Success through self-help, lane change: 2024 Trucker of the Year 'exit interviews': Part 1

Todd Dills: Hey everybody, Todd Dills here your host for this Overdrive radio edition for December 9, 2024. The two final podcasts for the year catching back up with Overdrive Truckers of the Month over this year, all of whom were competing for the 2024 Trucker of the Year award program sponsored by Bostrom Seating and with a brand-new seat and other perks on the line for the winner. Call this and our next podcast the Exit Interviews series if you will. As judges are in the process of wrapping up their work and determining a set of three finalists we'll announce later this month, then a winner in the new year. I'll say though for me the perseverance and excellence to drive profit in a time like the present. For every single owner we wrote about for this program this year makes all truly deserving, the margins between every single Trucker of the Year contender razor-thin given unique strengths that all bring to their respective operations.

You're going to hear answers to two fairly simple questions today. Namely, how has the year gone for the business? I also asked each owner to look back over their history and experience in the trucking business for lessons learned that could yield the best piece of advice for their peers, particularly for those newer to the business or thinking about going into it. We’ll hear from four semi-finalists today including owner operator Candace Marley, headquartered in Iowa and pulling dry van freight now leased to Mercer in a relatively recent development.

Candace Marley: So if something's not working out, don't be afraid to change lanes.

Todd Dills: Also Long Haul Trucking leased Gary Schloo based in Austin, Minnesota and running dedicated to a couple customers in Long Haul’s network.

Gary Schloo: Interest rates are high right now. You know I say high but I remember the first piece of equipment I ever bought Todd I paid 11% on.

Todd Dills: El Paso, Texas-based R& M Transportation Independent Rene Holguin, pulling flatbeds.

Rene Holguin: Things start going south. You know what I mean? When you wait for somebody else to give you that direction, you just got to jump on the horse and go do what you got to do, you know.

Todd Dills: And just on the other side of our break for a word from Overdrive Radio's longime sponsor, we'll hear Independent Alan Kitzhaber, who hauls exclusively for Shipper Menard’s in their distribution network out of a home base in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Alan Kitzhaber: I get my truck in on a regular basis at least once a month, to have it gone over, grease the drive line, the steering column. I have an automatic greaser that takes care of the rest of it.

Todd Dills: Keep tuned for plenty more from owner-operator Kitzhaber and others in the trucker of the year field.

Here we go.

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Todd Dills: Learn more about all of Howes’ fuel treatment formulas via howesproducts.com do. Here's Kitzhaber mapping out his 2024 experience.

Alan Kitzhaber: Since I am contracting with menards and that really deals almost exclusively with the housing market, or it's a very big part of it, and with the interest rates the way they are, it's been a little tough, on that business, but nonetheless, I've still been able to stay fairly busy, in large part just because I make myself available when work is available. And so, yeah, it's a little slower than what it has been, But I'm really not going to complain. There's times when, some guys want to go home or don't want to be available to work, and if you make yourself available and sometimes it's, you know, a certain time of the year and sometimes it's the load that they don't want to deal with. And if you're willing to do some of the dirty work every now and then, most dispatchers will remember that. So when times get tough, you might get a little preferential treatment.

Alan Kitzhaber: So that's kind of my approach. That's my mindset.

Todd Dills: The mutual scratching of backs and. Or other ways of putting that, of course, ye provide good service, get more opportunities to do so, I guess.

Alan Kitzhaber: Well, let's. I think that's what it boils down to. And, I've always tried to do that as long as I've been a truck driver. And I think on balance it has paid dividends for me because there's times when I see. I remember back when I was with a contract carrier and, they'd call me up and say, we got this load. You want to go here or there, but don't say anything to anybody else, you know. So you know darn well, you know. And if you're a driver, that's reliable that can get the load there on time that they can count on. And if there’s half a dozen drivers sitting around you’re the one they can count on. You know even if you maybe didn't empty out first, you weren't first in line. They may pick you first just because they know they can get youe re going to get the job done.

Todd Dills: We happened to be talking the weekend after Thanksgiving and Kitzhaber was paused in the midst of pushing his 1995 Kimboardh T600 further past that 4 million mile threshold in the rig that he hit earlier this year as we reported. Where was he now on the miles front? I asked where might he be in March when he told me earlier in the year he'd be at an even 34 years trucking most of them as an owner operator in that very Kenworth.

Alan Kitzhaber: 4 million 6 65,000 come March I anticipate unless things get really slow through the winter months and it has been kind of slow as of late. I chose to work this weekend because it's one of those weekends a lot of guys don't want to work, they want to take off. So I was able to get in a few miles this weekend so we'll find out what next week is like But I anticipate being at right at or maybe just past 4.1 million come March.

Todd Dills: Like so many owners, Kitzhaber kept that Kenworth T600 in tip top shape for so long with close maintenance partners and self education and maintenance for himself over decades in business. Now the same is true even more so when it comes to getting the work done himself. For independent Rene Holguin running out of El Paso Texas and pulling a flatbed 2024 has been somewhat difficult for our October trucker of the month he noted but he's kept the operation well in the black through it all.

Rene Holguin: 2024 has been a challenge I guess with with being a election year per say. yeah it has been a challenge I guess money wise rate has been pretty in the dumps I guess in the past 2, 23 years I guess this past year has taken a turn for the worst I guess of all years. I guess we just kind of got used to that Covid era you know those those couple of years were really good to all of us I guess we were we were just taking advantage of what we could and making hand over fist you know and u I Guess they're getting their payback now and just kind of setting us to the side and pain what they, what they want. Pretty much, you know.

Todd Dills: You're not working with dedicated, shippers. You have, you have some regular brokers though, right?

Rene Holguin: I got some regular brokers, which is regular. It kind of. It kind of. I don't want to say a dedicated run that I do or anything. That's just, I work with, I work with JH rose about 90% of the time. And they got me going with the can AM units. I guess it's. It's those side by sides razors, snowmobiles, seoo and stuff like that, coming out of Mexico here be so close to the border. I guess I have a pretty, pretty good relationship with them and I. I kind of pick and choose what routes I want to run and stuff. That's been pretty steady. That's really steady actually. I guess, as. As expensive as they are. Shoot those things. Those things sell like hotcakes. But I guess everything else, you know, it's been in the dumps, you know. I guess we stay aflo just because we do a lot of our maintenance and a lot of our. Our in house if done and what not a lot of maintenance ourselves. So I guess a lot of. A lot of money stays. Stays here in the house.

Todd Dills: You and Alan, I think, have that in common in some ways. both of you are. Are in trucks that you have owned for a very, very long time. Alan. Allen's put, 4 million miles, on this one truck that he's had since, since he's been in. Since the. Since 1995, I think. You bought it Allen in 98. I'm remembering that, right?

Alan Kitzhaber: Yes, that's correct.

Todd Dills: And Rene, you're still. Are you still in the same first truck that you bought, early 2000s, I believe?

Rene Holguin: Yes, yes, I'm still that. Still the W900. she's been good to me. I got about. I got about three and a half million on her. Just did a major overhaul out of frame. Did everything on it. top to bottom, all the bells and whistles, you know, just something, I guess a peace of mind, you know.

Todd Dills: When did you do that?

Rene Holguin: I did it two Christmases ago. This, this will be the. This will be the third Christmas, this, this Christmas up. It'll be the third Christmas that she's out on the road back with. With a new fresh engine.

Todd Dills: Stick a pin in that notion of maintenance knowhow for an owner opt to keep the truck humming for millions and millions of miles while also keeping a lot of the money you might otherwise spend on that maintenance in house as it were. Its been key in some ways to both of those mens businesses.

In a separate session then too, I spoke to Long haul trucking leased Gary Schloo who reported steady as she goes business through 2024. Since we profiled his freightwork for long haul this past spring, he runs typically dedicated to a particular set of customers in long hauls business.

Gary Schloo: This year now I was doing quite well. Early end of the year I was at one point I was $18,000 ahead of last year. I thought well, I'm going toa have a heck of a good year. And then my backhaul customer started having problems. they couldn't get lumber out of the woods because it was too wet. And then when they finally could get lumber out of the woods, orders dropped. So my deadhead is picked up a little bit. my per mile has suffered a bit. My maintenance has been lower oay fuel has been lower. So that's kind of helped out. But there's you know, with two dedicated customers there isn't a whole lot I can do to you know, if I go chasing something else and I leave one of my dedicated customers in the lurch, you know, so I guess you just cope with it and try to hold the cost down. One of those years with the economy that you have every about every seven or eight years. My lumber is not cured. It's not kiln dried. It's a pallet lumber only right oay. One of the things that happened is I lost my, I, I lose that customer. The, my customer lost that customer in my hometown. And that really hurt a lot.

They, they went to using kiln dried lumber because of issues with mold on the pallets after they got them built. It's a meat company and they can't have mold on those pallets. They stopped using my customers lumber. I've got other customers. some of my other customers have their own ovens.

What I mean by ovens thought is they once they get the pallet built, if those pallets are used for overseas shipping, they are cooked to a certain temperature for a certain length of time. But this particular customer that I have in my hometown does not have that. So, so my dynamic is a little bit different with the lumber. Two small sawmills and they rely on hardwood, right? And hardwood has been a bummer this year coming out of the woods in Wisconsin. Well, it's been 18 years with these two customers. the steel customer looks strong. they have everything to do with their movement. And a lot of people are updating their, their ventilation systems and of course, new plants. they're down a little bit, but I. For them to improve. They, they say that freight will pick up mid year. That's what's what we hear, from the company, and reading the transportation magazines and stuff like that. They see, they look for freight to improve mid year. I'm optimistic that it will, if freight starts moving, it's got to move on pallets.

So, I want to stick with the program. It's been kind to me for 18 years and keep on doing what I'm doing.

Todd Dills: Cue then owner operator Candace Marley, who's now leased Immerser after struggling through a variety of issues. She previously ran under her own authority when overdrive news editor Matt Cole profiled her keioope LLC business earlier this year. Marley was our trucker of the month for March of 2024. And I'll say she's got an absolutely infectious laugh.

Candace Marley: With the truck breaking down okay in June, and that terribly extensive, fix that had to be done because it was, the clutch and the flywheel had to be replaced and the insurance was renewing at the exact same time.

And the price of the insurance was doubling. Well, as I was told, it was happening to everybody. Everybody's insurance was going up doubling though.

Todd Dills: That's that's dramatic.

Candace Marley: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I knew it was going toa go up a little bit. I just didn't expect it to double in price. Yeah.

Todd Dills: And you were probably as a, you haven't had your authority established for all that long and you were probably, you were probably paying a, paying a hefty price for that already.

Candace Marley: I suspect I had a pretty good price for insurance compared to some people. from what I understood, from what I, what I'd heard. But you know, because you, you know what the. But the rate has been like. So even with what I was paying, it was still, it was still qu of hard. It's still, it was still hard. 1,000amonth, the 2,000amonth. @ the same time that I'm, trying to deal with a major, a major bill, you know, it just, it just kind of just didn't, it didn't work out well for me.

Todd Dills: Was the truck down for an extended period of time?

Candace Marley: Was down for a month.

It was the Peterbilt in Lexington, Kentucky.

Todd Dills: Okay so you were on the road when this happened then?

Candace Marley: So I sat there for a week in Lexington before they even pulled it into the shop to figure out what was wrong with it. And then once's they figure out was'wrong fit they were talking like another week before they even pulled it in to work. All in all it ended up off the road for almost a month. I came home, my man drove down to Kentucky and brought me home and then when they finished I got a rental car and drove back down and then I picked it up and drove over to Louisville and hooked on with Mercer.

Todd Dills: Mercer's been around a long time for sure. well known amongst owner operators no doubt. Had you worked with them in the past?

Candace Marley: No.

Todd Dills: How did you make the decision to to pursue working with him this time?

Candace Marley: They had a good reputation. I mean. Yeah but like you said they're well known them among our, our operators. I'd seen them or I've seen their, they're seen them around for as long as I've been driving. So what I'd seen on of their drivers that talked about them, the driver seemed happy with them. So I'm for the most part happy with them. Probably my only complaint is it's hard. They don't really have loads that get, don't have the loads to get me home. That's the hardest part with them. so they don't have a whole lot of, they don't get a whole lot of load going to Iowa.

Todd Dills: So big change certainly for owner operator Candace Marley now lease to Mercer and working to optimize their operation to the companys system.

To take us through to the end of the podcast, I asked all four of these Trucker of the Year contenders to offer up the best piece of advice they could give to fellow owners in the business. Particularly those getting their start trucking as an owner or considering a move in that direction. Well run straight through their responses here starting with Alan Kitzhaber’s considered take on business education Then Rene Holguin, Gary Schloo and Candace Marley in some ways echoing each other but each with time-worn advice borne from their own experience and worth considering for anyone out there trucking as an owner operator thats sure. Here we go for the final run with these four.

Alan Kitzhaber: I would say first and foremost if you want to get into this business, treat it like a business, run it like a business, make business type decisions, don't treat it like a hobby, which I see so many drivers do. They spend money foolishly. They don't make good choices on the kind of truck they buy. they don't drive it properly. They drive at a very high rate of speed which is poor for fuel economy. a solid maintenance schedule is think crucial, to keeping that truck going. You know, I get my truck in on a regular basis at least once a month to have it gone over, grease the drive line, steering column. I have automatic grease. So it takes care of the rest of it. but I think that's a big part of it. And the other thing is I would stress that anyone who wants to be an owner or operator, that they educate themselves as much as they can about being an owner operator by talking to other successful owner operators, listening to programs like yours, reading Overdrive magazine and other trade magazines. there are a number of books on business that a person can buy that can help you out. Taking a, course at a local community college about business could be very helpful. But just come at the whole thing from the perspective of business person, not just, oh, I'm going to buy this truck and I'm going to become a truck driver and run my own truck. And just that's it. There's a lot more to it. The things that Fortune 500 companies do to make themselves successful are no different than what a truck driver with a one truck operation does. It's just done at a much smaller scale. And so that would be my advice. That's where I see most people failing. And I guess I have the advantage. Since I was a RadioShack store manager and I got paid based on the profits of the store and I had to understand P and L statements and expense summaries and I had to understand how to run the business like a business. And that helped me immensely when I got into the truck driving business because I looked at it a little differently than most people do. and if you, if you don't have any kind of business background at all, you really need to take the time to educate yourself a little bit about what it takes to be successful in business.

Rene Holguin: I guess you got to put your feelings aside. Kind of like Alan kind of said piggyback on that. You've gott, you got to be the boss, you got to make those executive decisions. When, when the time comes, you know, you just can't sit around and Wait for somebody else to give you directions because then that's when, that's when things start going south. You know what I mean? When you wait, wait for somebody else to give you that, that direction. You just got to jump, jump on the horse and go do what you got to do. You know, you got to have a little bit of stupid cowboy and you you know, just kind of get out there and do what you got to do. Jump in it and take the, take the bull by horns and go at itm. the advice I can give to, to upcoming people is get ready to get your hands dirty. Don't be afraid to you know, YouTube stuff. ask, ask other fellow drivers. You know the older guys have a lot to say, a lot of knowledge stuff if you listen to what they got to say.

Todd Dills: You're thinking about it from a mechanical standpoint.

Rene Holguin: I say that's 90% of the, the biggest people going in the hole is not having ah, any kind of mechanical incline, you know, any kind of mechanical knowledge of what they're driving, how to drive it, U what different noises are making, you know, this and that. And I would say you know, just be a little bit mechanically inclined. U just willing to get your hands dirty a whole lot.

Candace Marley: You know, save your, save your money. Breakdowns are expensive, right?

Do as much, do as much of maintenance on as yourself that you can. and I guess just like you know, like, like what I've been through, if, if something's not working out, don't be afraid to change lanes. Not you know, because that's what I had to do. Having my own authority was I loved it. I freaking loved it. I loved the freedom of it. But things weren't working, things were going bad so I had to change lanes sign on with Mercer in order to survive. Now down the road doesn't mean I can't go back to having my own authority. I just knew that that was the only way I was going to survive this right now it does help that I have access to more contract freight that I didn't, which I didn't have before, you know because they do have contracts with with a few customers so that, that does open a few more doorways that I didn't have before. Pretty good fuel discounts through EFS card and they have, they have tired discounts and they have, they give you a customer number. they have you know the customer number for each of the the bigger name truck stops for getting a discount for your PMs and stuff like that.

Gary Schloo: Well, this is a good company that I'm leased to. And I guess the first thing is find a good company and, and establish yourself with a good local bank. interest rates are high right now. You know, I say hi, but I remember the first piece of equipment I ever bought, Todd, I paid 11% on.

So I, I guess they're cheaper than that now.

Todd Dills: But, you know, it can be for some. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can be higher too, depending on your credit.

Gary Schloo: But yeah, the less equity you have, of course, the more the bank wants for an interest rate.

You know, save, save up some money. You got some down payment. establish yourself with a good local bank and find a good company that has stable freight, different kinds of freight. You know, you're not reliant on just, one, or two customers. That's one thing that's, that's helped us here at this company that I'm Lee to Todd. The Conestogas really helped our freight base. Not so much at first, but as things pressed on, boy, customers really like the Conestoga, easy to load. the freight was covered. It wasn't parps over stuff. but it's expensive to get into this business. These trailers. Now, the last trailer I put together, Todd, was 57,000. Putting the trailer together now is over 80.

Alan Kitzhaber: If someone wants to be a, like a dentist or if they want to be a plumber or they want to be a carpenter, most of them have to go to a trade school of some sort before they can even start that business. If you want to be a truck driver, you just got to get the bank to approve a loan. And you're a truck driver without any kind of education to go along with that. and that is why I believe a lot of owner operators fail is because they just don't. They don't take that next step and educate themselves.

Rene Holguin: Your day ends. But, you know, being an owner operator, sometimes your shift ins, but then you’re. You're down underneath the truck, you know, checking tires, patching tires.

You know, I plug a lot of tires. A lot of time, you know, going through it, going over, you know, just, you know, sometimes when you gott. Just always, always have an eye out of, of what you're driving and how it works. My fuel pump went out years ago, and I actually thought it was an injector, you know, just because it had that, you know, there's a, there's a certain fuel knock when you're when your truck is is needing starving for fuel. You know. I actually was going to the, the injector part. You know it kind of had my mindset on that until like YouTube something, you know, just kind of just kind of sitting there on the side of the road just twilling, you know, going through my thoughts. You know every kind of thought goes through your mind that you're gonna go broke, you know, in the next 24 hours. but you know you kind of start YouTubing stuff and kind of points in a different direction. And I kind of went to the fuel pump direction and I got a really good relationship with my mechanic. you'll answer me 90% of the time in the middle of night and stuff. And I kind of, I kind of YouTube that called him and kind of picked his brain and we kind of diagnosed it to a fuel pump issue.

Todd Dills: That it was out there for owner operator Holguin. In that case his wife Messina, who handles back office duties typically for him, loaded up a replacement part in El Paso, Texas and drove it to him where he was marooned in Oklahoma and Holguin made the fix in the parking lot of one of the largest McDonalds in America, the Oklahoma Turnpike. Its testament to that maintenance knowhow nearly all of these owner ops advised on the educational front but also the value of building the support team. No doubt crucial for every successful owner, whether leased or with authority. Thanks to all four of these owner operators for their time. And next week well hear from another big group to round out this series of exit interviews as it were before judges finish selecting finalists for the big 2024 trucker of the Year. Keep tuned for that for sure and for longtime listeners among owner operators here we’re starting to canvas for entries for the 2025 Trucker of the Year competition. You can enter your own business or that of another deserving owner of up to 3 trucks via overdriveonline.com/toptrucker.