00:05 Well, I try to treat people like I would want to be treated. So, if I say I’m going to do something, you know, I try to do what I say I’m going to do.

00:17 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. Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And each and every one of you that joins us every week, you know that on this space we elevate and celebrate the truck drivers, all the drivers of this country and specifically those for Norton Transport. Without them, we couldn’t do what we do. Now, this week, we have a very special person who is on the show with us. One that’s near and dear and close to our heart in the Norton Transport office, Miss Mary Timmons. We call her affectionately, Miss Mary. How are you, Miss Mary?

01:09 I’m fine, thank you.

01:10 Now, as you guys know, you’ve heard us referenced before. Our office is in Ringgold, Georgia, which is right off of I-75. If you’re going southbound on 75, as soon as you cross into the Georgia line there, where the first exit off of I-75 on the right hand side. And Miss Mary is a local driver. Miss Mary, how far away from our office would you say your home is?

01:34 About 30 miles.

01:36 About 30 miles away. And Miss Mary runs a lot of local runs. Now, tell us about we’ll get into the shuttles that you do in just a minute, but you also run a lot of local runs. What makes it appealing for you to stay close to home?

01:51 Well, I’ve got older and I don’t have nobody to watch after my animals so I can be there to take care of them and everything.

02:01 Now, speaking of your animals, you’ve got quite a few.

02:04 Yes.

02:04 Tell us.

02:05 I’ve inherited some more. How many animals do you have—

02:09 At my house? I have like five—

02:12 Cats, dogs, a mixture. What—

02:14 There? Five dogs and one cat.

02:17 Gotcha. That’s a lot to take care of.

02:20 Yes, it is.

02:21 What are the dogs names?

02:23 There is a River. He’s a pitbull. And Jabby is a Chihuahua mix. And Little Bit is a Chihuahua mix. Then I got George. He is a Chihuahua mix. And then I have a little bitty. She is really my son’s girlfriend’s dog, but she stays out here with me.

02:47 She’s really your dog.

02:48 Yeah.

02:50 Now, we were talking about the local runs you make. You make some from Ulta, Chattanooga to Carterville when th those are available. Tell us let’s kind of segue into— We have a client, a customer that’s about an hour and 15 minutes away from our office and it’s one of our biggest customers. We won’t refer to them by name, but they’re a large garbage truck manufacturer. And all you drivers out there listening, you know who we’re talking about, but they’re a large garbage truck manufacturer. And I refer to Miss Mary as the CEO of operations down there. And there’s a reason. Tell us, Miss Mary, from your perspective, from your standpoint, what you do in relationship to this garbage truck manufacturer each and every day.

03:33 Well, I go down there and I sign the paperwork. I check it to make sure that it is our truck. Then I inspect the trucks and then I take them two miles from the plant to our lot.

03:47 Now, just so you guys understand, this is these this company produces a hundreds and hundreds of trucks each year. They produce very very a large number of trucks. And Miss Mary has driven since we’ve been in business with this company. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these trucks. And I guess it is just a two-mile run, but there’s still a process. Some of them are compressed natural gas, some are diesel. And that process, we have a yard, as Miss Mary said, a couple of miles away. I think it’s about a 2 acre yard that we store before they go to final destination. Now, what kind of process? You’ve gotten to know a lot of the people at this plant pretty well.

04:26 Yes, I got to know a guy that like brings them over. There’s two guys now. Plowboy, I call him Plow Boy. His name is Chester, but his nickname is Plow Boy. He if I have a problem, I usually call him and he comes over and helps me. Then there’s David. He always comes over. He brings the trucks over to where I pick them up and if I got a problem, they’re always there to help me out.

04:56 Now, we Miss Mary is a person she’s very humble. She’s not going to toot her own horn, but we’re very proud to have Miss Mary because of the type of attention to detail that she demonstrates every day. And particularly, let’s kind of zero in on your recordkeeping. You know, sometimes there have been cases where we couldn’t determine something about a truck or about its location or which truck was which one. And you would have it in your own paperwork.

05:26 Yes.

05:27 Yeah. I got I keep records of everything and keep the kind of truck it is, if it’s a right-hand drive or what kind of diesel, natural gas. I keep up with all that. Have you always been meticulous and kept good records ever since you’ve been in this business?

05:45 Yes, I keep a lot of it for my records for my tax purposes.

05:52 Right now, you’ve been with Norton Transport for quite some time. Tell us about when you signed on with Norton and what it’s been like in that amount of years that you’ve been with us.

06:04 Well, I think I signed on in 2009. I’m not really sure about the year, but they’ve always treated me like family and I’d worked for other companies, but it was a little hard for me to keep up with everything with like all the different companies. So, Norton treated me like family, so I stayed with them.

06:26 You know, it’s always a pleasure and a treasure when you come into the office. You know, you pop in from time to time and what’s it like for you to come in and see everybody? Oh, it’s great. I mean, I love to come in there and see everybody. You know, it’s I guess they treat me just like family. So there I Everybody speaks to me and everything. So, you know, it’s exciting to come to the office.

06:53 Yeah. Truly, Miss Mary is one of our own. We appreciate all the service she’s done for us. And one thing that comes to mind a lot of time if you play Ward Association with Miss Mary, it’s reliable. What makes you so reliable? Because when you say you’re going to do something, 100 times out of 100 times you’re going to do it.

07:12 I try to keep my word. When I say I’m going to do something, if at all possible, I will do that.

07:19 Now, that’s a fact. I can tell you from working with her hand in hand, every day when she says it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. And we appreciate that kind of reliability, that kind of dependability. And where does it come from within you? I mean, is it something that came up from your family? Is it just a personal choice or h how does that come to be?

07:42 Well, I try to treat people like I would want to be treated. So, if I say I’m going to do something, you know, I try to do it. That’s the way I would want if somebody’s going to tell me they’re going to do something, I look forward for them to do it. So, I guess I had a rough coming up last time. So, I try to do what I say I’m going to do.

08:07 I gotcha. I got you. That’s a great quality, a great characteristic, great trait to have. And we’re very pleased that you’re on our side and working for us here at Norton Transport. You’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And we have Mary Timmons on the line with us. Miss Mary as she is affectionately known inside and outside of the office. Now you came on board with Norton at about 2009, but you had been driving before then. Is that correct?

08:35 Yes, I started driving in 2000. I drove for US Express for five years. Then I drove for trans drive delivered school buses for I guess four years. And then after that, I drove for quality. I didn’t do that much for quality. And Bennett and Mammo. I really didn’t like those companies. So then I went to Norton and I stayed there.

09:07 How did you find Norton or did Norton find you?

09:10 Well, I was friends with got to be friends. I worked with Tanya and Tanya Bthoon and she told me about them.

09:19 Tanya’s another driver for us if you guys are listening in. And so you guys work that relationship together? Yes, we even ran like ran together for a lot of years.

09:31 Do you stay in touch with Tanya?

09:32 Yes. I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days, but I try to.

09:38 Gotcha. Now, let’s talk a little bit about you know, you came into Norton through the relationship with another driver. How would you describe the network out there among drivers? I mean, you kind of in a way are in a different category because you run so many short local runs, but how would you describe the network among drivers?

10:00 Well, they communicate. I mean, you know, I’ve had drivers call me and ask me a lot of questions and if I know I’ll try to tell them. If I can help them, I’ll try to help them. And, you know, they do the same for me. So—

10:14 Miss Mary is underscore, she’s minimizing what she does. Again, she is the CEO of operations of our with our plant there in Fort Payne, Alabama. Talking about, you made a really good point about drivers reaching out to you. We point drivers toward you when they have problems maybe with some of the mechanics or some of the instrumentation on the panels of these garbage trucks. And you’ve really gotten familiar with these trucks and a lot of the intricacies of how they operate. And how often do you help a driver out? I mean, that happens quite frequently.

10:49 Yes. Usually at least once or twice a week, somebody will call and ask something.

10:55 Is that rewarding to you to be able to help somebody out?

10:58 Oh, yes.

10:59 I guess you remain an open book to continue to learn the ins and the outs of these trucks because they’re pretty sophisticated trucks.

11:07 Yes. Yeah. I tend to learn something new every day usually about them.

11:13 Walk us through your pre-trip inspection of one of these trucks before you pick it up. Start us from the beginning and walk us through it to the end.

11:19 Okay. Well, I usually pick them up, then I will crank them. I turn the lights on. You’re supposed to check the oil in the water. Do that before you crank it. And then turn the lights on. Walk around. Check to make sure the mirrors, no windshields are cracked, there’s no vents or anything on the truck, and that all the lights and everything is working and there’s steel in them.

11:49 Gotcha. Because sometimes you can run into some cases where some of those things don’t check out.

11:54 Yeah, that’s right. I have been had to put fuel in quite a few of them. So—

12:00 Guess they work on them there at the plant and sometimes the fuel gets to a low level. And of course, we are very appreciative of the fact that you check that fuel level so our drivers are not kind of left, you know, with an empty truck when they come to pick up.

12:16 Yes. I always try to make sure they got enough to at least make it to the service station.

12:21 I got you. I got you. Now, I was talking earlier this week with Calvin Norton, our owner, and had mentioned to him that I was going to talk to you on the Six-Figure Trucker, and he had recalled, I mean, I in my limited time at Norton, I’ve always pictured Miss Mary’s running the local runs, but that was not always the case because Calvin said that you and him used to run the chilopathies.

12:47 Yes, we did that quite a few times. When was that and what was it like?

12:52 I really enjoyed running to chill coffee. That I love doing the Kenworth truck and Calvin’s just a great person to run with. I mean, you know, he gets out there and works just like anybody else would. You wouldn’t consider him a boss. He’s just like another driver.

13:11 Right. Right. That’s definitely that’s spot on right there. You’re listening to Mary Timmons here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We know her as Miss Mary. And Miss Mary, you’ve got a day off. You and I have been working together today. And just to kind of lay out the groundwork here, not too much inside baseball, but this plant we were referencing at the end of every month, last day or next to last day of the month, they’ve got to move some trucks off of their plant yard and onto our yard or other carriers yards. And we’ve had some days where what’s the most you’ve moved in one day, Miss Mary? 42.

13:50 You moved 42 trucks in one day?

13:52 Yes, that’s at the end of the month.

13:54 That is amazing. How tired were you?

13:57 I was real tired. I think I slept all day the next day.

14:01 42 trucks. I guess you had to start early in the morning.

14:04 Well, I think I started that was I started at 12. I might have started at 11 that day and then I think it was 1:00 before I got through. I think I was talking to you and I had two trucks to go—

14:19 Now. 42 trucks and your son is your chaser. Is that right?

14:23 Well, he was, but he has another job. So, my daughter is helping me now.

14:29 I gotcha. Now, what do you guys do? Obviously with 42 trucks, you were running trucks all day long, no breaks, but what do you do in the downtime? How do you guys occupy your time when you’re waiting for the next truck to come off the line? We got puzzle books that we were and we were on our phones on Facebook and all that.

14:51 Staying busy doing this.

14:52 Yeah. And sometimes we take nap, not take a nap. But with 42 trucks, there was no no break.

15:00 No naps to be had there.

15:02 Yeah.

15:02 Now you’ve got the pleasure of a day off tomorrow and then you’re back at it Monday. How does Miss Mary spend her time off? Well, usually I’m if I if my house is clean, which I’m going to have to do my house cleaning tomorrow, I’m usually on my couch with my animals watching the Hallmark Channel.

15:21 I gotcha. The Hallmark Channel is your go-to.

15:24 Yeah. Uhhuh.

15:25 Gotcha. Now, I wanted to talk a little bit about trucks here. Do you have a favorite type or a name truck that you like to drive over another one?

15:36 Yes, I love the Kenworth. What about a Kenworth makes it your favorite?

15:41 They’re just easy to drive and I don’t know, I just fell in love with them. But I do a lot of the Peterbilts and they that they’re getting easier.

15:52 Is that true also in the garbage truck world, the Peterbilts?

15:55 Yes.

15:56 Gotcha. Now, we were talking about this, you said at the very beginning, you’re 74 years young. You’ve been doing this for a while and it looks like there’s no end in sight for you. Just keep going. Keep chugging along every day.

16:09 Yes. I feel like that I’m going to do it as long as they let me and as long as I’m able, you know.

16:17 Obviously, we’re very grateful for all the work you do down at the plant. And you were saying you were going to do it as long as you’re able and there looks like you look great every time we see you.

16:30 Well, thank you. I am getting older and you know I’m sure the time will come when I will hang it up.

16:38 But you don’t see that time anytime soon.

16:40 I hope not.

16:42 We hope not also. Well, Miss Mary, thank you so much for joining us. And is there anything you would offer as a piece of advice for somebody who’s been doing this? We’re close to a quarter of a century. If somebody’s considering going into driveaway transport, what would your advice be to them? Well, sometimes it’s nerve-wracking, so you have to stick in there and it’s not going to always go your way, but you just have to stick with it and you know, it all works out in the end. Really, just have to get your mind that you’re going to do it.

17:16 Those are some wise words from Mary Timmons, Miss Mary. Miss Mary, thank you so much for joining us and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

17:23 All right. Thank you.

17:27 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.