Brent – 00:00:01:
Welcome to Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast where we explore the fascinating world of trucking and freight management. We dive deep into the freight industry and uncover why the trucking industry is more crucial to our country now than ever before. Stay tuned to uncover the driving forces behind successful trucking businesses and hear from the hardworking truckers and leaders who keep the world moving. Let’s hit the road. All right, well, welcome back, Freight Nation. Thank you so much for joining us today on another exciting episode podcast, Freight Nation, where we at Truckstop, our whole goal at Freight Nation is to bring you the super compelling stories that help you really understand more about the trucking industry, that understand it’s a super big, diverse industry, and there’s lots of opportunity across the board for anybody that wants to either start a career, improve their career, and even end their career inside of what I feel is one of the most dynamic industries in the world, and certainly the largest, connected to the largest industry in the world, which is supply chain. So Freight Nation is a podcast by Truckstop, and we’re always excited to bring it to you. I’ve been super fired up every time I get to do a new episode, get to meet a new person in the industry, a new leader in the industry, and today is really no exception. You know, when I was asking my guests to be on today, some of the people used the word legendary, some of the people, certainly they used the word well-known, and so joining me today on the cast is the owner and operator of Rollin’ B, Ingrid Brown. Ingrid, thank you so much for joining us on Freight Nation today.
Ingrid – 00:01:32:
Hey, good morning. It’s so great to be here. When you reached out to me, I was like, oh, he’s actually going to talk to me? Because, I’m serious, you have so many cool people. And I’m like, you know, people know me and that kind of thing. But to be able to do the cool, you know, stuff. Don’t let anybody take that to heart or personal. It’s just, I was so excited. So, honestly, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I’m glad to be here.
Brent – 00:02:01:
Well, I’m so glad that you said yes and you’d be on because in Brent’s world, in Brent’s mind, you’re cool too. And what’s interesting, Freight Nation, you never know how you’re connected all across the board in freight. When Ingrid and I were talking about her being on, we found out, and I’ll talk about this a little bit later, that we’ve known each other for a long time. So I started in the industry, to give you a little background on Ingrid, and then I want her to start to tell her story a little bit about how she got into this, which I think is a really super compelling and inspiring story. Starting in 1979, she and I ran into each other when I started in this industry with Overdrive Magazine. We’ll talk a little bit about that as we unroll this podcast. So thanks for joining us on Freight Nation. And Ingrid, let’s start with, back in 1979, when you were a young lady and you were a young adult, you made the decision to get into trucking. So, you grew up a hardworking person on a farm, so I want you to talk a little bit about that. But talk a little bit about that sort of work ethic at the farm, and what led you into the for hire transportation industry?
Ingrid – 00:03:04:
When I grew up, my dad and my uncle had a road construction company. And we had asphalt plants.
Brent – 00:03:10:
Road construction company?
Ingrid – 00:03:11:
Road construction companies. It was Asphalt plants.
Brent – 00:03:14:
Oh my gosh. Talk about hard.
Ingrid – 00:03:16:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:03:16:
Talk about hard.
Ingrid – 00:03:17:
I always told my daddy I was the other boy he didn’t have. And I loved equipment. I loved dirt. How I am not playing in the dirt every day, I don’t know. Sometimes I go, what am I thinking? Anyway, I can remember standing right here at the door of our 66 Butterfly in Peterbilt 589 beside my daddy. And I could fit right there when I was four, five, six years old and ride right there. And so, I wanted to learn to run equipment. I wanted to learn to drive. I wanted to do it all. And I could hold a flag. I am the master of holding flags and stopping traffic. If you don’t stop, I’m standing in front of you. Anyway, we have asphalt tankers. We have, you know, low boys. We have some off-mobility stuff. And we move asphalt plants because we have portables. One in Florida. I mean, they grew to be very big. Then, you know, our dumps. We had our dump trucks. And then I got Eleanor. Original Eleanor because she’s a 79 needle nose Diamond Reo. So I just loved it now. I will say when I decided to go into driving over the road a few years later my mother didn’t speak to me for two years.
Brent – 00:04:28:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:04:29:
I was supposed to have a debutante.
Brent – 00:04:32:
Yeah, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:04:32:
And marry the local lawyer’s son and-
Brent – 00:04:37:
Albert?
Ingrid – 00:04:37:
Yeah, I love the road, we travel a lot today. Go down to the other plant down to my aunt and uncle’s produce farm down there. So I grew up around produce at a teeny tiny age, they’d lose me on pompano market and it’d be like where’s Ingrid? And they’d be like, she’s down three shed rows down, you know? And so, I’m just that little adventurous nonstop. And at 62, I’m still that way. So that’s how I got into it.
Brent – 00:05:09:
Yeah. So you told me a really fun story, part of your story about how, when you were talking to your mom about it, how she wasn’t as excited about this as you were. So talk a little bit about this, cause I think this is important, because when you make a decision in your life, especially as a young adult, there’s a couple aspects here. Number one, your mom’s reaction to you going into trucking. Number two, the relationship between you and your mom and her influence over you.
Ingrid – 00:05:32:
My mom was a very strong woman as well, but she stayed at home until I was probably middle school age and she bought a florist. So, I mean, she worked crazy hours.
Brent – 00:05:41:
Okay.
Ingrid – 00:05:42:
And so, yeah, when I got into trucking, my mother pretty well was like. Why are you doing this? You know, you have the capability and the capacity to become an engineer and to go to college. And that was kind of a swerve for me to go to college and still be able to drive the truck while I was in college. And yeah, she literally was about two years old that she didn’t really want to have any other conversation other than. Happy birthday. Merry Christmas. Good to see you. Oh, yes. She wasn’t really happy. Then she got to where she was fine with it. I kept trying to get her to go with me on the truck. And she would say, yeah, I want to go. And then it was like, no. And then she ended up in her older years on the truck. She passed away a year and a half ago. But she checked on me all the time. But she was a weather watcher. If we had weather optics, she would have those boys on speed dial to say, hey, you need to update that because I need to find out where Ingrid is. She would be so, you know, with the weather. She was my biggest supporter, but it took many years. And I really didn’t realize it until the last couple that she really told me that she literally not just admired me, but it was the best thing that I had done for my life.
Brent – 00:07:06:
Oh, wow. Well, that’s a great confirmation.
Ingrid – 00:07:08:
Yeah, it was. She named my last truck Cora maybe a month before she passed. And I always named my trucks.
Brent – 00:07:16:
Yeah, sure.
Ingrid – 00:07:17:
So she named one Driving Miss Daisy, and we called her Miss Daisy. Because she’s like, you’re getting older, so that means you’re the old woman in the back seat. And I’m like, thanks, Mom, I appreciate that. That was it.
Brent – 00:07:30:
Well, that sounds like you had a wonderful relationship with your mom. So you also talked a little bit about this. And I think this is important. And certainly Freight Nation, we’re going to get into some of the more operational things that Ingrid does and her inspiration, her inspiring people in the trucking industry to improve themselves and improve their businesses across the board. But I always love to talk about the why and why people do what they do. So I love what you talked about, how you were right there all the time with your dad and your family while they were operating the business. You said you were holding the flag. I always wanted to do that. That sounds like, you know, I got to operate a friend of mine’s tractor a while back. I went and did a bunch of bush hogging at his place because I called him up and said, one of my bucket list things is to run a tractor and bush hog. And he looked at me, Ingrid, so funny. He’s like-
Ingrid – 00:08:14:
What?
Brent – 00:08:14:
Bush hog? And I go, look, I think it’s the coolest thing in the world. I mean, a giant tractor in a big field using that big old thing that’s just tearing everything up and cutting stuff down. I said, that sounds like a blast. He goes, you can come down anytime and do that. So I did. I did it for four hours one afternoon. It was so much fun. My point, though, is that I know it’s so fun. People look at me and go, bush hogging? I go, oh, my gosh. Absolutely. And I love construction stuff, too.
Ingrid – 00:08:39:
It’s therapeutic.
Brent – 00:08:41:
For those people that are bent to do things that are action oriented, things that are with their hands, things that are with their feet. And look, we’re always using our brain, okay? There’s nothing not brain functional or not brain operating, whatever you’re doing out there. And so it just depends on the application of what you want to do. Right. So that’s exciting. So you were working with your dad for a long time. And so tell me a little bit about you, talk a little bit about that, about right there with him all the fights. Tell me about it. Importantly, your relationship with your dad and how that inspired you as well.
Ingrid – 00:09:10:
My daddy was not in that world.
Brent – 00:09:12:
All right.
Ingrid – 00:09:13:
I was daddy’s girl.
Brent – 00:09:14:
Yeah, sure he was.
Ingrid – 00:09:15:
My daddy was very quiet.
Brent – 00:09:16:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:09:17:
And my daddy was a person that you would never even realize that he was in the business of the Brown Brothers construction.
Brent – 00:09:25:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:09:25:
But he was the one on the ground and my uncle was, you know, they split it that way. I mean, that side.
Brent – 00:09:31:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:09:31:
But daddy was the one on the ground. And my daddy was a character, of course.
Brent – 00:09:35:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:09:36:
He was the guy that you found when he passed away. We found like seven sticks of dynamite in his toolbox on his pickup. Yeah, he would go across the road at like 5:30 in the morning and he’d set a charge off so they could work the quarry and it’d be like you’d stay in the truck shop and all the trucks, well, part of the trucks around could fit there and you’d hear it go on the top of the building. On top of the building. And it’d be like, well, DT’s back here blasting, you know, dynamite this morning. And he’d come walking in like.
Brent – 00:10:12:
Did you say BT or DT?
Ingrid – 00:10:14:
DT
Brent – 00:10:15:
DT, that’s your dad’s name?
Ingrid – 00:10:16:
DT. No, that’s his name. His name was Dewitt Town.
Brent – 00:10:20:
Oh, okay.
Ingrid – 00:10:21:
Don’t even. DT. And this is how close we are. When I was born, Daddy wasn’t there. He came in and he didn’t like my name.
Brent – 00:10:31:
Uh-oh.
Ingrid – 00:10:32:
So he told my mama he didn’t like Ingrid. It was just a little difficult for everybody.
Brent – 00:10:37:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:10:37:
So my daddy calls me shitbird.
Brent – 00:10:41:
Shitbird
Ingrid – 00:10:42:
From the day I was born to the day he passed, my daddy called me shitbird. I mean, it didn’t matter where we were. You could be at church and my daddy would say, shitbird.
Brent – 00:10:52:
Shipbird. You’re saying S-H-I-P-B-I-R-D.
Ingrid – 00:10:55:
No. No.
Brent – 00:10:57:
Oh, with a T.
Ingrid – 00:10:59:
With a T. Yeah, so, I mean, stuff was written to me, shitbird. He’d label me, oh, absolutely, wait.
Brent – 00:11:09:
No way.
Ingrid – 00:11:10:
And he was just quiet about it. You know, he was like, “hey, shitbird, you know better.” So it was like, it just was that thing. He was one that he told you one time, and he expected you to grasp it, and you knew it. So you learned real quick. Your learning had to be solid. You had to be that one time and done. And, I mean, of course, he’d come back if you needed something. But he was very stringent on making sure that you were educated. And he did it in the means that he wanted you to succeed, even though you couldn’t see that part at a younger age.
Brent – 00:11:47:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:11:47:
Sometimes at an older age, you know.
Brent – 00:11:49:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:11:50:
I could come in after he fell out of a tractor and hit his head. So he had a lot of problems since ‘08, and he passed in ‘15. And I could come in and sit down and go, okay, Daddy, my truck’s doing this, and this. And he was in assisted living. And he could still, even though he couldn’t communicate, he could still come off and communicate about.
Brent – 00:12:09:
Okay.
Ingrid – 00:12:09:
And after that, you could ask him what he wanted to eat. You know, there was no verbalization. So his heart was into trucks and machinery and all of this.
Brent – 00:12:19:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:12:20:
So, you know, my dad was my other biggest supporter, and I was just blessed. I mean, I had a childhood in life, but you missed out if you didn’t have mine.
Brent – 00:12:30:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:12:30:
It was really cool, and I’m sitting here today because of it.
Brent – 00:12:34:
Yeah, you know, as we get older and we look back on it, we see the things that were of true value to us.
Ingrid – 00:12:38:
Yes.
Brent – 00:12:38:
And that time with your dad. Even though he gave you a very unique nickname. And even the advice from your mother, the sort of can-do part of your dad and the advice from your mother, but they both still obviously had a great impact on you.
Ingrid – 00:12:50:
Right.
Brent – 00:12:51:
I like to set those things up, Ingrid, to talk about what makes somebody who they are, because I think the Freight Nation listeners and watchers really appreciate that because a lot of times people go, well, that couldn’t be me, or I couldn’t do that, or that I can’t relate to that person. And I disagree. I think that when you really dig in, at the heart of all of us is a desire just to create significance and understand some part of what our purpose in life is. And so I love that you brought that out and you talked about your mom and you talked about your dad, you talked about the business, you talked about your dad working with your uncle and all the things that went into it. And all of that sort of foundation is what launched you into your transportation career.
Ingrid – 00:13:31:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:13:31:
Because all of that had to build you. That was what she kind of drew on. Even as you say, when you used to be able to go back to your dad and ask him questions about the mechanical parts, or your truck, or what’s going on and things, that he was still sharp as a tack, even though I love this, he fell off a tractor and busted his head. That’s legendary.
Ingrid – 00:13:46:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:13:47:
Right there.
Ingrid – 00:13:49:
He was in the ICU for like five months.
Brent – 00:13:51:
Wow.
Ingrid – 00:13:51:
I mean, he lost all motor skills. He lost his speech, everything. And then he got back to where he communicated, but we still had to make sure he had 24-hour care. And I mean, he was sharp as a tack. You know, it’s just, he just couldn’t tell you about it a lot of times. But yeah, it was a thing. You know, Brent, and I’ll say this, it gave me my foundation and tools. But I honestly believe that everybody’s situation in their life gives them tools.
Brent – 00:14:18:
Yeah, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:14:18:
It brings them as an equal to me, even though I had a hands-on situation with it, because I had to make the choice to go into transportation and supply chain. And when I did that, I didn’t have anybody. They were in construction. They were in a central location. They didn’t deal with the supply chain.
Brent – 00:14:38:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:14:39:
They helped with providing for the supply chain. So I basically started out in the same place as everybody in some point or way. And so I had to find my way into doing that. And in saying that, I’ve done nothing up to this day that nobody can’t do at all. I’m not anything special because of all that daddy in the past. I’m not anything special for what I’ve done.
Brent – 00:15:05:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:15:05:
I’m just Ingrid. And there’s not anything I do today that any man and woman can’t do and get done.
Brent – 00:15:11:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:15:11:
If they just want to, they just want to apply themselves and find out where to find it.
Brent – 00:15:17:
I love that. I’m just Ingrid. One of the greatest quotes, and I use this all the time in Freight Nation. This is a super cool quote. You can go out and look it up on the internet. It’s Steve Jobs, the guy that created Apple computing and all that stuff. And he’s a young man. It’s when he was still just kind of like starting out. So he’s like, oh, even kind of overweight. He’s wearing this old beat up shirt. And he said, as soon as you figure out in life that everything that has been created. Was created by nobody that’s any smarter or different than you. That’s the moment in your life where you realize you can do the same thing. By the way, there are people that have different talents and different skills. I realize that. But you bring your talent and skill into it and you can create things, too, because as soon as you figure that out, it’s important.
Ingrid – 00:15:59:
Yes.
Brent – 00:15:59:
So you had this foundation. You spun into Rollin’ B. Now, you’ve had a really fun time. So, by the way, I want to make sure I point this out to you. You’re a native of Boone, North Carolina.
Ingrid – 00:16:10:
Yes, sir.
Brent – 00:16:11:
Yeah. I love Boone, North Carolina, because one of my favorite people of all time, a gentleman named Ed Hare.
Ingrid – 00:16:16:
He is!
Brent – 00:16:17:
Helped me so much when I was a young, young man. He was from Boone. And now I was in Charlotte when I got to meet him. He was actually the business partner of a guy I became business partners with, but he gave me such sage advice and wisdom. And Ed Hare will, if I ever show all of my office, I have a little rabbit that he gave me. He gave me on my wedding day. And so I got this package in the mail. It’s a rabbit. And I call him and I go, Ed, thanks a lot, but what’s the rabbit for like fertility or something? And he goes, Brent, my last name is Hare. And I went, Oh yeah.
Ingrid – 00:16:51:
Ed is the age of my brother. It’s crazy. There is nothing in the supply chain and logistics and trucking that isn’t connected somewhere.
Brent – 00:17:01:
Yeah, no doubt.
Ingrid – 00:17:02:
We’re finding this out. So, yes, Boone. And for other people that don’t know that’s watching this. Appalachian State University, where like Eric Church comes up. Yeah, Eric’s from right there. Holmes, Watson.
Brent – 00:17:16:
Oh, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:17:17:
You know, all these, you know, but I’ve watched Appalachian State University that most people are like, you do college football, you know who that is. But, yeah, that’s home.
Brent – 00:17:25:
Yeah, they beat Michigan.
Ingrid – 00:17:26:
Yeah. Yeah.
Brent – 00:17:29:
That is super exciting. All right. So let’s go in the beginning of your career. So you started out as driving a truck when there were very, very few people of your gendered persuasion, a female, in this industry. And so talk a little bit about what were some of the things that you might have had perceptions on that you had to overcome or other people had to overcome and then how you created your initial success. And then I want to go into kind of how you rolled into, believe it or not, how about this Freight Nation? She went to brokerage school just to understand brokers in the marketplace. I think that’s incredibly good.
Ingrid – 00:18:00:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:18:01:
Talk a little bit about that.
Ingrid – 00:18:02:
Okay.
Brent – 00:18:02:
And I want to talk about kind of where you are today. Then I want to talk about some inspirational things with just advice to other people in the industry. So let’s talk about when you started out. Tell the Freight Nation watchers and listeners about some of the things that you had to overcome perception-wise and others had to overcome perception-wise.
Ingrid – 00:18:17:
This is where I feel like I did have a little bit of a leg up. And this is where I started out.
Brent – 00:18:23:
Right, sure.
Ingrid – 00:18:23:
This is where I take all of that from growing up in the construction company to coming out on the road being a woman and there being zero percent of ratings of women. I mean, you know, a six that I knew that ran from the Carolinas to California for years would leave notes at truck stops for each other of where we were or leave a package or whatever. Because there were only six of us that were crossing the country as solo independent women. And what I bring with this is I came up in a man’s world in the construction. There were no females in the construction in daddy’s business. Now I have four, three first cousins of my uncles and my oldest sister, but she went to college when I was eight.
Brent – 00:19:11:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:19:12:
I can remember they used to try the deal of flagging in bikinis. That didn’t last long. Because daddy and my uncle nipped that one in the bud. Did I just tell you that?!
Brent – 00:19:26:
Time out, time out. You were flagging in bikinis.
Ingrid – 00:19:31:
I didn’t. They did. I knew better because they got in trouble.
Brent – 00:19:37:
Oh, my gosh. Were they doing that to, like, get some sun? I mean, like, that’s a giant distraction.
Ingrid – 00:19:43:
No, it’s because nobody would stop at the traffic. It was a busy road, and they kept having people race.
Brent – 00:19:50:
That may be the title of this podcast, “Flagging in Bikinis.”
Ingrid – 00:19:55:
Okay, they were doing a government job, and a government job, and traffic wouldn’t stop on this four lane. I was a driver I know.
Brent – 00:20:05:
Hey, you got to say to people, go for it.
Ingrid – 00:20:07:
Yeah, I have to. Anyway, the traffic wouldn’t stop. People kept running the stop signs. So they saw, we know how to get their attention. So that’s what two of my cousins did. My sister and my cousin did. And I’m like.
Brent – 00:20:22:
Oh my goodness. That is funny.
Ingrid – 00:20:26:
You might not want to put this on there. But anyway.
Brent – 00:20:29:
The statute of limitations is way past. No one’s going to care.
Ingrid – 00:20:33:
Thanks. Yeah. Well, and the thing is, they only did it once, but they never got involved in the company like equipment and all of that. They did some office stuff and that stuff, but that was it. What I was trying to get at before I just.
Brent – 00:20:45:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:20:46:
And you see, but I brought with me the fact that I know who taught me and I’m not scared to ask for help.
Brent – 00:20:54:
There you go.
Ingrid – 00:20:55:
I know what to ask the guys.
Brent – 00:20:56:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:20:57:
Even today I would do it, which I just did yesterday morning when I unloaded over on produce. I had a guy jump out and spot me. Everybody goes, why don’t you have somebody spot? You’ve been driving for 45 years. No, no. There’s two reasons. One, it’s an education thing. One is for safety.
Brent – 00:21:15:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:21:15:
It’s safe so that I’m protected. And it’s an educational thing to get people to quit using their phones and video and people doing stuff. And if they run into something, they could have been standing out there helping to prevent it. So it’s an education to ask for help. It’s okay.
Brent – 00:21:35:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:21:35:
I can go to a truck beside me and say, hey, sir. Hey, ma’am. “Can I get you to stand out here and spot me on this?” I may not need you. But. don’t tell everybody that. Freight Nation, don’t. Want, my secret? Because I may not need you. Okay. But I watch it so much that people sit in their truck and they don’t communicate in this industry as drivers.
Brent – 00:21:54:
Oh, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:21:56:
They don’t watch out for one another, but they want to scream. Nobody watches out. We need to watch out for others.
Brent – 00:22:02:
Oh, 100%.
Ingrid – 00:22:03:
If you start utilizing them to help you, you’ll find there’ll be more interaction and more observance and helping one another. But you just kind of use a little reverse psychology in the sense of, well, you help me.
Brent – 00:22:21:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:22:22:
People love to be needed. People love to help. And all I can ask is to say, pay that forward. And I tell them that every single time. I almost don’t go back to any doc that I don’t find somebody for just for this reason. I can get in on them, I have no problem with that. But, I mean, I have ones, of course, we all do.
Brent – 00:22:40:
Well, maybe they see something you don’t see.
Ingrid – 00:22:43:
Exactly. I mean, you can’t get any safer than that.
Brent – 00:22:46:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:22:46:
So, you’re covered on your bases, but at the same time, you’re utilizing.
Brent – 00:22:49:
Yeah, sure.
Ingrid – 00:22:49:
I’ve had that with all of the guys. Who do you think trained me?
Brent – 00:22:53:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:22:54:
It was every man that crossed my path in 48 states that would train me on helping on logbooks, helping on any kind of, I mean, I was a rookie. I mean, I’m still a rookie, but I was just as green as could be.
Brent – 00:23:09:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:23:10:
In the trucking long haul. And this was a whole new segment of my life.
Brent – 00:23:15:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:23:16:
So I wasn’t scared to ask for help. I never, ever in my life have had any guy that has ever approached me in a negative way. Or any belittling, put me down, anything like that. I have never. All I’ve ever had is, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you.” Or the 99% of the answer is “Sure. What can I do?” Or I’ve had them walk up and say, “Hey, ‘ve had a flatbed for seven years. Hey, I saw how you start and you tarp that or chain that. Let me give you a little bit of just a pointer here.” And they’ll do that. But that’s because they feel like they’re comfortable walking up to you and saying something.
Brent – 00:23:59:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:00:
So drivers getting involved in working with each other, you get other people more comfortable going to offer or going to ask.
Brent – 00:24:10:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:10:
And that’s what we’ve lost. And there’s a disconnect in that today because of, you know, who knows what, a lot of things.
Brent – 00:24:18:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:19:
But it’s something that a lot of people, and I hope anybody watching this, really thinks about. We want it like it used to be in our old days of sitting around a round table at the truck stop or standing around in a truck stop talking and sharing stories.
Brent – 00:24:34:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:34:
The only way we’re going to get it there is to create it.
Brent – 00:24:38:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:38:
It will never be there on its own. We have to create it.
Brent – 00:24:42:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:42:
So that’s what I can say that I brought from the past if I didn’t have that. So I’m trying to learn that I did have the skill set of having all the guys.
Brent – 00:24:53:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:24:54:
And I knew our guys never belittled me. They never, you know, being the owner’s daughter, did not stop them from saying no or asking me if I was a big dummy at times. But, you know, at the same time, I did learn to step out of that. I got in a really uncomfortable zone, though, when I started because it’s a whole new world.
Brent – 00:25:14:
Oh.
Ingrid – 00:25:14:
But it happened really quick.
Brent – 00:25:16:
Okay.
Ingrid – 00:25:16:
It happened real quick.
Brent – 00:25:17:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:25:17:
You know, now I’m working with 53-foot trailers and I’m 2,500 miles from home.
Brent – 00:25:23:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:25:23:
And I don’t have that quick fix situation and to be able to walk away from it and come back to it. Now it’s a you gotta fix it as it happened. So I learned throughout the years and it’s brought me up to now. I can step away, maybe for 60 seconds or an hour and go back to it if it’s a problem.
Brent – 00:25:45:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:25:45:
I do have a communication where we didn’t back then.
Brent – 00:25:48:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:25:49:
And I can’t reach out to that. So it comes back to being.
Brent – 00:25:54:
Oh, wow.
Ingrid – 00:25:55:
It was different, but it was the same. The only thing that had to change was me. I had to make that difference. And I’m the one that had to make the change. Because if I did, it wasn’t going to work and it wasn’t going to happen. It’s the same today. If I don’t make the change and I don’t make the choice, it’s not going to happen for me if I don’t take action for it. So that all goes into exactly where I’m at in the way I operate from back then to today.
Brent – 00:26:23:
Wow. Okay, Freight Nation. So I hope you were listening closely and watching closely because she just gave you a ton of great advice on how to work through this, whether you’re male or female. It doesn’t matter. The thing to do is to ask for help when needed. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. It often creates a relationship and it allows other people to feel like they’re useful in helping you. But it also helps keep you. And you talked about this, Ingrid Bicu. You said, you can’t be safe enough.
Ingrid – 00:26:57:
Exactly.
Brent – 00:26:58:
And so super important about safety because, I mean, this whole industry is measured on safety.
Ingrid – 00:27:02:
Yes.
Brent – 00:27:03:
Our governing body, the FMCSA, is predominantly all about the safety of this industry, the safety of the consumer, the passenger, the citizenry on the road, and the safety of the trucks. Super important. And I love this, how you said that by communicating, you’re able to watch out for one another.
Ingrid – 00:27:21:
Yes.
Brent – 00:27:21:
You know, that’s super great. And then just the phrase of, will you help me? I do this with my kids. I teach my kids all the time. I go, okay, if you need somebody, go up. And the first thing you need to say is, hey, I need your help. And it’d be surprising because you said it. You said people want to be helpful. Here’s the other thing, Freight Nation. I hope you’re paying attention to this. Ingrid said something else that was super, super wise or super great piece of advice. She said the only person that can change her is her. So the only person that Freight Nation can change you is you. You have to make up your mind that you’re going to change yourself in doing something in order to improve what you’re doing or create more safety in what you’re doing and then to take action on it. Ingrid, I thought that was fantastic. And I love how you brought it all the way back to the story of working with your dad and your uncle and your cousins and your family and everybody else and the girls in the bikinis all the way back to that of just accepting each other and taking advice and counsel to learn to grow.
Ingrid – 00:28:18:
Yes.
Brent – 00:28:19:
Super, super important for a Freight Nation. Great. I like to call those pro tips, Ingrid, in this. And so we get these across the board. This is why I love to have great people like yourself to give that advice to those that need to be reminded of it. Or those that maybe have never heard it. You know, that’s super important.
Ingrid – 00:28:35:
Yes.
Brent – 00:28:36:
All right. You move forward. Now, 45 years is a long time. You’ve been doing this 45 years, still doing it after 45 years?
Ingrid – 00:28:43:
Yes.
Brent – 00:28:44:
So I want you to talk a little bit about how, as you’ve changed your career a little bit, well, your application of how you’re doing your trucking in it because of a physical issue. And then I want you to talk a little bit about how you went to broker school. And then let’s talk about how you’re involved in helping other females see an opportunity out there through women in trucking as a foundational member of women in trucking when it started back in the early 2000s. So talk a little bit about where your operation is today and then why you went to broker school. Then let’s finish with women in trucking.
Ingrid – 00:29:12:
Okay, really fast, and I’m very diversified, okay? I own my own company.
Brent – 00:29:17:
Yes.
Ingrid – 00:29:17:
Independent.
Brent – 00:29:18:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:29:18:
So, I mean, I own a flatbed.
Brent – 00:29:20:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:29:20:
I pull cows. I own cows. And I just wanted everything but a car hauler. I’ll throw this in here really quick.
Brent – 00:29:26:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:29:26:
I did not want to haul a car hauler because that meant I had to get out of a window of a car on the top deck. Two things were going to happen. I mean, they’re going to land on my head. Or either my fanny is going to get stuck in the window.
Brent – 00:29:39:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:29:40:
So I wasn’t even going to attempt either one.
Brent – 00:29:42:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:29:42:
No, I’m not into falling off a height, and I don’t want to get stuck in a window on a dog.
Brent – 00:29:47:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:29:48:
So, you know, I have. I decided when I’m in 2008, 2007, I started thinking about it. And I thought, you know, I want to go and find out all the back stuff at the back office and all of the software and all the new stuff that the brokers have. Because I was calling directly. I don’t like load boards. So I love my directly free. Anybody out there with a refrigerator directly free? Sorry, that was a plug. Anyway, so I went to a college and I said, sign me up. So everybody went, you just spent thousands of dollars to go to broker school and your time off. So you’re going to be a broker. And I had companies coming at me, offering me jobs to be a broker. And I’m like, no, no, no. I don’t want any of that. I want the software that I got from it. I want the education I got from it. And I want the time spent that I got to do it. So that was how I went to broker school. And I have kept up with that. I have made sure to keep myself engaged. On the broker side. Although I’m not brokering, I could sit down at a broker desk and get a broker today if I wanted to. You know, I felt confident enough in that because I put myself with that education and I’ve kept it current. Of course, I was still driving. So from there, I went back in or I stayed in full and refrigerated free. I love produce. I’m a produce guru of quality, I should be an inspector by now because I’m going to turn stuff down on the pallet. And well, I just did that in Salinas this past week. They pulled a pallet out. I was like, that’s not going to go. And, you know, it’s just learning every type of produce that we go from berries to, you know, anything. So I love that stuff. I think a big thing of my success is I love trucking so much. And I always say, I love to truck. I don’t have to. So I went from there and all through this, I started showing trucks back in like 2001-ish. I was around in course 99 up to that point. And then I started, and that’s when we came into play here.
Brent – 00:31:58:
That’s where we met. That’s right. Tell them about that. That was a fun day. Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:32:02:
Yeah. Well, throw that in there and then I’ll get up to where we’re at now. Yeah. I was showing at the great Mid-American Trucking Show down in Dallas, Texas, which is that, and it’s owned by Randall-Reilly , which owns OverDrive. So yeah, I was like showing down there all the time. And then I became a judge for OverDrive. And that would have been in 2014. So a judge since our last year, 19 was our last year. And one of my best friends, who I call my brother, is Randy Schwartzenburg , who is from Randy. And then.
Brent – 00:32:38:
I know this.
Ingrid – 00:32:39:
And I worked with Randy when he was a Trucker Buddy. So I got myself involved because I love charity. I’m the one that started the Special Olympics, Challenge of the Genders at the Dallas Truck Show.
Brent – 00:32:52:
Oh, no way. That was you.
Ingrid – 00:32:53:
I’m actually the creator. That’s me. They used to call me Half Pint.
Brent – 00:32:57:
They have. Yeah, sure.
Ingrid – 00:32:59:
And that was in ‘03. So, you know, I got involved with a lot of terrible things and love the philanthropist side of the industry and the people of this industry. So we go forward. In 2017, I did the Convoy of Hay where the wildfires took out Kansas and Oklahoma. And I was nominated for the Citizen Driver Award for TA, Petro. And the Petro in Oklahoma City is rebranded as the Ingrid Brown Petro Travel Centers.
Brent – 00:33:34:
Oh, no way.
Ingrid – 00:33:35:
You didn’t know that? Yes.
Brent – 00:33:37:
I didn’t know that one. That’s fantastic. Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:33:40:
Yeah. I just got there this week and I was like, well, that’s my name up there. Then you know we did that, and it’s like I’ve never gone after everything that’s happened to me, god has put everything that’s happened to me in my life. And for that reason I’ll never know, I just have to continue doing what he wants me to do. So in the time frame, I was contacted by Ellen Voie, Women In Trucking, and asked to do a video reel for FMCSA. It was in Dallas in 2018.
Brent – 00:34:12:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:34:13:
So they contacted me later and asked me if I would be the commercial motor vehicle, FMCSA commercial motor vehicle, voice and face of safety.
Brent – 00:34:21:
Oh, what?
Ingrid – 00:34:21:
And I was like, huh? And I’m like, y’all really understand I have a hillbilly accent, and you aren’t going to know whether Shitbird’s going to come to my house or what. But do you want to think about this for a minute? And anyway, I took my truck and trailer to D.C., and filmed for two days, and then I flew out to Michigan. And anyway, they did PSAs and billboards and TV stuff. Anyway, so I did that. So Women in Trucking’s been a huge part of my life.
Brent – 00:34:48:
Sure. Mine too, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:34:50:
I was sitting in the hallway in Dallas whenever the whole topic came up, and Ellen and Lee Haxall and I, and I think Elizabeth was there, a couple more. So in 2000, that was 2003, 2004. So when Ellen kicked it off in 07, of course, I was on board 1,000%. I became one of the driver advisories in 09, which put me where I sat on the interior tape for Peterbilt, and worked with the engineers there. You can tell I’m a big Peterbilt girl. And that’s all my trucks but one.
Brent – 00:35:20:
I’ll see you Peterbilt back there, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:35:22:
Yeah, that’s all the order but one. And fast forward in 2015, I was on the inaugural image team. And we mentor women of the industry, whether you’re coming in, what’s going on, or if you’re deciding or you don’t know what to do with your life or career, what do you want to do? So I ended up and this year I was awarded a board of directors position.
Brent – 00:35:48:
Wow.
Ingrid – 00:35:48:
So I sit on the women in trucking board of directors. It has been a whirlwind of nothing but blessings and things in my life that I look at sometimes to say I don’t deserve this because I’m no different than anybody else. Everybody deserves this. You see a billboard, just cover my face up and put 3.7 million people’s face up there because they are in the trucking industry. They are the supply chain.
Brent – 00:36:18:
Right. Yeah, sure.
Ingrid – 00:36:19:
And brokers, you’re going to get mad at me when I say this, but just get over your sales because it’s all like this. If it wasn’t for a truck driver or a truck. You wouldn’t have a job. The only people that literally have to have the supply chain to keep the country running are consumers, a manufacturer, and a truck.
Brent – 00:36:41:
Yeah, sure.
Ingrid – 00:36:41:
Because consumers, we have to have our goods. We found that out in 2020, 2021. The manufacturer has to take what we have, whether it’s toilet paper or baby formula. And a truck can get it anywhere. You might have to walk down to the end of the street to get it. So they become the receiver at that point. Everything else makes the industry fluent, makes it happen. I love all y’all. I’m grateful all y’all. Many people I know in this country know that, you know. But I think that where my heart lies, lies between the driver’s side and a shipper’s side. Those are the ones that I really have so deep in me that I understand 100%. The struggles of a shipper, the concerns of whether that freight is quality or whether it gets where it’s going to make sure the consumer can have it. I think down to the nuts and bolts of it takes me back 45 years ago because that’s what we really worked and strived for. Making sure we service that shipper to service that consumer on the other end. So I think that’s where it is. I love my board of directors. I’m also on the driver committee for St Christopher Charity Fund.
Brent – 00:37:57:
Well, sure.
Ingrid – 00:37:59:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:37:59:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:38:00:
I did have to, I’m throwing all this at you. I did have to come out of the truck for six months last year-
Brent – 00:38:07:
Yeah. I want you to. This is how life throws you a curveball, but you’ve adjusted to it, which I thought was brilliant. Talk a little bit about that.
Ingrid – 00:38:14:
I didn’t know what I was going to do. I’m going to sit here and tell you. I literally cried for days and weeks because I didn’t know what to do. in 2017, I was diagnosed with melanoma, stage two.
Brent – 00:38:23:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:38:24:
So I had surgeries. My grandfather passed with it. My brother was diagnosed six months after I was, and that’s what my mother passed with it a year and a half ago. Well, we found it’s genetic. So it’s not like it’s because, Ingrid, you shouldn’t have been out in a bikini in the sun, so.
Brent – 00:38:39:
I don’t think that was the contributing factor.
Ingrid – 00:38:41:
How was the one on the stop sign? Okay. How was I on the stop sign? Anyway, so. And to have a quarter of my throat out in 2018. I had a couple small ones. August last year, I was coming out of Washington and I found a lymph node. In The End, I got back to my oncologist. I had a broken rib.
Brent – 00:39:02:
Wow.
Ingrid – 00:39:02:
And I was like, I knew I was hurting, but I figured I jumped out of the back of the trailer and I just pulled a muscle or something.
Brent – 00:39:08:
Right.
Ingrid – 00:39:09:
No, I had between, it was just crazy. So. Still in treatment, and they did let me come back to work after six months. I sold my truck and I deactivated my authority. And I came to work for an amazing company out of Parker Arkansas called Blackjack Express LLC, they’re a heavy haul company and do a lot of specialized direct freight hauls, and amazing. Well they have one raper that they had helped a driver out that wasn’t able to haul the heavy haul, anymore and he was no longer with them.
Brent – 00:39:44:
For sure.
Ingrid – 00:39:44:
And they contacted me. I contacted them, and I’m back into basically running it just, you know, they give me the rate of, you know, where I want to run, how I want to run. I do take off to go get my infusions. They work with me on all that. This is the thing, drivers have to think about finding a company that works with them. You got to catch the work with, because you can’t work for them. I mean, they can’t work for you. Everybody has to work together with you. You have to work with them. So having all of that situated before you get in the truck and leave their yard is a great idea. On the other hand, if it’s a broker, shipper, or an employee, if it’s a carrier, you’ve got to realize, look at this as, what would you do if this was you on the driver’s side? Do they fit what you need? Are you able to let them off for four days to go get an infusion and then two days to kind of three or four to recover from that infusion? And you got to look in the time frame in between. So I didn’t know what I was going to do, honestly, when I came off that six months and thought, well, here’s where the broker school is actually going to work. Now I have my reason and my answer why I went to brokerage. Sorry, my hand’s crushing. And I had someone come to me and I called for them, Wexford, WJLA in a mountain area who had been friends since the mid 90s. And they came to me and said, come work in the office until you figure it out and you have a job. So I worked that site, you know, up to that point. And I’m like, I’m able to go back on the road. That’s my heart. And I had struggled with it at first and thought, maybe since I’m 62, this is where I’m supposed to be. Maybe I need to be out of the truck. What type of thing? The thing was, I didn’t need to panic at all. Because there’s so many facets to this industry. It was unreal. I could have gone to safety. I could have gone to brokerage. I could have gone to maintenance. So many things in so many places. But once again. I had to make sure I made the choice. Because I had to take care of myself to figure out where I needed to be.
Brent – 00:42:10:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:42:10:
Before anybody else could take me or offer me that or whatever. So I’m happy to be back in the truck. I’m loving the company driver’s side here. They’re amazing.
Brent – 00:42:24:
Oh, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:42:24:
And I’m learning even more. I mean, now I’m learning about the specialized stuff of heavy haul and oversize. And I still raise my eyes.
Brent – 00:42:33:
You’re part of the industry.
Ingrid – 00:42:33:
Yeah, exactly. So I’m still growing in the industry. Now, let me tell you, everybody needs to think, and I don’t care if you sit in the seat of a truck, you sit where you’re at, or you sit in a shipper’s office or a broker’s office. You need to think about when life throws you a curve that you can’t do nothing about. I still have a couple of things going on, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. They in the office know exactly what’s going on every minute, all the time. I don’t know. We may be looking and I’m back out of the truck in six months. We may be looking and I’m still here when I’m 82.
Brent – 00:43:09:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:43:10:
And y’all are still going, are you still doing this, you old woman? And I’m like, yeah, I got this. But everybody needs to look at a plan. Call it a plan B, call it a backup plan, call it a semi-retirement plan, because none of us know what life has in store.
Brent – 00:43:28:
Sure.
Ingrid – 00:43:29:
But there is an option for every single person. Giving up isn’t an option. Saying I can’t is not an option.
Brent – 00:43:38:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:43:38:
There is something out here. And find the people that believe in this as much as you and I do.
Brent – 00:43:45:
Yeah.
Ingrid – 00:43:45:
And let them help you. Ask for help. We go back to 45 years ago when it was, hey, I need some help.
Brent – 00:43:55:
Right. Ingrid, thank you so much for those inspiring words. I love that. Life is going to, as you said, throw you some curveballs. It’s how you adjust to it. It kind of goes back to your point about taking action, making a plan and taking action. And this is why I wanted to start Freight Nation, which has so many stories and there’s so many different aspects of opportunity inside of transportation for you to extend your career, continue your career, start your career, advance your career across the board. And that’s the beautiful thing about transportation and supply chain is there’s a spot for you no matter what you want to do. And obviously, Ingrid, the industry is so much better since you started out and stayed at it for these 45 years and you continue on. Thank you so much for your inspiring words and story today. Freight Nation, I know you took a lot away from this because you couldn’t not take a lot away from it because Ingrid’s story and her life and her grit is undeniable and inspirational. Ingrid, thank you so much for sharing your story of Freight Nation.
Ingrid – 00:44:54:
Thank you for having me, I, you know, I know I talk too much sometimes, and it’s like I get to go and it’s like, I have such passion that I feel it coming out of my pores and it just comes out of my mouth. But thank you for having me. This has been amazing. This has been great. And I can’t wait to see you at the Women in Trucking in November in Dallas.
Brent – 00:45:17:
That’s brilliant, if they’re every year, yeah.
Ingrid – 00:45:19:
Yes, I know. I’ll get to see you this year, too. So I didn’t have time to say hi last year. But this year, we’re going to sit down and say hello better.
Brent – 00:45:27:
All right.
Ingrid – 00:45:28:
So I can’t wait to see you. Thank you.
Brent – 00:45:31:
Ingrid, thank you so much. Well, Freight Nation, that is a wrap. I know you took a bunch away from this. Thank you for giving us your time, your effort, your energy. I know there’s a lot of places you can take them. We hope that every time you watch a Freight Nation podcast. That it’s a benefit to you, your business, and your life. And Freight Nation, as we like to say, I’m gotta make sure I gotta get this right. It’s been a couple of days since I did one of these. You gotta work hard. Be kind and stay humble. Sometimes we forget Freight Nation, but we always have something to remind us. I have something on my desk every day that says that. That’s why I like to be close to it. Thanks a lot, Freight Nation. We’ll catch you on the next podcast. On behalf of the Truckstop team, thanks for listening to this episode of Freight Nation. To find out more about the show, head to truckstop.com/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. Until then, keep on trucking and exploring the open roads with Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast.
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