My favorite toy was a Golden Eagle tractor trailer. I got my license when I was 21 years old. Started my career with Malone & Hyde. Throwing boxes, back then there was no such thing as pallets. Work with them for about a year or so, then seen AAA Cooper was looking for drivers. Stayed at Cooper for 15 years. From PND driver to Inbound supervisor. The only position I never did was Terminal Manager
and Ops manager. That was really fun. Learned a lot from working freight. While working at Cooper I got a second job at Old Dominion Freight Lines. Was only going to be for a while... ended up being for 10 years. Mostly worked outbound and in the yard as a jockey. Yard dog...
Got Divorced from my first wife. That was a nightmare very toxic situation. Lost my house, my job, got my car repossessed, the only thing I had to give was my life. Had to get the hell out of there. Went up to Washington DC. Needed to change the scenery. There I was able to get on board with Washington Metropolitan area Transit Authority. Driving busses in DC was a whole new ballgame. 10 years into it got a gun pulled out on me and everything changed...
This is where my life changed for the better and worse. Before starting my new career with WMATA I worked as a pharmacy technician with Walgreens not just at the store but as a bedside tech at Washington Adventist Hospital. This is where I met the love of my life. Carmen was the only good thing to ever happen to me in all my life. At about the same time I had a gun pulled out on me and was told he would kill everyone on the bus. Carmen was dealing with stage 3 Gallbladder cancer. That cancer was brutal. I had taken a route that gave me only 40 hrs. To be able to take care of my wife. I thought she was going to be taken away from me. Between the chemo and her deteriorating and my own fathers death from cancer, I was at my breaking point. To stay close to home I changed direction.. I got a job as Comerical vehicle training instructor at Hagerstown community college. I was also working at FedEx Ground part time as a yard dog. Between the two jobs I was able to make ends meet. Being an instructor was the only thing that helped me heal from the pain and anxiety of Carmen's cancer, my father's passing was very difficult for me even at his age of 91. Then then the idiot on the bus. I found my true calling. I love teaching and passing on my knowledge to others. After Carmen's cancer went into remission I decided we needed a complete change of scenery. My mother did not want to move north and I didn't want to go back to Miami. So I chose Ocala Florida. Carmen's health got allot better and she told me to pursue my dreams now. I came down not wanting to work for someone else so once I got established I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to change the way truck drivers are trained. I want to make sure my students are taught not just the test but a drivers lifestyle and a culture of safety always. Passing on my first hand knowledge to the next generation of truckers. Not just that, but the thrill to see a person progress in my craft. To be able to affect a person's life in a positive way. To know what it's like to make a move in life and be able to invest in a person's career and be able to mentor them to not just become a better person but to become the best version of themselves.
-Pedro Camejo
My first memory of toys growing up was getting a Ole Dominion toy semi truck from my Grandmother. I guess it was destiny I would end up driving 1 someday. I was raised in the Restaurant industry learning the business inside and out. My parents instilled in me hard work ethics but more importantly that helping others means more then getting rich. You achieve more success in life by changing lives. I've taken that belief with me to every job. Hard work, investing in others, loving to teach has put me in management positions at every job I have had. I love investing in others and changing lives. My darkest moments in life were made better by helping others. My parents opened a restaurant when I was 8 yrs old in Belleview, Fl.. They had the restaurant for 7 yrs and touched many lives in the process. Through the years I was able to learn the business, cooking, cleaning, ordering, sales, charities, holidays, and the importance of family time. Every job I've had has taught me something new to take to the next. The best part is being able to pass that knowledge on. I was a assisstant chef at 15, chef at 17, and a general manager by 19. I have enjoyed the restaurant industry a lot especially the food but something was missing. One day I made a statement about my job that had a reply that would change my life forever. That reply brought me to the trucking industry at the age of 34 for a company called New Prime Inc.. I achieved my CDL at Prime and continued working there for about 14 months. As with every job my work ethics and loving to teach made me a trainer for Prime. I enjoyed the opportunity but didn't like being away from home for so long. I came off the road because I thought my mother was going to have a major surgery, turns out it was my father having emergency surgery but God made sure I was here for it. During my time at Prime it allowed me to travel to the Phillippines where I met my lovely wife Rose. Also introduced to me by my best friend/brother who got me into trucking. I took a local job for awhile but i missed the road, I went back to driving but this time for Heartland Express. My time with heartland Express was great. I became a trainer after about 8 months with them. I enjoyed teaching drivers every few weeks. Changing lives and investing in others. Heartland treated me really well and will always be thankful for them. Heartland was there for my family when my wife Rose and I lost a child, not many companies would do that. After almost 4 yrs I found a opportunity to come off the road and teach at a driving facility. This new opportunity gave me the chance to invest in more people then before, again my work ethics and attitude brought me to becoming the facility manager/instructor/trainer/examiner. I enjoy the new career more then ever. That facility closed after almost 2 yrs and brought me to a facility that doesn't care or invest in students. Looking at this facility and others in the state made us realize that the standards for training facilities wasnt very high and the quality of drivers wasnt much better. Pedro and myself decided lets change that narraitive. Since we both love to teach and we both care about students we decided to embark on the journey of starting our own facility. Its a scary jump for us because its a big journey but we both trust in each other, have a passion for the business and trust in God. The next chapter is never written, its up to us to make it happen so here we are jumping at the next opportunity to invest in you. Are you ready to take the challenge?
-Jerry Mullin Jr
