Rudy Del Bosque

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is bucket talk, a weekly podcast for people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity in the trades and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:28  

All right, we're here with Rudy Del Bosque. He goes by the Instagram handle, silver bullet. Mullet. Rudy, what's up?

Rudy Del Bosque  0:36  

What's going on? Brother, long time. No, see you, man, you

Jeremy Perkins  0:39  

have an interesting background. You're in the trucking game. Absolutely love it, but I kind of wanted to get a little background on how you got into it. I know you and your dad are are pretty tight, but I don't know if everybody knows the story. So go back as far as you can, kind of paint a little picture of young Rudy and and how he is the man he is today.

Rudy Del Bosque  1:03  

Alright? Man, well, my old man started doing this long time ago. Man, but he was like 15 years old. I guess if I'm going to go way back, he started loading big trucks when he was, like 1516 in Aubry, Texas. And so he's been around dump trucks in dumps his whole life, you know, and been in dirt work. So, you know, when he finally had me, he would take me job sites and, you know, put me on the skid steer at like, you know, 789, years old, and just, you know, playing the dirt piles and whatnot. And then when I had a little bit more ass in my, you know, britches, you know, I could push down that clutch pedal, he would have relocate dirt from one end of the job to another, you know what I mean? My dad, he started his business. It was, I want to say it was May of 2000 man, before 911 actually. And it was pretty gnarly dude. He started with 1987 Kenworth t8 100 tandem, only, no trailer, and he was just Bob tailing man doing single loads. And from there, he's built, you know, slowly at a time, you know, buying a piece here and there. You know, not a new truck, but dependable. You know what I mean, yup. So it wasn't always what you see, what we have now. You know what I post, you know, like drip daddy, and, you know, all those nice trucks and stuff, I mean. And we come from humble beginnings, you know, my old man, he, he built it with old equipment, but dependable, and took care of him, you know, and and built it up to what we are right now.

Jeremy Perkins  2:36  

Well, it's wild. It's wild. The the old equipment is some of the best, uh, it's tends to stay around longer from gliders and the people now using gliders, right and and rebuilding the whole the the whole thing with old engines and everything, absolutely unbelievable. But, yeah, so no, so dive into it a little bit more. So how, how'd you come on?

Rudy Del Bosque  3:01  

Um, well, I came on in 2007 before that, I was doing concrete work. Man, I was, you know, one of the, you know, hands out there raking mud, you know, and that shits No, no joke out there, dude, you know, I got a lot of respect for the concrete boys. Man, that dude, in the summertime, that, but my dad, so he was starting to expand a little bit more. And originally, I was in school to be a coach. I was going to be a football coach, believe it or not. So life happens. I ended up, you know, having a kid early. I was 20 years old. My oldest was born, so I decided, you know, come back home. And I was like, I said I was doing concrete work for a little bit, and then just called my old man up said, you know, if there's a spot available for me, you know, I would like to come in and haul some dirt, you know. And so he gave me my first chance, and my opportunity to to come on the scene with him. And, you know, get my feet wet with it, but I already knew what I was doing, but I just wasn't out there doing it, you know what? I mean,

Jeremy Perkins  4:05  

yeah, how'd you get your

Rudy Del Bosque  4:09  

CDL shit? A lot of practice. Just got that went in one day, got my handbook, man. And Dad said, you know, read this shit front to back, boy, because, you know, everything is in that book, it's going to be in that test. And I was like, noted. So I went and did that. I spent like, two months chasing that rabbit. And then finally, I was like, Alright, I think I'm ready. And then, boom, went and took the test and got it all handled out. And the driving test was nothing, what it is today, or from what I understand, it was a breeze, man. So it was pretty easy at my CD, I'll be honest with you,

Jeremy Perkins  4:45  

yeah, yeah. It's, yeah. Now we've talked about it in past podcast, but, and now it's, now it's school, required schooling and, but before it was, you know, I mean, some people who weren't around the trucking industry, it was a lot. Harder, especially when you had to call out things in your walk around, or as you're walking around the truck and and pointing to different things. And that was always a a huge hurdle for some that, you know, they're good at driving, maybe good at trailering, but not really good on the mechanical aspect. And then on the flip side,

you know, how many straps per load? What's the stopping distance? I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot to learn in that book, right?

Rudy Del Bosque  5:26  

Well, there is not only that. It's like now, from what I understand, they'll fail you if you don't even pre trip your truck, right? I mean, back when I took my test, man, the only pre trip we did was check airlines, kick tires, and that was it. And, you know, for real, it was like that. And now I hear it's pretty strict. Now to get the driving part I hear is the hardest now, because you'll fail. You'll fail it by missing one thing you didn't do check off your list. You know, so, but again, that was I took my shit 1516, years ago, so I'm not worried about it. Now, you know what I mean,

Jeremy Perkins  6:03  

you're bringing in your rig the state. He's looking at it, and it's fucking hissing away. Yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  6:08  

back to, like, what you said about the schooling, though, that's the way to go. Now, for everyone, it seems that's what I'm under, like, been told is, yeah, they're sending kids to schools, man, and get their CDL. But the problem is that I have with all that is, once they get their CDLs, they're throwing them out there into it. They're not, like, really training them for what they're going to experience out there on the road, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  6:33  

yeah, they learn most of it on the in a parking lot or, you know, yeah, short trip stuff like that. No, I agree.

Rudy Del Bosque  6:39  

Yeah, man, it's dangerous. I mean, you're going to put some kid out there. Or, I mean, he doesn't have to be a kid, an adult that has never done this before. And, you know, he's hauling a lot of weight, and doesn't know how to see his distance, use his distance in front of him. He wants to run up on a car. Doesn't know how to stop No shit, you know, here we go. You know, trying to double, double white fist in that damn steering wheel, then you're out in someone's ass. You know, it's not good, but I don't know. Man, I mean, it's also good for insurance too. You know that they go to school now, and that's pretty much all it is. That's what I've been told, is that the schooling is to help for the damn insurance of premiums. And, man, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  7:19  

yeah. I mean,

I don't know it's, it's nice to have a streamlined way of doing things. But, you know, I've said, I've said this among company in the past. It's, it's funny how in the trades, there's certain, there's certain trades that have rules and regulations, and then there's other ones that have licensing and what have you. And then there's some that don't have them at all. I mean, what was wild about me being a mechanic is we didn't have to get licensed, right? May have to take an OSHA course, may have to do, you know, hydraulics license, or CDL, or, you know, a bus, whatever the school bus permit was, but, yeah, I mean, any Joe could walk off the street be a mechanic, fix your car, and right? But then you go, you go into the carpendy trade and and, you know, you got apprentice, journeyman, a whole bunch of different licenses there. Then you got electricians, welders, stuff like that, all these certifications. It was wild that there's no standardization in the mechanic and they had ASCs, but that didn't really, that's a private company just saying, Hey, you, you take our test, you're good to go. But it wasn't, wasn't. There's no legislation behind it. It's kind of interesting, right?

Rudy Del Bosque  8:39  

And you, you were mechanic, was you mechanic in the Marines too?

Jeremy Perkins  8:43  

So I was, actually, I was a marine diesel mechanic in the Coast Okay, so little working on, working on marine engines in the Coast Guard. Okay, yeah, I got, yeah, that's what I did. And that that we went to school through, through the military. It was like a three month school out of Yorktown, Virginia, basic, everything. But you had to, yeah, you had to go through it. And then if you wanted to get work on anything or be qualified in anything, you went to Caterpillar school. I went to Yanmar school.

So, yeah, there's a whole bunch of the military did it right. But yeah, right.

Rudy Del Bosque  9:24  

So you know a lot about diesel engines and stuff. Little

Jeremy Perkins  9:28  

bit, yeah, a little bit,

Rudy Del Bosque  9:32  

yeah, I know. I know a little bit. I know what my favorite motor, you know, I like the I prefer 3406 E model cat. But yeah. Now, with the with the new shit, you know, it's either a pack R or x 15 comments, man. And you know, it is what it is, you know, I just don't, I don't like them. I don't know enough about them, because I'm only a year and a half, two years, or two years with X 15 learning it, you know, because 3406 Six. I mean, I could just hear my truck, hell, feel it, and know there's something off and injectors out, you know what I mean? Or more, most people don't even know what the hell they're listening for. And that power loss, you know, I'm like, no, no, no. You hear that little that tick flutter, you know that injector somewhere we're going to find it? Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  10:19  

yeah. It's, uh, it it was interesting. Like, being, being a mechanic, and same, probably for you being a truck driver is, you know, you always wonder how the old dogs did it. Like, how do you know something's wrong? Or, like, how do you know this? Like, just, just plethora of information. And now we're starting to become those people, where the people are like, how do you know that? And I'm like, I just hear I was, it was the it was funny. I had my Tahoe, I in between houses right now, so I actually can't work on a vehicle in my driveway. So it was funny, because I was, I had a wheelbarrow and start to go, and so you could hear that little hum every time he took the took the turn, and I'm I'm in the car with my family. I'm like, you hear that? And they're like, No. I'm like, I know. Like, I could feel it. I could hear it. I brought it to the mechanic. I was like, hey, left front wheel bearing. There's something wrong with it. And he's like, Yeah, sure, buddy. Because he didn't know I'm a mechanic, I won't say it to him because I don't. I never really liked when people came in and said, hey, you know, my cousin's a mechanic, or I'm a mechanic. This is what's wrong with it. Well, I'm gonna listen to it. I'm gonna figure it out myself. I'm not gonna listen to somebody. I never say it. And he's like, he's like, it's fine, it's tight. I didn't hear anything. I'm like, You didn't hear anything. So, sure enough, like, two months later, it just got louder and louder and louder and louder. And I'm like, Alright, now dial

Rudy Del Bosque  11:49  

after there's some guys like that. I mean, that's in the big truck industry too, man, sometimes, not all of them, but sometimes you might find one that'll kind of, I wouldn't say, shortcut it, but you tell them what you hear, and you're like, No, no, I'm telling you what it is. And then all sudden, it's too late. You're gonna have to take it back to the shop, because what you originally said it was ends up happening. You know, your fucking fan clutch goes out. You're like, a fan, fan clutch is going out. And they're like, Nah, they need it was fucking airline or some shit. You're hearing things like, okay, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  12:21  

well, but, well, I always knew why that happened too. Is because, unless they were 100% a lot of guy, and this, this is what sucks about the industry, and is they get so much shit when it comes to being wrong every now and again. You know, customer comes in bullshit about, you know, spending X amount of money on a wrong diagnosis or what have you. So guys won't, a lot of guys won't pull the trigger, even if, even if, they're like, Oh, it sounds like it, but I can't really prove it, you know what I mean. And, and they're like, fuck it. I'd rather just say I can't hear it, send it on its way. And then when it gets worse, come back. And then we'll definitely be able to figure it out. So it's kind of like, I understand why it happens. Because they don't want to put their reputation out on the line to say, right, you're right. It was the left front, and really was the right front. You know what I mean? Right? Yeah.

Rudy Del Bosque  13:13  

I mean, I mean, I understand that too. It's like, you know, for me, it's like, I can go, No, I know for sure what it is, but I've been wrong, man, you know, and you know we're wrong. Man, yeah, you know saying, oh, man, like, I told you, it wasn't that shit you want to be all hard headed, but, uh, but, yeah, man,

Jeremy Perkins  13:36  

but So, okay, fast forward. You get your CDL. You're now working for pops, yeah, alright. So what are you just hauling sand and gravel? Are you your day tripping?

Rudy Del Bosque  13:49  

Yeah. So I just, I go straight into, I'm just hauling single load. So I was just in a tandem. I was in a 98 Ken, worked to 800 and man, I just was pretty much it kept me kind of local and and then it's funny, my I say it kind of kept me local for two days, and on third day, he let me go out there for real. And then this is back whenever it was only mapsco. You remember the maps goes, No, you don't remember. Okay, so before we had GPS and Garmin, I mean, we didn't have a Garmin in our trucks, but before we had our phones, that had GPS maps, Google Maps, yeah, we had a thing called maps goes. It's kind of like the Atlas, you know what? I mean, the I think,

Jeremy Perkins  14:32  

yeah. Are you talking about like binder books with fucking maps in it? Yes. Okay, yeah. I mean, we, we had, yeah, we had road maps. I mean, I remember the day fucking map question thing. Had, like 1000 fucking turns, right?

Rudy Del Bosque  14:48  

So we had Map Quest for every county in our area. And, I mean, they were seriously, like, thick ass textbooks. Is what they look like, yeah, yeah. So I was going Carol. In one day this town about 45 minutes away, man, and I couldn't find my fucking way out of it, dude, like, seriously. And I got so frustrated that day I felt like quitting because I spent what should have been a 45 minute drop. It took me, this is no lies, like four hours to find because I turned my phone off, got frustrated and turn off my two way radio. Everything. I remember getting home and our back when we parked and my dad looked at me, told me to breathe, like, calm down. He said, Boy, it's going to be okay. Sometimes you have to listen to these old people, you know, the guys that know where they're going. They'll tell you how to get there. Yeah. He's like, You need to just breathe, relax. He goes, then he hands me a beer, and he laughs and goes, boy, you couldn't fuck your way out of a wet paper set. That's what he told me. So that was my introduction, and over time, obviously got better with it, you know? I mean, I didn't blaze the roads and I wasn't some badass at it, you know, it just takes, you know, time, effort and, you know, just listen to these, you know, OGS of, you know, sandhall and whatever, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  16:09  

yeah, yeah. I mean, it was cool that your dad was level headed, you know, gave you, gave you a little bit of but could see that the biggest beating you took was not going to come from him. It came from from your your experience. So it's cool when, when they finally side with you a little bit and they're like, You know what, I can't be hard on you because you're harder on yourself than I could ever be.

Rudy Del Bosque  16:38  

Yeah, and, and that's, that's the truth, though. It's like, that's how I've always been, because I just, I was, like, a perfectionist and and I'm watching him and my cousin Andrew. We call him buzz. He's been with my dad for 20 years. He's like an older brother to me. He's like, 52 years old. So I'm watching these guys effort, effortlessly, you know, just going and running circles around me, and I'm sitting here struggling. I can't even put four rounds on the ground. They're over here are, you know, doing 1011 and I'm like, What the shit? But he was hard on me. Don't get that twisted like he was like, foot to ass and, I mean, we butted heads, you know that saying it's hard to work for family, no shit. Yeah, that's so hard, in fact, that my cousin had to tell my dad, like, hey, you know, let me, let me handle boy. That's what they call me. Boy, yeah, let me handle boy. And you know, because you getting hot and yelling at him, and he gets hot and yells back, and y'all both ain't getting done and accomplished. Y'all are just yelling at each other. A

Jeremy Perkins  17:41  

good cop, bad cop, shit. No, it's fucking it's fucking hysterical. Up at the farm, me and my dad got into, I don't even know he, he pulled the fence post, and he didn't ask to full pull the fence post, and I gave him a ration of shit. And then it was just like we weren't talking to each other. It was over a fence post. Yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  18:03  

no, man, same dude, like, I've been there, you know, with my dad. My dad just turned 60 last week, and and I'm I'll be 37 in February, and I'm thinking, out of the 15 years, I probably went through five years of of some real ass chewings, and I mean face to face, like blowouts with my dad. But at the end of the day, I understood what he where he's coming from, because, I mean, he just wanted me to to hold a standard, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And because, I mean, where we're from out here, man, every sand Hall and business over here, it's family, run and owned, yeah, well, for the most part, we're family, run and owned. We have one outsider, and he's like family. We've known him for 20 years, Marky, Mark and but everyone else, it's generations of their family, like started a trucking business in the 70s, and their kids have either branched off and started their own thing, or they continue to carry on their name, you know what I mean? So that's what we're, you know, everything is like that. So in and understand the you go get this far in your your business last 30 plus years. You know, some of these guys buy bullshit. You know, you you're like this because you hold a standard and there's pride in there that you take whenever you go take your truck out there and you say you're going to get done. You get done. You know what? I mean, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  19:26  

yep. So, so

with you and your dad, is this going to be a family affair? Yeah, I know you got some young ones. Is this? Is this going to continue on to generations to come, or you don't want this for them? Yeah, that's

Rudy Del Bosque  19:44  

a good question, man, my dad now we've had this conversation before, so I got a little brother that works with us now. He's been here for two years, so he doesn't quite got a seat at the table yet. You know what I mean? He's still got a long ways to. Learn and, you know, all that shit. But Little Brother, Big Brother, we butt heads when it comes to stuff like that sometimes. But I've learned to shut that down and just kind of, hey, let him find his way. If he's in it, he's in it. If he's not, he's not. You know what I mean, but I told my old man before that, you know, I feel like this is either going to die with me or my youngest, you know, son, or my oldest son, they might be interested in, you know, and if they are, I'll give them the fair shake that my old man gave me and my brother. You know what I mean, yeah. But I also know, like, I'm a very loyal person, and I know there's tears to this shit. You know what I mean, like the old man, he's, he's the boss man that you know, the guy below that is my cousin buzz who's been there since, you know, 2001 2002 Yeah, but even my cousin. And then, then it's me at 15 years and then Marky, Mark and then my brother. But you know, my cousin buzzes told me he's like, Hey man, you know, I may have been here this long, but at the end of the day, that last name on that truck, that's your last name. That's not mine. Yeah, that's that's your namesake. So, you know, run it like you own it. And that's how I've been carrying myself for, you know, since, I guess you want to call it the probation period are getting hate, the hazing period, you know, then I do. I run it like that. Take pride in what I do. And it's not easy, you know, doing that shit, but it is. It is cool though, waking up every morning to say I'm doing this, and people point and look, and they go, Oh, I know that truck. That's, you know, Del Bosque truck right there. Because, yeah.

Jeremy Perkins  21:45  

Now, do you, I've been asking this question recently, do you see so the industry as it stands right now, you're cool with you're making money if it stays the way it is, you can see your family making a a living for their kids, but with everything changing, whether it's, you know, electric cars, whether it's autonomous vehicles, whether it's just the need for the product you're hauling or or the the the workforce be in there. Do you see the writing on the like a writing on the wall? I don't know if it's D writing on the wall, because I have no idea. But do you see that, that the signals out there, that things are changing, or is everything business as usual, like full speed ahead? I'm just making money.

Rudy Del Bosque  22:32  

Well, I mean, it's, it is business as usual. But we definitely see this, this change, man. And you know, I heard y'all podcast with iron Mike. He said he nailed it like, it's, you can't find drivers that want to work one right, and you can't. It's just, it's just like, We're the last of a dying breed, man. I mean it, it really is. The guys that have been doing it so long. They're all getting older and they're fading out. There's not many people are stepping up and doing, you know, the in the trucking industry, whether that's cattle hauling, you know, heavy equipment

Speaker 1  23:12  

hauling, haulers, yeah, bad boy,

Rudy Del Bosque  23:17  

I messing with none of them. Dude, I didn't say Sir

Jeremy Perkins  23:24  

They got exemptions to laws. And if you got an exemption to laws, you, you know, you a bad man. My jammer,

Rudy Del Bosque  23:30  

yeah, yeah, that's a real deal. Boy, I'll tell you what. Some of them are like. They'll sit there and look at your ass, and if you look at them wrong, they'll be like, boy, we either fighting or fucking, if I'm taking my shirt off and I'm married. So this narrows that shit down to one thing we're fighting, yeah, but anyways, but no, it's like, I see it's just, it's hard to find drivers, man, it's, it's hard to it's just, right now we're in this crazy little bubble, because we have so much growth in building right now in the DFW area where we're at. I mean, it's crazy right now. Everyone's busy and but you know, there's going to come a point where that comes to a stop. Yeah, because it from what I was told in late 70s or early 80s, it happened once my dad told me that construction stopped. I mean, it was a boom, and then it stopped. And he's like, I can see that happening again. And the way it looks right now, we have this big boom right now. And in our area, it's crazy because, like, all this land is getting developed. I mean, what else are you going to develop after this? You know what I mean? So maybe we'll see it in my lifetime over here. I hope it lasts another, you know, 2030, years. But, man, it just seems like it is kind of heading into a different direction, man. I mean, look at what they're doing with Peterbilt right now. They're getting rid of the 389, I don't know if you pay 10. Mentioned what the Peter built and stuff like that. So they, they're introducing the 359 already, and it's just, it looks like dog shit, but they're going to this like new era. And you see it, you go, this looks like some space age because it looks like a dump truck that should be in the damn out there, in the freaking space. Dude, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  25:21  

International was doing it for a while. There. Weird, yeah, weird looking, weird looking trucks.

Rudy Del Bosque  25:28  

Dude, yes,

Jeremy Perkins  25:30  

I like the long nose square. Let's go yes.

Rudy Del Bosque  25:34  

So that 389 that's the end of it. This year, they stopped production. They're taking orders right now for the 359 and they're going in production in 2024, so there is no more the traditional split window. Look windshield. Peter built. That's it, you know. And it's, I'm seeing it. I'm kind of like, Ah, man. It's, you know, it before too long, man, I don't know, maybe my 50s. Maybe when I hit 60, we're going to see something different than than a trucker. You know what I mean? I just,

Jeremy Perkins  26:08  

yeah, no, I, I agree. It's, it's interesting because, and I've actually never talked about this, but it was funny how, how, if you look at transportation and how we hauled goods over the course of the the United States history, it's weird that we ever gave up our railroads. I mean, it just, it was, it's like, it's like, we had railroads, then we went to autonomy, so everybody had their own vehicle, and we're like railroads, and now, like, everybody needs to take mass transportation and all this stuff. And it was like, well, maybe we shouldn't have got rid of the railroads, and everyone's now a fucking bike path, you know what I mean? And it's like, yeah, I don't know. It feels to me like, you know, with hauling freight and and moving people across the country, maybe, maybe railroads was a bad thing to get rid of. Oh, yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  27:08  

yeah, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't really think about it like that, but you're right. And then now I started thinking about, how do you get rid of truckers when truckers are the soul of everything in America, if you think about it, from hauling produce, your clothes, your the hat that you and I are wearing right now, to get you think that you think that some magic, little fairy came and gave me my Brunt boots? No, it was a trucker that Freddie, that shit in maybe

Jeremy Perkins  27:34  

not the brunt, maybe something else. It was a magical,

Rudy Del Bosque  27:39  

magic in there, shit. Yeah, that's why I got my boots and but, but anyways, but, you know, say it's like truckers, we gotta have them. You gotta need them. But it's it. But, like I said, it's harder. They're harder and harder to find. And I hope that that doesn't end, because, man, without that dude, what? What happens with America? You know what I mean? Because it's everything, truckers for everything, your groceries, your material, your for your build your house, your lumber packages, you know, everything, every one of those guys are so valuable and important, all of, all of even the the fucking guys. I want to say it's I'm joking when I say this, Swift, they might have some shit. They might have some shit in their trailers that you you know you might need, but, I mean, they can't drive for shit, but it is what it is. Man,

Jeremy Perkins  28:34  

one large company uses swift because, I mean, I see him, but I don't see him docking anywhere. Maybe they don't make it to the destination. I don't know.

Rudy Del Bosque  28:46  

I think Walmart distribution centers. I think, yeah, I think some distribution centers. But even then, man, I mean, I've seen some crazy shit my time, dude, with some swift guys, I've seen a lot of crazy shit in general, just being a, you know, sand hauler, you know, I've seen, I've seen some wild stuff, dude, I've seen people.

Jeremy Perkins  29:06  

I was dying laughing with that when that truck driver ripped the the rear axles off that trailer on that

Rudy Del Bosque  29:15  

driving a swift truck, yeah, oh, it's time, bro. Hey, you know what? Though, it's like that guy, what is it? It's not gonna cost him anything. You know what? I mean?

Jeremy Perkins  29:27  

No. And the best part is, it didn't ruin the truck. It only ruined the trailer. Who gives a shit about the trailer? I guess, right, that's what

Rudy Del Bosque  29:34  

I'm saying. It's like, you know, when I see that, it's funny, because that applies. There's those kind of drivers in our business, I'm sure, for heavy haulers too, like that has never done it before. They're they don't give a shit. They're just there, punch a clock, get their check. We call those guys cab maggots. They're just steering wheel holders. You know? They're just, they don't care about anything, not paying attention anything, and they tear more shit up because. Is it doesn't bother him, but the guy that owns a company, man, Jesus, dude, how much money can one, you know, spend on fixing shit of a driver that doesn't care? You know, yeah, I

Jeremy Perkins  30:13  

mean that in that particular circumstance, that's an easy one. That trailer's totaled, and see you later. So I guess I don't know I mean, and it's, it's a product of their own environment. From a lot of the truckers that I've, I've heard from, from dispatchers pushing the pushing the limits, companies pushing the limits drove a lot of the real passionate people out. Um, yeah, kept, kept a lot of people, you know, whether it's wages, whether it's insurance, whether, you know, it's medical and dental and all that stuff, kept a lot of good people from coming in because it, you know, the money and stuff wasn't there during, especially when we were growing up, like being a truck driver wasn't, wasn't lucrative business, only till recently, truck drivers are starting to get their weight in insult and right. So, you know, I kind of drove a lot, a generation of of potential good, good candidates away, and now, now they're left to deal what they got. I mean, I see all around Portland, Maine and stuff, they 40, $50 an hour for truck drivers. They're still not getting it. It's like,

Speaker 1  31:33  

it's, it's wild now, now money's not, money's not an issue, like people, people aren't going because of the money. People are going because of the, you know, they want to do something different. They want to be a long haul trucker, or what have you. But, yeah, it's just, I think they ran a lot of people out before they even realized they ran people out.

Rudy Del Bosque  31:53  

Yeah, man, I think you're right, right there too. It's like, especially those long Over the Road Truckers, those long haulers, man. And I mean, kudos to those guys, what they do. I mean praise to them, because I there's, I couldn't do it. I want to be home every night, you know. I want to see my kids. I want to see, you know, my wife. I mean, granted that being in a family owned business like this, we are our own mechanics, too, man, you know, like, there's times where my wife and kids all even though the shop is right down the road, like, I mean, the driveway, they haven't seen me in two days, because once I get in, I gotta work on something, work on a trailer, work on something else's truck. And my wife knows that stuff. She's She's a trooper. You know your kids that when they they don't understand, you know what? I mean? Yeah, they're too young. All they know is, I haven't seen daddy in two days, and when we see him on day three, we're gonna go with some ice cream, because he must have been down there at the shop working the last two days, you know, so, but that's the only thing, the the sacrifice of Tom man, I think it's every truck driver in America that you're sacrificing one thing, and it's time. You know, if you have a family, they're the ones that that have to suffer from that. The over the road, guys are like, two weeks at a time. Sometimes they're like, what, one week, two weeks on. I mean, it's tough. You know

Speaker 1  33:16  

what's crazy about? You know? What? You know, what resonated with, with your last statement is, is, you know, a lot of us that's, that's a father's mentality. A lot of us think that way, that, you know that time's ticking away, but we always, we always have that, that mentality that we we gotta constantly tell ourselves we're doing this for the livelihood of our family and, and, you know, if, because I was the same way, man, it was gone all the time working Saturdays. You know, I was gone, gone before the sun came up, and I was back when the sun came down. And, you know, you get, you got a, maybe an hour with your kids, and usually they're fucking cranky as shit, and you're then, all of a sudden, you're the dad that's yelling at him because you caught him at the pale in but

Speaker 1  34:08  

preach it, dude, it one of the thing that kept me, kept me sane through all that, is just saying like, I'm the provider, I'm the one, I'm the one that, You know, they may hate me. I'm 50 and I'm retired, or 60 and I'm retired, but I know I'm putting the food on the table and everything so that, I mean, that's like, the blue collar men and women, that's their that's what keeps them going, is it's like, yeah, so yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  34:38  

man, we both. I'm sure your old man was the same way. He's like, you know, you you watch your old man. He was saying, like, look, look, I love my dad, but my dad, I do too. It's he was, he's Ruby senior, like, he's an asshole, like he was. But our relationship now, I would say, in the last uh. Um, eight years, we'll say eight years has been supreme. You know what? I mean, it's a crazy and he sees me now as, okay, I've done my job in this. Here's a seat at the table, son, now your word matters and stuff like that, which, you know, forever I was like, chasing that.

Jeremy Perkins  35:19  

Yeah, they're asking you, and now you feel,

I don't know now. Now it's now, so it's they're putting the pressure on you again, because you're like, Well, shit, I thought you always had the answer. Now you're coming to me for the answer. So no,

Rudy Del Bosque  35:36  

yeah, sometimes it's like that. It's hard to it is, I still look at him like, motherfucker, you got the answer like, What are you talking about? No,

Jeremy Perkins  35:47  

but it's, it's, it's funny because, you know, I tell stories of, you know, me and my dad growing up. And it's funny because I haven't told this story. This is, this is, this is, this is how you know you made it right? So my dad used to fucking make me mow the lawn all the fucking time. He's like, That's why I had kids, so that you can mow the lawn, so that I didn't have to. And I was, I was, I was never the the top bar on the lawn mower. I was the first bar because I was so short at the time, right? Yeah, and yeah. And

we had, I mean, we, there's, there's some boys out there that I've, God bless them, but I had, maybe an acre, no, no, maybe, like a half acre, right? And I'm doing it with push mower and and I had to do it every week, and you trim the bushes and all with it, with not, not one of them, like actual hand shears, right? Yeah. And so my dad comes and lives with me on the farm. I'm 37 now. He comes lives with me on the farm, and he's now mowing my lawn.

Rudy Del Bosque  37:07  

Push mower,

Jeremy Perkins  37:09  

dude. Push mower. He's been through three in the past two years. He dude. But it's funny because he approached me the other day, he's like, Hey, we need to get one of them riding lawnmowers. I was like, hell, yeah. I felt like an asshole, but I'm like, Nope,

I'm gonna see how long. And what's crazy is it's like, I'm, you know, not elder abuse or anything. You know me and my dad are super tight. If he ever needed something like that, I would, but it's funny, because he's he even says he's in the best shape of his life now, in his 60s than he's ever been. And it's how old is your dad? I don't fucking know. He's 6566 something like that. Yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  37:54  

yeah. My dad just turned 60. He looks fucking 70, but he's Yeah, party, motherfucker, dude. Seriously. Like, I heard stories like crazy about him back in the day, and the one thing I said, they go, one thing about Rudy senior is, like, we've never seen him fight. I was like, oh, because he didn't want to get involved. They go, no, because no one wanted to fuck with him, because the way he looked,

Jeremy Perkins  38:18  

yeah, well, that they were a different breed, man. I mean, I still look up to those guys. Those guys jumped off over nothing, nothing, yeah. Like, now I'm like, you know, hey, you know, I don't know. Like, is it really worth doing this?

Rudy Del Bosque  38:35  

I don't. I'm not fighting unless it's an absolute must. And I'm like, you dude. Like, look, I get windy, getting a blowjob, bro. You think I'm gonna go fight?

Jeremy Perkins  38:48  

And those guys used to jump off over a fucking parking spot, you know?

Rudy Del Bosque  38:53  

Yeah, I'm not popping off over some dumb shit. Like, I just look at like, one he's probably got a gun. That's cool, man, because I'm using it, you know what? I mean, like, that's not, Hey, have that front parking spot, Bubba, I'm going over here. You know I'm too Nah, dude, yeah, those days are over, man,

Jeremy Perkins  39:12  

those days are long gone. And I don't even know if,

I mean, those are some good days too, because I felt like, I felt like a lot of that stuff was just settled then and there. And then it was like, I mean, if you've ever really been into a if you've ever really been in a fight and it hasn't been broken up in five minutes, the two of you are shaking hands or hugging by the end, because you guys are just like,

Rudy Del Bosque  39:36  

bro, God so damn, I don't know how it was, where y'all are from, like, over here in Texas. Same thing is, like, we're fighting, hey, you're not jumping in. You're not jumping in. This are, this is my boys. Your boy, let go down when it was all said and done. Yeah, you're shake whoever got their ass whoop you're either quitting because you got your ass whooped. Alright, my ass is whoop or you're tired. We shake hands and we crack a beer. Open, and I'm gonna tell you something, dude, almost nine times out of 10 you might become fucking best friends after that, like you, you know. And I've had stories like that. I got my ass whooped So, bad dude. This is 2000 like nine or something like that. And this guy, I mean, I was just drunk, stupid, skinny, skinny pump, and he woke the dog shit out of me, and I remember he went to hit me again. And I go, all right, it's fucking hurting, motherfucker. And he started laughing. He goes, God, like, get up. We shake handsy. We had a beer. He goes, Man, I didn't expect you to stick in there like that, because, you know, it's like, I'm big. He was a big boy. I was like, Hey, man, I'm no bitch, because if I back down from that, it would have got back to my old man, and my old man would have been like, so you won't be a bitch, okay, you know, it'd been like that.

Jeremy Perkins  40:47  

So my last one, my last one was, was not anything to hang my hat on. I've been in some good ones, but my last one, I just got, I got hit so fucking hard in the mouth. Split my lip open, I took my tongue and put it in my lip, and I was like, fuck, because I couldn't see it. I'm like, fuck that thing's I walked away.

Rudy Del Bosque  41:08  

Like, your tongue took your lip.

Jeremy Perkins  41:10  

No. So I had such a gash in my lip that when I put my tongue up to it, it was like, it's just completely split apart. I was like, fuck, and I'm just pouring blood out, and I'm like, I'm gone. I'm going to the hospital. I'm just gonna go get stitched up. And it was funny, because I just walked away from this fight and it ended up, it like, it carried on without me. And I was just like, see you later. Yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  41:35  

dude, I think, I think my record's probably like, one in 10. Like, no bullshit. I got, I got lucky on one of them because he was faced. I mean, I said fighting, dude. I mean, I don't if it has to happen. We're doing it, you know, like, yep, if our boys are getting I mean, alright, do it. But, uh, man, I do two things. I tell my friends now that I'm older. I said, First, I said, there's some confrontation with some young buck, some 22 year old kid, or 25 whatever, in their 20s, I look at their ears first, and they go, Why do you look at their ears? That shit looks like cauliflower. Okay, trust they're gonna pretzel us up and fucking do what they want with us. Okay, we're not doing it. Yeah. Second, I'm just looking see what they got on them? Because if I don't have anything on me, I ain't getting got today. You dude, I'm like, hey, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and let this be I am a bitch. I'm walking away because I ain't getting killed

Jeremy Perkins  42:29  

today. No, I I hear you. I hear you. Wow, we went on a tangent here, huh? Yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  42:35  

we did. Did we

Jeremy Perkins  42:36  

it's all about trucking. Yeah?

Rudy Del Bosque  42:39  

Oh yeah. Back on trucking. Hey,

Jeremy Perkins  42:42  

it was funny. I didn't get to jump in earlier, but, you know, I caught a and poor girl. I feel bad for her. She got into a car accident, but I was, I was watching South Carolina or Georgia. This, this tow truck had its ramp down right, and the girl launched her car right, oh, and 100 feet, and she ended up, she ended up living. So that's why I was, I think I seen, so if you go to the comment section, now, that specific instance is, is like, you know, sorry that that happened, everything like that. But if you go to the comment section, I was dying laughing, because it was like, every guy said, I that's, that's why I never actually did that, because every fucking guy that drew drove past anything with his ramp down is like, Fast and Furious. I'm gonna fucking send it. And she did, I mean, she did it exactly the way I wanted to do it too.

Rudy Del Bosque  43:43  

I seen the video, I bet before she hit, do you think she said family and then hit it?

Jeremy Perkins  43:51  

So, so that was bringing in my my next point is, like, we were talking about long haul truckers and, like, how, how, you know, they're always away from home and everything. But what guy who knows about trucking hasn't wanted to at least spend one night in a fucking sleeper cab just get away from it all? Like, it's a fucking like, it's a fucking camper

Rudy Del Bosque  44:13  

if you haven't do it. Man, it's different. It's fun. Man, I think it's fun. It's just like when you're a kid, man, like, going out there that shitty ass camper, dude. Well, I was speaking on

Jeremy Perkins  44:28  

I had the pop up and, yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  44:30  

that's what I'm talking about. The, you know, talking about the pop up,

Jeremy Perkins  44:36  

were they? Were they Coleman's, or, I don't even know, but they were pop up,

Rudy Del Bosque  44:40  

yeah? So these fucking shitty ass pop up tents. It reminds me when you're a kid like, kid, I say kid like, you remember, okay, you remember back in the day, because we're the same age when, yeah, that one buddy I found a playboy, it was like, I gotta play well, we got a pop up fucking tent and shit like, this is his shitty ass. Playboy from like, the 80s, you know, got guilty on, well, the camper or the sleeper is not like, it's different. But, uh, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  45:15  

no, it was funny because I, I mean, we grew up on, like, when we were coming up high school, and we had Orange County Choppers. We had, they started doing all that, all the build stuff. But they also did builds with, with tractor trailers. I forget what the show was, but they, they used to build out, like, pimp out the sleeper cab and everything like that. It was, it was how it was, yeah, yeah.

Rudy Del Bosque  45:36  

No, for real. Chrome Shop mafia. They're in Texas, or they No, Missouri. I'm sorry. Okay, Missouri, yeah.

Jeremy Perkins  45:42  

And I was like, man, it'd be fucking sick. But, I mean, you're looking at it from like, yeah, be sick to fucking just like, cruise the world and sleep in that thing. But then you realize you actually got a job, and you got to meet timelines and stuff too, yeah,

Rudy Del Bosque  45:57  

logbooks and shit. Man, I'm so glad we don't have log books. Man, I've had a state trooper one time pull me. It's been a long time ago. I'm Officer, I'll use his name. I'm Officer Landeros. I need your log book. The first time, I got pulled over by this guy a long time ago, and he goes, I need to see your log book. I said, I don't need a log book. You're driving a big truck. I said, I mean, unless I'm hauling tomatoes and fucking bananas in this bitch and going to California or something, I don't need a log book. He's like, you don't need a log book, huh? Alright, let's check out your truck. I was like, let's check it out. Then, Shit, I don't know what I'm being smart as to this point, because, yeah, I've never knew that I needed a log book. I didn't and came back. He was just testing me because I was a young kid when I was a young prick, really, at that time. And long story short, his son now is a state trooper over here in Texas, so now they're they're still at it. And when his son pulled me over about two months ago, I looked at him, I said, you're going to ask me for my log book? And he's looked at me confused. You don't need a log book. I said, Yeah, your dad fucking thought I need one.

Jeremy Perkins  47:04  

There's some family history. Y'all, you need to get fucking versed in this. That's

Rudy Del Bosque  47:09  

right. That's right, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, again, man. Hats off to all those guys that that do that across the country shit, bro. Like, you know, they can be up there where you're at, come bringing some, you know, clam chowder or whatever. It's like smoking the bed.

Jeremy Perkins  47:24  

Yeah, that's, that's exactly what we hauling up here, just fucking clam chowder. We just exporting the fuck out of that

Rudy Del Bosque  47:30  

crap, legs and shit, exactly.

Jeremy Perkins  47:35  

So we're in brunts out of Massachusetts, but I live up in Maine, so we're exporting lobster. I

Rudy Del Bosque  47:41  

guess. Where about Maine, are you,

Jeremy Perkins  47:43  

um, Southern Maine, so I'm like, the Portland Maine area. Okay,

Rudy Del Bosque  47:48  

um, funny. You're, you're gonna laugh at this. So our neighbor is in the sand and gravel business too.

Jeremy Perkins  47:55  

And, yeah, you were telling me about this, and he's up north. He's up north. Yeah, North

Rudy Del Bosque  48:00  

Main northern Maine, yeah, yeah. So yeah, top shout out Tom meadow. So hope this finds you dog, hope you're doing good, old man, there you go. But yeah, he's right next door to his USA truck, and they're cool. Man, every one of them. Yeah, good. So we help each other out and stuff like that. You know, there's few of us that help each other out. But not everyone does. Man, it's kind of stupid, but some of it was cool. Well,

Jeremy Perkins  48:26  

it was funny. It was funny. It depends on what, depends on what sector you're in within the trucking community. I mean, iron Mike was talking about some, you know, them, them, them excavation equipment, guys, them low bed drivers. Yeah, they're, they're cutthroat breed over there, you know what I mean. But

Rudy Del Bosque  48:48  

that arm, though, like when you're talking about your show, y'all show, when he was saying it, I said, Damn, we have it here too, man, we do. We have it here. It's kind of, it's, it's sad, because it's been happening for generations, man, I mean, for as before my dad was even running his company, and before that, when he was loading trucks, he told me he's like, there's sometimes there's people out here that cut throats, and they may do for cheaper, but sometimes cheaper ain't better. He's like, you know, they promise quantity, but they lacking quality.

Jeremy Perkins  49:21  

But some of the sand and gravel and aggregate haulers, you know, what's funny about them is, is, like, it's volume they actually get. Yeah, they're doing a school up up near us in Massachusetts, is where, literally, they're blasting acres and acres, and they can't get enough trucks up there, so there's no fucking competition. There's hundreds of trucks waiting to get loaded up. And it's like, so for them, it's like, you know, they unfortunate, and I'm sure there's probably certain circumstances where there is competition, but theirs is just volume. How many fucking trucks can we get up here, and how many loads can we get out where. Other areas are like, I need to protect my market. I need to protect what I do.