On this episode of Freshman Podcast, we have a special guest on the show, BigTings Aguan, who has been a truck driver for 30+ years. We talk about trucking and how he got into the trucking industry. We also talk about the upcoming YAH release party that is coming soon, as well as some updates on the future of the party, and much more. We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes in the future! Freshman is a production of the Freshman Fit Podcast. Produced and Edited by Brandon "BigTings" Aguan. If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts and Subscribe on iTunes. Also, don't forget to rate, comment and subscribe on your favorite streaming platform so you can stay up to date on what's going on in the world of trucking. Thank you for being a part of this community and supporting this movement! Cheers, EJ & Jon! - The Freshmen Fit Crew. -Jon & Brody Don't Tell a Friend About This Episode: Jon & Jon talk about their trucking journey and how they got their start in the industry. Jon talks about his trucking career. Jay talks about being a trucker and what it takes to be a trucking truck driver. What's up with Trucking? Bigtingsguan talks about how he grew up in South Jersey, how he's been supporting the industry, and what he's done for the industry over the past 30 years, and why he loves trucking, and how much he's supporting the cause, and his background in trucking has been doing it all his life, and so much more! Jon gives us some advice on trucking with his passion for trucking Jay gives us a chance to support the cause and how to get on the road with his own trucking experience. We also talks about what it's going to be in this episode, and gives us an update on the YAH party coming soon! We love you guys, Jon talks it all the way through it all! Jay is going to the party with us, and we talk about it all of that. Thanks, Jon and Jon talks all the details on the party! and much much more - Jon talks trucking & how he s going to do it!
00:14:03.000We do all of our live streams on there.
00:14:05.000So if you guys want the content that got banned or whatever that we can't put up on YouTube or anywhere else, it's all over there on castleclub.tv.
00:14:10.000Also, Mo organized all the playlists in there.
00:14:13.000We're going to be uploading a lot of our old episodes.
00:14:15.000That are no longer on YouTube but might also not be on Rumble because we weren't on Rumble at the time.
00:14:20.000We're going to upload them all over there so you guys are going to be able to find everything all in one place and they're all organized by a playlist.
00:14:24.000Whether it's Money Monday, a special guest, all that stuff is going to be over there.
00:14:28.000We're live streaming right now on all the platforms, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, Rumble, etc.
00:14:33.000So make sure to support us on Castle Club, guys, because that is really where...
00:14:36.000That's how you support the cause because you guys know we've been demonetized now for damn near a year.
00:14:40.000And if you were in there in Vegas, you got to see behind the scenes of UFC and Power Slap.
00:14:44.000We showed you guys on Classic Club only, so miss it out if you weren't in there.
00:14:48.000And then as well, any updates for the party?
00:14:52.000Well, you're the one that's getting the app, you tell me.
00:14:54.000Yeah, what day you wanna do it though?
00:14:56.000Could we do it late July or early August?
00:14:58.000We should do a vote, actually, with the audience later on.
00:16:12.000This is crazy because someone that's actually a part of the team is here, you know what I mean, that's supported and now you're here, obviously going to give back to the people.
00:16:22.000Can you tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from, and how you got started?
00:16:26.000So basically, I was raised in Jersey, right in the Philly area, honestly.
00:16:32.000So South Jersey, it's like one of the same things, honestly.
00:16:37.000And my dad was a truck driver for 30 plus years.
00:18:22.000So I've learned that side of it too, which is why certain things have come easier to me doing this.
00:18:31.000And what I want to do is I want to provide you guys that are watching the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and not make those same mistakes so that y'all can be successful even more so than what I am.
00:18:44.000So even when you were in corporate America, you were still handling logistics for a trucking company?
00:20:19.000How do you, like, even get into one of these, like, I don't know if you can maybe just tell us the process of how it works in whatever state that you did it in?
00:20:26.000Yeah, so I did it in, the city is Huntsville, and the state is Alabama.
00:23:20.000So you get your CDL, and you were able to do it through a company.
00:23:22.000Now, assuming you don't go through a company and you do it yourself, how much is someone going to need to be able to get a CDL nowadays?
00:23:28.000So, basically, you'll need, really what you'll need to do is, the fees are about, it depends on the state you live in, but the fees aren't that expensive.
00:24:29.000So if someone's coming in and doesn't know it at all, It might be better for them to go to a school, learn it, then go take the test, but the school is going to cost them some money.
00:24:39.000Or they can study by themselves and try to find a truck somehow and practice on that.
00:25:55.000A, you pay your own way, go to the school, take the license, done.
00:26:00.000Or, get one of these career centers to pay for it, do it your way, or career centers to pay for you, then you go to school, then you take the test, and then you do it that way.
00:26:12.000Or, if you're lucky and someone has a truck, right, you could study for it on your own, Use that truck at practice and then go ahead and do the test without going to school.
00:26:22.000But you obviously advise people go to trucking school and get it done that way.
00:26:26.000Unless your pop or your uncle or someone of that caliber or nature is a truck driver and they can teach you, then yeah, you'll save yourself.
00:26:36.000I mean, but again, you're not paying for it.
00:28:43.000Your health is the most important thing when you're doing anything, but especially in trucking, because unlike, so I do flatbed, and we'll get into that, but I do flatbed, so I make sure that I get out, I have to tie down the loads, I gotta chain them down, because I just haul nothing but steel.
00:29:02.000That's all I haul is steel plates, like for infrastructure and stuff like that.
00:29:06.000I might do lumber here and there or something else, but yeah, for the most part, I have customer freight, which we'll get into that too.
00:29:15.000But, you know, I'm sorry for veering off, but to answer your questions, man, the worst part is...
00:29:22.000Is being out there on the road, not seeing your family.
00:29:25.000If you have a family, it's a very difficult strain on your relationship, on your family, or what have you.
00:29:31.000Your kids, not seeing them the way you would like to.
00:29:34.000But that's really the worst part of it, just getting out of shape and not being able to go home when you need to and not having that R&R time.
00:31:30.000But when you're coming out of school, you could drive for companies like Swift or J.B. Hunt or Schneider, places like that that will actually take in new drivers, train them, and you can get a sign-on bonus.
00:31:45.000You get benefits after the first 90 days or something like that, 60 days.
00:32:48.000Now let's say you didn't go through a career center and you're doing it yourself.
00:32:51.000Do you have to manually apply to all these places?
00:32:53.000You have to manually apply to those places, yes.
00:32:55.000Okay, let's say you did everything on your own, you went and passed the test on your own, you're a resourceful guy, you read it, and maybe you have a truck that you can borrow, whatever the fuck someone taught you.
00:34:52.000And they will pay you, and then actually, if I'm not mistaken, they will actually give you health insurance before any other position they have.
00:35:35.000So what's the max you can make actually from, let's say for example, you start out 50, 70k, what can you get to eventually, maybe two, three, four years into it?
00:35:44.000If you're working for a company or if you're working for yourself, because those are two totally different platforms.
00:35:49.000Let's do both, company and then yourself.
00:35:50.000Okay, so company, I think Walmart drivers are pulling in 100k a year, man.
00:35:57.000Walmart drivers are pulling in like 100 to 120k a year.
00:36:34.000The second one is, is it more lucrative and should someone in the beginning, when they get these trucks, start saving up that beginning salary to get their own?
00:36:43.000Okay, it just depends because there are a lot of people that don't want that responsibility of having their own truck because it is a lot of work.
00:38:28.000So step one, get your CDL. You can go through it, whether you go through an agency that supports you, that's state paid, because I'm assuming truck drivers is a needed profession since they're funding it.
00:38:58.000So step one is to get your CDL, and you can go doing that whether the agency pays for it or you can fund it yourself and study for yourself.
00:40:09.000But if you're working for a company and they already have government contracts, that's actually a good way for you to learn about it, pick people's brain about it.
00:40:17.000That way, if you decide that you want to get your own truck and do that, you can do it.
00:40:21.000So you suggest if you're going to go the government contract route, Work for a company first.
00:40:25.000See how the hell they're even doing it before you go into that.
00:40:28.000Yeah, because Myron, here's the thing, bro, and Fresh, here's the thing.
00:40:43.000They don't understand what goes into it.
00:40:46.000In order for you to own a trucking business, in order for you to own certain things, you absolutely have to understand how to manage your money first.
00:40:55.000And the way to discipline yourself doing that is to save as much money as you can by little things that's going to help you along your journey of trucking.
00:41:19.000How long should someone drive for a company or under the auspice of a more professional background before they go into the owner-operator realm?
00:41:27.000Well, since we don't deal with the exception to the rule, right?
00:41:33.000In general, for most of the average person.
00:41:36.000So for the average person, I would say two to three years.
00:41:53.000So guys, if y'all want to own your own trucking business, if you want to become an own operator, not necessarily even own your own trucking business, But if you want to become an owned operator, what you do is, again, you save that money because I wouldn't suggest anyone start a company in trucking or even becoming an owned operator until you have at least $10,000 to $20,000 saved up just in case something happens.
00:42:19.000And it's always a matter of when, not if.
00:42:28.000They can save that while simultaneously learning these things.
00:42:31.000Oh, and by the way, it's a very easy way to build your credit.
00:42:38.000Because if you get a couple of credit cards and you're just spending them out there on the road and you're paying them off, by the time you go to get a truck, you could put zero money down on a truck.
00:42:46.000So that sort of thing is also critical for building up your credit as well.
00:42:51.000So we got heavy hauling, hazmat, government contracts.
00:48:38.000Just in this past little bit, we've covered so much.
00:48:41.000We've covered how to get your CDL. We've covered the different routes to acquire it, whether you're paying for it or whatever through an agency, how much it's going to cost you, etc.
00:48:50.000The type of truck, how to get your first job, and then what type of trucks you're going to be driving, the type of hauling you're going to be doing.
00:48:57.000It could be heavy hauling with a little boy trailer, hazmat, government contracts, flatbeds, drive-in, which also has containers, which goes into more refrigerated or non-refrigerated, and then we've got car hauling, and there even you can go with working with exotics or working for dealerships or working privately for people that just want to move their car across country.
00:50:17.000Yeah, it's gotten us in trouble a few times.
00:50:19.000It's definitely gotten us in trouble a few times, but it is what it is.
00:50:21.000So yeah, Rumble's exclusive apparel has finally arrived, guys.
00:50:24.000They're now offering 20% off on all purchases in the Rumble store with the discount code DROP20. If you want to support the brand that is fighting for free speech and fighting for our First Amendment, this is the best way to do it.
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00:50:34.000Go to Rumble.store and make sure to enter DROP20 as the promo code to get 20% off your entire order.
00:54:30.000And you can usually find, I mean, you have people that custom, like they customize these trucks, but you can find an older truck for like 15 to 20K. So I mentioned, well, before the question was, should I buy used or new?
00:54:45.000When it comes to buying used, can we get loans on those used trucks?
00:54:52.000There are trucks out there that are newer, like 2000, anywhere from like the 2010s to like 2020 or 2018, 2019, where they have glider kit motors in them.
00:55:05.000So they still don't have to run E-Log, and then you get all the benefits of having a newer truck with all the essentials in it and stuff, like refrigerator and stuff like that.
00:57:53.000But basically you're just tracking where you stopped, where you got fuel, if you stopped, and if you have an electronic log, if you stopped, it's going to show when you stopped anyway.
00:58:13.000Now what they changed is, and this was in the past couple years, what they changed with e-logs And logs in general, if you're at a shipper sitting for more than 30 minutes, that's already included in your break.
00:58:28.000So you don't even have to take a break now if you don't want to.
00:58:30.000If you were sitting for longer than 30 minutes at your stop.
00:58:48.000And sometimes, depending on what you're doing, depending on how many trucks are there, depending on how slow they are, I've been at shippers and receivers.
00:58:56.000I think the longest I was ever at one was nine hours.
01:04:29.000And by the way, and I'm trying not to read the chats, man, but there was, I think there was a chat in there that said, well, he only has one truck.
01:05:17.000Now, I know y'all probably don't think one truck brings in a lot of money, but I promise you, when you're running right and you're doing things the way they're supposed to be done, it brings in some really good money.
01:05:32.000I've seen some numbers myself, and I'm considering buying a truck myself, too.
01:05:35.000Not for me to drive, but for someone else to drive for me.
01:05:38.000And that's what a lot of people are doing as well.
01:05:41.000But if you ever have any questions, bro, just hit me up about it, and I'll be sure to let you know, man.
01:05:46.000But a lot of people are doing that, Myron.
01:05:47.000I think that'd be something lucrative for y'all to do.
01:05:51.000So you're an owner-operator, but you're hiring people under you that are running the loads.
01:05:56.000So my question is then, what incentive do they have to go under you when they can just do it themselves if they're an owner-operator just like yourself?
01:07:18.000I need to put everybody in a group chat so that way if they have any questions or if they want consultations and stuff, they can just ask me.
01:07:26.000You know, but I just want you guys to eat.
01:07:29.000There's enough out here for everybody to eat.
01:07:56.000There's still going to be a high potential where when they contract with someone and they're working for them, even as an owner-operator, they're still going to have to do electronic logs.
01:08:02.000But you want to minimize it as much as possible, right?
01:09:18.000I want to get into real estate, but I know certain things about it, but I'm not going to just go out there and be like, Oh, I'm going to buy all these properties.
01:11:04.000Okay, I'm kind of jumping the gun because I'm talking about owning a business.
01:11:07.000So if you get your own truck, there will be some people that will not hire you on because, maybe because of the year of the truck or what have you, because there are people that have policies, but...
01:11:59.000Because you know people need the kiss, keep it simple, stupid.
01:12:01.000What truck should they purchase as their first truck if they want to go into the owner-operator world?
01:12:06.000What model year would you suggest is a great beginner truck for people that's still somewhat affordable, but they can get their foot in the dirt and get as many jobs as possible to build more capital?
01:12:15.000Oh, I would say like a Kenworth T680, a Freightliner Cascadia.
01:14:18.000But would that fuck you up with being able to find jobs once you go the owner-operator route?
01:14:23.000Well, it depends, again, on the company.
01:14:26.000Now, there are some companies that, like for example, there are a lot of flatbed companies that, you know, they're smaller, like they got like 15, 20 trucks.
01:14:35.000A lot of them don't mind just as long as it can pass inspection.
01:14:40.000And if the insurance will take them, that's another thing.
01:14:43.000Because some of these people have had their same insurance companies for years, and they're just like, just because you've been with us for so long, we know you so well, yeah, just bring this guy on.
01:14:55.000But you're just saying if someone's starting out and they want to be the most marketable, these are the units that shouldn't give you no problems with getting insurance and being a brand new owner-operator.
01:18:16.000Okay, so going back to the whole starting up as an owner-operator, etc., we talked about what trucks to get, how much it's going to cost, etc.
01:18:36.000They have mom-and-pop dealerships for trucks.
01:18:43.000To be honest with you, a lot of them have really good trucks because it's going to be the truck that you want and they're going to make sure that it was taken care of.
01:18:50.000Now, when you go to a dealership, sometimes they might give you a warranty just because you brought one of their trucks.
01:19:07.000You can get a truck at an auction, but the thing about an auction is you never know what you're getting.
01:19:11.000Even because it's not checked out or anything, so you don't know what can be wrong with it, that's when a mechanic comes into play.
01:19:17.000You have to check for blow-by, which is when you take the oil cap off, and when you take the oil cap off, you see if there's any smoke coming up or if there's oil pushing out.
01:24:53.000If you learn all this knowledge, either you're going to go through it with experience and fail, or, I mean, you can learn this at school, right?
01:27:21.000My pop passed away a few years ago, but I appreciate you.
01:27:27.000And what happened was, you know, he was gone, but he was never gone for weeks at a time.
01:27:32.000He always made sure he was home in order to be able to raise us, take care of us, and do what he had to do and still be there for my mother.
01:27:58.000Big Bills, Myron, y'all should have a BTS video type vlog where y'all are IRL like another cameraman filming a video.
01:28:05.000Show the Miami Nightlife girl supporters in the behind the scenes of the actual IRL. That would be fire to Nightlife IRL BTS videos a month.
01:28:11.000I think the cast club ninjas will like that.
01:28:24.000You're a Bubbly? - W Fresh Fit, question.
01:28:27.000I'm about to go to CDL school and I have a company lined up to drive for, but how much should I save up once I buy my first truck in case of mechanical breakdowns and how long did it take you to be profitable on your first truck? - Good question.
01:28:41.000Um, so, like I said, you should save up by anywhere from 10 to 20k.
01:28:48.000I know that little 10k is a stretch, but 10 to 20k at minimum.
01:30:55.000If you don't, especially in trucking, man, you meet so many people in trucking, you never know who you're going to meet, where that's going to be your million-dollar ticket right there.
01:31:03.000Bro, you should teach how to talk to people in the industry to make that connection for contracts, bro, because that's big.
01:33:17.000But you seem like you have the experience, bro.
01:33:23.000So, my advice to you would be, get a truck that's going to be worth it, and do you plan on, my question is, do you plan on leasing on, or do you plan on, you know, actually going under your own authority for yourself?
01:33:37.000That would be my question to him, before I could actually answer that question.
01:34:11.000So it takes way longer for us to break than it does for a car.
01:34:16.000And this is where self-awareness comes into play.
01:34:20.000If you don't have any self-awareness as a person that drives a car and you're in front of a truck and you're stopping, suddenly it's just like...
01:37:57.000Okay, what are good alternatives if you don't want to go on the road?
01:38:00.000I'm currently making 30 an hour, delivering drywall, driving a boom truck with a trailer, so I'm using my CDLA, and I have an NCCO ABL license, but currently everywhere I look, 30,000 hours around the cab, I have a good driving record.
01:38:13.000I'm currently number three driver in my region.
01:39:49.000And then, guys, we're probably going to end it after these questions because we've got Donovan in the house and we've got to do the second interview.
01:39:55.000And then, obviously, we've got to have to ask that.
01:39:56.000I'm going to try to squeeze in a Zoom call in between if we can.
01:41:09.000First off, you have to have the clients in place first.
01:41:12.000When you're doing brokering, you have to have the clients in place first.
01:41:15.000You have to be able to Know how to be competitive, but not be too cheap.
01:41:21.000The problem is, is that when this freight, like people will take freight, like they'll just, remember when they were saying, oh, we need all these truck drivers and stuff.
01:41:30.000Remember when they were saying all that?
01:41:31.000They were like pushing everyone to do truck driving.
01:42:10.000Okay, there is several ways to get into the industry with Rath.
01:42:16.000Guys, please spell check your stuff, man, before you guys send it in because I can't be reading what the hell y'all be writing sometimes, man.
01:42:22.000Your driver, operator, fleet owner, dispatcher, and broker, it's always good to know what it's like in the truck, but the easiest way to make money now is to learn a bit is dispatching.
01:42:31.000That's all in the world, I'm guessing, right?
01:42:42.000Because some of these truck drivers out here, they get mad at you for everything.
01:42:48.000So that's why I'm always kind and polite to people that I come in contact with that may be brokering a load for me or that may be a dispatcher or something like that because they are absolutely...
01:43:00.000Like, it's more of a headache, but sometimes they don't do their job either.
01:43:04.000Like, they drop the ball on so many things.
01:45:57.000Got my CD on March after the Thor podcast.
01:46:00.000I think all these chats are basically, all it basically confirmed for me is like, you got to start as a company driver first, especially now.
01:47:21.000I've been thinking about leaving my profession as a registered nurse and getting my class A CD out to become a trucker because I'm an introvert and I'm not a people person like that anymore.
01:47:45.000Give you a lot of sauce, guys, on how to get started in trucking, how to get your CDL, the many routes to fund your CDL, what school is like, how to get started with a company, how to become a company driver, what companies to work for, how much is it going to cost you, how much you should save up to get your first truck, etc.
01:47:59.000The next episode, I think, is going to be all owner-operator, the more entrepreneurial side, because I think we covered everything as far as a beginner truck driver needs to know, correct?
01:49:15.000The problem is a lot of people don't know how to get there.
01:49:18.000So you have to find something, you know, and that's why so many people hate, that's why so many people are upset at certain people's talents and gifts because they haven't honed in on their own talents and gifts and learned how to monopolize on it.
01:49:31.000This was bestowed to me from my father, so I absolutely have honed in on this and All I'm going to say is next year is going to be crazy.