I met Shannon Towell at the Love's in Des Moines, Iowa. He saw me working out and assumed I must have been prior military. We ended up hanging out that night and exchanged information. He's been very observant of everything as a new driver and has gone through the ringer of experiences and wants to pass on those do's and don'ts to new drivers.

Shannon loves his job, and truly believes that instead of just quitting, he should get the information out there that you really aren't taught and school, and you definitely won't learn with a mega carrier. He wound up working for a shady Eastern European guy who did a lot of off the books illegal stuff. I'll let Shannon tell that story though.

He was inspired to start making his own content to document his experiences as well. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, and if you're a newer driver, give it a listen and feel free to reach out.

You can find Shannon's podcast on spotify called Skippy's Trucking Show.

Thanks to my friends Gord and Reed who have roped me into trucker twitter, I was able to follow Quincy. He may have one of the funniest accounts I have seen on the platform, and some of his best work is done replying to people and posting reactions.

Life had Quincy sleeping on other peoples' floors and furniture, but a phone call into a radio show ended up with him getting a free ride to CDL school and into a career where he is making a great living.

We touch on his trucking experience, truck parking, and laugh at how stupid people are on the internet. He's a firm believer in extreme ownership, and refuses to live life with a victim mindset.

You can find him on twitter @NotABBWLover but just know his twitter handle is a lie, because he definitely loves BBW's

Brian is a born and raised Iowan currently working as an owner/operator of not only a small trucking company, but also a 3000 acre farm around Cedar Rapids. An Iowa State alumni he got into the world of trucking in how a skilled tradesman would. He got his CDL at 18 and did farm work within Iowa only, the farm gave birth to their trucking enterprise, and now trucking helps keep the farm going.

Brian and I have a casual conversation on all things within the trucking industry from training and new drivers, to building relationships with brokers, and how he runs his business.

Iowa integrity is a real thing, and Brian proves it in this episode.

If you're in the Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, or Minnesota area and you're interested in working for Brian or leasing your truck on with him you can find their facebook page at Price Farm Trucking.

If you want to join our little logistics discord reach out to me anywhere @LombardTrucking

Uros Ljeskovic is originally from Montenegro, and came to the United States to play college basketball. He played in two NCAA March Madness tournaments while playing for Coastal Carolina University. Grad school brought him to Arizona, but when covid hit he found himself out of work, and that's where trucking came into play.

He jumped in head first at the owner/operator lifestyle, and has set himself up pretty well. Him and I have a similar mission, to change the culture of health and wellness in the industry. He goes into detail about how he stays fit over the road, and what he is eating which is primarily a carnivore diet. 

We go over some daunting stats regarding the health of drivers. And there are many days I wonder why I even bother posting or talking about this stuff, but to hear about the feedback he gets, and the people who message me, we are reminded that even if we can help one person, it is worth it.

You can find Uros on tiktok @thefittesttrucker and on Instagram @ljesko13

On today's episode I talk with Brandi Scott, who was referred to me by our funny friend Colin from California. Brandi is an absolute badass from Central Texas who has a lineage in the drag racing industry, competes in tournaments as a professional fisherman, and has persevered through some difficult life challenges. We dive into a few political issues, and the reality of where these beliefs come from, and how just because you may have a differing of opinion, that doesn't define your overall character. 

Brandi and I are also in similar situations of long distance relationships, and just talk out how we deal with the realities of the situation and how to make them work best. This is a common situation a lot of drivers and blue collar workers have that not a lot of people see the realities of. To the point in which social media will "trend" the desire for dating a blue collar worker.

This conversation goes back to what I said at the start of 2023, of wanting to have real conversations with real people. And not just real people, but people different from me, who grew up somewhere else with a different life experience. Personally, I think that's what we can use more of to make this world a better place, talking to one another again, especially outside of the comments section. 

You can find Brandi on IG and tiktok @lonestarlady92

LIVE FROM IOWA 80 THE WORLD'S LARGEST TRUCK STOP! Happy to record a podcast here on hallowed ground!

Rachel Premack is the editorial director at FreightWaves. She writes the newsletter MODES, the go-to newsletter for supply chain insiders (and outsiders).

Before joining FreightWaves in 2022, Rachel was a senior features reporter at Business Insider. She created the trucking beat at Business Insider, and has appeared on ABC News, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, France24, and other major outlets to discuss her coverage.

Prior to that, Rachel was a journalist in Seoul, South Korea. Her articles were published in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Bloomberg CityLab, The Verge, and others.

Rachel was a Stigler Center Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in the spring of 2019. Rachel grew up in Metro Detroit and received her Bachelor's degree in history from the University of Michigan. Her Twitter account is @rrpre.

Dominick Tullo runs a truck stop, and small trucking fleet in Northern New Jersey. He comes on today’s show to tell his story, and go into detail about another company he has been working with called TruckCoinSwap, which has the potential to eliminate (sometimes predatory) factoring from the trucking industry. You can find Dominick on twitter @dominick_tullo   

TCS Website  

 https://www.truckcoinswap.com/ 

TruckCoinSwap podcast   

https://open.spotify.com/show/4UthiQNgw5SRdGjo33MGfX?si=_LpHkHBxQAGIpIq4PiRxvQ

Colin and I have been friends for the better part of two years all thanks to our friends at Hard Factor News and the community we've got in a Discord server. Colin has a great story though having been raised around the oil and gas industry, he has worked on and off shore for oil operations, and goes into why his job off shore in California has him furloughed for now, but working somewhere else. We go into what makes "blue collar" work actually the industry of inclusion, are Nascar drivers using PEDs, and other random stuff! Hope this one makes you guys smile! Colin can clearly talk forever, especially if he has a full pack of smokes and a case of Keystone, so if you want to chat with him, find him everywhere @realbigjern

Finally back into the swing of things after getting my truck repaired. I give the full breakdown of everything that had happened with my truck, including how I was able to get it fixed. I also give a little bit more detail about coming on with Warren Transport, and how they set owner/operators up for success. I will be honest, this episode was fired off on pure emotion. I recorded right after a workout so I left some things off, and will definitely offer more details on Warren.

I'm fired up because how New York City treats American truck drivers. The city is asking the state to raise fines on truck infractions, while also trying to honeypot drivers into admitting where they park. New York City is a consumption center, it comes at a cost. Either support truckers, or admit you hate the working class! I call on Mayor Eric Adams, he has until Wednesday March 1, 2023 to come on my show and defend himself!

Link to the story in New York

https://backthetruckup.com/new-york-city-request-state-approval-to-raise-fines/

On today's episode I had the pleasure of speaking with fellow driver Jesse Baremore. Jesse has been a professional driver for 10 years and currently driving for Central Oregon Truck Lines. He's well known on truckertok and we talk all things social media in the trucking community and why he makes the content he makes. Jesse's positivity and humor gained popularity with drivers and it's something we need more of in this industry. You can find Jesse anywhere on the internet @jessebaremore and please feel free to join the Facebook group Supply Chain Crisis Actors for a great community that Jesse and his best friend Joe Seppi have created.