What did you do before you started working at Nussbaum?
Ha! What didn’t I do before working at Nussbaum? Here’s a brief history lesson. I got my CDL (then called a chauffeur’s license) at 20 years old and started driving a truck shortly after.
My first job was hauling started pullets (yes, 20-week-old chickens) for a hatchery in Forrest, IL. For about a year and a half, I did that until I got my first full-time, over the road job pulling a reefer. I pulled mostly cheese from Wapakoneta, OH, throughout the Midwest and Midsouth, often ending in south Texas.
Then, I’d grab a load of produce from the Rio Grande Valley and deliver anywhere back this way. Those loads often took me from the Water Market in Chicago to Hunt’s Point in New York City to a huge produce market in Toronto, Ontario.
I worked for CCX, an LTL company now known as XPO, until 1986, when my father, brother, and I began a brokerage business in beautiful downtown Fairbury, IL. That same year, I started picking up some extra income by driving for Nussbaum when they were still an LTL company.
I used to get off work at my “regular job,” then jump in an old single axle, air-start, black and white Nussbaum truck and take loads to the drop lot at Route 6 (only old-timers will remember that lot) and occasionally into Chicago for P&D.
We operated our brokerage business for 20 years before folding to the pressures of the internet brokerage world. We were pretty old school.
The last years of my driver career were with Stoller Trucking in Gridley, IL, pulling vans and tankers for them throughout the Midwest. I hauled a lot of loads through them for the old Mitsubishi plant and even pulled some Nussbaum trailers for Mitsubishi behind my W-9 Kenworth.
How did you get started at Nussbaum?
While driving my big blue W-9 and sitting in a dock in Decatur, IL, I received a call out of the blue from Brent Nussbaum. I’ve known the Nussbaum family since the Fairbury days and had talked to Brent about other business opportunities over the years.
Brent told me there was an opening at Nussbaum for a driver manager/planner and asked me if I would be interested in the position. Ironically, I was spec’ing a new Kenworth from C.I.T. trucks in anticipation of continuing my driving career.
I had been juggling my books trying to figure out how I would pay for a new truck but knew while I was approaching 900,000 miles on my old truck, it wasn’t going to last much longer. Brent gave me a couple of days to think about it, but I called him the next day to accept his offer. During that lesson, I learned there’s not a much quicker way to go broke than trying to be an owner-operator. It can be a great life, but with a single truck, it’s not a money-maker.
Why do you stay at Nussbaum?
As you can tell, I’ve been around the transportation industry for most of my life, and I’ve worked for a number of trucking companies. But Nussbaum is different. Not just a little different either.
Every trucking company I’ve worked for until now have all been pretty rough around the edges. To say the cultures are a little colorful with their language and their methods would be an understatement.
It’s having that experience under my belt and then coming to an organization like Nussbaum, you can feel the culture. There’s a level of respect between drivers and operations that doesn’t exist in many trucking companies. We’re just different.
I hope one day to retire from Nussbaum, and now being an ESOP company is making that option even more attractive.
What is it like to transition from driving to working in the office for a trucking company?
The transition from the truck to the desk wasn’t too hard because I had worked a desk job while running the brokerage. I don’t have any problem talking to anyone, so meeting all the drivers and getting to know them is very enjoyable.
There are many different personalities working here. Learning to work with all of them is the difficult part. I tend to be somewhat direct in my approach to dealing with people and have learned that not every personality accepts this well. Some require a little softer touch when helping them, and I’m still working to improve that part of my job.
I do enjoy sharing my experience with other drivers and with the planners in the office to help things run as smoothly as possible. It was decided for me somewhat early in my Nussbaum career that being a driver manager is what I was best at, so all the planning responsibilities were soon passed on to others to handle. I still enjoy jumping in when the planners need some help deciding particular issues.
Do you miss the road?
Overall, I don’t miss the road too much. When the sun is shining, and the weather is nice, I’m reminded of something I always used to say on the CB radio to my fellow drivers, “It’s a great day for trucking!” I’d end many CB conversations that way, and those days remind me of that.
On the flip side, spending so many winters on the road is the biggest reason I don’t like winter! Most in the office know that I’m always the one who knows exactly how many days it is until spring, and I remind them often.
A seemingly common question with an unexpected answer: What is your favorite color?
When my children were very young (my youngest is 24 now), I had them convinced that paisley was my favorite color. It’s common knowledge around the office that if someone is wearing paisley, I’m likely to comment that it’s my favorite color. But, blue is my favorite color – that was the color of my W-9.
What are some of your hobbies?
My wife tells me often that I need a hobby. I played a lot of slow-pitch softball when I was younger, and I was a bowler for many years. I’ve had three different chances to bowl a perfect 300 game. I choked the first chance and ended up with a 297. And on chances 2 and 3 left a ringing 10-pin on both shots to finish with 299. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, I suppose. But the American Bowling Congress did give me a very nice ring with a blue stone for my 299 games.
Lately, my hobbies have been enjoying my grandkids and making home improvements to our 1894 built Victorian home, which we have dubbed Moore’s Castle. I also enjoy riding my Ultra-Classic Limited Harley-Davidson or tooling around with the top down in my wife’s 1999 convertible Boxster.
What’s something you’d like to pass on to your coworkers?
When life has got you down, and you’re feeling kind of blue, remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you. We’ve only got one life to live, and we should live it to serve the Lord. Don’t ever take yourself so seriously that you forget to enjoy this life.
Spend quality time with the friends and family that God has brought into your life. He brings these people for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and often we have to learn along the way why things are the way they are. But ultimately, HE is in control. Always remember he loves you and wants the very best for you.
Great write up Doug !