 I'll keep that, my guy, that's my instructor. Right there? Uh-huh. Is that a Mr. Christensen's husband or something? No, that's Joe, that's my range instructor. He wants me to drive out on the range and I keep avoiding it. So someday I'm going to have to go and hop out, hop in one of those trucks and do some straight line backing. Oh, straight lines? Yeah, that's what I told him. I'm like, oh, I think I can be straight line. I think I can be that. And then I have my fiancee screen. Did she? And like whenever we go to shut down some truck stops, she always asks me, she just, yeah, I have to try to do it. Yeah. And she would keep asking me, like, why do you always gotta back into the hardest part of this? Right. Like, wait, why don't you back in straight? Huh? I like to make it low. I like to challenge myself. I always have one place. I had to drop you to pick up a preload. And the way they had all the trailers was so tight. After I got it in, I was like, how did I get in there? So how long have you been driving? This year, maybe five years. I like, I've taken time off between some of it. And I go back to driving for a while and then something happens. Right. So I pick another parade. And you've been with us for? This month. The end of this month will be eight months. Oh, good. That is excellent. That is good. This is your first time in Phoenix. Yeah, it's my first time at the Phoenix Tower. Well, thankfully it's not too hot for you. It's been pretty what we would consider cool. So it's not too bad. It's not in the hundred jet. It usually is this time of year. Oh, no, last week. It got pretty hot. Yeah, it got up to like 95. It was last Saturday. I was orbitering behind my truck. Were you? What did you make? I was orbitering chicken and jalapeno sausage. Nice. Did you make the sausage or did you buy it? No. I'm going to check that out. I know, right? I know if you did it while you were home or not. I do have, like, a meat grinder. It's got an attack. I got, like, a deli. So you got your truck all set up for you to be able to cook? Yeah, but my smoker is back at my parents' house. It's too big to be on the back of my car. Gotcha. I guess it's like a six foot pod smoker. Good. Are you from Louisiana? Yeah, I'm from Louisiana. What part? Central between Alexandria and Appalachia. I've never been to Louisiana. I need to get to check it out. Maybe I'll do a little road trip. Like my grandparents left a mile away. One of my aunts and I'll call. It's like three to four times. Anybody in your family and trucking too? No. Nobody in my family is in trucking. My grandpa was actually the one that suggested it. Yeah? Because I grew up in my old house. And then, like, I've always drove, like, his diesel pickup at his trailer. He was hauling his dump trailer and trucking. And, well, so he just asked me one day, I was like, hey, have you ever thought about driving 18 miles? I was like, no. Have you ever thought about it? Seems interesting. Yeah. So you're going to go through the train with trainer class? Yes. Doing that tomorrow. You know, it's supposed to be for, like, my dispatch from Camille is today. And so when I asked Miss Chris Brown this morning, she was like, no. Yeah. Typically is today. What is interesting to you and being a trainer? Just how it's wanted to help somebody else further their education and element of career. So did anybody talk to you about the training that you're going to go through tomorrow? What takes back? No. No. One of my dispatchers told me was, he just told me it was like, you need to dress nice. He was like, you don't have to wear a shirt or a towel. I was like, it's just like, I have to go and get a nice towel. You know, it's a good class. It goes over, you know, kind of the history of our training program, what the expectations are. So a lot of good people share a lot of stories, their training experiences, good and bad, and what they want to do differently while they're, that's what motivates a lot of people to become a trainer. You know, they might not have had the best experience. Yeah. They say, you know, hey, if I ever get the opportunity, I want to train and I want to make sure that it's done correctly. So you have a good trainer. So it's, you know, pulling from all that experience and bringing that in and knowledge and I think it'll be, I think it'll be good for you. You know, be good, definitely good for the company and be good trainers. And like, like, I wasn't really thinking, like I thought about maybe training, but then I was like, maybe not because I like doing solo being by myself. And you have that option of, you know, not training every single month or, you know, back to back students. You can say, hey, I'm going to train three students in a row and then I'm going to take a little time off and drive solo and, you know, you can kind of really break it up and design it how you want to do it. It would fit your lifestyle, especially you're getting married. You've got a lot of big things coming up in your life. And then since she's trying to go back to school so it's pretty much just me working. Yeah. Good. You got a lot of stuff going on. So that's good. A lot of positive things. You're around tomorrow. I have a lot of CDL students. I wouldn't mind you having them come in and chat with my students and tell me what your experience has been and what to expect out on the road. You talk a lot about, you know, the transition of going through CDL school and then the actual lifestyle out on the road and what they need to mentally prepare themselves for and be ready for. Where's your favorite place to travel to? Where have you been? What's your favorite city? Favorite? Well, I always like going back to Louisiana since I'm out here. So I kind of know, like, okay, I'm getting hungry. Yeah, you're home, right? Like, if I'm going from, if I'm on RTN going from, like, Houston and I got to go through Louisiana, sometimes they send me to Georgia. It's kind of awesome. So I know, like, okay, by the time I go from Houston to here, I got to designate a 30-minute break spot. Sure. They'll give me some fresh booting, give me a plate lunch. Yeah, exactly. In the road. That's why I like to travel to Louisiana to enjoy the food. Yeah, my dispatcher. Like, he'll text me sometimes, hey, I'm in Louisiana, I'm like, what you doing there? And, like, I brought them, like, whenever I was passing through. So I picked them up, blink a boot and then... I want to try this booting. You got to know where to get them. Yeah, well, I'm going to call you up whenever we travel over that way. I'm going to be like, hey Justin, you remember me? You took me for a ride, I'm going to say, tell me where I need to go. And, like, another time, I had brought them back a bag of, uh... Corporations. Yeah. Like, every now and then I bring, like, a little snack bag. Well, it sounds like you have a good relationship with your driver manager. Me and him, we both kind of have, like, a funny type of personality. We like to joke around a lot. So we'll call each other up, we'll joke around a little bit. Loader. Got this going on. You guys built, you built that relationship to where you guys can joke around but still take care of business. Safety driver, attention guy, when I first started, was, uh, Mr. Howard. And he was the one that told me, it's like, you and your dispatchman were like, yeah, you did. It's important. Relationship building is super important. So he understands where your needs are. You understand where he's coming from so you can run your miles and make your money and everybody's happy. What do you think of one thing you'll teach your students about, uh, being out on the road? I know, like, before we did my truck and everything, trying to find out what their situation is. Sure. That way we can kind of, I can help them so that way I know if, like, hey, they're straight out of school, they don't know anything, so I know, like, where to start training if they have a few years' experience of getting out of the truck for a year or whatever, like I was. Um, that way I'm like, okay, well, he knows how to do most of it, he teaches him how to run. I usually like to start depending on where I'm at and if I have a load, I usually like to start about between 3 to 4.30 in the morning. Okay. Because I've always been a warm person and then that way by the time you're out of hours it's about 2.33 in the afternoon you don't have to find anybody about a part of the spot. There's no way for a shower you can get something to eat and by the time you're... So you're playing out, teaching them how to plan out their entire day. And then by the time they get back in their truck to relax, then people start rolling in. Yep, you already got a spot. You can pick whatever spot you want. You get a good night's sleep. We must go to bed off early to get up 3 o'clock in the morning. I know the late night is like this week's sitting at the art on a truck solution. You're probably ready to go. You're probably ready to go. I've been ready to go. Like I try to I try to get my dispatcher to give me a load like especially if like weekends like Friday morning I'm like, okay give me so you can keep rolling. There are multiple loads that last me through the weekend where I'm not sitting. Sometimes it is sometimes it's done. It just depends on what area I'm at. But they know that you're available and they didn't give you that second load that they could call on you to come over and pick it up and get going. How important do you think being a problem solver is while you're out on the road? A problem solver You gotta think of solutions like very quickly. You always have the support of your terminal but being able to see like you were able to really problem solve that whole entire situation. Yeah, problem solving you gotta be in there. When you tow on the road. You have to. A lot of times I'll have something going on like the other week I was at a shipper trying to pick up the load and I was and they were trying my dispatcher was trying to get me down Dallas down to Katie to give me the load to get me here because they were trying to get me here for that class of last week. I was like hey eight hours to do a lot of load and they had two forklifts picking up two pallets I was like I'm gonna get another guy to pick this load up and get me in the load I'm gonna meet down on Katie so I can try to meet that guy No. I mean usually you have to do problem solving. It seems like you're always thinking of ways to fake the situation smoother, better for everybody in Obama. Depending on the type of load and how early I can get there like I've picked up loads day early delivered to day early You're proactive. You're extremely proactive. I'll call my dispatcher and he'll tell me well we got us in the email they got us in the email to get approval it could be a whole day thing before I can pack Sure. It doesn't hurt to ask right? No. The worst they can tell me is no. So you know. That would be another great lesson for you when you're training to talk about the trainees, how to be proactive and how to problem solve and like you said it doesn't hurt to ask the worst thing they can say is no. Keep the company making money. Working as a team and get the job done that's what it's all about. So like my dad is my leader he's like you know what you're doing I don't have to babysit you he's like the only time I really hear from him he'll call me up and say hey I got you this free plan picking up your lever here and my first question is where is it picking up when to pick up where in when does it deliver? Now I'm taking the class tomorrow to be a trainer like how much further up can I go in the company? You just gotta have that conversation like what do you want to do? Do you want to come in the office? Do you want to do that type of work? Do you want to like what exactly do you want to do? So as the company involves things change there's lots of opportunities for you here with us so there's lots of things. After a trainer like JR that works in as a DDM for refer division he used to be a driver then he came to the office and some people come in and get that experience in the office and they go back out on the road and there's a lot of different things that you can do so don't limit yourself keep your eyes open what's going on out there and a lot of experience people come in off the road into the office I know Paul I don't know his class name Genitis? Andy? He's called me a couple of times because since I have my diploma to work on so he's called me and Hugo maybe seen about getting me in the shop being a mentor they have senior drivers where other drivers will call you for advice or just being able to be out there and say what would you do and you'll get that with your trainees too they'll come back to you once they're off your truck you'll still have a connection with them they're always constantly reaching out to you like hey I need your advice I need you to help me walking through this I'm in this situation what should I do another thing I would suggest doing is once you set a goal for yourself to set down a talk with your DDM and your terminal manager let them know what your goals are and ask them what steps you can take to reach your goals and just constantly keep them in a loop with what you really want to do because if you don't say what you want to do if you don't ask for advice if nobody knows then how are you ever going to get where you want to go you definitely have options so you just sit down talk to somebody and say hey this is where I'm at I'm going to drive for this long but what are my options could I go into the shop and settle with them sit there and watch them what they do for a while sit down and watch your driver manager watch what Howard does and just see and kind of soak up all that that information all the branch oh that's right that's right I forgot about that yeah that's good so any last words Leah? last words Justin forgive me what does Justin say what are you going to do give me a trailer load full of $100 bills we had great conversation you definitely made me hungry for some Louisiana food so I appreciate it thank you so much