A Midwest Truck Driving School Podcast

YOU WANT A STABLE CAREER THAT PAYS WELL.
BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START.

Built in the Midwest sits down with the people behind the trades — truck drivers, linemen, heavy equipment operators, and the employers who hire them. Real conversations about what the work is actually like.

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Every conversation, every story — from the people who build, move, and power the Midwest.

E{emum} | Class A vs. Class B: Which CDL Do You Actually Need?

Part 2 of our CDL Q&A picks up right where we left off, and Josh still hasn’t seen a single question before RJ reads it. The first one sounds simple: if you want to be home every night, which license should you get? Josh’s answer might not be the one you expect, and from there...
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E{emum} | Why We’re Not Worried About the Future of Trucking

Diesel is breaking records, and the headlines make trucking look like the last industry anyone should walk into right now. Josh just got back from a trucking conference in Dallas, and what he heard from the carriers doing the hiring doesn’t line up with what you’re reading. RJ brought questions from people who are on...
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E{emum} | What Makes a Great Equipment Operator? 40+ Years of Insight

Emil LaFave has taught heavy equipment at North Country for 23 years. He ran his first machine at about 15, a backhoe hooked onto the back of a front-end loader on his family’s farm, and he’s been moving dirt and fixing whatever broke ever since. Before he taught, he spent 43 years in trucking. Before...
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E{emum} | Storm Money & Tough Lessons: What I Wish Someone Told You Before Becoming a Lineman

Kyle Montgomery spent about ten years as a contract lineman. Now he’s the lead line instructor at North Country Electrical Line School in Escanaba. He got into the trade almost by accident. He’d done five years in the Coast Guard, come home, and watched the paper mill he was working at close with a chain...
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E{emum} | Why your first CDL job doesn’t need to be your dream job

Kat’s daughter took a career quiz at school, and the top answer came back as magician. Kat’s first reaction was a question: where are the trades? She’s usually the first face students see when they walk into Midwest Truck Driving School, so she hears the questions people bring in with them, from DOT physicals to...
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E{emum} | The More They Need Drivers, The Harder They Make It

Mac has taught people to drive trucks for 26 years. He kept paper logs before regulators replaced them with electronic devices, he watched the pre-trip exam turn into a test you can fail on the spot, and he watched schools get held to standards nobody enforced when he started. He noticed something else along the...
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E{emum} | The Standard The Standard That Doesn’t Care Who You Are: Nyeannie’s Lineman School JourneyThat Doesn’t Care Who You Are: My Lineman School Journey

Nyeannie Reeves came to line school straight out of the Army Reserves, with zero climbing experience and a fear of falling he didn’t know he had until he was about six feet off the ground. Four months later he’s running pole top rescue against a four-minute clock. Near the end of the conversation he shares...
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E{emum} | He Got His CDL at 18 Instead of a Degree

He turned 18 a few weeks before the course started, then drove three hours to a school he’d only ever seen in videos. An hour before we recorded this, he passed his final test. But the part that stuck with us happened years earlier — back when most of his classmates hadn’t worked a day...
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E{emum} | CDL Endorsements Explained: Hazmat, Tanker, Doubles & Triples, Passenger, School Bus

Most CDL endorsements come down to a written test at the Secretary of State. Thirty questions, a small fee, and a new letter on your license. This episode breaks down how that little letter actually changes what the job looks like. Josh sits down with Bill Oglesby to walk through all six endorsements — what...
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About the Show
WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY DO THE WORK WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE THEY STARTED?

Built in the Midwest is where we have real conversations about careers in the skilled trades — with the people who do the work and the people who hire for it.

We talk about how people got started. What the work is actually like. What employers are looking for. The hard days, the turning points, and the things nobody told them before they got started.

Hosted from Escanaba, Michigan by Midwest Truck Driving School.

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