00:04 And another man in Louisiana once asked me where he could get a hot dog bun. And I told him, “I don’t work here.” He said, “I didn’t ask you if you worked here. I want a hot dog bun.” And before it was all over, his wife had him by the shirt and was dragging him out to get him outside. And he was looking back at me and like he wanted to fight because I wouldn’t tell him where he could get a hot dog bun.

00:30 Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking, and we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Let’s get to the show.

00:53 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. This is a format, a venue if you will, where we elevate and celebrate the drivers, the men and women out on the roads making it all possible. We have a very special guest with us tonight. He’s a gentleman by the name of Richard Abbott, but he goes by Joe. Richard or Joe, how are you?

01:15 Fine. How about you?

01:17 I’m doing great. Can’t complain. It’s Friday as we’re recording this conversation. It’s been a great week and I hope your week has been good. How has it been, Joe?

01:26 Oh, really good. I worked around some bad weather they had. It was behind me. I came from Arizona to Louisville, Kentucky, and I missed all the ice storm they had.

01:39 Yeah, that was the ice storm that hit Oklahoma and Texas.

01:42 Right. I just kind of stayed ahead of it and that worked out good.

01:46 So you were in front of it before it hit.

01:50 Right. It almost caught me. I was a little west of Nashville View, Tennessee. I woke up, there was ice on the windshield, but I got that truck delivered and picked up another truck and came down to Florida, Midway, Florida. And now I’m on my way back up to Rodell, Georgia.

02:11 Gotcha. Midway, Florida. I think I know where that is, but kind of orient us to where Midway is.

02:17 It’s a little west of Tallahassee. 10, 20 miles maybe.

02:22 Okay. You were able to skirt that winter storm coming through Oklahoma and Texas. You were in front of it. So, give us an idea. Here we are on the in February, obviously in the dead of winter, but right where you are now or where you’ve been the last day or so, it’s been pretty nice—

02:41 Right? Just raining and was 21 degrees a few days ago and but I worked around it. I sleep in my van. And I got a good heater in here. So I just got up and dealt with it.

02:56 So So what’s the temperature now? You’re in South Georgia now. Is that right?

03:01 Right. Omega, Georgia. I would say the temperature is about 50° here. It feels like.

03:07 What was it in Midway, Florida?

03:09 Oh, let’s see. Last night it was about the same. In the 50s. I think about 52 when I got up this morning. And but yesterday here in South Georgia, it got up to 75° and but it wasn’t quite that. I think the high day around here was about 62.

03:30 Were you able to get— Was it sunny or not necessarily?

03:33 This morning the sun came out for a while.

03:37 Were you able to enjoy it somewhat? Well, it I enjoy getting the truck dropped off that I was delivering there to a Freightliner dealer and that’s always a relief knowing that I got it there with no damage and no complaints.

03:57 Gotcha. Now, you had mentioned just a couple of minutes ago that you sleep in your van and you were able you’ve got a heater that works well. Tell us a little bit about how you were able to sleep in your van and how that works as far as is that life on the road, life off the road. How does that van factor into your dayto-day?

04:19 Well, I took the seats out. I’ve had several vans. I have a Dodge 1500 Ram with a high top. I took the back seats out and built a bed and tool boxes in here and clothes storage for clothes underneath the bed and have a carbon monoxide sensor in here. So, I just leave the motor running for heat and air conditioning in the summer and leave a window open opposite side from the exhaust pipe. And usually the wind comes out of the south or the west. And it’s best to park where the wind’s blowing toward the front of the van. If not, cars burn a lot cleaner now with fuel injection than they did in the old days with carburetors. Sometimes with a carburetor, you leave it running. It would die during the night.

05:14 Now, do you take this van with you on most of your transports?

05:18 Right. I have a toe bar that folds up and have it fixed or you can use a ball and socket or a panel hook that can slide into it with just a pin that holds them in. And then I have hitches I bolt or clamp onto the truck and now and then one or some of the trucks have a hitch on them already.

05:42 Okay. Okay. Now, do you make selections on your loads based off of trucks that can accommodate your tow vehicle?

05:53 Oh, no. There’s some that some dump trucks are hard to hook up to and we ask does it have a penal hook on it? And if not, then I pass on those particular ones. But I’m having in process trying to get a hitch made that will clamp onto those truck. It has to be a special hitch made for that purpose.

06:22 Gotcha. Gotcha. Obviously, it’s attractive in value and savings to travel the way you do. How much would you say on a given load? Let’s say theoretically it’s a we’ll say for sake of discussion it’s a cross country load. How much do you save on that one load? Let’s say you’re going 2500 miles by sleeping in your van and what you’ve made there as far as the accommodations you have. How much do you save in let’s say it’s a fiveday trip?

06:57 Yeah. Well, motel are around $75 at the cheapest. Now and then you see one advertised for $49.95, but so that’s about $400 in that neighborhood of motel. And then you can carry some food with you if you like. And so that prepared food is really expensive now. And seem like everything has about 100% inflation from what it was a year ago.

07:29 Mhm.

07:29 And then there’s traveling. I just have to buy gas, of course, wear and tear on the van, but motel and taxes and Uber and buses and airplanes. I did that for a little while when I first started 25 years ago. It’ll be 26 years this summer. And I did it for about 4 months. It wore me out and I had a little pinto station wagon. So, I was able to get it after a while to where I could tow it. It was a good feeling. I went from the Los Angeles area over to Phoenix and it was really a good feeling to get in that car and drive away and not have to get a city bus down to the bus station and all that.

08:18 I guess it offers you that that like you said security and the flexibility or does that give you more freedom? You say your next load could be I don’t know 25 miles away or 200 miles away. You’ve got your own van. You can do what you want. Yeah, to go 25 miles it might take you all day with public transportation. So, making the arrangements and everything or so, I just don’t want to go back to riding a bus and stay in the motel. Now and then I stay in a motel on certain occasions. If the weather’s really cold or I’m really tired and want to rest for a while—

09:03 Just to recharge—

09:05 Right? It’s if a fella’s married, he’d want to have his wife to go with him and drive to and really you don’t need a house. I do have a place in Arizona, but I very seldom go and stay there. And I have a mailbox UPS box, but I hear people paying 600, maybe $1,000 a month rent, and they never stay there. So, that’s just money you can put in the bank, you know.

09:38 Right. Now, you were talking about a place you have in Arizona. Is this a place that you visit? How often do you get out there, and what part of Arizona is it in? It’s between Kingman and Las Vegas, a little village called Dolan Springs. My friend, he’s a driver to David Tornobain. He owns an acre of ground there and I have my motor home there and I have a antique car there and a storage van.

10:06 Gotcha. So, you stay on the road a lot—

10:10 Right? I’m out here all the time. When I’m not driving, I’m looking for a load. So—

10:15 How many days in a given year would you say you are in the cab of some sort of tractor truck or whatever it may be?

10:23 Well, kind of caught me off guard there. Maybe 300 days.

10:29 Wow.

10:29 A year in that neighborhood, I would think.

10:32 You’re somewhat of a road warrior, I guess you would say.

10:35 Yeah. I used to travel a lot before I when I was younger. I went here and there and then I had a towing service for 17 years. I towed cars locally in California and that worked pretty good, but I kind of wanted to travel. I go on vacation every year and I’d say I just like to do this all the time, you know, see different things and every second that goes by, you’re seeing something different while you’re traveling.

11:10 Sure. Absolutely. Now, you were talking about you used to tow cars. Do you have a record service? Did you work for someone? How did how 17 years?

11:20 Yeah. Right. I Well, before that I sold cars and picked cars. I was in that automobile business for a long time. I grew up around it. But I had a tow truck and I drove it myself. Now and then I’d have a driver, but that didn’t work too good. And I was up in the Bay Area, Oakland, California.

11:45 And then I moved back down to Santa Cruz where I lived at one time and had friends there. And people didn’t want to pay much for a toe, but they gave me a lot of cars that wouldn’t pass ignition and cars that would run. And I had a wrecking yard over in San Jose about 30 miles away that would give me pretty good money for one. So, I go through about three to four maybe 500 cars a year. The ones I took them and the ones I sold locally.

12:22 Okay. Okay. Now, when what time frame was that? What year are we talking about there?

12:29 Well, it was 1990, early 90, about this time of the year. I went back down to Santa Cruz and I stayed there and did that until right before I started this job in 1997.

12:43 Okay. Now, 97, let’s pick it up there. When you say you started this job, I don’t driveaway was not certainly not as big a thing back in 97 as it is now. But did you start in a different sector of driving a truck?

13:01 Well, the I was in it was in Terrier, California. I started with a company that’s out of business now, a Morgan driveaway. And they had some Grammar Nollesen trucks and I started doing them and I worked the West Coast for a few months and then after I got my car where I could tow it, I started venturing out more around the United States—

13:34 And I found there was more work. So, you’re kind of a I guess in some ways a pioneer because driveaway at least in the ‘9s I guess. Was it a new thing in California at that time?

13:46 No, they had been doing it for ages, but I guess it’s just kind of a low-key business. A lot of people don’t even know what you’re doing. I’ve even had policemen to question me why I wasn’t hauling anything in the truck. They thought I was delivering my van. And I’d have to explain to them, “No, I’m delivering the truck. This is my van. I use it to get to my next job or to go home.”

14:11 Gotcha. So, when you think about it in those terms, how long you’ve been in driveaway? So, you started in driveaway and I guess how many years have you been doing it now?

14:24 It’ll be 26 years in June.

14:28 How much have you seen it change in that quarter of a century? Well, they didn’t pay us much and gas was, I think, oh, around a dollar a gallon, $125. Then it went up finally it got up to $2 a gallon. We thought that was terrible and now it’s a lot more.

14:51 Mhm. Has the pay increased somewhat along with the price of fuel?

14:57 Oh, yeah. They’re Norton’s really being kind to me. They pay us good and they treat us you’re a person and not just a number. And they treat the drivers like human beings. And I worked for the first one I worked for. Some of the people that worked for that company were helpful and others would just kind of you know they wouldn’t even answer a question directly tell me to suit myself. Yeah, you said some of the people were helpful, others were not. I guess that’s the name of the game when you’re in driveaway, the essence of having good communication and people who frankly are helpful on the other side—

15:42 Right?

15:42 Gotcha. Gotcha. So, how often do you get to Arizona? I mean, if you’re on the road, maybe 300 days a year, do you try to time it weatherwise or do you just get to Arizona when you can? Just when I can. And my friend David Tornabain that owns a property most of the time to visit with him. He just comes down to Kingman. We meet in a parking lot and flying J Travel Center so we can visit. Then I’ll maybe be in the middle of a trip and I’ll go on to California. And so I stopped going and coming if he’s home or in the area. You’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We have Richard Abbott, also known as Joe Abbott, as our special guest on here.

16:44 Joe, I wanted to ask you a quick question. With the name Richard Abbott, how did Joe come about? Is that your middle name?

16:51 No. My middle name’s Carrie. My brother insisted on naming me Joe when I was born. So I just got stuck with two names. And anyway, I never heard him call me Richard. So—

17:04 How many people that know you as Joe and how many call you Richard?

17:08 Very few. When they call me Richard, I know that it’s they’re not my friend or they’re not I’m not acquainted with them very good. Yes.

17:17 And so some people one fell came by said he was looking for Richard Abbott that we used to work together and he told my friend that and so my friend didn’t believe that you know he thought well Joe never worked anywhere you know like in a factory or anywhere.

17:37 Just call me Joe.

17:38 So right—

17:40 Now Joe it sounds like obviously you’ve been doing this coming up on 26 years. I don’t know how old you are, but I do know that your handle or your name on the road is Captain Hook. Tell us how that came about. What’s the significance of Captain Hook?

18:00 When I did tow cars, they called me the hook man, but I didn’t know anything about the Captain Hook.

18:07 It may have been a nickname given to you here internally as Captain Hook. I mean, that makes sense now that you think about it, being a tow driver and doing it as long as you have, kind of mastering the craft there. Now, you’re dropping Ryel’s your next pickup. Is that right?

18:22 I’ll pick up there Monday and go to Fresno, California.

18:25 I got you. That’s a long run. Are you going to stop by the office? Of course, we’re located here in the northern fringes of Georgia, right on the state line with Tennessee, just a suburb of Chattanooga here in Norton Transport. Are you going to stop by and see us, Joe? I usually do if the truck’s not too big and awkward, I can turn around and I stop by and say hi to everyone because I appreciate Norton.

18:52 We appreciate you too, Joe. And we’ve expanded here on the property. There’s another parking lot. I don’t know how long it was that you were here. There’s another parking lot adjacent to us. There might be some ample parking for you where you can come in that way and won’t be a problem because we’d love to see you, Joe, when you come through Monday on your way out west.

19:14 Right. I’m going to go up I guess and get on Interstate 40 or 24 to Nashville and then 40.

19:23 Yes. Yeah. You’ll pick up—

19:24 All the way out to the end.

19:27 You’ll pick up 24 right at the state line there and then head west. You said what part of California again were you going to?

19:35 Fresno. I go all the way to the end of 40. It’s Barstow. And then there’s Highway 58. It’s built like a freeway, like an interstate. It’s an kind of an extension of 40, you might say. And it goes over to Bakersfield.

19:52 Gotcha.

19:53 And it makes a jog there. But you get on 99 and go north I think a 100 miles to Fresno.

20:01 So you’ll go out through Amarillo, Albuquerque, Winslow, Williams, Arizona, all those towns—

20:08 Right? Yeah, I do. I do go through there.

20:11 Now, what’s that like for you moving through the desert out there? I mean, I guess hopefully it’ll it should be a little bit warmer by next week. Well, it can snow especially along Amarillo and out in there—

20:27 In the northern parts there.

20:29 Yeah, that’s panhandle of Texas. And then once you get to you leave Winslow, Arizona start climbing a lot and 50 miles roughly to Flagstaff and Flagstaff’s up maybe close to 10,000 ft. Yeah, there’s some elevation that way—

20:47 And it gets really cold and can snow and then sometimes it’s clear as Winslow, but there’s mountains out there. You can see that very seldom the snow ever leaves completely even in the summer.

21:00 That’s true also in Albuquerque when you come in where 25 comes down Santa Fe that way. I mean, that’s you’re looking at probably the same elevation as Flagstaff there, about 10,000 10,500 feet in the mountain tops.

21:15 Well, Albuquerque and Denver are about the same. It’s one 5,280 ft is what Denver is, and Albuquerque is about the same. However, there might be some spaces in there, towns between Albuquerque and Denver.

21:31 Yeah, I’ve been out to New Mexico myself quite a few times. Sandia Peak. Of course, you wouldn’t be driving up there. Of course, Albuquerque, I think you’re right. It’s about 5,500. But up there at the mountain tops, I mean, you can see the snow, the snow cap mountains as you’re driving through. I’m sure you’ve seen that many times.

21:50 25 is not something I travel all the time, but I do go that way. And that part of New Mexico is real pretty. And that part of New Mexico is desert.

22:00 Yeah. The land of enchantment. How does New Mexico rank as far as I’m assuming if you’ve been doing this 26 years, you’ve seen it all? How does New Mexico rank as far as scenic beauty compared to other states?

22:16 Well, I would say it’s better than some states. It’s but most every state has pros and cons or good land and bad land where like California a lot of it’s desert and then when get close to the coast wise and up in northern California a lot of redwood trees really beautiful lakes and just really a place and then down in the cities San Francisco and Sacramento and Los Angeles is a different world. There’s people coming and going real fast and everyone in a hurry, but New Mexico’s a I would give it a number five at least.

23:00 Gotcha. Now, Northern California, you were talking about that. I’ve seen some of the wine country up there, but the redwoods and the lakes, that is completely majestic. And what’s it like to be there in person to see that kind of scenery? Well, I’m always by myself and I sometimes I wish I had someone to share it with, but it’s really beautiful. Lake Shasta to me it’s just really a beautiful place. Merl Haggard lived there when he died and so he thought it was good. He was raised in Bakersville which is just a flat city—

23:43 Right? To see that kind of difference. I mean from Lake Shasta to Bakersfield and then to expand beyond California and to see so much that you’ve seen out across the country. Do you ever sit back and reflect on it and think, “Wow, I have seen most of America.”

24:04 Yeah. Sometimes people try to try to tell me something about a new place and I thought no I’ve been there and done that. So no need me going back.

24:15 Now Joe, how if you don’t mind me asking how old are you Joe?

24:18 I’ll be 75 March 31st. So I’m 7 still 74.

24:25 There were some people here in the office and I told them this afternoon that I’d be talking to Joe Abbott and they said, “Oh, what a great guy.” And they kind of filled me in that you’d been doing this for a minute and had been doing it for a while. How much longer, Joe, will you be doing it?

24:41 Well, I answered some people that when I get rich or fall over dead is when I’ll quit. And one lady said, “Well, you’re not going to get rich.” And but I don’t know. I’m still in good health for my age. I really feel great.

24:56 Well, you sound great. I mean here talking with you and you’ve seen a lot of the country, 74 years old at the moment. Wanted to ask you a little bit about, you talked a little bit about some of the beautiful scenery you’ve seen and some of the things you’ve done. Now, I would imagine you’ve met some incredible people on the road and some strange people on the road. Kind of take us down that road there. Some of the characters you’ve met. Well, I’ve had people come up and one man in El Clark or Walkerooa, Indiana years ago, and he was looking at my hitch while I was pumping my gas and I said, “Could I help you?” And he said, “I was just looking this hitch over. You’re not supposed to be towing behind these trucks.” And he was dressed nice, but he never introduced himself or anything. And then he just took off. And I was scratching my head and I thought, well, who is he and what business is it of his whether I tow behind this truck or not?

25:56 You run into some strange people, I’m sure.

25:58 Yeah. And then I saw a couple of fellas. One fella, he was about 40 years old and had three teenage daughters with him and he was wanting to back into near the pump to so he could get gas and another fella pulled in behind him. So they couldn’t come to an agreement and the police had to show up. So I watched for a while. The young guy gave the old guy a push and I watched for a while and then I said I better leave because I might end up in court as a witness. So, I don’t want to get subpoenenaed. So, I took off. I don’t know what happened from there.

26:37 Time to leave the scene.

26:38 Most right. I try to mind my own business. I only pay for what I tear up and somebody else tears up something. I It’s none of my business.

26:50 I gotcha. You were telling me earlier today when we were talking about having this appearance with Joe Abbott here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. You some guy was all up in your business about a parking spot. Kind of lay that out for us.

27:08 Yeah. Well, I picked up a truck at a dealer there in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and there was a quick trip just around the corner with a lot cheaper fuel than most places. So, I filled up there, but they want you to move your truck once you fuel, but there was no place to park other than a wide driveaway, and it was kind of marked off for no parking. But still, I thought, well, I’ll just be a minute. I’ll go in and get my fuel receipt. And a man in a truck started yelling at me that I couldn’t park there. And I asked him, “Do I have you blocked?” And he said, “No, but that’s a no parking place there, and you can’t park.” So I thought, well, I don’t think I have to do what he says. So I ignored him and walked on in to the fuel desk and he followed me in there yelling at me and he came in there and told me to move my truck now. And so I said, “I’ll take care of it.” And so finally he went back and I the told the people the fuel desk I was sorry about the disturbance.

28:15 They never said anything whether I was right or he was right. And oh, I got in my truck and drove off, but I think I saw that guy once before down in Texas. He came in. It looked just like him. And he said, “I’ve got everybody in here on YouTube, and there’s a fella out there washing his wheels with a squeegee, and I want it stopped right now.” So the someone told him, “Just go to a different fuel island.” And—

28:46 What a guy. And he went on and on and they looked just alike. I was I didn’t realize it until after all that happened.

28:54 Well, their action time and down the—

28:57 Actions certainly matched. I mean, a guy that’s different.

28:59 Yeah, it’s quite similar. It’s—

29:01 Difficult to deal with.

29:03 And yeah, and I thought, well, it’s not. And when he said he had us all on YouTube, I thought, well, I don’t care if you have me on YouTube. I’ve not done anything wrong. So, and another man in Louisiana once asked me where he could get a hot dog bun. And I told him, “I don’t work here.” He said, “I didn’t ask you if you worked here. I want a hot dog bun.” And before it was all over, his wife had him by the shirt and was dragging him out to get him outside. And he was looking back at me and like he wanted to fight because I wouldn’t tell him where he could get a hot dog bun. So, we all thought that was funny. After it was all over. But you never know what’s going on with these people. Are they going to shoot you or what—

29:47 Right? You’ve run into all kinds, I’m sure.

29:49 Oh, yeah. And then I met some there’s one lady I see from time to time. She might be almost as old as me. She’s kind of a missionary to the street and she has literature and offers people Bibles and a very kind lady. It’s always pleasant to run into her. Where is this? Where do you see her?

30:12 Well, I’ve seen her in Kansas City and Greenwood, Louisiana, and somewhere else. I’ve seen her three times. I’ve run into her. And she has a some I think she has a Chevrolet van she travels in and lives in and interesting woman.

30:32 Oh, sure. Sure. What’s it like? I mean going back to the guy who was being difficult about the parking spot, I mean, and then the guy with a hot dog who wanted a hot dog bun. When you run into people like that, have you developed, I guess a way of dealing with people like that or do you just rely on your character as a person?

30:55 Well, it always happens so unexpectedly that I don’t have a plan of action. I just do the best I can at the time, but ignoring them is one of the best things. And they’ll finally run out of things to say and go away. And—

31:11 That seems to keep people at bay.

31:13 Yeah. I met some interesting people, Mennonite people up in kind of off of that subject, but they do welding up in Goan, Indiana.

31:23 Martin welding. And I would recommend them if you’re people starting out or needing towing equipment made, they can weld a base plate on the front of your car so you can be able to hook a toe bar to it. And they make all kinds of stuff. And I’ve been dealing with them a long time.

31:43 So they’ve done some work for you.

31:44 Oh yeah. I started with them couple of years after I started this business. They started making stuff for me so I’m acquainted with them and they’re nice folks.

31:57 Where was it in Indiana?

31:59 Go Indiana near— Yeah, that’s near Elkhart. They’re on—

32:04 Yeah.

32:05 County Road 7 off of County Road 40.

32:08 Okay.

32:09 And closer to Walker than they are Goan, but they have a Gan address, but people around Walker can tell you how to get there.

32:19 Okay. And yeah, people need to know that if they’re wanting towing equipment may because I’m sure there’s other people that do it, but they’ve been doing that probably 50 years. And well, if they follow suit with what’s known in many of the Mennonite cultures and businesses that they practice, quality is one of the key components of it. And you can tell us firsthand, has it held up for you?

32:44 Oh, yeah. I don’t remember anything ever breaking that they made. And also they’ll drop what they’re doing. And they’ll get right on it and I have a lot of ideas that come to me in my head, but I don’t know how to draw and stuff. So, I explain to them what I want and they make it right to the tea. And—

33:09 How cool is it to meet people like that? And how did you come into meeting these people? Well, when I worked for Morgan, they were doing business with them, and they told me about them that they had a universal hitch that would it would slide. It would extend from side to side, had an adjustment on it, so to fit the different kinds of trucks. And so, I went I bought one of those. And they’ve changed them over the years, so I like doing business with them.

33:37 Gotcha. Now, 26 years on the road as a driveaway driver. And from what I understand, you were taking us all the way back to when you had a pinto in California. Have you always done towbeah behind?

33:54 Well, actually, I was kind of broke when I started and it’s going to take some money to have all the welding done and everything. So I just rode the bus and stuff and taxes and motel for 4 months. I think it along about November. A welder I knew in San Leandro, California, he fixed my pinto so I could tow behind it. So—

34:18 And then I kept it for a long time. I quit towing it. I just kept it for a I was kind of attached to it. And then finally I sold it. I just running out of a place to store it. And I got these vans Astro vans. I had four of those in a row. And then I had a wreck. August 21, I hit a car that was stopped in the middle of the freeway with no warnings. And so I hit him in the rear, total the front of my van and I guess the back of his car, and then a car hit me in the rear at the same time. M—

34:55 Airbag went off and hit my wrist on the right hand. So I had to work mostly with just my left hand for a while anything heavy but a year and a half later it’s almost welled about 98% it doesn’t hurt to use it. It just damaged a lot of nerves and stuff I guess the doctor said.

35:17 Well that’s good that you’re almost 98% at 74 years old is quite a good quite a way to look at it. How much how difficult was it when your right hand was somewhat impaired as far as compared to the strength of your left hand driving-wise be it in a tractor or a sleeper, day cab, dump truck, whatever the vehicle may be. Was it difficult to have to offset your right hand with the left hand?

35:45 Well, I’m left-handed in riding and eating, but strength is in my right hand. But driving the trucks have power steering and a lot of them are automatic transmission so didn’t affect me driving. But hooking up that hitch was kind of hard on me and lifting it and but it doesn’t hurt now to use it. It’s just I can rub on it a little bit on the side and feel some sore places. So it’s not completely well.

36:13 Gotcha. Now you know having that toe behind having that van with you. How refreshing is it to have the ability to not have to I mean particularly when you’re in a remote area and there’s not a hotel for a 100 miles. You’re like I’m tired. I’ve hit my 10 11 hour limit. It’s time for me to take a break. You can pretty much do that anywhere.

36:40 Right. And then I take a break in the afternoon a lot of times. I’ll take a little nap. I may not— Yeah. I’ll be laying in bed for a while, but it takes a while to get to sleep and then wake up and get started over again. But if you can sleep a half hour, that really help. I feel like a new man again and going and drive some more.

37:02 Now, where do you find the places to sleep? I mean, are you looking for welcome stations? What do you look for as far as places to sleep in the van there?

37:13 Yeah. Well, for years it’s been the Flying J truck stops and then Pilot and Flying J merge. So, we stay at either one of them and then right now I’m just in my van and I’m parked at a love truck stop in Omega, Georgia, I think the name of the town.

37:30 Omega is definitely a small town. Where is that? I mean, we know it’s in South Georgia. What’s it close to as far as a city center?

37:38 Mon, Georgia. It’s south of there.

37:41 Okay. So you’re in central south central Georgia—

37:44 Right? I’m at the I think this is a 60 mile marker. So it’s 60 miles north of Florida.

37:50 Okay. So, the weather is mild here, like I said. Anyway, so, but we’ve all and we were all buying fuel from Flying J only, but now Quick Trip and Circle K and a few others sell fuel sometimes maybe as much as a dollar cheaper, 75 cents a gallon cheaper.

38:13 Oh, wow.

38:13 So—

38:14 That makes a difference.

38:15 Yeah. The all of the major truck stops they’re up 465 and $5 a gallon around here. And then out west, it’s real expensive.

38:26 Mhm.

38:26 So, when I’m going to California, I fill my car and my truck I’m driving in Kingman, Arizona, which 50 miles from California, so I don’t have to buy any fuel there.

38:39 Yeah. Top off in another state—

38:41 Right? Arizona is about 50 cents a gallon cheaper. And then one friend of mine, he was doing a natural gas truck not too long ago and he couldn’t find a place to buy any natural gas in Arizona. So he waited till it got to California and he paid almost $8 a gallon and then he saw one place that wanted $10 a gallon for natural gas—

39:04 For compressed natural gas.

39:06 Right.

39:06 That’s outrageous cuz usually CNG is cheaper than diesel, but I guess this was an exception.

39:13 Yeah. Yeah. He said it was about $2 a gallon in Arizona, but the every place was closed and he had to keep moving. He had enough to get to California. So, he had to filled up somewhere around Fontana, California, and paid almost $8 a gallon.

39:29 Ouch, that hurts. Now, talking about the advantage of having your van, and we talked about how much you save in a given week, how much would you say in a year? You’ve been doing this 26 years. Having that setup that you have, the van, the towing accessories, being able to sleep in your van, not stay in hotels and not worry about travel out when you’ve got to travel right there. How much would you say in a year it’s added to your income? How much have you saved and how much has it added to you? Well, I don’t have the figures before me, but I would say I take home probably twice as much as someone that doesn’t tow their car. That would be a rough estimate with and one fella, he didn’t want to tow and he kept telling me how much trouble it was to tow and I and he didn’t want to do it and he kept talking and finally I told him, “Well, I have money and people that do not tow their car do not have any money.”

40:33 In which he would he was put I mean I usually don’t answer people that way but he was putting everything on credit cards and he had he’s passed away a while back but I never did hear anymore from him about how good it was not to tow his car. I mean, that’s I mean, from your standpoint, I understand you’re being very humble about what you’re talking about as far as interactions with other drivers, but obviously in your mind, it’s worth every bit of it. Now, you talked about when we first started talking about the setup of your van. Take us a little bit deeper inside. Let’s say you’re opening the door into that van. What is it like? What do we see? And what do you have in there for your next couple runs, particularly the one to Fresno?

41:23 Well, the first when you first open the side doors, there’s just a vacant place there with a throw rug, you know, to step into and to step out of bed on. And then the bed runs long ways with the bed with the van about 7 ft long and 28 in wide. And then I have a another section where I put my clothes off to the side. And open the back doors and underneath the bed there. It’s I have all these hitches and chains and tools and bolts. Yeah, I have to have a whole toolbox full of bolts. A lot of things are different and a lot of trucks are different where you’re hooking on to. Oh, then the two front seats bucket seats in the van, I keep them empty to where I have to pick up a passenger, they’ll have a place to sit. And then I get a lot of suggestions. Why don’t you get this and why don’t you get that? And I told them, well, I have to ride somewhere. You know, if I get everything that a stove and a refrigerator and a computer and I don’t I wouldn’t have room to even get in.

42:34 So—

42:34 Well, it sound it sounds like to me you’ve struck the perfect balance. I mean, if you don’t really necessarily need a stove and a kitchen when you can sleep there and when you need to eat, you can. And there’s food that you can pack away and you’ve been able to save a lot of cost and expenses from doing that. I mean, I guess you don’t want to go overboard in what you put inside the van. Well, the truck stops, they have a microwaves and they don’t charge you for using those. So, I can sometimes I get frozen dinners and next day they’re thawed and but, you know, they’re still safe to eat and I eat them and sometimes I buy soup and I heat it in the microwave.

43:21 So, I could probably get a small little burner to heat food with, but—

43:26 But I had— What’s your level of comfort as far as, you know, living out of the van and sleeping out of the van? Is it pretty comfortable? I mean, you describe the bed that you got there, of course, all the essential tools you have in the back, but is it pretty comfortable living out on the road like that?

43:43 Well, I’m used to it. Yeah. And I like to travel, so I’m willing to give up a few things in order to do what I want to do.

43:52 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, I want to kind of bring you back here to the home office here, and we were talking about Joe Abbott, and everybody was smiling reflectively about Joe. And our safety coordinator was talking about when you came through, I believe she said you brought some chicken to her. Well, I did that, I think, a couple of times and because they treat me so good and they’ve got a kind of a kitchen in there where they can they keep their additives, salt and pepper and ketchup and all that, you know. I just want to do that, let them know I appreciate them. And then they’ve offered the one time Lyn Smith took me out for dinner and bought my dinner. The company I guess bought it, but I usually don’t have a lot of time for that.

44:41 So I thought Andrea, I’ll just do something for them.

44:45 That’s very nice. Very nice of you, Joe Abbott, who you’re listening to here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And I wanted to ask you as we wrap it up here as we close it out here, your dispatch team, which they recommended me to, recommended you to me to be on the podcast here. Talk a little bit about your relationship with Jessica, Casey, and Sierra. Well, it’s just mostly on the phone, but I have stopped in, got acquainted with them. They’re very polite. And Casey Day she’s the one I’ve been dealing with lately, and very, and they appreciate me. They constantly are looking for me a load while I’m still drive, you know, I’ll be driving one load and they’ll be looking for another truck for when I get where I’m going.

45:37 So, I really appreciate them—

45:40 And they do you because I’ve talked to Casey and Jessica today and they were both singing your praises. And of course a guy that stays on the road 300 days a year. That’s got to be something that you rely on and are thankful for as far as people looking for the next stop. But, of course, you have that added advantage of having that van in the back. And I think you said you were going to do this until you got rich or you dropped dead. We certainly hope that the first happens before the last there. And—

46:14 It sounds like it’s been good for you.

46:16 Well, it has. And when I towed cars, people some of them were mad at me before I towed their car. They were mad because their car broke down and they almost thought it was my fault. The way they sounded and it kind of I couldn’t be as polite and it ate on my nerves. Santa Cruz wasn’t as bad as up in the Bay Area. They and then sometimes they didn’t want to pay and I’d tell them I wanted cash. They when I get their car towed, they’d give me a check and I could have papered the inside of my car truck with all the bad checks I got. I mean, that’s not something to laugh at, but it is kind of funny when you look back at it—

47:01 Right? Yeah. And each one of them was swearing their check was good. So, I think the people that just about phased out about personal checks, they use a card most of the time now.

47:12 Well, Joe Abbott joining us here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Joe, we know you’ve been doing this for a long time. You’ve got it kind of figured out, making the most, maximizing your profits on the road. You’re 74 years young. We’ve heard from listening to you, you’ve got some background in California, got a place out in Arizona. When you do decide to bask in the glory of your days here, where do you see yourself going as far as kicking your feet up and retiring? Well, I guess it’ll have to be Arizona. There’s property next door to where I’m parked now for sale and it’s not the most suitable place, but it’s something I can afford to buy. We’ve talked about it and we’re a little bit off on the price and but I may have to buy that acre of ground and just stay there.

48:09 And you’ve got your motor home there—

48:10 And it has a big trailer on it also. About a 12 by 60 or whatever.

48:17 I was going to ask you one last question as we wrapped up here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. We’re listening to Joe Abbott. He’s definitely a veteran of the road has found out some ways methods to really make the most out of what he does. What would you say to someone who is considering entering into driveaway? How would you counsel them? What would you say would be your best advice to someone who’s considering this as a career?

48:47 Well, make sure they have an agreement with their wife to go with them or whatever and get a tow van. That’s to get that and learn all they can about towing before they enter into it. That’s two of the main things I would think about. And they can carry some food with them or try to avoid prepared food. It’s real expensive. Gotcha. And the final question I was going to ask you, Joe, how rewarding has this been for the last quarter century for you?

49:17 Well, I have more now than I ever had. And I’m able to save money and I get a social security check and it just goes in the bank. I don’t have to spend that. So it’s been good. And I met a multitude of people and I help people too. Like that lady I was telling you about. I put so much money aside each week and I to help people, but some of them the money keeps stacking up because I don’t think they’re worthy of help. They seem to be con artist and I would point out be careful who you give money to standing around these truck stops and they all have a convincing story and but most of them aren’t I don’t think they’re level. Very—

50:04 Very wise words there from Joe Abbott. Joe, thank you so much for joining us. You’ve really opened our eyes up to a lot of the things that a lot of people may not have realized about the towbeahhind factor that exists within driveaway trucking and how advantageous it can be for somebody who decides to go that route. Obviously, it’s one that’s worked out very well for you. And we certainly appreciate you being on the show with us, spending some time with us. And final question, I want to leave the mic open to you. What would you want to say to anybody out there in the driveaway world?

50:41 Just hang in there. Do the best you can. Find a church to go to on Sunday if you can and do the best they can to serve the Lord. That’s what I do.

50:51 Joe Abbott. There you have it there on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport closing us out there. Joe, we really appreciate you being with us, spending some time with us and shedding a lot of wisdom on the business that we’re all in. Thank you very much, Joe.

51:09 You’re welcome. And I’m glad you picked me.

51:12 Absolutely. We are too. Thank you again, Joe.

51:24 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.