People just don't realize, you know, the amount of work we do. It's not like a regular job. It's not like a nine-to-five job. You know, usually we don't know. I know what time I'm gonna come in, but a lot of times you don't know what time to come in. You definitely don't know what time you're gonna get off. It's a lot to it.
-Paul McKinley
Episode Summary
Paul McKinley hops in his semi and starts his deliveries at six—but when he’s done is anyone’s guess. Loading and unloading is a game of tetris, and it’s one he plays to win. Step into the world of professional truck driving as Paul leads Scott on a tour of his truck driving journey from Alabama to the Navy and all the way to Southeastern Freight Lines.
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:03):
Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and entities Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.
Scott Luton (00:32):
Hey, good morning, everybody. Scott Luton here with you on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s show on today’s episode, we’re gonna be diving into a conversation with a critical member of the global supply chain workforce. A professional truck driver stay tuned for what promises to be an informative and intriguing discussion. So with that said, I wanna dive right in, wanna welcome in our featured guests here today. Paul McKinley with Southeastern freight lines, a privately owned industry leader in the regional less truck load transportation services space. Now we interviewed Paul’s colleague Joey Thiessen a week or so ago. So you may have caught that episode as well. Paul, good morning. How you doing?
Paul McKinley (01:11):
Good morning. Doing great. How you doing?
Scott Luton (01:12):
Doing fantastic. I appreciate you. You taking some time out with us here today. I know how St. I can only imagine, uh, how busy you stay and to really look forward to our chat here today.
Paul McKinley (01:23):
I’m good. Looking forward to it.
Scott Luton (01:25):
So I wanna ask you before we dive into learn a little, little bit more about the Paul McKinley story as it were, maybe. So Joey Thon, who I, I know that you don’t know personally, but he is a colleague in the Atlanta area. He talked about how, when he drives, he loves the kids that do the air horn and he wants to start a campaign hashtag bring back the air horn. Is that something you enjoy seeing from kids too?
Paul McKinley (01:47):
Oh yeah. I, I love it. You know, we, you know, my, my truck is an older type truck. It still has a air horn in it. So I may, most of ’em have, you know, it’s right on the horn. So it, you know, it’s not like, you know, pull it down. You normally do.
Scott Luton (02:01):
I love it. I love it. Those are special little interactions. I remember doing that as a kid and, uh, you, you always get a kick outta whenever the, the driver would, would, uh, oblige you. So I love that. Well, uh, so Joe, if you’re listening, uh, me and Paul were all about, uh, hashtag bring back the air horn. All right. So, Paul, I wanna get to know you a little better first before we get into your profession and all of your experie span, a wealth of experience. So tell us what part of the country did you grow up in?
Paul McKinley (02:30):
I grew up in a little small town in Alabama, Frisco city, Alabama. It’s a little bit town in between mobile and Montgomery. About 1500 people graduated with 30 people in my class. Uh, wow. Grew up in the, from the first grade to 12th grade. Nobody moved in, nobody moved out. Same people like family
Scott Luton (02:48):
<laugh> man. That is that, that is really, uh, unique. So growing up in Frisco city, a small town, let’s talk food for a second. What’s one food dish that you grew up with that was just inseparable from your childhood
Paul McKinley (03:04):
Butter beans.
Scott Luton (03:05):
Really? Okay.
Paul McKinley (03:06):
We grew all our, all our food, so everything we ate was mostly out to garden.
Scott Luton (03:12):
Okay, man, you’re making me hungry. Uh, we just, of course, with, with Easter weekend just a couple days ago, uh, we had a feast, which we included. We didn’t have butter beans this year, but we had Italian green beans, the flat green beans.
Paul McKinley (03:26):
I could eat them.
Scott Luton (03:26):
Oh, I love ’em too. I could eat ’em by the bowl for sure. All right. One more quick question. So Frisco city, Alabama, of course, Alabama is known for a wide variety of food, including barbecue. So when I, the word barbecue to you, Paul paint that, what does that plate look like
Paul McKinley (03:44):
For us? We really didn’t barbecue a lot. Uh, we was mostly fried.
Scott Luton (03:50):
Okay. All right.
Paul McKinley (03:51):
Fried chicken. That’s mostly what we ate. So barbecue. We mostly was just hamburgers.
Scott Luton (03:57):
Okay. All right. Well, Hey, I’m goof fried chicken with extra spicy, actually fried anything. We’re <laugh> we’re gonna be fair. So all of that sounds delicious to me. All right. So let’s shift gears a bit, uh, with Paul McKinley here, the pride of Frisco city, Alabama. Uh, let’s talk about what initially attracted you to the, the logistics and transportation industry. I think it’s important for our lists understand Paul pre-show. I think you shared, you have been with Southeastern freight for 35 years. Is that right?
Paul McKinley (04:28):
30 years, right? Yeah,
Scott Luton (04:29):
Man. So way back, when, what, what, what initially attracted you to the, the industry?
Paul McKinley (04:35):
Well, actually, um, I was still in the military. I was in the Navy and, uh, I just was trying to find a job. And, uh, there was a guy in my shop. Uh, he was a civilian, his wife worked at Southeastern, uh, Jan Benson. And, um, he said, well, you know, go up there and, and, uh, they’re hiring on the dock. So I applied at, at Southeastern you here in Jacksonville and, uh, just kind of fit in, you know, it, it seemed like something I enjoyed doing was moving, you know, moving freight driving forklift. So that really what what’s got me in. I never thought I would be driving a truck and really drove, you know, worked a dock for seven years before I even even thought about driving a, I didn’t know how to drive truck. <laugh> learn how, you know, in the yard and, you know, hustling in the yard. And finally, I just decided to take the leap and take it back then, all you needed was to chauffeur license. So went and passed my test and put on the road. And they gave me a stack of bills and told me not to hit anything.
Scott Luton (05:46):
I love that. Let me back up for a second. So talk about, you know, uh, the dock work, you know, seven years before you started driving a truck, that sound, that’s a bunch of hard work. It sounds like to me.
Paul McKinley (05:57):
Yeah, it was, you know, very physical back then. All it was was it wasn’t hardly any, you know, pallet freight. It was mostly loose freight, you know, lot of, uh, floats we called ’em, you know, you load everything on the float and pushed it down the dock and loaded onto another trailer,
Scott Luton (06:14):
Man. Seven years,
Paul McKinley (06:16):
Seven years. Yeah.
Scott Luton (06:17):
Earned it. And then, so you were in, in the Navy prior to starting E even that work with Southeastern freight. What did you do? Uh, in the Navy, Paul,
Paul McKinley (06:26):
I was, uh, aviation ordinance, uh, loading bombs. And so once you get out of the Navy, there’s not a lot of jobs out there, loading bombs. So that part,
Scott Luton (06:38):
Yeah. That’s not a big profession in the private sector, is it?
Paul McKinley (06:41):
Yeah, but it was loading on bombs and missiles on, on jets.
Scott Luton (06:46):
Wow. That is fascinating on carriers. I would imagine. Is that right?
Paul McKinley (06:51):
Well, supposedly, but I was on shore duty the whole time, so
Scott Luton (06:55):
Really?
Paul McKinley (06:56):
Yeah. I was on the, a carrier for one time, for two weeks, another time for a week. And that was
Scott Luton (07:01):
It. Okay. I
Paul McKinley (07:02):
Kinda got lucky.
Scott Luton (07:04):
<laugh> that’s good. Luck is a good thing. All right. So from the Navy loading bombs and missiles to, uh, the dock there in Jacksonville, where you are now and had been for a long time for about seven years, and then you mentioned back then as you raise your hand and volunteered to start driving the, it sounded like if I heard you correctly, the barrier to get to start driving a truck was a little bit lower than what it is. Now. You said a chauffer license. Is that what you called it? Paul?
Paul McKinley (07:31):
Yeah. A chauffer license. Yeah. It wasn’t a, it wasn’t CDL back then. It was just a chauffer license.
Scott Luton (07:36):
Okay.
Paul McKinley (07:38):
You know, and then you kinda got grandfathered into the, the CDL.
Scott Luton (07:44):
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Paul McKinley (07:46):
But now totally different.
Scott Luton (07:48):
Yes. Yes. It is
Paul McKinley (07:50):
Six or eight weeks now. I think, even though you have a license, I mean, even though you knew how to drive, I didn’t even, I didn’t know how to drive
Scott Luton (07:58):
Really well. When you say you didn’t know how to drive is that is just your first time with a, um, uh, a commercial truck and a trailer. Yes. And you, so you kind of had to learn from scratch that way,
Paul McKinley (08:10):
Right? Yeah.
Scott Luton (08:11):
So what was the, so learning to drive? What was, uh, what was the toughest part for you back
Paul McKinley (08:17):
Up backing up <laugh> That was that’s the time going forward was fine. But when I got backing up was probably the hardest thing to learn for me. It was,
Scott Luton (08:29):
You know, it, it, it’s amazing. Now, as you look at these new pickup trucks that are, of course built to tow things, and they’ve got the, the, the cameras and even the, the little owned dashboard, electronic steering wheels to help folks back up, I think humans in general, maybe weren’t made to backup trucks and trailers. It’s very difficult and challenging. Right.
Paul McKinley (08:51):
It is, it was back then. Now it’s, it’s a lot easier. Is
Scott Luton (08:56):
It <laugh>?
Paul McKinley (08:57):
Yeah, it was. And it’s, it’s fun. It’s challenging, you know, to cause some of the spots we have to put these trailers in are yep. Difficult. But if you run the same route every day, as I do, you know, you get used to it. I mean, you, you know, what’s gonna be tough and, but it always changes. You know, there’s always things that wasn’t there the day before. And you, you just gotta keep your eyes open and be aware of everything around you.
Scott Luton (09:24):
Mm. So we were talking pre-show as an LTL driver, you know, you’ve got, I think you said about 70 miles a day, kinda local to the Jacksonville area. Is that right?
Paul McKinley (09:34):
You, yes.
Scott Luton (09:36):
A lot of the same stops.
Paul McKinley (09:38):
Yeah. Because I run the, the same area every day. Okay.
Scott Luton (09:42):
So
Paul McKinley (09:43):
Almost, almost every day is the same
Scott Luton (09:45):
Almost every day is the same. Well, so let’s talk about that a little bit more, uh, that typical day, what does that typical day look like? Just paint us a picture when when’s it start, uh, where do you go? What part to Jacksonville? What do those activities look like? And then when you make it back home?
Paul McKinley (10:00):
Well, I, I start out at six o’clock in the morning. I’ll take a, a load over to, uh, one of the logistics companies here in Jacksonville and it’s, um, it’s all going to one place. So I’ll, I’ll deliver there. It takes like an hour there. When that trailer’s empty, then we have, we probably have 35 areas of town that we drop at. So I drop the empty off. They’ll load it during the day, I’ll drop it off and I’ll come back to get my route. Then I’ll go probably 30 miles, 20 miles from here. And I’ll start my route. I’ll, I’ll make deliveries probably from nine to 15 deliveries. And then once I, I, I stop delivering and I get empty. I’ll start picking up and then I’ll start picking up all day and get it all in the trailer, high and tight and secure, and then I’ll bring it on back. And then usually once I back it up to the dock, then I’ll start, uh, I’ll go out again and start picking up the trailers. We dropped off that morning with loads and bring it in. And that’s about it by that time. It’s about six 30 in that in the evening
Scott Luton (11:13):
Man, day in and day out the backbone of global supply chain. What you and your fellow professional drivers do? Tell us about that sense. I mean, 35 years in, it might just be, you know what you do now? You may, it kind of be, it might be even be SUBC subconscious, I think is the word I’m looking for. But that sense of accomplishment, you know, when you work that 12, 12 and a half hour day, and you’re that critical cog and get move where they gotta go. I mean, is that, is that pretty gratifying?
Paul McKinley (11:44):
Well, it is. Yeah, it is gratifying. It’s um, like I said, it’s challenging. I, and I like it mostly. I like it a lot. I, I like to see how much freight I can get on trailer. <laugh> that’s what I do is like, Teris you try, you don’t lose an inch of space, everything it has its place. So you try to get as much freight on that trailer as possible. And you try to make all the pickups assigned to you. So I don’t like pick missing up missing any pickups,
Scott Luton (12:14):
Man. I love that
Paul McKinley (12:16):
Challenging.
Scott Luton (12:17):
So if you had to, so the, the whole every day is I’m sure challenging, so it, it might have some, some of the same challenges. And then from day to day, it might have each day may have its unique challenge. What’s one, if you had to pick one challenging aspect of what you do, what would the, that be?
Paul McKinley (12:35):
Well, I guess it would be to try to get, you know, like I said, all, all my pickups, you know, get it all fitted on the trail, all get it. Cause the stuff that we pick up is all different. It’s all different sizes is, you know, big Bucky, small, just awkward and, uh, trying to get it fitted in there. So all the rest, so you can get everything, but you know, your, your customers, you know, what type of freight they’re gonna be shipping out. So sometimes it’s surprising, but most the time it’s, you know, it it’s the same.
Scott Luton (13:12):
Yes. It’s a cha it’s a, um, the most challenging jigsaw puzzle in <laugh> in history. Maybe. I don’t know. Um, so, and, and I love how you described it, that game of Tetris. I think anyone listening can probably know exactly what you’re talking about there. So speaking of that, let’s talk about, I know you stayed local and, and what you did today out for Southeastern freight, but pre-show, we were talking about some of your travels, uh, when you are in the us Navy, what is your, whether it’s during that time or, or maybe another period of your life, what’s, what’s one of your favorite places to drive through across the country?
Paul McKinley (13:49):
You know, I really don’t travel a lot, but actually Alabama, it is a beautiful place and I really didn’t know it at the time when I lived there. Yep. But when you go back now, it’s, I guess, cause you lived there so long, you really didn’t recognize how beautiful it was, but to be able to, to drive through the winding roads and the, the heels is, is really, is really nice.
Scott Luton (14:19):
I agree. And now when you’re driving without a trailer in your personal conveyance, do you, you’ve been driving so long, do you forget sometimes that you don’t have a trailer behind you and you can, you know, you can, uh, <laugh>, you know, you can enjoy the drive a little bit more.
Paul McKinley (14:33):
No, no, you don’t. You it’s, you know, you know, it, it’s totally different. I mean, you, you know that you’re in your personal car and you gotta drive totally different than when you’re driving that semi
Scott Luton (14:47):
<laugh>. So my dad, Paul, my dad was a, had a CDL. He didn’t drive trucks, he drove our church buses, right. NCIS, uh, that kind of stuff. And it’s fascinating. So many folks don’t realize what all goes into, you know, maintaining a truck and, and of course, driving the highways and keeping your head on a swivel. Um, I can, you know, that level of detail probably isn’t most humans probably aren’t built for that. So, so tell us about when you’re driving, you know, through the highways and byways of Jacksonville, just how careful you’ve gotta be. Not because of your own vehicle, but all the, all the vehicles around you,
Paul McKinley (15:27):
Right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s getting really bad now. Just so much aggression out on the, on the roads now. I mean, there, there’s some crazy people out there <laugh>, uh, really, really gotta watch, you know, what you do. Yes. Um, used to, you know, you, you gotta watch when, just like he’s talking about, you know, uh, about the air horn, you gotta watch one. Cause people get mad when they air horn
Scott Luton (15:55):
<laugh> <laugh>
Paul McKinley (15:57):
So you’re blowing in a kid, you know, going like this right. And blowing into them. And
Scott Luton (16:03):
<laugh>
Scott Luton (16:05):
Man, I’ll tell you what, all the things we gotta take into consideration as we’re, uh, driving down the road. All right. One before I want to, uh, I’m gonna ask you in a minute, what you wish more folks knew about the truck driving profession, but before we do, as I learned, pre-show, you know, you’ve been at Southeastern freight for 35 years, but, and as special as that is, you also have the opportunity to work with your daughter, Heather, who also works as part of the Southeastern freight, do y’all ever, you know, talk, shop well on the weekends or when you’re grabbing a bite, eating it during the evenings or something.
Paul McKinley (16:36):
Yeah. Yeah. We do a lot. Yeah. Surely
Scott Luton (16:39):
How special is that?
Paul McKinley (16:41):
It’s, it’s very special. I talk, I think I, I talk about more and, and she does, but <laugh> um, but it it’s good.
Scott Luton (16:50):
Yep. Now she’s got a different role with the company. Is that right?
Paul McKinley (16:53):
Uh, yes. She’s she’s the, uh, the office manager.
Scott Luton (16:57):
Okay. All right. And
Paul McKinley (16:58):
She was, she was, she, she, um, she started here while she was going to college, so she worked part-time here. And then, um, she was a teacher and she, she taught for like a year and a half and decided it wasn’t for her. So she just came back to Southeast.
Scott Luton (17:16):
Love that. Okay. So a couple things about the, the culture at Southeastern freight. Uh, and this is the second, uh, conversation I’ve had that clearly they, they like to hire veterans. I love that. And then they clearly with what you just shared there, they create opportunities for some of their part-timers to, to come on full-time and en enjoy quite a career, clearly a, uh, a culture that has enticed you to stay there 35 years, man. That is a, that is quite an accomplishment, especially given the, the stresses that just goes along with getting stuff moved where it’s gotta go, you know, part of global supply chain. All right. So Paul, let’s talk about a couple things and I think you’ve already shared a couple things that maybe, hopefully folks have at a Eureka moment, uh, about the truck driving profession, but what’s a couple other things that you wish more folks knew about the, uh, professional truck.
Paul McKinley (18:11):
Uh, they just, they just need to learn, you know, that this, this, truck’s not gonna stop on dying. You know, you, they, you know, they go and they cut you off. They, they don’t realize that, you know, I’m pulling, you know, 30,000 pounds behind me. I’m not gonna be able to, to stop, you know, and, and, you know, they need to realize how much room it takes to turn and, and our customers learn, you know, realize that you just can’t get in some places, you know, they under, they can’t understand why I can’t get back to where they want me to put this thing. <laugh> when you tell ’em I’m in a semi and then they come out and say, well, I didn’t know you was gonna drive that big a truck. <laugh>, you know, hope it was a semi, it’s not like a ups truck.
Scott Luton (18:58):
Right. It’s not like a, a, a little dart van or something. I mean, yeah. I gotta have room. Right, Paul,
Paul McKinley (19:05):
Right? Yeah.
Scott Luton (19:07):
What, anything else, uh, to any of our listeners that might be, you know, in high school college, or might, might be starting out their career. They’re still trying to, you know, piece together, upstream and downstream, you know, what makes up, uh, supply chain, you know, anything, you know, my view, just my view is that our drivers, our professional drivers community do not get the recogni that they deserve. I mean, they keep us moving. They keep us rolling. They keep even during the pandemic and other similar challenges, you know, they, they protect our psyche because they keep the shelves stuff on the shelves. They, they keep things, keep things moving. Do you share that? Do you wish that drivers in general would, would get more visibility and get more recognition out there?
Paul McKinley (19:51):
Oh yeah. Yeah. People just don’t realize, you know, the amount of work we do. It’s not, it’s not like a regular job. It’s not like a nine to five job. You, you know, usually we don’t know. I know what time I’m gonna come in, but a lot of times you don’t know what time to come in. You definitely don’t know what time you’re gonna get off. Uh, it’s just, it’s a lot to it.
Scott Luton (20:14):
Yeah. Agreed. Well really on by far and supply chain now team appreciate what you do day in to day out. Uh, you know, again, I think I shared with you pre-show, uh, 35 years. I can’t imagine what you’ve seen out across the roads. I hope you can write, sit down and write a book at some point. Uh, I’ve bit, a lot of folks. I know I would be fascinated with some of the things that, um, that you’ve seen over the course of your career.
Paul McKinley (20:39):
Yeah. You see some crazy stuff out there. <laugh>
Scott Luton (20:42):
<laugh> all right. So let, uh, Paul really, you know, an hour or 30 minutes, doesn’t do justice for what, you know, everything you’ve done in your career, but I appreciate your time here today. I let you get back to what you’ve gotta do. Um, how can folks wanna learn more, uh, about you or about Southeastern freight lines? Where would you direct people to go?
Paul McKinley (21:01):
Well, you can go our website it’s, uh, dot com and, um, and it, it is all about Southeastern on there. You apply for a job on there. It’s it? It, it’s very informative.
Scott Luton (21:13):
Wonderful. It’s just that easy. Well, Paul McKinley really enjoyed meeting you here today. Uh, learn a little bit more about what you’ve been up to over the course of your career. Thank you so much for what you do and for spending some time with us here today.
Paul McKinley (21:27):
Well, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
Scott Luton (21:29):
You bet. All right. Uh, listeners, hopefully you enjoyed this conversation as much as I have. If you missed the first conversation with Paul’s colleague, Joey Thon, make sure you check that out, but hopefully enjoyed Paul’s perspective. I know I did here today, whatever you do though, I challenge you Scott LUT on behalf of the supply chain now team. Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. And with that said, we see next time, right back here at supply chain now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (21:56):
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Paul McKinley has been a P&D driver with Southeastern Freight since 1987. He also proudly served in the US Navy from 1983-1989.
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