JULY 28,2026 #026 (TRUCKING LIFE) M.SIMPSON/A.DEPOY

REPLY/COMMENT 

In this episode of Talkin' Grit, AJ from Wright Brothers' Trucking Department shares his personal journey, reflecting on the experiences, challenges, and opportunities that shaped his career. From where he started to where he is today, AJ discusses the lessons he's learned along the way, the importance of perseverance, and the people who helped him grow. His story is a reminder that hard work, dedication, and a willingness to keep learning can open doors to new opportunities and lasting success. 

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 Walter.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hey, we're back with a fresh episode on Talking Grit. And uh hope you guys are enjoying this content. Uh, we've got a growing catalog. Go back and take a look at everything that has been recorded up to this point. A lot of great episodes, a lot of great great content that uh you can get caught up with if you haven't been listening lately. But we hope you are, and uh, it's a great way to just stay up to date on what's happening in the company and uh and hear some great stories like today. Today we've got AJ DuPoy from our trucking division. It's gonna be a great combo and uh just learn about him, uh what goes on in our trucking divisions, a lot of things you probably didn't really think about, kind of a cool side of our company. And Mitchell, this is it's gonna be a great conversation. So why don't you go ahead and let's get this set up and get it rolling?

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Yeah, this is great conversation. AJ, appreciate you being here. So thanks for having me. Yeah, man. So, you know, as we've done these podcasts, we've kind of been going through heat hitting each division, talking to everybody, and now we're here to you, AJ. And several years ago, it was probably I don't know, what was it, three or four years ago when we just couldn't get trucks, right? It was right before you showed up. We just couldn't get trucks. And we were we had paving on the interstate, we had paving everywhere, couldn't get any trucks. And guess what? You know, to do paving, you got to have trucks. Right. And at that point in time, that's when we made the decision strategically that we were gonna get in the trucking business and have our own trucks, our own fleet of trucks. And we uh we went out and AJ, how many trucks do we have today? 20 dump trucks and two end dumps. Yep. So we made the strategic decision to do that just to keep everything moving here at Rye Brothers. And you know, we talked about in previous podcasts all the asphalt we did last year, right, AJ? You were in the middle of all of that. Yeah. All of the all the ridiculousness on that. But before we get into that and we talk about all that, let's talk talk about you. Let's talk about where you're from, where you can't how you got here. So where where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Originally from Indiana, but I spent most of my time in Colorado. Okay. Farming.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Okay. So you what part of Indiana? Notre Dame area, almost Michigan. Oh, really? Yep. Oh man, Carod, we got a Yankee here.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, yeah, full on heard that full hand size, trust me. Did you grow up as a Cubs fan? Or like uh Oh yeah, Cubs and Bears. Okay, right on. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Win or lose. Notre Dame fan?

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Nah.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Nah, no. I'm not a Notre Dame fan either. So, you know, when I was a kid for my 13th birthday, my dad got tickets for Tennessee at Notre Dame. And that was the game that Tennessee was way down. We were losing, and they came back and won at the very end. That's a good game to go to. Yeah, it was a good game to go to.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

In in Notre Dame?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Yeah, at Notre Dame. That's classic. That's yeah, first time I've ever flown or anything, we went up there. That's cool. It was fun. It was fun. Dang, it was cold.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Oh, yeah. It was awful. I've I've been to a Bears game in the wintertime, and that's that's a different kind of call. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

So how did you get to Colorado then? In what part of Colorado?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Southeast, almost New Mexico. Had some friends move out there and went and visited and fell in love with the mountains. And I went out there. I was supposed to actually be a hunting guide. Yeah. And that fell through. And so I took the first thing that came around, and that was farming, because that was the community that I was in is was all agriculture. Yeah. I mean, that was it. Potatoes, barley, alfalfa. So what kind of what'd you do? I did mainly alfalfa. Okay. What we grew. Okay. Big tractors. Combines? Nope. We always we did if we had any barley, we would have custom harvesters come.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Okay. How long did you do that? Ooh 15, 16 years. Wow, you did a long time then. Yeah. That's a long time. So what made you get out of the farming and go into the trucking side of the world?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

I mean, as I don't think it's really any new news to anybody, but farming in a whole is really very meek. Yes. It's it's a hard struggle. It's an existence. Yes. It's and it is a beautiful and wonderful way of life. But it it just got to be a very big struggle and hard gamble that my family was starting to it it it was wearing on all of us.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Oh yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I get it. So you know, my my mother's side of the family were dairy farmers for years and years and years, and you know, over time it just doesn't work. Yeah. Right? It just doesn't work. And it's the economics of being a farmer these days. I the the people that are still farmers today, I have a high level of respect for because you know they're feeding America and those are some tough, resilient people. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean it's it's pretty cool. Salute to all of our farmers. But so you got to a point that it would just wasn't working with y'all.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

And then you started doing trucking. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yeah, I did a little bit of my own trucking out there. I shipped all my own hay over on point. I made it and then I trucked it myself because you know that was my hopes is to maybe supplement the farm in other ways. And I'll be honest, I it it got to where the trucking part was just too big of a hassle.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Really hassle, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you transition to Tennessee then? How did you get from Colorado to Tennessee? Uh my sister actually moved down here from Indiana six, seven years ago now.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Okay. Came out and visited for Christmas and figured, why not give it a shot? There's kinda have mountains here. Kinda have mountains. Nice. Yeah. Got mole hills here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I we like it. The family loves it.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

So you got here visited and just kind of figured, hey, why not? Yep. Let's just see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yep. Started working at Whirlpool for a little bit and realized real quick that I am not a factory man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Outside blood, sweat, and tears kind of guy.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Yeah. So how did you end up here at Rod Brothers then?

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Friend of mine that also moved out here from Colorado, Randy Rogers. He's one of your little boy drivers. Yep. He came and he started working driving a dump truck for you guys, and he just kept saying, I know you don't want to drive anymore, but you really need to come check this out. So I did, and here we are today. So what ye what year was that?

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Twenty-two. Twenty-two.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

And it's crazy. You don't think about the the individual stories that you know how people got to work here. Everybody's got their their paths and the histories and stuff like that, you know, and you got here through word of mouth of somebody else. Yep. Yeah. So, you know, if you're out there and you're listening, you know, you know, spread the word. It's a great place to work. It's a good place to be. You know, and so you signed on working with us, and then and now get to today, and we're glad you're sitting here with us because man, you're a vital part of what goes on on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

You're making it happen. So just shout out to Randy for that. You know, we have a program for recruiting people. Yep. Right. I don't remember all the particulars of it, but basically, if you recruit somebody in here and they're here for 90 days. Right. 90 days. AJ, you know it better than me. After you're here 90 days, there's a there's a there's an incentive. There's a bonus. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

I can't remember exactly what it is. 250, maybe 250, 500, something like that. Depending on the scale of when they're going. Yeah. Yeah. Not a bad sidehouse will tell you friends. Exactly. No, I mean it's not. From from what I've seen being here is uh the more word of mouth people are probably some of the best that we have.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Well, and I I think the word of mouth people are the people that end up staying, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. I'm here till you kick me out the door. There you go. Me too. So yeah, I mean, you know, that's that's a good word. So Randy got you here. Thank you, Randy. Yeah. So then you were in a truck for what, three, four years, two years. About two. Two years. We recognize that you had the ability to be a supervisor because you started having your finger on more than just driving a truck, right? You were looking at everything. So you ended up being the supervisor over the trucking a little over a year ago now, right? Yeah. I believe January will be two years. January will be two years. So when you took it over, you know, we gave it to you at the perfect time, right? 75-24 was wide open. Yeah. Yeah, it was no big thing. Yeah, no big thing. 75-24 was going on. We had all the paving going on. Nights weekends. Nights weekends. Spoke about that on previous podcasts about everything that was going on in Chattanooga at that point in time. And, you know, your day-to-day is you manage the 20 trucks for Wright Brothers. Plus, when the local guys call and they need trucks, you're managing the third-party trucks too, right? Yes. So how many different organizations are you collaborating with every day? I mean, we've got our solid 20.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

We've got our 20, and then I'd say at least another eight to ten subs. Eight to ten subs. Yeah. Okay. On a normal day. If you don't work at nights, that might bump up to twelve or thirteen, maybe even fifteen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

So how many. With that, you spend all day on the phone, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Oh yeah. So how many total trucks typically like during peak season during the summer, like when we were wide open last year? It was not hard to see 50 trucks a day. Yeah, 50 trucks a day. Yeah. A lot of trucks.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

A lot of trucks. So typically you are right in Metro Chattanooga area. How far out have you guys branched out with the trucking?

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Oh, anywhere from Knoxville to Dalton, Georgia, Murphy, North Carolina. It doesn't seem like we go too far west. Yeah. I'd say Mon Eagle is about Whitwell is about as far as we've I branch out.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah. Okay. It's a pretty good radius. And then I know for the granite rocket times you guys intermittently make runs down to We get it from Dallas, Georgia, and Murphy, North Carolina. Yeah. So is that probably your longest run? Yeah. That right there. Yeah. Okay. And then you've got your you got the two transfer trucks too with the Yep, our end dumps. They keep our asphalt plants running. Yep. Keep the rock on the ground. Okay. So I mean, that's the operation day in and day out. I mean, that's a that's a fair amount of stuff going on. So let's talk about your schedule. You know, we all know that you gotta have trucking no matter what time of day the operation's going on. How how do you how do you manage that? How do you keep all that going? One step at a time.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

I'd say I I have learned that two phones, they just go with me everywhere because it's it's it's gonna ring. I'm sure yours is no different. It's there's always something going on, plans change. But typical day, you know, usually my week will start if it has an actual starting point. I'd say Sunday. I get everybody ready to go for Monday. Usually I try and get our subcontractors lined out by Friday, just because if I don't if we have a really busy day and I don't get a hold of those subcontractors, well they're they're they need to find work.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

So And they're going to. If I don't make that phone call, then we don't have them. So I generally try and never make that a problem. I always try and be on top of it and make sure that all the guys have what they need. And but yeah, I'd say, you know, my phone is I'm I'm on call 24 hours a day. I think everybody knows by now that if they call me, if I don't answer the first time, I'll answer the second time or shoot me a text and I'll definitely answer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yeah. And so you rely on just clear, consistent communication. Yeah. Constantly. Yes, a lot of people are communication. Yep. Yeah. It's tough, but you gotta you know, it's it's almost it seems like a a mindset that you have to have you lock into and kind of stay locked into. Well, are there is do you ever turn it off or is it to the point now where it's just it's constantly it's it's just constant and it and it did help, you know, being in a truck first.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Yeah. That I bet I will say made this job ten times easier because I'm I I am looking out for our guys and for the truck drivers. So if we have a job that comes up, you know, I try and get as much information as I can, you know, where exactly do you want them? What time do you want them? And then I I really try and lay it out for my guys if I can. But we get new jobs pop up every other day that sometimes it's a well, this will get you close. If you can't find it, give me a call.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Well, and it's all about communication. And look, another thing that you're doing, and you brought it in here with you, is you got this notepad, right? You carry that notepad around everywhere, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 14:21

That's yeah, yep, it goes everywhere with me.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Yes, and and I think that's a I think that's a good word for all of us, no matter what we're doing here, is clear communication. And then, hey, you gotta keep your notes, you gotta keep it lined up because there's none of us that are able to keep it all together. No.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

No. No, because you can get a string of you know, three, four, five phone calls of people wanting, hey, I want two here, three there, five here. So I write it down as soon as they call me, and that way it's not forgotten. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah, and I and I feel like for me, I'm finally getting to that point where it's like my brain can't hold my list. I gotta write it down. Oh, yeah. I gotta I gotta survive on lists. Yep. Put it in a list, keep it with keep one list, not two or three lists, consolidate it down, keep yourself on track. Yeah, you got your notebook and organized.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

It's the only way to do it. So so since you're a trucker, I mean every trucker has stories, AJ. You know, that's how you know when I started here at Right Brothers, if I want to know what was going on, I'd go back to the back of the shop and I'd ask Slim or Davis or whomever. And you the dirt, huh? Yeah, I got the dirt about what was going on. So give give us some good trucking stories here, man. I mean boy.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

There's a list of them.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

I'm sure there is. Uh give this to me, though. One of the things I always find amazing is at least once a quarter I get some kind of story about where one of our truckers has stopped to help somebody with something crazy that's happened on the roadway. Give us a couple examples of that.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Well, thankfully, I've got a great group of guys. They look out for each other and look out for other people. We had one recently, Austin True, he was on his way to Murphy, North Carolina in the end dump and watched a semi-lay over in the ditch. And, you know, without any, you know, hey, what do I do? He you know, just jumped out and got those people out of the truck and helped them get clear to safety. Another one that was a good one, the video is really good to watch, is I'd say six, eight months ago, Al Schumann, another one one of our drivers, he was leaving the asphalt plant that we have here in Calhoun. And he was right there at Bowwater, and he watched his this little car, not too sure what she was thinking, but she took a wide turn, and you know, there's there's no shoulders out there on Bowwater. And her car just went off the edge, rolled right on its top. I remember seeing this video. He again, he pulled up there, got out, got her to safety. You know, we've we've had a lot of them. We've had a couple other guys, Carter and Trey, they they witnessed a hit and run. They were able to get close to the vehicle that fled the scene, and with our cameras, got the license plate number and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I said, just a great bunch of guys, and most of them make make my job a whole lot easier.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, and and how cool, because and again, it kind of goes back to that core value of selflessness of just you know taking time, you know, because they could be like, I I don't I can't deal with this right now, or you know, I'm I'm already on the clock anyway. Like I've you know, time's ticking, I've got to be, you know, here, here, here. But choosing to say, nope, there's something more important in this moment right now, I gotta help somebody. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

I mean, and like I said, it's it's it's the group of guys I got. I wouldn't even say it's a choice for them. It's it's just who they are in nature. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yeah. And you brought up something in there when we were talking there, you know, cameras, right? We started with the cameras in the dump trucks because we realized that those dump trucks are like the biggest sign in the world. It's a driving billboard for how many crazy videos have you and I seen, AJ, of people pulling out in front of the trucks, running into the trucks. I mean a couple three times a week. Yeah, well, it's just it seems like to me that it's more prevalent with the dump trucks than just the regular pickups.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Am I yes, uh I I think so, but I mean I guess I don't see everything that happens, but why do you think that is? I don't know. They just they look at us and think that we're big and slow, then they can beat us.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Wow. But there is a lot of crazy that goes on with the dump trucks and people pulling out in front of them, sideswapping them. I mean, what was it, two weeks ago, somebody just decided to sideswap y'all?

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yeah, almost, yep. They got pretty close. Yeah, it was road road rage, and and and that's what I gotta say a lot of people don't take that into consideration with with our drivers is they gotta put up with a lot of crap every day on the road. And it's it's stressful. It's it gets to you, it wears on you. Yeah. It makes for you know, 50, 60 hours in that truck at the end of the week, you are you're shot. You're wore out.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah, I bet because not not only, I mean, most people would probably say, you know, the most dangerous thing in construction is pretty much you know, traveling public is pretty high up there. Yeah, and these guys are smack dab in the middle of it 24-7, yeah, good old all throughout the week. Yeah, having to deal with it, deal with people while they're carrying their load. And yeah, that's a lot of stress all at once, especially when these guys are trying to navigate the split when it was just absolute mayhem. That that yeah that's that's a lot. Shout out to all those guys that have been doing it because yeah, yeah, no. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

So, hey, hours of service, that's a that's a deal with trucking. What does that look like today? How many hours can somebody be in the seat of a truck per week?

SPEAKER_02 20:35

There's some stipulations, some depends, if you will. Right now we're basically 60 hours a week is where our guys can be in, because it it it can be 60 hours and seven days or 70 hours and eight days. But you have to have trucks like on the road on Saturdays or on the road on Sundays to give you that more drive time.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

But typically our our weeks are no more than 60 hours behind the wheel of that truck. Okay. Yeah. And that and then that that's a federal mandate. Yeah, that's that's uh no getting around it kind of thing. You know, we if we get pulled over and those guys got 65 hours behind the wheel, that's that's a problem. That's a problem. That's a big fine. That's you know, it it can lead into a lot of things. Yeah. Like they could shut us down if they wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

So you have a the puzzle of the timing of these routes and everything as well that you kind of have to systematically work through. Yeah. Knowing these guys have a limit. Yeah. So I imagine you have to get a little bit creative with that sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Usually about Thursday, Friday if we're busy, it's gotta get creative, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And that's that's usually when I, you know, I might call on a couple extra subcontractors for us. Mm-hmm. Just to fill in and keep things moving. Yep. Just to know that, you know, our guys are safe. And within their hours and the company as a whole is in good shape.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah. Yeah. So one person you haven't sh talked about yet, you know, we always talk about training and growing. We have one Pie Center kid.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 22:16

Grayson Harris.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Okay. How long's Grayson worked for you now?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I think he's been here. So I've been here almost four years. I'd say he's been here at least three. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

Oh wow. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

He started not too long after I did.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

Okay. Yep. So been been great. So Grayson's just another example of a success story out of the Pi Center. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah. And, you know, when he was coming through, he always kind of made it known. He's like, you know, I'd really like to just drive truck. You know, and at that time, you know, everything that we were doing was really geared towards, you know, getting somebody ready to be a laborer of some sort in the field. And we hadn't even really considered like, oh yeah, we've got guys that, you know, they can be, you know, trained and you know, can go towards, you know, this whole division of our company. And so he kind of broke the mold with that and he's loved it. You know, he's kicking. Yeah, you know, and just proud of him for being out there and and doing that. But, you know, he he went straight from high school to, hey, let me in the truck, but what do I gotta do?

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Yep. And he he actually just turned 21 just a couple months ago. So now he's pretty wild. He can go across state lines and go across state lines previously? No. Correct. If you're under the age of 21, even if you have a CDL, you cannot go across state lines.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Only in America, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Only in America does come up with a rule like that. Yeah, especially being in Chattanooga where you know you're right next to the state line.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah, seriously.

SPEAKER_05 23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Trained have been doing it for, you know, a couple years at that point. It's like, yeah, you still gonna hold them back.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Yeah, it's makes sense. But but thankfully we got plenty of work right there in that little hole right there. Yeah, he stayed busy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

It's good stuff. Well, AJ, we appreciate all that you do for us. You got any final thoughts for all of us about the trucking side of the business?

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Uh just try and be patient with my guys. Don't don't try and push them too hard because like I said, it's a it's a stressful day for them. So and at the at the end of the day, we can only go so fast. So and I just want to shout out to all my guys for for doing what they do, working nights, weekends, days. I mean, we've got a few trucks on nights, and they're like I said, they're just a wonderful group of guys, and I couldn't ask for any better.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Yeah. Well, I can tell you right now, we're blessed to have the group that we have here at Rye Brothers for Trucking because I remember several years ago, like I said, when we started out here, you know, it came to a grinding halt because we didn't have trucks. And we made the strategic move to get in the trucking business, and you know, we haven't looked back. Yeah, it's been a headache ever since. Ever since. But I mean, look, because of that, think about the work we've been able to do. Oh, yeah. You know, all the paving, keep all the jobs in Chattanooga moving. Yep. You know, look, you are the support system to make it all happen. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 25:17

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

And there's there's plenty of calls every day that, you know, people chime in and say, hey, if you got one sitting around, I could sure use it. And I I try and make it happen that way. Those guys can keep rolling, and it's it's it's a domino effect. It kind of starts with us. And yeah, if if they don't get what they need, they can't do their work and can't get the job done. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Huge benefit. AJ, appreciate everything you and your guys do.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

Yeah, thank you, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah, thanks for what you do, all the truckers out there listening. Hey, appreciate you guys keeping us moving. And uh, that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of Talking Grit. Give us some feedback, hit us up, send us your thoughts, ideas, all that kind of stuff. We'd love to hear from you. Podcast at wbccci.com. And again, check out past episodes, stay up to date on what's happening here at the company. Until next time, this has been Talking Grit.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

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.