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. Let’s get to the show. Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport and we thank each and every one of you for joining us each week. And if you do join us, you know this is a format where we elevate and celebrate the drivers of Norton Transport. We have one joining us with us now from the Show Me State, Alonzo Johnson. How are you, Alonzo?

00:46 I’m doing great.

00:49 That’s good to hear. I appreciate you joining us here. You’re in Raytown, Missouri, and we had talked before we got on the air here. You’re in a good mood because of the Chiefs victory last night.

01:02 Oh, yeah. Always good when they win.

01:05 Now, you were telling me earlier that Raytown is a suburb of Kansas City.

01:10 Yeah. I’m not— And matter of fact, I’m less than I’m about five minutes from the stadium.

01:16 Okay. Do you get to go to many games?

01:18 I only go to preseason games. It’s expensive to go to a game.

01:23 Even preeason now has gotten very expensive.

01:28 Yeah, that’s tough. Now, Mahomes had a good game last night. I was I’ve got him as my quarterback in the fantasy league. I’ve gotten off to a rough start in my fantasy league, but I’ve got Jared Goff as my second quarterback, and I had to make a decision. Am I gonna play Jared? Am I gonna play Mahomes? I just had a good gut feeling that Mahomes going to have a good game last night, particularly since the Chiefs had dropped a couple games and they were at home—

01:55 Right? I was very happy to see them look like they’re mid-season performance last year and not the ending performance. There was a lot of distractions and they’re starting to get their team back healthy and get them back together and we get our number one wide receiver back after this week from his six game suspension from the with the league. So that should be very interesting.

02:23 Yeah, that’s a lot more firepower coming back for the Chiefs there. Well, let’s switch gears and talk a little bit about your profession as a truck driver. You I you came into the office last week and I gotta say it was like a rockstar came in. The whole dispatch team came over, surrounded you. Some of our managers came over and surrounded you. That’s got to make you feel good to have that kind of welcoming.

02:50 Yes, that was actually not a bad feeling. You know, because I don’t get to come in that often.

02:57 I was going to ask you, is that the first time you’ve been by the office?

03:01 No. No, that’s only been I’ve been there about a year and that’s only like my third time. So—

03:09 Okay. Were you on the way from a run that put you close to us?

03:15 Well, actually I No, I dropped off a truck there at the office.

03:20 Okay. That’s cab and chassis from Macungie, Pennsylvania and dropped it off there and picked up a trash truck out of Chattanooga and went back up to Illinois.

03:34 I gotcha. So you had a Mack truck you brought in—

03:37 And a Mack truck I took out? Yes. So I was very familiar with it.

03:44 How do how what’s it like driving a Mack truck? Do you like driving the Macks? Are they good trucks? Good driving trucks? I do like the mags over all the rest of them. Yes.

03:54 You know, we ask that question a lot of seasoned drivers which trucks they like the best and usually Peterbilt comes out as the Cadillac of trucks, but you like a Mack the best. The Mack has better pulling power and to take Mount Eagle and the rest and take especially it doesn’t labor and it’s also easier on the gas mileage.

04:22 A Mack is—

04:24 A Mack is actually.

04:27 Yeah. What kind of mileage do you get from a Mack if you’re not pulling anything? If you’re not pulling a trailer. If I’m not pulling anything, I’m getting coming down with the cab and chassis, I was getting 11 miles to the gallon.

04:45 That’s good. That’s really—

04:47 And going I and I don’t know how to explain it because I had a CNG going back up to Illinois. So that that’s a little bit different.

04:58 Yeah, I gotcha. Now, those CNG trucks I saw in your qualifications you’re CNG qualified and specialty qualified, which we require for garbage trucks. What’s your opinion on CNG? They need more stations. CNG is not hard to operate. But you don’t want to run out. So, you don’t want to miss a station. And that’s one thing. If I got to make if I have to make extra. So, if I got to go out of route, that’s fine. And a lot of people when you’re doing diesel, you really don’t have to go out of route. So, you had to get in your head that you’re doing something a little bit different—

05:41 And that’s you pretty much had to prepare yourself mentally for driving a CNG.

05:49 Yeah, CNG takes a lot more planning. I mean, because like you were saying, you got to find out where the stations are that have CNG—

05:57 And make sure they’re open—

06:00 Right? Some of them are not 247. Not all of them are because a lot of them are municipalities or provide CNG for garbage trucks for municipalities. So, they work on a different schedule. But have you found a lot of it depends upon where you go, but have you found by and large that CNG is cheaper than diesel?

06:23 Yes, most definite.

06:28 That’s money in your pocket.

06:30 Yeah, actually. Yeah. Yeah. And you just have to be careful is depending on whether you’re going from I’m sorry I had to get something out of the air fryer.

06:47 Oh, okay. So, you’re cooking right now.

06:50 Okay, that should do it. I’m good. I’m good.

06:56 Yeah, I cooked some lemon pepper chicken wings and some pork chops. Okay. For the game.

07:04 No, for me.

07:09 Love it. Love it. Love it.

07:11 Now you were talking about CNG is cheaper and it obviously saves you money.

07:17 Yes. Yes, it really does. And I don’t mind it. You know, I think the worst thing was doing a right-hand drive trash truck. I’m glad it was a CNG as well.

07:32 Right. Yeah. Right-hand drive. That’s a different animal there. But, you’re right-hand drive qualified, I presume.

07:40 Yes.

07:42 What’s the secret driving a right-hand drive garbage truck versus a conventional one?

07:49 Staying as far to the right as possible. And I have certain points on the truck that I try to keep on the line and that’ll keep me in my lane both from the left and the right. And the biggest one of the biggest problems that I guess they’re having with a lot of drivers is making a left-hand turn. They don’t swing wide enough because you’re on your right side.

08:16 Yeah. We’ve had some situations where what you’re talking about has happened, but how many right-hand drive trucks have you driven? You said you’ve been with us for about a year.

08:27 That was the first one I had driven.

08:29 No problems.

08:31 Nope. Didn’t have any problems.

08:34 That’s good. Now, we got to be fully transparent and disclose how you ended up on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Usually we get our guests, they’re recommended by their dispatch teams and of course we saw when you came in the office they absolutely love you. But the recommendation came from our safety director Renee Daring and she was super excited about Alonzo Johnson particularly because not one, not two, but you’ve had three clean inspections.

09:09 Yes.

09:10 Now tell us how important is that to you as a driver? It lets me know I’m doing something right. It’s very important because, you know, you I’ve seen people drive and I’ve seen them stick the placers in the windows and stuff like that and that’s obstructing your view. And I just said, well, this is what they want. I give them what they say is legal. And to me, that’s what I’ve always been about. No matter whether I was driving 18-wheeler or driving individual, I’ve also driven fourways a lot for another company, but it’s I but everything was always had to be by the book. And that kept me out of trouble—

10:04 And it kept me from being when you get pulled over and you’re always on the good side of the law and they end up being more your friends than they are being a cop.

10:19 Okay. Walk us through what you do to achieve a clean inspection. What kind of things do you do to make sure you’re going to pass with a clean inspection? First of all, every morning if it’s a long trip or even when before I start a proper pre-trip, make sure that that’s one thing. Make sure all the windows are I mean all the mirrors are adjusted because that plays a big part when you’re driving down the road. Keeping or staying in your lane and making sure like I said the license plate and the placers are all visible and in the right spots because a lot of the vehicles we drive are brand new. There’s not going to be a lot of problems, but there can be problems making sure your fluid levels like I said a proper pre-trip I found things wrong with brand new vehicles.

11:13 So that would have put me out of service if I hit the road and I had got stopped.

11:20 Gotcha. And also I guess you check for the fire extinguisher and the triangles.

11:28 I’ve been told different things on that, but I do check for that. The fire extinguishers, the triangles, and I’m hoping the majority of them have also first aid kits in them. So I kind of look for all of that when I when I’m in there. And I will ask at the place where I’m picking up if they if I if something’s missing even though they told me I can run without it. I would like I’m not feeling comfortable. Do you have any that can be put in here even for you know temporary status?

11:59 I gotcha. Are they usually cooperative with that?

12:03 Yes.

12:05 Gotcha. I mean they understand it’s their investment. It’s a big piece of equipment and the safety first. Correct. Because most of the vehicles I drive, most of them are except for like the cab and chassis, they’re going to be at least, you know, 230,000 and above as far as the price of each unit. So, I try to put myself in their shoes. If that was my piece of equipment, $230,000 or $300,000, I think I would want the best quality driver I could get. And I tried to provide that for them. Well, we certainly believe at Norton Transport you fit that qualification as the best drivers out there. One of the best drivers out there. And I wanted to ask you’ve been with us for roughly a year.

12:53 Yes.

12:54 Now, what’s your experience prior to that? What you mentioned fourways. Yeah, I used to work for another company and I did deck I did deck vehicles and I so I’m I have a lot I’ve had about four years of undecking vehicles whether using whether it’s a just regular chain hoist where manual or electric using tow trucks or you know I’ve done it all—

13:26 And—

13:28 But that was that’s what I had done before.

13:32 I mean, if you’ve done a four-way, that’s like the major leagues of truck driving.

13:37 Yeah. All my friends would get threeways and they will always want they only offer me four ways. And—

13:44 That says a lot for your ability.

13:49 And I can undeck a four-way faster than they could do a three-way.

13:54 That’s impressive. Safely.

13:56 So, I was I just try to be good at whatever I do. I was always taught even if you sweep a floor, if that’s what you did for a living, be the best floor sweeper that you can be.

14:09 That’s great. That is great. Having that experience as a four-way driver like we were talking about, that’s kind of like the major leagues. What kind of I guess a back I mean kind of support does it give you for driving singles?

14:29 Sometime it can be confusing because you’re still looking for that back to wiggle more than what it does because you’re driving a single. So it kind of keeps you but then you realize, hey, I have a shorter vehicle. I can get into more places. I can do things. I can actually back up because you can’t back up a four-way. So it makes life a lot easier when you’re driving singles and excuse me, you try your best to just adhere to the rules of the road. I don’t try to drive faster just because I do because I this is not my equipment first of all—

15:16 And that’s how I have always treated whether it’s a two-way, three-way, four-way or a single, it’s all going to get treated the same way.

15:25 Gotcha. Now, I’ve asked this question of many drivers. I don’t want to catch you off guard, but either driving fourways, your other jobs, or with us, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen on the road? The craziest thing I seen on the road was actually I took a utility vehicle with Norton from St. Joe, Missouri—

15:52 Down to Arizona and I it kind of went the back way and I drove through this rest area and there had to be 10 trucks wrecked or pushed over. When I got up that morning—

16:07 And I went right past them—

16:10 And they were pushed up into the back. I don’t know what happened, but I had never in my life, as many years as I’ve driven trucks, seen anything like that.

16:20 10 tractor trucks, trailer. Yes. In a rest area.

16:27 Oh my goodness.

16:29 They were in a rest area—

16:31 And on the side. Well, you know how they park going into a rest area—

16:37 Right?

16:37 They were some of them were parked going into the rest area and some of them were actually have been parked for the night in the rest area. How they how that happened, I still don’t know. And I was not going to stick around to find out.

16:52 I gotcha. Now you see Alonzo up and moving about. We kind of caught him in the middle of a cooking session here and we’re sorry about that. How’s the cooking going?

17:02 Oh, I’m stopped for right now. I’ll do the rest of it later.

17:07 I just got up and took the took it out so it wouldn’t burn.

17:12 I got you. I got you. Thank you for taking time with us, Alonzo. Wanted to ask you this final question. Now that we’ve centered down on your driving experience, for someone who’s considering going into driveaway, what would your counsel be your advice be to them as far as things they should consider?

17:33 Know what you’re doing it for. If you actually have the time. I one of my biggest things were I don’t have, like I said, my youngest child is 35, so I don’t have kids at home—

17:49 You know, I don’t have a wife at home, so I can get out there and run.

17:54 If you have responsibilities at home, it’s kind of hard to do. Or you want to stay close to home because you’re independent contractor. You can take time off when you need if you need to be home for your kids. A graduation or something like that, you can take that time off. And driving a driveaway is great for if you have other things going on, then you can work when you want to work and where you want to work. And like in the winter times, I will not take nothing going to the West Coast because that’s just my preference in the winter time. But I it’s—

18:36 But if you work for a company it’s a lot of times you have no choice—

18:41 You know so—

18:42 When you’re forced dispatch—

18:43 Yeah when you force dispatch that’s what it is force dispatch so I just think it’s great if you can I well for me it’s it I would tell the person that wants to get into this it’s it could be a great thing just know what you want to do have a plan if you don’t have a plan, then you’re just going to be out here and that’s how people lose money.

19:09 I gotcha. Those are great words of advice from Alonzo Johnson who joined us here on the Six-Figure Trucker. Now, Alonzo, we hope that we can talk with you next week because we caught you right there in the middle of cooking and I understand that’s a passion of yours, but let’s get on that next week.

19:26 Okay.

19:28 All right. Thank you, Alonzo.

19:30 You’re welcome. Thank you for having me. 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.