Episode 161 - Perfecting your craft and being able to communicate.

Music. What's up, JFW family? Welcome back to the Channel 23 podcast.

The purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch the fleet, to engage and inform everyone with all things JFW. Good morning, men. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. If you don't recognize their voices, we've got Jim White, Dave White, and Super Dave Weldon in the studio today. We may have a special guest later. Yeah. Guys ready for the pledge? Absolutely. Hopefully everybody can join us for it. Yeah. I'm excited about it.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to go out and do some trucking today. We pray for the safety of our fleet, all of their families, and all the other families and individuals we come across on the road today. We pray for patience and the making of good, safe decisions.

We pray to be accident-free and that we all make it back to the comfort of our homes this evening. We pray for healing and 100% recovery for all of our family members that are ill. No matter what, we trust you, God, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Absolutely. I think I brought it up last week. Jam is, we've got a lot of people that have recovered that are back in their seats and all that kind of stuff. Good to have everybody back. Isn't that awesome?

The prayers are working. Right? That's what that is. Power of prayer. Absolutely. As a reminder, anything you hear on today's podcast, we were forced to say it, not by J.F. W. Just kidding. It was in the back of our minds and it just came to the front. I would like to force my opinions on everybody. It is just our expressed opinions.

You don't have to agree with them. You know, and if you don't agree with some of the stuff in the podcast here, skip it, fast forward through it, and listen to the stuff we need to have you guys listen to. Yeah, don't skip the safety part. That's the whole point of the podcast, and we're going to get into this a little bit later, is this is a safety meeting. You know, do we spice it up? Do we have fun? Are there jokes? Yeah. Are there opinions? Yes.

But, you know, safety is safety. And if you're not getting your safety meeting here, you're not getting it anywhere if you're a JFW driver. Absolutely. Episode 160, 199 downloads. It is a little down. Typically with the holiday week, the downloads do or the listens do go down a little bit. We are at 85.3 thousand total downloads and we gained two followers and we're at 654 followers. Nice. That is cool. Yep. I guess Jim doesn't want to do the dad joke channel.

Any new followers from like Australia or New Zealand or Germany? I didn't look at those metrics. I could pull that up. I haven't looked at that in a look. Indiana? Yeah, there you go. What other states have we been at? Come on. Florida, Texas. Nice. We actually have a package coming tomorrow from Germany. Oh, really? DOS is good. I got the notification from UPS yesterday and I thought, wow, that's crazy because I just got the notification that it shipped.

Like saturday or sunday what is it it's a cuckoo clock oh wow wow yeah yeah so a little bit was authentic a little bit of a story behind that when we were on vacation in germany and we were in the black forest we went to like this little workshop on how they build cuckoo clocks there and of course they had tons and tons of cuckoo clocks for sale and they were they're pretty pricey you guys, you know, even a decent one is over a thousand bucks. Wow.

So we were like, no, no, we're not going to do that sort of thing. You know, then we come home and we're like, geez, you know, we were on vacation and it's like monopoly money when you're on vacation. It's just, Hey, yeah, let's run vacation. Jackie and I were like, man, you know, we should have bought a cuckoo clock. Cause when are we going to go back to the black forest in Germany? And probably never. So that's our Christmas present to each other this year. Nice. Yeah, very cool.

Nice. This is really cool. A little bird that pops out. You got a bird. It's got a couple of kids on a seesaw that go up and down. It's got a little train that goes in a tunnel and around. Wow, Dave. How cool is that? And it has 12 different little German melodies that come with it. How many coconuts are coming with it? Yeah, no coconuts. No coconuts? You didn't go cuckoo for coconuts? And it's handmade though, right, Dave? It's not factored to do that. It sure is. Wow.

Absolutely. Very cool. 100% authentic. And I even looked at the UPS tracking and it's coming from this town. I can't even pronounce it in Germany. Wow. Very cool. Yep. Well, we had a listen in Romania. Wow. Very cool. And this is just for the month of December. So. Wow. That's cool. We've had one in Romania before. I'm sure we have. We are worldwide. Huh. We are. I didn't know we had one in Romania before. It's come up before. I'm almost positive. Yeah.

Well, great for that person in Romania. Hello in Romania. Maybe it's a relative, huh? Do you guys know why camels are, do you know what you would call a camel without a hump? A cow? A llama? Humphrey. Humphrey. Humphrey. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Oh, that was a good one, Jim. I've leaned away from the dad jokes because I'm just, I'm running out. Do you know what they call a blind dinosaur? Oh, I should know this one. Is this a Bella joke? It should be. I'll tell it. Yeah,

it's got to start with I can't see my something. Do you think they saw us? Oh, I like it. I like it. That's funny. It's time for the dad joke challenge. You look like you got it loaded up. I am cocked and loaded right here. So everybody knows, at least here in the office, I went to the doctor yesterday. You know, I told him that I broke my arm in three places. And, you know, he said, you should stop going to those places. But anyway, besides that, a guy said to God, God, is it true that you,

to you, a billion dollars is like, excuse me, a billion years is like a second? And God said, yes. The guy said, God, is it true to you? A billion dollars is like a penny. And God said, yes. And the guy said, God, can I have a penny?

And God said, yes, just a second. That's fun. Oh, man. Good one. Well, mine's a bit far-fetched from that, Dave, but this guy wakes up one morning to find a gorilla in his tree in his backyard in his house. And he looks in the phone book for a gorilla removal service. He finds one. when he calls, the question is, is it a boy or a girl gorilla? The service guy asked. The man's response, it's a boy. It's a boy. He says, okay, I can be right there, says the service guy.

An hour later, the service guy shows up with a stick, a chihuahua, and a shotgun, and a pair of handcuffs. He then gives the man some instructions. Now, I'm going to go climb this tree, poke the gorilla with the stick, and when he falls... Until he falls. When he does, the trained Chihuahua will then bite the gorilla's testicles off. The gorilla will then cross his hands to protect himself, which will allow you to put the handcuffs on him. And the man asks, what do I do with the shotgun?

The service guy replies, if I fall out of the tree first before the gorilla, shoot the Chihuahua. Oh, that's funny. Oh, man. Man. Well, I did a little Johnny joke today. So little Johnny's in class and it's vocabulary class and the teacher's going through the vocabulary words and she's like, man, I got to be careful with this because I just never know what Johnny's going to say with the words. So she's going down the list and she gets to rectum.

And she said, Johnny is eagerly waving his hand, but she had some experience, like she said with Johnny and I'm not going to pick Johnny. I'm going to ask Susie. So Susie answers and she gets to the next word and it's defecate. And again, she thought there's no way picking on Johnny and Johnny's out of his seat, man. I got his hand up and teacher's like, nope, nope. I'm going to skip him. So she gets to the last word and it's urinate. And she's like, all right, what could Johnny do with urinate?

She goes, I think it's pretty safe. I don't think he can do anything. And again, she looks out, here's Johnny out of his seat, waving his hand. And he's like, all right, Johnny, what's your definition of urinate?

And he looks right at her and goes, teacher, urinate, but if your chest was bigger, you'd be a nine. Little Johnny. He's an ornery little kid, isn't he? I love him.

Everybody knows little Johnny, don't think right right yeah all right new employees this week we got caesar sanchez and erica wright has come back to jfw welcome back to the fleet yeah welcome man and woman welcome gun caesar celebrations anniversaries this past sunday the first was mike bortz nine years anniversary congratulations yeah congratulations mike that is so cool one of are top-notch trainers yep everyone he's trained has spoke so highly of him

yeah absolutely i don't know what goes on inside that cab of that truck. They all love Mike. They do. They do. You know, Mike mentioned to me that during the trainers meeting, he was very proud because a couple, and I say a couple, I don't know whether a couple is two or five, but a couple of the other trainers that were in there, he had trained. Oh, absolutely. That speaks volumes. Yeah. Mike, thank you. That's a legacy kind of thing. Right? That is. That is really great. Thank you, Mike.

Just so everybody knows, when you hit nine years, your PTO accruals go up to 12 and a half hours a month. Nice. That'll build up pretty quick. Congratulations, Mike. Yep. Well-deserved. John Jordan had his first anniversary here today. Very calm. That is awesome, John. That is on the way to eight more, right? Yeah. If you guys know John Jordan, he's come in, named quite the good name for himself.

He's a good driver, does a great job, never complains. He could go anywhere and do anything that he does. He's getting it done on that Utah run. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he makes it look easy. A silent warrior, isn't he? Yes. He just goes out and gets it done. Yes. So he's not silent. Then he has some pretty good jokes and good personality. Well, he listens to the podcast, I know, for a fact. Speaking of going out and getting it done, Coleman Amara, two years tomorrow. Oh, man. Grats, Coleman.

Yep. That's awesome, Coleman. Is that like Coleman Shoulder O'Mara? Is that what? Colden. His fighting name now that he's- he's cold and ain't got no breaks on my. And then this Saturday the seventh Joanne hits a big one four years wow wow good job Joanne yeah thank you Joanne talk about seems just jumping in the seat and flying right here forever Joanne yes speaking of the seat I remember sitting her sitting in this seat during the interview yes which interview because I

think she got three and the third one was, we grilled her. Yep. She was like, how many people are going to be here? All of them. All of them. Birthdays. Randy Martinez had a birthday on the first. Happy birthday, Randy. Ron Bugler had a birthday on the second. Happy birthday, Ron. Happy birthday, Ron. Yeah, happy birthday. Edward Cabral and Gustavo Inda from the Wash Bay had a birthday yesterday. And then Rich Trujillo's birthday is today. And then Sergio Portillo's birthday is tomorrow.

Wow. Happy birthday, everybody. That's a group of people. Yeah. Good birthdays. Yeah. Dustin's wife, Tabitha Romero, had a birthday on the 2nd. Isaiah Sands, that's JR's son, had a birthday on the 3rd yesterday. Brendan Lacha, boo's husband, has a birthday tomorrow. And then Evan Hunt, Troy's son, has a birthday this Saturday the 7th. Very cool. Happy birthday, JFW family. Yep. Happy birthday, everybody. Yep.

Shout-outs. This was brought to me by Brother Dave. You want to give a shout-out, Brother Dave? Yeah. Yeah, no, I just want to reach out to big country for covering for Rob while he was off on vacation for taking care of the bulker dispatch and stuff. And, you know, we've mentioned time and time again that the bulker division is, is pretty seamless. We don't deal with it. We don't, you know what I mean? Those guys, they're internally take care of themselves and we're just blessed to have them.

And I guess, you know, we can't forget about them in there. It sounds terrible to say this, but they're easy to forget about because we don't have any problems with them.

And it's, it's a blessing. it's a it's a big blessing so yeah thanks big country for covering for rob and and rob for everything you do for that team i mean you're the heart and soul of it and and you got some star players so it helps it's it's awesome yep some new face has been jumping in over there i know sammy gaeta so sammy cookies okay he's been jumping in nice so good it's good to see all these yeah zach has also jumped in too yeah absolutely.

All right. I'd like to give a shout out to the Silent Warriors. Not that you've actually already been a Silent Warrior, but the old ones, the new ones. If we're just going out there and getting it done, it's been a strange year, and you have to be able to pivot to be successful. So, you know, sometimes sitting in dispatch, you hear a dispatch, you ask somebody to do something, and there's no hesitation. They just go take care of it. Isn't that awesome? Yeah.

It is just like that is the— Yeah, it's like that's what we're about. That's the pinnacle of our job. That's what JFW was built on, just going out and getting it done. Yeah, it's not my run. You've put me on it. I'm hardwired, all the other small things. Oh, that word, that dirty word, hardwired. Man. Pretty much got rid of that, haven't we? It's been eradicated. Yep. Yep. Until right now. Yeah, so the, yeah. I know what you mean by the pleasure of just having it done, Jim.

Other times, you hear dispatcher ask somebody to do something that's kicking and screaming. Yeah. You know, and I just, you know, it's, it's a really big difference between those two phone calls and man, just go out and get it done. This is a winter time. You know, we have runs to go do that's a blessing, you know, and you want to pick and choose what you want to do and what truck you want to do it in. Like we ain't got time for all that.

Just go out and get it done. Yeah. Like, like we're penalizing people. Yeah. Yeah. It's a blessing. Yeah. Not a curse. Right. Yeah. We have work for you. We're sorry. We have work for you. Yeah. Sorry, we had to go to Fair Play. Jeez. I want to give a shout-out to Mike in the shop for holding it down while we had a couple techs out on vacation. So Ricky and Teddy were both out at the same time. Last week, right? Last week, yeah. Both of them last week. That left Sergio

and Mikey. They brought in Jason Cantu from the night shift. And then, yeah, Mikey's just been here, and the shop's been jumping in. Yeah, Mikey was here at 5-hole last week, getting it done. Is Ricky back today? I can't remember if I was tomorrow. He was not out there. I thought he was coming back today, but. Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. I think it's a flyback today and come to work tomorrow. Yeah, I think you're right.

Jim, this is your shout out. You want to give it? Yeah, me and Dave were doing some talking last week because it's been, you know. Not quiet in the office, but we counted on him. We wanted to give a shout out to Dustin Sr., what he's overcome in the last year. He helped in the office. He filled a space looking in videos and helping us out. He was in and out of the part of the safety team, some of the meetings. He was going over the harsh breaking and different stuff.

He just flowed with it. Plus overcame, you know, personal trauma. And I don't think anybody realizes when I, when I sit back and, you know, you stop the world from spinning and, you know, think about losing your leg like Dustin did. That's, that's horrifying for me, you know, and, and he came through that and he's, and he's back in a truck and, you know, he's just poof gone out of the office and we're, and he was back trucking and doing his thing. And, you know, I thank you, Dustin.

And I, and I wanted to, me and Dave talked about bringing you in and, and talking to you privately. And then I, you know, I told Jam, I, I want to do it on the podcast. I want everybody to, to know how appreciative me and Dave are and, and JFW is what, you know, Dustin's done. And he, and he's a long time employee and he, you know, he's, you know, Dustin Jr.'s driving. There's, there's some heritage and legacy there and Dustin.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Yeah. And you guys are going to think this is a dad joke and I guess I'm doing it on purpose. Everything that Dustin has been through and, you know, with the leg amputation and everything, and he's driving that back in a truck now daily, standing on his own two feet. No, I'm doing it on purpose, Jim, with all seriousness. Oh. You know what I mean? He's standing on his own two feet, man. That's something to be proud of.

He's persevering throughout, right? He lost his own leg, but he's got another one. Yep. So, yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Dustin. Good job. I want to- We are proud of you. On that note, I want to give JFW and you and Jim a shout out just because a lot of companies wouldn't have done what you guys did either.

You know, to me, I see this time and time again, we were talking about some other cases this morning where somebody is down on the rock and then we step up, JFW steps up. Ultimately, you guys give the okay for him to come in and work in the office where a lot of companies would have been like, Hey man, let us know if you can get back in the truck and win. Not like, Hey, we're going to help you get out of your house and come to work every day and get you moving.

So appreciate you guys as well. Yeah. Thanks, Jim. It's good stuff. Luckily, we have a community, a family, a culture that can do that, Jim. And I know, and it's not to toot our own horn, but I don't think some people realize, you know, the helpfulness that we have here because it just goes unnoticed. You just don't know about it. You just don't brag about it, right? Yeah. Well, you guys would never. Like our case we were talking about this morning.

Cases. Cases. Yeah, there's been some help, but nobody knows about it. And that's not the point, right? Yeah, you guys will never bring it up. I brought it up. Thank you, Jim. Speaking of not bringing things up, there is a secret Santa at JFW. Has been for the past, I don't know how many years. But this person provides gifts out of their own pockets for the JFW family. And right now we're doing the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.

I think yesterday, was yesterday or Monday the first day? I can't remember. Monday. Monday was the first day. So, you know, pay attention to the radio. Your name may get called and you're going to get a gift from our Secret Santa. Yes. So thank you, Secret Santa. Yes. We appreciate you very much. Thank you, Santa. So much. Yep. All right. Any shout outs from you guys? Any other shout outs from you guys?

Yeah. I just, mine was the Dustin one. And I think, you know, from the hip here, Jam, you brought it. I'm stuck on it is cause I've heard that a lot. The last couple of weeks is just the, when you're asked to do something and you just go do it joyfully and thank you to everybody. You know, I think that came up yesterday, you know, when we, when we talked with Erica, when we interviewed Erica, the things you just, you got to get it done.

Right. You got to go do it. You have to, you have to be, how are you going to look at it this way or this way? You know, to me, some people have enough grit to create the honest value, but to do it joyfully, that's where the, that's where the separation sometimes. And I'm guilty, you know, sometimes. We all are. Listen, we got to, you know, we got to put our boots on in the morning. We kind of work, you know. Now, you can either walk in the door with attitude

or you can have a smile on your face. You get to choose. Attitude, gratitude, and effort, right? Those are the three things we can control when we get here to JFW. Yeah. I'll add a shout out to that, and it's kind of going back in time. I sent him an individual text, but not last week, but the Friday before. The last Friday we worked, right? Because we didn't work last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

But the Friday before that, we were a disaster and we were freaking busy and we couldn't cover plants and we were having people do extra loads and seeing where we could rob Peter to pay Paul and get things done. And we had just trucks breaking left and right. Teddy was to the point, he had two laptops. He was, he was like going from truck to truck. He was carrying tires. He was, you name it, man. We were fixing shit on the side of the road everywhere.

And Teddy busted his ass. And I sent him a personal text last Friday because he was gone all last week on vacation on his cruise. And I haven't got to talk to him about that, but he killed it, man, and killed himself to kill it. Well-deserved cruise. Absolutely, man. So yeah, Teddy, thank you. I forgot about that Tuesday when we did last week's podcast. So hopefully he's listening and- You get a little pat on your back there, Teddy, because you deserve it, man. Good job.

100%. He stepped up to the plate, Admi. Absolutely. And talk about doing it joyfully. Yes. You know, that's another guy. Oh, yeah. Have you ever seen Teddy in a bad mood? No. I've seen him with some bad hair. I've seen the bad hair. Yeah. He's got some hair. He's got that hair every day. Yeah. Yeah. He takes that hat off and it's like, whoa. I said to him one day, I said, man, you're having a bad hair day today. And he looked at me and said, I have a bad air day every day.

He's got a head of hair, man. He does. Yeah. I think he said like both his grandfathers are in their eighties or nineties, whatever it might be in full head of hair. Really? Wow. I don't think I'm going bald. That makes sense. Yep. That's awesome. All right. So how do we get everyone to listen to the podcast? I know we've been talking about this for a couple of years now. You know, the goal of the podcast is to be the safety meeting.

And then time and time again we'll talk to somebody and it's just obvious they're not listening we tried we've been trying to figure this out since day one but it's super important you know at least when we were having the safety meetings we could see who was there who was late who was checked out who was paying attention right but if you're someone who's who listens which obviously you are because you're listening right now please let

us know what we can do to get your teammates to listen, right? We've heard in the past it was too political. Most recently we had somebody say, you know what, I'm not patriotic and when I heard the pledge I turned it off, right? These are things you can skip past. You don't wanna hear our jokes, you don't wanna hear our sense of humor. You don't wanna hear our song. You don't wanna hear the song, right? This is our safety meeting. So how do you know what we're battling in Fair Play

if you're not listening to the podcast? Right. Right. How do you know we're fighting on Highway 85 if you're not listening to the podcast? How do you know anything if you're not listening? Right. So please help us get your teammates to listen. You know, I mean, the discussion part, the safety part, it's probably 30 minutes out of your day. You know, once a week to find out what's going on here at JFW.

Otherwise, I mean, I hate to say it. obviously i have a vested interest in this podcast working right it's been my baby it's it's been our baby not just my baby it's been our baby jr stepped up you know this is something that we really put a lot of effort and time and emotion absolutely you know so we we want it to work we don't do this for our health no you know the the thing is and you're absolutely right jim But it is all about the safety.

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we can't afford not to be safe. Right. So, I mean, so what do we do? So do we start the podcast? No song, no pledge, no prayer. No joke. No joke. And just get into, make sure the intersection is clear when you cross it, you know? Or, you know, do people actually enjoy the format? I mean, I do enjoy the format. I enjoy it. Yeah.

The listeners need to enjoy it. Right. I mean, we've got a lot of feedback from a lot of the listeners, you know, and I understand their family, but, you know, Holly listens every week. My son-in-law, Tyler, I mean, we see him probably once a week and he's always got a question for me about the podcast. And I'm like, I am so proud that he listens to the podcast.

That involves him into everything, right? You know, and Danielle listens a lot, you know, and they all give feedback of, oh, that wasn't very good or I really liked this or whatever. But it's just like any program. Right. Right? Yeah. My buddy Timmy. My buddy Timmy in North Carolina listens. You know, I told you we were talking about, I was telling him about an issue we had with Chains. And he's like, Chains? He's like, you guys have been talking about that since August.

Like he knows the day that we brought it up. You know what I mean? Did you say he's at North Carolina?

Yeah. you know what they use to chain up out there don't you nope clorox slow rocks you've never heard of clorox clorox from my life that's right same stuff pour some clorox on those tires it'll whiten your whiten your clothes and give you some traction was it jerry that's cj yeah yeah yeah the ice they have ice and you can pour clorox and it makes the ice sticky never could understand i'm like what the hell but he was he was that you know you know that stuff, Clorox.

Clorox. Yep. Where do you buy Clorox at? Walmart. Yeah, I was, as you started into this, you know, how do you get people to listen? I'm going to go back to dad's, or dad's, to Dave's joke, you know, shotgun a tree and a chihuahua. That's how we're going to get you to listen. But. Yeah, we need you guys to listen and to pass it on. And, you know, speaking of Tyler, I know he speeds it up a couple notches. Oh, yeah. You can do that easily on the recording.

Right. And it just goes by a little faster if you think we're slow, but we're begging. Man, I just remember, and this was way before we had a podcast, but when I was driving, 13 and 14, one of my favorite parts of working here at JFW is I would listen to two or three podcasts a day. I just felt like my mind was being fed. I was growing.

I was learning, you know, whatever it was, whether it was a sermon, whether it was about guns, you know, there's just so many different podcasts you could listen to and feed yourself and grow, you know, intellectually while you're driving around. I mean, I was, I almost felt like, yeah, you know, I get to listen to podcasts all day and get paid for it. So, and right. And, and what about, what about this one, Jam?

I mean, like you said, skip the pledge, the prayer, the birthdays, the song, whatever. But over the last few, we've talked about chaining. We've talked about, you know, Potter's input about running that Redmond. We've, we've talked about snow. How not to get tickets. Right. And all of that. And talk about letting you grow on something you do every day. You know, we're not talking about how to become a chess master. Right. We're talking about being a better truck driver.

We're talking about you perfecting your craft and being good at your job. And making it easy, absolutely. You know, as far as the format goes, when we started this podcast, one thing I like about the podcast that I would listen to is you almost felt like you were in the room with the people, the hosts, the people that put it on. And talking to my buddy Timmy the other day, he's like, man, you know, I really do. And he's not a trucker.

He has nothing to do with this industry. And I was like, well, why do we like it? He's like, I don't know. I feel like I'm in the room with you guys. He's like, I've, you know, doesn't know what anybody looks like except for me, but he knows Super Dave's personality, Jim's Dave's personality. Like to me, that was a huge compliment. I really, really enjoyed that. That is cool. I mean, it gets the same thing from Tyler. He's, he's not a trucker.

Right. And, and yet he, he knows about change. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Try it. You know, if you don't listen, try it. Who are you talking to? The people that don't listen. You know, we took a road trip a few years ago and my wife Jackie wanted to listen to this audio book and I was like, come on. It mainly, it was kind of like a girl story and I really was poo-pooing it, you know. I got involved. I mean, it was great. It is the best way to road trip.

It is. I mean, yeah, we've listened to a few stories that last time we drove out to see Sam. Like I couldn't get enough of the two we listened to. The storytelling is really good. And I know we're the same on this podcast. Right? Right. Great storytelling. Yeah. You guys are, you know, because it's something we never did mainly when we're driving because it didn't exist, you guys. We had AM radio. Yeah. younger Tom Martino show.

Yeah. Yeah. The troubleshooters, which is still on ironically. Right. Tells you how popular that show is. Yeah. But like you guys are saying, you know, I've, I've done it just like you guys, you know, with, with Holly and, and jam, you know, you've, you know, you kind of were the, the, the father of the podcast and you listening to podcasts and stuff like that. He's the father. The godfather. But I'm just listening to you guys say how, how fun it is to do road trip.

And, you know, we've road tripped and, you know, just me and Holly are like listening. And then, and then all of a sudden, like the gas, luckily the gas light goes off. It's not an older car. Right. Cause I would like, oh shit, we need gas. You know, you're so involved in the story. Three hours went by and boof. I'm telling you that podcast Rob Reiner has on JFK, OMG, man. It is the bomb. You know how you used to get through a road trip.

99 bottles of beer on the wall. I don't know about it. Is it beer? A slug bug. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Name all the capitals of the states. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when we used to road trip with a map. Right? I was talking to Ron Winkler yesterday, and we were just talking about old school this and that. Yeah. Back in the day, we had to have maps go, and you had to mow the 100 blocks, and that's how you got around. Right. Now I go somewhere. I could be five minutes away from the house.

So I can't figure out how to get out of those development because I didn't pay attention on my way in. Right. It's crazy. To me, that is a bad thing. It is. It's terrible. About the phone direction, man. You get in somewhere and you're like, wait a minute, I just need to go back where I came from and I don't know how. Yeah, I mean, it used to be, you know, address 400 South Alameda. I mean, 400 Broadway or 400 South Broadway. All right, I'm going one black South Alameda.

You just knew those things, you know? Yeah, absolutely, Jim. But there's a lot more names of streets and stuff now too, like all these circles. Yeah. We had, well, in fact, Tyler's dad just celebrated his 60th birthday and there was a surprise birthday party for him. So they just gave all the address and you weren't supposed to park around the house and you needed to be there by a certain time for the surprise and all that kind of stuff.

But a lot of people Googled to the house, but a lot of people looked the house up and it was at Tyler's sister's and her husband's house.

They just had remodeled it so it had a different fence in the front porch wasn't the same house looked nothing that's like and people looked at the picture of the house on google maps and the address and oh i'm in the wrong place that's not the same house so some people were late because they relied on that and i was like that's so funny you know you just how things change right you know yeah i do like the time feature like it'll take you eight minutes to Yeah.

That's really helpful for planning. Right. Oh yeah, definitely. All right. One thing we want to talk about today is you have to be able to advocate for yourself while cooperating with law enforcement slash DOT. Okay. Yes. You want to be cooperative. You want to be polite. Right.

But you have to be able to talk and you have to advocate for yourself because That will get you out of tickets You know Going back a few weeks ago We had somebody get pulled into a mile high You know We thought they just got a ticket Well first They were going to get a ticket For You know Having leaking You know For the air gauge is not working. Air gauge is not working. Yes. But the air gauges are working fine. They just didn't know where the air gauges were.

But then, you know, the driver says, oh, he let me go. He just wrote me up for a hydraulic leak, which is an out-of-service citation. Right. Right? But they let him go with a wink and a handshake, like, hey, just go somewhere close and fix this. Right. But then he gets back. He's got a ticket for a broken windshield. He's got, you know, there was like four or five things on this inspection report. And it's just like, you got to be able to talk about these things. Right. You know?

So know your craft. Don't be scared of law enforcement or DOT. There are people just like us. They can be wrong. A good one will admit when they've made a mistake. And we've proven it. We've, we've battled. I remember one of my first things here. I was only here a couple months. We had a guy down at the Kipling State Shed. You know, they said he was overweight. Brother Dave sent me down there. We argued.

We ended up calling. Not a desk sergeant. it was a desk sergeant a desk sergeant they're like oh you know they'll have to get their manual scales out and we re-weighed and the guy you know we were over 80 000 and the guy's like you see i'm like yeah we're on a secondary right oh yeah you know so that guy didn't get you know so these guys are people these guys and gals are people just like us human beings human beings they're not always right just because they have the authority you know

and there's ways to fight things without being a jerk mm-hmm the best way is to know your craft know your equipment know your truck no beyond the shadow of a doubt what what. Everything about it. Knowing your weight. Yeah. You know, it's. Yeah. And you know where you're at. You're there to argue with them, not argue with them. That's a terrible way to. Conversate. You're there to have a conversation.

But what I was going to, you said, Jim, there's a way to ask somebody to, or to deal with people or whatever. Sometimes the best way is when they're bringing something up, go educate me on that. I don't understand that. Right. And most people, especially law enforcement, will fall all over themselves. Help me understand. Yeah, to help you. And in that conversation, a lot of times you can come up with, well, I don't think that's right.

You know what I mean? This is, this is what I think. Are you sure? Same with the weights. You know, you probably didn't go down there and go, you're wrong. You didn't start out that way. I want to reweigh the truck. Can you, can you show us? Listen, we'll believe this truck is not overweight. Yep. You know, are you able to reweigh us please? Yes. Yeah. No, we can't do that. And then that's, that's when the fight starts or the, the, hold on, let me put my mouthpiece in. Yeah.

It's kind of funny. We keep saying, and I'm not fight. Right. And argue. Right. And we're not fighting or arguing. We want to be better. We're having an educated discussion because you know your craft so well, you can have a conversation with that officer or trooper and, and be like, no, I'm not overweight. Right. My axles are 34, nine, or I'm on secondary. I'm allowed to be 39,000 or you know what I mean?

But that, those things, you, you need to know that you need to be an advocate for yourself. And I mean, I'm just dumbfounded. I know we've done this our entire lives, right? Like all that stuff, we talk about it. Like it's so simple, but that's the reason you need to listen to the podcast. That's the reason you need to get your partner or the person you park next to, or the person you see in the pit to listen to the podcast.

So they understand why not to drive fast through the pit or go fast out of the driveway or all of that stuff. You, you, the listener needs to help educate our other people that aren't listening to listen to this podcast for all of these reasons we're discussing right now. You got to know your truck. Yes. And you got to be able to communicate. Absolutely.

If DOT obviously told me, hey, your air gauges are broken, I could look at it and be like, oh, I'm sorry, sir. Those actually are not my air gauges. These are my air gauges. But you got to be able to communicate. I told you guys this quote the other day, like people that don't know how to communicate, every conversation is an argument, right? That's how they perceive it, right? So you got to be able to communicate and you got to know what you're talking about.

You know, and then I have to throw out there, you know, we're always up and down, backwards and forward. We've lost, you know, some night mechanics. We've lost day mechanics. We're trying to get new trucks on the road, old trucks off the road. You know, we built the super tandems coming into the summer. We've done all this. We're always under a certain amount of pressure. The shop is, you know, and one of the things that the truck got rode up for was the broken windshield.

Well, you're going to get wrote up for the broken windshield, right? But the thing is, is have you written it up? Do you know if it's on the list to being repaired? What's the schedule? Can you keep writing it up? You have to be involved in that. Jam immediately took the violations on it and went over the violations. And sure enough, the truck needed the windshield, you know, replaced, but it was on the list to be done.

That weekend. That weekend. And we spend thousands on chip repair, windshield repair, you know, and that's, I'm going to call that the price, the cost of doing business. You just can't down a truck when it finally breaks enough. And those, those one piece windows, they suck for that, you know, but we gained, we gained visibility. We gained, you know, it's a one piece, all that kind of stuff. We used to love the split windows. They were, they were cheap too.

40 bucks a piece and you do it in 10 minutes. Right. And you know, the, the thing is being an advocate for that. And I think there were some other things going on in this situation that we're talking about. And we shouldn't have had those other issues on the truck. Like, cause they're 100% repairable. And I guess being an advocate also means being engaged in what your truck is, has, and does. Yeah. And the issues with it. You can't just close that door and walk away on a daily

basis. You know what I'm going to do? And I'm sorry. So I guess my point is, if they only found the windshield in that inspection. And if you listen to this podcast, you could be like, we replaced windows in our fleet every week. Is there any chance I can call and see where this is at on the list? And if it's being replaced soon, will you cut us a break on this and not ride it? Because look at the rest of my truck. Yeah, it's perfect. They repaired two

chips. This just cracked yesterday. It's on the list to be repaired this weekend. You're having an educated conversation with that, I'm just going to say patrolman, whether it's a trooper, officer, DOT guy, doesn't matter. Right. You're having an educated conversation and trust me, they see the worst of the worst. They're looking for them. Right. That's the reason we look for it in our own fleet.

You know, if you're the guy driving around with all your hoses, dragging the deck plate, you know, I hate to call it, but I'm going to call it dumb ass. Right. You're not doing your job. And the state patrol knows if you're not doing that, you're not doing the hard stuff. Right. If you don't know where your air gauges at, we could basically write you a ticket for whatever we want. Right. Exactly. And you can't argue. Yes. You know?

And that truck only had 76,000 miles on it, I believe. You know what I mean? So I think part of it is we get so used to having good equipment and having good mechanics and our trucks just being in that good of shape when one's not. It hurts. It's not. And it hurts. And back to the oil leak, though, you know, and I just said we lost some night mechanics, day mechanics, the shops, you know, behind everything else. but here you are.

And Dave just mentioned it to know your truck. Jam just mentioned it. It's only got, you know, 70 or 80,000 miles on it, you know, but that PTO should not be leaking ever, ever. Right.

And I don't know if you wrote it up, but you just got the truck, whatever you didn't realize it was leaking, but anything dripping on the ground should be written up or you find out where it's at, but it could be a five minute fix of the mechanic sliding under and just tightening the hose maybe it needed a quarter of an inch of turn tighten a hose clamp turn a fitting right right easy fix that the shop could look at because that is a dot write-up item it should you

should not be dripping you know is our hydraulic oil mineral oil yes does it hurt anything is it hazardous does it have any chemicals in it no you know it's absolutely fine for the environment i'm going to go to the other i don't want to make you lose your train of thought that doesn't matter though. Right. And it pisses me off. Is a leak good? No. Does it make a mess on everything and coat everything with oil? Yes. Does it cover the trailer?

Yes. Does it look like shit? Yes. Do we want that? No. You know, we, we, we went across. It's going to attract attention. Yes. Yes. You don't want that. So here's my angle on this. You're hired to drive a truck, but there's so much more to it than just driving that truck. Think about it. Everybody enjoys watching The Voice or American Idol. These people go on there. What if they didn't know the words? Right? You got to go out in that truck and know everything about it.

Know how the systems work, know where your gauges are, know about what can shut you down, audible air leaks, you know, fluid leaks, know what the weight limits are on that road, know where you're going so you don't get stuck on a road that you're not supposed to be on. But it all comes into the fact that you're driving that truck and you're out there. And we say it a lot, you're the captain into that ship. And boy, you don't want to hit an iceberg and sink. So are you saying,

I need to know the words to the song? Yeah. These guys go out and have to sing a different song every single week. Right. Yeah. The song, the pitch, the note, all of that, how are they going to sing it? You know, all that, Dave, what, what goes in behind the scenes and you know, like Dave said, great analogy, cause that's exactly what we're doing. Here's behind the scenes, everybody. Here's our podcast for everything you want to know behind the scenes.

So ask the person you park next to, ask the person you're sitting behind or in front of at the pit, hey, did you listen to the podcast? Why not? Exactly. Why not? Yep. You're driving that truck for 10 hours a day, 11 hours a day, just take an hour and listen to the podcast. If you don't like the song, fast forward through it. If you don't like the prayer, fast forward through it. If you don't like the pledge, fast forward through it. But listen to the rest of the podcast. Yep, yep.

If you're not getting this information, and just like you've brought up, Jim, if you haven't had the information about our problems on Highway 85, the problems we're facing on 285, just traffic in general, safety issues, this truck being stopped issues, you're not going to succeed here. And, you know, I hate to say it, but you're pretty well not engaged. No, and you're not going to succeed in other areas because you're just, your office sucks. Right.

You know, the place you spend all day in sucks. Yeah. You know, and we're here to make it all better and you can make it better. Yep. You're not educating yourself. No. That's the bottom line. You are not educating yourself and it sounds terrible, but I don't think you want to be better if you're not. No, no. And every day, there is no way I know everything. Every day I learn something new, you know, or a tidbit or a trick or, you know, something to help somebody.

Absolutely. You know, and I, and I gotta, I gotta mention to you guys, and, and I may be on here, Jim apologize if I didn't read far enough, but you know, all this week we've had weird things. It seems like weird things go on breakdowns with the trucks, you know, it just, just this week, what about next week? No, it's this month, but it's just the third or Wednesday. It's just the last 30 days. I'm glad the year's about over, right? Right, exactly. Oh my gosh.

But when we ask you questions, please listen to what we've asked. I mean, we had a conversation with one of the drivers and here's a get, we are not trying to dog you personally or anything else, but we ask specific questions and it's going to be the same thing.

When you answer our question, when you answer our radio and you can't answer our questions, you're not going to be able to deal with a DOT officer or a trooper alongside the road because they're going to ask you a question and you're going to go, well, my, I think my rear tire's flat. You know, that's what, that's what we get. And I've listened to the conversations this week that Mikey's had, Dave's had, you know, and I think one of the days Casey finally jumped in or Kendrick.

Oh, it was the, it was the seven. Both of them. Yeah, it was a seven-way chord. Because I gave up. Yeah. I just plain gave up. I handed the radio to him and I'm like, you're up. I'm not answering my question. You know, and, and, you know, the, the one I heard yesterday was about the blue line. And, you know, the Mikey set out the steps. I want you to take the glad hand off. I want you to pinch the line. I want you to do this and then let me know, call me before you do anything else.

I don't think this was the blue line. But anyway, call me before you do anything else. The driver called back and goes, I'm on the road. I'm good to go. And you're just like. That's not what we asked you to do. No. This is what it sounds like to us. Like if you went out to eat, let me go to New York strip state. Okay, sir, how would you like that cooked? Macaroni and cheese. Very many of the questions are a yes or no answer. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're not, we're not trying to do it to be smart asses or anything else. We're, we're trying to do it to get you going. We're here helping you. Help you. Also, we, you have to help us help you. Yeah. And it's a, it's a learning moment too. Like if you listen to the questions and realize why they're being asked of you, you will learn something and be able to maybe navigate through that on your own next time. Yeah. And if you don't understand what we're asking, man, super easy go.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Can you explain it to me? I did hear somebody do that the other day. Isn't that the bomb? That's awesome. So proud of those people. Yeah. Or, hey, I'm not understanding. Can I call you? What is a seven-way plug? I don't understand. Yeah. Talk me through. That was outstanding, right? I do think some of the drivers are trying to give as much information as they can, but it's not needed at that moment.

Let's just answer this question, and then we move on to the next thing that the mechanic needs to know. Right. So even though they're trying to answer the question with all the information they have, that's too much at that point. They just want to know A, B, C, and then D. I think something happens to them physiologically. Like they go into like this panic mode almost where their ears are turned off. And their mouths are just giving all the information that they have that may

or may not be relevant. But I feel like, you know, something happens to them. They like going to fight or flight mode almost. Could be. It's true, Jim. And if you're not listening to this podcast, to have this discussion, to be able to think about it. Because I did hear a driver call the other day for the shop. And it was, you know, double O to the shop. Double O to the shop. Double O to the shop. I'm like, I couldn't even get out from underneath the truck fast enough to, to go answer the radio.

And, and it felt like a panic, you know, and it's, it's like, it's not a panic, you know, just, just relax, think through it. And, and I, and I want to back up because I, I, this is so important and yet we don't want you doing it. So jam, you mentioned so that you can probably, probably navigate the problem on your own, right? Sorry. No, you're exactly right. Because what if you need to, right? Right. But we've ran across where you do the 10 second reset, you shut off your truck,

and then it sets the D-rate in. D-rate. Five mile an hour D-rate. You can't just shut the truck off. Okay? So call in, go, hey, this is my problem. I was going to do this. Is this okay? You know, set up the situation, tell them this is what I was going to do. Everybody's going to go, yep, that sounds great. Or hell no, you're going to get a, you're going to get a D rate. You're going to D rate to five miles an hour and we're going to have to come get you. Yep.

Yep. You know, I guess, you know, to navigate that jam is, hey, my glad hands leaking. That's hooked to the truck. Okay. We've talked about it. Set your trailer break, go out, undo the glad hand, re-hook it back up, you know, charge the trailer. Is it leaking anymore? That's navigating the situation on yourself. Sure. Right. That's, but there's some things you can't do, but you have the knowledge to go, Hey, I bet I could do this. Let me call in. Yep.

You know, I think. Or know what to look for in the next. Yes. Yeah. To have the pertinent information. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, we've, we've, and listen to have your radio up and listen to all the conversations. Listen to how Mikey's asking. How would you answer it? What is he trying to do? And on top of it, we've had a lot of drivers jump in and go, hey, do this. I know the one was the trailer valve when you're getting loaded.

And I don't remember finally who answered. Go, hey, have the loader load you from the back to the front. It really helps with that situation. You know, that was one of the drivers because they're listening. That's great information. You know, we need to, it's a team event, team sports. I will have to say before you do jump in there, let the mechanics finish. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's a way to do everything. Yeah. Yeah. If the mechanics are currently speaking to the driver,

don't interrupt the mechanics. Yeah. Let him finish. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, moving on. Right now, we have a lot of extra loads coming out of Fairplay. The other day, we actually had 74 loads come out of Fairplay. We also have a lot of drivers going out of town to Redmond. So if you're not going to Redmond and you're a local driver, you could expect to be going to Fairplay more often that week, maybe even two or three times in that week.

That's what we need you to do. That's the winter work that we have. We need to be grateful that we are blessed to be able to run 74 loads out of fair plan a day.

I mean, keep in mind the, the Utah hall that that's 20 to 25 trucks a day gone. Right. So there's, there's a lot more load on the trucks left here in town. 25% of our fleet basically is gone. Yeah. And, and that, that gives everybody some work. Right. You know, it's, it's important. And, you know, I've said it and we talk internally about it is when, when Super Dave hires you or we do this, you weren't hired for a run.

You weren't, hey, we're a company that runs California to whatever, from here to California. That's not our run. We have one hall. This is what we do. This is what we do. We go everywhere. And do I want to block you off from going to dispatch and go, hey, I ran Fair Play all last week, two loads a day. Can I be on something else this week? Can you switch it up? That's a conversation. You know what I mean? Not an argument.

Right. But, but they might look at you and go, no, that's what we got this week. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, it's winter time. Think about it in the summertime, central plant has 800 yards. Plant two has a thousand yards. Plant 12 has 1500 yards.

Union's busy plant 13 is busy west plants busy all these different things are going on in the winter time the west plant could be closed central could be closed and so we're we have to if boy if they want 70 loads out of fair play let's get those 70 loads right. But your example is perfect too, Super Dave. Let's say we're busy in the summer and, you know, plant 13, you don't like going to plant 13, but they have 3,000 yards for the day.

Where do you think you're going to end up trucking probably? Right. For a load, you know, is the busy plant. We don't promise runs. We've never promised runs. I said it earlier and everybody bugged me that it's not a hardwired company. And thank God, you know, thank God we don't just have one run. Right. We can mix it up and we can go one place on Monday and another place on Tuesday. Absolutely. Yeah. A little variety, man. Or you run fair play all week because we got 75

loads a day coming out of there, right? Right. Well, that week you might have to do that. Yeah. You know, think of yourself as blessed, not cursed. Yeah. Because you're getting a paycheck. Exactly. Yeah. When I hear that, and this is the 12-year-old to me, but when I hear somebody doesn't want to go, I almost wish we could just tell them, okay, bring it in. But we need that truck to run. We got 110, well, maybe not 110, but let's say 100 truck payments to make.

We need the trucks to run and we hired you to run the trucks. Let's go. Yeah. And that, again, guys, look at the, you know, when you bring that up, look at the big picture. You know, who's paying for the, all your healthcare, your benefits. Benefits. Thank you. We all are. You all are by trucking. We have to have that truck run. And, Jam, like you said, we just can't bring you in at 10 o'clock. Oh, you don't like that run. That's the only one.

And pay you for the rest of the day and be able to pay for your health insurance and all the other benefits we have here. It doesn't work that way. Look at the big picture, not just yourself individually. The world does not work that way. Sure doesn't. All right, let's get a little technical here. Let's talk about the auto inflation light. This light only comes on if you have a low tire and you are losing air pressure. Everybody agree with that?

It has nothing to do with the way you load your trailer or the seven-way plug. Okay. Also, what is a seven-way plug? Okay. Jim, I will throw out there that it is provided electricity from the seven-way plug, which the minute you key on is powered. Gotcha. That's the, it's kind of a technicality. I got it. That's why I asked if everybody, I'm just clarifying. That's all man. Okay. But when we're, if the ignition is on, when does the white light come on? You're on an inflation light.

When does that light come on? When you have a low tire. When you have a low tire. Or there's an air problem. It is meant to tell you about the tire, but there could be an air situation. I mean, we've had a lot of times where the line gets broke off the axle. And the light's going to come on, but you more than likely it's a tire problem. So from the control box to the tire, there's a problem. Correct. It's telling you that the system is using air. Yes. Thank you.

So your tire might not be low yet, but the system is putting air into that tire. Is it possible with the colder air and temperatures, we've got a line leaking or weeping or something like that. So it may come on first thing in the morning. Yes. But I mean, we can soap those and look for them. Right. You know, and we can do that, but that system is to let you know you have an air leak in one of your tires. Yep. Period. So it's separate from your brake air. Yep. Yep. Yep. Has nothing to do.

Separate from the suspension. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. It's between the control box, which you should have learned in Kendrick's two day class where that's at. Yep. It's between there and the axle and the tires. Yep. Yep. And most of the trailers, if you don't know what it is and you're not sure if the light's working, all that kind of stuff. I know there's so many trailers and I can't say all of them, but me and JR worked on one the other day.

JR got right underneath the trailer, right by the box and opened up the valve. And he goes, Jim, is the light on? I said, it sure is. And it took seconds for JR to test that. And you can do that. I just have to be standing there. You can open the valve up. It starts to leak. Look out, peek out and see if the light's on. Yeah. It's not a two person job. It's not. You turn it on and look out. I was just standing there and JR was like, the light come on? Yeah.

Yep. You know, so it, but if you don't have a, here again, if you're listening and you got to this point and you don't have an idea what the white light is or what that valve is or any of that, there's a problem, you know, and, and, you know, have you been fortunate that maybe you've been driving for six months, the lights not ever come on, you haven't had a, a low tire or you don't know anything about it. And a white light comes on and you don't remember, that's a little bit of a problem too.

But I get, you know, I forget things if I'm not doing them every day, right? Well, I... You're being kind, right? The light didn't come on, but the fricking light is on the side of your trailer. What does it do? Right? Yeah. Don't you walk around your trailer and go, I wonder what that light does. I've never seen it come on. It's the ABS light. I've had people tell me that. Well, those are supposed to be marked ABS.

I'm not telling you they all are. You can't sing the song if you don't know the words. Your analogy is a winner, Dave. I like it. I love it better than the pizza analogy. 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer. What comes after 99? I don't know. Right? That's, yeah. So you're being kind, Jim, that yeah, the light hasn't come on, but by God, you have a light. Strobing. Well, the strobing light hasn't come on strobing. You still have the light on your trailer, not physically lit,

but there is a light bulb there on your trailer. What does it do? That hasn't lit in six months. Right. What does it do? What does it do? Right? That's the point to everything we're talking about here. I have some type of equipment that should do something. What does it do? You should be coming and asking us that question. You should be like, hey, I have this on my trailer or I have this on my truck. I don't have any idea what it does. Can you tell me?

Absolutely. Let's go figure it out. Let me explain that to you. Does everybody know what the tank is on their frame? Right. I mean, I bet there is somebody that hopefully you're listening to go, the tank? Yeah. Which one? Fuel? The fuel tank? Yeah. No, the one on top of the frame. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, guys are just... Know your craft. Yeah. Exactly.

Also, right now with the cold attempts, it is very common for those auto inflation lights to come on because of the cold air and the loss of tire pressure. Don't leave the yard until that light goes off, okay? It's a lot easier to take care of that in the yard than if you're out somewhere and now we've got to make a service call. So to explain that a little bit, Jam, as the temperatures drop overnight, all of those plastic airlines shrink.

They they reduce in size because of the cold air good plastic so then they will leak a little bit of air you know what's really cool you guys this is a little off subject but that entire trailer and all of these systems on the truck are fed by a tiny little one quarter inch line and it's even a flimsy little plastic line that you can crimp off with a pair of vice grips but isn't that amazing it is yeah just to give you an idea of how

much pressure you could lose so the other morning i get in my truck my pickup truck and my tire pressure is really low i'm like holy shit you know what i mean so i'm watching it it came up nine psi by the time i got to work wow oh yeah just driving down the road yeah it's amazing how much heat a tire dragging will build.

Eight pounds of air those sidewalls are just really flexing really well and get nice and warm right yeah i was really undo my energy, What's that? I'm glad we can laugh about that stuff. We got to. Right? We'll have a choice. I wrote a note on my other copy jam. Mikey texted you something yesterday for the notes. What? And then he told it to me and I wrote it on my other copy, but I didn't move it forward. I didn't verify whether it was in this version or he may not hit send.

Yeah. Mikey texted me, huh? Yesterday? Yes. Um down to my day let me search his name there was there was something in there if not i'll run down and grab it off my my list because i also wanted to throw out there cold water leaks, oh yeah and oh yeah we're is there something on there no you got no no it's kind of the same as the air leaks right right cold yeah exactly but we had that the other morning yeah just to elaborate on that.

Last week during Thanksgiving, that was the coldest weather we've had all year. You know what I mean? It got pretty freaking chilly. Well, the truck set, you know, a huge mass of them set for at least five days. So we had several what are called cold water leaks. And they're all, what happens is the hose gets hardened, the colder it gets, the harder it gets. And the clamp actually doesn't have as much flexibility to clamp on that hardened hose.

So we get what's called a cold water leak right right now it's warm and i talked to one of the drivers they mentioned they came in yesterday and said hey that cold water leak stopped on its own well ironically it hasn't been as cold as that now should we have them 99.9 percent of them are repairable or fixable an o-ring is hardened a fitting might not a fitting is loose because that's not possible, but it's always rubber related. That's why it's affected by the weather, right?

Yeah, I think a lot of people aren't exposed to cold water leaks. They've never seen them before. Right. Because we had two drivers come up to us the other day. They're like, oh, yeah, we both have coolant leaks. And you and I, we've just experienced it. We looked at each other like, okay, yeah, start the truck and go truck. And that'll go away. Top your antifreeze off. And we're going to be good. If it continues, let us know.

But, yeah, if you've never seen that before, you're leaking antifreeze. I mean, good for you for wanting to get it fixed before you leave. Because typically, you've got a coolant leak. Yeah. We need to take care of that. Yeah. If this is July and you have a leak, we have a leak. We got to fix it. When it's 20 degrees in the morning and all of a sudden you have a leak. Yes. Yeah. A lot of times it's just a hose clamp needs like a quarter turn on it. Generally it's nothing. It's

nothing. And it was the first day after the holiday weekend, wasn't it? Was it Monday morning? Yeah. And that's what I'm getting at. We had five of the coldest days. I mean, we got into the teens. Yeah. That's the coldest it's been when I say all year, this winter season. And I think just to touch on that, I mean, again, here we're hopefully you're listening to the podcast.

We've mentioned it lots of times. Be cool. But- We want to educate you also is that most of the manufacturers and the new technology, the reason the cold water leaks exist is because we've all switched to a silicone hose. Well, the silicone hose does not age like a rubber hose. It doesn't crack. It doesn't split. More than likely, it doesn't blow out. All right? All our water systems are running on a higher pressure than what they ever used

to back in the past, right? Just like our fuel pressures. That's so true. You know, and that's the educational part. Well, a silicone hose, because they expand and shrink, just like what we're talking about with a cold water leak, they come with a special clamp. If you put a normal clamp on a silicone hose, a normal clamp will cut the silicone hose because it doesn't allow it to, you know, shrink and contract. If you'll notice, almost all- Did not know that, Jim. Exactly.

Almost all the silicone hoses, especially if you look at the new trucks, they have a clamp with a spring on it. That spring allows a certain amount of pressure to be put on when it shrinks and be taken off when it expands.

Then it doesn't cut the silicone hose. and you know we we've through the shop mikey just went over this you know a couple weeks ago with me there's even another clamp that that's the clamp you have to use you can't throw a regular one on one on it and for years we've been taking a silicone hose and throwing a regular clamp on it and it's it doesn't work it eventually cuts that's so interesting the.

Silicone hose and that that's part of the that's part of educating yourself and you know if you had to take care of it on your own and you blew out a hose, hey, I'm going to put a regular clamp on this, but I got to get it with the shop, I got to get it with somebody and get the correct clamp put back on this. And Mikey's went over it with me that you don't take those clamps and just wrench them down till they're tight. You wrench them down so far so the spring can open and close and work.

And I can't remember the new clamp, what it looked like that he just showed me, but there's a new one. And he's like, yeah, this is what we have to use to do that. Yeah. And it is so cool. And that's to help with the cold water leaks. But with, you know, and we've talked about it too. Again, if you're listening for every lever you pull. One gets pushed. One gets pushed. Well, you have a bad-ass silicone hose that takes the pressures that doesn't crack.

Well, it's whatever, I can't think of the word. It might have a cold water leak when it gets really cold. That's one of the bad things, but otherwise this silicone hose is bad-ass. I like it. You know, I believe that's an engineering feat that helps correct the, expansion and the dreaded shrinking. And you just missed that, Dave. That's what I just was talking about is how much that silicone hose moves.

Great information, Jim. Very interesting. I do want to back up. What is a seven-way plug? If you guys aren't familiar with that term, it's your green line that controls your lights and all the electricity in your trailer. Some people call it a pigtail. And it goes from the truck to the trailer. It's the curly cord. Well, a lot of times it's a straight cord. We have both. That's right. They go to the trailer. It's going to be a green one. Right, right.

And here, you guys, I don't know if anybody, I mean, we know that because we've worked on it, but how you get to the seven-way or seven-way is that it always has, I'm going to say always has to correct me, Brother Dave, but it'll have a black and a brown wire in it, which will be some kind of tail light or a service light or a marker light. Tail and marker.

And black and brown that you might have a brown that only lights your side markers on your trailer and maybe the black lights, the tail lights.

Okay. That's, that's two of them. It's always going to have a yellow and green wire in it. That's your turn signals, yellow or green. Going to have a pair left and right. Okay. A lot of, on certain vehicles, your brake is ran down your yellow and your green, like probably your automotive, but your other wire is going to be a red wire. Guess what the red wire is? Thank you. Ooh, ooh, ooh. I know, I know, I know. Hit us, Dave. Brake light.

Red goes with the brake light, okay? So there's your other set of wire. It's going to have a constant power wire in it. The constant power wire will run your auxiliary stuff, and one of our auxiliary things is our flashing red light on our air inflation system, okay? White. Always the center pole. Always the center. Going to have white. Generally blue. Or blue, but then it's going to- It's flashing white light, though. Flashing white light. Yes. Sorry. I'm talking about the wires in the subway.

Yeah, the wire in the subway. And then the other wire is going to be a ground wire. Gotcha. But they won't ever see these colors because they're covered. Yes. Well, unfortunately, I've seen a few drivers expose them. Now, how many connections? This is what I want to know. How many connections are in a seven-way plug? Man. What color are those blue berries? Blue? there would be seven convictions. Gotcha. In the seven way. Perfect. But there again did you know that?

Yeah you do. Do you need to know that? Right? You should. Right? I mean if you ever pull any personal vehicle or anything like that I mean. Right? Yeah I mean you're not going to have a seven way plug on your pickup but you're going to have a four prong a flat four spade or three spade and then you're going to have I think it's five is the. Five or six. Five or six I think they've even went five and six and I mean, you know, and the newer vehicles, I think some of them do have seven ways on

it, you know, big plug, but be involved. Educate. I mean, what a, I mean, how do I know that? Cause you had to take them apart before. Yep. Isn't there two cords that plug into the trailer? I've seen two cords. Only if they're plugged in. Sorry, Ron. What's the other cord? That's going to be your tarp. Your what? Your tarp. Your tarp cable. Tarp cord. Okay. Yep. All right. Yep. If that's not plugged in, your tarp won't work.

If my tarp's not working, can I unplug the seven-way and plug my tarp into my seven-way? Won't fit. Oh, okay. All right. And there's a, again- It looks the same. Does it, though? On the outside. They're both plugs. No, one's bigger than the other. But you can take the tarp cable from another person's truck and plug it into your truck and see if your tarp works. I plug yours in first before you plug in somebody else's.

That brings up a note we don't have. And I've heard Teddy ask it a couple times, actually just yesterday, when someone calls with a tarp problem, he's asked, do you hear clicking coming from the battery box? Macaroni and cheese. Right, Jim? I guess I have to emphasize, this is when we talk about having your window down, being aware of your situation. And if you're driving and your windows are up, you will never hear it. Probably if you have your window down and the engine running,

it's still going to be damn hard to hear. It is literally just a click. It's a pretty loud click, but if you move your tarp switch either direction and your windows down, you are right above the batteries. You should be hearing some type of clicking. When you move it one direction, it should click.

Move it the other direction it should click and and the clunk or a click i i don't know sometimes it's it's it's kind of a bonk yeah right it's a bonk because you're you're physically taking a solenoid and it's banging from one connection to the other by moving that switch and it's called a reversing switch yeah is what we're doing that puts power to one side of the tarp or puts power to the other side of the tarp because there's only two wires that go to

it right exactly what i was going to explain is that's what's so cool about it there's a polarity switch that switches yep The ground and the positive to make your motor go frontwards and backwards. That's how one motor goes two different directions. It goes out and it goes in. Yep. So that's what we're listening for today. And almost every person I hear come back on the radio almost immediately. No, I'm not hearing anything. And I'm not quite sure that everyone knows how to hear that.

And I urge you to shut your truck off and listen to it. Shut your truck off, but turn your key back on and then hit your tarp switch and you'll be able to hear the... I can't argue that, Dave. I think the tarps are hot no matter what. Oh, really? I can't argue that. I don't know. Try it. Try it. Find out. Exactly. That way you can tell the shop, Hey, if that's not working, you got to have your key on and that's, that's where you're educating yourself, right?

You know, the old ones, let's go back old school. When they first came out, you didn't know key Dave, it's wired hot. I'm guessing the new is like that, but it depends what style we, what the apparatus is from the dash switch down to that. If it goes through the computer now, which I don't think it does, it may need a key on. If not, still roll down your window, shut your engine off, turn your key back on, move that.

You're going to, you're going to hear that sound. It's a, it's a clunk and it's coming from the battery box right below your seat. You should hear it. You should almost feel it if you're paying attention to it. So anyway, yeah, that's something else to educate yourself about. Cause I think 99% of the time I just immediately hear it. No, I don't hear any clicking.

Right. You know, and I think people are listening, they may think like, well, I don't hear something going click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, right? Rather than the- It's a little more subtle than that. Absolutely. Yeah. It's not like a dead battery click. Right. Right. And then one of the other things on here is we're running into it a lot for some reason, maybe because of the cold water leaks, we're having a lot more people add antifreeze to the radiators.

And I say radiator, I just call the reservoir the radiator because that's the only way you can get to it, right? Don't overfill those. It's just like the silicone clamps. There needs to be room in there for expansion, right? You overfill that coolant reservoir, it's going to push out. It won't just stay in there. It has to push out because it has to have room to expand. So if you're overfilling a reservoir above the full cold line when it's cold out, it's going to spill.

It's going to push that antifreeze out. on the point during the day. Yep. It has, that's the reason it has a maximum cold level. And if it's hot at the end of the day, it has the maximum warm level. Cause it expands. Exactly. So anyway, yeah, we're, we're running into a lot of that for some reason. And, and Mike just brought it up to me yesterday, so. Info. And then I know we did kind of touch on it.

I mean, we really did touch on it, but I have a little more graphic version of Mike's notes to please just answer the question asked on the radio. There we go. Like I say, it's a little more graphic version of that. We don't need to go there. Yeah, we covered that pretty good.

We did. Just important. Yes. Macaroni and cheese. Mac and cheese, baby. What color is your dog? It has yellow feathers. Yes. Speaking of chihuahuas, If you want to get bored, I'll bring you. Shotgun and a tree and a jolla. We'll get you to listen. We got open enrollment coming up tomorrow. As a matter of fact, tomorrow's the fifth, isn't it? Yep. Tomorrow is the fifth. Open enrollment for what? Health insurance. Benefits. What? Yeah. So if you haven't heard, we did keep Cigna.

We had to jump through some hoops and do a little dance. But in order to keep our benefits down, we had to do some health insurance trickery. It was the jolla.

Right it feels all got we all got bit yep main yard tomorrow at 5 a.m or 5 p.m you will be able to join our yard 23 on third on friday the 6th 5 a.m or 5 p.m also if you are a bulker and only if you are a broker nobody else we are going to have a video of the open enrollment because you guys start at one in the morning or two in the morning we will have a video that explains everything to you. But if you're not a broker, we need you there for participation. Yep.

And I just have to ask you guys, the 5 AM or the 5 PM, are we doing odds and evens? Like odds trucks in the morning, evens at night? And then if you happen to be having early dispatch, you can grab it at night? Do we talk about that? You just posed the question. It wasn't. Yeah, I have no notes on that. Hasn't been set up, and it should probably be done that way. But I don't think it was set up that way. OK, because I mean, if everybody shows up.

Everybody really would participate at 5 a.m. There's no use in them showing up at 5 p.m., but that's a lot of people at 5 a.m.

Right. We need to get some trucks on the road too. Right. I like odds and evens. Right. I mean, I think we, you know. Odds in the morning, evens at night? Sure. I think that's how it has to be. Yeah. Okay. We'll let this back snow. I don't know. I think we need to do that same thing at yard 23, you know. Yeah. And I think maybe if you're off, you know, or you have a scheduled time off and early off and you're not odds or not even, you know, think about it.

You can always attend the one here tomorrow at this yard, or if you miss tomorrow's, you're not here, go to the one at 23. It's just going over it. Jam's right. We kept Cigna. Kept Cigna. Thanks, Dave. But two different plans, and we need to be able to go over the plan with you, advise you what the plan is. We want to do it all at one time. We want to do it where we have everybody's attention. We want to know that you're listening. Otherwise, we just have you do open enrollment

right here on the podcast. We wouldn't need to have you, but we want to see you. We want to talk about it. We want to educate you. And, you know, then on top of all that, if you, if you don't show up and you're not part of it, then obviously you're not interested. You're, you're not, I, you know, I guess I, I shouldn't care. How can you not? I know. How can you not? I can't even say that because I do care.

But if you don't care enough about yourself to find out about your health insurance, that we pay all of, what is it, $14 a week for you? You know, that we offer? That they pay. That they pay. Yeah. Yeah. Our premiums stay the same, $14 a week for the employee. Yep, for the employee. Yep, absolutely. And part of what we're changing, and we want to go over and we want everybody to hear it, the, correct me, out of pocket. Out-of-pocket, yeah.

Out-of-pocket is going up, but JFW is going to cover that when you reach that old out-of-pocket amount. Yeah. Yeah. Just to be more clear, your old out-of-pocket was $5,000, right? New out-of-pocket's $8,000, but in your health reimbursement account, once you hit $5,000, JFW ponies up the next three. Simple as that. Yes, simple as that, Jim. It shouldn't make any difference to the employee at all, unless you had an HSA.

If you have an HSA, things got really complicated and we weren't able to do the same thing. So either A, you could choose the new HRA account. And keep your out-of-pocket expense down to $5,000, or you could continue your HSA, but you're basically on your own. It's going to cost you $1,000 more than last year. $3,000. Yeah. Because it was HSA $3,000, it's now HSA $6,000. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I thought it was $5,000 going to $6,000. We were trying to do that to keep it

the same, and that's when it got complicated. Yeah. Because then we needed an HRA to put the HSA, and you're like, what? I'll take the mac and cheese. Not you, we're like, what? Yeah. So if you're familiar with HSA, you can keep it. It's going to come out of your pocket, just like Jim just said. But there is the HRA, and we're participating in that cost. Yeah, and here's the thing. I mean, you do get the triple tax advantage by still staying in an HSA.

Yeah. And if you already have your monies built up in there and you don't go to the doctor a lot, nobody can predict the future. Maybe you have a bad year. Maybe you won't go to the doctor at all. But it still may be a benefit for you. I mean, that is a high deductible health insurance account anyway. You know, I was surprised to hear that there was even an HSA 3000. I thought those deductibles were usually more inflated than that. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah.

But- I want to bring up along with that, that, you know, the reason we participated in that, in the out-of-pocket costs is because we told you on several podcasts ago or recently here, that. Know, the insurance costs has just kept going up. It just keeps going up year after year. And it's the same dog and pony show. You know, we go, Hey, I hope we're okay. Well, you had a few people that were sick, you're running hot. We're going to raise it.

And if everybody didn't catch it, they came to us with a 39% increase, you know, and that's 39% increase on a $700 health insurance bill per year. $700,000 to cover the company. and I don't know who can afford that. And we, you know, basically our insurance company or our brokers dislike us because we go to a battle for everybody here and we are the representatives for every one of you out there. Yeah, 39% of 700 is $273,000.

So more than a quarter million dollars is what the insurance wanted to raise the rates. what some companies do is they say, okay, and they just pass that on to the employee. Sounds good. Yep. No skin out of our- Here's the new insurance cost, people. Yep. Yeah. And all because we had some people that were sick. That used the insurance. Well, what the hell is insurance for? Right. We could have a podcast just about this. Yeah.

Yeah. Talk about macaroni and cheese. I want to be sick that day because I'll be too pissed off. Health insurance is worse than politics, man. Polititix. Yeah, polititix. Yep. Yep. So please, everybody, we're going to do what? We'll have dispatch announce it, but for tomorrow, odds at 5 a.m. Evens. 5 p.m. 5 p.m. at this main yard. Then we'll do the same thing at 23 on Friday.

Friday the 6th. Yep. And, you know, because like Jam said, we need trucks trucking, so we'll have to get it split up and get going. And so, but please attend, you know, and, and it should be easy, but we want you to hear from, from our team at, at Flood and Peterson, our, our brokers and, and get the scoop. Yep. In other news, I mean, this is bad news for everybody, but I do think I saw Jim shed a tear.

No toy drive this year. Well, I shouldn't say no toy drive. The Salvation Army is picking up the toys themselves for the toy drive that we've done in the past few years. We are looking for other options to be able to help other communities out. It is. That was, I mean, we called around, not called around, but we finally got a hold of channel 31, you know, Fox news there and all that. And, and I think they were a little disheartened that, that Salvation was going

to do it also, but good for the Salvation Army. I'm glad they had the volunteers. Great cause, right? Great cause. Yeah. But it is, you know, I don't know if, you know, some people probably haven't seen me recently, but I got a pretty good Santa Claus beard going, you know, and it's time to shave it off. I can't, I can't even get in the, in the winter spirit, but it was also a great cause. Yeah. I mean, to unload all those toys at the Salvation Army and be part of that. It's been amazing.

I bet people are going to ask where we are this year. Yeah. Where's JFW? I hope so. I hope so. Where's that big red truck? Right. Or if it's not even about JFW, it's where's that truck? Right. You know, where's the truck full of toys? Where's the dump truck? Yeah. Where's the truck full of toys for the kids? Yep. I wouldn't shave your beard just yet, Jim. You never know what mine happened.

All right. We did bring up our special guest today. you guys are familiar with him he's actually one of the hosts of the podcast jr sands what was it r morning jr hey good morning man good morning jfw family i'm me sneaking into the podcast just like the guy for the extended welcome to the studio this morning jr reason reason we wanted to have jr and he wrote this really good piece on progressive downshifting and break no wear free Braking is what brought it up, I think.

So anyway, instead of me trying to muddle through it, he's the expert at it. I figured might as well let the man that wrote it read it. How are you going to start, JR? Because wear free braking. How do you have braking and it's wear free? Well, we got two sets of brakes, right? We got our service brakes that mechanically use brake shoes, brake pads, right? They cause friction against a disc or a drum and they stop the wheel. Essentially what stops our truck in general, our truck and trailer,

but that's wearing down on equipment. That's wearing down on the pads, the shoes. So where free is something that doesn't wear anything, except it's just there for you to use. And all it's using is compression in this case, if I'm not mistaken, and it's the engine's compression. You've heard of free money. This is free braking. Yeah. Right. When is another name for wear free breaking? Engine braking. Engine braking. Jake braking. Jake braking. That's Sam Sara's

fancy name for a jig, Jake braking. Yeah. Yeah. So something I kind of learned over time and ever since I've been in CDL school was progressive downshifting. And a lot of people don't even know what that is, especially now with all the automatic trucks and all that, right?

What is progressive downshifting? It's basically a gear shifting technique that is commonly used in semi-trucks to improve fuel efficiency and reduce engine wear. It involves shifting gears downward gradually as the vehicle slows down, maintaining the engine within its optimal RPM range. Progressively shifting down gears, the driver avoids sudden drops in engine RPM, which can lead to increased wear and reduced fuel efficiency.

This technique helps maintain a smooth and controlled deceleration making it safer and more fuel efficient for the truck sounds terrible yeah right i think somebody that owns their own truck and droves drives their own truck would definitely be doing this you know and has to put brakes yeah because you know you want to save money wherever you can whether it's fuel or parts or anything or if you're a trucking company you would want all you drivers to drive this way right Yeah.

So, so this technique, you know, it's been widely used, especially if you had a stick shift truck. You know, I went into the office this morning and I asked Oz, hey Oz, you remember driving old 0021? And he's like, yeah, I remember that. Yeah, we got videos of him driving that truck.

Yeah so so i asked him like hey do you remember when you would come up on on a traffic light you know that was turning yellow or or was turned or had been red or whatever and the very first answer that came up without even asking anything else was like oh i hated that i never wanted to come to a complete stop right and made me smile right and i was like so what did you do to avoid that he's like oh i started slowing down way ahead

of time started shifting down and he's like and that's where I asked him, do you know what that's called? He didn't know. And I told him like, that's called progressive downshifting. So basically- I.E. Cadillac-ing. Right. Exactly. So basically you're slowing down to get to the point where that light hopefully turns green when you're there. And essentially it turns green and you're going maybe five, 10, maybe even 15, 20 miles an hour. You never come to that complete stop. Don't lose momentum.

And you're just trucking along. Timing. Timing your lights. So, yeah, unfortunately with automatics, you know, I think we can all agree that that technique is being lost. Unfortunately, I think it's because, you know, technology is doing what it needs to do. You know, it's making it easier for us, but it's also making us lazier in a, I guess for lack of a better term. You know, we're, we're, you know, we're driving these, these vehicles, these huge 80,000, 85,000, 90,000 pound trucks.

Like if you're, like if it's your half ton pickup truck. Right. Which it shouldn't be like that. Right. We race right up to the light and stop. Yeah. And, you know, truth is we still have Jake brakes, you know, that's, that's something that. You know, you'll go and ask one of the drivers like, Hey, do you have your Jake brakes on all day? And yeah, the answer is going to be, yeah, they're on all day. But are you really letting that tool work for you?

Right. Yeah. It's on while I'm breaking while I'm coming to a stop. Okay. Well, is it the only thing doing that or are you also using the service brakes? Right. You know, that new metric we've been kind of messing around with on Samsara, you know, this came mostly from you, brother Dave is, you know, how do we track brake applications? Who's doing it the right way? We want to know who's coming down the hill with

just the Jake brakes or, or who's really just using the Jake brake versus the service brakes. Right. And that new beta testing that we're doing with the, with the, the wear free braking is what it called, what they're calling it. You know, that's, that's a great coaching tool is what we, what we mentioned.

Right. When Samsara finishes the beta testing and they revamp everything and they put it into the programming, JR, it is going to be a game changer for us to coach up our drivers that aren't driving using the brake free system. It's going to let us know who's doing it the right way, who's not doing it the right way. Yeah.

But talk about a money savings piece too. OMG, Jim. And shop time. Oh, man. It's huge. It's a game changer. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, it comes down to kind of like what you guys were talking about earlier about doing your research, you know, actually educating yourself.

I just don't understand how it is that for somebody that does this every single day that goes out and driving and does not get to know their truck, does not actually figure out what each button does, what each piece of technology does for them to make their job easier, to make it easier on their equipment. So that way they're not in the shop consistently. Hey, my brakes are worn down or whatever it is, you know? I mean, JR, with your background in flight, could you imagine being in a fighter

jet? And I just watched Top Gun this weekend. So did I. The OG. I watched both of them. Did you? Ah, funny, man. We had movie night with our neighbors, watched the old one. I think we're going to watch the new one next week or something. But anyway, could you imagine being in a fighter jet and having a gauge on your dash going, huh, wonder what that does? Especially when you push it and it shoots something. Right. And then you start singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

But, you know, in a situation like that, somebody would come back to you and be like, well, that's different because that's life or death. Because that's what a fighter pilot does, right? Sure. But isn't that the same thing in a truck? It's life or death. We look at it like that. Because if you don't do it wrong, if you don't do it right, I'm sorry. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah.

And like I put down on the sheet that I gave you guys here is, you know, technology is awesome, but as the saying goes, you know, technology is only as good as its user. Yep. And if you don't know 100% of how your truck or the features of your equipment work. Then it's not doing very good for you. It's no different than you having a phone and you don't know exactly how that phone works for text messaging or whatever, as simple as it gets that way.

Yeah. You just joined us, JR, but Dave, we just posed a question because we were talking about the white light, the flashing light, the air inflation light. And, you know, maybe, maybe you've been, you haven't had a flat, you haven't had a low tire. That light hasn't went off for, let's say six months.

Illuminated. I'm trying, I'm trying to like. i'm having a tough time this doesn't work right exactly and and it's a light in your truck but it so far it's not done anything so what does it do right jr what does it do yeah or like you're saying like if it hasn't come on in six months and let's say i'm a new driver and i haven't seen that since ken's class i may have forgotten what it is right you know at that point i'm gonna be like,

Hey, I need a reminder of what that is. What is this for? Right. Yeah. Yeah. So something else I put on here and I, I think for a lot of drivers, I'm not going to say all of them or, or only a few of them, but I do think there is a, a big handful of drivers out there that do take pride in the ride and they take pride in getting to know their vehicle and doing it the right way and all. And that's, that's a badge of, of honor, of pride, whatever you want to call it, you know, to try to make.

Brake pads i don't know what you guys are looking for specifically mileage wise but 500 000 miles 500 000 you know the way the way i was breaking yesterday i i would take you up on the challenge and i'd probably add to that can i get a bonus for that it's doable you know with with the engine brakes on these new trucks and the transmissions that number is doable i don't doubt you because you can bring these trucks to a stop pretty

much to a stop without even touching your brakes yep I bet if you are getting those brakes to last 500,000 miles, there's a lot of other things going on with that truck. Oh, absolutely. The fuel mileage is going to be great. The wear and tear and other parts are going to be great. But how would you, and you're absolutely right, J.R., if we could possibly do that and make it where you get money back, part of your safety bonus and everything,

how would you not like to have that money savings passed on to you? And we would. Absolutely. We would easily pass it on to the driver if we're not spending it in the shop and under repairs. Why would we not? We all benefit from that. Yeah. I don't know how much it is for, let's just say brake pads in general, for all, what is it, 10? 10, uh, wheel ends that we have, right. So for all 10, let's say you had to do all 10 of them and that costs,

I don't know the price, but let's just say it's $50,000 or whatever it is. Right. But at least to say, Hey, because I saved you $50,000 a year for five years, can I get a percentage of that or something? Right. Like as a bonus, right. That for me would be like, hell yeah, that, that makes me strive to be better. You know, what's the next challenge. Okay. The challenge is where free braking and not to use my service brakes as much as possible, but there is a technique to it.

And if you don't practice it, you're not going to get any better at it. Yeah. You know, Jam kind of mentioned it about fuel savings and it mentions it here for progressive downshifting. I noticed that yesterday because as I was doing this all day long, what's the average, Jim, you might have this info, maybe you brother Dave, what's the average fuel mileage that you guys see on some of these trucks?

Our fleet on average is six miles per gallon. I was getting 8.2 at the end of the day yesterday. Wow. I ended the day with 8.2 miles per gallon. Wow. Because of progressive shifting. Never lost the load. I started late about 7 a.m. So I didn't get the 5 a.m. start that a lot of the drivers do. Right. But I still got five loads in. Yeah. And I was going to plant two. If I would have started at five, like I put down on here, I probably would have

gotten six. I know in the past I've gotten seven when I was driving full time. Yeah. Getting the early load. Maybe there was early loads at a young ranch that you possibly could have gotten. That's another one. Right. You know, that would have been eight loads in one day. Right. And all day long, I made it a point to stay in the right lane. And I didn't, I didn't speed. I averaged about 55, 60 miles an hour. Sure. Once in a while when it opened up, no traffic around there, speed limit 65.

Yeah, I'd open it up to 65, but it was very, very rare. 85 is usually always full of traffic. Probably a pretty relaxing day too, right? It was. I got in at the end of the day and I got in pretty early. I mean, it was like maybe three, no, it was almost four. It was almost 4 p.m. So, you know, I didn't lose a load for the time being and, and yeah, just kept on going, kept on trucking. Yep. Well, yeah, I guess I wanted to give some tips to the guys on how this works.

And my step one on to the to the tips I have is step one is proper following distance and I lead time. This doesn't work if you're consistently tailgating or consistently, you know, one second behind a vehicle or whatever, because essentially what you're doing is you're reacting to every single action that that driver in front of you is doing, whether they're slowing down, speeding up, slowing down.

And you're consistently going between both, you know, your brake usage or, or accelerator or whatever, which is going to kill your fuel efficiency. So having proper eye lead time and, and following distance, you know, like I, like I was saying earlier is I was doing 55, 60, mostly everybody's doing 65 or more. So you're really not coming up on a lot of traffic. You got a lot of space, right?

But if you're looking up ahead of time, ahead of you, well, you know, well ahead, looking at traffic lights, intersections, as we should be doing anyways, you know, you can plan for those slowdowns. You can plan for the progressive downshifting. Absolutely. I see that light start turning yellow. Okay. Time to start, you know, shifting down. You know, the first, obviously the first step to progressive downshifting is going to be let off the accelerator.

Let your Jake brake start working. If I'm loaded, I'm probably going to be in stage three, you know, if, especially if I was doing 70 miles, 65, 60, whatever it is, let stage three, the strongest level start slowing you down, but you have to be active with it.

So the, you know, the slower you get, the transmission is going to automatically start downshifting for you. The stronger that level three is going to get. Obviously unloaded is going to be a little bit different. You know, you're, you're, you're not as heavy. You might not need level three, might be level two, level one. These Jake brakes are awesome. I kind of, for me, JR, cause I don't drive all the time.

And you know, the few times I fill in, honestly, I don't like the Jake when you're empty. It's strong. It's strong. I mean, it is, but, but that's the, that's how you solve that problem. You go to level one. You have to be active. Exactly. You got to be a participant in how the truck runs. I've had comments, Jim, of where some of the guys like, oh, automatics are boring. You don't do anything. No, you choose not to do something. Yeah. I've repeatedly said you still have

to drive that truck, Jim. And I don't mean hold the wheel. You have to adjust that engine brake, right? You can put it in manual mode and upshift it and downshift it. You know, a lot of times with your eye lead time coming up to the intersection, you don't want that truck to grab the next gear and keep aggressively downshifting. Put it in manual mode, throw the jakes on slow as you're coming up there and approaching it, maybe drop one gear.

And by then the light changes and off you go versus if you left it in automated, it may grab four gears downshifting aggressively. And you're, I'm making it up, but you're 300 yards behind and the light went green and you're like, oh shit, now I got to step on the accelerator. And it drops another gear and then it has to shift up and you know what I mean? So you drive the truck. And if you're going slow enough and here's the mind blow, right?

You can turn off the Jake. You know, if you're slow enough, turn off the Jake. Yeah. The engine itself is still creating that drag. Yep. You know, so you're not feeling like you're being thrown into the windshield.

So yeah, as you start downshifting and, you know, your truck is gradually going through the gears there like i said earlier you just got to be active with your jake brake you know just because stage three feels too aggressive okay move it to two move it to one you're the driver you're the one controlling it right you're the one that knows how much distance is in front of you or how much space you got so you control it you do get into it and then like

we were saying you know as far as our trucks are are the way they are programmed or the computers program transmission whatever once you get into what i've noticed seventh or eighth gear regardless if you're loaded that jake break increases so much more power if you're in level three so usually around seventh or eighth gear i'll pop it into level two it's not as bad unless i'm too close and you know i just happen to catch that intersection a little closer

and i just need full power but right otherwise if you got the spacing go to level two. It'll, it'll downshift to sixth gear. And after that, it'll just coast. It won't start downshifting anymore, but guess what? We can still work at it and we can manually start downshifting one gear at a time. Absolutely. By the time I'm in fifth gear or so is usually when I'm in level one. Cause at that point, level one is strong enough to start slowing you down, even if you're loaded.

And then, like I said on here, and like what we've been discussing is that you're not going to get good at anything unless you practice it. Right. You got to practice. And that's the only way it's going to happen is, is to, to increase your fuel mileage, to, to decrease the wear on your brakes and all, and your equipment, you got to practice it.

And for me, you know, the, the numbers I was getting yesterday and, and the way the whole day went in general, for me, it was kind of, you know, it's a, it's a badge of honor. You get back to the yard and you're like, hell yeah, 8.1, 8.2 miles per gallon, no harsh breaks, no following distance alert, right? Nothing. And I still got all the loads I needed to get. Yeah. An amazing day is what it turns out to be.

Great. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. To, to, to move the, you know, to, to move the fleet like that, JR, fuel mileage wise is amazing. And that's where, you know, like Dave, like there's probably a lot of guys that heard Dave say that. the, the six miles per gallon. And they're like, well, I get, I get six, seven or, you know, seven miles a gallon or, you know, how, how can that be? Well, we're talking about a fleet average and the, the rock trailer trucks, they drag us down because they idle a lot.

They're sitting, waiting, getting loader, loaded, slow trips. Then you have the bulkers and they sit there and they blow off. That's not a few. Yeah. That's not. Yeah. Good fuel efficiency. So we're talking fleet wise and the trucks that just automatically get less fuel mileage drag the fleet average down. Right. So we probably have a lot of guys are getting more than that, you know, or, you know, like you said, the possibilities are endless.

Right. You know, to take the whole fleet and get it at, I mean, people say when they get, you know, fleets, when you get like a 2% increase across 100 trucks, that's amazing. And that, that might be, you know, 6.2 miles a gallon. That would be amazing. You know how much it would help. Idle time is the worst thing there is on fuel mileage. It absolutely wipes fuel mileage sitting and idling. So I, I, you got me all thinking and I'm, I'm, I've just sat here looking on my phone.

It's the perfect run to get the most brake wear or the least brake wear is the salt hall out to, to Salina, out to Redmond there. And everybody's sitting here listening to this going, well, that's, we cross the Rocky Mountains, we go over Vail Pass, we go over Eisenhower. How can running in the mountains have less brake wear? That was Potter's whole point. Exactly. To his email. You can run that run and never use your brakes.

And the reason I say it's the perfect run, because you're not, you have no traffic to deal with, right? On Highway 85, on I-25, on Santa Fe, all of the local city runs here, we're using our brake pedal. Even if you're driving to the best of your ability, J.R., at some point you're using brakes because there's an unforeseen situation that like, I can't plan for that. I have to hit my brakes and stop, right? You're a loaded truck. You need your brakes.

On that run, you can plan for it. You should be coming all the way down Eisenhower and all the way down Vail and never using your brakes. Just like we teach everyone to come... Over from Wallstrom, Quarry, when you come over the top, pass the runaway truck ramp. You should be coming all the way down that, never using your brakes. You don't need them. Use your engine brake. And the people that are using their brake pedal, listen to me well here.

And clearly, have your ears open. You're not doing it right. Going too fast. You are going too fast. Drop a gear. Save us the wear and tear on that truck. You are not going to get another load by doing that. And you are not doing it right. Right. Save yourself the wear and tear because I mean, how many times have we heard it where, why is my truck in the shop? Why is it at, why is it at the dealership? I want my truck back. Right.

You know, like maybe it's just there for an up, I don't know, software update, which would be the better option. Right. Right. But if it's there because it needs some type of maintenance, because we're being hard on the equipment.

We just had to down a trailer last week, JR, because we smoked through the brake pads, ruined the rotors and we even ruined the freaking calipers because when the rotors got so thin the disc brakes we have now spit out the pads because there's nothing holding them in because it wears through the cage and then the freaking caliper is pushing against the rotor so we destroyed like five thousand dollars worth of brakes

on one axle so it created enough space there for the pads just to fall out pretty much fall out jr yeah crazy yeah well thanks jr Thank you guys. Yes, thank you very much. Yeah, good, good, good. Good segment, man. Yep, good stuff. Only good tips if you're listening to the podcast. Yep. Or, I mean, you can listen to the podcast, but if you don't understand and you're not asking questions. Right. Or you don't care. It's one of those. You know? Yeah. Guys want to talk about what's next?

What's next? Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is this Saturday the 7th. Thanks, Jar. Nice. Yeah, thank you, JR. Thanks, JR. Well, thank you, guys. Good segment. I can't wait for that Samsara to come out with the. When it's official. With the break. Yeah. With the wear free breaking. Is there any, like, I'm just geeked out about it. Is there any news about it? Any talk about it? Any information on Samsara about it? Anything?

No, I could probably look at it today a little further if they've added anything else. But I did have a conversation with Potter yesterday because Potter's always looking to not only, I mean, he's pretty much got his score down. He's been at a hundred for, I don't know, since we've had Samsara. Right. Shout out to Potter for doing that. So everybody hears that hit. Potter's score is 100. It can't get better. Yeah. So his wording to me yesterday on that is like, J.R., I can't get anything better

than the 100. So my next step is to actually go into the metrics and see what I can do better for my fuel efficiency, for now the metric of wear-free braking. And one of the questions he asked, like, well, when does it stop measuring that? Like, is there a miles per hour where it cuts off and you can get on the actual brakes or whatever? And I'm like, that's a good question. That is a good question. Maybe it's five miles an hour. I don't know. Yeah.

Or maybe it's just based off of time. I mean, I told him I would reach out to Sam Sarr and ask that question. Or maybe it's not any of those because it's just application. Because no matter when you apply, you're wearing your brakes and in the metrics, maybe it's like, well, it's still an application, but it's not really anywhere because you're only going five miles an hour.

And what I, and what I told them was like, okay, if you're at a stop and you're on, you're obviously on the service break, I don't think it's going to affect that score because you're stopped already. You're not actually wearing down on, all you're doing is physically having the truck stopped. You could break pretty hard at five miles an hour though. You can, you can, yeah. Yeah. Still, still. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be interesting.

And you know, the, the metric is in beta. It's closed beta. So right now it's, there's probably limited information until they finally a hundred percent fully release it out. Yeah. And maybe, you know, you could answer this and maybe it's in the, in the metrics, but is it application per pound too? Because to make that hard stop at five miles an hour, you had a poundage or an application, a hard application. Apply brake pressure. Yeah. So there is a metric on there, Jim.

It's called anticipation and Potter's been looking at that as well. So anticipation is, are you, you know, you're, it has to do with following distance also in high lead time. Are you really looking out ahead far enough to know what's coming up? And the anticipation is measured by how many seconds it takes you to go from your accelerator to your brake, your service brakes. So if you're immediately off the accelerator and on the brakes, that's bad anticipation.

You're being aggressive. Right. Now, if it takes more time, you're letting the Jake brake do its work. You're not actually going straight to the service brake. Your score gets better in that measure. Yeah, you're driving the truck then. This is where I'm so geeked out about that info, man. We're going to be able to take that and literally just go right down the list, starting with 001 to the end of the list and be like, oh, good driver, needs coaching. Good driver.

Oh, this one needs coaching. Good driver. Good driver. Good driver. Oh boy. Oh man. Call this one. He needs some serious coaching or she needs some serious coaching. Well, when Mikey comes to us and says, Hey, we need to talk to the driver because he has no brake pads. That's where we can go back into those messages. Like, let's see what they've been doing for the last 30 days or 12 months. Well, my take on that is we should be doing that before we get to that point, JR.

That's where we're at. We've been doing that our entire lives, right? We look at, like, how come we've put three sets of brake pads on this driver's trailer in one year? We know that's a bad driver, but we have no way to coach him, right? We talk about it. This way, we can actually give them a metric and go, listen, this is what you're doing. This is what you're not doing right, and you need to change this. You need to adapt in how you do this.

And I think what JR and I know, you know, they're in the beta and all that. Those metrics are going to follow the driver. Yes. And not the truck. So you can't go to us and go, oh, I wasn't driving that truck. Right. Well, this is your metrics. Yeah. This is your driver's score. Exactly.

Yeah. Those metrics for Samsara follow you. Right. I mean, the camera knows you switch trucks. Right. Yep. Alrighty guys. Well, thank you guys. And thanks again, JR. I look forward to the podcast to listen to the whole thing. Good job, buddy. Thanks, JR. See you guys. Thanks, JR. Pearl Harbor's still next. Yeah, still next. Still, still happened, didn't it? Yeah.

I mean, there's some, you know, I know it's sensationalism, but if you've ever been to Hawaii, you go to, go to Pearl Harbor, you know, you see the, the, you stand on the Missouri, you know, you see the oil and I can't name the ship that's in the water that the oil's leaking out of. And, and it just, it is so amazing to be there, but you know, the movies that have been made And you're still back to, to the men and women that gave their lives to protect this country from, from the Japanese.

And I mean, and nothing against Japanese people. I don't want, I don't even like, I have anything against Japan. That was, that was the thing then. Yeah. We were at war with Japan. Right. This is, this is the thing now, you know? And, and yeah, all that stuff is so, so important to me. so hits me in the heart, you know, that's. Many of us had family that died there. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And thank you for that sacrifice if you do.

Yeah, and again, the movies might sensationalize them, but they sensationalize them so you get a feeling of what that was like. Yeah, tack on U.S. soil. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, safety topic of the week, making sure your intersection's clear before driving out in traffic. We had one of our drivers send a video of his friend that took one of our trucks just pulling right on out into traffic, and everybody had a break. Right. Don't get in a rush. Take your time. Look both ways. You know, you could kill somebody doing that, you know, they're going too fast and you pull out and they can't stop or motorcycle or whatever, you know, just it's not safe, don't go.

And how, how wonderful that, that the old driver or ex-driver, whatever you want to call it, thinks that much of us to take the time, call in and, and try to make it a safety point. No, our current driver, his friend sent him the video and he sent it to JR and myself. Oh, okay. Well, there was a driver that called the other day, an ex-driver too. Oh, really? Yeah. I think about, I thought it was the same situation. Gotcha. So, yeah. Okay. Either way, when you're involved, you care.

You know, and Dave's mentioned it several times, we can coach. We're better than ever. Yep. So what you mean though too is just because the light is green doesn't mean the intersection is clear. Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Or even if there's no light there, just you pull it out. Yeah, I mean, when you're the... Pull across 56. I mean, that's my, when you, when we leave at night, you, you pull down there and traffic is so busy when we leave at night.

And you know, that's, I've, I've sat in the office all day long, so I'm not, I haven't been driving. You're not, you're not just ready. I don't practice driving. I'm probably not as good a driver as I was when I drove every day. Right. You just, you just get better. I bought that myself. Perishable scale. Right. You know, it's, it's getting a little stale and man, when I pull across 56, I'm, I'm this way, I'm that way, I'm this way, I'm that way, you know, two or three times.

And I'm thinking I can, I can stop. If something's going to happen, if I miss a car in the pillar post or anything like that, I can at least stop, you know, but if you never look again, you never have that chance.

We've caught on camera, like three or four accidents coming out of there, you know, and same thing, I'll get up there and it's like you know i move over to the right enough where because i know we might have trucks coming in you know or other trucks i want to make that right turn i don't want to be in the way but now you got people behind you that just want to make a right turn and they're pissed off and you're holding them up yep but at the end of the day i think about like when i'm behind cars

i don't give a shit right exactly i'd rather you take your time up there than me witness an accident you know and i have to i'm gonna get through once you do i'm not gonna get through if you cause an accident, right? Unfortunately, not everybody has that. Yeah. Who do you have the mindset to think like that, man. And tricks from Ray Davis. Knowing your surroundings, scanning your mirrors, and always having an out.

Do you really know what's around you? Have you looked? Have you gotten out and looked? You, as a professional driver, should always know what's around you by scanning your mirrors frequently and regular checking all of your sides to monitor the traffic around your vehicle, particularly to identify vehicles in your blind spots before making any lane changes or turns. It's recommended checking your mirrors every five to eight seconds.

When you are at a new place or a job site, it is important that you get out and look to see if there are any hazards, saw spots, pipes, markers, trees, branches, or anything that could be in the way. Always look and look up. Could be electrical power lines. The key to being safe is always having an out.

And then talks about the smith system the five keys of the smith system are number one aim high and steering look ahead 15 seconds to see hazards and react if you're in danger number two get the big picture check your mirrors every five to eight seconds and maintain proper following distance number three keep your eyes moving consistent eye movement prevents your eyes from losing peripheral vision. Number four, leave yourself an out. Leave plenty of space and avoid tailgaters.

And number five, make sure they see you. Use your warning signals and try to establish eye contact. When dumping, make sure you have enough space in front of you to dump and to be able to get out. A little trick is if you need to turn to make it out of a tight spot, you can start your turn as soon as you're coming down with your trailer to help get out of that tight spot and have enough room to move forward. Makes a lot of sense. We just ran into this situation last week.

You know, if you got back into a spot dumping and you need to get out, you need to turn hard when that trail is coming down to be able to make that turn or you're going to wedge yourself in there. Did you know concrete has been used in various forms for thousands of years with the earliest evidence dating back to around 7,000 BC? Here are some notable events in the history of concrete. Did you know, 6500 BC.

The Nabataea people of Syria and Jordan used hydraulic lime to create concrete-like floors, housing, and cisterns? Did you know, 3000 BC, the Egyptians used mud and straw to bind bricks and lime and gypsum mortars into pyramids? Did you know 300 BC, the Romans used a mixture of volcanic ash, lime, and seawater called pozzolana to create concrete that hardened underwater. The Romans used concrete extensively in their buildings, including the Colosseum and the Pantheon.

Did you know in 1824, Joseph Ralph Asden, a stonemason from Leeds, created Portland cement by heating chalk and clay together and grinding it into a powder. Did you know in 1871, the first Portland cement was produced in the U.S.? Did you know in 1875, William Ward completed the first reinforced concrete home in the U.S. port chest in New York? Did you know in 1904, the first concrete high-rise building was constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Did you know the word concrete comes from the Latin word concretus, which means grown together or compounded. Hope all is well with the JFW family, friends, and listeners. Remember, safety has no blind spot. Look and lean, sit up in your stool. Don't be a fool. It's better to be slow and safe than it is to be sorry. Much love and respect. Always Ray Ray, the black sheep, 0013. Good job, Ray Ray. That was a good one, man. Awesome. Good stuff.

Continue every week to keep knocking them out of the park. Yep. All right, Sue, what do you think? You want to hit us with that high road hauling? All righty. I've got one this week that I think everybody can identify with because it's about trust. Does it make you feel good when people trust you? It bother you when someone doesn't trust you? Trust is a major part of the foundation of a relationship.

It's just as easy to build trust as it is to break it down, provided you are prepared to make the effort. If your relationships, whether at work, at home, or a social relationship, is plagued by suspicion, you can make a commitment to building trust rather than destroying it, and you can help to better connect with everyone. Here are five easy ways to build trust. Number one, be reliable. Do what you say you are going to do. Possibly the most important step in building a foundation of trust.

Even if it is a small thing, canceling or failing to follow through will create hairline fractures in your trustworthiness. Enough of those in the foundation will crumble. Honor your promises. If you cannot keep a promise, be decent enough and explain why. Number two, be honest. Tell the truth. Sounds easy, right? Not always. It's surprisingly simple to find yourself saying a little white lie to protect your friend, lover, or someone you care about.

But if you tell the truth, even when it is unpleasant, you'll become much more trustworthy. If you do lie, admit it. Sometimes it seems unavoidable to lie. If you get caught, don't deny it. That is simply another lie. Confess as soon as possible and explain your motives. Speak from the heart. Speak your feelings. People who only convey hard facts come across as cold and distant. Number three, be open and volunteer information. When an opportunity to be vague arises, don't take it.

Instead, be specific with information to your listener to prove that you have nothing to hide. Do not omit important details because it is hard to keep up with a string of omissions. 4. Keep confidences. Keeping secrets imparted to you. No gossip allowed. Never blab someone else's story. If you tell, it will come back full circle and your confidant will cease to trust you. 5. Show your integrity. Display loyalty. Trust is solid when a person knows he or she has your loyalty.

Demonstrate a strong moral ethic and be personally accountable for things you are responsible for. Be neutral when placed in difficult predicaments and do not display double standards.

Show consistency in your behavior. And those are five simple ways to help build trust in any relationship. And the quote this week is, a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts. That was spoken by Harold McMillan, who was a British prime minister in the early and middle 20th century, I think in the 1940s and 50s. Wow. That was a great one, Dave. Yeah. That was great. Yeah. Hey, I don't know if you guys saw in the email, JR just sent me a message that

there's an update on the toy drive already. Oh. So, and this is from Erica White, already adding value to JFW. Nice. Hi, all. We will now be donating toys to Children's Hospital. Linda will send out the announcement, C-Bullet. Oh, outstanding. So the toy collection is on, it sounds like. Yes. Good thing you didn't shave your beard. Yeah, yeah. I just, it's the rest of the face. that might scare the kids though. Can only change what we're in control of. Yep. Right.

Yeah. I mean, should we make an announcement? If anybody wants to donate the toys, same thing as last year, bring them to the office here, but it needs to be, when I say boxed or wrapped in its original. Yeah. We, we, it sounds snobby. We don't want used items. This was unwrapped though. Here's what we need. You can't wrap them up. In their original bindings is what I'm trying to say, Dave. Yeah. So packaging. They're original packaging.

So to better assist you with decisions regarding donations, please keep in mind, due to infection control guidelines, we can only accept items that are brand new and manufactured. There you go. Items need to be in the original packaging. Yes. We cannot accept toy guns or toys that depict violence, Nerf guns, figurines with guns, swords, et cetera. We cannot accept the following items, food products, potted plants, latex balloons, infants slash toddlers and adolescents are in the age groups

and the greatest need. So there we go. Oh.

Say that last part again. What's in the greatest need, Jim? Infants, toddlers, and adolescents. So basically everybody that's a child. Right. Kids. Kids and kids. Yeah. A lot of people are allergic to latex. Yeah. My daughter's mother-in-law would die. Wow. She was hospitalized before she realized it. Wow. Found out it was an allergy to a latex balloon. Wow. Yeah.

Final thoughts, everybody. Yeah. Yeah. I'll fire off out there just because, uh, I mean, we had a little break here between Dave's high road hauling, but you know, you talk about that trust and things and it's become pretty evident that the president we had is a pretty hard guy to trust, you know, with his pardoning of his son Hunter and then actually stepping back in time and pardoning him for anything that may come up the last 10 years in his past.

How dirty is that how just untrustworthy and scathing and and just diabolical is that and i'm so glad the nation spoke up and there's going to be a change and i guess that leads me to my next part here we're still stuck here in colorado but we have less than 24 months to make a change the clock is ticking already you know the the election will happen in actually 23 months it'll be November of 2026 when we vote in a new governor and we're on the March.

I mean, we are, we are looking, we're searching, we're talking, names are coming up, all sorts of stuff is happening because we need a great governor to try and resurrect Colorado. And my, my push, my, my point to this is not only how important it is to our business, but I happen to subscribe to a free email that I get every day that Heidi Ganahl, for those of you who don't know or remember who Heidi Ganahl is, she ran for governor two years ago. Lost. It was a devastating loss.

She was crushed by Polis, you know, and we really got behind her. She was, she's a great person. She has free actual, it's a website. It's called the Rocky Mountain Voice, but they send out a daily news brief that All you have to do is look up Rocky Mountain Voice, RMV, and you can sign on for their free subscription. They ask you to donate, but you do not have to. It's a free subscription, right? I urge you to donate $10, $20, heck, $100 if you can, just to help keep that going.

The information I get out of that, there's several articles every single day, and they're honed to what's going on here in Colorado. And what's going on across the nation as far as federally that will affect us. So good stuff. That's kind of my plug for RMV, Rocky Mountain Voice. You know, we ask you guys to be engaged. I'm so proud.

Before the election, we had so many people that we helped get registered to vote and that came to me afterwards or came to us and said, hey, I voted, you know, had another one just yesterday or the day before in a meeting we were having here with our steering committee that was like, it's because of you, I voted. And I'm like, that's awesome. Right. And, and the nation voted this time. It was, it was a pretty clear choice.

So anyway, I'm just proud of that. And that's my plug for Heidi Ganahl's Rocky Mountain Voice RMV free subscription. And it's just going to help you stay tied. I mean, our legislators, the session doesn't even start until January. They're so twisted. They're already in session making diabolical plans to, to continue doing what they've done to Colorado. So it's important.

Crazy. Thanks everybody. Yeah. Jim? Yeah, I ran across an article and I've mentioned golfing several times, you guys, and I've enjoyed more and more playing the game, but I've also tried really hard to be better at it. And it just takes a lot of practice like anything, you know, even like going shooting with jam, you know, you just can't start and be a good shot. You know, you have to practice every day. And I ran across this little piece

and I, and it hit me pretty hard. And I liked the way it, way it set it up. And a lots of times when you go, I will go with one other person. I'll, I'll, you know, me and my good friend, Tim will go, or I'll go with Holly. There's, it's rare that you get a foursome, you know, it's hard to get four people to show up and I'll play at the time. So you usually make a reservation for, for two people and then two people join you.

And me and Holly have had, you know, couples, two men, two women, you know, me and Tim have had couples play as far as man and woman, or usually you get paired with two guys. And this little article I ran across, the guy says that. There's six things we do in golf that could change the world. And he's like, you know, I know you're all going to laugh because it's just golf, you know, and it's looked at as an elitist sport or an expensive sport.

And he goes, so just, just bear with me. So, you know, you go, you're going to be a foursome and, you know, just me and Tim go, let's set that example. But the first thing is you start as strangers and you usually shake hands, you introduce yourselves, you're going to spend the next four hours together.

Okay you struggle together because nobody's going to play perfect right you have bad shot good shot you're struggling you encourage each other you laugh because there's always a funny moment no matter who's playing you tell stories as you play for the last four hours hey what do you do I do this you know this is a funny shot and then you always always and I've never not left as friends when you leave. I've even been asked, here's my number. If you're ever playing again,

I'd love to go play with you. Yeah. And he ends it by, you know, he gives those six things and he goes, you know, not many activities can do that.

And he says, that's the reason I think golf could change the world. So just wanted a little bit of version that I think the next time I play with somebody, I will think of that. And it's so true to have struggles. Friendships, you know, laugh and all that stuff together. So, yeah, my little, I think we could all do that whether you're playing golf or not. Right? I like that, Jim. Soup, you have anything else? No, I think I'm good. I'm going to leave you guys with a quote.

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable.

Faith means believing the unbelievable, and hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. And that's Gilbert Chesterton. Chesterton. Thought it was a cool quote. It is a cool quote. Hard to live. I wish I could do that, Jan, because that is so true. Right? Do we know who that guy is? I mean, I know you said his name, obviously, Jan. No, it came up with my daily verse. Yeah, it'll be good. All right. Let's say the creed. And get on out of here. Get on out.

Brother Dave's going to tell me I forgot to do something. Together we feel we overcome all that stands before us. Together we are excellent and free. Together we joyfully create honest value for those we serve. Together we celebrate our differences and respect those with whom we work.

Together we are accountable for our words and our actions. together we are the jfw family have a great week everybody everybody be safe thanks everybody spread the word with your neighbor about the podcast absolutely. Music. Be on that channel 23 podcast.