Episode 172 - Why do we do this?

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

The purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch the fleet, to engage and inform everyone with all things JFW. Big surprise in the studio today, we have Jim White, Brother Dave White, and Super Dave Weldon. Hi, everybody. Top of the day your way, everybody. Morning, everybody. Soup, you want to lead us in a pledge? Sure.

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 patients that are making good, safe decisions.

We pray to be accident-free, and that we all make it back to the comforts of our homes this evening. We pray for Mikey to get well soon and have a nice, safe procedure today. And 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. Amen. Amen. As a reminder, what you hear on today's podcast is just the men in this room's expressed opinions, not JFW's. 100%. Episode 171, well, about 50%.

Episode 171 had 291 downloads. we are at 90,000 or 90.2 thousand total downloads and we broke 700 we're at 702 followers very cool, you know Jim I don't have any opinions, I just tell it like it is and that's the way it is wow, so here's something you might appreciate somebody's got some extra caffeine this morning somebody pushed in his Cheerios So three golf clubs went to- That's what that taste was. I can vouch that didn't happen because he was still crunching them. Oh, okay.

Three golf clubs went into a bar. The putt asked for a beer. The wedge ordered tequila. And guess what the third got? Oh, has to be something with a driver? Nothing because he's a driver. That's funny. Well, I got some questions for you guys. They're pretty tough ones if two vegans are arguing is it still called a beef, which orange came first the color or the fruit, If you drop the soap on the floor, is the soap dirty or is the floor clean?

If I weigh 99 pounds and I eat one pounds of nachos, am I 1% nachos?

If Apple makes a car, would it still have windows? If you're born deaf, what language would you be thinking? Ooh, that one's got me thinking. And if you get out of the shower clean, how does your towel get dirty? I argue with the wife a lot on that one. So those are my, I don't know if they're dad jokes. I like those. That's good. Yeah. No, those are good. They were aha jokes. Yeah. Your towel should always be clean. Right. You washed, you got out clean. I've never washed out of towels.

So, you know, when you wash your hands and you dry them off, more dirt comes off on the towel. So I think the same thing happens when you take a shower. Well, my opinion is. Then you didn't wash your hands very well. That's exactly it. That's my opinion. You didn't wash your hands very well. And he's just giving it to you straight, Super Dave. Tell him more like it is, right? Oh, man. All right. I have two extremely lame dad jokes this morning. Why do ducks have such long tail feathers?

Do they? No, they don't. No, they do. No. It's the longest feather on them is their tail feathers. And why wouldn't they? I'm not a hunter, so I couldn't tell you. It's to hide their butt quack. Butt quack. And then do you guys know how the man on the moon gets his hair cut? No. Comb over something moon. The eclipse it. The eclipse it. Nice. Good stuff. Good ones. All righty. so i i was actually leaning towards a golf joke jim but i i kind of like this one better and it's kind of a poop joke so.

So anyway a young man wanted to invite his girlfriend to their farm but was embarrassed by the old-fashioned outdoor outhouse he kept bickering with his dad about getting a modern one with indoor plumbing, but the old-timer didn't want to give in. Out of sheer desperation, excuse me, he slips out one night with a huge shove, pushes the entire outhouse down the hill.

The solid affair was still intact when it reached the bottom, but he knew it would be too damaged to drag back up with the truck's winch. The next morning at breakfast, his father asked him, was it he who destroyed the outhouse? And at the same time, he reminds him of the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. So the boy says, yes, dad, it was me. And the dad says, I'm so glad you're so honest. And as punishment, you have to start digging the pit for a new outhouse immediately.

And the boy says, but dad, when George Washington admitted it was he that cut down the cherry tree, his father didn't punish him. And then the father said, well, yes, you're right. But George's dad wasn't in the cherry tree when he cut it down.

That's funny. Good stuff. New employees. We have Isaiah Nones starting in the wash bay. That'll be Andrew Nones' son. He's got a pretty good attitude. It's enjoyable talking to him. And then Enrique Escalante and Richard Fleckenstein started in the fleet. So welcome to the fleet, guys. Yeah, welcome, everybody. Glad to have you. Absolutely. Welcome aboard. Yep. Celebrations. We got for anniversaries, Uriel Molina hit one year yesterday.

Happy anniversary, Uriel. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary.

Brother Dave, your dream has come true for birthdays. Marshall Blanchett has a birthday this Friday. Because you had said just the other day, I'd love to be able to wish Marshall a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Marshall. Happy birthday, Marshall. And our very own Jim White has a birthday this Saturday. Wow. Happy birthday, Jim. Happy birthday, Jim. Do you guys want to sing happy birthday?

Happy birthday to you. That was on vacation last week, the lady of the boat, we went on, asked if there was anybody out there with happy birthdays, you know, and there was two people with happy birthday. And she goes, okay, I'm going to sing happy birthday. Everybody is going to be sweet. Happy birthday. That was her deal. That's funny. Family birthday celebrations. I told you guys about this last week, unless this is a misprint. We got Krista and Abigail Canmore had a birthday this past Monday.

That's a mother and daughter. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. That's awesome. I'll have to verify that with Clint, but that's what we got.

Want to give a shout out to Ricky DeLeon for listening to the podcast and completing the podcast knowledge challenge. Ricky is very engaged. He is. Yep. He's awesome. Yep. Thanks, Ricky. I want to give a shout out to Marshall Blanchard for listening and getting an 80 on the podcast knowledge challenge. She only took it one time. So this is a guy that doesn't even work here. Got an 80 on the podcast knowledge challenge, which is more than some of our people get because they don't take it.

Well, I got to thank you, Jim, because you helped me get a hundred for last week's. Oh, you're welcome. I helped a few people. Me as well. I couldn't get a couple of them. Boy, I was stumped.

I'm in that i must have taken it 20 or 25 times i do like more people to call me for help that's great and this week there was one question that really got people and that was what do you need for the munch of march to get you two percent and the answer is just the 90 in safety because we made revisions to the criteria yeah for the fuel efficiency so we're not holding you accountable for that yeah see that was kind of like a trick question it

really wasn't i mean it seemed like it was but it wasn't written as a trick and we did discuss it in depth right it's like if a plane crashes where the survivor's buried you know you have to pay really close attention. You haven't heard that joke it's a riddle really i mean, I mean, it's really involved if the wind is blowing north, but the plane is flying south. And, you know, you've not heard that one? No. The engine, engine one caught on fire.

300 miles out. They were halfway full of fuel. Who was the first one to the scene of the accident? They crashed on the south side of the divide. Yeah. On a Tuesday. Right. Also want to give a shout out to Ricky DeLeon again for stepping up while Mikey's been out.

Absolutely good job Ricky yeah thanks Ricky thanks for taking charge out there and putting stuff putting the pieces together man I'll tell you what I know he's not sitting here but Brent Carter had an awesome shout out for Ricky because he yesterday I think it was yesterday might have been Monday I can't remember his truck kept on shutting down on him and yeah he went out and then he followed him to where he was going to make sure it wasn't going to shut down on him again and Brent was like

thank you so much you are the man yeah yeah it was that was a win-win scenario for sure because ricky had an idea he i think he went out and and cleared a code first and i think this was the day before it got him through the day and then yesterday he had the same problem again and ricky was able to diagnose that it needed a sensor so went out there put a sensor in it cleared the codes but then the truck has to run x amount of time before

it like releases itself or something like that It clears the code. Yeah.

Even though we cleared it with the computer, it still needs to run on its own to fully say, okay, nothing's wrong. We're repaired. You should have Ricky look at the Denali. Right. Yeah. Tell you what. We need 110 Rickys following every truck, it seems like. Right. And laptops. Yeah. Yep. You guys have any shout outs? I want to give a shout out to Kyle for filling in last week. Kyle. Did a great job. It was good stuff. Yeah. Had some insight.

Dave said he, he, you know, said some different stuff during the podcast that he really appreciated his, his outlook, you know, being a new guy and seeing things. So appreciated that. And then. To piggyback on that, my buddy Timmy that listens in North Carolina, he said, oh, that Kyle guy did a good job. He seems like he fits right in with you guys. You know what's cool, though? You know, Kyle comes from his family's trucking company.

And then we've been involved with JFW for so many years. This is, you know, our wheelhouse, right? They are so parallel, you guys. Right. And yet they were not. I mean, they did oil field stuff. They, you know, and it's just so funny how things really are the same. Yeah. The same problems, the same headaches, the same triumphs. That's cool. Technically, completely different line of work. Yep. Same exact problems. Yeah. Or issues. Right? Yeah.

100%. Yeah. The people work there? Yeah, there's the problems. We are in the people business. Yep. We can all agree on that. And then, you know, you guys were involved in it. you did all the meetings last week with what I think there was three days of meetings you guys had when you went over the driving efficiency with, with a lot of it. Was there three meetings you guys had? Yeah.

Ended up with three, yeah, three groups there. And, and I know Rick Gray was in one of the groups and I know he's texted. You guys have all made comments on connect and different stuff like that. Shout out to Rick for, you know, being willing to learn, you know, he's been, he's worked here a long time. He's got a lot of miles under his belt and he, he made some changes and it shows in his driver efficiency.

And I think that's outstanding that, that out of any age and, and we, we talk about it all the time that, you know, if you're willing to learn, it's going to make you a better person. I'm proud of Rick for that. I think that's, I think that's awesome. And I think that's the goal with what we're doing is that it, that it makes you better And it's a hard, it's not a lesson, it's just a hard mindset to accomplish, I think.

You know what I mean? To actually want to do that and then do something about it or change the small things that make you better. To be better. I was just going to say that, Jim. Yeah.

You know, and it's so easy to get stuck in your ways. I'm guilty. Oh yeah, me too. And to be able to open your mind and say, you know what, I can do this. you just got to try yeah right yeah right, It didn't sound that good at the meeting, why it was going on. Because it's funny, Jim, you picked up on that because I told you about it, obviously, right? And that Rick was my shout out as well. I kind of figured I robbed somebody. He was going down in that meeting kicking rocks.

That's for sure. He was. He's going down on him. My truck doesn't work like that. It's broken. It doesn't shift. It doesn't do this. It takes a delay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And 12 minutes into a ride, it was fixed with JR.

So i mean rick yeah kudos to you buddy i mean he just sent me a screenshot he's he's picked his efficiency score up over 20 points in six days right so i mean he'll be over the 85 you know by the end of this week for sure guaranteed and it's it's the choice to drive the truck not let the truck drive itself you drive the truck you're the driver right you you have to physically drive that truck now. That's what we're asking for.

Shout out to all the Ricks, because there's a lot of people that have been making big changes and doing the same. Absolutely. They just weren't going to die on the hill in the meeting. Kudos to you for sticking to your guns, Rick. Did you have another shout out to him? It looked like you had another one.

No, no. I just wanted to, you know, if everybody was done, I think it's a good segue onto, you know, talking about Rick and dying on the hill and all that kind of stuff is, you know, we, we talked before the podcast and I wanted to bring it up with you guys because we, we had a chat. I got one more shout out. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Shout out to J.R. for helping me get set up this morning.

It worked out good for me too, J.R., because he grabbed the, the screen and stuff and set it up in the other room. I was like, he went by, I'm like, J.R. Yeah. I don't know what's going on. I've been sleeping better than I have in like the last, How long have I worked here? Six years. Ah, that's awesome. I've just been sleeping so good. I mean, I woke up at 1.30, but I went back to bed, and I was just laying there like, ah. Yeah.

This is so great. My alarm hasn't gone off yet. And then I look and it's like, no, they all went off. All right. Sorry. Back on track. We were talking about segwaying and samsara and driving a truck. I didn't mean to interrupt you, Jim. No, no. That, you know, great, great shout out to JR. And I, I, I've been waking up at two, Jim. I haven't been sleeping at all. And not going back to bed. No, and not going, just laying there. My heart bleeds for you.

Yeah. It's just like, son of a bitch you know and then you just then you think that you need to quit thinking so then you're thinking harder just you know i actually i know we're way off track here but that was me like i would get up and then it was like you know the mind starts just mind just burned i've gone up to go to the bathroom and i've like convinced myself like don't think about anything just go to the bathroom don't think about

a thing and then that's been working well good good because i do that and it makes it worse. So yeah, need a, need a different plan or something. It's funny. I read an article where I didn't read the whole article, but that is the most important thing you can do for your health. Sleep. Is to make sure you get enough and good sleep too. Yeah. And what happens if you don't?

Like, how does it affect what's the. I mean, I didn't read the whole article, Jan, but I have heard in the past it can damage so many different systems in your body, your organs, your, you know, just your mental capacity, you know, the whole nine yards, you know. Yeah, I think, uh... Yeah. I think it increases your risk for strokes. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. Yeah. Heart disease. It goes, there's a lot of different stuff.

And then, but I know there is the, you know, you get that guy that lives to a hundred and he's just the anomaly, you know, I'm sure there's three hours of sleep. Right. But that, that's just him. That was, that's that one thing. Otherwise most of us need, you know, seven plus, I know eight supposed to be that number. And I'm, I'm at like, well, if I don't wake up, I'm at, you know, like six hours and 30 minutes or something.

I don't quite get the seven until I get the weekends. I got seven for it. Whether you want it or not. That's too funny. Right? That is too funny. I know, I mean, I've had a few of those nights, lock on wood, very few, but man, I can sleep in on a weekend anymore. I mean, I know a lot of people, they're like, four o'clock, I'm up, or 7 a.m., I'm up. I can't, I think I could sleep till noon if I just didn't plan out, wake up, and feel guilty that, oh my God, it's.

Yeah it's nine o'clock or something like that you know what i mean i'm i'm like wiped yeah i can't i would never make noon but i've been pushing to seven yeah which is really good because i'm usually five yeah weekends yeah but the thing for me is though i don't stay up late on a weekend i'll go to bed at nine o'clock so if i do stay in bed until six that's still nine hours yeah you You still got all your, all your sleep. Yeah. Right. All right.

Wait, before we, I know we had a segue, but I just got a shout out. So this is John Moore. It's an update on his knee replacement. He says, good morning, gentlemen. I wanted to give you a three week update. Things are going good. I keep progressing along with PT and I was finally able to get full rotation on my stationary bike Sunday. So I've been able to start my PT on the bike. Pain is minimal for the most part. I'm now working on getting 120 degrees of

rotation on my knee. I'm at 93 degrees presently. I've also been able to drive to all of my appointments. Freedom. And then he has a question for the audience later. Sounds like he could drive a truck. Right? Yeah. He should be in here, man. No excuses. I think he's got the next one coming though, right? I mean, as soon as he can get through his PT and then he's got his next one done. But the way he's attacking this one, the second one will be cake. He'll have it ready.

He'll be ready. Yeah. He's went in all out. Yeah. Yeah. Lost the weight before. Yeah. Yeah. Lost the weight before and all that kind of stuff. Good job, John. Yeah. Yeah. And doing the, he's the first person I even heard the term prehab. Me too, Dave. Prehab, yeah. You know what I mean? To, to, yeah, start working through all that. So good job, John. Yeah. Strengthening. Happy to hear. I know I said the weight, but yeah. I think you did both of, yeah.

Even though we talked about everything, and I know we talked about it before the podcast here, as we go through the discussion here, I wanted to bring up, why are we doing this? When you listen to the podcast here, and you guys have all hit, we want you to listen to the podcast, we want you to drive this way, we want you to quit using the phones, we want you to, you know, all the different stuff.

But have you asked yourself why and do you think it's just for us is it just for you know jfw is a company is it is it is it what what is it and i and i asked before the podcast for you guys to help me ask why is it you know because it is not just for us but when you use that phone and we we've got some phone use issues again. And, and you ask somebody, Hey, did you see that? Our, our, the video eight second where the person kills somebody and goes to jail. That's the why this can happen to you.

And I'm not sure people realize that that can happen to you. Cause that was just an ordinary great guy. Right. In that, in that video, he was, he was thinking about renting a house, right. Or buying a house with his wife.

I don't remember with his girlfriend yeah i mean everyone that was joe blow just like every one of us you guys and why if we have this to gain if this is if this is fun for us if you what do you what do you think when we're asking you to do these things that's that's my question have you have you set your your die on the hill attitude to the side or can you and go why are they doing that what is it what does it gain them because what

is it gaining us you guys and i mean i you know jim you know at the beginning of the podcast you safety you know no crashes you know the the answer but do you guys in your trucks think that you know can we can we break that mindset can you guys You know what I think is, it's just another example of us being proactive.

Because we read the trucking news, and I think a lot of people, they might see a news thing on Channel 9 or something, but we're reading these publications that are specific to the trucking industry, CCJ, that other one that I see down on the counter all the time. But it's like blowing your mind up, oh, my God, another fatal wreck or another nuclear verdict. And you cannot pay attention to it. It gets inside of you and you're like, oh my gosh, I hope that's not us. Right. Yeah.

And it never happens to you. Nothing. Oh, that won't happen to me.

You know, that, that ship won't sink and I won't drown, but until it happens. Right. That's what the captain of the Titanic thought. Right. Right. You know, they dubbed that ship unsinkable. Right. You know. Yeah. We have, we have a safety program here and we want people to follow the safety program. And when we talk on the podcast, that is our safety meeting where we talk about how you're going to be successful here at JFW.

So to me, that's the reason why we went from meeting in person to the podcast and we have a bunch of people out there, a small bunch, but still a bunch that aren't listening and participating.

You know and that gets frustrating for us because perfect example we had a meeting with one of our new drivers yesterday you know in the videos we see he's got his head on we see he blows a stop sign we see he's distracted those are all things that we talk about in the podcast i've been asking this driver to listen to the podcast for five weeks allegedly yesterday was the first time he did. And that's why he was distracted. But that's why.

It's frustrating for us to talk about these things and then see somebody in violation of company policy or state law or federal law or all of the above. And these are things that we hammer on the podcast. So when you listen to the podcast and you're engaged and you want to do better, you're going to be better. You're going to be a driver that makes a lot of money here. You're going to be a driver that's accident-free. Hopefully, you know, or not at fault anyway.

So, yeah, but you got to want it more than we want it for you. You know, and during this meeting, this driver said, okay, so what now? Am I suspended? Am I fired? Because that's probably how most other companies run. I'm like, no, I don't want you to be suspended or fired. I want you to care. You know, the ball's in your court. If you want to rise to the level of our program, we would love for you to be here. But I can't keep pouring into you and filling your cup up and lifting you up

when you don't want to do it for yourself. Right. You know, so no, you're not fired and you're not suspended. But if you don't want to, you know, agree to drive the truck that the way that we're asking you to drive it, go drive, go drive a truck with your name on it. We don't want you here. Quit. So hopefully, you know, we've done this our whole lives. Jim and I have. And, you know, we try and find other ways to compare, you know, provide an analogy.

You know, something, put yourself in that different position, you know, and I, I relate a lot of times we're asking you for, to do these things because we know it's better, right? We know it's safer. If this were your child and you knew this was better for them, wouldn't you ask them to do this? And wouldn't you expect them to do this because it's better, right?

They would trust you and naturally do that. And I, you know, I mean, we've tried every analogy there is as such, you know, I'm not saying we've done everything, but we're still always looking for creative ways. You know, this podcast was another creative way. We used to always have to meet in person once a week and we talk about it till we're blue in the face. And yeah. I don't know if we'll ever have that a hundred percent engagement. I do know it's better.

We're better now than we were, you know, 10 years ago, better now than we were five years ago. So I think we're, we're making progress, but it's hard, right? When, when you run into those guys like that meeting you had, Jim, and, and that guy is almost refusing to be engaged. I mean, it's almost a, a talk to the hand type scenario from that person. And you're like, at a certain point, we almost have to look at it. Well, he doesn't care. He doesn't need to be here. Right. Right.

And, and I think at a certain point, it's going to come to taking that stance. Yeah. Which is unfortunate, but that's the fact we need to protect the families that are here because we live in the age, we have a bad one that's our fault and we're done. I mean, it just, it's those nuclear verdicts, they just close doors. Companies just close and they're gone. wiped off the face of the earth. You know, and, you know, this year we're going to celebrate our 90th anniversary.

And I guess we've learned a thing or two, you know what I mean? We live in a, in a time and a society and a, a way that anything involved with a big truck is, is, it's just money to people. It's free money, right? It's what it comes down. I mean, yeah, it's, it's free money.

Look at the billboards on the side of the road where we are designed and geared And we've built a society to take advantage of those that are at risk or that care or that, you know, is known to have an insurance policy or whatever. I mean, I can back up a little bit here and just give you a little story of the society we live in. And we all have a hundred stories, right? We all know the Warner verdict, you know, from Texas.

We've talked about the Wabash trailer verdict up in Ohio, I think it was or whatever. And, you know, our trailer manufacturer, you know. Has built all of our end dumps. And, you know, he started CMC, he started Travis trailers, he started Vantage trailers, started mate trailers with his brother, you know, gave his design and started Freedom Trailers that not all builds.

And I mean, this guy's been a pioneer in trailers. And when you manufacture a trailer, you have a manufacturing liability, right? For, I think you carry it for the life of the vehicle, if I'm not mistaken, or look at Boeing right now. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Maybe it's only 10 years. I don't really, there's a, I think there's a timeframe on it. I don't know what it is, but it's a long time. It's not like one year. Anyway, he has a trailer that, uh, that's, you know, been sold a dozen times.

You know, it's well over 10 years old or whatever. And, uh, out in California at a four way stop, stop, stop sign. The truck stops, stop sign, takes off. Two people come in the other direction. Never stop at the stop sign. Witnesses never stop at the stop sign. And he hits the center of the trailer. These two guys go under the center of the trailer. I believe they're both killed. If they're not killed, they're maimed because they T-boned and went under the center of the trailer, right?

So anyway, they were high on drugs, both of them. So it's not like the driver was and the passenger was like, hey, stop, stop. You know, there was no care for either of them right there. So they sue the trailer manufacturer for $90 million because there's no underguard in the center of that trailer. There should be an underguard there to stop cars from going under the center of the trailer in a T-bone situation like that.

And there's no law for that. There's no rules for that. So three years go by and however many hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on attorneys. And they're suing the trucking company. They're suing the insurance company. They're suing the trailer manufacturer. They're suing anyone they can sue. And it was like a $90 million suit. And the judge finally got a hold of it and was like, wait a minute. These two guys ran a stop sign.

They're both high on drugs and alcohol. And they're suing everyone for something that's their fault. Right. You know, there's no law that says there has to be side, side guards that can stop a vehicle on these trailers in case of a scenario like that actually dismissed the case. Now the, the families of those two people that were killed are suing each other and there's no money to be had.

You know, when in actuality they should realize the, the situation and be like, wow, these guys were, were, they were on drugs. Yeah. They failed to stop at a stop sign. They were speeding, clearly, right, when they blew the stop sign. When do we take responsibility for ourselves? Because that's what we're talking about here. They should sue the drug dealer. Yeah, right? Right, Jim? Yeah. Great. I love that.

But my point is, when do we take responsibility for ourselves? Right. Right? That's the world we live in. And our drivers, we've shown them everything we need. They are aware of the laws and the rules and regulations. When are they going to take responsibility for themselves? When are they going to look at that phone and go, I can't be distracted by this phone. I'm going to put it in my lunchbox, or I'm going to put it in my pocket, or I'm going to put it in my phone holder.

It entices me too much sitting here on the dash. I'm going to use it if I'm looking at it. I mean, when will we do that, right? When will we not blow stop signs that we're blowing? I mean, right now, we're at a rash of stop signs, I mean, and I'm like, oh, my God. It's a new trend. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly, Jim. It's like the next thing for us. and, and we're all looking at each other in, in our group, like, wait a minute. Now we have to tell people to stop at stop signs.

Isn't it a stop sign? Don't we stop at all stop signs? That's a stop sign. I'm confused. It does. It's not a slow sign. It's not healed. Yeah. It doesn't say slow on it. You know, you want to hear something funny? Sure. We were on a tour bus in Rome and people drive like nuts, right, in Rome. And you've seen it probably in any of those big European cities. And the tour guide on the microphone telling all of us, he goes, well, you know, in Rome, stoplights and stop signs are merely a suggestion.

Same thing in China. And we're like, what? Not in the United States. You stop, right? Yeah.

So anyway, I wanted to ask you when you were telling that story, do people like the general public do they think that the side skirts on van trailers nowadays are actually protective a protective barrier to stop cars from going under the trailers i'm sure there's i would even venture to guess the majority of people think that yeah because the majority of people that have no idea that's not fuel that's a fuel efficiency aerodynamics That's all it is.

It wouldn't stop anything. Not even a bicycle, probably. Well, maybe a bicycle, but not a motorcycle. Right. Not a Prius. Maybe it would stop a Prius. Yeah. Go ahead, Jim. I was just going to say, there's companies out there that lead you to a bad place. There's companies out there that want you to drive with non-compliant brakes. There's companies out there that want you to run over your hours and run heavy

and break the law. they're leading you into a place where as a driver, you could be like, yeah, I don't want to do that. We're trying to lead you into a good place. We're trying to lead you into a place of safety, you know, a place of responsibility. We're trying to make you better. Why wouldn't you want to be better? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, this is exactly what I wanted to, to have an open, conversation about this stuff.

And, and Dave, your first part of that, you know, and you brought it up super dave the nuclear verdicts you know and all the lawyers going after stuff and you know. It seems like baseless lawsuits. But the thing is that, that I want to remember with that brother Dave is that they picked on us originally because we were bad actors. There's a lot of, it's, it was an easy place to get money. You know, the not adjusting your brakes, not following too close,

hauling too heavy, hauling over hours. Negligence. Negligence. We, we, as an industry had this whole cloud of negligence over us. And was there some great trucking companies out there? Absolutely. But, you know, there was movies made of it, you know, going fast and driving people off the roads and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, that's what the attorneys pick on.

The attorneys don't run commercials for, you know, the French fry fryer at McDonald's, you know, they run commercials on us, but then, you know, Now. Like you said, Dave, because we have to carry insurance, because maybe we have, you know, some large settlements because we can sell equipment. I don't know what the view is, why they think we have that much money, but the problem there is how we did act, you know, and as growing, as a growing company, we did some things also.

We weren't perfect, you know, but every day we strive to be better. Dave, you've been here and grown up with us. Jam, you've been here long enough. Dave mentioned it. You know, we're better than we were 10 years ago. We're better than five years ago, but we're better than we were 15, 20, 25, 30 years ago. We're better. And, you know, that's what I'm asking you guys to ask yourselves, why are we doing this? Why am I doing this?

And, you know, it's just like pulling on the scale here in one of the deal. We've had, you know, all these instances where we're not stopping the scales. You were trained to stop at the scale, then pull on, not pull on at four, five, 10, 15 miles an hour. Ask yourself, why are we asking you to do that? You know, because it's going to hopefully stop the accident.

And, and Dave, when you said take responsibility for yourself, usually now, at least they, somebody loses their safety bonus for that, but there was no responsibility. Oh, I hit the scale, you know, cause we, as a team, as a company, we go out and fix the scale or we pay for the scale. You know, we let you keep driving. You know, we don't, we usually don't fire you right away unless you have other offenses.

There, there is no responsibility. So, so again, all, all you guys is, you guys all have a point. When is the responsibility? And that's my question to everybody that's listening is this is the why. We're talking about the why. When does it reach you of why? We're not doing this. This sucks to do every day. Yeah, we spend a lot of time on fixing things.

You know, it's like looking out the back window. You know, I know we, I know we had a, you know, a, a talk with one of the drivers that's been here for a while and, and wasn't looking out the back window. And he said, well, I'm trying to break some bad habits. You know, look out the back window. That's your responsibility. And we're asking it because that's the way it needs to be done. You will never tip a trailer over if you look out the back window.

Every truck, every trailer we've ever tipped over, it's because somebody was looking in the mirror. They weren't looking out the back window. So then is it laziness? Is it lack of care? Complacency. Complacency. We've talked about that, right, Dave? Why do you choose to do it your way when we know it's better doing it? I'm going to call it the right way, not our way, because I don't want to win a me or them scenario. It's the right way. It's the safe way.

And we're paying you to do it the right way. We're not paying you to do it your way. We're not paying you to, I'll call it lazy watching the video. It was like the phone was more important, you know, just complacency. I've dumped there a hundred times. It won't tip over here. It never has.

Well, if it was about to, you'd have no idea because you're not watching. Right. You know? Nope. Nope. And it just, it just can't ask, you know, so my, my question again, I'm going to say it, you know, probably a dozen more times. Why? When, what, why do you think we're doing this? Why do you, we ask you to do this? I know firsthand, you guys, in all the years of me and my career, looking out that Beck window has saved tipping my trailer over probably a dozen times in 30 years.

Because as that trailer goes up, when you first look out, it looks pretty good. And then you get up two or three stages and that sucker's leaning because of the physics and the, you know, the stresses on your hoist. And then you get up to a point and you're like, wow, man, that's really leaning right now. I'm done. I'm putting it down. Yep. And, and I mean, it, at first it might look okay, but that doesn't mean it's going to continue looking okay.

I like, I like to add, most people are doing it the right way. Yeah, for sure. And it's just, we got to spend the time on the people that aren't doing it the right way. And that sucks. I mean, we wouldn't, if we didn't have a lot of people doing it right, we wouldn't be successful. Right. You know, we wouldn't have the record we have, but then you're, you know, why can't we get everybody? Like you said, Dave, we've used so many analogies. Why can't we go out and win the Super Bowl every day?

Why can't all the teammates be on the same page? If they were, we would, right? We could win the Super Bowl. Why can't we row the boat in the same direction? All the different stuff. It's funny you say that, Jim, because my high road hauling today is titled People Will Be People.

You might want to write that down. and wait till y'all hear it and you're all gonna say yep that's right you know it seems like and it's not everybody i don't want to group everybody but there is a common theme with a few people don't listen to the podcast don't do it the right way kind of have the attitude of i'm gonna stick it to the man like it's kind of a common thing like we you know very rarely will we find someone that does it perfect that doesn't listen to the podcast.

Right. You know, cause that's where they're getting the information from. And for the, for the people that aren't engaged and aren't doing it the right way, my question to you is what is so great about you that we're going to keep you in point here? You know, and that's not a threat. I I'm asking like, if you're not doing it the right way, you know, are you on time every day?

Do you have good attendance? Cause if you're not doing it safe and you're not doing these other things, what, what, what's, what's so great about you tell us why you are a good asset to jfw you and jam you know it is jumping off the cliff for myself but you know through the years when you when you investigate the things they're doing here and it is none of our business but you look at the rest of their life, it's usually not the best yeah you want to see it.

You'd say there's holes, Jim, right? The way you do one thing is the way you do it. Exactly. There's a, there's another saying, you know, and, and if you can't, if you can't do this, what else are you not doing? You know, and it could be divorces and child support or, you know, background with the law or, you know, owing, not owing tax or owing taxes. I mean, there's a. Man, I just checked off three boxes. Well, I got one of those, Jim. I could check a box.

But yeah it just it's just the when when when will everybody no matter what your age just take a step back and go why are they asking me to do this here's my question again you know and examine your own life why am i doing this i i think maybe another question should be why shouldn't i do it right from their perspective i guess i'd have to sit back and go why shouldn't i do it their way You know, they're going to pay me $850 a year if I listen to the podcast and take a survey.

Huh? That sounds pretty good. Sounds pretty easy. If I drive differently and safe and achieve over a 90 or a 90 on my safety score, I can earn 1%. Wow. If I drive differently and have better efficiency and get over an 80 on my efficiency score, I'll have another 1%, another 850 bucks. That's like $2,400, $2,650 right there. Another $2,000. I wonder if I should try their way, you know? And then if I do my safety and efficiency over 85 and 95, I can earn another percent.

And then I'm at, what is that? Like 4,200 bucks, 40, whatever, 4,500 bucks. I wonder if I should try their way. Some people money is a motive, right? Right. Other people, I guess for me, if you don't want to be part of something bigger than yourself, you're not going to be, you're not going to do the things. Yeah. You won't, you know, if it's all about you and you just care about you, you're not going to care about these other things.

If you want to, and Dave, I get this from your interviews, you know, do you enjoy being part of something bigger than yourself?

And if the answer is yes you're probably doing all the things and if the answer is no you're probably not yeah yeah and and you know the i've said it over and over that i think you know a strength of of a truck driver is his individuality right or her individuality you know you spend a lot of time by yourself in your office you know if you're over the road you're doing your own thing you're your own boss different stuff like that and we're not asking you to be you know a social butterfly.

You know, like, like you're saying, Jam, if you want to be some part of something bigger, we're asking you also just to do it the right way, which will make you better. And you can still be your individual. You can still be your, your person. You know, if you're a quiet or shy or, you know, not that outspoken, you can still be that person. We just need to do it this way. Right. You know, we, we have to be able to do it that way.

And, and brother Dave, you're right. Why, why would you not want to do it our way? Right. You know, what, what, where is the fight? Not to do it our way. So think about it too, Jim, all these other applications. If you're a sea captain, you've got to do it by the book. If you're an airline pilot, you got to do it by the book. If you're an astronaut, you got to do it how you're trained. Otherwise you're going to die. Military first responders. Right. I mean, the list is endless.

It goes on and on. How come we can't do it that way here? Yeah. I mean, I just, the, the, you know, being on vacation last week in Florida, we took that, that boat ride and, you know, to get out of the Keys there, she stayed in this area that wasn't, I mean, it's not literally 50 feet wide, maybe a hundred feet wide. We passed another small boat and they actually re they were fishing. They had to reel in their lines. Cause if you get out of the channel, you're stuck.

You know, she has. And they were fishing the channel. Yeah. And they had to reel in. And, you know, she slowed way up and said, Hey, thank you for reeling in. I didn't get your lines, you know, and eased past them. So basically if she did hit something or got stuck and they, they had the radar going on the ship, you know, the whole bit or the boat, it was a big boat, but that was the rule. Super Dave, just like you're saying. And, you know, we flew four times. We were right.

I'm glad everybody followed the rule because I wanted to enjoy my vacation and not die on the way. Right. And I had, you know, I told all of you guys, I had a road rage incident in Florida. Probably one of the worst I've been in as far as, you know, I don't know what to do because we stopped in the middle of the interstate and I was the second car back and people were diving around me not to hit us. And, you know, they're, they're, why, why, why are we, why is that person acting

like that? Why do we have this going on? You know, and everybody was wrong in the situation. You know, the guy was, you know, shouldn't have been in the fast lane, but the guy that got on him was, you know, on his ass, made the other guy mad. And you just, if they didn't do any of that. The way they were acting and just did it the way they were supposed to do it. Wouldn't happen. Yeah. And it's funny too, Jam, you mentioned it and we all know it to be true.

Why does it happen when you're in a vehicle? Man, the anger level is so much higher than if you're just at the store. And we've talked about that. That's that saying about, you know, you wouldn't say that you wouldn't act that way if you were on an elevator. Yeah. Yeah. Just wouldn't happen. Costco, Walmart. Yeah. I mean i yeah this is going to sound like i'm arguing your point dave and i'm not but i'm i am pointing out those incidents do happen.

They're shootings right you know what i mean oh they do it's the crazy son of a bitch that right that pulled the road rage yeah that's you know probably the same person because some of those road rate incident incidents you see you know you can watch reels of them right on youtube or whatever and i'm dumbfounded at them like you know i think you know i'm not going to say i've brake checked someone but i probably have way back in the day but a brake check for me is

to get in front of them and maybe tap the brake so they see a brake light not actually slow down stop right just for them to see a brake light right i mean and this was a long long long time ago but.

You see those road rages now you're doing 80 and they pound the brakes it's crazy like we're going from 80 to 12 right like that those are the same people that are the they're they're so whacked you know that pick up a gun and go in and they that's what i'm afraid things up you know that they're gonna jump out of that car and shoot me yeah yeah only because i've turned with and they had to use their brakes you know right like that one deal i don't know a few years

ago the lady was i think she was in a hurry or something so she was screwing with the guy a little bit then turned into a parking lot and he followed him in and shot her remember that ah i do i think there was more to it because that happened at a dentist's office over in arvada right yeah yes exactly yeah because that was tied to legacy high school sam you know through a friend of a friend knew that it was the kid's mom that was killed like right there in front of it was horrific

yeah nobody nobody ever wins in road rage i've told this story before two guys road raging they both jump out with guns and they're shooting kill each other like that was their that was both their last days because of driving right but imagine going to walmart and you're.

Chugging along and somebody comes out from the aisle in front of you and turns around just like f you and then you start chasing them down the aisle and they stop and you hit them with their cart you know like it just it is a little different in the car they get in the car they feel safe right you know there was one day i remember me and my buddy we were going to a club and this is when we were both kind of like bigger bodybuilder types and

And I go to a park and I put my blinker on at the last minute downtown to get a spot. And this car pulls up right next to us like they're going to do something. I roll the windows down and they see who's in the car.

They take off. It was so funny. Well, let's talk about some good news. Let's talk about some Sarsour scores. JR was kind enough to put this all together for us. So some stats from 3-1 March 1st to March 12th. The fleet-wide driver efficiency is now the overall score of 89 and on an upward trend. Only 16 drivers are below the minimum score of 80, whereas in the last 12 days of February, we had 43 drivers below. That's awesome. So shout out to the people that are working hard to change that.

Above the 85 mark for fuel efficiency month to date we have 74 drivers achieving their driver efficiency metrics that's awesome yeah safety scores months to date currently the fleet is holding steady out of 94 and we have 16 drivers under the minimum score of 90 whereas in the last two weeks of february there were 20 63 drivers are above the 95 score mark to month to date Whereas the last 12 days of February, there was 71 drivers above it. So not sure what happened there.

That's, that's interesting. And then I got to jump in there, Jim. So, I mean, that safety score, if you're struggling with that safety score, what we've found, the majority of that is all speed. Moderate. Right? Yeah. We have moderate. Heavy and severe, severe. And yeah, the, the majority of those not achieving your, your safety score. That is, I mean, we found, is it a hundred percent, Jim? Pretty much a hundred percent. It's not a hundred.

Oh, I mean, it is mostly speeding. Yeah. I mean, but the speeding leans to the other one is the following too close. But if you go a little bit slower, the following too close disappears. So I kind of have to agree with you, Dave, it's a hundred percent speeding. Yeah. I mean, the videos we watched yesterday of the ones, you know, rolling the stop sign and the different situations and the phone use, I noticed they were almost all five and above the posted speed limit.

Right. And that's where it's at. You know, I'm saying that and now I'm kind of regretting it because there are some seatbelt warnings that'll ding you. Seatbelt stop signs. And then also distracted driving. Distracted. The distracted driving is going to hammer you. It carries a lot of weight. Yeah. One thing I'll bring up here, and I was talking to JR about it yesterday, but the following too close is not weighted very heavy.

It's not as heavy as it should be. I'll just tell you guys, it's weighted. You get following too close, it's 0.1. Wow, that's nothing. That's nothing. So here we are. I was explaining it to JR. We probably need to talk about it as a group. I personally don't think we should make any more changes this month. Right. You know, let's write a roll until April, but I feel like that following too close needs to be weighted heavier. Agreed, Jim. Yeah.

I just noticed that yesterday. You don't have the reaction time when you're following too close. No, you're putting people's families in danger. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. On average, we need to be four to six seconds at 55, and I think we have the cameras set up at one. One and a half is where the camera goes off. Yeah. Yeah. So if people will still argue that their following distance is good, the camera's wrong, the camera says one.

Okay, so you're 1.4. Okay, so you're 1.5. Okay, maybe you're 1.9 or even two. You need four. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It is. It is. Yeah, the cameras have definitely raised our bar. I mean, I just, I can't. Can't be thankful enough for them. And I, I just, I think we're creating this elite group of, of drivers.

Yeah. You know, the ones that are taking it serious and taking advantage of the, of the bonus program we've, you know, we were lucky enough to create with everybody's help and you're just going to be an, an elite driver. I feel like we're raising our standards. Oh, for sure. You know, I've spit this quote out before, but when it comes to standards, it's not what you preach, but what you accept. And I've just seen amongst the leaders, we're not accepting what we were two years ago.

You know, we can't, Jim. We can't. It's a different world today, but it just is. as all of us being leaders and not accepting what we, you know, might've accepted two years ago, it's because we have a platform that is fair and easily to make us better.

I mean, it is, it's just the knowledge we have now to, to be able to initiate being better. That's the, that's the excitement about this. I wonder if I could get, I don't know. I don't know if I could get this or not, but like on the connect team, you know, when I met with our onboarding girl, she made it very clear we were a lot more engaged than a lot of new companies that she onboards. She's like, you guys are way above what we normally see, which made me feel good.

I wonder how these other companies are utilizing Samsara and if they're really using it to their maximum capabilities.

Right. I mean, honestly, Jim, I think we've only scratched the surface with samsara i think we're pretty deep there there's but they have so much more i mean they they literally do and we can continue to to grow upon what our needs and concerns are right i think for years to come well the two go ahead sorry no i just want to throw out there i don't want to miss it i want to give a shout out to carlos meza double 69 because we had met with him and

casey He was fortunate enough to go drive with him and show him some tips and tricks, and he's brought his efficiency score up. I don't know how many days it lists here. I don't see him. Oh, last seven days. He's brought his fuel efficiency score up 28 points. That's great. Right? So he's at a 92 in fuel efficiency. Oh, good for Carlos. Kudos to you, Carlos. Good job, buddy. I hope you're listening to the podcast. I hope you're getting a pat on the back right now from, you're hearing the pat

on the back we're giving you. Right. And everybody else should be hearing it and, you know, tell you congrats because that's pretty impressive.

So good job. that that's another proof that it can be done just like rick you know what i mean so yeah up 28 points in a week in seven days that's that's outstanding yeah just again trying to think all the things like you just said the pat on the back and you know an elite driver and we're being better the the thing is is we have to change the culture of what we're doing is making you cool the the loud stacks the big hoods the you know running triple

digits overweight running the log books that's that's no longer cool what we're doing is cool because it protects everybody out on the road it protects you we have to build a different culture and that's what you know that's why we're looking at. At again, you know, being better. That's the, that's the coolness of it. I don't know if it made you think of it, but what Jim's saying is making me think of your conversation with Chili Dog about a couple of drivers that went

to a different company. What, what was that all about? So it's funny because I thought of the same thing. I was just waiting for Jim to stop, Jim.

You know, one of the things I brought up with Chili Dog and I brought it up at, I think the last two meetings, I wasn't savvy enough to think of it at the first meeting, but I definitely brought it up at the next two meetings jam that we had is, can you imagine pulling in the pit and you back in next to another trucking company and you just sitting there shooting the shit with them, right?

You're just having a conversation with the guy and you're like, Hey, you know, what's your safety score over there? And their reply is like safety score. I don't, what do you mean? I don't have a safety score. And you're like, you work for a company that they're, they're not tracking your safety. I get a, you know, on average, I'm going to make $850 to $1,000 safety bonus for the year for my safety score, you know, and you don't have one.

And he's like, well, what's your efficiency score? They're like efficiency. What's an efficiency score? I don't have an efficiency score. What is that all about? And they're like, well, JFW pays me to be efficient. You know how I drive this truck and I'm going to earn $850 to $1,000 this year in efficiency bonus, you know, and I guess, and then you, you can just keep tacking on top of that in a conversation. And if I were driving for the competition, I would be like, wow.

JFW is paying their drivers to be safe. They're paying them to be efficient. There's a bonus on top of that. If you get a higher score, you know, I mean, all of those things on top of the, the provisions we provide, right.

The, the health insurance, the 401k matching the, you know just the all of the things here and i would be like wow that that sounds like a pretty amazing place to me because where i'm at i don't have nothing yeah if you're a hundred thousand dollar guy here you can make nine thousand dollars in bonuses right that's amazing for just for just driving the truck just driving the truck where was your conversation with chili dog though about big pimping

or being cool or oh oh jam you'll have to help me because it was there I think I've got it. You know, he just brought up, you know, cause this other company, they're running 20 to 30 year old trucks. Right. Right. And yeah, their extended hood Pete's with, I think probably the freshest one is, is 2 million miles. Right. That's probably the freshest truck. And, or, or 3 million, who knows. Right. And he's like, yeah, there's no way he's flexing.

Flexing. That's it. On an extended hood Pete, 20 years old. With straight stacks and 3 million miles. That's not flexing. Not anymore. Yeah, because there was a comment about the disc brakes. Oh, yeah, no disc. Yeah, and on drum brakes is how he said it, on drum brakes. I love that. Yeah. Because that used to be cool. Yeah. Well, drum brakes probably were never cool, but maybe they were compared to what they had before. I don't know.

Well, it was just what it was. Right. Those were your brakes. Yeah. But, like, great point. You know, it's like, you know, We all wanted to drive the hood, the 18-speed, the loud jakes. But really, like Chili says, that's not really flexing anymore. You want a truck with technology. Maybe some of the DPF sucks, but how would you like to have a truck that has accident mitigation? That's flexing. Right. It's going to help you not piehole somebody. Right. Save a life.

How would you like a truck that has a speed limiter where, listen, if you have trouble speeding, you could spend your max speed to the speed limit. Or forever where you won't get to that moderate speeding. Right. You know, or, you know, wow. Heated seats, air conditioned seats. Blind spotter lane change. The blind spotter. Right. Yeah. I mean, just all of that, right? That is flexing. How much better is that helping you do your job?

Yeah. Are you exhausted at the end of the day from listening to, you know, because sound pollution will make you tired. Oh, yeah. Are you exhausted at the end of the day from listening to those jakes? Yeah, it's cool for, you know, a mile in the tunnels, maybe. you know what I mean?

But I have to. I mean, as you talk about the noise pollution jam, I mean, as, as I'm good, my final thoughts are hacking on our legislators, but one of the deals they've, they've just put out there and believe it or not, the Colorado Motor Carriers Association got behind it, but there is, there is a straight stack bill that'll be signed. I mean, it's, it's past the house, it's past the Senate. Wow. The governor just needs to sign it in at the end of the session.

And, uh, so end, end of May here, it'll go in. But if you have a truck with straight stacks or, or loud, you It's going to be a thousand dollar ticket. Wow. Thousand dollar ticket. Yeah. That's going to put some more mom and pop places in a bind. It's kind of funny because we, I had court two weeks ago up in Jefferson County for that guy that hit Veronica and tried to say he wasn't liable for all the damages, right? $24,000 damage that he caused. He claims he's not liable for.

So I had to go to court on it. And it was kind of funny. Mikey, he's like, is there any chance I can go? I've just, I've never seen anything like it. And I'm like, yeah, I've never seen anything like it either. Right. So we go up there, I get sworn in, you know, they, they depose me right there on the, on the bench next to the judge's seat. And, you know, of course the judge rules in our favor, the kid that hit us is liable and, you know, yada, yada, yada. And,

all this stuff, make a long story short. That's completely off in the weeds, but it was lunchtime and we leave there and I'm like, God, Mike, we got any place to eat around here that you can think of? And he immediately throws out, I don't know the name of the place. I'm going to call it dirty dog cowboy. If that's not the name of it, cause I know you frequent the place. I'm sorry. But anyway, we wind up in there and it's right there.

It's the route up to spec ag and you guys truck after truck after truck, all of the independent trucks going up past there, just. All, every single one of them. And I'm like, man, all the Colorado State Patrol has to do is drive from down the street right here to this parking lot. And Golden up the hill. Yep. They can go in and have lunch and come right back out and ticket after ticket.

They'll make $50,000 in one day because they can just sit there and ticket 50 trucks, you know, for being loud driving up the, and I'm like, you know what? God bless them. It is loud and obnoxious. It's not who we are anymore. You know what I mean? I like driving through towns where it says no Jake brakes and we could still leave our Jake brakes on because you can't hear them. You can't. Yeah. They don't do anything. We could probably hear it. Yeah.

Be like they're Jake and, but those signs aren't meant for brand new trucks with Jake brakes. Right. With engine brakes. Yeah. Right. They're meant for those loud straight pipes. And it's like, we just cruise on with our jake brakes. It's like. That's those 20, 25 year old trucks, period. Well, this is going to sound funny, but let's get into the discussion. And it's funny because I'm glad we led with that because these are the things that we're dealing with this week, right?

These are the things that you need to know. And if you listen to the podcast and you actually put these things into practice, you're going to be somebody that's doing it the right way.

Number one keep your distance from trucks with open tailgates do not try to catch up to them and flag the driver down causing more damage to our truck and this has happened a few times where it's like oh that guy's spilling rock and you want to go help him like hey bud you got a problem but in doing so you cracked our windshield you ruined our paint job stuff like that so, i wanted our truck's not a shield i mean you're doing the right thing by trying

to stop him right But our truck's not a shield. Try getting him on the CB. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Honk your horn or keep flashing your lights a lot. Drive back. Yes. If it's our truck, use a company radio. Yeah. If it's not our truck, let that four-wheeler tell them all about it. Yep. All right. Number two, mud flaps, they need to be fixed in the evening, not the morning. Everything, really. If you have a problem. Absolutely. The nighttime is the time to do it.

The mud flaps are a little different because it's your responsibility to do. But when we're changing butt flaps in the morning it's not good for you and it's not good for JFW, And anything else that you write up could be fixed while you're sleeping, not when you're coming to work, supposed to be making money. Absolutely. Number three, rolling stop signs. We can't roll stop signs, everybody. That has been the new trend. We are getting video after video after video.

And it's not blowing a stop sign at 35 miles an hour. It's cruising through it at, you know, 6 to 11 miles an hour. Right. You know, stop. Stop at the stop sign too. I did dismiss one the other day because the driver stopped like a truck length back with another truck. They stopped together and then he saw his opportunity and cruised through the stop sign. I dismissed it, but explained that's not going to cut it in the future.

There is up by one of the pits and I wanted to mention it because I went over the video with Erica that the road's closed and the stop sign. You see the stop sign, but there's the whole road closed here. It's not even being used. And I said, we needed to discuss that Erica with everybody. Cause that's, it's rolling a stop sign, but nobody can, you can't hit anybody by rolling the stop sign. The road's closed.

So, and I don't, I don't know where it was at, Jan. So it's just obvious that the road's closed and it's been closed. It's, it's dirty in the street. I would probably just stop. So you don't get an alert. Cause it just creates, it creates work for us here to, to look at it and be like, oh, the road was closed. Yeah. Stop at all stop signs. The stop sign coming out of Firestone, you know, where it's not actually on to a real public road yet. It's like that diagonal.

It should almost like emerge. Stop. Stop at that stop sign. Stop at all the stop signs. Because we're back to the thing, too, and you're talking about the older trucks. You don't have to push in the clutch. You don't have to find a gear. You don't have to downshift. You don't have to try to start out in the right gear. You don't have to do any of that with the older trucks. We have your truck where you just step on the brakes, come to a stop, it shifts, step back on the fuel and go.

You know, it's that simple. Right. We've given you the tools so it's easy to stop. Think we're on number four, determining following distance. This has been a little bit of an issue as well. When you're following another vehicle, you need to be at 55 miles an hour. You should be four seconds behind that vehicle. At 65, you should be five. At 75, you should be six. The faster you go, the more following distance you should have.

Okay. Well, how do we determine following distance? We don't determine following distance by truck or car lengths. We don't determine following distance by the zipper, the broken white lines. We determine it by seconds. You want to pick a landmark when the vehicle in front of you passes that landmark, you'll start counting seconds. The easiest way to count seconds and try to be accurate is 1001, 1002, 1003. Kind at that cadence or one 1,000, two 1,000, three 1,000, not one,

two, three, or 1,000, one 1,000, two 1,000, three. That's not how you count. Can I say Mississippi? You can say Mississippi, can you? One Mississippi. Can you spell it? Mississippi. Can you spell Mississippi? M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. Just like in school. I couldn't say it slower, sorry. 1,000, you know what I mean? 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, right? Yeah, that was a little fast right there, to be honest. Yeah, actually. Yeah. Yep. When I usually say it, I was just saying it. Yeah.

I didn't say it. I wasn't actually counting, but I mean, typically when I do, I almost say it too slow. Right. Can I get my phone out and use the stopwatch feature? I did that the other day. I did that the other day because I was going back and forth with a driver. He thought... He was good, you know, and he was like, clearly there's three lines that disappeared by the time I got to that landmark. I'm like, it doesn't work like that. But I was like, you know what?

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's right. Let me get the stopwatch out. I got 1.2 seconds. JR looked at it, following too close. He wanted a third person to look at it. So I go to brother Dave. I'm like, all right, brother Dave, what do you got here? And he was generous. He was like, ah, you know, you know, didn't, didn't want to give the driver a hard time. He's like, I guess one and a half seconds. I was struggling for the landmark, Jim, to count by, right?

But even being generous, you came up with 1.5. You should have four. If you want to learn how to determine your following distance and you don't understand from what we just said on this podcast, please come to me. I would love to show you how to do it. Yeah. Next one is from Erica. Keep your hand off the CB while pulling on and off the

scale, right? We've seen it time and time again where somebody bumps it, runs into the scale, because they're talking onto the CB, not paying attention to where they're out on the scale.

Yeah. And Dave's tried to give the example. I don't know how many times as you reach, you know, you're holding the steering wheel with your left hand, you reach up for the mic with the right hand and just the motion of reaching and turning, you turn the steering wheel to the left and we've hit the driver's side of the truck. I don't know how many times, it's just a natural reaction of what you do with the wheel. You're literally pushing one lever and pulling another. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

And, and again, you, and I mean, it's on there, but you know, we gotta, we gotta stop at the scale, do your, do your thing on the radio, then just pull on because you're, you're full. Granny gear. We're leaving out, sticking in granny gear. Yeah, granny gear. Pull on. You know, your full focus is on this and the, you know, you touched on it the other day when me and you were talking behind the scenes not to.

Mess you up here jam but you're good by but one of the big deals about your your driver efficiency or fuel efficiency and your safety score is if you're paying attention to those metrics you're using the jake you're using your reaction time from the pedal to the brake you're anticipating what's happening we're putting you involved in what the truck is doing and you're not mindlessly doing it from light to light or all day long.

You're involved in driving that truck, being the best driver, driving the truck in the best way. When you're involved and engaged like that, things won't happen. The accidents won't happen. And we're doing the same thing by pulling on the scale or following too close or your hand not on the mic. When you're engaged in what that truck is doing, things won't happen. We know that. And you can't bring one argument to us.

You can't, you can't die on the hill and tell us that the way we're teaching you to drive, the way we're teaching you to drop, pull on the scale is not the best.

Yeah. We're leading you to the best way of pulling on a scale. Right. That's why we do it. I love it. All right. This one's from Scooby. Sweeping out at your last stop, not here at the yard. I mean, that's just the way we've been training to do this for years and years and years. We don't need a bunch of piles here at the yard. You get done, ask the loader where you can sweep out.

You know, used to be, I mean, back in the day, I've swept out right into the bin, but there was nobody behind me and I was fast, you know, but typically these days, best to check in with the loader. Hey, where can I sweep out at? Yep. All right. Next one. This one's from Casey. Make sure we're checking and testing our trailer air inflation system every day. If anyone needs help doing that, please reach out to leadership and we can assist in helping.

Yeah, somehow, sometimes those valves get turned off. Maybe you had a mechanic change of tire on your trailer. He turned off the auto inflation system and forgot to turn it back on. That thing will shave your butt, especially if you have a low rear tire and you're going to dump. Right. Dangerous situation.

Yeah, and this is a prime example. This one here, Jam, to me is this is the reason we're telling you on the podcast, we're asking you to listen to the podcast, we're doing all these things because I know, I'm pretty sure JR shows you, you learn about it in class, it's at the last test, your trainer trains you, and yet we still have people of, what's that light for? What does that do? How does the air system work?

And so here's your, we're telling you again, you know, because there is no way that. Anybody should not know what that air inflation system is on their trailer, but I'm offering, you know, Casey is the one that's, you know, there. I know you can go to Casey. I know you can go to any one of us. If you don't know what the trailer inflation system is and how it works, get with somebody. We're not trying to make fun of you, but there's really no way you can't know.

Today's the best day you can learn about that. Today, right. Starting right now. The way things end up on these lists is because it's happened this week. And it's over and over and over, Jam, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is, wait, I don't want to screw it up. I feel like it's yours. We just talked about it, me and Dave. I think Linda came to us, you know, and the deal is, you know, when you see an accident or you stop to help or you're doing all this stuff,

often the driver, you will call dispatch and ask them to call 911. for you. If you've ever called 911, they want to know who the caller is. They want to know who the accident is, where the accident's at, all that. You're there. Hopefully you're stopped right at the accident so you don't get dinged for phone usage. Use your phone. That's the great thing for having a cell phone because maybe you can get help there immediately, but you're in the situation, you dial 911.

Right. You're the best person to call 911 because maybe there's some directions that the person's in need of or anything. Yeah. Are there injuries? How many people involved? Yeah. What direction are you facing? We don't have those. Right. What direction of traffic is it? Exactly. And you brought it up yesterday, Dave, and I know, Jam, you said it too. If you're there and you don't have a specific location, they can...

Triangulate your phone and get close to the accident. Maybe that's the problem. Yeah. And you pay 50 cents a month on your bill for 911. Well, there you go. I'm pretty sure you do. It's part of your bill every month. I want to get my money's worth. Yeah, absolutely. I might just use it. I think I'm going to call right now. I mean, here's the other thing. If you're the type of person that wants to render aid and that's you and you are that person, direct somebody else to call 911.

You, call 911. I bet they pick up their phone and do it yeah you know and if there is a lot of people around you don't want to have the bystander effect where oh well somebody else is going to call that right yeah but typically, when there's an accident on like highway 85 there's probably more than one person calling 9-1-1 but either you do it or select somebody to do it yep. There's a better way to do it, and that's the better way. Yeah.

Not to mention, right, if you're asking dispatch to call 911, then when aren't they doing their job, right? Maybe they got a million things going on here, and they're trying to figure out the information for the accident that you have. Just call them yourself or ask them to do it. All right. Next one is mine. On the podcast knowledge challenge, when you take the, as Dave likes to call it, the survey, I call it the challenge. You might call it a test whatever you want to call it quiz survey.

You just have to have all the right answers a survey would be like do you like the podcast knowledge challenge and the survey says yes 80%, scroll down there's always going to be four choices sometimes the right answer is the fourth choice and you got to scroll scroll up oh so the right answer is always the fourth choice, exactly so dave yeah i had that twice this week someone calls me hey i'm having trouble and they're taking the challenge but they're like oh i didn't see that answer it's like

yeah it's sure answer d you know when i first read that jim i thought there was going to be like an answer key at the bottom so you can scroll down at the end of the test and get all the right answers Yep. No. No, huh? No. Do you guys have anything else for the discussion before we go to what's next? I don't think so. All right. I do. Yeah. Yeah. Stop at the stop signs. It's not a suggestion. Stop means stop. Like at home. Yeah. Do you stop at a red light? Sometimes.

You know what I mean? Depends if I see it, right? Sometimes I'm on a phone. Sometimes you're on your phone oh man yeah it's it's not a suggestion and and we've got a rash of it going on uh i mean it's i'm yeah we're seeing a lot of it and it doesn't make any sense it just doesn't make any sense it's not a suggestion stop at it so that's it all right What's next? We're going to start parking cars. What? Start with 40. Okay.

And starting with 0040 to 0069 spots. I'm not going to park in the red lot. Reason being, it's just too congested up here. We have a lot of people coming to visit. We start taking parking up in the street. And then our neighbors, they don't have parking spots for their customers.

It's just, we're just too big. we're just too big for parking up here and we when we originally started parking back there dan was using that law our neighbors were using that lot wait you know this is way back in time right it's still because we originally started with just the back row we didn't have two rows back there we just had the back row and they would have customers drop trailers and they they wanted those areas so

they could leave a trailer there and then they would move it and they would place it so we have approval now you know they're they're like okay yeah it's not. We've changed what we're doing. It's fine. So yeah, everybody that's in trucks 0040 through 69, please start parking your cars back there. Do not park up front here anymore. We're going to change this parking up here so all of our people can get off the street. The thing is we can't be on the street anymore with our cars.

We had the golf cart place come over last week and ask us to move a vehicle and super nice about it. You know what I mean? We were parking all over the place, right? And it's not fair that, you know, if, if this was a row of houses on both sides of the street and we're parking all of our cars in front of their houses, not going to go over well. Right. So we need to park in our yard. That's going to free up 30 spots. Yeah. That's just being a good neighbor. Yeah.

Yeah. So all of our office staff doesn't have to park on the street anymore. You know, I know Eric is parking over there. We will all have spots out back here now. So if you're a driver that likes to park on the street under the tree over here, please don't do that anymore. Correct. Yeah. And I will just throw out there so everyone understands why we're not asking 0039 to park out there because- We like them more. Right. Our oil supply needs access to the shed.

So if his car is parked there and blocking us to be able to get the oil back into that shed to keep everything topped off, we're out supplies, right? So 0039, do not park in that spot. Cool. You get to stay in the main yard over here on this side. Got it. All right. I need to talk to you guys. And we can start that tomorrow.

Great. Let's start tomorrow. The sooner the better. We'll see who'll listen to the podcast. Yes, we will. Everybody right yeah yeah i didn't talk to you guys about this i just talked about it with rick but just historically we say this is okay uh rick holline his wife is going to start making burritos i don't know if you've ever had her burritos but they're pretty dang good yeah yeah all the food that comes out of the calling house yes it's pretty good good stuff the burritos

that saturday They were good stuff. Yep. Absolutely. So something like this is what he says. Rick's or Pickles Breakfast Burritos with Lisa's Real Good Green Chili for $7 each, $7.50 for a burrito and a soda. Friday morning at his truck from 4.15 to 5 a.m. Trial run, then three or four times a week going forward. So this Friday, he's going to try it. If you want a burrito, he'll be at his truck from 4.15 till 5. Nice.

Very cool. And I'll put that out on connect as well. That's awesome. All right. You had a question from the audience there, brother Dave. I do from, this is from John Moore and not anonymous. Yeah. Not anonymous. Actually, I don't need to find it wherever it went there. He's asking if we're going to throw a retirement party for Dan, Dan Hawk. Yes. Yeah, we had that on the books. Right? I think that happened so fast. Yeah, it was like boom and boom.

And he was out, right? I mean, he never came back from his treatments and stuff. So it was like, it was just done. It just happened. You know what I mean? So yeah, we missed having a party and we need to discuss it. I wish I had a gazoo. Yeah. I could just be like. I just saw a game with those jam where you put an actual mask on and it looks like a frog mask, but the kazoo is inside of it.

So when you, when you blow it, the tongue goes out, but they actually put, you know, beer pong, the pong balls. They turn red solo cups upside down and, you know, you can put a ball up there and it just, it'll just roll around the bottom side of the cup, but you have to knock the ball off. And they'll line up like five cups on one side and five cups on the other and you compete, right? Whoever can knock the balls off fast. Sounds like a bachelorette party game. It was pretty entertaining.

I was kind of shocked, man. Because that kazoo doesn't shoot out the same direction each time. Sometimes it goes to the left or goes to the right. So you think they have a pattern and pretty soon they're like, they can't get that last ball or one of the balls off, you know, like three tries in a row. It was pretty funny to watch. That is funny. That's a side note there. Cool. Super Dave, you want to hit us with that high road hauling? And I thought I remembered the name people something.

People will be people. What was it, Dave? It's something I think everybody needs to remember, that Jim, you're different from me. What? And Dave, you're different from me. I don't believe. You're different from Jim. Almost. Almost. So the truth of the matter is, everybody is different.

People see things differently. that is why two people can watch the same movie, listen to the same song, or experience the same thing together at the same time, but still have different reactions, impressions, and memories. The same thing goes for the way people handle life events, relationships, or ordinary situations, both large and small. Even siblings can be very different, although they share the same DNA and grew up in the exact same environment.

The world is a diverse place and we all benefit from it. There are doctors, carpenters, artists, athletes, scientists, actors, musicians, politicians, generals, farmers, truck drivers, of course, and even homeless folks. Each of these people is driven by a passion or focus on a goal, or maybe they're striving towards a personal place of satisfaction.

Perhaps because of their DNA or the way they are mentally hardwired, they act differently, perceive things differently, learn differently, talk differently, and dress differently. They see different things as important or not important at all. This can be a source of frustration for people because we are so different.

When someone doesn't close a door behind them or pick up their mess because it's not a priority in their view, However, for another, when they're confronted by such a situation, it is as painful as a poke in the eye with a stick. They say, it's ridiculous. Why can't that guy close the door or turn off the light or just put things back where he found them? It's not that hard. The other person might say, I didn't close the door because it's not cold outside.

Or I got distracted and forgot to pick up my trash. We all need to remember that one man's trash is another man's treasure because we are so different. But we are all people just the same. and we all have an important contribution to make in this world, even if it might not be evident in the moment of our misunderstanding.

If we allow ourselves to step back from a potentially irritating situation and understand that for one moment, you might be on the other side of someone's irritation at another time, you might be the dumbass. It has happened to us all. Be tolerant and understanding of that person and what happened, even if you disagree or it upsets you. If it happens again, communicate with that person in a positive way to rectify the situation.

Being able to enjoy a new food created by a great cook or a new song by our favorite artist and feeling safe because we know there are first responders in an emergency creates richness and a depth that we all enjoy in life because we depend on each other to be unique. And remember, people will be people. And the quote this week is by a very popular motivational speaker who I encourage people to look up online and perhaps even read one of his books. They're absolutely outstanding.

His name is Wayne Dyer. I'm sure you guys have heard of Wayne Dyer. But he once said, and this is so cool, how people treat you is their karma. How you react is yours. So there you have it. Yeah, that's a good one, Super. That is a good one. I like it. People will be people. People will be people. And it's so easy in the heat of the moment to override that mentally, to say, you're a jerk, I'm right, you know, and that sort of thing.

In the end, that's not necessarily true. you know you you have to understand their perspective or as we say for years and years their paradigm and understand it and and maybe you don't need to agree with it i mean you don't have to agree with it at all but you have to understand where they're coming from and why they created their opinion or perspective or wherever that you know came from so yeah very good yeah that's great dude final thoughts everybody i'll uh

i'll jump in there mine's mine's actually a read so i can't go with it's my thoughts but it's kind of current affairs you know i mean everyone knows the state of the the country these days and how we're dismantling the left's excessive spending on on just crazy stuff and i guess i want to add to it because colorado is in the same boat. I mean, Jim and I have sat here and complained on this podcast recently.

Time and time and time again, and I'm sure it gets old and I apologize for it being political, but this is the problem. This is what we're faced with. And, you know, I don't know whether everyone knows it. The legislators are in session from January 1st to the end of May, you know, sometime between May 20th and May 30th is their last day in session.

And that's when they make all the rules and laws and, you know, all of these things that we're going to be required to, to adhere to, you know, for the next year. And on average, you know, we've talked about it last year, we got 725 new things we need to follow. And why is that necessary? And anyway, make a long story short, Colorado doesn't, hasn't created the income it normally has. So they have a budget shortfall, right? A billion dollars. $1.2 billion budget shortfall, right?

They're short $1.2 billion to meet all of the things they need here in Colorado this year. Or want. Yeah. Well, no, that they need, right? I mean, it's not, you know, when they're looking at their budget, it's to cover programs that are already in place. That's the shortfall, not in addition to, right, Dave? So anyway, I'm just going to read this. This is what's going on this week. So the Democrats nab $10 million to redecorate their offices, thumbing noses at state's $1.2 billion budget hole.

Colorado is facing a $1.2 billion budget shortfall this year that has Democrats looking to make cuts in programs precious to taxpayers and low-income residents. But what the Democrat-controlled legislator is not willing to sacrifice is the $10 million they've set aside to renovate and redecorate their own personal offices on the Capitol grounds. That's $4 million for just their new furniture, $6 million for the office renovations.

Surely, extreme makeover, greedy Democrats' addition, could do it for a lot less. Republican State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer spoke out against the Democrats' budgetary largesse at a hearing Friday. Chiding them for putting their own comfort and interior design needs ahead of funding for children and severe disabilities. Where are your values? Where are your priorities? Is it with the kids that are neglected and abused? Is it with these low-income families that we're trying to get child care for?

Is it for children with severe disabilities, or is it for furniture, Kirkmeyer said. Kirkmeyer proposed a measure to throw water on their plans. Long story short, Democrats voted to keep their own luxuries and to hell with the budget shortfall and developmentally disabled children. Sean Boyd over at Denver's CBS News reported on the state's excesses, including this statement from Democrat Senator President James Coleman.

These updates were approved through the normal legislative process, planned well in advance, and part of a responsible long-term stewardship of the government facilities, Coleman said. That's the Democrats' idea of a financial stewardship, putting their needs ahead of the people who keep electing that party to power over and over again. For those keeping track, Kirkmeyer is expected to run for governor to replace Governor Polis in the 2026 election.

So there you have it you know you look at our roads you look at the programs that need funding a 1.2 billion dollar shortfall and the democrats in our in our capital have all agreed to get new furniture and decorations doesn't doesn't make good sense to me so i i again i i ask everyone to thank how they're voting to realize who they're voting for it doesn't matter what city county, or state you're in, please pay attention to what's going on out there.

That's what your leaders are doing with your money. We're going to take our taxes and redecorate their office. Congratulations. We've been in a lot of those areas and most of them are pretty nice. Absolutely. I mean, it's like going to the Adams County building the other day, Dave, the, I mean, I could, we couldn't even afford a sculpture like in the front of the place. Right. I mean, and us taxpayers need that.

I mean, as, as going to our normal jobs, most of the places we work, there's no way they can ever afford anything like that. And it's just that, that's some of that stuff is crazy. And maybe some of it gets donated, but they've got no, donated because something else happened. Right. You know, we just know that happens. Why are our taxes paying for sculptures? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like Adams County, who said, hey, this is a good idea.

Let's put some of these sculptures in over here. Yeah. But we have a shortfall of money. Yeah. So, yeah. And I know you apologize for making it political, Dave, and I have a story that I need to read and it's in the story. It reminds you of a, you, you or sir, you know, super Dave and jam when you run into stuff. I know you guys are, are those, are those men too. And, and, you know, we're asking Rick Gray is, is one of the men in this or the happens to be the mule in this story.

And, you know, big John, he's the, he's the mule in this story. And, and I just want to read it. I just, it, it, it hit me. It's one of those things that you think of that. And I, and I ask everybody that's listening to the podcast, you know, instead of a fight and refusing to do what we ask, think of it as a challenge and be the mule in this story. So a parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule.

The mule fell into the farmer's well, and the farmer heard the mule braying, or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and enlisted them to haul dirt to bury the old mule and the well and put the mule out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical, but as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he should shake it off and step up. This he did blow after blow. Shake it off and step up. Shake it off and step up. Shake it off and step up. He repeated to encourage himself.

No matter how painful the blows or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up. And it wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted. Stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well. What seemed like it would bury him actually blessed him, all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

If we face our problems, respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, and self-pity, the adversities that come along to bury us usually have within them the potential to benefit and bless us. So thank you to every one of the mules out there that step up every day. Right. That's awesome. Love that. Soup, you got anything else? Nope. I guess my final thought is we don't like to fire people. And that was the question I was asked. Wow. Final thought. Yeah.

That's literally final thought, right? How quickly do we fire people around here, Jeff? It seems like it takes forever. You know, there's a saying, hire fast, fire, excuse me, fire fast, hire slow, fire fast. Like we should take more time getting to know somebody. But man, when there's a red flag, just cut your ties. But we don't really do that very well around here. We hire fast and we fire slow. And really it's because we like to put relationships over problems.

We feel like we would rather build a relationship with somebody than to just fire them and just get rid of the problem. We rather try to work through it, you know, so just keep in mind, we're not out to get you. We want you to be successful here.

We have your back. We have a program put in place for everybody to be successful, you know? So that's my final thought. Yeah. Very true, Jim. Also, 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 Amber's mom. Links to her story will be in today's show notes. Let's say the creed and get on out. 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 instruct those with whom we work. Together, we are accountable for our words and our actions. Together, we are the JFW family. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. Tell your neighbors, and we'll see you next week. Have a great week, everybody. Be safe, everybody. Thank you. Music. Got a copy on that channel 23 podcast welcome and thanks for listening.