00:05 Probably it probably took me about probably four hours to get through those mountains cuz I was driving about 10 miles per hour. I can’t even lie to you. I was so scared. But I did it. I called the next time and I asked for a load going that way cuz I wanted to do it again.

00:22 Wow.

00:22 So trucking has even helped me. It made me stronger. 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. Next, it’s your host, Justin Scott. Let’s get to the show. All right, welcome back to the Six-Figure Trucker. With me today, I have Armahn. He is rocking and rolling this morning. Ready to be on the podcast. Armahn, we’re excited to have you, man. How you doing?

01:00 Thank you. Thank you. I’m excited to be a part of this six figure trucking.

01:03 Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, no worries, man. So, you know, it’s season 2 is going. We’ve heard a lot of cool different stories, but you know, the main thing that I was telling you about is, you know, there’s so many different people in our industry doing different things, running different types of trucks. Man, I you’ve been with us for probably the longest of anybody that I’ve had on the show this season for sure. So, tell me about how you’ve got started with Norton. I mean, you’ve been with us what, five years, maybe more.

01:31 Yeah. Yeah. About five years. I got started. One of my family members from Atlanta one day was telling me about the most known unknown business out there. And I was like, “What are you talking about?”

01:46 Yeah. What is that? Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, transportation and logistics of third party logistics is one of the best ways to make money and be and have freedom that hardly nobody knows about. And I was like, I sure had never heard of it. Yeah. So—

02:05 I was interested and I was like, well, what is it? And so he started, you know, telling me about it and then he told me about how to get set up with a company because I already had a background in driving to begin with. So he told me about a company and I was like, so I went to the company, started driving for them, didn’t really like it and I came across Norton and I cannot even remember how I came across Norton. But when I came across Norton immediately, I liked the vibe. As soon as I was speaking with the ladies, I think I spoke to Renee first.

02:43 Oh yeah. Yeah.

02:44 Yeah. I think I spoke to Renee first and I like the vibe and I knew it was a fit. So that’s how I got started in the trucking in the third party trucking business.

02:54 So here we are now, right?

02:55 Yes, sir.

02:56 Well, man, you know that that description is probably the best I’ve ever heard, too. The most known, unknown, you know, it’s like it’s kind of like a secret. You know what?

03:06 Yeah.

03:07 I would, you know, some sometimes when I’m at like, you know, functions that aren’t really transportation related or something that, you know, we’re getting our name out to the community, I’m like, you know, we do driveaway. And, you know, I think some bank executive was like, “What do you pave drive, you know, you pave driveaway for people?” I’m like, “No, not exactly.” So, I was telling him about what he’s doing. He’s like, “Well, I’ve never heard of that.” And I’m like, “Well, it’s a thing.”

03:30 It’s a thing.

03:30 It’s a thing. But—

03:31 Definitely is a thing. But that’s exactly right. And you know, when you think about what we do, you know, there’s a it’s a niche market, but there’s a need and there’s continues to be a need. And I’m grateful for that. But, you know, five years ago, you know, a lot of things have changed in the market, in the truck market, in the driveaway market and at Norton Transport in general. I mean, we’ve grown tremendously in, you know, in the last 5 years. So, I guess for you, what are some things that that you can see in terms of change? You know, what are some things that that’s been better? What are some things that you see industry-wise that’s been better, Nortonwise, things like that? What are some changes you see?

04:12 The changes I’ve seen mostly for the positive. And that’s not usually the case in any business you’re in. Most of the time, the societal like expenses outweigh what your the progress of the division, the field you’re in. But with— Yeah. With the trucking industry and with Norton, we’re getting paid. This That’s the best— This is the best pay I’ve been getting from Norton since I started.

04:38 Wow.

04:38 And it’s going— Yeah. It’s much better. It’s great. So, that’s one thing I seen that even with the problems happening all through society and Norton hasn’t like hurt their drivers in order to subside what’s going on.

04:55 Yeah. You know, that’s one thing I respect—

04:58 And that’s and that can be tough, right? When you think about all the issues that that are going on and you know, market fluctuations and you know, things like that, it’s like how do we you know, how do you push through that? And I think for us it is, you know, hey, let’s—

05:11 If there’s anything that, you know, it almost sounds like common sense, but it’s sometimes hard to see that when you think about, you know, driving through some of these problems like, hey, let’s take care of the driver because—

05:23 Exactly. If we don’t, then this stuff only gets harder, you know.

05:28 Exactly. Yes. Cuz I was grateful to be with no because I was only out of work for probably one or two months when things slowed all the way down.

05:40 Yeah. Yeah.

05:41 And I’m not the type of person that can sit in the house. It drives me insane. And I was so happy to get back on that road and get back rolling when everybody else was still down. I wasn’t the one everybody was hooray and everything about these unemployment checks. I wanted to work.

05:59 Yeah. Yeah.

06:01 That’s not me. I wanted to work.

06:03 So I love the and I love the fact I love the understanding. I love the freedom of the industry. I love the freedom of the industry. It’s even better than the reason it’s even better than having your own job as a CDL truck because you got to you’re attached to the truck.

06:22 You’re attached your— It’s your baby. It’s your any you hear any sound you’re scared because you got to do a repair. With this, I get to get people their product and go home happy.

06:35 Yeah.

06:35 No stress.

06:36 No strings. Yeah. No strings attached. I think that’s a good point. You know, you when you think about, you know, there’s so many jobs available in the trucking world right now. And then when you turn on the every night when I, you know, I turn on the news, I mean, it’s like, okay, driver shortage here, school bus shortage there. It, you know, it’s constant. But, you know, the appeal that we’re getting to a lot of folks that are out there is that, you know, you have expenses, but you’re not tied to this vehicle because, you know, a $15,000 repair on a truck is not uncommon when you’re, you know, when you’re busting that truck’s ass and, you know, working it hard. It’s going to happen. And, you know, that could set—

07:14 In times like these, you know, that could set somebody back bad.

07:18 Yes.

07:19 You know, that could be tough. So, being able— Yeah. Being able to move around freely and, you know, go here, go there, and not have to worry about that. Certainly is has been a reason why we’ve been able to attract a lot of different owner operators and folks that have their own vehicles.

07:36 Well, tell me what you did before. You had a little driving experience, but what—

07:41 I had a little driving experience.

07:42 What were you doing before?

07:45 I was in the field of I was in the food industry. I was I dealt in bacon. I did bakery work went all the way up the ladder to like quality controls. I did manage I did supervision but I was in the baking industry. I started out with Marita Bakery. I don’t know if you remember the yellow bag.

08:02 Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

08:03 So that yellow bag bakery and I went from there and I got with a place called— Yeah. Bimbo bakeries and they’re from Mexico. I think they’re from Mexico. And Bimbo bakeries. I stayed there for six, seven years doing supervision and quality control. I was dealing with we dealt with trainer programs and we went to school for sanitation and I was you know I was qualified in all those areas inside of bakery six sigma all those things like that. That’s the background I was in. Okay. And I got I was just training. Yeah. That’s the background I come from. Bakery food industry.

08:44 Well, I think you know that that’s cool to hear because when I think about folks that are doing what they’re doing with us now that every everybody comes from so many different things, you know, whether you know what obviously there’s transportation in every industry that there is. And so, you know, to find driveaway and to be successful for as long as you have, you know, that’s awesome. That’s a cool story to hear. And, you know, when you think about the money you were making then now, you know, how does that compare? I know, you know, obviously, you know, pay has gone up and with us, but even early on, you know, what was the money like? And then compare that to now.

09:19 Oh, the money I was getting in the bakery world, I probably was at about 60 70,000 a year, but I was working probably about 80 hours a week.

09:38 Yeah—

09:38 That’s a lot. So it that’s a lot. It wasn’t really money, you know, and that’s how you got to look at it. It wasn’t really money and the monotony. I couldn’t at one day I woke up and I just couldn’t handle the monotony. The same thing every day and listening and looking at my co-workers so unhappy and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. And no, even if I did make a little bit of money, it wasn’t worth $5.

10:06 Yeah. Yeah.

10:07 It just wasn’t worth it. I couldn’t I remember times at the end just coming to work and just sitting in the parking lot for 30 minutes not wanting to go in. So, but in the money now is so much better just light years better and in terms of less stress freedom. So even let’s just say if I was making more back then it still would be more now because of everything I get attached with my money now. Freedom st less stress it’s uncomparable. Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense because that’s not a place, you know, if anybody’s ever been there and you feel like that, you know, it’s not enough, you know, the amount of money is sometimes not the biggest factor in deciding what you want to do with your life. And having the freedom and the flexibility to control where you want to go, what you want to do can outweigh a lot of different factors when you’re looking at a career change.

11:09 And one thing that’s tough for people though is as they move towards something like this with that freedom, the freedom can get you in trouble because there is that freedom. You know, you know, you’re the deciding factor. And so not have you know, like you said, you going to work, you know, you got to you’re in the parking lot, you don’t want to go in. You know, sometimes you can psych yourself out to where, you know, it’s hard to even though you have that freedom, with that freedom, you have more decisions you have to make about what you want to do and where you want to go. Was that tough for you or you just kind of the guy that’s like, “Okay, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to go no matter what.”

11:45 Yeah. Yeah. Justin, I’m I am going to go no matter what. Because what helped me in life was pride. Like I got three young sons. They’re grown men now, but I could not ever start something and be a go home and tell them I couldn’t finish.

12:05 Yeah. Yeah.

12:06 Or I didn’t do it to my best of my ability because then I would become like a I’ll become like a liar because that’s something I always preach to them to try your best and whatever you start try to finish. So I’ll tell you something. Trucking also ISIS suffer from a lot of anxiety. Trucking. When I first was getting into the trucking, that was one thing I was so scared of is that I had to hear the horror stories about the mountains and I was scared of heights.

12:37 Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

12:38 So I remember the first time I went to Tennessee coming through Knoxville.

12:45 Oh yeah.

12:47 And I came up and I saw that mountain, Justin, and man, I pulled off to the side of the road and I thought I couldn’t do it. I thought I couldn’t do it and I said, “I gotta do it. What am I going to do? Am I going to go home and tell my sons I couldn’t do it?” And I quit, man. That was one of the hardest things I did in the trucking industry to begin with. And I was grateful for it because once I did it and I mean I drove probably it probably took me about five probably four hours to get through those mountains cuz I was driving about 10 miles per hour.

13:28 I can’t even lie to you. I was so scared. But I did it. And the next time I asked I called the next time and I asked for a load going that way because I wanted to do it again.

13:41 Wow. You know, I mean, so trucking has even helped me because it’s it made me be it made me have to like you’re saying, you don’t have to, but you’re doing it anyway. It made me stronger.

13:55 I like that. And I think that just goes to show, you know, and I’m not obviously we want more people in the industry, but, you know, it’s not for everybody. And you have to have that grit, that grind, that that self-motivating factor of, you know, for me to be successful. I’ve got to give this my all. And sometimes that freedom doesn’t work for everybody. And that’s okay. You know, that’s that that’s the beauty about, you know, having opportunities to do other things. But I think it’s important to tell people as they’re listening and thinking about making a choice is, you know, what do you like? You know, what you know, how are you motivated? If you’re self motivated and you feel up to the challenge that you can be successful and make your own choices and get there and give it 110% and do it, then you can be very successful in this industry. But if you feel like, you know, you’re you can’t selfmotivate yourself and you need that that structure to be successful, then you can’t do it. You just can’t.

14:56 Exactly. You can’t do it. And because the thing of responsibility and that’s what a lot of people are scared of to be responsible for yourself because when things get bad in the industry there’s no sick pay or leave or you know you got to get out there and you got to do it. It’s another thing when you don’t have a net under you and people most people need that net and I did for a while. I needed the net and I used to get nervous. But it’s I it just made me a better person. Just made me much better, much stronger, more confident, all those things that I can take care of myself. If I’m ever stranded out someplace, I know I can learn how to learn the transportation. I know how to get back and know not to be, you know, it taught me a lot.

15:47 Yeah, that that’s a good point. So I let’s talk about that for a minute because you know you’re somebody that’s been doing this for a long time and obviously there you know there’s support you know in the driveaway industry but sometimes when you’re out there and you’re stranded you’re by yourself you know and so how did you I guess was there a time where you learned the hard way or you know what made you be how are you better now than you were when you first started about planning and making sure that that you can take care of something like that so that it doesn’t happen.

16:22 And Justin, my sister drives driveaway. My brother-in-law, her husband, my friend, I got her on. I got another one of my friends on.

16:31 Wow.

16:31 And yeah, all of them used to laugh at me in the beginning cuz I started in the beginning by myself and—

16:39 I had another job on the side. Matter of fact, I had two jobs. I was cuz I also used to do a little high school sports. Yeah. I was the referee. I did refereeing for the high school football.

16:52 Awesome.

16:52 Yeah, I love that. I love that work. So, I used to—

16:57 I just used to in the beginning—

17:00 I would just go I didn’t have a I didn’t know how I was going to get back.

17:06 I didn’t know anything. And the first time I went down to I think my first run was down in Pompano Beach from Lakeland or Lakeland, Florida. Yeah. Pompano Beach, Florida. And I went down there and I got there, the place was closed. I didn’t have a way out of there. I ended up having to take a flight that cost me almost $400. So I went down there and I spent about 60 in gas. I spent about 460 and the route only was paying like about two something.

17:43 No.

17:45 Yeah. And when I came back, my ex-wife, she was mad at me. I mean, I went through the ringer. I mean, I’ve went to Tarpon Springs one time, and what happened? This wasn’t my fault, but I was still stranded. And I went there. The truck I was supposed to pick up wasn’t ready. But it’s my fault. Well, it was my fault because I didn’t I called the day before, but the day of I didn’t call again. So, when I got there, they said the truck wasn’t ready. But in this little town, they had no train, they had no bus, they had no Uber, they had nothing. So, it comes down to now it’s about I’ve been out there all day trying to figure out a way home. It gets down to about 10:11 at night and I can’t remember the lady name at Norton. They finally just got felt sorry for me and got me a taxi that had to come way from Gainesville.

18:53 I think the taxi ended up being $350 or something like that to get me back to Orlando. Oh man, I’ve been through a lot of things. So, so need but that you know those are real stories and that you know we encourage our customers to listen and you know this is not just for drivers. So I think it’s cool to have you know the people that are scheduling these trucks to be moved the you know a driver moves a truck from point A to point B in their mind. Okay. Yeah.

19:29 Yeah.

19:30 There’s a lot that goes into that point A to point B. It’s not just, you know—

19:35 You know, a driver teleports from their house to the this location. They’re there, they deliver the truck, and then they teleport back home. You know, there’s a lot of logistics involved, not the just the logistics of your route. So, you know, having somebody being in a place where, you know, it’s remote, the truck is not ready now that now they’re stuck. You know, what ramifications of that exist? So, I think, you know, for most people, it’s good to hear that.

20:03 Yeah. And not to cut you off, Justin. I got one more that I was picking up in, and this is another one. I was picking up in Jamesville. This is a huge one I teach. I used to when whenever I got somebody on, this is one of the pivotal points I tell them. Do not ever shortcut your pre-trip. Don’t ever shortcut your pre-trip and don’t ever shortcut reading that whole VIN. I went to Jamesville was Jamesville, Wisconsin to pick up one time. And I got out of there going to I think it was I think I was going to Wyoming. I think Wyoming. I got all the way to Wyoming. Got a call right when I got to Wyoming. I got a call. It could have been Wyoming. I know it was about 800 miles away.

20:58 Oh. I know this call.

21:00 Yeah, I know.

21:01 I know where this is going.

21:03 That you got the wrong truck.

21:05 Oh no.

21:07 Oh my god. So I said there’s no way I got the wrong truck. I checked the VIN. But what I did is I checked the VIN all the way to the 16th number. Is it 17 VIN number?

21:22 16. Yeah—

21:23 16. And I checked it all the way to about 15, I think, or 14. It was the last number that was different.

21:30 Oh no.

21:32 I pulled over to the side of the road and I wanted to tell her I think it was Nicole. I think her name was Nicole.

21:38 Yeah.

21:39 I wanted to tell her I quit. I said, “I can’t do this.” I was already stressed that day. I’d already had because I had got caught in like a little snowstorm out there and I couldn’t find the truck and my fingers was almost frostbitten that day. My feet were it was just a bad day. So when she called me I wanted to quit and I called my one of them moments when you call your mother. I called my mother and I said, “Mom, I want to quit. I can’t do it. I can’t drive all the way back.” She was like, “Son, you got to do it. You made the mistake. You got to do it.” Man, Justin, I had to drive all the way back 800 miles and missed my flight cuz I already had a flight set up coming out of Bozeman Airport in Montana.

22:30 So, oh man—

22:32 That’s a big one.

22:34 It’s a huge one.

22:35 That’s a big one. And I’ve been there and had to have those conversations and I know, you know, what does that feel like on the other end? And then to you know you talk about you know missing a flight talking about having to go back you know time money time. I mean that’s a lot you know that that’s tough. So what do you do now to try to make sure that you prepare so that that doesn’t happen?

23:00 Oh man Justin I mean I’m so anal about preparation now. It’s almost like drinking water. I got to prepare every day. I got two or three phones, you know, just in case one die, cuz that happens to you out there. Yeah. You lose or lose service or one dies or— Yeah. I got three phones, portable chargers. I got I map it out in on print out paper directions as well. I just don’t depend on that GPS.

23:29 That’s good.

23:30 Yeah, I print that out as well. I have a backup plan to let somebody know where I’m going just in case I have to get out of there and somebody can know where I’m at. I just I dot and I just will I refuse want that feeling again that— Yeah.

23:45 That stranded feeling, you know? It’s just kind of like one of the worst feelings in the world and I do whatever to prepare myself not to put myself in that situation. Well, I think that’s so smart and it’s so good for people to hear that because sometimes, you know, we learn things the hard way and you know how to prepare and if you can, you know, if you can control something and take a little bit of extra time to make sure that you’re taken care of, then that’s going to help keep you running, going to help, you know, keep money flowing, you know, it’s just going to be more efficient for everybody. And so—

24:20 And also I tell people too when you out there, one of the best things you can do to keep yourself from certain situations of being stranded is try to find yourself a reliable partner.

24:32 That helps a thousand%.

24:36 A thousand%. Cuz I got a partner that rides with me now. Okay. We get along great, you know, and because of that, I don’t have to do a lot of dropping off here and grabbing a Uber here and trying to find and it saves you money as well because we can drop off a truck, go down a little bit, come back, pick up a rental car, go back and drop off the other truck or it stops you from having to be in certain situations that you can be messed up in.

25:04 Yeah. Yeah. To having that teamwork aspect is great. There’s so many benefits that come from that. So, that’s really smart. I like that a lot. I’ve heard of a few people doing that and I think if anybody’s listening, you know, if you if you’ve got the ability to run like that, then you’re going to prevent a lot of things from happening from the negative side. So absolutely—

25:30 The business speaks for itself once you start talking to people about it and you they realize that on a certain day you might can make $500 that day or you know it’s not that hard to convince somebody to you know come and try it.

25:48 Yeah. Yeah.

25:48 You know it’s not that hard.

25:50 Yeah. Give it a shot.

25:52 Yeah. Give it a shot because people there’s a lot of people out there that don’t get to make decent money, you know, and once they hear it, they’re like, “Yeah, I’ll try it.” You know, I’ll try it.

26:06 Yeah, I think that’s a good point is there is a lot of opportunity to be successful and you know, great examples. Talking to a guy the other day younger guy, graduated college in Georgia State, I think, you know, had got a degree in some kind of, I don’t know, some kind of scientific degree. That’s it was beyond my knowledge. I don’t know. I don’t know all that. But anyway, he was talking about how he got into to driving and, you know, moving trucks and, you know, when he got out of college, he, you know, he was interviewing and looking for these jobs and, you know, he had a little, you know, a little girl that was just born and a family to provide for and these job offers he was getting were—

26:44 You know, how much money was he in debt from student loans and all this and these job offers were just nothing. I mean, they weren’t giving him anything. And so, he chose driveaway as a way just to kind of temporarily help make ends meet. And now he’s doing it full-time and he’s making six figures and you know he’s obviously he’s got his degree. He can use that anytime he wants but he’s happy right now. He’s providing for his family. He’s seeing the world in a different way with flexibility of being home when he wants to. And you know that’s a draw. That’s a draw for people. You know—

27:16 That’s a draw definitely cuz and the freedom gives you the opportunity and because you can make a decent pay, you can also on the side do other things because I just don’t ever want to be in the position or live a life anymore where the only thing I do is that or only thing I do is that job. I want to experience things. I want to learn something new every day. This job, this field gave me the opportunity to go back to school myself and I went back and finished my college degrees and I’m almost finishing up my bachelor’s degree right now in psychology and this just any and most other jobs don’t really give you that time that that time to schedule that out—

27:58 You know so it does a lot the freedom—

28:01 Absolutely and congratulations there and you know being a part of that and you know learn learning more and continue knowledge is power. I’ll say that a lot. But, you know, the you know, grow yourself and good things will happen. And so, I think that’s—

28:17 That’s great. And so when you look at, you know, obviously, you know, pandemic controlled a lot of volumes and in our market and everybody’s market—

28:25 You know, if you’ve been through it in the back of your mind, it can happen again.

28:29 So, how do you see things in a different light now? What do you do differently if anything that that makes you, you know, be prepared in case something like that happens again?

28:42 Well, for one, the pandemic was for me in the sense of, you know, not to be disrespectful to the people who’ve done past and everything, but the pandemic was a wakeup call for America to begin with for me in my opinion because—

28:56 Some— Yeah. Sometime we get too lax too you know and we don’t respect sometime the little things so I think it was a huge wakeup call and for people it told them that you’re not as prepared as you think you are for me told me that I’m not as prepared as I think I am cuz I was one of the people who was running around trying to find tissue like a tissue warrior you know—

29:23 If it wasn’t for—

29:24 That was terrible I was out there with— Yeah, I’m not going to lie.

29:29 And Justin, if it wasn’t for the fact that I traveled in the truck, I wouldn’t have found none cuz I live in Orlando and there was no tissue. No.

29:37 I was in Georgia one day in the back on the back roads in Georgia and we saw this family dollar and we said, “Man, I wonder if they got tissue.”

29:45 We went in there and the people were looking at us crazy because I don’t think it had hit the back of Georgia.

29:51 Hadn’t got there. Yeah. So, we in there, Justin, and we got two or three carts full of nothing but tissue. And the people looking at us like, “What in the world is going on with them?” And man, we were so happy. We backed the truck. We packed it up and—

30:11 And because we had to get it was nothing. I brought it home for my family. Everybody was went crazy as if I had brought home, you know, food and they were hungry, you know. It man it’s so you know we I laugh about it now because it’s funny but then you know that that was real and that was you know when you think about you know preco you who would have ever thought that that we would be there you know in this day and age with all the technology with everything that we have on our fingertips we’re trying to find damn toilet paper—

30:42 We’re trying to find toilet paper—

30:43 I mean it’s just crazy but it’s but you’re right it is a you know sometimes we take little things for granted and having to experience stuff like that, you know, makes you a little bit more prepared on the back end. So, you know, it’s so true.

30:58 To answer your question, Justin, what I do now because I got so much freedom, I try my best not to have just one stream of income. So, little things you can do like I tell my sons and I tell other people, don’t always focus on degrees and you have to go to school for two or three years to make you some extra money. A lot of people forget about certifications and licenses.

31:22 Sure.

31:23 You know, like I do notery on the side a lot of times. I’m a signing agent, so I sign a lot of real estate when people, you know, purchasing a house or sometimes I’ll do a wedding or, you know, and any anything I can do for side income, anything to bring in more income. I haul junk. Anything. This the pandemic taught me I need to get on the move and have different avenues—

31:49 Because I was just stuck when the pandemic hit. I was really just doing school and the driveaway. That’s it.

31:57 And when it hit, I had no other ways to really make money. So that’s one thing that it taught me that get your butt up and don’t be reliant. Be prepared. If I’m being prepared when I go out there in the world, I need to be prepared in the other side of my world, too.

32:15 I think that’s good and that that’s good. I think that’s good advice for everybody to hear is like, you know, like the notary thing. I mean, you know, just have the ability to be flexible and to, you know, be able to navigate when something like that occurs. But bring, you know, give your give yourself a shot, you know, and you got to step outside of your comfort zone sometimes to do that. There’s definitely ways to—

32:38 To increase income or have the ability to increase income when you need it. And now that you have the now, and that’s one good thing about driveaway, the flexibility you have, you can devote time to other things if you need to. Okay. Exactly. I got a few days here. I’m going to do this and then I’m going to go back on the road next week and then I’m going to come back and I’m going to do this. And you can choose that. It’s not like you have to take your five sick days to go get a certification. I want to take a couple of days to get a certification. I’m gonna go do it.

33:04 Exactly. Another certification I was able to get was the I mean the license I was able to get was the Twick license.

33:11 Yeah—

33:12 That comes in handy. Very much in handy. That comes in hand because before I would go out to that port and be out there before I even knew what the Twick was. I used to be out to that port having to wait on a escort for hours.

33:26 Yeah, you’re sitting there. Nothing you—

33:29 Nothing you can do. A whole day at the port. I mean, if I used to have to take two trucks, I might bring one down and try to go back and do an— You can’t because a lot of times some days it might take two hours and some days it might take four hours. But once I got that TWIC card and it paid for itself almost automatically—

33:48 Automatically because time is money in this industry.

33:50 Time is money.

33:51 Time is money. Well, let’s talk about that a little bit for, you know, because, you know, obviously there’s been plenty of drivers and there’s drivers that are delivering to ports and, you know, so explain the process of getting your TWIC card and what that can do for you.

34:04 Okay. When you when a driver goes to the port, they know they got to call to the dispatcher and either they pay for it up front or the dispatcher will put the money on the card to have them go through. But like you said, the time aspect and also having to you might not have the money on you. You know, you— Yeah, you might not have the $125 on your account to pay for it because some companies do want you to pay for it up front and they’ll pay you back. Well, you go down to the I can’t even remember the place the name of the place where you go get your TWIC card from right now, but when you go down to get your TWIC card, it cost you $125. And as soon as you get on the load to the port, you pay you almost pay for that TWIC card the first time cuz the same $125 you usually ask the company for to pay the escorts.

35:08 Now your company has to pay you that either 75 or to 100. It’s usually not the whole 125, but it’s usually either 75 or 100, but you almost paid for it right then on the first time.

35:23 Yeah. It’s almost like a passport to it’s good for 5 years. I think it’s a little background check, you know, that they do. And it’s handled by the Transportation Security Administration.

35:35 Yeah.

35:35 Yeah. I think you just go online now and get it.

35:38 Oh, you can just go online now. Yeah. Because, you know, and also this is another aspect of it. You get to when you do fly, you get to go pre-check.

35:45 Yes. Yes.

35:46 Yeah. You get to go pre-check. So you not no bunch of waiting in lines behind everybody else. You kind of like you upper class. You almost like you get to go to the short line.

35:56 You go to the front. Yeah. Hey, that’s like you got the fast pass at Disney World.

36:01 Yeah, exactly.

36:07 There’s a lot of little things out there you can do to make your life even better out there. A lot of little aspects, but you got to keep learning. And that’s the thing I always tell my sons and everything. Never stop learning. Never stop exploring because then you’re basically like once you stop learning to me is almost like you’re dying.

36:31 Yeah.

36:31 Once you stop learning, that’s how it is to me. M I love that and I people probably get tired of me saying that here but you know it’s so important to understand as much as you can and you know I tell people I try to learn something every day. You know our industry is always evolving. It’s constantly changing and the more we know the more we can support our drivers the more we can support our customers and the more we can continue to grow and continue to be successful together. There’s power in people that work together to do that. You know this nothing, no industry, no company, no no matter what they do is not one person that makes it happen. There’s a lot of people that make it happen. And so you have to have a lot of people that have that attitude to because it takes a lot of people to come together to make the right decisions to grow the right way. And so I love that you say that to your kids. I say it to my kids. I say it to people here. Be a sponge. Be a sponge. If that’s not your job role, you know, let’s say you know, you’re in dispatch and you know, you know, learn about every job, you know, because that’s going to make you more powerful to your driver—

37:38 Because when your driver has a question about something, who are they calling?

37:41 Yes.

37:41 Calling their dispatcher.

37:43 Exactly. Because that’s a age that’s a thing for the past. I remember back in the day industries—

37:49 It was so based on kind of like hierarchy and class that you wouldn’t do cross trainining.

37:54 Yeah. A lot of companies can do cross trainining, you know, but now they realize because the old-timers it was like, “No, you can’t do that because you ain’t been here long enough and you should, you know, so but it’s just better like you say, it’s it gives you more job security.”

38:10 Yeah. And I know what you mean by that. I was in the finance industry for a while and like these folks that have been in there so long, it’s almost like a secret of what they do.

38:20 Exactly.

38:20 And I’ve always thought I never want to do I never want to be like that. I never want to be somewhere where it’s like that cuz then you know what the hell are they doing and then you get there? Well, well, not much comes to find out.

38:30 Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. You came from the finance industry into trucking. You still doing the finance part of the business?

38:39 No, I you know, not really. I mean, my back you so so, you know, I was with Norton very early on, you know, when it’s very very early on and then, you know, I left and went, you know, went did my own thing for a while and then, you know, always, you know, for me it was always operations and sales and, you know, big aspect, you know, big aspect of the sales piece. So, when I came here, you know, it was hey, here’s a blank Excel sheet. Go find some customers and then, you know, grew from there. So, you know, it’s like, okay, you know, what do I do? I—

39:11 So, you were in the beginning at like almost at the beginning.

39:15 Yeah. Oh, way back. Yeah. Yeah. Way back. But there was a gap, you know, there was a gap for a while and then, you know, you know, Michael and I, you know, continue to talk and remain friends over the years and, you know, always felt at home here and I am and truly blessed and, you know, Calvin Michael great folks to work for always been great and, you know, Calvin was the first driver. So—

39:37 The first driver—

39:37 The first driver—

39:40 He, you know, and it’s cool to see—

39:44 The first and only driver at one point.

39:46 Yeah. Yeah. He was—

39:48 Delivering school buses out of Bluebird, North Georgia. And, you know, then obviously, you know, continue to grow and continue to build from that. But, you know, as that driver, it’s cool to hear him talk and preach about, you know, how we, you know, continue to grow with our driver base, but know that that’s how we started.

40:07 And, you know, that’s a culture that we h that that we continue to have because, you know, he teaches us that. So, it’s probably not like that everywhere. I don’t know, you know, but I know we’re doing some good things and I’m happy to be a part of it.

40:21 Yeah, you guys definitely the best driveaway company I’ve dealt with because I’ve dealt with other ones and most time it just don’t last. I really don’t like with the people at Norton. I always have a connection with them, you know? It’s more, you know, it’s they kind of like they care, you know, they want to know if you cuz some companies—

40:42 They’re not even going to try to even get you from a place. They don’t care. Like—

40:49 Some companies just do not care. And I just couldn’t believe that, you know? I just— So you’ll be out someplace and you’re stranded and they’ll basically tell you that don’t got that’s that has nothing to do with us.

41:01 And I’m like, wow. Just on a human level like you don’t care what happens to me out here and I have left other companies and but Norton has always standed stood tall. I have never even thought about leaving Norton.

41:15 Well, I’ll explain a little bit about why that is was because our you know a lot of our culture is built around the logistics of moving people. We have to move people to a truck and from a truck and we try to focus on those logistics because those logistics well look at where we are with rental cars and things like that. This day and age the logistics of moving people is harder than the truck. We’ve been moving trucks for 20 we can move the truck. Now we’re having to navigate through waters of moving people. So for you know we give the support that we give every day is more or less about the travel piece of the person not the truck you know so you know that’s important you know I think so that’s important—

41:58 We can’t forget that—

42:00 And we’ve come up with and there’s no easy solution for rental cars right you know I mean we I wish there was but you know I’ve been on the phone with about every rental car company that you know and there’s just no—

42:11 You know there’s no solution they just you know they don’t have cars and you know that that it is what it is but— It’s getting better. Getting a little better.

42:18 Getting better. It’s getting a little better.

42:19 It’s getting a little better. Getting a little better.

42:21 We Me and Me and my partner, we’re struggling. We’re struggling right now cuz right now we got a rental. We got a rental right now that we trying our best to wait to try to find something coming out of one place to get us there because the rental right now we got is $225.

42:38 That’s the thing about it too is it’s not even and you make a good point. Let’s talk about that. It’s not even about find. Okay. So, you find a rental, it ain’t what it used to be. They don’t cost what they used to cost. So, hey, you know, you know, it’s tough. Everything is more expensive. So—

42:57 And gas is higher.

42:58 Got gas is just ridiculous right now.

43:03 I mean, it’s just rough. But the people with the will, you got the choice to say, I’m not going to do it. I’m sitting down. I’m gonna give up on it. But then you can’t stand with something when it’s good and then bail out when it’s not as good.

43:22 Yeah. Yeah. You Yeah. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.

43:24 It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work internally.

43:27 But a lot of things that we’ve talked about I feel like goes back to, you know, learn and make yourself better. So, you know, we’ll go back to like, okay, how can we, you know, how do we do better as a company? Well, be better at, you know, find dots that connect. Connect your dots better. You know, sometimes you know, you have to find a way, find a solution when there isn’t one—

43:49 And you know make logistics happen and think outside the box and thinking outside the box as things get better and you’ve experienced that you’re going to be way better in the long navigating through tough times. You know, one thing that I have learned too is it’s there’s always going to be hurdles in anything you do. Everything that you do is going to have a hurdle. So, we’re going to get through we’re going to get through rental car. You know, the hurdle of rental cars right now, there’s going to be something else and we’re going to get through that, you know, and that’s life and it’s how you respond to that and how you think through it and how you make, you know, make better decisions from that that make you successful. So, I love to hear that you’re sticking with her through all that. And I love to hear too that you’ve brought people on, you’ve referred people, you’ve got people running in driveaway. It’s great. You know, we got to continue to grow.

44:34 Got to because it’s a great business. I tell people when you with the right company—

44:40 It’s a great business. But when you with the wrong company, it can be hard, but it’s a great business. It’s you don’t have a have to have a super degree and because there’s people like you were saying there’s people out there with all these degrees like I know especially a lot of cuz I talked to a lot of my nieces and a lot of my cousins because they’ll go and get these PhDs and mast’s degrees and degrees that are so hard to fill. Like I got a niece that got a PhD in speech therap speech something therapy and she can’t find work anywhere.

45:14 It’s terrible. It’s terrible. Terrible. Got $100,000 worth of debt—

45:20 And you know, so it’s you know, this field is just been a blessing for me because it just opened me up to so many things I want to do. Way less stress. So I love it.

45:39 Well, let me ask you this. So you live in Florida, right? Orlando.

45:43 Orlando, Florida. Orlando, Florida. What do you do as do you try to stay more regional? Are you going, you know, taking longer trips? Are you kind of doing a little mix? What works for you now over the years? What have you figured out that that you like best?

45:57 Okay, that’s a good question. In the beginning, I wanted the long runs. We were all jumping. Me, my sister, we all get together. We’re looking for those.

46:06 Give me the miles. Give me the miles.

46:09 Oh my goodness. About I used to love I used to sometime get this run coming from Tampa all the way to Washington.

46:18 Well, that’s a big one.

46:19 Washington State.

46:20 That’s a big one.

46:21 And I love that run because I get to go through my favorite place in the United States and that’s Montana. I love Montana.

46:31 I’ve never been but I that’s beautiful. I want to go. That’s really never been to Montana. I want to go so bad.

46:37 Beautiful Montana. And I take when I get a chance, if I got to stay there for a day or two, and not to get off topic, I’m going to get back on it. But when I get to get there, I come in, I get a rental from Bozeman Airport, go down and I drive down through Wyoming to go to Yellowstone Park. That’s my favorite thing to do. Favorite of all things to do. That’s just I love it.

47:06 Yeah. And you’ve got to experience it in this job.

47:09 Got to experience it. Just go and just like I tell people, don’t just go to these places and not enjoy them.

47:16 Yeah. Take it in.

47:17 Take it in. Whether it’s an hour, two hours, three hours. Go there, get look up some of their best cuisine, some of the best restaurants, and enjoy this. Yeah. You know, but to answer your question, in the beginning, I wanted all the long runs, all the big boys, all the whoppers, but going out for a week here, week and a half here, I would come back and it almost seemed like I was kind of beingh kind of neglectful to my kids almost in a sense.

47:51 Sure. Sure.

47:52 Yeah. It was hard but because my I had my youngest daughter I got three oldest boys but I had a daughter that was she’s like 10 years apart from my youngest son.

48:02 So she was a baby at that time and I would come back and you know it would always be something different about her or I would come back and my son’s and that was kind of weighing on me even though the money was much better that was kind of weighing on me. So what I did is I kind of transitioned from the long runs to more regional and that’s why I went regional. I rather the long runs but I went kind of regional and then I started getting into the school and things like that and that that gave me the regional gave me more time for all the other stuff.

48:36 Yeah. Open that door. Yeah. It opened it up a little bit more and I was still able to see my kids or talk to my sons and give them that little word because I don’t you know how you get to a point when your sons are coming up and your kids are coming up. You preach whole hour trying to talk to them. I don’t got the wind and energy for that no more. I give them some good jewels and look and you be smart and just you learn how to navigate the time. That’s what it all come down to. Just navigating every piece of your time in regional the regional aspect. So I do more—

49:12 Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama around that region most of the time. That’s where I’m at. Yeah. Most of the time and it’s good enough money and it keeps me to be able to be a day away from home just in case something happens or you know and that’s why I do it like that. Well, I like that and I like that you’ve learned and you know, you do what works for you and you know, like you know, you know, being a day away is not as bad as being, you know, four days away, you know, when it comes to having to be somewhere and you know, emergency or whatever may happen. And that’s the thing about it that folks that are listening is it’s out, you know, what however it is that you want to do it—

49:55 Do it. You know, it’s up to you and you can be successful either way. Exactly. Sometimes what’s most important to you, you know, is being there, being back, being able to be on the road, but being close to your family. And so, you know, you may not have that dedicated route every day, but you know, if you have a dedicated route every day, then you probably have a truck breaks down or, you know, you can see the same old route every day. And, you know, at least here, you know, you’re doing different things. You know, you’re not different things.

50:23 Yeah.

50:24 Well, good. Cuz that’s what that’s the reason I never wanted a dedicated route in this is cuz it would to me it would defeat the purpose of that monotony that 9 to5 monotonous job that it’s the same thing to me and that that’s—

50:39 I mean learn getting up and not knowing where I’m going gives me a lot it revitalizes me. Yeah. You know it you know I love it you know like I’mma see something new because that’s we just talked about learning something new. Even if you see something new or learn a new place, it’s the same thing as learning, you know—

50:59 And seeing different types of trucks, too. You’re learn I mean, you’re learning to you’re improving your trade because you’re—

51:05 You know, you’ve driven a lot of different things at this point, I’m sure.

51:09 Exactly. I’ve driven a whole lot of different things. And the mo the best part to me is the just the not being chained to any different thing. Not being chained and not saying that it’s not good to have stable grounded and have a stable ground, but it’s other ways to do that as well. You just have to what works for you, what makes you happy because in this life at the end of the day, money and everything, but you got you have to be happy.

51:43 Yeah. Yeah. You’ve got you got to find the things that make like the like you say the not the monotony of the day, but something new, waking up to do something different, you know, you got to find something like that for you. So—

51:55 Yeah. Cuz because right now everybody is there’s a lot of people that’s going through a lot of stress right now. I mean, just it’s hard right now for a lot of people. And when you can, you know, do things that relieve that stress in however way you find, this is this it’s a good thing—

52:13 Man. I love that. That’s so true, too.

52:16 Well, you mentioned something a few minutes ago cuz I always like to hit on this. You say cuisine.

52:22 Cuisine. Yeah. You’re going to different places, you’re seeing different places. I always like to use this time. Hey, you going to you’re going to eat somewhere good at some point, right?

52:31 Yeah.

52:31 Tell me where you like to visit. What’s a place wherever it may be that you want to give a shout out to? You want to tell somebody that’s listening that they got to go here. It’s one of your favorite places to stop by. Even if you’ve only been there once, you want to go back. What’s that place?

52:46 Okay. Oh, man. Where do I choose? So I’m from Charleston, South Carolina.

52:56 Okay—

52:56 That’s where I was born. Charleston, South Carolina. Was there till I was about 18. And I love going back to Charleston, South Carolina because one, their cuisine is like I think it’s like top 10 in the United States. One of the best places I like to eat there is a place called Bertha’s Kitchen.

53:16 Oh. Oh, you got to tell me. Tell me more. I’m intrigued.

53:20 Bertha’s Kitchen is this old lady who she started this place. It was a little shack. She started this place even from my mother used to eat there at that place. And what happened now is her granddaughters are running the place and they’ve you know they have turned it into a huge they keep building on and it’s just some of the best soul food—

53:43 You ever eat. I mean, the line is wrapped around the corner every day you go there. If you get there, if you don’t get there before 1 or 2:00, all the food is gone.

53:54 Wow. Wow.

53:55 All the food is gone.

53:56 I love places like that because you— Okay, first off, there’s so much history because, you know, you it’s in the family. You’ve got these recipes that have carried on to another generation. And, you know, you if you know people are excited to eat there, they want to eat there. You know, it’s good. You got those old school recipes as they carry on through families, you know, that as things change, you know, those recipes get less and less and less and less as we get into, you know, this age. So, the fact that there’s families and there’s places that still keep those around and you know, when you taste that and you taste the love and the realness that’s in that, you know, you can’t just find that anywhere.

54:34 No. No, man. In the tradition of you know like you said like that that tradition when the family actually keeps it alive.

54:44 Yeah.

54:45 That’s a beautiful thing because most people they let that tradition go. Most of the younger generation they don’t want to do what the older generation did. So you know it’s just I’ve been so many because I’m a I am a foodie at heart. I’ve been to so many different places in the United States like so many that I forget the names of sometime I can remember the plate before the—

55:13 Before the name I’m with you there—

55:15 Before the name of the place but I’m I am an extreme foodie because I got a saying—

55:20 You never been someplace until you eat there you ride through there you didn’t go there cuz you didn’t eat there you know— Yeah, that’s how I look at it.

55:32 Well, and I love that too cuz as I travel around and go to different places, it’s you know, the food is part of the culture and you know, you know, obviously you can you know, you look at the world and there’s so many different cultures, but in the United States where we live, there’s little cultures and little different places and you can be a part of that and experience a part of that without ever even having to jump on an airplane. And so every single city or whatever is going to have a Wendy’s or McDonald’s and you can go there or whatever, but there’s also going to be some cool places that that that aren’t, you know, commercialized that that you’re going to find a little bit of the culture in there. And that’s what I try to find when I go somewhere.

56:07 That’s me, too. I like the I just I’m just one of those people. I like the action of giving to the people who can acknowledge me that I gave it to them. Like it’s special to them.

56:20 Yes. Like, you know, it’s their own place and they’re just like me. They need that money just like me instead of going to the billion-dollar franchises. I mean, I look at these people as just like me. So, I got a connection with them from the beginning. Not saying I don’t go to the big franchises and but when I go to places, I try my best to help the middle kind of the middle economy.

56:46 Yeah. Yeah. And keep their—

56:49 Keep their tradition alive, you know, keep it, you know, I’m with you. Same. I—

56:54 Well, I love it. Well, well, you heard it from Armahn. Bertha’s Kitchen. Is that right? Am I saying that right?

57:00 Yes, sir. Bertha’s Kitchen.

57:01 Charleston, South Carolina. Check it out. If I’m there, I’m going to check it out. If I can make it there in time before they’re all out. But thank you. It’s been great. You know, this has been a great experience. We appreciate having you on the show. Before we stop, anything that that you want to share driveaway trucking related? Anything that was on your mind that we didn’t get to talk about?

57:27 Well, I just want to share the fact that, you know, for everybody doing the driveaway, you know, this just don’t take for granted the position you have with this driveaway. This is a great position. We’re very needed, very important people. You know, we help America run. And, you know, I take a lot of pride in the fact of me being filling a need and not just being a body. I’m actually needed. So, you know, and for everybody, you know, stay safe out there and be smart. Make it home to your family every day and, you know, do you do your thing. That’s it.

58:10 I love it. I love it. You are needed and that that’s absolutely right. Well, I’ve enjoyed it, Armahn. It’s been great.

58:16 Thank you, man. Nice to meet you, too, brother.

58:17 Hey, you too. You be safe out there. And if you need anything, just let us know. Thank you, man.

58:22 All right. Thank you. Have a good day.

58:26 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.