00:05 In this business here, you got to be a good communicator. So, just communication is real big. You have you’ll learn if you’re not one, you’ll learn to be one. So, it’ll teach you. You know, you can learn the hard way or the smart way.

00:19 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.

00:42 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. This is a podcast where we celebrate and elevate the lives and work of the truck drivers, the men and women who make everything possible and make this country go round and round in the world of commerce. And joining us on this episode is Hendrick Taylor. Now Hendrick, as we speak, is literally in an airport moving on to his next load. Hendrick, what’s it like out there when you go from a truck to an airplane and back and forth?

01:14 Oh, it’s not that bad. Sometimes it’s hard to get a Uber. Depends on where you at. So, yeah. Sometimes it’s smooth transition. Sometimes it’s not.

01:22 Gotcha. What’s it been like so far?

01:24 Easy. Yeah. Where I was at, it was easy to get a Uber. Got here. It wasn’t a hard check in. So, you know, I got clear, so I come right through. It wasn’t that bad.

01:32 Gotcha. Now, this is going to be an abbreviated edition of the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And there’s a reason for that. Hendrick’s Flight has been bumped up. Is that right?

01:43 Yes.

01:44 Okay. Okay. So, we’ve got about 25 30 minutes with Hendrick and tell us which airport you are and where you’re going to next.

01:50 Well, I’m in Houston right now, Houston, Texas, and I’m headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

01:55 What kind of truck do are you picking up in Tulsa?

01:58 Well, I’m actually picking up a bus in Tulsa.

02:00 Oh, okay. So, it’s all fair game for a CDL driver like yourself. Where’s that bus in Tulsa going to?

02:07 It is going to North Carolina.

02:10 Gotcha. Gotcha. How long will that take you? What’s the journey on that one?

02:15 That journey should be about maybe 16 hours, 17 hours.

02:21 So a couple days.

02:22 Yeah.

02:23 Like two days.

02:24 Where do you plan to stop? Where’s the stopping point and the sleeping point?

02:28 The stopping point probably be in— Well, I make it to Georgia in 11 hours. So I probably would stop there. They probably won’t take my delivery. So I probably just shut down until Monday and deliver Monday.

02:39 Oh, you live in Georgia? Yes.

02:42 Okay. So, you’ll be able to that’s kind of along the way there going to North Carolina. So, you’ll stage it at home for the weekend.

02:52 Yes. It take me right by the house. It take me right through Atlanta.

02:54 Well, that’s fantastic. Couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

02:57 Yes. Yes. Especially for the New Year’s.

03:00 Exactly. How often does that happen? I mean, it helps for you living in a large metropolitan area where a lot of transport happens coming through, but how often does that happen where you have loads that or do you seek loads that run through your hometown?

03:18 Not that often. It just depends like Well, you got the board as most people know. You can go to the board and kind of figure it out. So, they do have runs to come through Georgia and pick up in Alabama. So, you can pick runs. Depends on how long you want to stay out. Gotcha.

03:33 So, you can—

03:34 Now, when did you get to Houston? Was that this morning? Early this morning?

03:38 Yes. I got here maybe about 1:00, 1 or 2 o’clock.

03:44 Okay. Did you have to wait a little bit to actually deliver the truck?

03:49 Oh, they had someone there.

03:50 Oh, that’s convenient.

03:52 One there. So, I got— Yeah. So, I got delivered the truck and— Yeah, they had a Lowe’s right beside it, like a five minute walk. So, I went down to the Lowe’s, got my shower and stuff and was able to get up here.

04:04 Oh, fantastic.

04:06 Everything was lining up for you on this one.

04:09 Yeah. Yeah. Everything lined up pretty good.

04:11 Now, dropping at 1:00, is this something you coordinated or were they open already?

04:17 Oh, I had called and they I guess by been a holiday the weekend, they had somebody there for longer hours. Do you find in your experience in your driving that people are more receptive if you’ve got appropriate and solid communication?

04:34 Yes. Yes. Yes. Cuz other than that, they want to know you if you can call. Sometime they have people that live close by so they might not they might close at 5, but it might be a worker that stay close by and don’t mind coming back and letting you in or you know signing off on you. So communication is a big deal out here. Hendrick Taylor joining us here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We know Hendrick a lot of people talk about you in a very good way, reliable and dependable. I guess how much do you weave into that those two characteristics about being a good communicator?

05:08 Yes. I mean, you got to be a good communicator because if you don’t and your truck might not be there, it might not be ready. So in this business here, you have you’ll learn if you’re not one, you’ll learn to be one or you’ll get a lot of my you know get there and your truck gone or your truck not there is not ready. So it’ll teach you, you know, you can learn the hard way or the smart way.

05:29 How long have you been doing this, Hendrick?

05:31 Eight years.

05:32 Gotcha. So how long did it take you to, I guess, master that skill of communication, knowing which questions to ask and when to ask them and why to ask them? Probably a good year. That year, you know, you get stuck a couple of times, you know, get misled a couple of times. So, about a good year.

05:52 How much does it help you now?

05:54 Oh, it helps me. It helps me a lot. It helps me a lot with getting out of there cuz you got some place you can’t get out of and people will be willing to if they communicate with you, they’ll be willing to take you somewhere where Uber does come. You know, it might be 10 minutes down the street. So, just communication is real big.

06:09 Oh, yeah. I mean, you’ve had that happen before when you’ve dropped a truck and the people there, I guess they’re excited and happy to receive their truck and they will help take you to the where Uber does pick up.

06:21 Yeah. I have ones that take me to the airport. They like, “Don’t worry about getting an Uber. I’ll take you to the airport.”

06:26 That’s got to be nice.

06:28 Yes. Yes, it is.

06:30 That’s money saved for you.

06:32 Yes. Now, let’s talk about it was Greenville, Tennessee to Houston, and this was not just a run-of-the-mill truck. Tell us about what the truck was and the intention or the purpose of why it was going to Houston.

06:48 The truck was I think it was a show truck. It was really a tow truck. It was like a— It’s a big tow truck like to carry, you know, the big commercial vehicles. So, I don’t know the whole deal on it, but I know it they wanted it there. You know, they wanted it there, you know, in good condition, whatever. So, they was trying to fix everything. They got everything right on it. And, like I said, it’s just a tow truck. A nice tow truck to me. You know what I’m saying? So—

07:12 A tow show truck right there. A showtoe.

07:15 Yeah, it was a show truck. Yeah. A show truck. Yeah.

07:17 Well, that one was on my account and we knew it was important and we were glad that you got it. When I found out Hendrick was on it, I’m like, that’s very important. And it was good news for us because I mean obviously for all the trucks that you guys and ladies deliver, they’re all important, particularly for every customer. They’re all important, but a show truck is a little bit different. You know, they don’t want any mud nicks. I mean, obviously, they’re going to clean it up, but the timeline is usually a tight deadline to get it there at a certain time. And obviously, they want to get the show truck in their hands so they can do the delivery. I mean the detailing on it. Did you feel any extra I don’t know if pressure is the right word but concern about delivering this show truck?

08:05 Oh no. There was no pressure. I mean any truck show you deliver you don’t want to put no dings and scratches on it. You want going want to deliver them all you know doing good the same way you got it. So—

08:15 Now what steps do you take to ensure that happens?

08:18 Oh you got do I take pictures when I get there. I often stop. You know, drive speed limit. Try not to, you know, don’t speed and just, you know, when you see trucks riding when they got just dropping stuff like garbage trucks, you know, stay away from them because they will ding you and crack your windows and all that stuff. So, just driving careful.

08:37 Have you ever had that happen as far as get behind something that’s some debris coming off of or any other—

08:43 I’ve been out here? Yes. I’ve been out here eight years and had two.

08:47 That’s pretty good record. Pretty good record.

08:49 Windows.

08:49 What happened in each of those cases if you I’m sure you remember it. Well, you know, you got to call it in and let your dispatch know where that’s your company know what happened. But a lot of times if you go in 2,000 miles, they expect a ding or something on the UNI. So, it’s no problem. But you do have to let your company know.

09:05 Gotcha. Now, you were talking about 2,000 miles. What’s the longest run that Hendrick Taylor has made?

09:13 I don’t I think they went from New York to the back part of New York to just probably about 30 probably about 32 3200 miles or something like that.

09:26 Wow. What was that like?

09:28 End truck. So it was an automatic so it was an easy run. It was a boss truck. So it wasn’t a bad run.

09:35 Well, are you we just mentioned there about the holiday coming up there. New Year’s Eve. We’re about to approach it here in a day and you’re going to be home probably not on New Year’s Eve but close to it. Any big plans for you ringing in the year?

09:53 No big plans. I just live with family. I always ring in with my family.

09:58 Now tell us a little bit about your family. How big is your family and how important are they as far as supporting you and what you do?

10:06 Oh, they support. It’s just me, my mom, my daughter, and I got a grandson. So we the one family. So mom had one, I had one, my daughter got one. So—

10:17 Gotcha. How old’s your daughter?

10:19 My daughter’s 28.

10:20 And I’m assuming you are spoiling that grandchild.

10:25 Yeah. Yes. Yes. He get everything. Yeah, he’s full.

10:28 I gotcha. I gotcha. Let’s see. So you’re going from Tulsa to North Carolina. What part of North Carolina?

10:35 Greensboro.

10:36 Mhm.

10:37 Gotcha. Now is this a passenger bus? School bus. What kind of bus we talking about?

10:42 This is school bus.

10:43 Gotcha. Have you driven many school buses?

10:47 Yes.

10:47 What are they like compared to tractors as far as driving?

10:51 Well, it’s pretty smooth. I mean, tractors are heavier, so I mean, you’ll get a little push sometime with the wind with the buses.

11:00 So, you have, you know, you get a smaller bus, you got to watch the wind because it will, you know, it will push you around.

11:06 So, you I mean, you got to know when to stop and when to pull over with the buses. Gotcha. Now, the adjustments you got to make on the road, what are some of the I guess scariest adjustments you’ve had to made make from a particular unit that you’re in at that moment? I mean, whether it be traffic related, weather related, things out of your control. What are some of the things that come to your mind?

11:30 Snow, black ice. Yeah, got caught in Utah. Was on some black ice one year. It was real bad weather. And yeah, it was kind of scary, kind of dangerous. Yeah—

11:43 We had another driver on actually just last week was talking about black ice. What kind of truck were you in when you were confronted with that black ice?

11:54 Oh man, I happened to be in a light UPS truck, so I was getting pushed around with the wind and I didn’t have no weight on it. So yeah, it was kind of— Oh, kind of scary. I had to find a place to stop.

12:06 Was that a step van at the time? Uh-huh.

12:09 Okay. How did you I mean, did you get sideways a little bit? A little fishtailing.

12:14 Yeah, you fish tail. Fish tail. But situation like that, you probably be H might be one or two cars out there. So, I just get in the middle of the road. I ride down the center.

12:24 That’s about the only thing you can do in that kind of unit, isn’t it?

12:27 Yeah. Right down the center. Because you get too close to the edge, you I mean, you might hit a slick spot and you’ll go off the road. So, you just got to, you know, ride down the center until you can get off and get somewhere safe. Gotcha. Now, is that something that they covered when you were getting your CDL license or is that just the teacher of experience?

12:45 Of experience. You know, most things out here is experience. You know, when you get your license, they teach you just to get you the license. Most of the stuff you learn, you learn from by being out here.

12:55 What’s been the biggest teacher for you in your eight years behind the wheel as far as experiences, things you’ve taken forward from what you’ve learned on the road?

13:04 I don’t know. The biggest I mean I just being alert of what’s going on. You know, you get through one situation, you kind of know how to deal with it the next time.

13:13 So just being mindful of what you get into and checking the weather.

13:16 Mhm.

13:17 Because it’s a lot of times with checking the weather sometime people don’t know like how to go around it. So sometime you can go up under you can go up under the snow, you can go over the snow. So it’s just like if it’s in Utah somewhere, you can you know you got to learn how to use your map to go up under it. So you don’t have to go through it all the time.

13:32 Gotcha. I mean, you can reroute and how important is that to you as far as let’s say you’re going to Utah and you’re coming from, let’s say, Texas and you— Well, that’s not a good example. Let’s say you’re coming from—

13:49 St. Louis or something that’s due east of Utah and you’ve got your choice of going north, south, or through directly. How do you make the decision of am I going to make the direct journey through the weather because it’s shorter or will you take the longer because it’s safer?

14:08 I take the longer because when you take the shorter, it might not be short anyway because it’s bad weather. You going to be stuck for a day anyway. So, you’re going to get shut down. Roads might close. So, you think it’s shorter, but in the end it’s not shorter.

14:20 I gotcha. How much I mean what’s the difference as far as practicality of being a driver in the winter versus the other three seasons? Winter you just got to be more careful. Like with the winter you just winters I mean you’re not an alert driver and you not you don’t really pay attention. It’s not really safe to go in the snow just for the money cuz some people look at the money. But sometime you know just chasing that money is not good if you’re not going to be mindful where you going and check the weather and the things that’s going on with the route. On a scale of one to 10, driving other three seasons versus driving the winter, how do you rank them?

15:03 Oh, it’s worse. I mean, it’s definitely worse to drive in the winter time.

15:06 I mean, if you had to put a number 1 to 10 in the winter time, what number would that be? 1 to 10. What number would it be in the other three seasons?

15:16 Other three seasons is a breeze. So, three seasons, it’s easy. It’s like a 10. Winter, I mean, winter can be a between a five and a seven.

15:24 Gotcha. Like I said, it depends on, you know, watching the weather and knowing which routes to go.

15:28 Clearly since we’re in the winter now here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport, Hendrick Taylor talking to us about his experience and knowledge on the road. You know, we were talking about winter being a five to a seven on a 1 to 10 scale. Do you ever make the call on whether when winter weather comes into play whether you’ll take a load or not? And what are the factors that help you make that decision?

15:52 Oh, it does definitely. Yeah, I try to stay I mean I’m a veteran. A lot of people I try not to go too far up like if I know it’s going six to eight inches. I try to stay away from certain know certain states because you know a lot of these states is hilly. So if you catch black ice going down a hill nothing you really you can do. So but a lot of the states keep the roads clear. So it’s just— Yeah. I still pick where I go.

16:18 Gotcha.

16:18 And where I don’t want to go.

16:20 What are the worst states to drive in the winter? Washington, Utah, and Oregon depends because Oregon you can sneak in through California, you know, you can get some good weather and going through the bottom of it, but if you cut across to Nebraska, well, and also Wyoming because Wyoming is very windy and they shut down a lot. The highways always shut down.

16:41 So, so those states in that region are tougher than those in the Northeast and those in the Midwest.

16:47 Yes.

16:48 Now, you’d mentioned Utah. It at the black ice in Utah. Obviously that made an impression on you. Any other close calls pucker up factors in other states?

16:58 Yeah, Wyoming because Wyoming they have the ice but then it’s real windy. So Wyoming like they you got to get off the road a lot of times because of the wind. So if you get the snow and the ice with the wind, that could be real dangerous.

17:13 You know, we’ve talked with some other drivers talking about the wind. How much do you think people who are not in tune with what you guys do in driveaway trucking, how much do you think they realize how much the wind plays a factor on you guys?

17:26 They probably don’t realize because there have been many situations they just think we drive, you know—

17:32 And from what I understand from talking with other drivers, wind’s hard to manage as far as a driver, regardless of your experience.

17:40 A lot of time I get off the road, it depends on how windy it is. I mean, you got to go. It’s going if it’s let’s say the mile is 60 60 m hour or 70 m hour, you might go through that whole state doing 35 30. So, if you got the patience to do that, then yeah, if you don’t have the patience to do that, you probably need to get off the road.

17:57 Mhm.

17:58 And wait till it calm down cuz it’s going you can’t drive no faster than that unless you want to, you know, how’s your plane and go in the ditch.

18:04 Gotcha. Which side of the fence do you fall on? Are you a guy that has the patience to go 35 miles an hour or do you pull off?

18:12 I have the patience. I don’t like to stop until my time up. So I But if it’s too windy, then I will get off.

18:20 If it keeps shifting me, it depends what kind of vehicle I’m in, too. If I’m in something heavy that can kind of hold me and just take the 35, but if it’s something like a box truck or something, I know it’s going to push me around, then I just hold I get out.

18:33 So if you’re in something heavy, just keep on trucking, as they say. Yeah, I keep on trucking. Yes, definitely.

18:40 Now, you’ve been in this for eight years. Give us the good and the bad. What’s the bad side of what you’ve been in so far?

18:47 This right here is a pretty easy feel. It’s just, like I said, it’s just the weather and being mindful of other of the routes you take and, you know, just checking with the people. But once you do them things, it’s a kind of easy feel. You know, make sure your truck ready.

19:02 What’s the good side of it? Good side. I mean, it’s all good. As long as you like to drive and you mindful, you gonna have good trips. You gonna be able to, you know, it’s not gonna be bad. So, I mean, I love the trips. The money’s good in the field. You know, you don’t have to be bothered with nobody. You know, you don’t really have nobody on your head long as you do what you’re supposed to do. So, it’s I mean, that’s I mean, you’re not going to make this type of money doing what we do, you know, any other field. So, I mean, that’s one of the plus to it. You know, how you get paid.

19:32 How much do you enjoy being not only known as but working as an independent contractor?

19:39 I love independent. I love being an independent contractor.

19:42 You know, a lot of drivers we’ve talked to, they all say similar things, but sometimes in different ways. They talk about the freedom, but the thing that goes along with the freedom is the planning. How do you plan each load and your week? Well, I just put a load by what I need to do. Like I say, and I mean, like I said, the load is depending on like where I’m trying to go. If I want to go, if I want to the time of the year, if I’m trying to go up north, you know, if it’s summertime, you go anywhere. So, it just depends on how many days it’s going to take to get back to where you trying to go. If you want to stay out a week, then you just got to plan that. Okay? You know, going to Washington going to take you five days or four and a half, you know, five days. So, you know, that’s probably the ownership you gonna do to be able to go out there and be able to get back to what you got to do. So, it just depends on how long you want to stay out there and what you got going on. If you gonna stay out there a couple of weeks or you want to do a date, a two-day trip, then you know, you can’t go that far.

20:37 So, got you. I mean, cuz you— Yeah.

20:39 Now, in your eight years, what’s the craziest thing? What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to Hendrick Taylor?

20:46 I haven’t really had nothing really crazy. I guess when I hit the black ice, I hit the black ice one time. I thought I was gonna start off the road, but I didn’t. So—

20:57 That was scary there.

20:58 Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was scary.

21:01 Gotcha. Now, we ask this question to a lot of drivers. What’s the prettiest lane or transport journey that you’ve made as far as something that really captured your attention that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise?

21:15 Oregon. Riding into Oregon. Oregon is nice. Yeah. Driving into Oregon. Yeah, this is nice.

21:22 What about the most boring stretch of road?

21:25 Slat like New Mexico. You not gonna see nothing but desert. Not really see nothing in Mexico.

21:31 We’ve heard other drivers say that. It must be true.

21:35 Yeah—

21:36 We’ve heard that from other ones. How much time do you have before you board that flight?

21:42 Oh, they about to board. They about to board. I’m walking over there now.

21:45 Okay. All right. If you’re walking over there now, we’ll wrap it up. Hendrick Taylor about to jump on a flight and go to his next load. Thank you Hendrick for joining us. And last question I was going to ask you, what would you say to someone who may be considering driveaway trucking?

22:00 I would say go for it. If you like this drive, you know, you like to drive the Independence, I would say try it. Give everything a try.

22:08 All right, Hendrick Taylor giving us words of wisdom before he boards his next flight to take his next load. Hendrick, happy new year to you and thanks for all you do for Norton Transport.

22:19 All right. Thank you. I appreciate you.

22:20 All right. Have a good evening.

22:21 All right. You too. Bye-bye.

22:28 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.