time. I met a little kid at the hotel because he seen the garbage truck. You know, and it’s almost like well, to little kids you’re like a rock star. Cuz most little boys, they love the trucks. So, they love to hear the horns, you know? So, they want to or you pull up next to somebody, all they’re doing is this. They want you, you know? This pulling it like pulling the horn is like a— It’s just a thing I’ve seen since I’ve started driving trucks. Like even now, you’re 18, people still you pull up next to them and they want you to pull the horn and they get like a set I don’t care if it’s a kid, it’s an adult, it’s an older person. Like they once you do it, they you know, it’s just like thumbs up.

21:42 So, like the coolest thing I see it just interaction with people. Just—

21:47 I used to do that as a kid myself. Same thing.

21:51 It? It’s— Yeah, it’s like second nature to people, like I think. They see a truck or whatever it is, they just want you to pull the horn. So, depending on if I’m in the city, yeah, I’m going to pull it or not.

22:06 I got you. Well, Corey, we certainly appreciate you joining us and sharing all your experience, all your information, all your time on the road. Want to talk to you next week about some things closer to home, literally. And you kind of mentioned there about your mother’s background in the military. And you also mentioned having your own trucking company. Can you join us next week and we’ll talk about that?

22:31 Yes, sir, I definitely can.

22:33 All right, well, Corey, thank you for joining us.

22:36 Yes, sir, look forward to it.

22:40 Six-figure—

22:40 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.