00:05 And your own son, does he get into trucking?

00:07 Yes. Oh, man. You’d see him talk about the shifter. You’d see him talk about the stacks. You’d see him talk about the chrome. He can walk over right now and tell you that’s an N14 Cummins motor. Yeah. And he gets it from me. 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.

00:45 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You know, if you listen to us each and every week, you know, this is a platform where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that make our industry go round and round and certainly make Norton Transport a successful company. And we are very grateful for all of them. Now, we have taken the show on the road. We are at the Mid America Truck Show in Louisville, Kentucky. And this place is huge here at the convention hall. Lots of trucks in here, lots of accessories, lots of things that go into the trucking industry. Very intriguing and we’re very lucky to have someone who may have a familiar voice and maybe a familiar face. You may have seen him on some of our social media. Eric Ryan. Eric, how are you?

01:30 I’m doing well, sir. How are you?

01:32 I’m doing great. Doing great. Now, this is Eric’s third time on the podcast.

01:36 Yes, sir.

01:37 Now, what’s it like being in person on the podcast at this huge truck show?

01:44 It’s an honor for real. I this is my type of jam, man. I look forward to the truck shows. It’s my first time coming to the big one. So, it’s kind of like the Super Bowl truck shows in my opinion.

01:54 Gotcha. What stands out the most for you at the truck show? What pulls you in?

01:58 Probably would be the guys that I follow on YouTube, Facebook, seeing what I, you know, the content that I enjoy and then actually get to meet them. Just got able to meet Tim Gentry over here. He’s on the booth next to us. I’ve been following him for about two years, you know. Bought me some merchandise. Bought my son some merchandise because he’s a father and son company trucking team, you know. A lot of stuff he does I understand. I go through it and I enjoy it.

02:26 You are a loyal follower on his social media and what how would you describe what Gentry and Tons does?

02:34 What you see is what you get with him and like what I just when I just met him it everything I put up in my mind to think is he going to be like what he is. He’s just a mom and pop trucking channel. He shows you the good, the bad, the ugly, you know. Just genuine. He’s got a good spirit on it, man. And I wish nothing for the greatness for this guy.

02:55 Now, this is a beautiful rig you see right in front of us.

02:58 Describe it from bumper to bumper—

03:01 Man. Man, man, where would I start? All right. Well, point is it’s a this is a 379 Peterbilt. Beautiful blue color. Got a has a great I would say a gunmetal gray frame sitting on some 225 Peterbilt wheels. One thing that stands out in my mind right now is a standup sleeper, but they actually put Kenworth doors on the sleeper and this is actually Weston Champlain’s truck. How I know that because I follow Weston Champlain and I follow Gentry Suns. The amount of time and effort that went in this truck is truly amazing. You know, a lot of guys will they see a, you know, a 30 minute to a hour clip channel and they think it gets done quick. This has actually been a two-year process. I’ve actually watched this truck grow in 2 years now. Obviously, in the last 6 months, it’s stepped it up, you know, but just to watch this show, to watch the show, the channel on this truck grow as he’s as his has grown. It’s really cool, man. Like I just I appreciate all the hard work that’s went into it and the time like he didn’t just slap it together, you know.

04:02 You know, it’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears you’re looking at. Yeah, it’s shiny. It’s a cat’s meow, but I’m telling you right now, it’s a lot of time right here, man. I mean, I couldn’t imagine the hours, not just in the paint, but just the nut and bolt. This truck literally came off. This is a frame off restoration. You’ve seen it from the start to finish. So I can go back in my brain right now and think, okay, when he did the motor, he painted the motor, when he put the wheels, when he did the cab chassis, all the way back to the rear to the fifth wheel to the tail lights. Then when he took it to SH2, who is right over here, who’s another juggernaut in our industry, they do all chrome, stainless, all this chrome and stainless you see is actually his buddy right over to the left. So he’s a mom and pop company that’s got with another mom and pop company that I respect. That is This is the trucking. This is your trucking channel right here. What’s it like to see this truck in person since you saw the process on the on his social media, but to see it in person, what’s that like? Is that like—

04:57 It’s everything I thought it would be. You know, I you know, like he made it very well known. Hey, it’s not 100% done. It’s 90% done. And I can literally look at the truck and see the 10% the flaws that people or the haters are going to pick him apart, which you can’t pick this truck apart. You know, this is going to be a working man’s truck. It’s a show truck, but I promise you the type of man that Weston is, he’s going to work this truck. He’ll keep it clean, but he’s going to work it. So, man, if I ever get to a point where I go out, buy me a truck, you know, again, and this is exactly what I would get.

05:29 You know, we were talking about before we got here on the podcast, you love trucks.

05:34 Yeah. Yeah.

05:34 And everything about them.

05:35 Yeah.

05:36 Absolutely.

05:37 And how long have you been had that love affair with trucks? Well, I’ve been trucking for 12, but I don’t know, ever since I was teenager, little kid, you know, as far as I can remember, you know, I just always liked hearing that Jake break, you know, that, you know, I was always that kid pop. Do that again. Oh, you know—

05:56 And I’m I love all the motors, you know, from Pack R to Detroit to, you know all of them. But I if anything, I’m more of a Cummins guy and a cat guy. But I respect all of it, you know. I enjoy all aspects of trucking and I like them good old longnose. You can’t beat this style of truck. I mean, this right here, it’s just this is the trucking man’s truck. Long hood, old iron. I mean, they’re just no sensors, no deaf. I mean, this is a runum. This truck right here, you meet this truck on the highway, it’s going to pull any load down the road. It’s going to get it. It’s going to flat out go.

06:32 It’s going to get it done. You know, we certainly appreciate you being on the podcast and making time to come here. And our first guest, Dewey Church, he drove about 20 25 minutes. Not so for you to get here.

06:44 No. No. You know, I like to drive, you know. I think that’s my passion. It was 680 mi from here to get here. But I did it in a rental car, you know. That’s, you know, that’s just easy in a rental car, you know, but I normally run that in a deck load, you know, 650, 680 is what I run when time allows and everything, but that’s legally what I can run. So I knew in a rental car it’ be nothing. And we’re in a very nice hotel. It’s a very good state, very good town. So, I actually have my wife and son with me. They’re going to come up later on tonight. They’re going to have a really awesome night show where I look forward to meeting other content and other creators, other pe other juggernauts, I’d say, that are good, honest people that have good spirit on them. And I look forward to meeting a guy like Troy Massie tonight. You know, that’s another guy like where our booth is located at. I mean, I was really excited to know I was going to be right here. I bought that merch. I spent like 70 bucks, but that ain’t nothing, you know. I just wanted to let them know that, hey, I’m glad that there’s people like this in our industry that keeps people like me going—

07:45 Engaged—

07:46 You know. Yeah. Yeah. You know—

07:47 Are you like a kid in a candy store?

07:49 Yeah, I really am, man. I’m really excited. I look forward to this. And when I when you emailed me and called me personally and invited me to come down here, I was already coming, sir. I just I had other things planned, you know, but of course I’m going to represent my home team. That’s Norton Transport. I’ve been here going almost 7 years and I ain’t going nowhere, you know. This is it.

08:12 Now, we were talking about being a kid in the candy store. And your own son, 9 years old.

08:18 Yes.

08:19 Does he get into trucking?

08:20 Yes.

08:20 How describe this?

08:22 Oh man, I would have brought him with me and you would see him light up. You’d see him talk about the shifter. You’d see him talk about the stacks. You’d see him talk about the chrome. He can walk over right now and tell you that’s an N14 Cummins motor and he’s nine. Yeah. And he gets it from me because when I’m home, we’re on YouTube. We’re out working the garage. We’re out, you know, I don’t personally own a semi. There’s no need for me to own a semi. I haul the nicest equipment in the lower 48. So, but I’m very much a trucker dad. So, he thinks I’m cool. He’s nine. So when he ain’t in boxing and football and wrestling, it’s trucks, man. So—

08:59 That’s got to make you feel good.

09:00 Oh, I love it, man. I absolutely— My only regret is I should have got in trucking earlier in my life, you know? I see my grandpa and everybody else in the family do it, but it just didn’t hit me late. It hit me when I was like 29 and I But I’ve made up for my lost traction. You know what I mean? So—

09:16 You put some miles on the road.

09:17 Yes, absolutely. Now you’re listening to Eric Ryan here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And we’re on the road ourselves taking the show on the road here to Matt’s the Mid-America Trucking Show here in Louisville, Kentucky. And Erica has been kind enough to come up and join us from Oklahoma. Right.

09:36 Yes, sir.

09:37 What part of Oklahoma?

09:37 Right outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’m live a little town called Sperry, Oklahoma.

09:42 Now being just outside of Tulsa and being in love with trucking, that’s a good place to be. Oh, it’s the best, man. It’s a good spot. There’s a lot of trucking companies around us that are thriving. Some good, some bad. You know, right now the markets market’s in a bad spot for guys hauling normal freight. I would say general freight, but the guys that are doing open deck and flatbed and what we do, you know, we’re surviving. You know, the market’s just in a weird spot, but for as a whole as trucking, I’m right smack dab in the middle of a good market. Yeah, absolutely. Now, you’ve been doing this seven years with us. What led you to driveaway Trucking?

10:23 Mid-America Trucking Show?

10:24 Well, if I’m going be totally honest with you, it was my downfall of being an owner operator. I was at the bottom. I was at the, you know, 2017, 2018, the market failed like it’s doing right now. And I was barely getting by. I was broken mentally, emotionally, everything. I was just, you know, I had a guy that that I was close with at the time. He actually worked for you guys and he came over and seen my old truck and it was all ched out and that’s all I cared about was chrome. And he thought I had it going on and I basically showed him, “No, man, I don’t. I’m in the red here.” And he said, “Well, dang. I make the same type of money you make and I don’t own any equipment.” And I called his bluff on it and he showed me his pay scale and I showed him mine and I thought, well, if he’s making that type of money, I know I can outwork him and get that, you know.

11:17 So, I just he opened the door. He called Michael and Michael gave me the opportunity that which I’m forever grateful to this day and I’m loyal to Michael. I took it running, man. I came over here and this is a different atmosphere. You’ve got to be mechanically inclined. You have to be business savvy, but it’s all very teachable. And once I got the door open, I ain’t looked back.

11:42 You’re listening to Eric Ryan here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Now, Eric, you just used the word teachable.

11:48 You’re now a teacher, a trainer, an exact trainer.

11:51 Yes, sir.

11:51 Tell us about that.

11:53 Well, I think it’s where my passion’s turning into. I give it all to Norton because I give it all right back. So, the guys that I train, you know I don’t care how old you are, what background you come from. I just got to know if you got that dog in you. And what I mean by that is you’re going to go out here and you’re going to bust your butt for your family and you’re going to provide and you’re going to do the best you can do. And I’m going to know that within three or four hours waiting with you. Going to know that over the two weeks I spend with you on the phone before I even meet you—

12:24 Cuz I’m putting time into you because when I get you on the road, it’s going to be me and you for 6 to 8 weeks because I got to know before I sign off on you that you’re going to be safe, thorough, and you’re going to be a dog and you’re going to go on the hunt and you’re going to represent the same company I represent, you know? So, all that comes back to being teachable—

12:41 Right? You got to be teachable. You know, if you’re coming over with your own mindset, this is different. You know, we don’t are we are contractors. We have dispatchers you work with directly. You know, if you can’t be acceptable to going to take a load and this a load you’ve got, it’s got to be on time. It’s got to deliver and you got to be safe and thorough. And if I tell you, hey, we’re going to do it this way, we’re do it this way. If you know, if it’s not going to work out for you, then it’s probably just not going to work out. But I don’t I haven’t had one guy fail or quit because they just couldn’t do the job. This job is very trainable to do.

13:17 You were saying that you use a process.

13:20 Yes. Yes. I’m pretty much militant when it comes to that. It’s I try to use it very relatable. I use it in four quarters or however you want to break it down. This is a process of first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter type of process from setting up to delivery. And I just try to break that down where I make it easy because I like I tell guys, we’re this is a thousand moving pieces and I’m trying to get it all done in one section, you know? So, it’s a lot of things have to be moving from the time you pick up your load to the time you deliver your load and then planning your next load. And everything has to be involved there from your e-log to your travel to your customer. Everybody has to be on one accord. And you have to have a system in place. If not, you’ll get caught what I call lost in the sauce, you know, and you’ll make this job too hard for yourself. And it and it’s not this job is very rewarding as far as flying rental cars, hotels. It has a lot of great perks to it.

14:20 A lot of great perks. But you just got to get in the system.

14:23 And yeah, you’re on the go all the time.

14:24 All the time. Yes, sir.

14:25 And if you’re listening to Eric, you can tell you can sense the passion in his voice about what he does for a living. And now he’s branched out and he’s been training other deck drivers and that’s a very desirable job. We know this internally that a lot of people want to move to the deck side. What would be your top traits of a deck driver?

14:47 Hard work. Hard work and determination. Like it all goes back to being that dog. You got to let me know. Hey, cuz some days when you’re out there training, you know, because of the area, you go north northeast, you know, like say if you start off in von army at our yard and you might be able to get off 650 mi or you might only get off 500 miles because now I might be 18t long and he might be 97 ft long or vice versa. I’ve got to know when we start off where we’re going to stop at night time cuz that load is most important. There’s some areas you can’t park at, some hotels you can’t park at. Now, it’s not only me I’m worried about. Now, it’s the guy I’m training I’m worried about. And I take pride in his safety cuz I want him to go home to his family. And, you know, a lot of guys are want to know how much money you can make. You can make great money doing this, but it ain’t no good if you’re not safe. You know, that it all goes back to safety and productivity. I mean, you got to move.

15:44 So, some days you’ll run 500, some days you run 600. And the days you can only run 300 miles. Well, it might be because you run 300 miles and then you’ve been somewhere at a customer for 4 to 5 hours on decade, you know. So, it’s a lot of give and take, but it’s a balance. It’s a sweet balance. And with that system that I’ve came up with, it’s the pedigree is what I call it. It’s a beautiful science.

16:04 Gotcha. Now, we’ve been talking a lot about trucking driving and we’re going to go on the personal side of Eric Ryan.

16:10 Everybody knows you as Big E.

16:12 Yes. There’s a story there and I’m seeing you in person. You look great. And tell us the backstory on where Big E came from.

16:22 Oh man. Well, I come from Oklahoma. You know, my size on Big E, I guess you could say. I was almost 500 lb. I let myself go there for a while. You know, I was mentally strong, getting financially strong, spiritually strong, but on the physical side of it, I just had let myself go. When I was 500 lb doing this very strainous job and I just got to the point where I was like, “Hey I can’t do this no more at this size.” So, I went and had weight loss surgery and then I got in the gym and I’ve lost 250 lbs in a year and it’s been the best thing for my life. I’m 38 years old and I’m in my prime and I’m on the hunt and I look forward to see what life gives me in the next 10, 15, 20 years because I truly feel unstoppable with my mindset and my work ethic and now only being you know having a BMI of 29% it’s amazing because I had a BMI of 49%.

17:19 Okay. So, to cut that all down with a little over a year and to enjoy eating healthy and being in the gym at these hotels, it’s given me a greater outlook on life.

17:30 I would say that your get up and go has been energized.

17:33 Yes. Like I it’s mind it’s mindboggling to me really how I was so productive and I was safe and could do what I do because getting on top of these trucks, running that hoist, running them crane, bending up, getting down, getting under a ZAR, I don’t know how I did it being that big. I but I did because, you know, I’m just a hard worker. My work ethic speaks for itself. But now being 250 lbs, good luck stopping me now. You know what I mean? I guess, you know, the way you were able to do that is like what you said, you had that dog in you.

18:05 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When it’s time to eat, it’s time to go. You know—

18:08 That’s a good way to wrap it up here. Eric Ryan, Bigg E here at Matt’s the Mid America Truck Show. And Eric, thank you for joining us. And last question. What would you say to someone who is thinking about jumping into driveaway?

18:22 If you’re thinking about it, you need to call one of our recruiters immediately and come on. The I think the worst thing I ever did was wait this long to be a deck driver. It’s changed my life in all aspects and I wish this for everybody. Come on, come over and get you some. There you have it from Big E. 20 minutes with Big E. Couldn’t have had a better time. Thank you very much, E.

18:42 Thank you, sir.

18:48 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.