00:06 But once you learn it and learn where you can go, where the trucks are at, how to move around the country, you’ll probably make more money doing this than you will any other thing that you’ve done.

00:20 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.

00:44 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And each and every one of you, if you join us each Thursday, you know this is a space where we celebrate and elevate the truck drivers, particularly the ones that work for Norton Transport. We’re very grateful for everything they do. It’s not always a glorious job. It’s not always a limelight. There’s a lot of challenges and struggles that go with it, but a lot of successes if you’re able to connect the dots and make everything line up. And joining us tonight is Kevin Stallcop. Kevin, how are you?

01:14 I’m doing good. How are you tonight? I’m great. I’m great. I’m joining you from the home studios, also known as my home. Just down the road, just down the road from the Norton Transport Office, which is located in Ringgold, Georgia, right off of I-75. As you come down into Georgia, we’re the first exit. Once you get into Georgia, we’re on the right. You can basically see the freeway from our office. And sometimes from time to time, drivers stop in and get a chance to meet them in person. It’s always great to put a name with a face. And we usually hook them up with merchandise. Kevin, have you ever been to our home office?

01:50 I have been there. It doesn’t look like your typical trucking company.

01:55 Yeah, it’s a fun place to work. We like it. It’s got a very comfortable environment, very comfortable space to work. And did you get some merchandise when you came through? If not, we got to hook you up next time you come through.

02:07 Well, I did not actually. I was kind of in a hurry and I didn’t get anything, but I have got a couple t-shirts after that. Okay, we’ll hook you up with some trucker hats or some of the fitted hats, whatever blows your skirt up. We can get something for you there. Hats, sweatshirts. We just got—

02:25 We just got through the sweatshirt line of merchandise through the winter and now we’re moving into the summer wear. But, we look forward to seeing you, Kevin, when you drop in. And right now, tell us where you are and what you’re doing. You were sharing with me earlier. It’s sort of one of the cards you may be dealt in the driveaway trucking world.

02:45 Absolutely. It happens every now and then, but not too often. Actually, in a rental car I picked up at O’Hare Airport, and I’m sitting at an Enterprise car rental place after hours and trying to find a ride to my next truck. And right now, there’s no lifts or Ubers or taxi cabs available, but we’ll find something. We’ll go out here and flag down somebody and start hitchhiking if we have to. I got you. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

03:11 Absolutely.

03:12 So, did you just come off of a run that took you to the airport? I mean, as far as getting the rental.

03:17 Well, I flew out of Pittsburgh to Chicago.

03:21 Okay. Okay. What was Did you have a run up to Pittsburgh?

03:24 Yes.

03:25 Okay. What’d you drive up to Pittsburgh?

03:27 It was a Freightliner box truck.

03:31 Okay. How’d it ride?

03:32 It rode pretty decent. I get them quite often.

03:35 Was that an M2 Freightliner? Yes, it was.

03:39 The 106, I would imag— Yeah, they’re not bad little trucks.

03:45 Yeah, there’s a lot of them on the road. You see a bunch of those moving vans and such that are Freightliner M2 106 box trucks.

03:52 Yep. That’s one thing about driveaway. You never know what you’re going to get next.

03:55 What’s up next for you after you get your Uber lift or taxi cab?

03:59 I’m supposed to be getting a two steering axle heavy duty crane. Oh, so you must be a Class A driver.

04:07 I am a Class A driver.

04:09 What’s it like driving a crane? I mean, when you got that, Is this going to be one that’s over the cab or by all behind the cab or—

04:15 No, it’s over the cab. Really, I don’t mind them too bad. I’m not a big fan of permitted loads, but, you know, once you look at what you got to do with each state and kind of obey the rules, you know, it’s not bad. Pays decent on them, but I do like the two steering axles. I really didn’t think I would, but they ride really good.

04:38 I was—

04:39 And you wouldn’t think that they would.

04:40 That was my next question. What do you like about them? But that’s I guess you just answered the question.

04:44 Yeah. Yeah. It see it seems like when the front steering axle hits a pothole, the back axle holds you up.

04:52 I see.

04:53 It just kind of floats over them. It they really ride pretty good. It surprised me. We’re not going to say as far as a Cadillac riding good, but it rides good.

05:00 No, no, no, no. Especially in some states, you know, it’s worse than others.

05:05 It’s a commercial truck, but if you can find a commercial truck that rides good, that’s a good thing.

05:10 Yes.

05:11 Now, I have heard from I’ve heard from other drivers here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. One of the best riding trucks out there tractor- wise is a Peterbilt. Is—

05:21 I like the Peterbilt and I do like the Volvo. The new Volvos are nice. What separates them from others?

05:28 I don’t know. They just— The new Volvo, that new body style, man, it rides great and it’s qu super quiet. We get those out of Dublin, Virginia. And I really enjoy going out there and getting them.

05:39 Mhm. They go to various places.

05:42 Yes, they do.

05:43 Do you run a lot out of Dublin?

05:45 I do. I like that run because here lately I’ve been able to get back to Indiana where I live and you guys have had a lot of stuff coming out of there back to Evansville or Clarksville, Indianapolis. I like that and it frees me up to pick up something either come back home or pick something and go back out with. So it’s a pretty good run for me.

06:08 Get you relatively close to Brazil, Indiana.

06:10 Yes.

06:11 Gotcha. Now, I’ve learn I’ve learned over the years to really watch and know where I can get trucks easy and you know where I can run, where I can’t. It helps the bottom line like that.

06:24 Gotcha. So, you’re in Chicago now at O’Hare. That’s a large airport. And where’s your next run? Where’s it taking you?

06:32 I’m picking up Whitewater, Wisconsin, and going to Auburn, Indiana with it. And then I’ve got another truck in Dayton, Ohio. It’s supposed to go to Fort Worth, Texas.

06:42 Okay. It’s always a good run going down to Texas.

06:45 It is. It is. I like that. I should be back home on Friday evening, I believe.

06:51 That’s good.

06:52 Late Friday night, early Saturday morning.

06:54 Now, you and I were talking last night. You got a late start last night, but it was intentional. You left out about midnight. Is that right?

07:03 Yes.

07:04 Tell us how you planned that.

07:07 How I planned it. I don’t mind running at night a lot of times, but I was able to stop by my home and, you know, I was able to got a shower and everything. Got cleaned up and saw my wife for a little bit and then I took off again. You know, run all night and got out there and delivered day and, you know, took some time off and it’s worked out for me. You know, you learn how to plan things and just run with it.

07:34 Do you prefer driving at night over day driving? I would rather drive in the daytime. A lot of drivers like driving at night because, you know, especially in the summer, it’s a little cooler and, you know, equipment runs better and less traffic and stuff like that, but I’m just not a night shift guy really. I’d prefer to run daylight hours where I can see the countryside.

07:55 Gotcha. Now, speaking of the countryside, you’ve been in trucking for a long time. Tell us, you were telling me, you were sharing me a funny story last night, how you, as far as the CDL license and your first exposure into trucking, you were kind of, in your words, quote unquote, grandfathered in.

08:14 I was able to grandfather the CDL license when they come into effect. A trucking company was needing some help and I had owned trucks. I owned trucks before I could ever even drive them. Anyway, my dad, he drove trucks for this company and it was a large dry bulk carrier and they was needing some extra help and they end up putting me on and normally you have to have at least two years experience to be able to get insured and drive for them, but they needed help really bad and they kind of worked around that and put me in the truck. I worked for them for about two weeks and the job was over with at that point. And then when CDLs come out, the terminal manager gave me a letter saying that I had the two years over the road experience because that’s a requirement for that company.

09:01 So I grandfathered my CDL.

09:04 That’s awesome, man. You know, you pick your advantages where you can find them.

09:08 Absolutely. Absolutely. When opportunities come along, you got to take them. So that that happened. And like I said, I had been in involved in trucking about all my life, been around it. You know, my dad drove trucks. He’s 83 years old and he still wants to drive, you know, quite a bit when he can. So—

09:26 Still—

09:27 I’ve been around it. And—

09:29 Your dad still drives?

09:31 He does. He does occasionally. He does occasionally. And last year, last year he ran quite a bit. He had a run from Indianapolis to St. Louis or St. Louis, Missouri. Every day he run that and then this year he’s kind of backed off now. So—

09:48 Well, that’s amazing. He still likes— Yeah, he still likes to haul grain in the fall.

09:52 He’s a farmer.

09:53 Farmers out.

09:54 Yep. Y—

09:55 Farmer by trade, trucker by extension.

09:59 Oh, yeah. It gets in your blood. You know, you once it gets in your blood, you got to do it. So—

10:04 Now it’s been in your blood a long time. You were talking about you had your truck before you could drive. You yourself professionally—

10:12 You’ve had many walks in the trucking world. Tell us kind of walk us through everything you’ve done. I have I’ve done everything you can do in the trucking industry with the exception of working in the shop and I know my limitations. I’d probably tear up more stuff than I fix. But I worked at Great Dane Trailers when I got right out of high school. So I’ve built semi-trailers. I’ve done freight sales for different trucking companies. I did that for over 25 years. Working with dispatch and load planners and stuff. I was outside sales. So, I run the roads going around visiting customers and whining and dining them and getting new contracts to haul. So, you know, I done a lot of that. I’ve owned trucks. I actually own bought a semi before I was ever old enough to even drive the thing. You know, I w I if I remember right, I think I was like 19 when I bought my first semi and put a driver in it. And, you know, we ran that for quite a while and then my dad, he ended up having a trucking company and I got to drive for him some.

11:16 So, I drove a lot part-time on once I got old enough. And then, you know, I it just kind of with me doing freight sales, I still ran the road once in a while in a truck whenever one of my dad’s drivers needed me. And I just kind of done it like that. And then when COVID hit, I kind of lost quite a bit of the freight sales business. So, I end up then started doing the driveaway. And I really enjoy that. I think that as far as trucking goes for me, it’s one of the best fits that I’ve had as far as driving job. It gives me the most flexibility and probably the highest pay of anything I’ve ever done in trucking. So, I do enjoy it.

11:58 Now, tell you said you owned a semi when you were 19 years old. What was your first semi?

12:03 It was a 9670 international cabover and I believe it was a 1982.

12:12 Okay. Oh, it was a it was actually a glider kit. So, somebody had pulled a 79 Train Star engine, transmission, rear ends, all that stuff, and put it on a new cab. So, it was not the best truck in the world, but I got into it and got my feet wet and, you know, we ran it for a while and kind of went on from there. So, yeah, I’ve been in trucking pretty much all my life. Now—

12:40 I remember when I was a kid going where my dad worked going up there and he had the old air starters on the Emeryville Internationals.

12:48 Well, that that takes you back to the 60s.

12:51 That’s going back a minute. Now did you ever in your course in the trucking industry, did you ever bump docks? Were you doing that, too?

13:00 I did a little bit of it, but we run quite a bit of automotive freight and most of that was dropping hook on a lot. Once in a while we’d have to hit the docks with it, especially to get loaded—

13:11 Which I would say probably 90% of the drive freight was all drop and hook.

13:16 I got you.

13:17 Which that was nice. And it ran right through our house, so our drivers was home every day.

13:22 What type of automated automotive freight did you guys you haul?

13:26 We run transmissions from Allison transmissions. We also run out of Columbus, Indiana. We run Cummins diesel engines for the Dodge pickup trucks. We’ve done a lot of that.

13:40 Gotcha.

13:41 We run some stuff. We run some stuff to I believe it was Toledo, Ohio to the Jeep plant for Chrysler. We ran up there. We had various contracts with the hot automotive parts.

13:56 Was that a profitable sector?

13:57 It was. And it was easy. Because like I said, most of the stuff would run right back through Interstate 70 where we lived there in Brazil, Indiana. It was easy in and out. Our drivers liked it. Some of the runs we had was long runs. And one driver would go get the load, come back into Brazil, the other one would take and run on over to St. Louis and back. And you know, so our drivers enjoyed that. They had regular hours and home time. And that’s something you normally don’t get in the trucking industry. Gotcha.

14:28 And then late later on we started doing some flatbed. We had the knogga trailers. We run some flatbed freight, you know, in the Midwest and mids south.

14:37 Gotcha. Gotcha. You had noted earlier in the driveaway you liked it for the flexibility and you said that it you had earned the most you ever had in trucking. How were you able to line things up where you can make it the most profitable for Kevin? You just got like I said earlier, you really got to watch where your trucks are at where you know you got to it probably has one of the largest learning curves of anything in trucking that there is because I remember like I said I done freight sales so I run all over the country doing sales before I stayed in hotels been in trucking you know you had your sleeper on there you get tired you just pull over and sleep or when you’re done with your shift but with driveaway. The first run I done, I took off with it. I delivered the truck. I handed the guy the keys and I thought, “Okay, now what do I do? I’m stranded.” I’d never taken a cab before in my life.

15:35 So, it was a major learning curve for me to learn how to move around. And now it’s like the old movie, you know, planes, trains, automobiles, you know, you just you do what you got to do to move, you know, and you learn where you can get trucks at where they’re, you know, most of them are staged where the big plants are at that you can move out of and you take what you can get. I’m not worried about deadheading a as a general rule. I have delivered out on Long Island, New York, and my next truck was in Sacramento, California. But, you know, if I got to rent a car and drive five hours to pick up something, five hours on a plane, it put me to a truck. So, I’m not worried about it if it’s the right truck going the right direction with the right miles.

16:22 Exactly. Well said. Now, you were talking about not worried about deadhead. Would and the learning curve that comes within driving and driveaway. Would you say at this point be honest, not modest, would you say you’ve mastered the learning curve?

16:40 No, I don’t think I ever will. I’ve gotten a lot better at it. You know, it’s a whole lot easier. But there’s still places you think that you’re going to be able to get out of pretty easy. Like just like the situation I’m in right now. I mean, I’m up here in Wisconsin. You wouldn’t think you’d have a lot of problem with a Uber or Lyft getting out of here, but this time of day there’s just nothing available. So, I’m just sitting here. I will probably end up after our conversation, I’ll probably end up getting a hold of a cab company or something or moving or there’s a hotel right behind me here. I may just go ahead and go to bed and get the truck in the morning when I can actually get a ride out of here. So, it’s just one of those type of situations.

17:23 You strike me as a man that has a lot of flexibility and patience. Is that true within your personality?

17:28 You have to have patience with this job. You can’t you cannot do this job if you don’t have patience. And one, it’s the driving, dealing with drivers and stuff like that. That’s— Yeah, that’s definitely one area that you got to have patience with. But I’ve also learned with this job, you spend a lot of time in airports and when you walk through that airport door into secure past security, you’re at their mercy. You know, you might make your flight, you might not. It depends on the weather. You just you don’t get it too excited. Just hang in there and when you get stranded someplace, just figure it out. Figure out a way to move.

18:06 Just roll.

18:07 You know, I have—

18:09 I have talked to—

18:10 Absolutely. I have talked to people in restaurants before and said, you know, if you’re ask them if they’re going a certain direction, I’ll give them, you know, some money to take me someplace, get me to a different town to where I can get a ride out. I know that sounds weird, but you do what you got to do—

18:26 Right? Have you ever taken a bus? Have you I know a lot of drivers still use buses. Is that something you do?

18:32 Oh, yes. Yes, I’ve taken bus. I even I’ve taken Amtrak a few times and I like that in certain situations because you kick back and relax and you got the dining car on there and you know, it works out pretty good. I was in the DC area and I went I was actually go going down to Dublin, Virginia to pick up one. And I took rode the train to Rowan Oak and that was that just worked out pretty nice, you know. I mean I had some time off. I was able to relax and see the country. I’d never rode train like that before. So—

19:04 It worked out.

19:05 Always opportunities.

19:07 Always opportunities. I was I delivered in the state of Washington. I believe it was Kelso, Washington. And it was going to cost me I don’t know like a couple hundred dollars to get from there back down to Portland. And I actually where I delivered the guy, he told me, he said, “Man,” he said, “I can take you over here.” He said, “The Amtrak station.” He said, “Ride the train?” He said, “It’s $14 to ride the train to Portland.” Wow. So, I rode the train to Portland and then I Ubered from there to the airport. You know, I mean, you learn how to do it and save money. And that’s part of the learning curve.

19:36 Well, you obviously saved a good bit of good chunk of change there by doing that. And—

19:41 Oh, yes. I wanted to say wanted to reintroduce Kevin Stallcop to those who may be just joining us now here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Kevin is one of our top drivers in Norton Transport. We’re lucky to have him. We’re very grateful to have him. And Kevin we I came across your name by recommendation from your team. So obviously your team thinks a lot about you and I’m sure the same is true for you about them.

20:08 Yep. Well, I appreciate that. You know, everybody that I’ve worked with at Norton, Norton’s always been really nice. I’ve not had any issues there.

20:16 We always ask this question of drivers when we get them on the Six-Figure Trucker. Tell us about first describe the relationship with your team and a and b, how important is that relationship?

20:28 It’s very important. I mean, your team will help you find trucks and things, but I’m also I have a little bit different situation than most because we get a lot of stuff out of Brazil, Indiana, and I actually used to work at the factory where we get stuff out of. So, it’s like three miles from my house. I know a lot of what’s going on out there before Norton even does. The dispatcher, the shipping manager there in my hometown will call me and say, “Hey, I’m getting ready to give Norton something here. Do you want this?” You know, let them know. So, I’ll call dispatch and say, “Hey, you got this truck coming up.” And you know, you’re going to be getting it. I want it. So, sometimes that works out pretty well for me. And that’s just a different situation probably than a lot of people have, a lot of our drivers have. But dispatch works with you very well. And they’ll learn where you like to run, where you don’t like to run. I am not, and I don’t know anybody that is, but I’m not a fan of the I-95 corridor from Richmond up into Connecticut.

21:34 I just don’t like the traffic that you have to deal with. I’ll run New York City. I’ll run Long Island, east and west all day long. I just don’t like going north and south. And dispatch knows that.

21:45 Gotcha. Well, that kind of knowledge you were talking about having from the factory and their dispatch, that’s truly underscores having your finger on the pulse.

21:54 Yeah. Yeah, it does. And it’s very helpful. Part of that comes from my the time I spent doing freight sales. I’ve got, you know, I had customers all over the United States. So, a lot of these manufacturers that are building the trucks on the flatbed side, I actually was responsible for hauling the freight in. So, I know where these guys at. I’ve got contacts with a lot of these people, and that that does help out quite a bit.

22:20 I would think that’d be quite helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Now, Kevin as we wrap it up here wanted to ask you this is a common question we get from seasoned drivers such as yourself. What would your counsel, your advice be for somebody who is considering going into driveaway? Be aware and understand, like I said, it is a major learning curve because you don’t have your bed with you like you normally do driving anything else. You’re going to have to learn how to get in and around airports. You’re going to have to learn how to take rent cars and do Ubers and just you’re going to have to learn how to move around. You’re going to have to learn to be more patient than you normally would be because like I said, when you walk in through that airport security, you’re at their mercy. You’re, you know, you’ve lost all advantage at that point. You’re everything’s up to them. Whether they get you where you’re going to be on time and you know, you’re dependent on weather, which driving a truck, weather is a lot of it anyway, but it really makes a big difference when you’re flying.

23:29 And you’re going to you got to like to fly because there’s going to be times you’re going to have to move by plane. It’s the learning curve to it. Just be patient. Realize that you might not make as much money right in the first month or two until you kind of learn this. But once you learn it and learn where you can go, where the trucks are at, how to move around the country, you’ll probably make more money doing this than you will any other thing that you’ve done.

23:56 And that’s what I like about it. And I like the flexibility of it. You know, if I want to go home, I just tell dispatch, hey, you know, I’m going home and that’s not a problem.

24:05 Right. Right. Kevin Stallcop here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us. And Kevin, you and I both know that there’s a lot more. We’re going to peel the onion back next week with Kevin about what happens outside of his life on the road. And I’ll give you this hint. It has to do with the band the Eagles. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us.

24:30 Hey, I appreciate you having me.

24:36 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.