Teddy Verras

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 to trade and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discussed 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  

This is Jeremy and Eric here with Bucket Talk powered by BRUNT this week we have Teddy Verras, also known as @heavy_haul_n_fool on Tiktok. But before we jump in, Eric, what's been going on?

Eric Girouard  0:38  

All right. All right. So all things in the life of BRUNT, you know, continue to be wild and unexpected week to week, we had a few new people join the team and the space that we have for our office to work out that we thought was gonna get through the rest of the year, we're actually pretty much outgrown it at this point if we had the whole team in here. So we got to start looking for some expansion space that's either in the building that we're in or close by, so that we can function so starting to, starting to look around at potential with the future and home of BRUNT HQ will hold and Jeremy has some special requests he would like a couch in his office is is. So that's top of the list of considerations. Everything else after that is you know, bathrooms, running water, and basic functionality. But as long as Jeremy gets his couch, they'll be happy to

Jeremy Perkins  1:27  

Need that couch need the couch. Oh, me and Jenny. We had a few roosters that we needed to get rid of. And it was our first time ever doing it. So it was definitely an interesting experience for us. We had the cone that you flip the chicken upside down and then yeah, you take care of business. But so I flipped them upside down in the cone and his head wouldn't come out. And I'm like looking up there and I can't see it. Trying to get his head to come out. I finally was able to do it. And then there's a reason why I say chicken with its head cut off because we for sure thought it was done and took it out of the car and put it down. Took off. Just took off running. Oh, it's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life.

Eric Girouard  2:16  

Did he drop or did you have to catch him?

Jeremy Perkins  2:19  

We ran after it with a box put it over and just held it there it wouldn't stop moving. But yeah, no, it was I mean, obviously, it's it's muscle memory. And there's a lot more science behind it that I don't understand. But yeah, it's quite the experience seeing a headless chicken run around your property.

Eric Girouard  2:37  

Alright. All right. Well, let's dig in.

Jeremy Perkins  2:43  

Today we're here with Teddy Verras. Teddy goes by the TikTok handle heavy_haul_n_fool. How are you Teddy?

Teddy Verras  2:51  

I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing pretty good.

Jeremy Perkins  2:53  

Awesome. Awesome. So you're a heavy hauling trucker? Correct? What's different with you than any other trucker out there? What do you do on a daily basis?

Teddy Verras  3:04  

Well, we have a lot more axles and a lot more weight. Everything we do is typically permitted or escorted and stuff like that. It's pretty much specialized transport. Just haul a lot of different equipment and stuff for the mines. And you know, the majority of it's all oversized stuff overweight, oversize, overheight.

Jeremy Perkins  3:23  

How'd you get into this?

Teddy Verras  3:24  

So everyone thinks that you got to be like born into it, or like you got to be 40 years old, you know, in in the Union for 10,000 years before you can do it. But where I live in Elko, Nevada, you know, there's a huge shortage of CDL drivers. And when I got on with this company, I wasn't even with them for a year and a half. Before they just threw me into a heavy truck and told me to figure it out.

Jeremy Perkins  3:49  

No way really? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, I actually got a buddy going through the CDL training. It's crazy now because as a mechanic, I should have got my CDL. But I didn't I ended up just, you know, I could move them around the parking lot getting in and out and repair them. But when I was looking at like a Class B, at the time, it was super easy. You just knew your stuff. You go down there, you take the road tests are done. Now they got like self certification they have... Now you have to take class time, right? I think it's like 20 grand

Teddy Verras  4:21  

It's the entry level driver training requirement now. So you actually have to go to an accredited school. Right, right, and get a certificate or you're not even allowed to get your CDL used to be able just use your buddy's truck and go take the test

Jeremy Perkins  4:36  

How do you feel about that?

Teddy Verras  4:38  

You know, they don't allow kids over 21 or under 21 to cross state lines. They have a pilot program right now where they're allowing they're choosing 3000 people to do this pilot program where they're gonna let 18 year olds cross state lines but they have to have a driver that's like 25 years older with them. But then they turn around and do something like this where they require you to go to a school, it makes absolutely no sense. Like they're trying to make it easier to get more drivers, but then they turn around and make it harder.

Jeremy Perkins  5:09  

Trucking has always been over regulated. 

Teddy Verras  5:11  

It's crazy. I mean, we're more regulated than a parolee. And I say that I don't say that with any disrespect to anybody. But I mean, we have to pass drug tests, we can't drink all the time, we can't do this, we can't do that. We have to follow so many rules. And one wrong mistake, you know, you could end up in prison.

Jeremy Perkins  5:33  

A lot of people don't realize this, that, for better or for worse, we're not going to sit here and debate it. But a lot of people don't know this key fact. And the key fact is that when you get a CDL, your blood alcohol content to drive now goes from 0.08 to 0.04. Is that correct? So it doesn't matter if you're driving your dad's car or not, you have to worry about whether or not that one beer you had at dinner will put you over the limit.

Teddy Verras  6:01  

Right? You know, and even if you get a ticket in a construction zone, a lot of times it's Double Fine for CDL drivers. Geez, just because you got the CDL you're held to a higher standard.

Jeremy Perkins  6:14  

Well, it's, I mean, I get it in theory, you know, you're a professional driver, and, you know, whatever. But ya know, it just it holds you to a whole nother set of standards. How'd you get your CDL.

Teddy Verras  6:26  

So very, it's actually quite an interesting story. So back in 2008, I get kicked out of my house, you know, typical after high school stuff not doing much. Yeah. And my mom lived up here in Elko. And I figured I'd come up here and skate by for a little bit, you know, and go back home. But I ended up staying up here. And the story goes, I got a job at Ace Hardware. A family friend that lives up here suggested I apply for a summer aid position for Nevada Department of Transportation. So I did that. And I found out they're gonna hire like two or three of the summer aides that year for full time jobs. And I looked over the requirements. And I asked, well, what is a CDL. And the family friend querque told me what it was. So I decided to go down on my own. And I went down and got my CDL physical. And I went and took the written test and got my class A permit. So when I went in for the interview, I already had my permit in hand. Oh, so they give you six months to practice. And then they do the testing for the CDL. Yeah, I got my CDL and like 28 days after getting hired.

Jeremy Perkins  7:39  

It's man. I think he just said it. But that was your class A, correct?

Teddy Verras  7:43  

Yes. Class A and

Jeremy Perkins  7:45  

endorsement? 

Air breaks. I did none of the endorsements.

Nice. Yeah, like I said, I was looking at getting an A and there's just too much involved, a B would have done me fine for what I was doing. But then again, I didn't even really need that they, they just show up well,

Teddy Verras  7:59  

and that's what sucks about that new entry level driver training stuff is now you know, like, if I was in that same position, now I would have to pay two to $5,000 out of my own pocket go to a school to get my CDL before I could actually get hired on.

Jeremy Perkins  8:17  

Yeah, but that's like being a doctor. All the costs are up front. Right, then you're gonna be rolling in the dough afterwards. I mean, I'm

Teddy Verras  8:24  

Put it in perspective when I when I got hired on with them full time back in 2008. It was only get like $14.75 an hour 

Jeremy Perkins  8:31  

and that you get paid per mile, right? 

Teddy Verras  8:34  

No, no, no. For Nevada Department of Transportation. It was your government job. Okay. Yeah. So that was like snowplows and road maintenance and, you know, dump trucks and stuff like that. Yeah, I've always been the kind of local or, you know, paid hourly. And like where I'm at now they pay overtime after 40. And we get hourly wages, we get per diem.

Jeremy Perkins  8:55  

Oh, that's nice. Yeah, that's different than a lot of truckers out there, though.

Teddy Verras  8:58  

So there's a federal law that states that you don't have to pay overtime to truck drivers for whatever reason. So there's companies that even in Nevada that pay straight time, but they pay a higher wage to make up for it. Because out here, they have to compete with the gold mines and stuff like that, because I can quit my job right now and go work at the gold mines driving a haul truck making as much as I make now not having to worry about half the responsibility.

Jeremy Perkins  9:22  

That's actually a good point. You bring it up if anybody looks, there are a lot of jobs that are exempt. And I fell into that category twice. And one is agricultural workers. And the other one was, it was called garage men. And so I was at a gas station and I never fought the guy because I was like, what's going to happen is if I say you owe me time and a half anything over 40 He was just gonna drop my hours to 40 so I might as well make the time that I was getting overtime, you know, just getting it straight time. But yeah, it's interesting like gas stations are exempt farms are exempt. I didn't know that truck drivers are exempt. That's Interesting.

Teddy Verras  10:01  

Yeah, but out here they have to compete. So you know, if a company is not willing to pay, you know, nobody's going to work for the majority of people either to get paid by the mile, or they get a percentage of the load. When people ask me like about how I do it out here, how it goes out here, they can't believe it. I'm like, yeah, it's just normal for us.

Jeremy Perkins  10:19  

It's probably easy now. But it had to have been a daunting task. How did you work up to some of these larger trailers? I mean, I haven't even seen a trailer. So like, the stuff that you're working with. 

Teddy Verras  10:31  

I'm one of these people that like my whole life, like, I get really lucky and just fall into the really good situations. Yeah. And my whole life, school like everything, I just get incredibly lucky. Like when I got hired on, they had one truck available. It was truck 15. It was a Canadian class. 99 feet. It was a four axle truck. It had the drop axle. It wasn't a heavy truck. Yeah, it was just designed to do like 130,000 pound loads, like, you know, and I got that truck. So I started getting my feet wet by hauling like excavators and stuff like that I would get sent on these jobs because I had the only other four axle truck. So they would send me to like Colorado or Wyoming or Montana with an excavator. That's how I got into like the medium duty stuff. Yep. And from there, I got put into a heavy truck, another four axle truck with a big trailer and they sent me down to Arizona did pick up a big drill rig. And they were pretty much like please figure it out and don't break nothing or get hurt. It took me forever to get this job done. But I got it done. Took me like six hours to load because I couldn't figure out how to use the trailer. I spent like three hours trying to figure out how to chain this rig down. And then I realized I was almost 16 feet tall. And I was like how am I supposed to get home and they're like, Oh, you get a permit. I'm like, what is that? And they're like, Oh, you have to follow this permit? Oh, yeah, dude, I drove like 45 miles an hour from Kingman, Arizona, all the way back here to Nevada dude. Like white knuckle and then I get into Vegas, I take the wrong exit. I'm on Sahara. With an oversized trailer, I have no clue what to do. I'm about to have a panic attack. So I just roll the windows up and I stop and I had to let all the air out of the trailer dropped the bags I squeezed underneath an underpass and back onto the freeway. I don't even know how. Wow, that's crazy. That was my first experience with like a true heavy haul load.

Jeremy Perkins  12:39  

Wow, that's wild. So they already did the pre trip, like pre route set for you. And you just didn't know it.

Teddy Verras  12:45  

Or I wasn't really like too familiar with like, permits and stuff. Yeah. Like at that time, you know, because I was like, Well, how am I supposed to get back? And they'd give me a permit. I'm like, Well, how do I know where to go? It's like it says on there. I'm like, I'm not very good at reading maps. You know, because like when I do the lighter stuff, all that stuff was taken care of. None of it was really tall. So you just set your GPS and go.

Jeremy Perkins  13:07  

Yeah, yeah. Sounds like it's a little easier, I guess. But that,

Teddy Verras  13:11  

you know, to this day, like routing is still my Achilles heel. When I go to another state that I don't normally go to I don't know, their roads, you know, you get your permit, and they call the roads, whatever name on the permit, then you look on the Atlas and they're called something else than Google Maps called something different.

Jeremy Perkins  13:27  

Yeah, state roads are usually that way. It's funny. The one out in front of my house is pocket trail. But yeah, it's like Maine 113.

Teddy Verras  13:35  

Every like state does it differently, like the way they say it and the way they articulate the information to the driver. Different in every single state.

Jeremy Perkins  13:45  

So what's your wildest load? What's the craziest operation that you've been involved in?

Teddy Verras  13:51  

We have a lot of like hauled trucks and stuff like that, where they have highway patrol, and they shut the road down for us and they get to make everybody pull over and let us go down the road. That's pretty cool. I'm actually doing one of those tomorrow.

Jeremy Perkins  14:03  

I've seen these like turbine blades. I mean, I just I see so much like cool stuff. Now what that people are doing with trucking. I mean, what was it? I think it was you that posted about the radiation cores that sometimes they bring up from? I guess there's Yeah, I

Teddy Verras  14:18  

was I was on my way down to Vegas in my pickup and I seen that load. It was like 3.5 million pounds or something like that.

Jeremy Perkins  14:24  

So my uncle actually worked out of, I forget what it's called, but it's buried in a mountain, right? That's where they put all the radiation cores. The spent rods. Oh,

Teddy Verras  14:34  

yeah. Yucca Mountain or roto. Oh, yeah.

Jeremy Perkins  14:37  

Yeah. My uncle used to run security up there. And yeah, they bring all the spin cores over there and buried in the mountain.

Teddy Verras  14:46  

Yeah, I always see those guys at the truck stop. They got like these little like, trailers with those canisters with like a roll cage over them. Right, right. And like they parked next to me. I'll straight up just leave. Like I know it's safe. But I'm like, No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not trying to grow a third arm here. That D haulers man like every time a B hauler. I mean, I get it, they're just trying to do their job but like, I hate getting out of my truck and get swarmed by bees. We were

Jeremy Perkins  15:15  

just talking. So I don't know Two episodes ago. Santos he wants to get into that. So he's, he actually does all these beehives and it's all crazy and stuff. But yeah, the bee pollination is like where it's at driving around with a tractor trailer full of bees pollinating the United States.

Teddy Verras  15:32  

Well, they actually are time constricted because I think those bees like they get so they get anxiety or something from being in the boxes and their wings move and create heat or something I can't remember. No, that sounds about right. And and they have to keep moving because they can overheat or something like that. And, you know, I've heard from people that they've had to have a fire department come out and miss the boxes because it helps cool them keep them cool. Oh, really? That's all sorts of weird. They're exempt just like cow haulers.

Jeremy Perkins  16:02  

Wait, cow haulers are exempt.

Teddy Verras  16:05  

They are running paper logs. Yes.

Jeremy Perkins  16:08  

So they can pretty much make up anything. When they leave

Teddy Verras  16:11  

or cows. They don't stop. If they got 1200 miles. They drive that 1200 miles.

Jeremy Perkins  16:15  

Now they're crazy. I've heard about them being crazy, but I didn't know that that was the reason.

Teddy Verras  16:20  

Yeah, it's time constrict. I mean, the government right now doesn't really know what to do when it was paper logs. They could just make it happen and make it appear legal. It was just kind of accepted, you know, like, because here's the thing, if if a cow hauler goes into a skill house, the guy holds them up and one of those cows dies while not being held up by the cops. Yeah, the Highway Patrol is responsible for that.

Jeremy Perkins  16:42  

Yeah, so that's the same with us. We trailer livestock as well, if you want to farm up here, and we're allowed to pass weigh stations as well with horses and whatnot. And actually, it's kind of interesting. I don't even think we're allowed to be pulled over per se.

Teddy Verras  16:55  

No, they get pulled over Brian Lee, who used to be the cattle cartel guy, but now he's getting out of the cattle game. And he's an interesting character. He did a video of get blown Scale House and yet another video of him pulled over to freaking chase them down. You still have to go through but I think they just let you through.

Jeremy Perkins  17:13  

Yeah, okay. Well, that's interesting to know, as I'm falling by him.

Unknown Speaker  17:18  

Right.

Jeremy Perkins  17:20  

I actually didn't know that. So yeah, that is interesting. Because now they're going to electric electronic logs. They can't make them. Why Why don't they just run to people instead of one?

Teddy Verras  17:31  

If you could find a cow hauler that's willing to run teams? Yeah. I don't think you'd ever find one. All right, they're different. They're old school cow, they are not going to run team. But I've always wondered the same thing. Like if the law ever came down to it, that would be the only logical solution.

Jeremy Perkins  17:51  

Right? Right. One sleeper one's driving. You would think that makes sense. Well, whatever it is what it is, like

Teddy Verras  17:59  

heavy haul. You're not allowed to Team Drive heavy haul. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, we've done it before, but you're not allowed to do it.

Jeremy Perkins  18:06  

Do you usually run with somebody anyway, to help you load whatever you got? Do you have to load most? Whatever you're hauling? Or

Teddy Verras  18:13  

majority of the time? Yeah, I do load most of that stuff. You know, like the triple sevens will go out there. I'll bring one of the yard guys with me and have him drive it so I can back them on the trailer and then I'll have him help. He'll help me. Chain it down and everything. Yeah, but like excavators and rollers and like, back hoes and you name it, I can drive it.

Jeremy Perkins  18:33  

That's cool. That's a fun part of the job. Yeah, well,

Teddy Verras  18:37  

one of my favorites was when one of our customers had a Hitachi 600 excavator thing weighed like 200. Like almost 200,000 pounds. It was freaking crazy. On how much they're expensive. The thing that's huge.

Jeremy Perkins  18:51  

Do you own your own truck? Are you

Teddy Verras  18:53  

I don't want I'm actually a company man. I'm looking at buying a truck in the future. But we'll see. So what's

Jeremy Perkins  19:01  

the gig there? I don't want to blow your cover. But if you're willing to share like what what's your dream?

Teddy Verras  19:07  

It's always like the next logical step. You know, some people become a company driver and they're okay with it. But you know, I could make more money hauling groceries owning my own truck than I do now as a company driver heavy hauling. Yeah, it's just whether you want to assume the responsibility for the truck and I got enough connections out here. You know, there's so much work out here. If I got a truck, I wouldn't be put to work. Yeah, there's just no option to not work, you know?

Jeremy Perkins  19:35  

No, it makes sense. And that's kind of the thing usually it's timing it's experience it's you know, your network of people and and then the jump is that much easier. But would you run a fleet would you run your own?

Teddy Verras  19:47  

I would just run my own truck. I was thinking of buying a four axle truck and doing power only we're like, I don't even own a trailer. I go, say I work from my old company pulling their trailers or, you know, Scott It's heavy haul in Las Vegas, I go pull one of his trailers or you know, things like that.

Jeremy Perkins  20:05  

Yeah, I mean, it is funny because when we were, I guess down in the port in New Jersey in New York, they were saying that they just didn't have tractors and drivers, they had the loads, they just didn't have people to follow up. But

Teddy Verras  20:19  

you know, so people are leaving the big mega carriers right now. Because they're tired of being a number and they're tired of being treated like crap, and they're tired of getting paid peanuts to do a job that they should be getting paid good at, ya know? And these people what they do they get their CDL to those big companies. And as soon as their time's up, they quit and go somewhere else.

Jeremy Perkins  20:41  

Yeah, I mean, it makes make sense. I mean, unfortunately, it kind of sucks for the Mega company that puts the money behind it, but, you know, pay the wages and treat the people better, I guess. Yeah. I mean,

Teddy Verras  20:56  

you should be making $60,000 a year minimum, you know, if you're driving truck, but there's just no way around it.

Jeremy Perkins  21:04  

Well, I mean, liability wise, I mean, what's crazy now, and this is what's always kind of scared me about this whole thing. And anytime I talk to any new truck driver, it's, you assume a lot of responsibility. I mean, we just had that accident where the guy essentially panicked, and he ended up, you know, unfortunately, killing a couple of people. And then was that in Colorado? Yeah. And he pretty much got like, consecutive life sentences. And granted, you know, some people stepped up and changed it. But I guess if they didn't, this guy's on the hook. Now, I'm not saying that there wasn't negligence on his behalf. Not going to speak to that. But you know, there's more to the story. You know, dispatchers are

Teddy Verras  21:48  

are pushing here. Here's, here's the reality of the situation. You were a mechanic. So you know, dang. Well, perfect. No, no, you know, the bosses will say, don't leave the yard if the trucks not right. But at the same time, if if I report something on the truck that puts it down, I don't work. Yeah, I don't work. So someone like me, that's like, okay, you know, I'd be okay not to work a day, whatever. But you get someone that just got hired on struggling to pay bills or whatever, you know, and they're like, Man, I got a choice between telling them that this breaks out of adjustment, or does breaks not working? Or just running it like this? So I can get my paycheck? Know, what are they going to do? seen it?

Jeremy Perkins  22:28  

I've seen a lot bosses

Teddy Verras  22:29  

or, you know, you sit there and write stuff up for months and months and months. And you know, and he tell him about it. The second you don't want to drive the truck, it's a big ordeal. It just, it's the way it is like, it's just what people don't talk about in the industry.

Jeremy Perkins  22:44  

It's crazy to I can pretty much take any truck out of service.

Teddy Verras  22:48  

There's any one one truck on the road right now that doesn't have some sort of defect

Jeremy Perkins  22:53  

100%. And it could even just come down to a bolt being out. You know what I mean? It's it's, but ya know, and I think it's crazy that you guys assume a lot of responsibility and then to be getting paid. You know? I don't even know what the equivalent is. But you guys weren't getting paid a lot when it comes to mileage. And then you guys don't even want to do the job because there's just too much responsibility. And then, you know, you're away from home. While it's, it's, it's crazy. So yeah, I think it needs to turn around, I think that they need to start paying. But

Teddy Verras  23:24  

yeah, you know, they make money, there's money in it, like there is enough money to pay the drivers good. But you know, these companies get greedy. And the other problem too is like, you know, you go get a load and you take it and you can't deliver it till this time, then you go there and you sit there for three hours you wait to unload, you don't get paid, like the freight haulers hold groceries and stuff like that. They don't get paid for all that time. No, and we're getting sick of and you're Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  23:50  

you're exactly you're at the mercy somebody else, they have no problem picking up another load and going somewhere else. But if you know somebody else whose hourly or salary just dropped the ball and they'd give them a load, now they got to sit there and pay for it.

Teddy Verras  24:02  

I think the future is going to change trucking quite a bit because, you know, as time goes on, there's going to be less and less people willing to go over the road and they're going to you know, as the self driving trucks come into play, my theory is they're gonna have these self driving trucks doing the long haul. And then they're gonna have all these local guys out there taking it to different cities off the main roads. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  24:25  

I was in a class not too long ago when they were talking about electric trucks and that they're going to be the way of the future and I think it's all great on paper but you know, the other side of things is like there's places in Mexico and areas in Canada that don't even have power so I don't even know

Teddy Verras  24:41  

so so I got something to say about the blow your mind on that whole thing on what you just got ready to go. Alright, so I'm on the board of directors with Edison motors. We're developing a diesel electric semi. Okay. And we have a prototype we are dropping a cat 3406 3408 Gents it into a 1960s Kenworth. We're adding batteries and ultra capacitors and we're putting some Tesla Motors on it. And this generator is going to power the electric motors just like a diesel electric motor train. That sounds amazing. Because here's the thing, it's more efficient. you've eliminated all the driveline bullshit, and you have less stuff to worry about. And not just that, but you can use this truck to power an entire city block if you have to. Yeah. Yeah, we're developing it for like logging and oil filled right now, but eventually build it. We're actually developing a design and to actually build a truck from the ground up

Jeremy Perkins  25:46  

and set the guy up again at a chase Barber. Yeah, yeah. I enjoy watching his stuff. He is

Teddy Verras  25:53  

I'm I'm yeah, I'm the third or fourth person brought on board with a whole project.

Jeremy Perkins  25:58  

Oh, geez. Yeah. And actually, I forwarded his his thing to some people in my class, and they were dying, laughing. He kind of was talking about how it's essentially the way Tesla's working and stuff it's not. It's just not gonna work. But he's pretty smart up there.

Teddy Verras  26:13  

He is, he is. And we got a lot. He's smart, because he's not like trying to keep everything top secret. He's bringing everybody on board that has something to contribute, because he wants this idea to work.

Jeremy Perkins  26:24  

Yeah, no, I mean, it makes sense. And me being behind the curtain. I'm all for, you know, technology. And I'm all for, you know, bringing emissions down or whatever you want to do it. But let's not kid a kid or you got so

Teddy Verras  26:37  

you have another company called High Lawn. They're developing this overly complicated truck, like it's gonna have automation, it's gonna run on CNG have electric drives. And it's just overly complicated, but what we're doing is taking the technology that we have available right now, and using it to the best of our situation, and making it reliable, it's definitely going to be interesting. I mean, we're just hoping it works as well as it does on paper as in real life.

Jeremy Perkins  27:07  

As with anything, as with anything. We just, we just lost two employees at our farm and I'm bringing my parents on so it sounds good on paper, but

Teddy Verras  27:21  

you know, there's a lot of naysayers on you know, we do videos and stuff like that. And people get comments like oh, why would you just get a lead they legitimately don't understand the issues like when you're out in the bush and Canada you can't just plug in? No. And the idea that the the whole idea was you use the battery power to help get you up to Hill diesel electric to provide extra power it gets you up the hill, then you recapture 80% of energy going back down the hill.

Jeremy Perkins  27:49  

Is that like essentially the same as like a Prius? You'd have like a regenerative axle? Yeah, basically. Yeah. I mean, that that totally makes sense.

Teddy Verras  28:01  

But it's gonna be interesting. They we how I got on board with that was actually did a podcast with Chase Barber. He's got the blue collar interviews. And right before we're about to get off and start talking about electric Tesla's and ended up doing a whole nother hour on the show. And that's how I got involved with that.

Jeremy Perkins  28:21  

It's funny, because I've actually done a few podcasts recently, and some of the best stuff has been off off the podcast. It's good stuff. This is great, but you still haven't told me what's what's the craziest load you've hauled?

Teddy Verras  28:34  

So I hauled a what was a cat 992 One of the big ones where they have to take like the cab off and all that stuff in order to ship it. Oh, no, I Yeah. It was going down to Mojave. And I had pilot cars and everything. And I took a wa 900 Komatsu before that that's Komatsu is giant oil loader and that thing was like 86 tons. And it was heavy, I had no problem I did it, I got to this one town and I was able to actually go around the building and pull into the fuel pumps and pull straight through with the load, you know, and two weeks later, we're doing it again with a cat and had these pilot cars and I asked him to go double check the fuel pumps, make sure there's no like suction or something that would block me from making the turn behind the building. And I was like, go double check the fuel pumps. So what ends up happening is this guy goes and measures from the fuel pump to the fuel pump, not the concrete barrier does a concrete barrier and tells me to come around there's like 16 feet. No problem Bay one. I was like, Well, I came into Bay tunics last time. Are you sure? And he's like well, I measured it. I measured it. And me just not thinking go to Poland to be on I get fuel. And then I look back and realize I'm not gonna fit. So I have to get out now. Like I can't just back up. I wouldn't Dynax or like a double tower. Oh, you He's to get into this fuel pump. You have to make like a 90 degree turn so the trailer was still kind of turned like I tried to back I there was a hill behind me in the trailer kept going into the hill. Yeah. Oh my god crap how am I gonna get out of this? So we unpin the arm on the trailer so that the guy can steer it. Yeah. And I couldn't see him and he fears it the wrong way and I ended up buckling the frickin tower. Now, yes. And I'm like in a flow I'm about to go full blown panic mode right now like I'm like, like, just straight up about to panic like I'm about to quit. I'm like, they're gonna have to bring cranes and put the cap back on transferred to another trailer. Oh, my Oh, my get fired like that. Yeah. So long story short, I find a way. I got every single chain I had and I chained the tower and the mechanism all together to the frame of the trailer. I get it pulled out of there. And now the problem is the trailers cocked to one side because the towers been. Yeah. So I had to chain this thing down in the middle of the night. By the time we got it chained down. I still don't even have permits. In the middle of the night, we're going we had about 150 160 miles to go. And this trailer is tracking across two lanes. Like I am on the fog line. And this trailer is out there into oncoming traffic. And dude, I got to the freakin mind down there. And they're like, can you bring a trailer up to the top and I'm like, No, we're gonna load right here. And I'm getting the fuck out of here. Like how I didn't get pulled over how we didn't get busted. How like your trailer didn't just fall apart and everything just go to shit. I somehow pulled that out of my rear end and like, got it done. Then I had to undo all those chains, undo all the linkages and I had to manually like straighten everything and change it. And it was like pulling 120 foot long lowboy. And I got that trailer as it was back to town here in Ohio from California. And I had to again do it in the middle of the night, so no one can see. And they were able to cut the tower off reweld the new one. And luckily it only cost like 2500 bucks damages and, and they say when you mess up, you just got a mess up in the right kind of way. That is honestly the craziest thing that's ever happened to me.

Jeremy Perkins  32:41  

That's why not only is it crazy, it's not even like an accident or what it was like there was success at the end of it, which is even crazier, because

Teddy Verras  32:49  

it went from about to cost the company like 80 grand and damages with like having to reload and cranes and labor time to like only 2500 bucks.

Jeremy Perkins  32:59  

Yeah, we have a highway up here on in Boston. It's called storrow drive. And it has like really low bridges. And every year somebody just truck. So we're friends with the one of the Boston tow companies, they got a couple of big rotators. And so when they get called to that it's an insurance job. And everybody from the shop goes out there and it's just they make a killing on these jobs. So I couldn't imagine getting some people out to fix your issue.

Teddy Verras  33:33  

So we would have had to have there would have been two or three Caterpillar spill techs out there that we would have had to got the load with the cab and all those parts diverted back to me. It would have been it would have been 80 grand easy dude by the time now the other driver and other trailer never had to put the cap back on. unload it, reload it, take the cab back off, get new permits more pilot cars.

Jeremy Perkins  34:00  

Before we get off. I usually like to take this time like when you're not driving. What do you like to do in your downtime?

Teddy Verras  34:08  

Oh boy, hope you got another hour. No. I have quads, I go riding I hang up my garage and build crap and tinker with stuff and fix stuff that doesn't need to be fixed and cause problems just to fix them. You know just what I enjoy doing.

Jeremy Perkins  34:26  

That's just quality. I mean, we've we've done some before guys, like all I do is work and all I like to do is work so it's good to hear somebody enjoying their off time.

Teddy Verras  34:36  

I mean, I fly drones I do RC cards, you know I'm I got so many things going on and modifying my vehicles like Hell yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  34:46  

hell yeah, I know you run a big tick tock channel. But if anybody wants to know more about heavy trucking or wants to kind of see what your day in the life is for you. Where can they find you and what do you involve? meant

Teddy Verras  35:01  

pretty much to TikTok I do have the Instagram which is the same name as my tic tock have a youtube I don't post much. It's also the same name. But pretty much all my social medias and then I have Facebook too. I got like a lot of people add me to Facebook, and I can't even get through all the requests.

Jeremy Perkins  35:25  

And that's heavy underscore haulin underscore n underscore full Correct? Yes. There you go. Well, thanks for being on Teddy. This was fun. I like when I could relate to our guests and right where they're coming from. So thanks again.

Teddy Verras  35:43  

Alright, sounds good. Thanks for having me.