The Heavy Duty Parts Report
In each episode, Jamie Irvine and his guests have conversations that empower heavy-duty people. They discuss tips, tools, and technology that help heavy-duty parts manufacturers and distributors sell the right parts to fleets, repair shops, and truck operators.
The Heavy Duty Parts Report
Change Your Life by Becoming an Owner Operator in the Trucking Industry
Episode 337: Having the right people in your business is very important for success. The ‘right people’ must have a combination of experience and expertise, but more importantly, must have a great attitude and the personality traits needed to be successful in their role.
Speaking of a great attitude, our interview with successful trucker and YouTuber with the handle Trucking with Tay, gave us a glimpse into what optimism and hard work can accomplish. Tay has not only achieved financial success but has also inspired others to do the same as an owner operator. From tripling his income to helping a young follower purchase a house and truck, Tay's story is a testament to the opportunities that can be had in the trucking industry.
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You're listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin, and this is the place where we have conversations that empower heavy-duty people. Welcome to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin. In this episode, we are going to talk about how joining the trucking industry can radically change your life. We're going to talk about some of the challenges you may have to overcome and why it's worth it, and we're going to discuss what it means to be heavy duty. Let's get started.
Jamie Irvine:At the Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation, we work with our clients on a variety of different things everything from market investigations, strategic business planning, people and organization and many other things but one of the most common issues our clients have is people and organization. Let's face it getting the right people sitting in the right seats is a challenging thing that seems to be getting harder every single year. What do I mean by the right people? Well, what I mean by that is somebody who has the right combination of personality traits for the position that they're going to fill and has relevant experience to do the job. Now, in addition to that, we want to layer in a component of attitude. They also have to have the right attitude to fit into the culture of your company. They also have to have the right attitude to fit into the culture of your company. Now, to fill open positions, you are likely going to have to recruit people from outside of the industry. There just isn't that many heavy-duty people with a lot of relevant experience available, and that number is dwindling year over year, with so many of the older, more experienced ones retiring and people also leaving the industry.
Jamie Irvine:When you are recruiting, I recommend that you create a job model that outlines the requirements that you're looking for to find an ideal candidate. Now, in that job model, what we want to do is we want to lay out the ideal personality characteristics that a person who would be optimally good at that job would have. Then we want to compare the people that we are recruiting to that job model and find somebody who has a personality that really matches the position that they are going to fill on your behalf. Now, this doesn't mean we don't look at relevant education, experience and skills. That is still an important component of recruiting the right person. But when we do this using a tool like the Psychometric Assessment Tool Traits that HDC uses with all of their clients, you can predictably meet someone who you've never met before and you can predictably see what kind of person they are and whether or not they are a match for the job model that you've created for that position. This is a really important piece to recruiting and I think it's something that a lot of heavy duty companies really struggle with. So you end up hiring someone who maybe has the right resume, but they're not a good fit on the profile side. We see this in sales, we see this on the parts counter, in management positions. We see it throughout the company. Now here's the thing you can find somebody who may not have all of the relevant education, experience and skills, but who has an excellent, a strong alignment to the job model from a personality perspective, and you can teach them what they need to know to become really proficient at the job. When you find somebody who aligns from a personality perspective, what you end up hearing is you hear people say things like I love my job and they tend to stick around a lot longer. Why? Because of that alignment. This is such an important piece to recruiting the right kinds of people and when you have that alignment, what you also see is that these types of people are more productive and if they are missing a piece of the puzzle on the education, experience and skills side of the equation. If you give them the training, they rapidly are able to absorb that training and apply it, and very quickly they're usually able to get up to speed to where you want them to be to do the job correctly.
Jamie Irvine:Now education, experience and skills are things that can be taught. Personality, attitude, cognitive ability these things are not taught. So, for example, let's talk about personality. Your personality stems from the genetic code you receive from your parents and your grandparents and also the environment you grew up in as a child. Both of those things developed your personality. By the time you became an adult, that personality let's say profile, if you will has been locked in. You are who you are and really over time that personality does not change a great deal as you age. It's kind of locked in for life. So while you can teach people the education, experience and skills side of the equation, you can't teach people to, for example, be more assertive than they actually are or be more social than they actually are or be more detail-oriented than they actually are. You might be able to help them get to higher levels of performance based on where they are, but you're not going to radically change who they are as a person. Okay, so when you think about all of that that other component we mentioned earlier attitude comes to play, and I think this is such a X factor when it comes to finding the right people. It's so important to find someone with the right attitude. This is also something I don't think you can teach Now. We're going to talk about that a little bit more later on in the episode in our segment. That's Not Heavy Duty and how attitude plays a role in all of this. But I, before that, I want to introduce you to our guest in today's episode, because this individual did not start out in trucking, has joined our ranks and has an incredible attitude and a great story. I'm going to introduce you to our guest in just a moment. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and then we'll get right to our interview. We'll be right back.
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Jamie Irvine:We're back from the break, and before the break I was talking about how important it is to find people with a combination of education, experience, skills and the right personality trait and the right attitude. My guest today is someone who has an incredible story and has an excellent attitude, and we're so lucky to have him in the trucking industry. My guest today is an owner-operator. He goes by Trucking With Tay. Now Trucking With Tay is a dynamic content creator who shares his experiences and insights from the road, offering a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a trucker. His content is designed to motivate and educate viewers of the trucking industry and people who are interested in learning more about the trucking industry. Tay, welcome to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report. So glad to have you here.
Tay:Let's do it, though, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it. How?
Jamie Irvine:you doing, man? I told people in the intro that you are an individual with an awesome attitude. There's evidence of that right there. I've been looking forward to this conversation to get to know you a little better. First of all, tate, can you just go into a little bit more detail about, kind of like, what's the big idea behind what you're working on right now, the project that you're working on right now?
Tay:Man, honestly, I really just want to just grow like organically. You know, show people from the bottom, you know, just come from the bottom and just move your way up, not just like far as the lifestyle just like as a regular trucker, you know, you can just start Like, honestly, I started at a company, you know.
Tay:I saw the incentives like to make more money and I just pushed it. Youtube was the foundation for that, you know. And once I just kept going I said, dude, I like this. And the guys around me, as far as the YouTube community, they liked the motivational part. I thought it was just a natural thing, but it's like they gravitated to it. So I'm just like dude, we got to take this and run with it and that's what it was, man.
Tay:I just started from somewhere and just growing like organically and you don't have to do too much.
Jamie Irvine:Just work your butt off, don't look for handouts Just work.
Tay:And hopefully by the finish line you can bring other people up with you. That's my goal Just a few people alive. That would be awesome for me.
Jamie Irvine:Yeah, it's one of the reasons that we work so hard to encourage people to be heavy duty, to consider the trucking industry as a viable place for a career and a way of life, so I'm definitely in line with you on that. Let's get into your story, though. Tell me a little bit about your educational background and your early career, before you got into the trucking industry.
Tay:Man. A lot of guys don't know this, but I actually went to college. I went to college and I got a four-year degree in business management and I always wanted to be able to put people in position. You get what I'm saying. And also like being able. I've seen this video online. Okay, and a guy worked at this company for like 30 years 30 years. It was a trucking company right, they went under His pension and everything gone. You get what I'm saying. Everything is gone. So it's like and also he got fired as well. You get what I'm saying. I'm like how can somebody work for someone? You get what I'm saying, but I'm like how can somebody work for someone?
Tay:And then, with no like, no like warming to nothing, just to get fired like that. And going to college and I thought I wanted to be a manager or something, but it's like, overall, I wanted to have my own thing. You get what I'm saying and I got. Honestly, I ain't told too many people this, okay.
Jamie Irvine:You listening? Okay, I won't tell too many people this, okay, you listening. Okay, I won't tell too many people either, just the thousands and thousands that follow the show.
Tay:Dude, I got fired. I got fired from a job like two years ago. I never said this on my YouTube platform or nothing. I got let go from a job like two years ago and that feeling they gave me was like oh, it was like the beginning of 2022. And that's when I started my company. So yeah, man, I just want to be able to get put in position. I started with 20.
Tay:I graduated college in 2015. I was a salesman at Pepsi and I worked all these hours. Dude, I worked so many hours. You know what I mean. It got to be more to life than this. And then I started looking to trucking in the little school that it requires, and you can make so much money. So I said, dude, let's do it, let's do it. It happened so fast. Dude, I've been an owner-operator longer than I've been a company driver. You get what I'm saying. I did company drive for two years, but I've been an owner-operator for four.
Jamie Irvine:So yeah, okay. So I just want to recap that. So you got your full degree in business administration and management. You went into a corporate job in sales. You started to get some experience there. A corporate job in sales. You started to get some experience there. You're looking around and you're saying to yourself there's got to be more to this than this corporate lifestyle. The trucking industry came on your radar and you spent those two years as a company driver. That got your start and then you made the decision to go into the owner-operator side of the business. So you've been an owner-operator for four years now. How has it gone since becoming an owner-operator side of the business?
Tay:So you've been an owner-operator for four years now.
Jamie Irvine:How has it gone since becoming an owner-operator.
Tay:It's been good, man, it's been good, but I'm going to tell you, it has its ups and downs, dude. It really has its ups and downs, but overall it's been good. I'm going to tell you the company that I got to let go from man that year and the year before I was printing my own money. Man, I was printing my own money, I was loving trucking and the thing is, I was so new to it, man, I was so new to it.
Tay:And a lot of guys I heard the older truckers, hey, they think it's going to be like this forever. And I'm like, when I, when I, literally when I had home time, I was like, dude, I got to get back out there Because, like, when an older trucker tell you something, you need to listen. When somebody with experience tell you something, you need to listen. And I'm like, every time, I promise you, every time I left home, I was making $10,000 every week. My best week was like a $16,000 a week. Okay, you know what I mean. I had a couple PC days and I had a couple of this and a couple of that, but I had a good week, man.
Tay:So yeah man, when, when, when, older Trump is telling you something you need to listen in, and it was just a great time during, um, during the first, the first two years, I became the owner operator, but as my own motor carrier cause the last two years I've been my own motor carrier and it's been, and carrier because the last two years I've been my own motor carrier and it's been, and you know you just gotta go with it, you know yeah, and I'll tell you something to you like I've been, I've been working in the heavy duty parts side of the business, uh, since 1998.
Jamie Irvine:So I've got a few years under my belt and we've been through like five economic cycles in that time period. And you're absolutely right that the older ones that have been through it, they know that when it's good doesn't last forever, when it's bad doesn't last forever. It is a cycle. You know the classic truckload cycle. Right now we've been in the bottom of it, we've been bouncing along the bottom of it for a little while now and we're just starting to show signs that we're coming into the early first stage of another cycle all over again.
Jamie Irvine:So as you made that transition, you know, from company driver to owner operator, to motor carrier, you're increasing the amount of responsibility that you have. As a company driver, you just got to drive the truck. As an owner operator, you have to pay the bills for that truck and then as a motor carrier a small fleet you've got to do things like your own maintenance, things like that. So how do you approach and how have you so quickly adapted and learned what you need to do to keep these trucks on the road and what's your general philosophy with things like maintenance and parts?
Tay:Save, dude. Saving is so important. And I'm going to tell you another thing. You know, my first truck was a fairly new truck. 2020 is when I started my company. Right, I had a 2017 truck, okay, and it's fairly new compared to my 2005 truck. You get what I'm saying. 2005 truck, you get what I'm saying. And the 2005 is pre-emissions and EGR and all that good stuff. And my new truck I'm talking about, I barely had to do anything with it, them first couple years. You might have a sense to go out of anything like that, but I barely had to do anything to it.
Tay:I would tell guys start with a good truck, man, don't try to. As I was coming up, I was like start with a good truck, man, don't try to. You know, as I was coming up, I was like dude, I can buy this older truck and you know I put a start on there and you know I do this, I do that, dude, I would save myself so much money, dude, save yourself a headache, okay, save yourself a freaking headache. Get you a pretty good truck starting off. That's what you do. Get you a pretty good truck starting off. That's what you do. Get your pretty good truck starting off. Therefore, you can save money, and the main problems in the down time you will have is little versus an older truck. In my experience okay, just in my experience it'll be so much more smaller because the parts on that older truck is old. You get what I'm saying Versus that newer truck it'll take a little bit more time for it to wear old. You get what I'm saying Versus that newer truck It'll take a little bit more time for it to wear down. You get what I'm saying, man? I'm telling you start off with a good truck and save your money.
Jamie Irvine:I think you're right there. Depending on who you are and what your financial position is, there's there's probably some middle ground there that that would be like the sweet spot for a truck, so one that maybe you don't have to, you know, go into deep debt to acquire the truck like you do with a brand new truck, but one that isn't so mild out, and God you know the longer that truck's been on the road and the more operators that have driven that truck. Who knows the maintenance practices that they were following? So as vehicles age, if you don't know the history on that, you can just be buying someone else's headache, and that can be very costly.
Jamie Irvine:Engine transmission, differentials, right Suspension, electrical issues, all of those things start to come to play. So I think you're right Start off with a truck that is going to be good for the vocation you're in, that is not too mild out, that has a good maintenance record, and then from there, if you follow a good, solid maintenance program, you don't cheap out on parts and try to find the cheapest part out there, you buy high quality replacement parts, then you have the foundation and the basis to actually make some money.
Tay:Manage your money well. I put my money to stocks. I did, but it was more of a high risk kind of thing, dude. When you're making money, put it into like a safe thing in a stock that's safe right now. All of them might not be like the risk parts up here. What I was taking be more down here to the floor, so you can, you know when, when? The hard times come, or a big breakdown come, or motor transmission.
Jamie Irvine:Hey, you can just borrow from yourself and keep going yeah, and I think I think that's important too when you look at your whole financial situation. You got to treat your business like it's your business and not your personal bank account. You have to set up your personal finances to take care of yourself. You got to try to keep those separate and I like what you're talking about with lower risk, because if you have a long-term viewpoint on many aspects of life, you will do far better than if you're just worried about the next week, the next month, right, or even the next quarter.
Tay:that's it, dude. I'm telling you you're hitting it right on, right on, dude so you do a lot of motivational content.
Jamie Irvine:Um, tell me a little bit more about that, about what kind of really inspired you to do that. What kind of messages are you sending out? And when you're doing the behind the scenes stuff, what are the kinds of things that you are showing people and how do you incorporate that into a motivational message?
Tay:Man, I'm going to tell you me and my wife talks about this a lot. Honestly, we were just talking about it last night. Our natural instinct is to help you get what I'm saying. It wasn't like no money, money, money. It's just like just to help people and see them smile. You know, even when you don't have the most and you see someone else struggling, it's just like what can I do to help you? You know, what can I do, like?
Jamie Irvine:can I stop you there for a minute? I want to. I just want to ask your opinion on this. We've always said if you find somebody who's trying really hard but coming up short, that's the person you want to try to help.
Tay:That's it, dude. I promise you, man, like, even when you're not doing the best, it's like. But you seeing someone come up and I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you it's this young guy. I started my YouTube in 2018. He started following me like mid-2018, I want to say it was mid or before, but it was somewhere in that little sweet spot.
Tay:When I say this guy, he was on my coattail. It was so many people coming towards me. I'm like God, where is all this coming from? But I was grateful, I was happy, I was thanking God for it, but it was so many people. I didn't know who was genuine, who was this, who was that. But this guy stuck with me and he'll call me. He wasn't able to call me at first, but he started sending me messages on YouTube, sending me messages on social media, and I started to put him under my wing.
Tay:When I say this young guy listen, and I was telling him the experience I was going through, this young guy was I'm 31. I want to say like five or six years younger than me. So around that time, I was like 25, 26. He was like 21. This guy got his first house within like two years. I want to say like a $260,000 house. I'm talking at the age of like 22, 23 years old.
Tay:You know he was working his butt off. He was this, and I'm not going to say all that was due to me, because he'd go out there and work six weeks at a time and I was just so, so happy. But that little help, that little motivation I was able to give him, emmanuel, it was just everything for me. It made me feel so good Like he got his own truck. Now he just bought his new truck, I want to say last year, the end of last year, he got out of my house. He don't have any kids yet, so he's doing really, really well. He got like I don't want to say how much money he got saved up, but he got some money saved up in the bank and he's doing really well and I'm telling him right now save your money, boo.
Tay:Do not go into the high risk like I did. Save your money and don't go into all the credit card debt. It'll be devastating. Just listen to me.
Jamie Irvine:Yeah, I second that for sure. You know, as you're telling your story, I know yourself too. I mean, you were able to triple your income. You were able to buy a house. Since I've started this podcast and my consulting business, you know, I was able to buy a different house for my family. The many years that I worked for other companies, I always had stable income. It was really a stabilizing factor in my life.
Jamie Irvine:The trucking industry and the people who are part of the industry are such great people and they always seemed to be someone to step up and help me at just the right time. So I love the fact that early on in your career, you're already trying to pass it on to the next generation. I think that's so important for those people who are critics of joining the trucking industry and maybe there's a young person listening right now Maybe they want to be a heavy duty parts person, maybe they want to be a technician, maybe they want to be a driver. And actually, melissa the diesel queen she's a technician who's been on the show. She also bought a house in her early 20s because of being a diesel technician. So for the critics and you have this young person listening and they see the people who are critical of the industry and then they hear our message and they say like what's the truth here, like what's the one thing you want them to remember from our conversation today?
Tay:It changed my life. It changed my life. I was 26 years old when I bought my first house. I got over four acres. I got like a 3,000 square foot house. It changed my life. I got two trucks, trailers. I got equipment. Dude, I got a freaking zero turn. Dude, growing up a freaking zero turn was like, dude, you pushed the normal. I grew up with the brake on my shoulder and pushed the lawnmower. I got a freaking zero turn.
Jamie Irvine:Guys, I always say to myself Life is good when you get a zero turn.
Tay:Dude, I got a zero turn. Dude. Oh, I always told myself y'all, and listen to me, I promise you. I told myself this when I was a company driver If I fail, if I fail as an owner-operator, I can always go back to being a company driver. You get what I'm saying. If you fail as a truck driver and you're working as a factory worker, you can always go back as a factory worker where you're comfortable. But why not take risks when life is so short, life is so precious? I'm telling you, dude, you got nothing to lose. Just save up a little money when you're doing something like that. Save up a little money to cover your tail. You get what I'm saying. Going from a Pepsi salesman to a company driver, first year, dude, I made almost six figures the first year. Second year, six figures for sure. Third year, I got, dude, I made over half a million dollars with all my trucking stuff. Dude, over half a million dollars.
Jamie Irvine:So I did really well In your mid-twenties.
Tay:Dude, it was like hold on 2021 was how many years ago? Three years ago, yeah, like you know, mid to late twenties, like I made over half a million dollars. Yeah, youtube trucking, it was amazing. Dude. Dude, take a risk and try it guys. I'm telling you. I'm telling you it was, it's been good.
Jamie Irvine:You've been listening to the Heavy Duty Parts Report. I'm your host, Jamie Irvin, and we've been speaking with Tay, with trucking Tay. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. If people want to follow you, they can follow you on Instagram at Trucking with Tay. I'll put the links in the show notes. Thanks so much for being on the show. It was great to talk to you.
Tay:Awesome. Thank you, man.
Jamie Irvine:Well, I hope you enjoyed my interview with Tay. I think it's a great story, and don't you agree what, tay? I think it's a great story and don't you agree? What a great attitude this guy has towards the trucking industry. We're very happy to have him amongst our ranks here in the trucking industry.
Jamie Irvine:Now it's time for that's Not Heavy Duty, and in this edition of that's Not Heavy Duty, I want to talk about a bad attitude. I've heard so many people in the comments of past interviews and posts that we've done online really complaining about the trucking industry. You know they complain about the wages, they complain about the working conditions. Now, I understand that working in the trucking industry is not the easiest job by any means, but trust me, there are far, far harder jobs that actually pay a lot less, and I've done some of them, like gutter cleaning and rebar and construction and other jobs like that. And you know the trucking industry is truly a great industry to be a part of. The people are amazing, the work is really interesting and challenging and for a lot of people, the pay is substantially better than the alternatives that are available to them.
Jamie Irvine:So please, if you're in the trucking industry, don't discourage people from joining. Regardless of your personal opinion, the reality is we need more people. We need people with a great attitude. Having a great attitude, being appreciative, always challenging the status quo and trying to improve. That's an important piece that cannot be ignored. But all of this together to me, is the heavy duty way. That's how we are heavy duty. So please have a great attitude about what you do, really encourage people to join the trucking industry and if there is a problem that you're experiencing personally, let's try to be proactive and address it, as opposed to just being reactive or being extremely negative, which I don't think is warranted, because, by and large, the trucking industry is a great industry to be a part of.
Jamie Irvine:Well, thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you haven't already, I'd like you to head over to heavydutypartsreportcom and make sure you hit the follow button, sign up to our weekly email so you never miss out on any content. We only send one email a week, so we're not going to spam you with anything. We're just going to keep you up to date with our new content. In addition to that, if you listen on a podcast player of your choice, hit that follow button for free, and also if it gives you the option. A five-star rating and review would be really helpful. We would really appreciate that. If you watch the video version, go to YouTube, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell notification so you never miss out. Thank you so much for listening to another edition of the Heavy-Duty Parts Report and, as always, I want to encourage you to be heavy-duty.