Our podcast team heads to the Mack Trucks Experience Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to sit down with Brand Experience Specialist Christa Tam. What started as a dream of becoming an elementary school teacher turned into a 20-year Mack career that touches almost every part of the business: aftermarket, engineering, manufacturing, forecasting, quality, and now customer experience. In this episode, Christa talks about learning trucks the hard way in parts specifications, moving through roles that kept her close to product change, factory operations, and forecasting, and eventually leading a product quality team at Lehigh Valley Operations. Today, she brings all that knowledge together at the Experience Center, hosting tours, ride-and-drive events, and museum visits that help customers see, feel, and drive the difference behind the bulldog. Christa discusses: -Starting in parts specifications at world headquarters, learning to support dealers with microfilm, blueprints, and decades of truck records, and realizing how much there is to know about vehicles that stay on the road for millions of miles. -Moving into engineering and factory roles, coordinating design changes, material planning, service cab builds, and acting as a single point of contact between the plant and the sales side to keep customers informed about their trucks. -Managing product quality at Lehigh Valley Operations, leading auditors and specialists who investigate campaigns, misbuilds, and warranty trends, and feeding data back to the line so customers receive the trucks they expect. -Stepping into the Brand Experience Specialist role, organizing factory and Hagerstown tours, hosting customers on the test track and off-road course, showcasing new products like the Pioneer alongside heritage trucks, and inviting Mack fans to work with their dealer to plan a visit. With a teacher’s mindset and a deep respect for the people who build and drive Mack trucks, Christa shows how a great customer visit is built on real factory experience and genuine pride in the brand. What’s next? Tune in weekly for new episodes! Visit the Mack Shop to use your discount code: https://mackshop.com/ Book a virtual truck tour! https://www.macktrucks.com/live-tour/

We are joined by trucker, country music singer, and songwriter Tony Justice, whose life has always run on two parallel highways: hauling freight and writing songs about the people who do it. Growing up around coal trucks in eastern Kentucky with a truck driver dad and a gospel-singing mom, Tony learned early how closely the road, family, and music are tied together.

In this episode, Tony talks about chasing two childhood dreams at once, turning an independent music side hustle into a full-time business, and how faith, grit, and the trucking community carried his family through financial disaster, his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis, and the uncertainty of Covid. From viral hits like “Last of the Cowboys” to Facebook Live merch marathons and packed truck shows, he shows how old-school trucking songs can still move people, pay the bills, and inspire the next generation to grab a CDL. Tony discusses:

-Growing up in coal country, riding in Mack coal trucks with his dad, washing and greasing equipment on weekends, and playing bass in his mom’s gospel group by age eight, with trucking and music shaping his earliest memories. -Balancing life as an over-the-road driver and working musician, booking loads around truck shows, cramming guitars and merch into the sleeper, and putting in 2,300 to 2,400 mile weeks before working the stage all weekend. -The dominoes of adversity: a distributor bankruptcy that wiped out payment on thousands of CDs, his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis, and then Covid canceling Mid-America Truck Show, and how a viral “Last of the Cowboys” video and creative Facebook Live sales kept the business and their family afloat. -Using his platform to give back, from Operation Teddy Bear for a young boy on hospice to Joy Ride school events and the Large Cars and Guitars show that has raised around $200,000 for Susan G. Komen, all while inspiring new drivers who say his songs made them want to get behind the wheel. With stories that run from hand-me-down CB radios to 60,000 pound tour buses, Tony shows how trucking songs still matter, giving voice to a brotherhood on the road and connecting generations of drivers and their families.

What’s next? Tune in weekly for new episodes! Visit the Mack Shop to use your discount code: https://mackshop.com/ Book a virtual truck tour! https://www.macktrucks.com/live-tour/

We’re back at the Mack Trucks Historical Museum in Allentown, PA. This time with Tom Mack, great grandson of founder John “Jack” Mack and the last Mack family member to work at Mack Trucks. From childhood road trips spotting bulldogs on the highway to years in military intelligence and global electronics, Tom’s winding path eventually led him to the Macungie production line, where he quietly proved himself long before anyone realized his last name matched the badge on the hood. In this episode, Tom shares how centuries of wagon-making, a Titanic-era wireless set, and a deep “fix-anything” streak shaped both his life and the Mack brand. He talks about life as a flex technician and product quality auditor—test-driving brand-new trucks, chasing down rattles and brake issues, and protecting his family’s name by making sure customers get the truck they were promised. And in retirement, he’s still wrenching: resurrecting a 1957 open-cab B-model fire truck and volunteering at the museum to keep history not just polished, but running. Tom discusses: -Growing up “just a normal kid” in a very not-normal family. Playing spot-the-truck on road trips instead of punch buggy and realizing later how deep the Mack driving and mechanical instincts run. -How a Marconi wireless radio, similar to the Titanic’s set, pulled his grandfather into ham radio and Tom into electronics, leading to work on high-power vacuum tubes and radio stages for Air Force One and global semiconductor supply chains. -Coming to Mack via a job fair after a layoff. Starting on the line installing visor labels and speakers, then stepping into the “flex technician” role, filling in across the cab line and learning how an entire truck really goes together. -Moving into product quality auditing: bringing trucks back from the yard, road-testing them, chasing down odd noises and brake behavior, and using data on repeat defects to drive continuous improvement while safeguarding the Mack name. With a mix of humility, technical depth, and genuine pride, Tom shows that Mack heritage isn’t just a family story, it’s baked into how the trucks are built, audited, driven, and preserved for the next generation.

What’s next? Tune in weekly for new episodes! Visit the Mack Shop to use your discount code: https://mackshop.com/ Book a virtual truck tour! https://www.macktrucks.com/live-tour/