He Bought a 20-Year-Old Semi Truck CASH — And Started Making Money in 3 Days. Truck Yoo #111 — Transcript

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1. 0:00I really wanted to know was how do the
2. 0:01most successful guys in the business be
3. 0:03successful and stay successful? Like
4. 0:05what's the secret? If I've learned
5. 0:07anything over the years in business and
6. 0:08going bankrupt has been is a lot of ways
7. 0:10to screw things up and usually the path
8. 0:12to success is is harder and it takes
9. 0:14commitment, it takes work, and it takes
10. 0:16understanding what the keys are. Today
11. 0:18I'm talking to JD. He is in our trucking
12. 0:21business pro group. Just bought his
13. 0:23truck couple months ago, few months ago,
14. 0:25and already making pretty decent money.
15. 0:26[music]
16. 0:27Let's dive right into it.
17. 0:33>> [music]
18. 0:34>> So, what did you do over here?
19. 0:35>> So, did a bunch of stuff. Some stuff
20. 0:37that I knew I needed done and a couple
21. 0:39things I didn't know needed to be done,
22. 0:40but we found out they needed to be done.
23. 0:42Put new springs, new U-bolts, and
24. 0:45basically all front end hardware on
25. 0:47here. They discovered that um if the
26. 0:50bunch of it was loose, it probably was
27. 0:51why the truck was pulling.
28. 0:53So, that was that was kind of a
29. 0:54surprise, but needed to get done. Um we
30. 0:56did a rear main seal.
31. 0:58We did a flywheel housing seal. We did
32. 1:01new clutch, new clutch brake.
33. 1:03Transmission ended up getting rebuilt
34. 1:05because it turned out there was a couple
35. 1:06of bad gears in it. They did In fact,
36. 1:08they replaced three gears in the
37. 1:09transmission and put in a bearing kit
38. 1:12and uh input shaft, and I think he said
39. 1:15synchro.
40. 1:16>> You did say synchro, yeah.
41. 1:17>> Yeah.
42. 1:17>> Synchro as well.
43. 1:18>> So, anyway, transmission got a pretty
44. 1:19thorough rebuild. Um we did output shaft
45. 1:22seal on the back of the forward drive
46. 1:24axle.
47. 1:26We had a broken spring on one of the
48. 1:29shoes on the forward drive axle
49. 1:30passenger side, so you ended up
50. 1:32replacing the shoes, the springs, like
51. 1:34the whole kit, and then the drum because
52. 1:35the drum had a groove in it.
53. 1:37>> Okay.
54. 1:38>> Um we did a power steering pump leak. We
55. 1:41did valve cover gasket and overhead.
56. 1:45Um and I think that was the majority of
57. 1:47it.
58. 1:48>> Okay. Well, tell me about the truck
59. 1:49first cuz we haven't talked about it
60. 1:51yet. Tell me what the
61. 1:52truck year and model and specs. What do
62. 1:56you got on it?
63. 1:57>> so this is a 2006 Freightliner Century.
64. 1:59It has at the time it had 629,000
65. 2:02original mi on it.
66. 2:03Um it's a truck's in really nice shape.
67. 2:05I mean as you can see like the paint and
68. 2:06clear coat. I mean the interior's in
69. 2:07really good shape for being a
70. 2:0820-year-old truck. You know, the
71. 2:09fairings, I mean there's nothing like
72. 2:11tore up bumper or none of that stuff.
73. 2:13So, uh it's a nice clean truck. It runs
74. 2:15good, pulls good, makes good power, you
75. 2:17know, but being 20 years old, I mean it
76. 2:19naturally is going to need some things.
77. 2:21When I first started driving I
78. 2:22discovered pretty quickly it had a
79. 2:23serious oil consumption issue. We were
80. 2:25actually I was putting in about a gallon
81. 2:26and a half a day, which is a whole lot
82. 2:28of oil.
83. 2:29Um and that turned out to be I think a
84. 2:31number of things. Actually, this repair
85. 2:33is hopefully going to confirm all of it,
86. 2:35but I did find that the oil pan was
87. 2:37cracked and the oil pan gasket was
88. 2:39really really brittle, probably
89. 2:40original.
90. 2:41And I cut the oil consumption about in
91. 2:43half by doing that myself. I did that
92. 2:44about a month ago. And it feels like the
93. 2:46rear main seal and the flywheel housing
94. 2:47seal and the valve cover gasket are
95. 2:49probably the majority of the rest of the
96. 2:51oil consumption, but we're about to find
97. 2:52out here in the next week or so.
98. 2:54So, anyway, we've been getting a lot of
99. 2:56things tightened up as far as leaks and
100. 2:57stuff like that.
101. 2:58>> Well, tell me uh you bought it how long
102. 3:00ago did you buy the truck?
103. 3:01>> In early July.
104. 3:03>> Early July and then
105. 3:04>> September.
106. 3:05>> Early September, so we are early July, 2
107. 3:08months ago.
108. 3:09>> Yep.
109. 3:09>> How quickly did you start making money
110. 3:11with it?
111. 3:11>> I was making money the first day I was
112. 3:14on the road. My overhead is really
113. 3:16really low. As an owner-operator, my my
114. 3:18bobtail insurance is $1,000 a year
115. 3:21because I'm based out of a rural area
116. 3:23and it was like six times cheaper than
117. 3:25like a comparative major metro. So,
118. 3:28yeah, I don't I don't have a lot of
119. 3:29overhead.
120. 3:29>> So, so that's that's great, but uh since
121. 3:31you started since you bought it 2 months
122. 3:33ago, how many weeks after that you
123. 3:35actually started running?
124. 3:37>> Um
125. 3:38>> Your first check.
126. 3:40>> I was on the road 3 days later.
127. 3:42>> 3 days later. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
128. 3:43true. Yeah, right. I remember.
129. 3:44>> So, I pulled a couple power-only loads
130. 3:46up there and then and then rented a
131. 3:47trailer and started running freight.
132. 3:50>> You Tell tell us what you did before you
133. 3:53decided to start your trucking journey
134. 3:56and then let's start let's start with
135. 3:57that. Let's let's talk about how you
136. 3:58what did you do before?
137. 3:59>> Okay, so I've been I'm 51 years old.
138. 4:01I've been a lifelong entrepreneur. I've
139. 4:03been bankrupt twice which I don't say
140. 4:05proudly, but I say I I share because
141. 4:07I've been through the school hard knocks
142. 4:08and I've learned a lot of things the
143. 4:10hard way. And that's most recently the
144. 4:12business I had was I started a an
145. 4:14audio-visual production company in the
146. 4:16early 2000s and was very successful with
147. 4:18it. I was a small company I always was a
148. 4:20small company, but I did really really
149. 4:22well with it. Um and I enjoyed it in a
150. 4:24lot of ways,
151. 4:25but the pandemic actually ended up
152. 4:27killing it.
153. 4:28It was a weird whipsaws uh chain of
154. 4:31events that kind of killed it off and I
155. 4:32took a couple years off and went racing
156. 4:34with my youngest son cuz he want he was
157. 4:35a a budding race car driver. And then
158. 4:37when that was done and he joined the
159. 4:39Coast Guard, I was like, "Okay, I got to
160. 4:40do something different." And I'm going
161. 4:42to kind of circle back in the story.
162. 4:4325-plus years ago, I had owned a
163. 4:46Freightliner interestingly enough, a
164. 4:48mid-roof flat top with a Detroit diesel
165. 4:50engine in it and a step deck. And that
166. 4:53when I had a construction company with a
167. 4:54partner years ago and we bought that
168. 4:56truck and we hauled our own construction
169. 4:57equipment, our own lumber, and whatnot
170. 4:59for for the work that we did up in
171. 5:01Denver, Colorado is where we were at the
172. 5:02time. So, I come to the trucking
173. 5:04business now with previous experience,
174. 5:06although it was really long time ago.
175. 5:08So, I've had a little bit of a learning
176. 5:09curve to get back up to speed, but you
177. 5:11know, getting the license driving the
178. 5:12truck is actually wasn't the hard part
179. 5:14at at this point for me. It's more like
180. 5:16getting up to speed on the DOT regs. I'm
181. 5:18definitely learning load securement and
182. 5:20stuff that I hadn't done previously. You
183. 5:22know, I had never done any tarping,
184. 5:23never owned any tarps before, so things
185. 5:25like that. Yeah. Um but yeah, I just
186. 5:28I've always loved driving and my wife
187. 5:30and I are at a time in our life where
188. 5:31we're empty nesters now and and we're
189. 5:33kind of in a different place. And so
190. 5:35this made sense. Tell me with what did
191. 5:37you last 2 months you said how much did
192. 5:39you gross?
193. 5:40>> So, in the in the
194. 5:41Yeah, it's really been 7 weeks. I
195. 5:43started the second week of July. I've
196. 5:44grossed
197. 5:45uh almost $41,000.
198. 5:47>> Oh, wow. Okay.
199. 5:48>> And in August, which just ended, I
200. 5:50actually grossed 27 and 1/2 thousand.
201. 5:53>> Okay. Wow. Well, that's that's really
202. 5:55good. That's really good. And uh so,
203. 5:58what's your goal? What's your weekly
204. 6:00goal? What are you trying to do weekly?
205. 6:01>> So, my goal is the same as when I
206. 6:03started and what I told Dom. I want to
207. 6:05run 2 weeks to maybe 2 and 1/2 weeks a
208. 6:07month.
209. 6:08And I'd like to gross in the
210. 6:10neighborhood of 20,000 during that time.
211. 6:12>> Yeah.
212. 6:13>> So, I mean, 9,000 a week ish? 10,000 if
213. 6:17we can do it.
214. 6:18>> Yeah. That's that's that's standard.
215. 6:20That's pretty good. But yeah, I mean,
216. 6:21the fact that you just started
217. 6:23you know what I mean? And you did what?
218. 6:257 weeks almost 40 over $40,000.
219. 6:28>> Yeah, and the first week I didn't make
220. 6:29anything. Like I was up in Wisconsin
221. 6:31doing training with Dom. We were running
222. 6:33shitty little $600 loads of lumber and
223. 6:36to do tarp training and stuff. So,
224. 6:38it's really that's I mean, the majority
225. 6:39of that money was in 6 weeks worth of
226. 6:41running.
227. 6:41>> And I know your journey a little bit and
228. 6:43I wanted you to share it. Well, tell me
229. 6:45when you realized uh I'm going to do it.
230. 6:47Because you the way you you found the
231. 6:50Trucking Business Group and you you took
232. 6:52the steps which I would want everybody
233. 6:54to take. Like that's my that's my goal
234. 6:56for the Trucking Business Group and for
235. 6:58the channel, right? It's like how do you
236. 6:59get owners to
237. 7:01to follow a specific procedure to to to
238. 7:04be successful and stay in business in
239. 7:06the long for a long time. So, tell me
240. 7:07about that a little bit. Like when you
241. 7:08were like, "I'm going to do it." What
242. 7:10was going in your head?
243. 7:11>> Yeah, no, that's a good question. So,
244. 7:13prior to finding the the Pro Business
245. 7:16Trucking Group, I was actually I spent
246. 7:18several months earlier in the year
247. 7:20seriously investigating doing non-CDL
248. 7:22hot shotting. So, I've owned Powerstroke
249. 7:24diesel trucks all my life. I have one
250. 7:26now. And I was going to go down that
251. 7:27route. And really when I got into that,
252. 7:30what I really wanted to know was how do
253. 7:31the most successful guys in the business
254. 7:33be successful and stay successful? Like
255. 7:35what's the secret? If I've learned
256. 7:37anything over the years in business and
257. 7:38going bankrupt, it's been there's a lot
258. 7:40of ways to screw things up. And usually
259. 7:42the path to success is is harder, and it
260. 7:44takes commitment, and it takes work, and
261. 7:46it takes understanding what the keys
262. 7:48are.
263. 7:48>> You copy the guys that are successful,
264. 7:50right? You just literally you rip off
265. 7:51the guys that are successful.
266. 7:52>> Exactly.
267. 7:53>> That's the That's exactly what it is.
268. 7:55That's That's what I did. That's what
269. 7:56you did. That's what you're doing,
270. 7:57right?
271. 7:57>> And in the hot shot thing, like I said,
272. 7:59before I even found you in the school
273. 8:00group and all that, before I ended up
274. 8:01doing this, the conclusion I reached
275. 8:03from the research that I did, and I'm
276. 8:04just I'm a good researcher. I know how
277. 8:06to I know how to ask the right questions
278. 8:08and get get to the the correct answers,
279. 8:11I think, quicker than probably some
280. 8:12people, and and it's just always been a
281. 8:14strength of mine. But I quickly
282. 8:16concluded the key to it is low overhead.
283. 8:18And quite frankly, I had learned that
284. 8:19from my mistakes in business over the
285. 8:21years. Overhead kills you. So, having no
286. 8:23payment on your truck, if you can
287. 8:25possibly do it, is the most ideal
288. 8:27situation. Not everybody can do that.
289. 8:29Right? But if you can keep your overhead
290. 8:30as low as possible, that's how you win.
291. 8:33When rates go down, that's how you win.
292. 8:34When everybody else is drowning under
293. 8:36their overhead, you're not. And so, by
294. 8:38the time
295. 8:39found the the the pro trucking group, I
296. 8:42already had arrived at the conclusion
297. 8:44that that was going to be the key to my
298. 8:45success. I'm like, that's what I'm going
299. 8:47to do. I'm going to buy an older truck.
300. 8:49I know a lot about diesel engines, not I
301. 8:51don't know a ton about these heavy truck
302. 8:53engines, but I know a lot about diesel
303. 8:54engines in general, and I'm well aware
304. 8:56of all of the baloney the last 15 plus
305. 8:59years in this country and and the world
306. 9:00with all of the and the emissions stuff,
307. 9:03and like my power stroke is deleted, you
308. 9:05know, like I know all about that. And
309. 9:07so, once I again started doing my
310. 9:08research, I realized like buying an
311. 9:10older one of these that had as little or
312. 9:13none of that stuff on it was going to be
313. 9:15way better in terms of reliability and
314. 9:18minimizing downtime than buying a newer
315. 9:20truck. Even though a newer truck is
316. 9:22certainly nicer, the interiors are nicer
317. 9:23and all of that, right? But you get a
318. 9:26newer truck, and you're going to spend a
319. 9:27lot more time in the shop dealing with
320. 9:28all that stuff.
321. 9:29>> And a lot more overhead as well, right?
322. 9:30Cuz rarely somebody can afford buying an
323. 9:33$80,000 truck that still or $100,000
324. 9:35truck that still has a
325. 9:37warranty on it. That's what I was going
326. 9:38to ask you partially, why did you go
327. 9:40pre-DPF? Because obviously this is a
328. 9:432006, so that's a 14 L
329. 9:46Detroit. You really
330. 9:48used you I remember cuz we were looking
331. 9:51for your truck. You were finding awesome
332. 9:53finds. You were finding really good
333. 9:54trucks.
334. 9:55But tell me cuz at least there was four.
335. 9:58So first question is why did you go with
336. 10:00a pre-DPF? And two, why did you go with
337. 10:02this one although you had three other
338. 10:04options that were good.
339. 10:05>> So I'll answer the second question
340. 10:06first. So I went with this one because
341. 10:08it was the cleanest truck of all of
342. 10:10them. And I knew, even though the guy
343. 10:13that I bought it from I think didn't
344. 10:14tell me the complete story, I knew
345. 10:15enough about the history of this truck
346. 10:17that I knew where it came from. So I
347. 10:19knew that this truck used to be the
348. 10:20puller for a big race team in Southern
349. 10:22California and that it basically spent
350. 10:24its life in a dry climate, non-snow
351. 10:27climate of Riverside, California. And so
352. 10:30that course bore itself out when I went
353. 10:32and looked at it. There's no rust on
354. 10:33this truck anywhere. I mean it's the
355. 10:34cleanest
356. 10:35>> I mean it's spotless. Yeah.
357. 10:37>> So that was that was probably the
358. 10:38biggest reason I went with this was I
359. 10:40felt like overall the package is is
360. 10:43really in good shape for an older truck.
361. 10:45And I knew I was going to buy an older
362. 10:46truck, right? Interior too. Interior's
363. 10:48in really good shape for being 20 years
364. 10:50old. It's not all beat up.
365. 10:51>> Why did you go with that?
366. 10:52>> Yeah.
367. 10:53So the Detroit part of it, I wasn't
368. 10:55really set on which engine. I knew that
369. 10:57I either
370. 10:58I knew that I wanted to buy a truck that
371. 10:59either had a Detroit 12.7 or Detroit 14
372. 11:02or a Cummins ISX or a Cat C15 single
373. 11:06turbo or older. Like you would to me to
374. 11:08me that was lesser of the concern. I
375. 11:11really would have preferred to have no
376. 11:12emission stuff at all. However, I had
377. 11:14also figured out that the maximum I was
378. 11:17willing to deal with was just EGR, which
379. 11:19is what this engine has. So this is all
380. 11:21pre-DPF. And to your to your question of
381. 11:23why, it's the same reason I mentioned
382. 11:25earlier, which is I've owned Powerstroke
383. 11:27diesels and and worked on diesel trucks
384. 11:28for years and I've seen all the damage
385. 11:31of stuff does to these engines and all
386. 11:32the cost, the breakdowns, the overhead,
387. 11:34the downtime, all of that stuff. And so,
388. 11:36I didn't I wasn't going to touch a truck
389. 11:38that was that had any of that stuff on
390. 11:40it.
391. 11:40>> Yeah.
392. 11:40>> Yeah.
393. 11:41>> Which not that you're you're still
394. 11:42running ELD on it. It's not like you're
395. 11:44you know, I mean, it's just flexibility
396. 11:46of having having the the paper option.
397. 11:49>> I just generally am a person who the
398. 11:50older I get, I like the older stuff.
399. 11:52I've always loved these Century trucks
400. 11:54like from 30 years ago. I thought these
401. 11:56were cool-looking trucks.
402. 11:57>> Yeah.
403. 11:57>> So, that I admit to that played into it.
404. 11:59I mean,
405. 12:00it was a smaller factor, but it wasn't a
406. 12:02non-factor. The fact that it's in such
407. 12:04nice shape and again, I knew that you
408. 12:06know, it had been owned by a race team
409. 12:07for 6 years and I figured, you know,
410. 12:09this probably is a is a good gamble. I
411. 12:11mean, buying any used truck is a gamble
412. 12:13that's at a certain level even if you
413. 12:14have a mechanic look at it like they're
414. 12:16not going to discover everything.
415. 12:17>> 100% and and so,
416. 12:19uh you happy with the purchase?
417. 12:21>> Very happy with the purchase.
418. 12:22>> And how did you find it?
419. 12:23>> Uh through Facebook Marketplace. Doing
420. 12:24online research. Again, I I started out
421. 12:27with you know, you asked about process.
422. 12:29I did a whole bunch of research before I
423. 12:30started looking for trucks and figured
424. 12:32out as best I could like what my
425. 12:34parameters were. I knew I wanted it to
426. 12:36be older than 2008. Ideally, older than
427. 12:39probably 2004, but I was willing to flex
428. 12:41in that range. I knew I wanted something
429. 12:43that was probably 500 horsepower. I knew
430. 12:45I wanted something that was in good
431. 12:47shape and that as best I could know the
432. 12:48history of it. That that's what I'd be
433. 12:50getting into and this fit all of those
434. 12:52criteria which I think in the end was
435. 12:54part of why I chose this one over the
436. 12:55other three. The other three were good
437. 12:56options. But I didn't know as much about
438. 12:58the history of them.
439. 13:00>> Great. What's your plan for the next few
440. 13:02months? You've been rolling for about 2
441. 13:04months now.
442. 13:05>> Yeah.
443. 13:06>> What's your plan now? You know how to
444. 13:07you you're doing pretty good. You're
445. 13:09pulling flatbed right now.
446. 13:10>> Yep.
447. 13:11>> So,
448. 13:12>> I'm just going to keep running and you
449. 13:13know, keep running miles and making
450. 13:14money. I mean, I just just finished
451. 13:16sinking almost $15,000 in repairs into
452. 13:19this. We're standing here at K&S Truck
453. 13:20today in Chicago. And you know,
454. 13:23even the guy that owns the place, Enos
455. 13:25was like, you know, I have some of my
456. 13:26shop techs asking me like, why is this
457. 13:27guy sinking all this money into this
458. 13:28truck? And I was like, and Ennis said
459. 13:30it, but I mean, I could have said it. I
460. 13:32could buy a newer truck and I'm going to
461. 13:34spend a bunch of time in the shop and do
462. 13:36all these repairs and have sensors going
463. 13:38out, be stuck on the side of the road,
464. 13:39and be on the hook, and all that, or I
465. 13:41could buy a a good truck that's solid
466. 13:43bones for a good price, and then sink
467. 13:46some smart money into it and make the
468. 13:48thing pretty much bulletproof, and
469. 13:49figure I'm going to run
470. 13:50>> make the money with it, yeah.
471. 13:51>> Yeah, I'm going to run another 500,000
472. 13:53mi and then we're going to do an
473. 13:54in-frame on it. Another reason why I
474. 13:56bought this this truck in the end was I
475. 13:58knew that both Freightliner parts are
476. 13:59cheap and easy to find and they're
477. 14:00plentiful, and that's not you can't that
478. 14:02can't be said for all the manufacturers,
479. 14:04even though, yeah, I'd love to have a
480. 14:06Peterbilt or a Kenworth just because
481. 14:08they're cool, but this is going to be
482. 14:10cheaper to repair, and same thing with
483. 14:11the engine. These Freightliners, there's
484. 14:12tons of them, and overhauling a
485. 14:14Freightliner is cheaper than like a
486. 14:16Volvo or something like that.
487. 14:18>> Yeah.
488. 14:18>> You know, and the reality of the matter
489. 14:19is, some point it's going to need to get
490. 14:21overhauled.
491. 14:22>> Yeah. Sometimes the truck that you want
492. 14:24isn't necessarily the right truck to
493. 14:26make you money.
494. 14:26>> Right.
495. 14:27>> And I didn't I didn't buy the truck that
496. 14:29I wanted per se. I would have rather had
497. 14:31a Kenworth.
498. 14:32>> Yeah. I I I'm with you.
499. 14:33>> I bought the truck that I thought was
500. 14:35the the smartest move I could make at
501. 14:37the time, given given what I knew and
502. 14:40knowing that I probably didn't know
503. 14:41everything.
504. 14:41>> Yeah. No, you did, and I remember from
505. 14:43day one. I know you came initially
506. 14:46wanting to run a CL9000 Ford cab over,
507. 14:49which you still have. You want to You
508. 14:50want to mention that a little bit? What
509. 14:52What What are you going to do with that?
510. 14:53>> Yeah, so I I I think the likelihood at
511. 14:55this point is is I'm going to restore
512. 14:57that truck and it's just going to be a
513. 14:58show truck. I didn't really think that
514. 14:59in the beginning, but I guess it's the
515. 15:00most practical thing. Um I did buy a
516. 15:041978 uh Ford CL9000 cab over. It's an
517. 15:0888-in sleeper, so it's not the not the
518. 15:10110. They're very hard to find,
519. 15:12especially in the condition that I found
520. 15:14this one.
521. 15:14>> What's the engine in it?
522. 15:15>> It has a very strange engine in it most
523. 15:17people probably never even heard of. It
524. 15:20has a Cummins engine, but it has a VT903
525. 15:23turbo. It's a V8 turbocharged
526. 15:26engine. Yeah. 290, yeah.
527. 15:29I would love someday to do an engine
528. 15:31swap on it, maybe even like put like a
529. 15:3314 L in it or something like that. We'll
530. 15:35see. That's you know, we got we got time
531. 15:36to figure that out, but yeah, it's a
532. 15:38cool old truck. I got exposed to Ford C
533. 15:409000s 30 years ago through a Christian
534. 15:43cult that I grew up in and have spent my
535. 15:45whole life working through those issues,
536. 15:46but the cult had a whole fleet of them.
537. 15:48The cult was actually based right here
538. 15:49in Chicago up
539. 15:50>> Oh, really? So, you're sentimental
540. 15:51you're saying? You're sentimental about
541. 15:53your cult
542. 15:54>> Well, I'm sentimental about the truck. I
543. 15:56don't know about the upbringing, but
544. 15:57anyway, yeah, that's where I got exposed
545. 15:59to the Ford C 9000. I've always thought
546. 16:01they're super cool trucks. When I had
547. 16:02the opportunity to buy one, I took it.
548. 16:03So
549. 16:04>> they are they are.
550. 16:05>> Anyway, what would you what's the
551. 16:07biggest takeaway for you doing this
552. 16:09fairly recently for what's the biggest
553. 16:12takeaway that you could share with
554. 16:13somebody that's thinking about pulling
555. 16:15the trigger on buying a truck, becoming
556. 16:16an owner? What would you since it's
557. 16:18fresh for you?
558. 16:19>> [sighs]
559. 16:21>> I you know, I I think it's it's the main
560. 16:23thing we've talked about and I hear you
561. 16:24talk about it all the time. It's you
562. 16:26know, it's the financial side of it.
563. 16:28It's knowing your numbers. It's keeping
564. 16:30your overhead low.
565. 16:32You know, again, not everybody can do
566. 16:33that. I'm definitely a mechanical guy.
567. 16:35So, you know, buying something like this
568. 16:37doesn't necessarily scare me. The end of
569. 16:39the day, there's just a bunch of bolts
570. 16:41and nuts in here and wires and as much
571. 16:43as it might look scary to somebody who
572. 16:44hasn't worked on these a lot, it's
573. 16:46really all mechanical stuff and it's not
574. 16:48that hard to fix.
575. 16:50I get why guys want to buy a newer one
576. 16:51and want a warranty and that feels like
577. 16:53peace of mind, but at the same point if
578. 16:55peace of mind means you're off the road
579. 16:56for 3 weeks or 4 weeks or 6 weeks having
580. 16:58a whole bunch of you know, work done.
581. 17:01I'm out on the road making money. To me
582. 17:02that makes more sense. So, I you know, I
583. 17:04think the takeaway is is you know,
584. 17:06probably do the hard thing, not
585. 17:07necessarily the thing always the thing
586. 17:08you want to do.
587. 17:09>> Yeah, and I always you know that because
588. 17:12you've you've been hearing telling me
589. 17:13that all the time in our in our
590. 17:15meetings. You have to match your skills
591. 17:18to the truck that you're buying. And if
592. 17:20you don't have the skills, join a group
593. 17:21like ours and up your skills in that.
594. 17:24Because that is the biggest mistake.
595. 17:25People buy older trucks in a lot worse
596. 17:28shape than yours. They don't have the
597. 17:29mechanical skills to actually know even
598. 17:31what's going on. And then they end up
599. 17:33putting a ton of money into it and just
600. 17:35like and it's still not working right,
601. 17:36right?
602. 17:37>> You know, I'm going to share one other
603. 17:38thing that that comes up for me. You
604. 17:40know, we're talking about guys who don't
605. 17:41have as much maybe mechanical acumen as
606. 17:43like guys like you and I.
607. 17:45Um and I get that that part's scary. I
608. 17:47think one of the things that's scary
609. 17:48even to somebody like me in getting into
610. 17:50this was what happens when I need to
611. 17:52have the truck worked on and I can't do
612. 17:54the work. Which I can do a lot of the
613. 17:56work, but what happens then? And I think
614. 17:58one of the greatest values of a group
615. 17:59like like yours is that there's people
616. 18:02in the group, yourself and there's
617. 18:03others, who do know the answers to those
618. 18:05questions. I'm standing here at Chaos
619. 18:07Truck because of you, because you have a
620. 18:08long-standing relationship with Chaos.
621. 18:10You know, you suggested him, I did the
622. 18:12research, these guys have great reviews,
623. 18:13they're a great shop. Right? That's If
624. 18:16you need a truck worked on, what you
625. 18:17really need is is you need a good shop
626. 18:18to take it to that's trustworthy, that's
627. 18:20not going to rip you off. I I went back
628. 18:22and forth with Enos all week asking him
629. 18:24to do other things. I even suggested we
630. 18:26proactively change sensors and things
631. 18:28like that on the truck and he came back
632. 18:29and said, "Look." He said, "I've owned a
633. 18:30hundred of these trucks." He goes, "I
634. 18:32cannot recommend that we start
635. 18:33proactively replacing sensors." And the
636. 18:35only reason I share that story is is
637. 18:37there's not very many shops where if the
638. 18:39customer gives the shop an opportunity
639. 18:40to charge them more money, they'll
640. 18:41>> They'll turn them down. They'll turn
641. 18:42them down, yeah.
642. 18:43>> Exactly.
643. 18:43>> Right. So, these guys are a reputable
644. 18:45shop and they do good work.
645. 18:47>> Yeah, and it's all on all levels, right?
646. 18:49It's the carrier that you're pulling.
647. 18:50It's the the CPA that you're working
648. 18:52with. It's the financial guy, the tax
649. 18:54guy, the the bookkeeper. All that is
650. 18:58it's the same thing. It's It's you have
651. 19:00to have that network around you because
652. 19:02you cannot do everything by yourself. A
653. 19:04lot of owners drivers think they can
654. 19:05just do it and just because they drove
655. 19:07by themselves, they can now do
656. 19:08everything by themselves. And that is
657. 19:09one of the biggest mistakes. It's like
658. 19:11the the purpose of our group is expand
659. 19:13the network, have the trusted network
660. 19:15that actually can help you succeed in
661. 19:17your business. And if you find somebody
662. 19:19that is doing a great job, yeah,
663. 19:20recommend it to somebody else. You know
664. 19:21what I mean? Like we've been doing here.
665. 19:23You're 100% right. And I think Well,
666. 19:26that is that was that was not only a
667. 19:27good good takeaway and tip, but I think
668. 19:31I just want to make sure that you
669. 19:34cuz you are I know you're planning to
670. 19:36eventually upgrade to a newer truck,
671. 19:38right? Cuz you have a plan. That's Well,
672. 19:39tell me about that a little bit.
673. 19:41>> Yeah, so again, I mentioned earlier, my
674. 19:43wife and I just became empty nesters and
675. 19:45and my wife's a dental hygienist. But
676. 19:47when I got interested in trucking for
677. 19:48whatever reason, she got really
678. 19:49interested in it, too. So, what we hope
679. 19:52to do is is we hope to buy a newer truck
680. 19:54with a big extended sleeper on it that's
681. 19:56almost like an RV. And she wants to get
682. 19:58her license and we go out on the road
683. 19:59together. I don't know if she will I
684. 20:00don't know how much driving she will
685. 20:02actually do. I think we're going to end
686. 20:03up buying an automatic transmission. You
687. 20:05and I are going to have to have a
688. 20:05conversation do I get the right one and
689. 20:07not the wrong one?
690. 20:07>> Yeah. Yeah.
691. 20:08>> Uh cuz I don't want to be blowing it up,
692. 20:09but
693. 20:10but yeah, that's what we want to do. Um
694. 20:12we kind of want to make this more of our
695. 20:13lifestyle and give us some flexibility
696. 20:15to, you know, travel the country and see
697. 20:17things and and kind of make that part of
698. 20:19tax write-off.
699. 20:20>> Yeah.
700. 20:20>> Um so, that's that's probably a next
701. 20:22year type of a plan, maybe or the year
702. 20:24beyond, we'll see. But for now, yeah,
703. 20:26we're going to
704. 20:26>> [music]
705. 20:26>> I'm going to I'm going to run this truck
706. 20:28and we're going to make some money and
707. 20:30and then we'll
708. 20:31>> Enjoy it.
709. 20:31>> Yeah, and then we'll we'll move toward
710. 20:33that as the as the time is right.
711. 20:35>> Awesome, Drew. Appreciate you. Thank you
712. 20:36so much.
713. 20:36>> Yeah.
714. 20:37>> Thank you. So, with just few seconds of
715. 20:39your time, if you go to Trucker Academy,
716. 20:41you can join our [music] free school
717. 20:43community.
718. 20:44We have weekly classes.
719. 20:46We help each other. It's a great
720. 20:48owner-operator community.
721. 20:50Click the link below. I'll see you
722. 20:52there.
723. 20:54>> [music]
724. 20:58[music]