MAY 26, 2026 #017 M.SIMPSON/M.TOUCHSTONE (THE LONG HAUL)

REPLY/COMMENT 

 In this episode of Talkin’ Grit, we sit down with M.Touchstone to talk about his journey at Wright Brothers. From starting with the company at just 17 years old to the role he holds today. Mark shares stories from the early days, lessons learned along the way, and the experience that’s helped shape both his career and the company. We also dive into what it really takes to keep trucking operations running smoothly behind the scenes. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the job site to the office, from lessons learned to stories worth telling, this is Talking Grit. Brought to you by Wright Brothers. Here's your host, Jared Walger.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

All right, brand new episode here for Talking Grit, and uh we got a good conversation coming up. We got Mark Touchstone on the podcast. Mitchell, set this up and uh let's get into uh this conversation that we're having today.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yeah, thanks, Jared. So we got Mark on the podcast today. So, you know, when I showed up here 20 some odd years ago, Mark was one of the guys that was helping make this place run every day, made it go. And Mark, God bless him, he kind of took me underneath his wing and he put up with me and all my stupid ideas and kicked me around and got me to where I'm at. And you know, Mark, I appreciate everything you've done to put up with me. But you've had a major impact here on the company, right? You've been here for a minute. Been here for a minute. When did you start with the company? What year was it? May uh 1980. 1980.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

How old were you then, Mark? 17. It was a summer before my between my junior and senior year in high school.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

So now you you grew up in Mississippi, right? Correct. And Rights was down there in Mississippi, if I remember right. So how how did you get connected with them?

SPEAKER_02 1:25

They actually were building a road right in front of the truck stop that I was working in when they came down there that I was working in during high school. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

So how'd you get connected with them?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

You just he wanted a job.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

That and James Wright came up and hung out at the truck stop. It was more like a truck stop general store and feed sacks all along the outside by the door and a tire change machine. And every weekend James was he stayed down there and he would come there and set on those sacks of feed and talk to everybody coming out of the store, and we just all got friends down there, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah, explained it. James would hold court and see everybody. Oh, yeah. Yeah, James is everybody's buddy. Yeah. So you came to work for rights then. You started during the summer, and I remember one of the first stories you told me. You never really a big fan of school, so when the job finished up down there, the scrapers had to be moved, right? Where'd the scrapers get moved to?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yeah, part of them came up to Staley and Loudoun. And then we took the rest of them and on down south Mississippi to Natchez.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

To Natchez. So you you helped move the scrapers up here to Loudoun, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yeah, that was October of October of '81 because I missed all my six weeks' test escorting the scrapers up here.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

So of your senior year.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Who cares about school, right, Mark? So you got done with high school then, and when you got done with high school, did you go on down to Natchez then and work or what you did?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

I did Natchez a little while, and then I went up Russville, Kentucky to the Anaconda aluminum plant where Steve was at. Now that was a big job back in. That was seven days a week, poor daylight, electric dark, rain or shine.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

So when you started out, you were a laborer, right? And then you moved into the boiler position pretty quick, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yeah, I started out the laborer helping pipe crew and grade checker, but I got to notice that on rainy days the maintenance crew worked, and we had an old mechanic down there named Roy Vaughn. Good guy, super sharp fella. But Roy evidently didn't like his wife, so he wanted to work 16, 18 hours a week. So I figured out how to get on Roy's crew to make more money. Very good. So that's where my I kind of eased into the maintenance side over there is because the hours, not what it was. You know, I was looking to the time he worked and what we were working over there on the grade checking side was a lot of difference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

So when you went to the anaconda aluminum plant, you were an oiler by that point in time?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

No, I actually went up there as a helper, and then early on, I don't know how long a month or two, I moved over in the oiling position.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Okay. Okay. So anaconda aluminum, that was one of the bigger jobs that uh Wrights had early on. Do you remember the magnitude of that job? It was pretty significant.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

It was. I don't remember a lot of specifics about you know yardage or anything. It was a fairly complicated job for us. You know, the people that'd been out building roads through the woods all those years, and you're actually working around building and another thousand, fifteen hundred people and drilling and blasting inside the building and lots of different things. Inside the building. Jim and Yubi blasted ditches inside the building after it was built.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

That's amazing. So let's talk about the cast of characters on that job. And it's always interesting to me, you know, these big jobs. You've got this relationship with people. It's just different on a big job, it seems like. And on this job, you know, so this is where you first started working with Steve, right? Barry Wynn showed up, right? Correct. Jimmy Newby.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Jimmy Newbie and Jimmy's son, Robbie. Robbie. Fireball was Jimmy's powder man.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

And a guy named Bill Day came with Jimmy Newbie. He was a really interesting character. Bill was like the truck foreman up there, but fella learned a lot about work and personal life around Bill. I can only imagine. He's day and night education.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I can only imagine. So after Anaconda Aluminum, where did you go from there? Well. You haven't go back in time to think about this.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

We came down here to the shop around November of 82.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

So at that point in time, the shop had been established here in Charleston. It had.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Then the spring of 83, Robert sent Steve, Barry, and myself to Cordill, Georgia. I think it's the first time we'd all been off by ourselves without an adult in the group. We get down there and look the job over and the whole job's underwater. From the winter rains, Steve calls Robert, and Robert said, Y'all are on the y'all only know where the job is. I walked through it in October of the whole project. After church that Sunday, Steve Robert got on the airplane and flew down there. He looked at it about 10 minutes, said, Y'all come back home. We'll come back later. I think after Easter or something, we went back down there after the sap rose in the trees and it drew the water levels down. And then we went back down there. After we had a couple machines stuck and stayed stuck for two or three months while we were gone. It was a real educational experience in the swamp.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

So on that job, that's where you got to meet my granddad, right? So granddad was with Simpson Construction Company. He was a subcontractor to Wright Brothers building box culverts at that point in time, right? Correct. And you know, you helped take care of granddad down there, you helped take care of his equipment and all that. So that was first experience with my family, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

It was, yeah. So he was a good guy. He'd stop in and visit every time he came, and he always wanted to take me to dinner when he was down there. So it had some good conversations back then.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

So a funny story, I remember you telling me, you know, granddad went down there and he uh he let go as foreman on the job, right? Well, remember what he you remember what he said and how he let him go. You told me about that one of the first times I met you.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

He told the gentleman, I can't remember his name, I know he was from Woodville, Alabama. He was complaining to Joe about something, and Joe told him, said, son, when the load gets too heavy, just set it down. And that was your granddad's words to that gentleman.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

That's how that's how I let him go. So God bless granddad. So y'all were down there in South Georgia, and then you you moved on to the next deal.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah, overnight. Robert used to give us these like 12-hour moving time frames. So when he called and said move, we left there one evening and loaded all Steve's stuff in the U-Halls and everything, and we could get all mined by seat of a pickup, but uh in a front seat really and moved to the airport in Huntsville, Alabama, and did the grading on the inner motor facility there.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Now you had multiple jobs down there at Huntsville, didn't you, at that airport?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

We did. We did one for for I guess the airport authority, and then one for Boeing. And then when 9-11 hit, Marlowe was down there doing a a project for the airport there, extending the West Runway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah. So I mean we had a long history there. And then then after you finished that up, is that when the corridor X work started then?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

No, it was after that. We left there and came to 27 in Chattanooga from Signal Mountain Boulevard up through Red Bank and almost 153.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

So this is when 27 stopped there at Signal Mountain Bull. Yeah, when it dead-ended there. Stopped at Signal Mountain Boulevard. It didn't go up to 153 yet. And y'all built that section there across the ridge, right? Yeah, we went to the around July of 84.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

July of 84. Somewhere right in there from Huntsville.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Now you had to cast characters on that job too, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Oh, yeah, it was a bunch of people there, but Robert was there leading the circus every day. You come in in the morning, he's there, and you go home at night and he's still there. So it was a very uh educatable job. I mean, he educated a lot of us there. So you were there, Barry was there, Wendell was there, Steve, Marlowe, Dink Jones, Dink was there, James Shelton, Brady Phelps, Jimmy Newbie, everybody was there at some point in time.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

But that was a massive job at that point in time. T Dot. It was a massive job for Wright Brothers. I mean, that was a big time deal. Job that reshaped that area, is what it sounds like. Yeah, I mean, if you look at it, I mean that's that's so many of these jobs that we've done. I mean, that really connected all of Hamilton County there. I mean, that's 27 today is a heck of a road.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, it just connected from Saudi to downtown, basically.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah. I mean, it connected it all. I mean, it gave a good run from Dayton all the way down, you know. Yeah. Because that kind of that part of the world back then, you know, to get to Dayton, you had to go across the ferry from here in Cleveland and then get to it from Chattanooga. You had to wind around through the woods to get or go through downtown Red Bank and feature headlights. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was it was kind of a hard place to get to. It really uh connected that part of the world.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

And that was mid eighties, eighties? 84, 85, 86, right in there. We worked down there.

unknown 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

So when did you get back to Alabama then?

SPEAKER_02 11:21

And that was another seven days a week, 14 hour a day job for about four or five, six months, and then it kind of slowed down a little bit, but and we were down there till October of eighty-six.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

So interesting fact about the horse track, the road down there, they named it after James, right? It's right way. Really? R. I. G.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

R. I G H T. Way. And it's still there today. Still there.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

You can drive by there today in it right way. Yeah, down there, down there in northern northern Birmingham. It's uh, what is it? First exit off 459, second exit coming south. Second exit. If you're going south, it'd be the second one. Yeah, second exit, you get off there and go back toward the horse track. I guess it's it's closed now. It was a dog track, horse track and dog track.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

What they're doing there now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

But maybe it's a simulcat stuff, but it's still still there. The road's still there. That's cool. So you got back to Alabama, you did that job in Birmingham. How'd you end up in Hamilton, Alabama? I know you ended up living in Hamilton. We left there.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

I left there in October of '86 and moved to Hamilton. We was on Corridor X, and we were up there for a few years and decided that was a good area to live and raise a family, and that's where we bought our first house.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

But we worked down in Meridian, Mississippi, and Birmingham and Dunloy, McManville while I live there.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

I just traveled. So Corridor X, you know, we you kind of planted there because of all the work that was going on there. For everybody that doesn't know, you know, the U.S. government identified, I don't know when, these Appalachian development corridors, right, Mark? And they've tried to pump money in to Appalachia to develop it. So Corridor K was one of them here in Tennessee. That was 127, right, Mark? Going back across the mountain from Chattanooga. And then there's, I forget what they named the corridor from 64 back toward Murphy, but corridor X was Birmingham to Memphis, right? Correct. Which is now I-22. Now I-22. And geez, you told me one day how many jobs were built through there that Wrights did. I mean, you went through it 100%. I think we did maybe six in Alabama and one in Mississippi, something like that. So how many millions of cubic yards do you think we moved in Alabama?

SPEAKER_02 13:55

I don't know. There was probably I'd say roughly 20 million on the Alabama parts there. Easily, right? Uh part, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Wow. So, you know, when I showed up here at Wright Brothers, you know, we had done all those minus one. There was one that was left. We did the last one tying into the interchange at I-22 and I-65. Mr. Mr. Dink Jones finished that one up, right, Mark? He did before the interchange got built. But if you look at that corridor, it's one of those places in America, if you're a road builder, you just kind of got to drive through because that work from Birmingham up to the state line, it's dang impressive, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, and you're going to a lot of different terrain, different GLD. You know, that one of the sections we did was the whole thing was through old coal mine spoils that had been stripped with 100-yard drag lines. Yeah, which one was that? The one at Graysville from 78, where it was south of 78, the old 78, down by the West Jefferson steam plant, Miller steam plant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Out that way.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Crazy big work. Crazy big work. I remember you and me riding through there one day when we had a job over in Hamilton building a bridge, looking at everything. And, you know, it's just like when you drive down that corridor, it's like a who's who of contractors of big earth movers in the southeast that had been there and done work. You know, there was a a very respected contractor, Elmo Greer, did a whole bunch of it. Greer did big work all over the southeast. You had Raycon, who was a huge player in Alabama for a long time. Elard did something. Elard out of Birmingham. They're not around anymore, but super respected contractor. W.S. Newell did a second thing. W.S. Newell, Newell Road Builders. Mm-hmm. It was, I mean, it's cool to go through there and see that. And then you got the call to move from Hamilton, Alabama to the big city of Charleston, Tennessee, right? Oh yeah. The big city. So when did you show up in Charleston?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

I showed up in I think maybe the spring of 96.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

And stayed around here about a year, but to decide I wanted to stay and then move my family up in May of 97, something like that. May of 97.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

So it's been like 29 years now. Been here a long time. So when you showed up here at that point in time, Robert was still running the show, right? Everything, every call, every move, every day, every call. So, you know, I showed up a little less than 10 years after you did, and when I'd showed up, Robert had more or less stepped back, right? He still had his say. Robert always had his say, right? And uh one of the big things that Robert had you doing was you were the you were the manager of the the truck and moving all the equipment around, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, Robert pretty much analyzed, I guess, the entire life of the company until I come up here and he kind of eased me over into it to start doing the daily dispatch and all the heavy halls tough and all. When did he allow you to start doing that? You know what year that was I don't remember. 98, 97, somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah. So, you know, I think that's a that's a hugely critical role. You know, I got the blessing of growing up in a construction company, and I, you know, I saw dad and granddad and I saw my uncle Claude and all of them did that. And the role in being the dispatcher in managing the trucks allowed you to really control what was happening in the truck in the company, right? You knew everything that was going on, and you were in control of moving all the resources. And that's really whether you like it or not, the truth of the matter is making sure everything gets there. That's kind of the lifeblood of the company. That's the lifeblood of the company, right? So for Robert to give that up, that was a big deal, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Well, and we'd grown so much too, I think, you know, it was a lot for him to worry with the entire company and mess with that on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yeah, yeah. So by the time I got here then, you know, you were chasing after the concrete work, you were chasing after the trucks, you were taking chasing after the shop stuff. I mean, you had your finger in everything. All the time. But I always remember when I got here, you know, you'd always load me up and we'd go on some adventure to look at some job. But we could never leave till about eight o'clock in the morning because we had to come in here, tell truck drivers, you go do this, you go get that, you move this here, the never-ending list. And you know. How long has it been that you've met with the truck drivers at seven o'clock in the morning, Mark? How many years has that been now? Uh it's been since 97. You go on every 30 years of that. Wow. Time on every morning. Yeah, so if you want to know where Mark is at seven o'clock in the morning, just show up back here and he'll be uh getting everybody and every in a list. So over time, you know, one of the things that Robert beat into everybody's head was the necessity of transportation and taking care of truck drivers. Okay. So in 1991, Robert had a safety meeting speech that was so epic he had it narrated and typed up and given to everybody. I've got I've got two excerpts here about trucking, and I think it's appropriate to talk about it here with you since you've been so instrumental in it. Supervisors. This is these are Robert's words, guys. Supervisors. When a low boy comes into your job, I want you to see that he has what aid and help he needs to get loaded and unloaded and back on the road again. So we need to be taking care of the trucks and getting the equipment on and off as fast as we can, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Exactly, because you know we're mandated by the government how many hours those guys can drive in a day or in a seven-day period. So, you know, losing two hours cleaning the tracks out on something and loading and unloading by yourself means that they're gonna get home that night or not, because these electronic logs will tell the tale just as soon as you go over. And, you know, a lot of nights they'll get in situations they gotta find somewhere to park a wide load and find a hotel, and you know, it's it's a lot of trouble when if the stuff could be ready when they got there and people would help them get in it and get back on the road.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Yeah, so it's a balancing act of time.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

It is. And their time is the only time I think we got here that's actually tied to a computer and the government looks at it and watches it and tells you when you can and can't.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

So, Mark, when I got here, I'm thinking, you know, the trucking ex expanded since I've been here, but I'm thinking that when I got here, didn't we just have two or three trucks? We'd probably run around three. Yeah. And how many do you have now?

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Well, we run five out of here now, and then there's one that stays in the Chattanooga area and one over in western North Carolina around Murphy to move that local stuff and then have a couple outside haulers that help us if we get to where we need help. We don't use just anybody, it'd be a vetted partner we'd deal with on moving our big stuff if we can't get to it.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yeah, so over time, from the time I've been here on, what I've noticed is really two things. We've got Gotten a whole lot more equipment. We're way more spread out. And you've been able, because of that, to expand our trucking business and make it pretty efficient moving everything. When I first showed up, the way I remembered it was you had a lot of outside haulers moving stuff, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Well, depending on what we was hauling. Back then, we were moving those 777s and 651s, and we pretty much did all those with self and the D Mags and the bigger excavators. You know, that's the last few years that haven't been a real issue.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Well, we're we're hoping we change that this summer, Mark. We're hoping we change that.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

So just get us plenty of notice because permits are hard to get. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Well, so let me read this last point from Robert here, and then we can talk about permits and other needs that you need to be able to make these jobs go. Last point here that Robert made on trucking was this there's only a limited amount of truck time. We have between daylight and dark. So we need them to have whatever assistance they need to get it done.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

And that was in 1991. I wish now we could run from daylight to dark and not run out of hours. Yeah, so it's been cut back even more since then.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

So let's talk about the hours for a second. So there's a log book you gotta keep. Back then the logbook was just manual, right? Yeah, and you had two or three of them if you wanted. Yeah, and now it's electronic. And there ain't no way, you know, if if the driver's really not driving when he's on a job unloading equipment, but that still counts, right, Mark? So I mean it really dials down what the truckers can and can't do. And you know, we're super blessed right now with the work we got. You know, Wendell's got landfills spread out across, what is it, four states, five states, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

You know, and the ones over in the South Carolina and the Detroit, North Carolina area, that's that's a two-day run for our low boys, you know. Yeah, that really each other. D6K or a D eight or D9, it's two days. Yep. Wow because of hours.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Wow. And then it appears, you know, knock on wood. We got a couple of jobs that we're going to do triple sevens on, and you know, when you move them triple sevens, Mark, how many loads is that? It's a little over two loads per truck.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

And that's when we get out with those, we'll get somebody to help us move the beds and we'll haul the truck part ourselves. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

And then you got big excavators also.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

So that's and they're not as bad as the D Mags was, you know. The D Mags was five and a half, six loads when you had to move those and big cranks that the D Mags were monsters.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

They're just monsters. So, you know, we're sitting here, we're about to go into the big construction season of 2026, got a lot of stuff going on. Blessed to have that, and you're gonna be moving around equipment here, there, and everywhere. You know, Mark, can you just speak to the criticality of you having noticed to be able to line all this up? I mean, you you gotta know it just can't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yeah, and then like the main thing too is like when you get in the triple sevens, you're over 16 wide. A lot of the states now you have require police escort. Okay. Well then all your southeastern states are shorter on troopers, you know, so they've try to get off-duty ones to come and do it, but they run out of people too, and it it just takes time to get all that lined up, and your permits, anything over sixteen foot, it's a little more aggravating to get.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

And sometimes we have to get route surveys and because of a because of load ratings on bridges and utilities and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

And access to the project. Now we when we were moved those trucks down in Georgia a couple summers ago, company we had them rented to was really good about getting us access. We went out and looked at it, talked to them, and when we got there, they were setting their weight on us, stopping traffic, making sure we had the help to get them and get in and get out. They and that's that's what it takes on these loads here, because you know, we could we got where we've turned to a day from here to Cartersville, Georgia, you know, 16 wide loads. That's pretty impressive because they were ready when we got there. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

And this is fascinating because uh the vast majority of the company probably doesn't understand just how complex all this is when you're talking about the permits and the timetable and when you're talking about route surveys, you know, there's so much, it's not just a phone call, hey, I need this, and then expecting it to show up. There's so much more that goes into it. And I think that this is just great stuff that everybody needs to recognize and know that hey, when it's when it's coming out of headquarters, like there is a process that goes into place just to get stuff from point A to point B.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Every state you go into has got different weight levels and configurations. See, to get 165,000 pounds in Tennessee takes a totally different axle set up in North Carolina, you know, it depends on where you're going. So you've got to figure out what you need for the most complicated state and then start from there and work it out from here, you know. So say if we was going to Greensboro, North Carolina, we would have to haul build our traders in North Carolina specs. In Tennessee, that puts us into an over length then from our annual. So we have to get additional permits in Tennessee because we've had to make the traitor alarm or go to North Carolina. I mean, it just nothing is the same in any state you go to.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

And speaking of Greensboro, you know, we had all that work there around Greensboro back in the day. Part of that time, you remember I-40 was closed and you had to go up into Virginia and around, it made it even harder.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Yeah, it was, and right now it's like that, we had to go through Virginia or, you know, we've been pulling all these loads up through the gorge, which is a little quicker. But even though it's not required if we got going through the gorge at 12 foot wide with a 95-foot-long rig, we take it on ourselves to get an escort to help our drivers, you know. Because there's what is there's two really bad turns through the gorge right there, isn't there? It is, and T Dot will let you, you're not required to have a permit through there with our Tennessee set up, but uh we go ahead and do one ourselves just to be on the safe side. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

So, you know, going into this construction season, guys, if you if you know and you see needs, you gotta let Mark know as soon as you can. You know, Mark and I and Ian had the opportunity, Wendell, to sit down and talk equipment what two or three weeks ago, right, Mark. We made another big order to Caterpillar because, you know, look, guys, we're in a deficit. You know, we're we're growing, we got stuff going on, we're blessed. But just thinking that you're gonna be able to call up here and get an excavator or a dozer that's just sitting on the shelf, don't be thinking that. It takes a minute to plan that, it takes a minute to move that. And I would just stress to everybody that, hey, communication is key. Communication's key. And when these drivers show up on these jobs, look, the words that Robert said back in 1991 still ring true today. Okay. We gotta, we gotta help these guys when they show up on the job. Supervisors, when a low boy comes into your job, I want you to see that he has the aid and help he needs to get loaded and unloaded and back on the road. Guys, we've got to keep the lifeblood of this company moving. And, you know, Mark, I appreciate everything you've done to make that happen. You know, we're gonna have a great year this year, and we just gotta make it happen. So before we wind this down, Mark, who's your drivers right now, just so everybody knows who they are that's moving this equipment in and out for us.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Well, we've got Dwayne Brown, who's been here. He's been around us probably the last 30 years. Him and his dad was in the trucking business, did a lot of hauling for us until they sold out and Dwayne came to work for us. Blessed to have Dwayne. Kelly Phoenix is one of the heavy haul drivers. And we have Randy from Colorado, the dump trucker we call him. Yeah. He's moved up into heavy haul here in the last year or so. Angel Collin.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

He came from the dump trucks and he's doing a really good job. He mainly pulls step decks, flatbed stuff. You know, we're working them in. We don't hire anybody and put them in an oversized rig right off the bat. Sometimes these guys will ride two or three months with another driver before they even get to pull a flatbed, you know, or do rollback runs and stuff. So and then uh we got Richard Bishop. Richard's been around five, six, seven years since your Uncle Cotton retired, and he pulls a smaller load and does a really good job with it. It's all in the family, right, Lark. Not your cotton, Ricky Barnes cotton. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. You had two cottons, Mitchell, yeah. There's one cotton and a bad cotton.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

Good cotton and a bad cotton. There's one story I want to hear because I'm I'm curious your side of it. One of the podcasts that we we did not too long ago, Brian Charlesworth talked about a truck that was stolen off the job site. And with the GPSs in all of that, when that foreman was pulled out of the truck by a homeless guy, yeah, whoever it was, and took off with that thing. What was your role in helping make sure that that truck was recovered? What what does that process look like?

SPEAKER_02 31:51

We we pretty much just go back to the GPS tracking on it, and David Baker does most of all that and seeing where it was. And what was goofy about that deal, the guy that stole it right in the middle of the job, left, went to Ringo, Georgia, goes into the Circle K down there, gets him something to drink, eat, and comes back, and all the strobe lights were still going on the truck from when it was sitting there when our guy was sitting in it, it comes back through the job. Well, but then East Ridge and Hamilton County, and everybody city chat though was looking for him, you know. Well, you see him coming a mile away with the strobe lights on. He probably could have parked the truck and got away.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Right. But you in that moment, like did you get notified and you're calling the the police or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 32:37

No, they uh whoever called me that night and I just put it on Baker and he got in touch with them. And but by that time, the time we get all this done, the guy's coming back to the job, you know. Yeah. Bryson them's on another job down there paving or down the road further, and he sees him coming and calls, you know. It's just that guy was a little bit too dumb to be a thief, I think.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

To be a good one anyway.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

That's great. That's great. Well, Mark, any closing thoughts on truck and force?

SPEAKER_02 33:08

Yeah, the the the bigger issue on trucks is the 250 pickup trucks we got out there.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

They are harder to manage and keep running than all the yellow stuff put together. So, you know, it's I remember times around here when we didn't have many trucks. We had trucks without air conditioners, we had trucks without spare tires, and and it was just a different world. And we try to do a little better with what we buy now, and and you know, we would hope that the people out there would take a little better care of the trucks than we've had in the past. But that's that's something that's hard to manage as those 250 pickup trucks out there beating and banging.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Yeah, and I just say about the pickup trucks to follow along with what you're saying, sir. You know, we are very, very blessed to have the trucks that we have. You know, at one point in time we didn't have as nice a fleet as we did do today, right, Mark? And you know, one of the cool things that I I I see is we got some pretty good trucks running the road. And guys, you gotta understand that is an advertisement for Wright Brothers construction company when they see that pickup truck.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Right. And we've went and we've stepped that up another level in the pickup truck classification. You know, we're ordering all three quarter tons pretty much now, and we're getting a little bigger, little nicer convenience package on them than we did in the past. You know, I could see, you know, if you get a hammy-down custom deluxe, it's already beat to death, not really taking care of that. And I I can understand that, but what we're giving you now, that even some of the hammy downs, we make sure there's still a good truck, and the truck, the pickup truck thing is getting better as we go. So I guess Robert, he wasn't big on nice pickup trucks, and he drilled that into our brains, but we're beginning to move a little bit away from it now and doing a little better job of that.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

And you know, this past year we kind of rebranded how the trucks were tagged and everything. I think it looks good. Mark, you know, you got that idea from looking around at other organizations and stuff about how to do that. And the reason we did that was it's unique, it jumps out, it stands out, and it's just a really good method for PR for our company. And, you know, when we see our competitors driving around, Mark, you and I have talked about it. There's some of our competitors that got good, clean trucks, they look professional, and it it gives you a good sense of the organization when you see them, right? Yeah, classic example of that's the guys with the green trucks. The guys with the green trucks.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

One out of every 50 you see may be dirty, and they just come out of a coal ash project somewhere, you know. Yeah, that's right. I mean they are they are they do a really good job of keeping their stuff looking nice.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

They do.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

And it and that starts with the driver.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

I mean and people see our trucks. Uh, I hear all the time from people, man, I see Wright Brothers trucks everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, it it is a driving representation. It's a it's a rolling billboard for who we are. And you know, being able to represent, it's crucial. It's crucial.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

Yeah, it really is. It really is. Mark, I appreciate you bringing that up. Is there anything else you can think of while we're talking? No, that I can think of right off. Well, one final shout out on trucking I'd like to throw out real quick. You know, everybody that's running a dump truck, look, we appreciate y'all. AJ, thanks for leading that charge for us. You know, dump trucks, Lord guys, y'all deliver and keep everything moving from the asphalt to the rock to the dirt and everything in the Chattanooga area. Appreciate you guys doing that. You know, look, without all them dump trucks, you know, Mark, you and I talked about dump trucks for years, right? And we finally got in the trucking business a few years ago, dump truck business. Without all those dump trucks, without the low boys, without everything we're talking about here, the business doesn't run, right? So it is a critical piece of the business. We need everybody listening to this podcast to pitch in and help us out with it. Just help us out. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

And we've the dump truck business is somewhat surprised me. All I go off of was all these dump truckers that we've had subbed all these years, you know. And we have been fortunate with the people that's been in charge of our dump trucks, taking care of the truck, keeping them presentable, and you know, doing a good job vetting the drivers and getting pretty decent drivers in all of them. So it's been a pretty big surprise to me the dump trucks as.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Yeah, we've done a great job with that. So knock on wood. Good job, guys. Thank you for everything you've done there. So well, with that, Jared, let's wind this one up. Mark, appreciate you. Appreciate you coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Yeah, I think you're fascinating stuff, and thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Feel blessed and honored to have been invited, guys. You don't know how much it means to me. Yeah, I hear you, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

Appreciate you coming.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Get a ass tray next time.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Well do. Duly noted. Well, this will be it until next time. Thanks for listening in on Talking Grit.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

That's gonna do it for this episode of Talking Grit. Thanks for listening, and thanks to everyone out there putting in the work day in and day out. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow the show and share it with someone who knows the value of hard work. We'll catch you next time right here on Talking Grit.