Driver Bio: William S.
Bill Scarlett next to his 747 company Peterbilt
About William:
William “Bill” S. has been with Daniel Mullins Trucking for almost 12 years, and has driven just about every kind of truck we have to offer. From moving dirt, to driving tankers, he’s one of the most seasoned drivers on Team Mullins. He originally got into trucking through his uncles & riding along with them and seeing different parts of the United States. One uncle even told him to find himself a “back and fourth rock haul every night” and that’s exactly what he ended up doing. When Bill isn’t on the road, he’s enjoying metal music like Megadeath & Metallica.
All right. So first of all, can you tell us your name, age, and where you're from?
William S. but they call me Bill. my age is 62. Just turned 62 on May 9th. I'm from Romulus, Michigan. Someplace no one's ever heard of.
Where is that about in Michigan?
Oh, Romulus is a little town that sits a little southwest of the end of Detroit Metro Airport.
So we're like on the flight plan almost there, you know <laugh>. We're right next to the city and I hadn't been there in many years, until I started driving a truck. Well, Old Dominion said, you can go to Troy if you want to. And I'm, I think I'm in Columbus, Ohio or something, taking a break. I'm like, “what? That sounds neat. I ain't been to Michigan in 15 years, you know, that'd be good.” And so I went up through there on 75 right through downtown.
Well, it got late on me in the morning and traffic was getting bad and I didn't want to go through downtown coming back. Yeah. So I looked at the maps and there's a road that goes around the outside of the town. So I'm tooling along and all of a sudden I see this green sign on the top of this road, it's all elevated road surface, you know. It says Romulus. I'm like, looking around. I didn’t know they built an interstate over the top of my city!
You asked, you know, where I'm from and, and that's where I lived until I was nine.
But I was actually born in Belleville, the next town over.
What originally got you into trucking?
I had three uncles that were truck drivers. My dad wasn't, he was a steelworker. And that's, you know, when we moved to Florida, that's what he picked up and kept on doing, because he did that in Michigan. And, so, you know, hanging around these uncles and they would come to town down here hauling out Continental Can Company back to Dandridge, Tennessee, two of 'em drove for Tennessee Truck Lines, which was also Bush Brothers, dog food, Showboat, stuff like that, you know, canned goods. We were up there, I think it was up there, maybe he picked me over here. Anyway, I got a ride. I was still a kid, you know, 12, 13 years old. And, uh, he had this old cab over Peterbilt, you know, really nice thing. And, uh, took me up through Hurricane, West Virginia. Those guys got me started. And, I told that same uncle, uh, we called him Lefty. I said, I'm thinking about buying a truck, and he said, no, you don't do that… Find a nice little company that you can get a job with and, and get you a, how did he phrase it? He said, get you a back and forth rock haul every night, you know?
And so I was on the Old Dominion Freight Line for 18 years and that's what I did for about, man, the last 12 years I worked for them. You'd go to meet an Atlanta driver in Valdo to switch trailers, come back.
I've never thought that I was gonna end up actually hauling rocks. <laugh>.
So that's what I've done here. This is coming up on 12 years now..
What made you choose Daniel Mullins Trucking?
Yeah. Um, it was by accident and I didn't do any research or anything like that. I had two friends that worked over here. They said it's a great place to work. Hours are long, but they pay you fairly and you don't have to worry about getting paid or your paycheck and they get benefits, you know, you hang around long enough and then you get bonuses for doing good work.
How would you describe your overall time at Daniel Mullins Trucking?
It's been a great experience. Everything about it's been positive. You know, some key points, it's a family oriented operation and they observe that when they look at their employees, they understand everybody has a family and that's important to them to make sure that you're cared for.
What are some of your best memories with Daniel Mullins Trucking?
I was always fond of going out to the farms. When I drove a dump, yeah, I drove one of the biggest ones we had.
And yeah, sometimes you go out to the farms and the fields, and you get stuck. Other times you go out there and you are in and out. I remember, there was this guy, you call him on the phone, and he'd meet you at the gate and he'd go all the way out there with you, and then you stop and get in his truck with him, you know? And he'd take you to each little place he was worried or concerned about. You might not be comfortable because there's holes and stuff like that.
The last time I was at a farm, I think I had a frameless trailer. I went there with LJ. And he went up so far and stopped. And I didn't want to get any closer to where he was. So, you know, I pulled along there and it was a little bit slippery. And it just so happened I stopped in a hole.
I was there the rest of the day. Getting that thing out and spending the night as I refused to come back empty handed.
I had to go up on top of that a trailer and shovel 2 tons of fertilizer. It's old, used up fertilizer that gets spilled where they process it and blend it and everything.
Every time I tried to raise that trailer being in the hole plus being heavy on the passenger side of the rig, it was just going to fall over. So, I gave that up, got up there and shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. Trying to raise it up again, it was still wanting to fall over on that side. And part of the process of doing that once you gain so much experience with dumps is that if you're raising them up and it looks like they're going to fall over and they continue to lean more and more, they're going to fall over, but if you can get to a point where you can raise it up so far and the material starts coming out without it falling over, then generally you can, you know, keep working with it down and get the stuff out of there. So finally, I was able to get the bed all the way up, even though I was in the hole.
The ranch hand that met me out there. He had a shovel on his truck. And I dug for about an hour and a half under those tires that were on, you know, the high side and when I started rising up and stuff, they started sinking down. So, the trailer was more level. And once I got it all the way up, I was able to inch out of there.
Just stopped in the wrong place. It's all it was. Would have been fine.
A neighbor came over there with a 2-axle dump truck, he tried to pull me. They had a big John Deere in front of him and they were both tugging on me and waiting, coming out loaded.
And then is there anything else you'd like to share with others looking to start a career with Daniel Mullins Trucking.
Yeah, there's 1000 things I could share. One thing for people looking to start a trucking career or continue is to come in with a positive attitude and remember, anytime you start something new or try something new. It’s easy to get disappointed and want to give up and walk away and the best thing that anybody can do that's not done this kind of work before and wants to try it is give it time. Give it some time to settle in. It's not extremely difficult work or physically demanding on people. A lot of people like it because of that. You know older people, you know, say, you know, bodies wearing out and getting little muscle, muscle fatigue going and stuff, you know? Yeah, this is the truest definition and no touch freight.
