Episode 163 - End of the Year Podcast.

Music. What's up jfw family welcome back to the channel 23 podcast the purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch a fleet to engage and inform everyone with all things jfw big surprise in the studio today we got jim white brother dave white and super dave weldon good morning man hi everybody morning everybody morning as normal we are going to say the pledge with all of our hearts. Right on.

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. 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 in 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.

As a reminder, anything you hear in today's podcast is not the opinion to jfw's it's just the men in this room's expressed opinions episode 162 i like it 302 downloads it is up awesome that is great we've got more people listening thank you for all the people listening to the podcast we are at 86.1 000 total downloads and we gained a couple followers and was sitting at 656. Fantastic.

And thank you, really thank you everybody for listening. I don't know if that was after the insurance meeting when we bugged them last week or just more communication or some of the new guys finally listening or whatever. But yeah, we really appreciate that you guys. And there's just a lot of information on this. I know there's a lot of stuff that you may not want to listen to, but speed it up, slow it down, pick through it. But listen, it'll help.

Listen to it for you, not for us. Yeah. Yeah, there's just really good information. And if you want to know what's going on here at JFW and what we're dealing with in regards to safety or get some tips and tricks from fellow teammates. And I mean, it's here to help you. So I know we just had a good laugh about me being tired, but I am exhausted. So last night the cops knocked on my door. It was like 1130. Get the alarm turned off, all that bullshit. And I answer the door and they're

like, where were you between five and six? And I told them kindergarten.

All right what is the dad joke challenge you are the king of segway man you're good i was watching your eyes and you were like waiting for it never happened well i didn't know you have trouble with those neighbors across the street it wouldn't be a surprise wouldn't be a surprise i don't even think he uses a lure for you, he just throws a stick out and you're like okay i'll bite that's the golden retriever in me. You guys know what kind of doctor dr pepper is spicy,

No. A physician. A physician. Oh, my God. I got one more gym joke. What does seven days without going to the gym make? A vacation. It makes one week. Oh, one week. That's a good one. I like it. All right. Who's up? Well, I went back to finish up my Christmas, my Santa Claus ones. Okay. So I got four pages, Jim. Whoa. We can go on. I'm nervous because that's what I did was Santa jokes for Christmas. Yeah, yeah.

What doubles up here? I'll scratch mine off. Okay. So what do you call it when people are afraid of Santa Claus? Santa-phoba. Phobia. Ah, pretty close. Claustrophobia. Ah, Claus. Gross. Gotcha. What do elves post on social media? Something about a selfie, but it's an elfie. Good job. You got it. You got it. Oh. What do you hear when Jack Frost turns on the radio? Yeah. I don't know, nipping at my toes or something. Really cool music. Oh, man.

And here's one more. What don't you want to make, why don't you want to make a snowman angry? I don't know. Well, if you watch that new movie, they can get pretty pissed off. Oh, he'll throw snowballs at you. He'll have a meltdown. Oh, man. Dang it. Those are some badass snowmen in that movie. Yeah. Which movie are you talking about? Red One. Yeah, Red One. Oh, okay. All right. I don't think I've seen that advertisement for it. Never heard of it. You can go to the movies or watch it on Netflix.

Oh, can you? Oh, is it new? Yeah, new. Brand new. Cool. I'd like to watch that. I think it released or will release. For some reason, I got the 22nd in my head or something, but maybe it's already out. You seem really interested in it. It's got The Rock in it. I like the guy. Gotcha, gotcha.

He does dumb movies i watch dumb movies man we just watched we had a movie night we watched mall cop 2 with paul blarton that's funny that dude is kevin james man yeah he's yeah he's funny yeah the the one with isn't he the one in stitch with yes will smith will smith the dating one that's probably my favorite one he's in with the girl and yeah yeah we also has that one where he's a fighter like yeah here comes here comes uh the boom here comes the boom yeah yeah so but so oh

that's hilarious is it i've not seen it the guy applying for his green card that he's helping in that movie his coach i i don't i i remember it but i don't remember that well he's in mall cop too okay he's uh he's one of the bad guys but that's boss rootin boss rootin is a famous famous k1 or mma fighter i should say from pride yeah and then he actually you know took this guy a local guy dwayne ludwig out of colorado under his wing and now dwayne ludwig is like this famous he was he's had some

fights in the ufc but he's got a pretty famous school here in town Oh, wow. And out of state as well, yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. All right, I'm going to continue with the Santa joke. So Dave, you're going to have to close this out, man. Hopefully I don't bomb these too bad. Go for it because I don't have any Santa jokes, so we won't double up. Good. What do you wash your hands with over the holidays? Soap, just like any other day. Santatizer. Uh-uh.

Why don't you ever see Santa in a hospital? No chimneys. His private elf care. Dang it. Why is Santa afraid of getting stuck in a chimney? It's fat. He has claustrophobia. Oh, there's that one. There's that one. Why does Santa have three gardens? For all the gnomes. So he can go ho, ho, ho.

What do you call a kid who doesn't believe in Santa? Smart. Old. A rebel without a clause. Oh. I was going to say a Dodge driver. Oh. Dang it. All right. Don't blame the delivery on the, this one isn't my fault, but I'm going to say it anyway. What nationality is Santa Claus? He's North Polish. That's most of the little one. That's a good word. That's a good word, right? How much did Santa pay for his sleigh? You guys don't get this one. Oh.

Oh, come on. No guesses? It was free or something or. You're on the roof. It was on the roof. It was on the roof. It's on the house. Oh, it's on the house. There you go. Nothing. It was on the house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why will Santa go down your chimney on Christmas Eve? Eve. Why won't he or. Why will. Oh, why will. Santa go down your chimney on Christmas Eve. Free cookies and milk. Because it soots him. Those are some good ones. Yeah. All right. I'll, I'll, I'll,

this was my favorite one of it. This is for you, Ray Ray. Must be dirty. Nope. Motorcycle joke. What brand of motorcycle does Santa Claus ride? I think I know this one. Jolly Davison. I think we said this one. Man, you are. Close. One letter off. Really? Yeah. Holly. Holly. holly davidson holly davidson yep yeah yep there you go that's it pretty good pretty good well i don't think i can come anywhere close those were all so good.

Could you could you have some emotion so a cowboy rides into town on friday and he stayed three nights and he rode out on friday how is this possible, cowboy rode in on friday stayed three nights and rode out on friday so did he walk somewhere in the middle of the week gotta have something to do with an eight second ride or no man his horse's name is friday oh no all right this one's about the same so david's father has three sons snack snap crackle and pop no david.

That was good that is that's good yeah you found me on that one yeah, excellent there you go all right new employees we got julio tarango if i was david letterman i'd throw the pen. There we go. Julio Terango, Hugo Gandaria, Christopher Potter. Uh-oh, another Potter in the house. Yes. And Daniel Hinojosa. Welcome to the fleet, man. Yeah, welcome, you guys. Welcome to the board. Anniversaries or celebrations for anniversaries. Carlos Meza, one year today.

Congratulations, Carlos. And Addison Muguruca, two years tomorrow. Congratulations. Has anybody checked on Addison and his dad? No, I was thinking about him yesterday. Yeah, I was thinking about him just yesterday. We probably should and just see how he's doing or any one of us can, I guess. I was telling my buddy Tim last night about, just dump that load off and bring it in.

Anywhere. Say less. Yeah. Say more. Birthdays. Eric Eichner had a birthday this past Sunday. Todd Dahl had a birthday this past Monday. Jesus Varela has a birthday tomorrow. And Brie Baldridge, she has a birthday this Friday. Happy birthday, everybody. Happy birthday. I got to tell you, it's been nice seeing Eric Eichner around. Yes. He's just smiling. He's happy. Yep. It's good to see him back on his feet. Yeah, absolutely. Great birthday present.

Yeah, absolutely. Family birthday celebrations, Tracy Holloway's wife, Jennifer, and Chance Dobler's wife, Haley, both had birthdays Saturday the 21st.

Happy birthday, Jennifer and Haley. And then our extended family, Rich Trimble, he had a birthday, what, last Sunday? Yep, Sunday. Happy birthday, Rich. Happy birthday, Rich. Did you go to his party? I don't even know where he's at. I think he's MIA. Oh. I think he's out of country. Nice. Could be in Cabo. I don't know. Okay. Shout outs. Got a message from Omar Reyes this morning. Says, good morning. Hope all is well. I'd like to give a shout out to Sammy0028.

For those that don't know, we call Sammy galletas, which is cookies, Sammy cookies. Also, sonusas, which is smiley, because he's always smiling. If you ever pull up a video of Sammy driving, he's smiling. He's smiling. He's smiling. It's the best day of his life. Yep. You know what I mean? Yeah. What a great attitude. Yeah, man. Yep. Some guys show up and they are just, man, a pleasure to have around here. Yeah, and other guys are pissed. Exactly.

Some guys don't even make it. Yeah. All right. Last week on Friday on our last load, I was having issues with one of my break chambers. Without asking for help, he immediately jumped in to help me resolve the issue. That shows great character and teamwork. Wow. That's awesome. Yep. And it came from a great guy, Omar Reyes. Yeah, that's what we tell people when we're, you know, explaining our culture, you know, that you don't need to be asked to help.

You see a situation where you can contribute something positive, maybe just a spare hand, but you can contribute something. And then that's what we want to have happen and create that feeling of, hey, I'm not alone here, you know?

Yeah yeah you know some people a good culture fits and other people add to our culture sammy adds to it absolutely another guy i've been keeping my eye on that's have been pretty impressive is valentino yeah right great attitude smiling is always smiling happy engaged hey i heard this on the podcast he actually has a suggestion on how we could communicate with our drivers and see if people are actually downloading the podcast stuff like that the other day he came into the shop he

was leaving announced himself he's backing up brother dave i think it was you that noticed both his windows were down like he's doing things it happened it happened to be me jamming because we screw that up every week yeah but it was so funny because we all joke go talk to him he needs to be fired what the hell is he doing because it It was perfect, right? Windows down. That's just awesome. Yeah, it was good. Sorry, Jim. Oh, it's okay. I screw you guys up every week. One of the white boys.

The white brothers. Oh, man. All right, let's see. I got more shout-outs. Big Country had a shout-out. Let me pull that up here. Got it. All right. So my shout-out goes to all the Bulkers. I just want to thank everyone who is and has been involved with us this year. Thanks, PC. Yep. Nice. Thanks, Steve. You guys have any shout outs before we get, actually, these are your next ones there, brother Dave, the Redmond run. Yeah, no, I just, I just want to reach out and thank everyone.

Well, we want to reach out and thank everyone on the Redmond run. They've just been knocking it out of the park. It's taken a while to get a rhythm, to get a groove and, and find people that are doing that run that are capable of doing it. And it's just been outstanding. I mean, the guys are just knocking it out of the park that are doing it. And I think they've, everyone's kind of finding their place in it.

You know what I mean? And, and making it happen. And it's just, it's just been outstanding. And I, we're appreciative, you know, this is a, a great run to fill all the extra space we have in the winter. And, you know, it's necessary.

Those trucks running that run make the trucks here busy, you know? So, so that's, it's a win-win and, and I definitely know that's become a, everybody's gotten it so figured out.

It's a it's become a pretty lucrative run it's just a walk in the park kazanski yeah because when they when they get back then they have time jr run loads here yeah these guys were back early this morning elvin was here you know ready to go right just on his break can't wait to go run some more loads you know this run i mean yeah somebody said it's lucrative right other guys say oh the run's not that great well i mean if you're getting back and you're running three loads today right

you know it's going to be a lucrative two days yeah you got to look at the big picture there you go jim the big picture not not just today yeah i mean yeah yesterday you know you got to lump it all together in my eyes you got to look at yesterday getting back today and then running your loads today yep your daily average between yesterday and today should be well over 300. Oh yeah your daily average yeah well at you know 325 350 maybe yeah okay you

would know you probably look. Yeah. And then some. Okay. So yeah. $500. No, I'm just kidding. But here's the thing at this time of the year, I'm voice texting Potter. At this time of the year, I mean, what a great run to have. If you guys remember, we didn't have this run last year. No, no. We didn't have this run this summer. Yeah. You know, so to be able to, like you said, have guys busy doing that, which makes the local guys busy.

Right. It's a win-win. Absolutely. You know, if you're not part of this, we challenge you to become part of this, basically this elite crew that runs out to Utah and gets the job done. And there's really no requirements other than you working here. If you want to go to Utah, we will send you. Yeah. Yeah. It's just. Unless you're a complete screw up, then we're not going to send you. But mostly we could go. You know, I think the beauty of it, though, too, is what Dave said.

Those guys running that run allows the people that are local to be busy that day. And last year, the local work was so slow, we were already alternating days. Yeah. So if you worked Monday, you wouldn't work Tuesday. because we had to spread the work that we had out. Yep. So now we have this extra work and let's, let's rock and roll on it, you know? Yeah.

Team event. And, you know, I know I announced on the radio this morning, a couple of times that, you know, this is the last podcast, you know, for the year here and stuff. And there'd be some information, but, you know, just the stuff coming up next year, you take and continue this salt haul into next year. You got A1 chip seal. You got the plant opening up in Sedalia for Brannon. You got the Knicks pit opening up farther north. I mean, things just look really good for 2025. There's a lot.

I just heard you mention about 300,000 more tons than we have last year. Changing the administration. I mean. Yeah, there's a lot in that that, you know, it's just good stuff. And I know me and Dave, we've talked a little bit. I don't know when we discuss it more, but about the building.

You know we've we've went over and over it that we're about to start and we're you know we haven't broke ground and we keep telling everybody any day but there's just some small hang-ups and permitting and stuff like that and we'll get that fixed but you know once that's built or you take a look at it and and it's going to be it's going to be the shit you know i mean i don't know how to describe it the bays the office the stuff like that but it's it's you know 30 years in the making you know

it's 40 well it's i mean you're being kind yeah yeah i don't know about you but i i know i've worked here well over 30 years how long have you worked here okay so it's 40 years you know right it's a lot it's our lifetime yeah yeah it's a lifetime literally right yes yeah you know so it's achievement yeah well i gotta i gotta step you back a little bit because i remember when we built this building and this was the bomb and that's what i'm kind of thinking of this year and it's been 25.

That's progression there and growth, really a lot of growth. And I think the cool thing about it is... Is that we're able to, we are growing and we're able to create this space that will match that. You know what I mean? Cause this matched it and now it doesn't because we're, we've grown. And so now we're, we have the ability and the focus really to match that growth.

Yeah. Well, well, well put Dave. Cause I don't, we don't want somebody to think, oh, there's the, you know, the Taj Mahal or that, you know, look at the money they're making, Look at, you know, they can just go out and do that or that kind of stuff or not taking care of their people or things like that. And that's what I'm getting at is it's, you know, like Dave said, it's 40 years of work finally coming together. And it's worked from every driver, every mechanic, every office person,

everybody we got here to build that. That's growth. You know, that's the achievement of everybody. Anybody that's ever worked here. I mean, Dennis Vizcarra stopped by here yesterday to wish us all Merry Christmas, bought us, brought us some gifts and stuff. And he's part of that building over there. You know, Ed that worked here and Captain Ron and anybody that's retired or been here, you know, and they all have a history there and they're part of that building

because it's what, it's what we've built together. Absolutely.

And, and to end, you know, 2024 has went by amazingly fast for me. I don't know about other people, but to be able to snap flesh in a pan. Yeah. Every year. Yeah. To be able to put that kind of as a notch on a belt, what we've achieved. And I know we haven't broke ground, but that's, you know, that's also leading into 2025. We got 18 months, hopefully. What's interesting to me. Sorry. No, no, go. No. No. Why? Like, you know, and you may have asked yourself this a couple of times.

But, you know, you're at a point now, even you, Brother Dave, I mean, like, hey, you know what? The era is almost over and we could just sell JFW and, you know, retire and then live happily ever after. Why? I mean, building a new building, moving over there, that's starting, I mean, a brand new chapter.

You know that's not like hey you know we'll be done in three years yeah and we're just gonna have this kick-ass build i mean this is like you know it's a big step so so why because it's what we do yes what we've always done it's what we'll continue to do i mean that's just how it is we'll that just gives us an another door that you know growth isn't the point the the being together all under one roof.

I don't think people understand what it takes to run what we're running out of two separate yards so close to each other. Thank goodness they are close to each other. And I know, you know, many, many, many companies have multiple locations. You know, they made one company with 25 locations. That's the way they're designed. We're not designed like that. We're designed to be under one roof. You know, our wash bay functions, you know, very poorly in the winter over there, right?

We're entering that time of year where, you know, they're washing two trucks a night instead of five trucks a night or seven trucks a night, you know, and then they come over here and we've got extra people stuffed in a bay trying to get trucks done. And, you know, then we'll take and send extra people over there while it's warm, you know, between the hours of three or four and until it's too cold to wash.

The mechanics are functioning in two, I don't want to call them half-hearted shops, but it's not adequate conditions, right? When you look at what Jim and I started with, it's pretty damn nice, right? We only washed outside because that's how it was. We, I mean- We had a shop with railroad tracks through it, right? You couldn't even pull a transmission on a truck because the tracks were in the way. And I'm not dogging that because that was a step up from working outside.

So I guess for us to be under one roof, what that does for our day shop, what that does for our night shop, what that does for all of our training, what that does, you know, for the wash team, for our office staff, for, you know, everybody involved in this. A driver may not see that. And I guess, you know, just to add more to what Jim was saying, this is the culmination of a lifetime of an effort for us. Right. Right. This is, this is something that, you know, we're selling this business.

We've sold other properties. We're doing everything in our power to make this work and pull it off. Yeah. I mean, I just seem to remember when I came back, we had the West yard. Right. Or for Sheridan. Right. And I-76. and that you try to make it work, you try to make it work and it was just too much red tape and it was a pain in the ass and you ended up selling that property looking for other properties to make it work and then we ended up with the property that we have now.

So even to find a place to build a new home was hard. I guess so what I'm asking is, was there ever a point you and Jim were sitting in a pickup truck looking at tailgates leave in the morning and you're like, all right, well, we have this opportunity to put this building here. Are we going to do this? You know, and was there ever a time where you're like, you know, how much time did it take you to really, I mean, was it immediately like, damn straight we're going to do it?

Or was it more, you know, let's think about it and sleep on it and marinate a little bit and, you know, okay, yeah, you know what, let's grab our balls and do it.

I think what, you know, listening to Dave and what the word he said, i think he skipped saying is when he said we just it's what we do it's become our passion jam and you know people have all sorts of different passions whether you know you know i've talked about it i enjoy golfing but this is my passion this is i get to work with amazing people we have good customers it's i think there's there's my key if you can describe passion because what when you ask,

you know, do you, do you ever go, Hey, we can, do you, we have, we had a conversation, maybe we should sell out. Sure. You, you, you say that and then it just gives you a yucky feeling and you move past. Cause that's, that's not what we want to do. Is it, is it scared? You know, cause we got to go, you know, sell stuff, borrow money, you know, do all that stuff. And you're like, yes, we got to do it.

You know, you just, but you, you, for, for us, we think of everybody, you know, and maybe it was the way we were raised where, where we, you know, we were held as equal as possible is we, we look at this as being better for everybody. And I know Dave touched on the shop and different things, but it's, it's better fueling. It's, it's better, you know, for the, for the office, it's a better area to train.

It's you know just everything it's right it's better it's better yeah and you you know i talk about it during the podcast we talk about it that's all we want for jfw is is to be better sounds like it was a no-brainer it was it's it's a no-brainer because of of the. The steps of moving forward, you know, and we, I think the group here, the safety team, so many of our people, you know, they moving forward is, you know, getting married, having babies, you know, buying a house, getting a car.

That's, that's moving forward, you know, bedding yourself, working out, you know, eating better that that's moving forward. That's what this is to us.

And we, and we have, you know, we have no, no plans on selling. You know what I mean? or anything like that. Cause this is, you know, how the next 10 years will go. I don't know, Jim, I can't, you know, and people love to ask that question. What are you doing? What's your exit plans? What are you going to do with that? I don't know. Exit. What's the recommend walking in the door? Yeah. We're working. Are you kidding me? We're about to get a 30 year loan. Yeah.

I mean, you know, and again, I just told you how fast 24 went by, but I just gave you the perks of 25, I'm excited to do those things. And so it's, you know, yeah, it's. I think the analogy is so cool, Jim. We're getting married. You're marrying the two buildings and the two properties. We're having kids because we're maybe getting more trucks, right? Yeah. And living under one roof. And what a good point. Yeah.

It's exciting, you know. I think the thing is too, Jim, you know, this is kind of like, this sounds weird, but I'm one of those people, I would much rather give a gift than get a gift. And I guess in a sense, this building is a gift to everyone because it makes us better. You know what I mean? If, if Jim and I wanted, if we were just selfish, right, we would, we would have probably our own private offices. You know, I share an eight by 10 cell with Super David every day.

And Mikey. And I love it. You know what I mean? I couldn't imagine it being different.

I i guess you know so so you two married up in a new building hell no. No uh the the only reason dave will have he's the only one that'll have his own office to be honest with you right because mikey and i will actually share a new office oh gotcha and then super dave the only reason he'll have his new office is because he actually gets one of the bigger offices is to do all the interviews right so he'll have his desk then

he'll have an uh like a table or an area behind that couch yeah yeah so he can sit down and have a little psychic reading and delve into the minds of those who we want to occupy right so lay down on my couch.

Have you always gotten along with your mother back to when you were an eight-year-old and you played with a truck in a sandbox that's so yeah no i i that's how i look at it i mean it to me it's a gift to everyone like i say if we wanted to be selfish and you know have our own office and be separate of everyone we damn sure wouldn't be doing this right so that's that's where i'm i don't know i'm just excited i'm excited what dispatch is going to have i'm excited what the shop's going

to have you know stoked for the wash bay you know we're putting in two bays to start building our own trailers i mean it just i'm just it's it just seems so damn exciting yeah you know good shit yeah it really is we're actually just in shout outs right now i know we kind of right we got off we dove in the deep end of the pool but i i guess that was the you know as we go into next year that's when i brought it up in my shout out because

it is a shout out to to everybody in the in the accomplishments and we won we you know we'll continue to say thank you i I can't, I don't think the next 18 months is going to be joyful at some point. Oh, I think it's going to be, I know what you're, I know exactly what you're saying. It's going to be stressful. Yeah. So you think the building will be complete in 18 months? That's we, we got to shoot for that, Jim. We got to, we got to stay on, on track with that and I mean, I, I.

It will be up. Well. We're moving somewhere in 26, Jim. Yeah. It might be our graves or it might be the new building. Gotcha. Yeah. I mean, we hope, Jim, seriously, and it's the finished working works that'll go on, but it'll be up around June. Wow. So, yeah. Yeah. If we can get to break ground here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be. I tease Jim. I'm tired of saying we're going to break ground in the next 30 days because we've been saying that for six months now and it

hasn't happened yet. And, you know, honestly, it's not like we're standing on the edge of the diving board pushing, you know, super hard. It's like, okay, when it happens, it happens. And like you said, there's just these few minor little details that the city says, oh, you need to do this. And it's silly things like we turned in the final plan on everything, but we turned it in on the seven parcels we have over there.

And they're in three different zones, you know, I1, I2, I3. And they came back and they're like, well, you need, you need to put this all in your one zone. And we're like, well, yeah, you guys approved it. You know, it's all in one zone. And it's just silly little things like that, that we look at and it's like, oh, well, I guess we should have done that. But on the other hand, you know, it's done. Right.

You know, but it's. And we weren't approved. Those are the little dotted I's and crossed T's that we, you know, run into. They wanted a little more detail on the north side that faces the river. So, you know, on one side, you can look at all of their graffiti on their wall and then you can see our nice building in the back. So yeah, we'll see. Gotcha. Yeah. So in the shout outs, what I was leading up to too is, you know, Ken's over there doing training of the new group of guys.

You know, that's going to be better also in the, in the new building, but Totter or Totter. Totter? Potter stopped by yesterday when he got back from Redmond and just said, introduced himself to the class and everything and, and told everybody, you know, how great it was to work here and that you can make good money and you don't have to speed, you don't have to do anything.

Gave a really nice speech to everybody. And I appreciate that, that he didn't, he, you know, he could have just parked his truck and went home. And I think that's the, again, that's the, that's the people, you know, with all of us that, that have built this, you know, and that's, that's good stuff for, for, to have.

In 2024 absolutely i got another shout out from dispatch for jr for scoping it out and all the drivers who've been running it but it's a new oscar blues and post that's some other new business we got that we've been running so thank you for everybody involved in that absolutely hey and. Kind of a, I don't know if this is a shout out, a warning, a words of wisdom or whatever, but those two breweries, if you pull out of there. And then I think we just looked at a third brewery in Boulder.

Didn't he just go up to Avery or something like that? That grain out of these places is fricking wet. You are hauling chicken noodle soup and it is liquid. And when you put it in that trailer and you take off, it's going to squirt out of the back.

And if you stop, it's going to blow right up to the front. snap the tarp right off of the front you're going to spill all over the cab of the truck the intersection and everything so the people that haul this omg man you you have to know what you're doing you have to be under the speed limit you have to be looking at those lights as you're approaching we are hauling liquid in an end dump and it is it is a recipe for failure so i challenge you

to do the best you can take your time it's not about how fast can i haul this load it's about how do I get there safely with no incident and get dumped? Yeah. And I don't want to, cause I don't know the weight of it, but haven't we been doing almost a, I'm going to call it a quarter load, Dave, just cause it's so liquidy. Yeah. Which I don't know if it's worse or better. I mean. Well, the funny thing is Jim, a quarter load of water is like 24 tons.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know the weight. I just, so yeah. Looking at it is we're a quarter full. Yeah. The one photo, I think it was half the last photo I saw, we were half full and had like 24.6 tons. Yeah. That's how wet the green is. So it's, it's, when I say it's dangerous. You just have to be aware, you know, everything we do is dangerous. That's why you have to be aware of every step we take. So everybody just pay attention to that.

Matter of fact, I think, I think dispatch has been very select of who's doing that. I know Jason has pulled quite a few of the, I'm going to call them night loads, but they've had some between five and 7 PM. And Jason has pulled those on the, you know, Coors night shift and, and knocked those out. So, man, not something that we normally do like the grain out of Coors. Should we be loading it in the water tank?

I mean, Dave, if there was a way to get it, to empty it out, yeah, it just, we can't get clean. That's the problem. If they had a hose there and yeah. That's the next invention, Super Dave, a tanker dump. Yeah. A tanker dump. You put it with a hydraulic. Put it back, yeah. Yeah, or you just raise it up, yeah, let it shoot out the back. I mean, they kind of more or less have that with all of the vac trucks. Yeah, Dave, yeah, with the big vac. Yeah, it's just a tandem though,

right? Yeah, no, that's exactly it. Yeah, you're right. I mean, that could ultimately become the safest way to haul it, right? Minus the vac part. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, just one of those trucks converted. Yeah. You just need the vac truck tank. Right? Yeah.

Just got a message from Randy Martinez. He says, good morning, Jim. I heard Jim on the radio this morning that this is the last podcast of the year. I just wanted to say thank you all for another good year on podcasting. And it's something I look forward to every week. Keep up the great work. Oh, that's awesome. Thanks Randy. Yeah. Thank you, Randy. Yeah. And then any other shout outs guys? Super Dave, you got any?

I just shout out to all the guys going out to Utah, man, they have made it seem easy. I mean, it is just. They've got it dialed in, don't they, Dave? Yeah, you know, earlier I was joking around with the walk in the park comment, but they've turned it into just a walk in the park. Yeah. I mean, it's windshield time. It's, yeah, just. Great time to listen to a podcast. Right, yeah, yeah.

And just making it look easy and rocking and rolling. Yeah. I challenge those who haven't done it yet to go run it. You know, cause I, I don't doubt there's probably some that are skeptical of doing it cause they've got to be on an ELD and, you know, there could be the possibility having to chain up or, you know, yeah. They're feared. Yeah. You know, they're feared. I'm a feared.

Or. I'm a feared of a lot of things. Yeah. I mean, we've even had, I mean, we, we, we gave him a shout out, but Tracy jumped right in and ran it. He wanted to know about it. Yeah. He went out and ran it. What better way to learn about a run than a go do it. Right. I would have to bring up, I bet, you know, somebody would volunteer or trade out, but if you're in a rock trailer and want to go run it, switch out with somebody. Yeah. We've had Mike Cisneros. Yeah. Mike and, oh my gosh.

Who ran it? Who was with Mike? Oh, Mike, Shane. Shane. Oh, Shane. Yeah. Shane goes. Shane. Yeah. Yeah. Super Dumps can do the same thing. Yeah. Craig Wise. Yeah. He's gone. Yeah. A couple times. Yep. Oswaldo, you could go. Oh, too funny. Yep. Yeah. Good, good stuff. Yep. You know, and if, if you don't run into weather, which a lot of times these guys don't, I mean, what a beautiful drive.

Right. You know, instead of, instead of doing the back and forth round the rounds, I mean, get some good windshield time. Right. You know, go see the country. Yeah. And we've been trying to watch the weather. I mean, we still have to, we still have to go get it done, but this is Colorado. That's the reason when we started, you know, the run, we're like, you're going to run it most of the time in good weather, you know? No doubt. Yeah.

All right, if there's no other shout outs, let's get into the discussion. Perfect. Number one. This first one right here, can we have another prayer? You know, or good Lord love a duck, or can we say the pledge of allegiance before it, and so we swear allegiance to doing the right thing? It's very frustrating, is I think what Jim's getting at. But we got to deliver the right material to the right plant. We've said this before, but it seems to be keep coming up.

It seems to be keep coming up now. It seems to keep coming up, okay? You got to look at your Toro, you got to read your Toro, and you got to do what your Toro says. You know, it's very frustrating when we see email that we picked up sand at the wrong place, we delivered it. Our customer's giving us a break, right? Which seems really cool, but then you see the comments that the customer's making, you know, to each other, and it really ain't that cool.

You know, we're better than that. You know, here we are talking about the new building and 40 years of work and how proud we are and all those things are true. But when we see guys picking up the wrong material and going to the wrong place, it makes us look like amateurs, really. And just today alone, we switched three plants. Right. We switched plant 11. I'm pretty sure it was 14 and central.

And they're all coming out of Morton now. Yeah. And the thing is, I don't remember if it was rock or sand. Rock. Rock. And we send out a pay com on that. Yeah. Every single person that works here, it gets that announcement. So when you see that and then your dispatch comes in or you have your dispatch, you know, hopefully you're, you're engaged, you're seeing that email and then you're like, oh gosh, I. What I thought I was doing tomorrow, you know, is different.

So instead of hauling out of LG Ragsdale, I got to go up to Morton or vice versa. So. Yeah. It's super simple. Just look at your Toro. When you are sitting in your truck, write it down and put that piece of paper that you wrote your, your mission down and put it right on your dashboard. So here's the actual. Writing it down will actually help you remember, but also having it front of you will help you remember. Absolutely. Here's the actual announcement starting tomorrow.

Well, starting today, 12-18, Wednesday, we will begin loading rock out of Morton for the following plants, plant 11, plant 14, and central. Rock will come out of Morton, not LG Ragsdale. Reach out to dispatch if you have questions. Right. I mean, how did I know that? You read your email. There you go. But not only did you read it, you actually read it and comprehended what it said. Because somebody responded to the email and said, what time?

Yeah, I mean, listening to you read that, it was tomorrow, the 18th, you know, December and Wednesday. We pretty well covered. Yeah, I think what time was like the wrong answer to that question. Right. Yeah. Right. And something coming back up this week in discussion about actually kind of cheating the customer out of materials, how the conversation came up, but all we have to do, all we have is a service, right?

We're not like other companies that possibly have a product, you know, maybe, maybe like brand, and I'm going to use them just as an example, cause it's, it's, it's easy is, you know, their service, giving the customer their asphalt may not be the best, but everybody goes, man, I love their asphalt. It's got the best hot oil in it. It's got the best aggregates.

It's everything like that. I love their product their service sucks you know but i we put up with it because they have such a great product you know and there's a lot of companies you buy stuff and you go man that delivery took forever or you know it sucks but man i love their i love their pizza right right that's and i want to emphasize that was an example yeah yeah yeah i mean i'm using brandon and yeah just so it's a Perfect example. Right? Yeah.

You get it because most places have a service and a product. We don't. We just have a service. And our service is delivering the right material from the right place to the right location.

That's our service. You know, that's the reason we're harping on this because this is all we have, you guys. You know, we had some, you know... Stuff come up where we were, we were low, lowering the weights of the trailer by, I'm going to say the old school thing of lifting the door up, pulling a steer tire off, you know, not being fully on the scale, doing, jumping out of the truck, doing different stuff. So our weights aren't quite correct. And that's, that's, that's not supplying a service.

You guys, you know, that's cheating the customer that's stealing from somebody that your load doesn't weigh what it really loads nobody's nobody taught you to do that yeah nobody taught you to do that somebody might have touched that but nobody you should be listening to you'll be from the leadership team or management or anyone yeah nobody that should be teaching you here jfw taught you that right right and that's not the that's not you know

you're working hard to get out of something you should have done right in the first place right that's what it is but again it's back to the service you know we're we're not supplying a good service and that's that's the way you know right material right plant right right everything do it right and the thing is is when you know when let's say you made the mistake and you did the wrong you did it wrong you you delivered the wrong material to the wrong plant and the

plant accepted and you're like oh no big deal i made a mistake right well what if we all made that mistake what if 110 drivers made that mistake it would be a big deal right so just because you know they accept them the.

Material and they're not making is bring it back and you feel it's no big deal because the load operator and the plan manager were being called to you it's a big deal right and i want to it just it goes up the food chain is what it what it goes yeah and i just want to drive jim's point home his point is we're not like brandon we don't have a service end a product yeah we only have a service we don't have good service we don't have anything exactly yeah yeah what's going to happen

is they're going to get pissed off at some point and say, you know what, we're not taking that material. Yeah. Yeah. Even though they were like, hey, we'll take it. It's not a big deal is, you know, what's said to the driver. Then we get the phone call. Then we get the email. It is a big deal. Yeah. Then management, you know, on both sides sees it. And it's, it's, it's almost like a tiki mark for a black eye. Right.

You know what I mean? It's like, oh, one tiki mark, two tiki marks, three tiki marks. Pretty soon you got the line through the four and you got five tiki marks and you got a black eye and you're like, this just doesn't feel good. And then I think there's a certain amount of pressure that falls with us too, because we don't do that and they get an expectation set of what we do do. Right.

And then we're below that. Then that's when you really, you really are, you send that email, you make that phone call because you're like, you, you guys don't do that. And that's not what we hired you for. We got the contract because we kick ass. Yeah. So we got to keep kicking ass. Right. And if you're a person that has a hard time remembering, we had a driver here by the name of Captain Ron.

The old ready mix plant number one, you would have to dump the same material, two different materials in the same bin. You would dump squeegee in the bin. You would dump sand in the bin. And when he had a load of squeegee on, he would wear a glove on one hand and he would drive over to the plant with that glove on. And when he got there, he'd be like, oh, I got squeegee because I'm wearing my glove. So it's easy to find out a trigger to help yourself remember, and maybe you should wear a glove.

I think he even took a big old Sharpie and wrote squeegee on the glove. Did he? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But he never, because the reason why I did it and everybody's human, it's because he screwed up. And that screwed up like a 200 or 500 ton bin. Yes. I mean, those bins, when we climbed up there and looked, they are the size of the whole building. It's huge. Yeah. And so he didn't want to do that again. So he made a solution and he never did it again.

So if you're that person that's struggling to remember, like, oh my gosh, I brought Ragsdale sand and I should have brought Morton sand or whatever, fix it, right? Do something to fix it. Yeah. Shout out to Jack Domenico. And now I'm going to tease him since I've given him a shout out. Jack probably has his LG Ragsdale gloves, his Firestone gloves, his Morton gloves. You know what I mean? He's got all the gloves, so he doesn't have that problem, but that's why he's good. That's funny.

So yeah. Hope you're doing well, Jack. Miss seeing you, buddy. All right. Next on the list, last load and time management. Man, this one, this one bugs me a bit so the other day i was running we were shorthanded and i get to central dump off a load, And it's probably 3.10, 3.15. One of the drivers, he has a mud flap ripped off. I help him cut that off and get him on. I sweep out. As I'm sweeping out, I see a truck pulling right behind me, or in front of me, I should say.

And driver's just sitting in the cab of his truck, waiting, waiting. And I start driving away, and I see he's finally sweeping out. And I look at the time. Right away, I know what's going on. Like, that's been going on forever and a day, you know?

Sweeps out and then calls dispatch at the time where you can't go get another load that's called time management you didn't invent this we know about it and it's just a shitty practice right especially this time of the year we need every single load we're talking about getting a new building to make things better for jfw we're talking about providing better benefits we're always trying to improve what we could do for you know the drivers and the employees we need those last loads.

You know, and it just kind of chaps my ass a little bit. We had the whole safety team in trucks that day. I'm going to get the last load. I didn't get back till, you know, six o'clock, you know, and I get it. It's a long day and that sucks. Not every day is going to be like that. But if you're the type of person and, you know, if you're not leaving early and you're not getting the last load, that's like a double whammy, you know, and for guys like, listen, Jam, I'm here at 4 a.m.

Every day ready to go and I get that early load, you know, I could almost understand it. But when you're squeaking out of the yard at 10 to 6 and then you're time managing at 320 so you don't have to go get another load, that's not the JFW culture and we don't need drivers like that here, honestly. You know, we want drivers that want to help the house and go get that last load. It's your job, Jam. And, you know, I brought it up before, and that's the reason we just can't pay hourly. Right.

You know, in the time management, it just takes money from you. It takes money from a lot of different places. Yeah. And it's not, it's just not an hourly. It's just, it's just so funny that you're willing to take that from yourself. Right. You're already out there, you know, and don't sweep out your, you know, don't sweep out your trailer because you think you're done.

You know oh i'm sweet i wanted i want to get the rocks out of my trailer well you're going to go whole world more rock yeah you know you don't need to do that like call dispatch as soon as you're empty hey you know i'm empty i'm done with my dispatch do you have anything else for me yeah we need another rock okay let me go get that for you yep yep absolutely yeah absolutely old.

Yeah just a little number on that i mean if old problem if you had 20 people a day do that that's a hundred loads a week we would miss, you know, 50, 5,000 loads a year. Right. I mean, there's, there's kind of a, an unimaginable number. Right. How many tons is that? 5,000 times 25. Yeah. Do 5,200. 250,000. Yeah. Yeah. 125,000 tons. Yeah. End of the year. Right. Wow. Mind boggling. One, one customer. Yep. Yeah.

Same thing. Yeah. Same, same thing. we're calling in call in before it's too late we had a couple drivers yesterday coming up from 13 could have went to ray our young's ranch got another one and you know went past that point didn't call in you know just doing their own thing sometimes it just feels like a one-way street i guess you know we're trying to provide we're trying to make things better people aren't willing to do their

part yeah that's the it's a one-way street jen that's that's true that goes back to So you eat what you kill though, Jim. Yeah. I mean, and that's what Jim's saying. You're going to be eating ribeye steak and they're going to be eating bologna. That's right. Right. Just don't ask me for a bite of my steak though. And that's what, that's what happens though, Jim, is we end up having to feed them. Right. You know, we, we take care of them and that, that's where it,

it, it's bothersome. Yeah. We've talked about all this on the podcast before, you know, but people need to hear it again. Yeah. So. It's a reason for the podcast. Along these lines, if you're one that has excessive call-outs right now, are you going to say something, Sue? Just looking at the mic. It's a bad idea, right? Our press number is going back up. If you have excessive call-outs and you can't get it under grips, you're probably going to be made a spare driver.

We got plenty of hungry drivers that want to be here every day. You know, if you're a guy that's calling out, you know, 12 times a year, we're just going to make you a spare driver, and you could call us every day to see if we have work for you. That's just how it's going to go. Yeah. You will lose your truck assignment. And then let's see here. Man, I feel like I am on the low road, but I'm not. I actually am on the high road. I want you to be on the high road with me.

We want you to do things the way we ask you to do them and the way that you were taught in orientation, Ken's class, and the time you spent with your trainer. We call it the JFW way. We want things done this way because this way works. And when we don't do it this way, we run into problems. So for. Yeah. Jam, you're, I mean, you're spot on. I mean, like the low road is it's the, it's the high road of what our expectation are.

I mean, we get, I know there's one, one person that I comes to mind right away, you know, that, that, you know, fits in here, does a lot of great things and everything else, but misses a shitload and he's not the full package, you know, and that's what we, to be able to build that building to be able to take care of our customers we need full package people and that's and that's willing to go out and and and kill what you're going to eat in the whole bit and it and it becomes

frustrating when that's abused and that's not the low road that's just that's just the truth right you know because there's a lot of people that are definitely killing what they're eating you know like you guys just said eating prime rib no baloney you're right we shouldn't fear bad about one things wanting people to do things the right way yeah it's just it's it's the bar yeah right and it comes back to that jaco quote you know when it comes to standards it's not what we preach it's what we

accept right you know what i mean and we need to you know we we can't accept you know people that are calling out 12 times a year you know people that are late three times a week you know that just that's not who we are and it's just you know frustrating at this point no and we we we we set the bar look look at all of us we're we we're not doing that we're right you know if we can do it it can be done we we set the.

We're not asking something that we're not willing to do yeah i mean and that just brings me back to you know when i was a full-time driver here going to get that last load. I'll tell you, I didn't do it joyfully every time, but I did it. You know what I mean? It wasn't an option. It was a non-negotiable. Like, if I had time to go get another one, I went and I got it, you know? And it sucked coming back in the dark when everybody's already home with their

families, eating dinner, or doing whatever they do, maybe at the bar. I don't know. But in the end, Jim, your paycheck looks pretty good. It worked out pretty good for you. I want to just throw this out there, too. It's not just where we set the bar at work.

It's a life bar right it applies to everything you know it does yeah yeah yeah i mean just just quickly i jam and you just said you go get that you may not do it joyfully i know you work out you know quite often i bet if you're doing three sets of 10 you don't go to get to nine and go that 10th one ain't happening you just quit no i mean you do you do the 10th one and that's the that's the last load you know and and that's for all of us we're not gonna we're

not gonna build this building and go hey you know nine bays are okay but we could have done 10 right you know what what would be the point the way you do one things the way you do it yeah so dave you're right it's it's a life bar it's funny because i was thinking you know if you're a guy that's not going to get the last load you're a guy that's not squatting all the way down yeah missing leg day so leg day is tough huh i have two leg days like

one day i'll train hamstring and the other day i train quiet i don't i don't do them together all the sometimes i will but sometimes by the time i'm done doing hammies there is no training any more legs it's long enough there's been enough energy exerted biggest muscles in your body right yeah yeah yeah it's exhaustive best ones to best ones to train too yeah i told you that tiktok i seen the other day and i thought it was going to be this big enlightened thing when the guy goes.

When you just don't want to do leg day, you know, the guy pulls over a bench and he grabs the bar and he does all this stuff. And I'm like, what's he going to do? You know, is there a different way to do it, to make it easy? And he just lays down and does the bench. It's like, oh, he's not doing leg day. That's funny. Yeah, leg day can be intimidating, Super Dave. Like, sometimes I'll be nervous just driving into the gym on the leg. Is it because it hurts?

I mean, you know, I used to do these exercises when I skied all the time. And your calves and, sorry, thigh, yeah, your thighs, they would just burn. Mm-hmm. And it hurt. Mm-hmm. It hurts, but you're also lifting a lot heavier weights, which, you know, yeah, it's just you're moving a lot of weight around, you know, or you should be.

If leg day is easy you ain't doing it right yeah honestly my leg day ain't what it used to be either you know what i mean like leg day used to be the guys that i used to run with man geez these guys is leg day i mean yeah but i don't train to not be able to walk you know to me, i always want to be able to protect myself and my family you know what i mean and if i worked out so hard in the gym i know this is going to sound like an

excuse because i do work out hard but if I can't walk out of the gym, what else can I do you know what I mean so yeah I train legs hard but I'm also able to still function and perform you know I don't know if that makes sense because we used to just tear it up where you know, yeah you get back out of the chair for the next couple days you're walking around funny you know and it's like I don't that's not what it's about. All right, let's see. Google reviews.

This is all just lining up. So every morning I check Google reviews and we got another one. And honestly, it's just, it really, it hurts. It hurts to read these things, you know, because people are reviewing not a service. They're not reviewing a product, they're reviewing the experience that they've had with one of our drivers, you know, And to see another complaint about our drivers are assholes or inconsiderate or whatever the case may be.

Man, I used to love reading Google reviews because it's like, oh, we got another good one. Now you're looking at just about poor driving habits. Some of it may not be true. Some of it could be the four-wheeler. But at the end of the day, it just doesn't look good. It doesn't feel good either reading them. Yeah, because usually, Jim, right or wrong, because a lot of times it is just plain not our fault.

But if you've made somebody mad enough that they're going to take the time to call or write a review, you're going to take more time out of their day because they're so angry, something went on. Right. Something is wrong because you just don't get the call in or the review. Yeah, I do feel a little bit like people are quick to leave a review more than call.

It's easier. It's nameless. Yeah, there's no confrontation. there's no yeah there's no resistance it's just you put your feelings out there and there's no rebuttal to me that's exactly the same as that dude jumping in front of johnny beret on the hill and slamming on his brakes yeah that's the same and he could have left a review that our driver suck but he sure you know did his thing yeah he might have even left the review ended that.

True jim yeah and johnny probably didn't do anything wrong it just happened maybe a week earlier who knows yeah maybe the guy was just pissed off and doesn't like trucks he found ours and has nothing to do or maybe it was another red truck that looked like us because we've had that happen before too absolutely maybe his wife's favorite color is red and he's just pissed and they just got a divorce right

yeah i hate red hate red trucks Found her fooling around with somebody in a blue truck. Yep. Boom. This might be a good opportunity, though. I couldn't just say. You know, we always talk about those call-ins, or like you're talking about the Google reviews, and we may not press it home enough that we have internal customers and external customers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right? Our internal customers, you know, for the drivers, that's our other company drivers, right?

Yeah, us. Our internal customers, that's us, yes, and our external customers, everybody thinks is just who we're delivering to, right? It could be the pit we're picking up at. They're an external customer because they may call us and want us to do work. After we pick up the load and we're on the way to what we think is our external customer, every experience we have along the way is an external customer. Every four-wheeler that passes us or that we pass is an external customer.

They've had an experience while they're passing us or we're passing them with JFW. And I don't think we, you know, hearing that and making me think that to say this, Jim, we don't talk about that very much. That is a customer. We're, we're serving that customer with safety while going down the road. And sometimes we need to do a better job. You know, if we're getting reviews, reviews like that, like you guys are saying somewhere, some way along the way.

Somebody got upset. Somebody got upset. And there's, there's usually a reason, right? And I know we're always quick to, to say it might not be true, but it might be, you know? The other thing, too, it could actually be one of our customers. It could be. Yeah. In a small enough world where, you know, how many times have we had a positive call in from one of our family members? Right. You know, or a customer.

Yeah. You know, but it could very well be you cut the wrong person off or slam your brakes on and do the wrong thing or crack a window. Yeah. You know, what if that's the owner of one of our, you know, vendors or. Right. Yeah. You know. Yeah. What if you're sitting out there in the left lane on highway 85 instead of staying on the right lane and they had to go around you in the right lane? Right. Right. That's a bad, that's a bad interaction with a customer.

Yep. That's you sitting at Chili's or Applebee's. You ordered a steak and they brought you a hamburger. Right. You didn't get the service you asked for. So yeah, something, something always good to think about that way. Those, those four wheelers on the road are your customers. There are customers. Yeah, I have an interesting story too that highlights that. I was up in West Vail one day. We were building the roundabout on the main street there in Vail.

And I dumped my load and I pulled around to the gas station to get something to eat or drink. And this guy pulls up as I was walking across the gas station. I wasn't like standing next to my truck or anything, but he must have seen me get out. And he goes, well, how's Jim White doing?

And I'm like good I mean I just I didn't know the guy from Adam right turns out he was a judge that was friend with senior all the way up in West Vail that he just wanted to say hi yeah you know and I'm like have a nice day right thank you but he's good what business is it of yours.

That would have been a bad election day it would have been a very bad one right yeah instead it was a good one but, I guess there's people out there that know people that could be a friend of somebody that knows somebody that you just want to be at your best because those interactions were great. It was a great interaction. I was, I was proud. Sure. You know, I had a similar thing this summer, Dave.

I, I met a neighbor that, that's been a neighbor for three years, but he's several houses down the block. And he's like, I see your pickup come home every night. And he's like, I see your trucks everywhere. He said, there's, they're always so clean. You know, I've, I've been wanting to meet you, you know, and I was, I was kind of taken back and it turns out he was a second generation trucking company that his family had built car hauling business and they took it national.

And then he created a brokerage and they had over like 12 or 1500 trucks nationwide. That was a car hauling network. And what he did is their kind of claim to fame is they stumbled upon it because they built it for their business.

But he created a program to track all of that because it's it gets pretty difficult when you're running from i'm making it up you go pick up a load of cars in michigan and you got to drop them in three different states what cars are on where yeah that's what they do too right exactly and he built his family created programming to track all that and then all of a sudden his brokerage took off and you know he was had all these lease trucks working for him and

all of that and they wound up selling and and he's very well off for the rest of his and probably his kids lives now but i found it i was taken back like he knew all about us dave was is my point you know just like you're talking about like what how does this judge know yeah i'm like i just thought you lived down the street and i wouldn't know you if i was standing next to you because we've never met you know. I was like, are you a stalker? Yep. It was interesting though.

Similar scenario, right? I had a customer and I didn't know it. We had a customer. Yeah, absolutely. He was a customer. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Imagine if you were a complete jerk. Right? Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I had, I just, I should have been in my shout outs, but it reminded me, Dave, I had, you know, Hank Binder call last week and he, he didn't have a truck number.

Yeah. You know, and, and he said, but I, I decided to call you because I'm sitting next to one of your trucks and they're doing an absolutely perfect job. And he said, I, I know he, he has an asphalt company, does a lot of paving. And he goes, you know, I know what it's like to get, you just get shitty call in after shitty call in after shitty call in. Usually a complaint, you don't get that many good.

And he said, I thought I hadn't talked to you and, and give you, you know, call in, give him a shout out.

And that's, that's the good stuff you guys are talking about. And it was kind of funny. He goes, uh, uh i said how's it going for you and he says great he says because he said i know these couple of in and you got to know hank he was like i know these couple of assholes that have 110 in dumps running around town and he says i'm doing great compared to them oh wow and but yeah it's just that that's that's frank's humor you know and and.

But he gets it he understands what it takes to to run something that's successful and and the people it takes you know yeah the heartache and the pressure and the gut wrench and yeah the happiness and yeah it takes takes care yeah absolutely yeah yep it does take a lot i'm glad you kind of mentioned shout outs jim because i wrote one down but we're well after shout outs i had a nice talk and i haven't talked to him for a couple

months now it feels like but dustin jr and it was just a good chat that we had and he's just loving driving he's like it was definitely the right choice for me and it was funny because i said man dustin i said i had you tagged to do the Redmond run and I was going to get you trained up. And then everybody reminded me, you're not old enough to even cross state lines. And man, he immediately spit out April 4th, 2025. I am. I was going to say right around the corner.

He is aching to go, man. We'll send him April 4th. Yep. Yeah. I, you know, I asked him what his favorite part was and what he doesn't like. And, you know, he didn't really have anything on either. He just loves it all.

You know, he, of course he doesn't like some of the traffic and I'm like, you know, you got to put that aside you're young don't even create the issue that you hate traffic now yeah because dude it's here it ain't going nowhere get used to deal with it and and that's how it is you know this is going to sound stupid but i really think the accident mitigation and the cameras have helped.

Deal with traffic because you're it's mandated that camera is telling you to to create a bigger gap, leave more space, which makes you slow down and it is just like, okay. Under over 45, though, as far as the following distance goes. That the truck talks to you? The camera. Oh, gotcha, Jim. Okay. Okay. Yeah, the truck, the accent mitigation, I think, works at a less lower. Yes. Yeah, but still, it makes you cool your jets. Yeah. And it's instigated before that four-wheeler instigates it. Yes.

Right? Yeah. You've already left so much space, that car took it. Right. Right. Exactly. So, yeah. And off they go, and you're having a nice day. Yeah.

Yeah exactly so shout out to dustin i'm i'm proud of you buddy you've you've come a long ways i mean you know we've talked about him before starting in the wash bay and then moving up to the shop and mechanic and and working over at yard 23 and you know getting behind the wheel after getting his license and you know and he did tell me he's getting comfortable he says i'm finally comfortable behind the wheel and i'm like right damn you're like i said

the exact same thing i'm like don't get too comfortable and he's like no no no no i don't mean that and i'm like i know but there's that fine line you know where there's one one mistake uh-huh brings you back and you never you never do it again but how costly is the one mistake yep absolutely i do know the and i've read some different stuff but i'm pretty sure it's for in-cab training that the fmcsa has changed some of the rules on the age to help some of the other bigger companies train

but you have to have somebody in the cab yes for the age i think with yep good for team drivers like yeah for 18 year olds, you mean? 18 to 21, Dave, can cross state lines if they have a trainer with him. Oh, okay. Yeah, like Walmart or somebody big like that, Dave, because they just, they can't get a, you know, it's a good living and they can't get young people started, you know, especially if they have to run local.

And they've set that up where they've lowered the ages, you can qualify. Yeah, about time. Didn't we talk about that years ago? We did. Yeah. We did, Dave. And I know for the training part of it and over the road, you know. Well, in other news, this is probably more exciting for us in the office than you guys out there, but bye-bye Paycom. Hello, QuickBooks workforce, right? So we are actually going to be doing away with Paycom if everything goes as planned, which I feel like we have to make

it go as planned. We don't really have a choice at this point. We stepped off the cliff, Jim. Yep. So Paycom's going away. You guys will punch in and out using a different app called QuickBooks Workforce. Other than that, things shouldn't really be different for you.

However, in the beginning, until we get our feet under us, we ask if you're doing anything out of the ordinary, you know, wait times or breakdowns or anything that you would clock out of pay comm and clock in under a new duty status. We want you to put that on a JFW ticket to make sure you get paid correctly. Absolutely. Easy. I mean, this is exactly what the podcast is. So if you're not listening to the podcast. You won't know about this. You won't know about this. And we'll make all sorts

of radio announcements, all that kind of stuff. But it is truly simple. Paycom is just, or I'm sorry, QuickBooks is not going to look like Paycom until we get it built. And there are going to be some things that it can't do and will do. But just like you said, Jim, the easy thing is just make a note. You know, if in QuickBooks there's not where you can clock out and be a trainer or clock out that you rode with somebody, just put a note in your paperwork. Do a JFW ticket.

Put it in your paperwork. We'll see it. We'll get it. We'll fix it. But if you don't do that and you're not listening to this, you're not going to know about it. And the QuickBooks workforce, it's a money-saving step. And until we get it under our belt, it's just what it is. We're trying to be better again. And Paycom is not the answer for us. We don't know if QuickBooks is going to be the answer for us for the timing stuff.

But as far as payroll and other things, yeah, it's something we have to do. Yep. Definitely a good move for payroll. Yeah. I think QuickBooks has a pretty darn good history. I mean, if you're looking as that to be the example, it's going to shine. Yeah. Because they have good products. They do. They do. Everybody uses them. Everybody integrates. You use TurboTax to do your, oh no, that's Intuit. Intuit is QuickBooks. Is that QuickBooks too? Yep. Intuit owns QuickBooks. Yeah. There you go. Yep.

Yeah. So, you know, next. Absolutely. After the, whatever, the last payroll day, you'll be, you'll be signing into QuickBooks. Paycom will be at the first of the year. Your first payroll will be out of QuickBooks, not Paycom. Yep. All right. I won't miss it. Let's hope we didn't buy or not buy, get another devil. I have some concerns. We'll work through it. Yeah. I got one more thing for the discussion, and then we'll see if you guys have anything else for that.

JR mentioned we still have guys not signing out of the ELDs, okay? So when you get back in town, you finish your day on the ELD, that night you need to verify your logs and sign out of your ELD. Otherwise, the next day, it looks like you're still on the ELD. And if you're running an ELD on a local exception, you will have violations. Mainly not taking a break for your eight hours and then running over the 11 if we have a busy day.

Things that you are, there's an exception for if you're running locally. But if you're on the ELD, it's not going to look good for you. Right, right, exactly. Anything else for the discussion, guys, before we move on to what's next? I have a question for the discussion. Okay. Do we have load gauges in the trucks? Load gauges. Now, do they tell you how much air pressure you have? They do. That must be what they're for. Yes, we have load gauges, Dave.

We have a load gauge for the drives, and we have a load gauge for the trailer. Gotcha. And what purpose do they serve? They will let you know how much weight you have on the drives and how much weight you have on the trailer. Are they accurate? They're accurate if you calibrate them and make them accurate. Is the calibration off a lot or is it hard to calibrate, I guess? My understanding is they stay calibrated pretty much once you calibrate them.

And if you need to calibrate them, we actually have a video we've sent out to help you get that done. Or you could contact somebody on the leadership team to help you out. Yeah. Is it a pretty easy process to calibrate, you think? Easy for some. Yeah? Most. Yeah. There's two buttons. Is it, so that's the physical side of it, right? Like two buttons, you probably have to hold both buttons for what, like three seconds? Could be. Yeah, and then I bet it starts flashing and then you can press an

up arrow or a down arrow and I bet then you're set. Sounds pretty accurate. But how do you know what to set it at? You got to use a scale and weigh up. Yeah. Do we pull out of pits that have scale displays so you can check? I don't think so. Yes, Dave, we do. I'm just checking all my boxes here. You're supposed to calibrate it when you're loaded. Yeah. And so you'll pull up on a scale, write your weights down, then pull off to the side area where you're allowed to park.

What weights do I write down? All three weights. Just like when you're scaling out, you want to know what your steer axle weighs, your drive axles, and your trailer axles. Those gauges on your dashboard are specifically for your drive axles, and then the other gauge is for your trailer axles. Gotcha. And you have to be within a certain weight in the state of Colorado, which is what? On those drives and trailer. I'm totally guessing here, but I think in Colorado

it's 36,000. Colorado is different. And I get a lot of people that tell me 34. Right. Because in Utah it's 34. Right. Or Kansas or New Mexico or Texas. Right. Right. All of our surrounding states with the exception of? Wyoming. The wonderful state of Wyoming. Right. I want to move there. Right. So do we have, like when we train somebody, do we have a separate sign page that goes over how to axle? Yes. Yes, Dave, we do. What? Is this our own little sport here, Dave? Thanks for playing.

Yeah, thanks for taking over. I just, man, these are tools that we buy and put in every truck. And I guess I lose it when I hear, well, yeah, I've got gauges, but they're not calibrated. Or I don't use them. And I think to myself, we're providing tools that Jim and I and Super Dave would have effing killed to have. We never had anything like that. I mean, could you imagine having those tools at our fingertips? How badass we would have been? I mean, we were badass and didn't have that.

You know, and I guess we're spending $500 to $600 per truck outfitting these gauges, you know, and making connections between the truck and trailer and they're digital. And they can weigh in air pounds or actual weight, which I truly recommend using the weight because the air pounds don't mean anything unless you're truly engaged.

And I don't believe they're as accurate as the pounds. And it's my understanding those pounds, as long as you're adjusted, you have everything regulated, it's within a hundred pounds.

I mean, it is literally what you weigh when you pull on the scale. and it's just uber frustrating that we've spent you know 500 600 bucks per truck and when they're not used or calibrated i i don't understand it right it's like hey here it's like somebody handing you a 25 gift card you don't use right it's just it's not used so i don't know i'm asking everyone you know we haven't talked about it for a long time why wouldn't you use it you know and yard 23 has a scale.

If you're ever in question, you know, so many of the plants we go to. You go past yard 23, getting from the pit to the plant. Swing in if you're worried about doing it at the pit, but you can write your weights down in seconds at the pit. Pull your steer axle on, write it down. Pull your drives on, write it down. Then pull completely on. You don't even have to write it down because it's on the ticket. Haul ass. Get out of the way. That's just how fast that happened.

Pull over to the side and you can do the math. Then calibrate your gauges. There, I just did it. You know what I mean? it's like, it's less than one minute of, of a combined effort to do that. And you have the time during the day, at some point during the day, you have the ability to do that. And I guess I'm asking, I'm asking to do it because what a cool tool. Yeah. And I, you know, you, you talk about not everybody does Coors, but most of the dairies have a scale.

There's a scale at Coors also. So there's all those opportunities where there's nobody around. You can just mess with it. One of the questions I had for you guys though, and it's probably not nearly as accurate obviously because they're asking to have it done as you're loaded. But can't you also do a temporary calibration when you're empty? I mean, the tractor still weighs something. The trailer still weighs something.

I mean, I'm sure it's not as accurate, but if you get in and I don't know, making this up, the gauge, you're empty and the gauge shows the tractor is weighing is, you know, 34,000, let's say there, there's something wrong, you know, and you, you could be able to calibrate them just being empty to start. I'm just throwing that out there. You, you know, you jump in somebody's truck in the morning and you're at yard 23 and you, you know, you're empty, calibrate them.

You know, I don't, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So, so basically, you know, all the trucks are almost identical. They're going to weigh the same empty, even if you jump in one and it's reading it, just calibrate it that way. I don't know how far off it gets, but I bet it's closer than what it would be not at all calibrated. Absolutely, Jill. Yeah. And I, and I, you know, I have to say it, you know, we sound condescending. We're asking these questions.

Jam can fill us in in a heartbeat. Super Dave fills us in in a heartbeat. There's probably, you know, I don't know, 90 drivers that do it the right way. And we're speaking to the guys that just aren't using it. That's the frustrating part about this. Cause then we're like, oh, everybody uses them. They're great. And then you ask, can you find out nobody's, some people aren't. And you're like, well, what the hell? Right.

You know, you know what I've heard before too well no i haven't calibrated them but i know what they read when i'm like axled out and to me that's like only doing half of the job so well isn't it harder yeah isn't it harder having to do the math rather than just look at the gauge and go oh i'm 38 000 on my drives i'm 32 000 on my drives and i'm 40 on my trailer or whatever i mean isn't that just harder then you have to go, well, I'm 36,000.

Last time I checked those, I needed to add 3,100 pounds. 31 plus this, is it when you could just look at it? So yeah. Yeah. And I guess I'm looking at it from, I'm going to give you another angle that JFW has spent over $60,000 to provide those gauges, right? We made an investment for a tool for you to use. And I guess we're asking for you to use them. We train you to use them. You sign off on a signature page that you know how to use them,

that you know how to calibrate it, that you know how to get your axle weights. So why wouldn't you? Right? I mean, if we hand you a hammer and say, here's a hammer so you can bump your tires, are you going to go kick them with your foot? It just, it just, it's kind of a shocker to me. So I guess I'm, you know, and I, I didn't mean to be condescending, but I did it on purpose to walk through how simple it is. Right. We just did it in less than one minute.

Yeah. And I guess it's truly that simple. There isn't some time at some point in the day, you're at some pit that has a display that you can't just tell the scale operator, hey, I'm going to check my axles right quick. You get your steer axle, you get your drives and you pull your trailer on.

Boom you have all your weights right there pull off out of the way after you get your ticket do your math calibrate your gauges go on your way that simple yeah so yeah condescending is j dave it you're just trying to we're just trying to any tool right any tool to get you know get you woke up we we we use little antidotes we use this we use that we do everything i mean i mean the the one that sticks in my mind you know for this circumstances dave happened yesterday in Ken's

training class with the new guys is one of the new drivers. And, you know, I have to say, fortunately, I think the word fortunately, he didn't make the training class. He's not going to be with us. He's not joining our team, but Ken was going through this stuff. And I guess Ken uses, you know, you're the captain of your ship. You're the captain of your ship. He uses that quite often. We've used that. You are the captain of your ship.

And when he asked yesterday about chaining and going, you know, doing this and knowing about this, you're the captain of the ship. And the, the person that, you know, basically we, we dismissed looked at him and goes, well, if I, what if I don't want to chain? What if I don't want to go on that run? What if I don't want to do this? I'm just not going to do that. I won't come in that day. And Ken looked right at him and goes, that's the type of captain you're going to be.

And that's the thing that what captain do you want to be? Do you want to be a captain of the ship or do you want to just be, you know, somebody down in the lower level of the boat that hopes it doesn't sink? I was going to say his ship's the Titanic. Yeah. It's going to sink. It's going to sink. Yeah. And that's, that's what we're talking about. And we try, we try these situations and, and I think we reacted, you know, that this person wasn't, wasn't going to be part of the team.

Wasn't going to help everybody else out. Wasn't going to be, you know, was it Sammy that stopped and helped? Wasn't going to be that person. Wasn't going to be Potter that stops and, you know, introduces himself and says, you know, if you need anything. Wasn't going to be Mike Bortz that gets raving reviews about how he trains. You know, those are the people we want here. They're the captains of their ship. And like you used earlier, Dave, they're the captain of their life.

It's a life goal. Yep. You know, what do you want to be? So here's the analogies. Are you going to use them or are you not going to listen to this podcast and go, wow, that makes pretty good sense? Yeah. Yeah. So I have a saying since you said, you know, we've come up with an anecdote. Yeah. When in doubt, gauge it out.

Oh, man. When I'm in doubt, I'll wrap it out. When in doubt, gauge it out. Come on, Coleman. You know where I got that. You know, buddy. Come on. Oh, boy. All right. What's next? We got the toy drive still going on. Only until this Friday, the 20th, we are delivering the toys on Saturday, the 21st. Absolutely. Thank you, everybody, too, by the way. All the donations. And I know we kind

of had to tilt and go a different direction. But, man, the gifts I've seen and, you know, the hearts, opening your pocketbooks and your hearts for the kids, that's special. Thanks, everybody. Absolutely. Good stuff. This afternoon, Troy Hunt's wife, Jennifer Hunt, the better half, we'll say, will be at the main yard slinging sweet treats. So if you've never experienced this before, Jennifer makes some really good treats around Christmas time, like pretty fancy, like professionally made.

Wow. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. That is awesome. Were we nice to be, say, slinging instead of dealing, dealing sweets? I'm from Queens and I wrote the outline. Well thank you Jennifer yep and then after being at the main yard today Mrs. Cowboy Mrs. Cowboy yeah after being at the main yard today she'll be at yard 23 tomorrow Thursday all homemade toffees brittle fudge and nuggets nougats $40 per pound available She'll have packaged candy for a quarter pound,

and she'll be taking orders. Sounds like drugs. Yeah. It does, doesn't it? Because, I mean, we all know those butter cookies are cracked. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's good stuff. Yeah. Man, that's the biggest tub of butter cookies I've ever seen. It's crazy. Jim already mentioned, no podcast until after the new year. This will be the last one of 2024. I will cry later. Winster Solstice is when, Super Dave? Saturday? Saturday.

And they even have it timed out. I think it's supposed to be at like 2.20 in the morning, something like that, 4.40, something like that. I'll have to wake up. I don't know how they do that. Yeah, eight hours and five minutes. Is that what I said last week? It's over nine hours, I think. I'll have to wake up at that 2.20,

whatever, to experience it, though. Yeah. That is the shortest day of the year it is beyond that they start getting longer and we start heading into spring it's just up from there isn't it dave doesn't just feel good it does and it's it's stupid that when everybody says well that's the first day of winter it's like no it's not it's the beginning of spring you know because you you mentioned it don't at first the days are like a minute longer and then a month later or

something jim it's like a minute in the morning and a minute yeah yeah Yeah, you gain stuff. I think it was May when I mentioned it. It was in my notes last week, yeah. From one minute to three minutes or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So they really start getting longer after a little bit. Yeah, and then I think last week you said nine hours and five minutes. Was it nine hours? Because the shortest day is either eight hours and five or nine hours and five.

Oh, Dave tagged it. Yeah, he was close. He was like. I said nine and a half. Yeah, so it was nine and five. I think you said, Jim, yeah. And I believe this is the first announcement of this, but we'll have our Christmas party on January 17th. Yes, there you go. Yep. Yep. Yep. If you haven't experienced that, it's a good time. Lots of dancing. No, I'm just kidding. There is good food. There is good food. And we'll shut down.

We'll let Brandon know. We'll make some plans. We'll try to shut down a little bit early. And we've done it the last several years here. Good barbecue. On a Friday, yeah, great barbecue. Got those guys signed up again. It is good. They kick butt, you know. Oh, yeah. That's the place down by Casa Bonita. Yeah. The family, because the kid. On Colfax, hot. Not hot. Someone at M, I thought. Frank's Barbecue. Frank's. Yes. That was similar. Thank you. He's all like, that was Frank's.

That's what I was talking about. It was Frank's. That's what I said. Someone at M. Frank's. Thank you, Super Dave. I saw a TikTok of a police officer pulls over a lady and says, can you start can you say the alphabet starting with M so she goes malfabet.

There's a dad joke that was a TRI stop, hopefully we'll let her go that was good Jim do you have some stuff for what next I do I just wrote them down right quick for you know the we gotta have a little political side you know we can't skip that for the last podcast here, but, you know, it's, it's past political and it's become a law. It's the first time I've seen Brother Dave Small today. Well, in 2025, he's going to do all the politics. Oh man, there's some pressure.

So the starting January one, I wrote down, I think there's a couple more, but these were the top seven new laws to come into 2025, starting January one.

I've talked about this already because it's affected the grocery stores and the one King Soopers by my house was struggling, but cage-free eggs, all eggs in Colorado, if they're sold in a Colorado store, need to be cage-free. I mean, that's giving chicken one by one square to scratch and take a bath. That's you can't have it in a cage and lay an egg. Then number two, this is the main reason I brought it up or, or looked it up is put your phone down, put your phone down from now on.

If you have a phone, if you are caught with the phone in your hand, it will be a ticket and it was $75. I was like, oh, okay. You know, no, no big deal. That didn't sound too bad, but it is a two point violation. Wow. And the two-point is going to affect your insurance and could carry a lot of weight. It's going to cost you a hell of a lot more than $75. Exactly. Wow. And that is if they phone in hand. When I read it, it is phone in hand.

You need to be hands-free. And that's in your personal vehicle. In your personal vehicle. In your trucks, the laws are much stiffer. Yeah. If a state patrolman wanted to pull you over, they caught you with your phone in your hand, they can get you for federal. They can get you for state now. and cost you two points. I mean, that's the thing. That's going to go. That's the big deal. It is the big deal. Yep.

So this is a really stupid question, but I guess I'm going to ask it because that's what I do. So if I'm sitting at an intersection and I have the phone in my hand and I'm texting or looking at my phone or watching the TikTok reel. I tried to find that, Dave, because it was phone in hand. The only exception I found, and it was just a quick blurb of it, was if you were in emergency vehicles. Thank you.

Would be the only ones to be able to have a hand in phone. So I believe it includes that, Dave. Good. Yeah. Maybe that'll solve people sitting when the light turns green. Right. Because they're watching their TikTok or whatever. Yep. Yep. Infuriating. Oh man. Oh Dave, it's so funny. And then they end up taking your green light away from you. Yeah. They make it and you don't, right?

It's so funny. The girl that cuts my hair, we just got on that topic last week or the week before when I got my hair cut and she just, she mentioned something and I'm like, oh my God, you're the person i honk at and i said i don't i don't give you a little beep it's like a glaring like.

Like we're rolling and i'm still honking because i'm pissed about it you're there to drive and she's like i just get so bored sitting there waiting at the lights i have to look at my phone and i'm like oh my god you're addicted that's the problem you're there to do one job and it's drive that vehicle yeah because that light is less than maybe 30 40 seconds right yeah yeah never a whole minute even a minute you can't go

one minute without putting your phone in your hand and looking at a tiktok yeah i'm like she goes you've probably honked at me and i said trust me i will.

Yeah we we rented a newer car the other day suki day and it beeped at you when the car in front of you moved oh it warned you so isn't that awesome i like they're trying to do something about that yeah garmin i have a garmin dash cam and it tells me yeah the car has moved traffic is moving yeah does it tell you before i would honk i don't know because i feel like you keep your hand on i have a spot on the wheel now where my hand rests i dare you not to move when i like this the the

car i think it easily moved told you before you yeah yeah it was it was that it was that accurate that's awesome yeah yeah i mean that is great yep hey and then the kids sorry get that on the ballot all cars have to have that so this is for all the new dads and moms i don't you know i know we've had uh several additions to the jfw family here so please look this up because it was quite a diagram but there is some new car seat rules and it was about fastening it was about the type

of car seat the weights of the kids please look that up i probably should be doing a better job of reading this or have looked it up. But if I have any grandkids, it'll be the first thing I do is to learn about it. But there's nothing more important than the safety of the child in your car. This is one that the government's had to step in because we've got a lot of, I'm going to call stupid people that run around with their kids, not in a car seat.

I survived without a car seat. I'm that generation. But man, I know, and I've seen some accidents where the car seats saved some kids' lives. We also grew up in cars that were like full-size metal. He survived without seatbelts. What are you kidding me? Yeah, kind of tanks.

But just to, I don't know if you're going to say it, so I don't want to like cut you off there, Jim, but keep in mind anybody that doesn't know how to put that car seat in or is in question of how it was put in, you can go to any fire station and they will do it for free. They will gladly teach you how to put that car seat in. I bet you your guys' station wagon was just like ours. It had seatbelts, but they were under the cushion. Yeah, they were folded underneath the seat.

You never could find them, you know? I mean, Dave, it was, yeah, our station wagon was identical to yours, but it was called a pickup truck and we just laid in the back. That was the station wagon. We never owned a station wagon. It was a pickup. Yeah, that's all my mom had was big old General Motors station wagon. Pontiacs, Chevys. With panels on it. Yes, sir. I mean, we'd have to share the bed with motorcycles on the way down at 6 p.m.

To go ride at Rampart Range, the other side of Sedale. They had like big block V8s in it. This thing was like a horse. Yep. Yep. Yep. My mom drove it like that. Carbon monoxide rolling in the back. You're like, I love the smell of carbon monoxide in the morning. Close the topper. I'm getting sick. I just had cigarettes smoking, right? Oh, ours did too. Yeah. Yep. Can you roll down the window? Yeah. Yeah. So these next two, Jim, they pertain to you. Maybe they'll help your business.

I was going to bring up some firearm stuff. Yep. Yep. So number four was training will be required for concealed carry gun permit. And I know you talked about it a few podcasts ago and, you know, I know you, you do concealed weapon training. So hopefully you can teach people to be safer. I'll dive into that a little bit. Okay. Okay. And then the other one, and I got a joke about this and I don't know what's happened or who pushed this, but guns secured inside a vehicle.

I mean, every day I hear about guns bouncing around in cars and shooting people.

For real no i don't and that's just how it reads jam so yeah so what they're talking about is you can't leave if you leave your gun in a car and it gets stolen you got a problem yeah it's your it's your gun then you're you're you're part of the crime yeah even if it's in a gun safe in the car no so that's what it means your gun needs to be secured in a separate lock box in a vehicle which yeah you know i used to i just don't leave guns in cars sure you

know what i mean if you know i've had to go to government buildings while i've been at work and i'll leave my gun here just because i don't want to leave it in my car for the 30 minutes and have it stolen out of a government parking lot yeah you know but i've had students and friends call me like man i got my gun stolen where your car yeah wow that's done and i don't know if it's to me i don't think it's probably so much to commit another

crime but it's because they're stealing something that's expensive you. I mean, it's an expensive item. Yeah, the law is to keep guns off the streets and kids from killing each other. Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, most people, yeah. If you see the gun, you break in because you want that gun. It's expensive. Yeah, you know, and a lot of people, even with the lockbox that I had, you know, it was a lockbox, you know, made by Hornady, but it still wasn't very

good. But it had a wire rope that went around the frame of the seat. Somebody's doing a smash and grab. They're not going to be able to grab that. Gotcha. But yeah, it took some more time. You probably could. But they make all sorts of really good, strong gun vaults for cars. They're expensive, obviously. But yeah, I mean, you don't want to lose the money and you don't want to put a gun on the street.

Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think the training is invaluable, but the training is going to be for the good people too. Yeah. So the theory to training, right, is now starting, and it doesn't start January. The law is already enacted, but there's a grace period until July 1st. Okay. So starting July 1st, to get a concealed weapons permit, you will need to take an eight-hour class.

Within that class is a 50-round shooting test and also a written exam that you have to, you got to get a 70, 85.

I think you need a 85 or better on a shooting exam, if I remember correctly, or is it 70? I have to look it up. I think it's 70. You got to be 70% on a shooting exam, and I think you need 80% on a test or something like that. I'd have to look it up. I've already created my curriculum. It's been no real big deal to me because I already had a six-hour class. The class has got to be eight hours now. Okay.

But I feel like the reason they did this is there was a lot of instructors teaching these three-hour classes with no shooting involved. And really, all they teach you is about the law, which is important, right? But you learn about the law, and then they try to sell you some other stuff. So I think because of that, Colorado's like, hey, and I feel different. I mean, as far as your second amendment goes, I think it's BS. As far as being responsible gun owners, I think it's good. Sure.

You know, we should all have the right to bear arms, but it should also be your responsibility to become proficient with it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then I got to just, you know, it's a really shift here. I'm just going to ask you guys, because I just bragged about you earlier how sharp all of us are. So does anybody have any idea what granny flats are? Granny flats. Granny flats. Flats like a flat tire flat. Or like flats like your shoes.

Neither one of those. Or like a flat like an apartment in London. Flat like an apartment in London. Granny flats. Granny flat. No, your granny is not flat chested. That's what he just motioned to everybody. I gotta call him out My granny is not flat chested, Uh, so, and I, and I, I, I don't know some of this stuff I read, I understand it totally. And then all the time, how can it be so serious? So Colorado, and I don't know what the cities will look in on.

You can build another structure at your home if it's for your grandparents or your parents. So I know in like Tucson and stuff in some, when you, with the builders called a casita and it's an extra apartment for your, for your, you're going to be for your grandparents or your parents. It's like a guest house. It's a guest house. And Colorado has enacted or enacted that.

But when you, how I read the law is when you go in and ask for the permit, if it's for that, you will be granted that at a lot less stricter laws. Like maybe you don't have enough room and you need to get an offset, but this is what the offset is for, you'll be allowed to do that. And Colorado's pushing that. So that's the granny flats law, which I thought was pretty crazy. I thought mother-in-laws went in there, not grandparents. Yeah, right, exactly, Jim. So anyway, granny flats.

Well, maybe they're being kind because so many kids are still living at home that they're living with their grandparents and they're kicking the grandparents out for their granny flats and they're living in the grandparents' house. Could be. Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't know, but, and then number seven there, you guys, minimum wage for the state of Colorado will, is going up. That was just one of the other last ones. So not, not anything to do with Denver, but the minimum wage for Colorado.

So no, any place in Colorado, minimum wage will go up. What's it going up to? Like 18? No, David, it's really, it's like 1475 or 15. Colorado is way below. Denver is already at 20, I think. Oh. And city and county of Denver. Yeah, I don't want to sidetrack you. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Jim. It looked like you were ready to go. No, let me see what you're going to say. No, I just watched an expose this weekend on the news.

They listed off several restaurants in Denver that are actually leaving Denver, but it's such a good base for them. They're just moving in nearby Inglewood because they can't afford to keep their business in Denver anymore because of all the new regulations and requirements and the laws and the cost of doing business there. And the big thing cited is because the minimum wage has increased so much in the last five years.

Wow. And this is the last step. I think it goes to 1875 in Denver, January 1st. And they're like, they went this one, I can't remember the name of the, it's a Mexican restaurant that's been at like first and Broadway for 30 years. And they were playing out just closing. They weren't going to relocate. They're like, we just can't afford, you know, the loss we've taken year after year after year over the last five years to stay in business. It's just not worth it anymore.

And then with the new EPA guidelines too. Absolutely, Jim. Yeah, there's, you know, that's the number one thing with small business. I heard a quote the other day. There was a guy that has been running his small business. I don't remember what it was, but he goes, I'm sure at some point today, I'm going to find a new law rule or regulation that I'm breaking and don't know it. Great. I just won't look. Yeah. Isn't that unbelievable?

Yeah. Not to, not, I just happened to look it up for 2025, Dave, 1881. Okay. For, for Denver. So, I mean, you were, we were so close. Pretty damn six cents, right? Yeah. So, I mean, that's. Yeah.

Do we know anything else about no tax and overtime? Do we know is that going into effect 100%? I'm sure they'll make a pretty big deal about that if they can pull the trigger on the jam, and they need to pull the trigger on that. That's crazy. Yeah. Crazy in the best possible way. It is. It is.

I kind of heard a stat this morning that kind of made me a little nervous that we're actually getting a little bump in inflation right now, and the reason why is people are a little panicked because of everything that Trump has said he's going to do with the tariffs and it's actually causing a buying spur right now people are going out and stocking up on cars they're stocking up on computers they're stocking up on on ammo yeah could

be ammo right we'll definitely hear in colorado because it'll go up right and then microchips just anything to do with technology that we were purchasing elsewhere out of the country and it's it's it's causing a little bit of panic what will happen when he does take over And that's, that is a little bit disheartening, right? It really makes you wonder, damn, what? Is it, is it going to get better? Right. Or will the tariffs hurt us?

You know, I mean, I'm hopeful it will get better. It's already better. Yeah. And something to, to look at. And you know, again, the, the political side of this, or just some information is him, he's, he's ready. I'm ready to take it over is along with this, that if you take a look at this, so for 2025, over nine, 9.2 million workers will get a raise January 1st from 21 states. So 21 states have governed small business or any business to give your employees a raise.

That's what 21 states have enacted, either a minimum wage or some kind of stuff like that. Well, you know how those, and that's funny, and it doesn't mean that people don't deserve raises. Hopefully the company, if they're doing well, is giving their employees raises. But those 21 states that have enacted that and whoever that 9.2 million people work for, you know how those people afford to pay their people higher wages? They raise their prices. They raise their prices.

Government doesn't think about that. Government just thinks we're going to do this over here. Government doesn't think logically. That's not what they're there for. That's not what they do.

They just raise their taxes or call it what's a service fee instead of a tax so anyway i don't want to i don't want to take over dave's job we need to move on jim i have done my part he's officially in it i'm affected infected oh jim i just got a message ray scott's on the phone for you oh man that's great is that all for the what's next everybody, No questions from the audience, Jim? I got a question from the audience, and it's from Potter. Let's see. Let's see.

Oh, geez. So I started voice texting him earlier by accident. It just put like 500 sentences? Yeah, so I'm trying to get back. If anybody wants to fill the silent areas. Well, I was going to fill, but I think it takes you to answer me. I can jump in there only because you got my engine running on the freaking politics, Jim. And I guess I just want to bring up, that's just seven new laws. You can't help yourself. Well, you can't, Jim, because it's disgusting, right?

That's seven you mentioned out of nearly 200 that will be introduced. But last year alone, Colorado's session passed 705 new bills. Wow, that's crazy. That's how you have to be violating one right now. Absolutely. And that's the largest number passed since 2018. Wow. I mean, it's just, it's incredible.

How do you keep up with the rules and the regulations and the laws? Yeah. And how can we need that many? Right? What can be so wrong we need that many? You know, I wish it was a powerful enough group, but Ray Scott tried to lobby when he was at the Capitol working there as a senator. For every bill passed, you have to take two off the books. That'd be cool.

Wouldn't it just be amazing? Now, if we had enough power and I've been told it's well over a million dollars to get this, but you can get anything on the ballot if you have enough signatures and it takes over a million dollars. The million dollars is you have to get every county in the state X amount of signatures from each county. It's a percentage of how many people live there. So you have to go get X amount of signatures. Doesn't matter Democrat or Republican, you just need a signature.

And the thing is you have to prove the signature is accurate right it's a valid registered.

Signature and in order to do that you're paying these groups to travel the state of colorado to get all these signatures so that's where the million well it's they say over a million bucks but if you have over a million bucks you can probably get that law put on the ballot and i bet it would pass yeah yeah you know what i mean i bet if i bet if the average coloradoan went to his ballot in two years when we hopefully vote in, well, we'll, we'll vote in a new governor either way.

But anyway, I bet that would pass, right? Would you like two laws removed from the books for every new law? Yes. Yeah. And I'm, I'm going to have to tell you, Dave, you know, I love Ray, but I think his thoughts are a little antiquated. It needs to be four, not two. Right. If they passed, if they passed 700. Right. Two and four is nothing. Yeah. It'd be like 10.

Right. Yeah. How do you even employ, well, I mean, the state is on a hiring spree to hire more people to work for the state just to try and create an enforced policy for all the new policies they want. Right. I mean, it's, it's crazy. You don't want government overtaking your small business.

You know small business has always led the country what it what what was that number jim was it 60 or 80 of the income in the country comes from small business it was i think it was 80 right and and officially our government is the largest employer now yeah oh my gosh that's a bit scary it is yeah yeah what's the what's the question jam so pot ass good morning jam question for the podcast when I first got when I first got this truck I asked about an alignment and front steer balancing.

I was told that we do not do it because we are a local and it wouldn't help. I'm personally doing over 3,000 miles per week. My question is would it be beneficial now to do the alignment and front steer balance to prevent unnecessary wear? I have fairly new steer tires on and I've already cupping on the right front outside. Also, I'm aware that my truck needs the ECU updated to fix the D-rate countdown I get daily, but I'm being told that our subscription has expired to be able to do the update.

Do we know when we will be getting the new subscription? Well, the answers to number one and two are bullshit. Not sure who's saying that. And maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere, but we almost always do an alignment when we put new steer tires on. We do it here. We do it ourselves because we have proven spending $700 at a dealership doesn't gain us a thing. We go old school. We jack the front end up. We paint lines on the tires. We drop it on the ground on a plastic bag on both sides.

Sides you adjust the wheel so it's dead center and we take a tape measure and measure between the lines and we have proven if you're between one sixteenths and three sixteenths of an inch toe in you are spot on and we do it all the time they probably just don't see it because the minute you take off it rubs right off the tire in a mile or two so unless you saw it when you did your pre-trip when you got new steers or we'll check it right we

can just check the alignment but it still has to be checked in that that way so you'd still see the lines as far as the subscription update i'm not sure what they're talking about there because if that's i don't know if his truck has the new dash if that's what he's asking because if it does does it dave he's in one of the new woods they all had the oh yeah they have the digital dash yeah that was the first ones of them yeah

well we need the program it's not that we have a subscription because mike just learned the update for that. We actually have to take our laptop. We have to download the new program. I don't even know if it's available to us yet. And we actually have to fold the dash out and there's a place to hook up that we have to hook our laptop up to that. And keep in mind, we've learned we do not like updates. Our, our equipment does not like updates. It's like a down date.

Oh man, Jim, it's, it puts us out of service when we have, when they mandate us, we've, Mike has went to both MHC and Rush Truck Centers and we have it in our file. You do not update our truck when you go in there because inevitably we get it back and something doesn't work. Like the urge to move or the PTO, or there's some function on there that their downloads change our deal. And nine times out of 10, we don't know about it after it's done, right?

And yeah, it's become a nightmare for us. So there's a few things there at hand that we just need to dive into and answer. We've fought cupping on the right front and the left front outside of the steer tire for the existence of our ownership. Yeah. And the hoods. Yep. There is no, there is no weight up there. They don't actually, as far as we know, part of it is they don't make the tires work. Yeah. And we've addressed it by scooting the fifth wheels forward.

You know, as far as we want to go, we could scoot them forward and that would eliminate the, it's called river wear. His, his river wear is probably going to get worse because he's been on this long run further than anyone.

He's done it the most of anyone. so he's empty those tires are designed to be loaded a hundred percent of the time or well over 70 percent of the time and he's not yeah you get a road truck it's loaded yeah running that on the on our our roads are cupped where the tires sit they're grooved right they were designed to be on the crown of a highway and they're not so with them wearing in those cups the grooves of the road it screws up the out

front the outside shoulders on the left and right side tires So interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And we run balance beads inside the tires. Yeah. As a smart, as a smart ass, I'm like, well, they're not going to help you because of Colorado roads. And that's what Dave's talking about when they're rutted. I mean, it's like a four wheel drive trailer trail. It's got ruts. You run in the two track. Yeah. Yeah. Literally.

Right. Safety topic of the week. While using knives and razor blades, cut away from your body and all your body parts. I wondered what that meant. Me too. Wait a minute. I do want to go back. I mean, the tire issue and the wear. No, has been such an issue. It just dawned on me. We are running 30 Michelin test tires. Oh yeah. 30 tires. I mean, they came to us and they're like, hey, will you do this for us? It's a problem. and then turn right around and Bridgestone is doing the same thing.

So we've, we're, we're a test fleet because those issues are so big. It's not a JFW issue. It's not a truck issue. It's, it's a road issue that the, the tire manufacturers are trying to combine and come together and fight that. So yeah, it's, that's a great question. It really was a great question. Good stuff. Getting back to the safety topic. We did have a guy cut his finger the other day, just cutting the top off a glue bottle. Fingers. Cut his finger.

Oh is that a nickname yeah fingers i like it is it fingers oquenda it could be. Finger finger we're glad you're okay yes jack yeah thank you we're giving you a hard time glad you're taking care of stuff and and handling it yourself and we we really appreciate everything you did with that you know and what a tough dude man thanks for cutting he ran to urgent care he got stitched up and he was right back yeah that's what i mean he was he took care of it right manned

up and knocked it out. Yeah. I mean, he could have been like, I need 12 weeks off. I think you're making Jack sound more of a man than he actually is, but it's fine. It's fine. We'll go with that. Oh, man. Thank you, Jack. Yeah. He didn't get the phone call when he was crying. This is also a good point to talk about three points of stance. Yeah. Three point stance. Yeah. Right? Do I need to walk through that? Like the gauges?

Yeah. We had somebody hurt their shoulder, huh, Dave? Right. Absolutely. Again, not holding on, not being on the correct step of the truck. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So it's not being on the truck at all. Yeah. That's it. The rails, the bump rails on the scales are not made to walk on.

They're made to keep the truck from falling off. Yes. Yeah. So don't walk on those. Walk on this, on the ground. With three points of stance. Can't walk with three points of stance, but maybe you could. Well, you're not supposed to walk with a three point stance. You're only supposed to climb. Right. Climb in, climb out. Right. Otherwise you should be on the ground walking. That part.

That part yes not on a rail right yeah yeah there you go yes yeah good point jim you can't walk with a three-point stance that'd be a little awkward right unless you had something to hold on to well you'd have to be like a dog yeah right exactly or a horse or just you know you got two sky hooks yeah sliding down the cable all new meaning to sky hooks we're gonna have this piece deploy when you step out of the cab you're gonna have to latch on in the back

to the harness man swinging around to the tailgate you can clean off the tailgate never touch the ground tips and tricks from ray davis staying healthy during the holidays and this is written by a sick. The holiday season can be great and it allows us to spend more time with the people we love. It can also be not so great by adding more to our already busy schedules.

It is easy to get so wrapped up in shopping for food and gifts, planning gatherings, and cleaning before our guests arrive that taking care of ourselves often gets pushed aside. However, practicing self-care is even more important when faced with the additional stress that the holidays often bring. When we look after our health and wellness, it makes it easier to deal with whatever extra tasks are put on our to-do list.

It also makes the day seem lighter because we don't feel quite so weighed down. Here are seven self-care tips that help create this type of effect. Number one, manage your expectations. In a perfect world, the holidays come and go without any challenges. In reality, plans get changed last minute, guests arrive sooner or later than anticipated, and the oven malfunctions in the middle of you cooking your family's favorite dessert.

Expecting that you will face some issues along the way can keep you from being surprised when they occur. It also allows you to bounce back more quickly because you knew they were coming. Number two, divide and conquer. A lot of people struggle with asking for help. At the same time, they're also the first ones who are willing to help others, and they do this without a thought.

If this sounds like you, remember that giving someone else the opportunity to help you enables them to feel as good as you do when helping others. Divide your list into tasks that you need to do yourself and tasks you can pass off. Then ask others in your house or social circle to help with the things on the second list. This enables you to conquer more in less time, and you can use this.

Save time to do more of these tips. Enjoy the company of those around you, or simply sit by yourself for a moment. Number three, don't skimp on sleep. When you're tired, it becomes harder to deal with even the tiniest of disruptions or hurdles. Being sleep deprived can also cause you to snap at family and friends due to your patients being thin. The Sleep Foundation recommends that most adults get seven to nine hours of rest per night. Aim to get this amount most, if not all nights of the week.

This may require going to bed earlier than you used to or shortening your to-do list so your days aren't so long, but the payoff will be there in how much better you feel. Number four, set aside time for yourself every single day. This self-care tip may seem impossible during the busiest time of the year, yet you don't have to set aside a lot of time to feel the benefits to your mental health. Even five minutes of doing something that makes you feel good is often enough to lighten your mood.

Every morning when you wake up, give yourself five minutes to sit with your coffee quietly and organize your thoughts. At lunch, spend five minutes doing breathing exercise to energize you for the afternoon. End your day by writing in a gratitude journal for five minutes to remind you of all the things you are thankful. I'm just picturing Ray doing breathing exercises and writing in a journal. Number five, get active even without exercise.

Exercises cause your body to release endorphins. These are hormones that help you feel good. But you don't need an all-out sweat session to enjoy exercise's mental health benefits. Really, any physical activity will do. If you don't like to work out, take the dog for a walk around the block a couple times each day or head outside and build a snowman with the kids. Household chores also count as physical activity, helping you feel better while also wiping items off your to-do list.

Keep up with your physical health routines. If you don't feel good physically, it's tough to feel good mentally. The brain and the body are so interconnected that when you take care of one, you're taking care of the other. This means sticking to any doctor's appointments that you may have and also taking time off if you feel ill. Number six, stay up on your medications and don't forget to take your vitamins.

Drink lots of water to stay hydrated. Plan meals and snack around foods that are high in nutrients and do a few stretches to relax your body at the end of the day. Number seven, take time to breathe. When you feel the holiday stress start to creep up, take a few minutes to close your eyes and breathe in. Feel the air as it enters your nostrils slowly.

Hold your breath in your lungs for a count of four, then release a breath out of your mouth, feeling the weight of the world exit your body with it. Do this a few times and it can help you feel more centered. It also slows your brain and body down enough so that you can enjoy the holiday season a bit too.

All right, now he has his Did You Know segment. Did you know on 12-18-1966 how the Grinch Stole Christmas, an adaptation of Dr. Seuss's classic children's book, aired for the first time and became a holiday staple. Did you know on 12-18-1943, British guitarist Keith Richards of the rock band The Rolling Stones was born? Did you know on 12-18-1958, the world's first communications satellite was launched?

Did you know on 12-18-2024, that's today, there are still unknown drones flying over New Jersey? Hope all is well with JFW family, friends, and listeners. Remember, safety has no blind spot. Look and lean, sit up in that stool, don't be a fool. remember it's safer to be slow than sorry much love and respect always the black sheep ray ray double 013 thanks ray ray yeah thanks ray good tips heading into the 2025 huh yep breathing and stretching and snacking tips.

So you want to hit us with that high road hauling you betcha you betcha so this is our last podcast of 2024. So let's talk about 2025. Are you going to make New Year's resolutions? The tradition of making resolutions or setting goals for the coming year started as far back as the 1600s. It's a perfect time stamp to mark a change for the better. Statistics say less than 8% actually keep their said resolutions. Sometimes people make them with friends, like to lose weight together.

Sometimes people are laser focused on a goal, such as I'm going to buy a house next year, or usually by mid-February, our goals have taken a backseat to life, and your focus has changed. We should focus more on a change of mind, or more accurately, a change of thought. Who you want to be versus what you want to be. Any major changes or decisions that call for action have to be made from within, from a position of why.

That is driven by an inner need, a choice that screams, this is who I want to be, this is who I am. We all know that idle remarks go nowhere and are never taken seriously. The minute the words cross our lips, we want them back. Struck from the record, I think I'll quit smoking next year. Wait, did I say that? When we want to set a goal or make a New Year's resolution, we need to find out why. Smoking is bad for my heart, my lungs, my long-term health. I need to stop smoking.

If you quit for a day, that very next day you should tell yourself, I'm a non-smoker. If you tell yourself each day that you don't have a cigarette, I'm a non-smoker, eventually you are. I know that sounds cliche, but research has shown that mind over matter is a powerful motivator. When we have a desire to change a habit or an attitude or set a goal, it's best not to bite off more than we can chew. Next year, I'm going to eat better, stop drinking, and start going to church.

Wow, that's a lot to fail at. Pick one thing that is the most important to you and who you are and make your resolution a priority. Don't be afraid to fail every or excuse me fear of failure should never stop us from setting a goal the most successful people have failed many times but always try again and again and again Winston Churchill once said success is not final failure is not fatal it is the courage to continue that counts the most,

That leads us to another idea. If you desire to make a change or set a goal, why wait for the new year? There is no better time than now to do anything. Procrastinators finish last or never get started in the first place. As one year melts into the next, we are always changing. The changes are so subtle, they usually go unnoticed.

Take a look at yourself, or excuse me, take a look at your past self, your present self, and your future self, and it's important to see improvement in whatever you think matters. I'm a better father, a husband, a friend, an employee, a leader, or a role model. If the answer is yes, then those subtle changes, or maybe not so subtle actually, will build a direct path to an, an outstanding future self, new year's resolutions aside.

So the, the quote this week, I love this quote too, what the future holds for you depends on what you hold for your future. So you need to make a decision, what matters most, and then follow through and make it happen. Another great one, Dave. Yeah. Good stuff. Good, good. Final thoughts, everybody?

Yeah, I'm just going to end with a happy new year and Merry Christmas and thanks to everyone for a great year since this is the last podcast this year and couldn't work with a greater group of people and customers. And, you know, the family we create here and my family at home, I'm, I'm blessed and, and cheers to 2025. I'm looking forward to it. And I, I think we'll, we'll continue to be better every day. So thanks everybody.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. I kind of got some scrambled stuff here, so I'm going to like bounce all over the place. Jim, you, you've answered this for me before, but if you guys have a really bad water leak at your house, what Do you grab a mopping bucket and start mopping it up or do you shut the water leak off first? Shut it off. Okay. That's hopefully what we're going to do with the wall. Hopefully that'll solve some immigration. We need to stop the leak before we

start mopping it up, right? That's my analogy for that. And I stole that. It's not my analogy. I won't take credit for that. But for anybody that watches the news or pays attention. Fox last night, Channel 31, had a little piece. They've just arrested several, I think, six more members out of that. You've said the name of that gang. Well, it's a- Trey. Yeah. I don't even know the name of it. It has to do with the train. It's translated like- Oh, gotcha. Yeah, to the train. Yeah, I mean,

it's the Venezuelan gang. Yeah, the Lowry Edge Apartments. Yeah, so it has to do with that. They've had 17 home invasions now, and they finally just arrested another group of that gang.

And in the home invasions they found the people that are inside they've all been bound and gagged some of them have been beaten and stabbed and i guess you know how did we get here right you know how is that allowed and i i guess i just i really hope everything that we've talked about over the year you know that that change is coming and we'll get that solved and i guess that's i i'm just kind of bringing that out so everyone's aware of yeah not not

to interrupt what's happening because it does make you so angry but at this point chickens are more protected than we are yes yes so i just sorry dave no that's a great great point jim right we've we've gotten away from the realm of human safety you know and we're more concerned about animals right i mean almost to a degree right It's that small, small percentage, and we're overlooking the masses of things.

So anyway, enough about that. I want to step in, close the year out like Jim said on 2024, talk about 2025. I think 2025 is not only going to be a record-breaking year, but groundbreaking. Did you see what I did there? Right? Little dad joke for the end. Just the work that we've mentioned that we already have on the books, right? We've picked up A1 chip seal. So we'll be delivering to all of their locations this year.

In addition to the EnviroTech Salt Hall, in addition to Brandon picked up a 100,000 ton paving job out of Douglas County. The Supers will be running, the Supertandums will be running 24-7, right? We're going to need a night crew for those in addition to the day crew we currently have. That means 100,000 tons of material that's going to need to be delivered to their new plant, Sedalia, that no one has counted on. and, and they're just going after stuff everywhere.

So just so many great things to look forward to in 2025. I think it's going to be good to close the door on 24. It's, it's not that it was a bad year by any means, you know, we got through it. Everybody hung in there and survived and, and, you know, we tried to adapt and make changes and make things as good as we can. And I'm just really looking forward to 25. It's, it's going to be a great year. I just know it is. So I'm super stoked about it.

And like Jim said, man, I can't echo those words enough. So thankful to have such a great team here to work with everyone here, you know, all the drivers, the mechanics, the wash bay, HR, you know, everybody upstairs, just dispatch all the departments that it takes to keep this, this, to feed this beast. Cause it is a machine, man. It takes a lot of breathing monster. Right. And, and, you know, I, I feel so blessed because we came in here and

what did we do? laugh for like 20 minutes, solid cracking jokes before the podcast, you know, just cutting up and we get the pleasure to do that every day, every single day. Yet we deal with, you know, sometimes tragedy, sometimes heartache, accidents, incidents, good things, bad things, whatever, all involved, but we still get to come in and have fun. Oh yeah. And I guess to me, I feel blessed to have that and I, I look forward to it.

I look forward to another great year of it and And just, yeah, super stoked, super thankful. Absolutely, Dave. Thank you. Looking forward to the challenge. You know, when we have a lot going on, we have, you know, I'm remembering back to when we were running Cassie at night. And I mean, we had a lot going on and it was quite a challenge. And we rose to the occasion and got her done. So next year, all this new work and these new customers, I want to let you go out and get it done.

I like it. Right. It's exciting. Yeah. It's a great way to finish 24 and looking for 25. Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah. Well, you guys are all moved on to 2025, and I'm still here in 2024. You guys are looking ahead, and I'm just going to kind of review a little bit. So I bought a book last week. My buddy in North Carolina bought the same book. He's already done reading it. So I'm going to talk about something we talked about yesterday.

But if you get called in to sit down and go over things with somebody on the leadership team, you're not necessarily the problem. The problem is the problem. And if we can work together and communicate about that problem and solve it together, then the problem's solved. So just because you get called in, please don't feel like it's you. You may just need some coaching. You may need information. You may need training.

You may have just need to talk to us, but the problem is the problem you're not the problem if that makes sense so yeah makes great sense yeah yeah absolutely i promise i didn't get that from kamala harris a little bit of a word salad there. Anyway don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel 23 podcast hit that follow button also don't forget to go back and listen to episode 72 to help find amra's mom links to her story will be in today's show notes.

Let's say the creed and get on out. Sounds great. Together we face and overcome all that stands before us. Together we are accident-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 a JFW family. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next year. Yep. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas.

All that good stuff. Don't talk and drive. Happy Hanukkah. Take an Uber. It's cheaper. Yep. Be safe. Yep. Yep. Yep. Call if you're out. By the way, that's a good point, Dave, just to finish up. If you're out someplace and drunk and you can't find a ride, which there should be enough ride, you can call me. Yep. You can call me, too, until 8 p.m., and then you're on your own. Drink early. Drink safe. Yep. Drink often. Drive fast. Take chances. There we go. All right. We're out. You guys see.

Music. Breaker Breaker 23. Anybody got a copy on that Channel 23 podcast? Welcome and thanks for listening.