The Cypress Truck Lines Podcast

America's Big 250: Fourth of July with Cypress Drivers

Two hundred and fifty years. America has been doing this for 250 years, and we are celebrating it the only way we know how on the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast. In Episode 26, Marcus brings back two of the show's most beloved guests, Tony Miller and Kevin Barritt, for a Fourth of July special that is exactly as fun as it sounds from start to finish. Firework stories. Childhood shenanigans. Eye-popping Fourth of July stats that will make you think twice before you light the next one. A genuine moment of appreciation for the veterans who made every single one of these celebrations possible. And most importantly, the introduction of what is absolutely going to become the world's new favorite way to refer to a hot dog. Pig missiles. Tony and Kevin adopt the phrase immediately, and there is no going back from there. This is not a serious episode. It was not supposed to be. It is a celebration of America, the open road, the people who drive it, and the holiday that reminds all of us why this country is worth being proud of. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and pass the pig missiles.

Hurricane Helene Relief: Cypress Drivers Answer the Call

Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across inland North Carolina and Tennessee in 2024 that claimed 250 lives and cut off entire communities from the resources they desperately needed. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded by sending 7,500 feet of temporary bridge infrastructure to help reconnect those communities including a saline and isopropyl factory critical to the medical relief effort in the aftermath. To haul those loads DeSantis tapped Cypress Truck Lines. In Episode 25 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus sits down with two of the drivers who were there, Antonio Martinez and Mike Shealy, to hear what it was actually like to carry that kind of weight on the back of a flatbed. Not just the physical weight of the bridge sections. The weight of knowing what those loads meant to the people waiting on the other side of the route. What surprised Marcus most about this conversation is how completely unbothered these two drivers were about the magnitude of what they did. They showed up. They did the job. They went home. That humility is the whole story. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and listen to this one with the volume up.

What Gets You Hired (or not) at Cypress Truck Lines

Every driver who has ever applied to a trucking company has wondered the same thing. Will my record disqualify me? Will they find out about that accident? What happens if I am honest about my drug-screen history? In Episode 24 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus sits down with Angela Barfield, Ciara Watson, and Sharon Stoltmann, the team that recruits, screens, and processes every driver who comes through the door at Cypress. These three women bring enormous pride to every conversation with prospective drivers, and in this episode, they bring that same energy to the podcast. You will hear what disqualifies drivers most often, how felonies and accidents are evaluated, what role the hair follicle drug screen and med card play in the process, and why being upfront from the very first phone call can make or break your application. If you are a new CDL holder, a driver between jobs, or anyone wondering what it takes to get hired at Cypress, this episode answers it directly. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and walk into your next application ready. 

Predatory Towing: What Every Truck Driver Must Know

Your truck gets towed and you did not see it coming. The bill is outrageous, the situation is stressful, and you are hundreds of miles from home trying to figure out what just happened. Predatory towing schemes, cargo theft, and parking scams are targeting commercial drivers at an alarming rate and most drivers do not find out about them until it is too late. In Episode 23 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Cypress drivers Devon Sonson and D'onte Pitmon sit down with Marcus to share their real firsthand experiences with towing situations that could have gone a whole lot worse. Both drivers made mistakes, both drivers owned them, and both drivers worked with Cypress dispatch to get the situation handled with minimal damage. What comes out of this conversation is not just a cautionary tale. It is a masterclass in how the right company culture handles a bad situation. We also dig into the stats on predatory towing, cargo theft, truck stop scams, and what every OTR, regional, and local driver needs to know before their next load. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and do not learn this the hard way.

Stephen Henderson: A Story of Resilience

Some people find trucking because they love the road. Some find it because they need the money. And some find it because everything else fell apart at the same time, and the road was the only thing left that made sense. Stephen Henderson is that third kind of driver. In Episode 22 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Stephen sits down with Marcus to tell his story from start to finish. A career in sales, management, and telecoms that looked solid from the outside. A grandfather-in-law lost. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks later. A job and benefits that were gone two weeks after that. Addiction issues make an already impossible situation even harder to navigate. And then, somehow, through all of it, a CDL, a truck, and Cypress Truck Lines were waiting on the other side. His wife made a full recovery. Stephen found a career he loves. And the relentlessly positive attitude he brings to this conversation will make you rethink whatever you are dealing with right now. This is not a sad episode. It is one of the most hopeful ones we have ever made. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and listen to this one twice.

Summer Safety: What Every Driver Needs to Watch For

Summer is coming, and the road is about to get a whole lot more crowded. Motorcycles are coming out of hibernation. RVs the size of small houses are pulling into your lane. Teenagers who just got their licenses and have no idea that you need 400 feet to stop. Construction zones are popping up on every highway from here to the state line. More pedestrians. More vacationers. More people have no idea what it takes to share the road with an 80,000-pound flatbed truck. In Episode 21 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus sits down with Cypress Director of Safety Sharee DeHart, driver manager Katy Mongkhonvilay, and terminal manager Ison Cates for a conversation about what drivers need to watch for as the summer months ramp up. This is not a scolding session. Nobody is here to issue dire warnings or make you feel like the road is more dangerous than it already is. This is a relaxed and honest conversation about the real things that change out there when the seasons turn and what smart drivers do about it. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and head into summer with your eyes wide open. 🎙️

Life OTR: How Cypress Drivers Spend Their Off Time

The miles are logged. The load is delivered. The 10-hour break has started. So what does an OTR driver actually do with that time? In Episode 20 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus gets three Cypress OTR drivers together for one of the most laid-back and genuinely fun conversations the show has ever had. Parris McLeod, Greg Boyd, and Jeramy Richard talk about everything they get into while out on the road. Workouts in the cab and at the truck stop gym. Gaming setups that would make most people jealous. Meal prep strategies that keep them healthy and out of the Arby's drive-through. Sightseeing in cities, most people only see from an airplane window. Favorite places to stop. Least favorite places to stop. The 34-hour reset and what drivers actually do with all that time when the clock is running. And the little moments of life on the road that nobody tells you about before you get your CDL. This is OTR life without the filter. Light, fun, and completely real. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and never miss a mile.

How Cypress Ops Gets Drivers Home When It Matters

Most trucking companies will tell you that home time is a priority. Cypress Truck Lines built a system that actually proves it. Five hundred drivers. Fifteen hundred trailers. That ratio is not an accident. It is the foundation of a philosophy that lets Cypress drivers get home at the drop of a hat when something important comes up without asking permission or filing paperwork or waiting on a load assignment that might never come. In Episode 19 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus sits down with driver manager Blayze Padgett and veteran Cypress driver and trainer Angel Escoto to break down exactly how the Cypress operations system works from the inside. How does dispatch actually function? How do driver managers and drivers work together to make the system run? What does it look like when a driver needs to get home fast? And why do drivers not abuse a system that gives them this much flexibility? The answers say everything about what kind of company Cypress is and what kind of drivers they attract. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and find out if Cypress runs the way you have been looking for. 

Cypress Orientation: What They See and What It Takes

Every driver who comes through Cypress orientation has one job: prove they are ready. Randy Wells and Blaine Carver have seen hundreds of drivers walk through that door, and they can tell almost immediately who will succeed and who will not. In Episode 18 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Marcus sits down with the two men who built Cypress's orientation program into one of the most respected driver development processes. Randy and Blaine are no-nonsense. They do not sugarcoat, and they do not hold back. You will learn what new CDL holders get wrong before they ever climb into a truck, what the orientation team at Cypress wishes every driver knew walking in, and what the drivers who go on to build long, successful careers at Cypress have in common from day one. This episode is for drivers in CTC right now, drivers heading into Cypress orientation, and anyone who wants to understand what separates the drivers who thrive from those who do not make it. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and come prepared.

Life360 on the Road: Safety, Community and OTR Life

The Life360 app started as a simple way for OTR drivers to keep tabs on each other out on the road. What it became for Tony Miller, Kevin Barritt, and Adolf Metzer is something a lot bigger than that. In Episode 17 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast, Kevin reached out after Tony mentioned the app in a previous episode because he wanted the world to know just how much it has meant to him and the drivers around him. What followed is one of the most genuine conversations we have had on this show. Tony, Kevin, and retired Cypress driver Adolf Metzer walk you through the tips, tricks, and real-world experiences that have made Life360 one of the most essential tools in the OTR driver safety belt. They talk about the camaraderie it builds among Cypress and Sun Belt drivers out on the road, the friendships that have grown from it, and the peace of mind it gives to the families waiting at home. And then Adolf tells a story. It is heavy. It puts everything into perspective. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe now and keep your circle close out there.