Episode 174 - "Staying on Track: Avoiding Distractions and Maximizing Efficiency"

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

The purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch the fleet, to engage and inform everyone with all things JFW. Good morning, Jim White, Brother Dave White, and Super Dave Weldon. Hi, everybody. Good morning. Good morning, A-Team. Wow, Soup, you did not get that close to earn your mic check. He was excited to get the good morning out. That's right. The A-Team. I saw his van when he drove in this morning. B.A. Baracus. That was a good show. Well, welcome back to episode 174.

I got a really good feeling about this podcast, except for maybe the end. I've been warned. You guys down for the pledge? Absolutely. All right, let's go. 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 trekking today.

We pray for the safety of our fleet, all of their families, and all the other families and individuals we come across on the road today. We pray for patience in making good, safe decisions. We pray to be accident-free, and we all make it back to the comfort of our homes this evening. We pray for healing and 100% recovery for all of our family members that are ill. No matter what, we trust you, God, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

As a reminder, anything you hear on today's podcast is just our expressed opinion. Episode 173, 309 downloads. I like that. That is great. We're at 91.1 thousand total downloads, and we are up to 714 followers. Woo-woo! So, Andrew Berger, also known as the runer of all fun things, informed me that our out-of-the-country listens are probably just VPNs being redirected. You mentioned, well, not being redirected, but you said bots. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Maybe I didn't understand what I meant by bots.

And what are VPNs? VPNs are ready for you to hide your IP address. So. I'm in, I'm in Westminster running a VPN that show and I'm in Florida. Sure. But Singapore, you know, and that many times like. Yeah. Yeah. So I was just like, huh. Wasn't India super high on there? India at one point was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, definitely technological company or country there. It makes sense. Yeah. But on your phone, because I think most people listen on their phones, are people using VPNs on their phones?

Andrew, Berger, are people using VPNs on their phones? Right. And the thing is, I want to stay hidden because I'm listening to a podcast. Well, you would just have it. They do it all the time. Yeah, it's not just to listen to the podcast. It's to stay hidden. So they don't get junk mail or spam and stuff like that. They're not getting tracked and traced back to where they actually are. I like those people that keep texting me saying I have an outstanding toll balance. And I'm like, no, I don't.

That is like a thing. It is. I mean, that started like a month ago or two months ago, but dad was like the first one I know of. First one to pay. And of course he was, oh, he was bought in, going to answer, text back and why haven't you paid this? And I'm like, oh my gosh. I've heard a couple times. The email looks really legit, but I'm like, let me go on the website. And the first thing you see on the website is fraud. Yeah. Yeah.

And they're hip to it, so. Well, I know it's not true because the only place we go is Sarah's house on E470, and it's got one toll and then the exit ramp, and we always have a balance in our E-ZPass thing, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah, Dave, right? Yeah. Do you guys know why chickens work out? And to get to the other side of the road? Get bigger wings. I don't know, legs. Oh, you're close. Don't skip leg day. Work on their pecs. Work on their pecs. Oh, I saw that one, Jim.

I can't believe I didn't remember it. Oh, that's a good one. Oh. That's a good one. Ba-da-ba. That is a good one. That is a good one. Well, I'm going to jump in there instead of reading a page of 10. I've got one that I've got in my memory. So bear with me. I just, it's actually a Harrison Ford joke on Johnny Carson. That's how it works. Wow. Ooh. Ooh, he was probably only what, like 40?

Yeah, he looked pretty good. Anyway, yeah, so this guy's working in the produce department and he's stocking produce. And this woman comes up behind him and says, excuse me, sir. He turns around and says, yes, ma'am, can I help you? And she says, where's your broccoli? And he goes, oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. We're fresh out of broccoli. We'll have some more in the morning. She goes, okay. And he turns around, starts stocking some oranges and apples. And she goes, excuse me, sir, sir.

And he turns around. and it's the same lady. And she goes, where can I find the broccoli? And he goes, ma'am, we're fresh out of broccoli. We'll have some more in the morning. She goes, okay. And he turns around and just keeps working, you know, pretty soon. Sir, where can I find your broccoli? And he turns around and it's the same woman. And he goes, ma'am, I'm just curious. He says, can you help me with something? And she goes, yeah, what? And he goes, well, humor me a minute.

He said can you spell dog as in dogmatic and she goes d-o-g and he says can you spell cat as in catastrophic and she goes c-a-t and he says can you spell fuck as in broccoli and she goes there is no fucking broccoli and he goes exactly oh that's good sorry for the f-bomb folks but it just went with the joke. Sure dude can you can you beep things out.

What was that i could but i'm not gonna, This is live Alright so What do you call Two guys hanging from a window Window washers, Drapes. Curt and Rod. Curt and Rod. That's good. That is good. All right. Let me see if I can follow that up. Bring it home, Dave. So Sid and Irv are business partners. They make a deal that whichever one dies first will contact the living one from the afterlife. So Irv dies and Sid doesn't hear from him for about a year. He figures there is no afterlife.

Then one day he gets a call. It's Irv. So there's an afterlife. What's it like, Sid asks. Well, I sleep very late. I get up. I have a big breakfast. Then I have sex. Lots of sex. Then I go back to sleep and I get up for lunch. I have a big lunch and have some more sex. Take a nap. Huge dinner. More sex. Go to sleep and wake up the next day. And Sid says, oh, my God. So that's what's heaven like? And Irv says, oh, no, I'm not in heaven. I'm a bear in Yellowstone Park.

Oh, it's funny. Not bad. All right.

New employees. We got Walter Johnson, Ulysses Valadez, Bill Sponberg, Jose Acosta, and Gabriel Cruz all started this Monday. Welcome to the fleet, man. Yeah, welcome, you guys. is... Celebrations, anniversaries. We got Lexi Brown. She's hitting three years on Friday. And also, Dustin Romero Sr. Hitting nine years this Friday as well. Nice. Congratulations, Lexi and Dustin. Way to go, you guys. Dustin's almost a decade. Man, I have to tell you. Dustin, congratulations, buddy. And Lexi, too. Yeah.

Three years. Yeah, that's awesome. Birthdays. We got Chase Lester and Erasmo Medina had birthdays yesterday. Ah, Victor Cercido, he had a birthday today. I should have wished him a happy birthday. Yes, he was here at the shop. Ah, I didn't know. He listens to the podcast, so. Yeah. And then Tricky Ricky DeLeon has a birthday tomorrow. Ah, happy birthday. Yeah, yeah. Happy birthday, everybody.

Family birthday celebrations. Vicky Vedder Holmes, that's Troy Holmes' wife, had a birthday Sunday the 23rd. And then Yereni Comanero has a birthday this Friday the 28th.

That's Gabe's. Oh, man. let me not screw it up because his daughter and his wife has similar names anyway she's gabes well happy birthday family yeah happy birthday happy birthday everybody shout outs this one's not on here but before i forget i want to give a shout out for stephen jones he was involved in a rear-end accident yesterday where we got rear-ended and he was on point anything i asked that guy to do it was easy you know i was just like okay here's what we need to do can

you do this already started doing that okay here's what else has to happen can you do that yep i'm on it can you do this yep did you do that yeah like i mean no good it was it was really easy and i think you knew the cop up there which was weird they were talking about car racing but that helps sometimes too doesn't it jam yeah yeah it was man he was in a tough spot just making out right onto firestone Boulevard, you know, was right there.

The airlines, both airlines broke on the right passenger side, right?

Rear canister and you know he had to drag the truck out of the way a little bit and you know people were able to get by and then there was a fire truck responding and then a pickup truck hit the fire truck and oh no wow yeah it's pretty wild so but everybody was okay it was a mom and a daughter they were fine and joking around and good you know good good yeah when we were at that 270 meeting i don't know the last one or the one before adams county south adam

county fire one of their fire trucks got hit and uh i don't know is he a chief dave do you remember anyway one of the representatives of the fire he said it's probably going to lose that truck for like six months to a year before they can get it fixed that's how badly it was damaged and and to be able to get the parts and get it fixed so and i i'm it probably went to diversified where danny works they do work on fire trucks they do they're some of the only ones that are certified but it's just a

part thing and getting all the stuff and it's not it's a when you lose that vehicle it's a bummer yeah you know those things are expensive yep yeah yeah shout out to jack dominico and his wife lawyer they sent us a nice thank you card so we're thanking them for the thank you card but they wrote dear jfw family thank you so much for the support anniversary card and Amazon gift card. We truly appreciate it and all of your support.

Sincerely, Laurie and Jack Domenico. That's awesome. That is great. Good stuff. Oh, yeah. Andrew Nonez wants to give a shout out to Erica White. Good morning, Jam.

I want to give a big shout out to Erica for riding with me last week, helping me with my fuel efficiency. She helped me a lot and explained what to do to keep my score up. Thank you again, Erica. happy podcast day awesome yeah thank you then erica wants to give a shout out, Not to Andrew Nones. No, just kidding. She wants to give a shout out, well, this includes Andrew, to everyone in the JFW family for looking out for me throughout my entire collarbone recovery.

Being extremely helpful, always sending positive wishes, and jumping in every time I shouldn't slash couldn't do something. I mean, I think I caught her doing more things than she shouldn't be doing. And I wish I had a video of all the things. Right. Right.

Right it would be a movie it is pretty comical i mean i'm i'm glad she healed well this time but man like one day i'm over by the you know where we hang out in the morning and she's charging a, release agent bottle oh yeah with with the one arm with the one in the sling and the slings on and it's it's just hilarious yeah she's a she's a tough cook she's tough well i think just i know she's thanking everybody, but I'm pretty sure that she got okayed.

Like Monday was the first day out of the sling, but she's not released yet. She needed like past the six week mark or something before that. She mentioned that to me, Jim, that she still has no like load bearing activity. And I'm like, well, you better be careful. She laughed and said, well, you guys all got my back. Like, damn. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I was doing an interview one day and outside and I see her like sweeping up and shoveling.

And I'm like, I tell the guy I'm interviewing, I'm like, because he sees me looking and I'm distracted. I was like, look outside. Do you see that? What's wrong with that picture? I'll be right back. That's hilarious. Oh, so far in. All right. You guys got shout outs today? I do. I want to mention John Moore. He was in yesterday and I think he's four weeks. I'm pretty sure is what he said from knee surgery. Oh, for the second one. For the one doing really well.

But I guess more of my shout out for John is that he's an advocate for himself. He started before the surgery, you know, he's working on it after the surgery. Yep, the prehab. Yeah, the prehab. And I mean, we talked yesterday just briefly that, you know, that's part of the success with anything you do is being, you know, proactive instead of being reactive. And after it, obviously he's reactive, but he's, you know, he's trying to get that, the motion in it and all that kind of stuff.

And he even admitted he's, he's doing well enough. He had, if he had a desk job, he could easily probably come back to work. It's just not, not bothering him. It's going really well. So, and he's trying to, to get that movement. So he's prepared to get the second one done and then, and then he'll be back. So thanks, John, or, you know, Great job, actually. It was more of a shout out for you, again, being an advocate for yourself.

Right. And then kind of a personal one for me, I wanted to thank Holly, which is my wife, for listening to the podcast because she doesn't have to. And we all created quite a little conversation when she goes to take the test. It's like a thing in my household. It was this. And I'm like, no. It wasn't. She goes, yes, it was. And she goes over and I'm like, what, what about this? Oh yeah. You know, and she was, she was one off last night that we, that we talked about.

And anyway, she's like here, show me the phone and has a hundred percent on it. Nice. Thanks, uh, babe for listening. I appreciate it. Don't feel bad, Holly. Sometimes some of the men in this room get answered. Yeah. Right. In the podcast. I was just going to chime in on that. The, the little quiz is turning out to be highlight for me because I'm like, Jim, that's not right and he's like no dave you're wrong.

Yeah it's fun you know it's almost a quiz for just the four men in this room well actually three because jam makes it up so it doesn't he doesn't even have to take it i've got one wrong before uh just move it too quick yeah it's like marshall listening to it next door you know he's been going hundreds right yeah that's awesome it was funny we saw him yesterday and i said oh by the way happy late birthday birthday he was he didn't skip a beat man he looked

at jim he's like same to you yeah yeah good good guy good stuff to be very interesting well my high road hauling today is about learning how to listen better so maybe we all should take note oh right yeah. The thing is, though, Super Dave, for us, we're listening and involved. I don't know what you call that. We're not listening, are we? Yeah. We're supposed to be in the know. I mean, you're here. Right, Jim? That's what I mean. Were you here during the podcast? We're busy talking. We're not

listening. Yeah. But I was just texting a customer as we're doing this. What are we talking about? Great. What was the shout outs? What did I miss on the test? I love the shout outs. Anybody? Somebody? No. All right. Let's move it to the discussion. First thing on the list, we got some pictures last week of rubble trucks. When you are done, you got to clean out and verify that all that rubble and slurry is out of the trailer before switching to material.

So when you're done dumping your rubble, please sweep out completely if you're going to haul material. That's just an easy way to get a load rejected is to have slurry and big chunks of rubble and sand or pea gravel or even three-quarter rock. Or even worse, if you're dumping in the hopper, you could screw up the whole plant. Yep. Could get costly. Yep. Brother Dave, would you like to read this next one? I sure can. Where are we at?

Second item of the discussion. This is how I keep people engaged. Yeah, right. So, I mean, I don't know whether everybody knows this, but the Colorado Motor Carriers Association has been in a lawsuit with the city of Vail, town of Vail, however you want to call it, for, I guess we're pushing a year now. And when I say we, because it's Colorado Motor Carriers Association, all the truckers in Colorado are...

Members of it. I think they have over 400 members. And because Vail has this inner deal they started a year ago where they don't want trucks in their town. And they did this good old boy club that some former city councilmen, some former mayors, some high school buddies that grew up and played college together at hockey and, or played hockey together in college, all of that good stuff. And they were able to put this power play together where, hey,

we don't want trucks here. Why don't you drop them at this warehouse we own and we'll deliver it with our battery powered carts? And so if this gains any traction, and I've talked about this before, that'll go on everywhere. Every major little city, you know, there's, there's cities across the country that this is kind of a thing that's, if it gains traction, truckers are going to lose a lot of ability.

And when I say power, they're going to have to, they're going to be forced to deliver to these warehouses. They're going to have to pay a fee to unload at them. And it's, it's a racket. It's just, and, and they have proven that it is what they've done is illegal. Right. So all of this stuff. So basically now the fight is on between Vail and truckers, right? Vail hates truckers and truckers hate Vail. I mean, that's just. There's an easy way to fix that.

There is. And I can't talk them into not delivering anything, Jim. If you don't pick up their garbage and you don't deliver them alcohol or food for about 10 days, they're in a mess. They're in a mess. And I can't talk anybody into that, but I mean, at some point that will ensue, right? So make a long story short, they're so upset and I don't even understand how they have the power. They claim they're tired of I-70 being closed because of trucks spun out, right?

So their city council sat there on a, I'll just read it because I sent it to jam. So Interstate 70 was unusually quiet outside the Vail Town Hall Tuesday night, closed by a jackknifed semi, as the council voted to impose its own $2,650 fine on drivers who violate the state's traction laws and block traffic. It's been a long time coming for this ordinance to come through, and I think it's an important one for the council to regain some control over what we can.

Chris Botkins, the operations commander with the Vail Police Department, told council Tuesday. Council members after the vote asked how quickly the emergency ordinance could go into effect. The new law also imposes a $1,500 fine for vehicles without chains when the chain law is in effect, meaning just between May. Yeah, exactly. May through September. Yeah, May 31st, September 1st to May 31st. Yep.

And the $2,650 fine for drivers of unchained commercial vehicles that spin out and block the highway. Tonight, one councilwoman asked, we need to get home. Meaning, how are they going to get home? The highway is closed right now. So the next morning, mere hours after the vote, another semi-trailer jackknifed on icy roads and closed eastbound I-70 in the town.

Clearly, there's not a deterrent significant enough for truckers to change their behavior, Vail Mayor Travis Coggin said in an interview before the vote. Our estimate is that 60% of the truckers are not chained when there is clearly a chain law. People are going to complain about this, but my response is, if you don't like the fine, don't break the law. So, and they have some other kind of ignorant comments in there that, you know, just hammer us.

And, you know, the big thing is not one of them talked about, do we have a safe area for the trucks to pull over and chain or unchained? Right. You know, is it, there's just, there's so many things that roll into this and, you know, here we are again. These are our elected officials. Yeah, they're stating a problem with no solution, except for we're going to hit them over the head. Yes.

And no matter what, I mean, the state, every single year, you guys, when the state is in session down here at the Capitol, you know, this year they're adding another chain law. They're adding another chain law requirement. They're adding, they're increasing the fine. Now Vail is going to have their own fine. When the bottom line is the state patrol is short, like 70 troopers on the I-70 corridor.

70 troopers. If they had troopers there, none of this would be happening because they would be enforcing the law. Yeah, they're right there in the chain stations. We don't need more laws. We need more police, more state troopers. They can introduce a hundred more laws, rules, and regulations. It's not going to matter if there's no one there to enforce it. And the other thing too, to go along with that, with all these statistics,

you know, is the, is the state department up there short employees? Are they sanding? Are they plowing when they need to be? I mean, cause we fill the shed, you know, what, what is the maintenance on that road? Is that even being done? But they don't look at themselves. They just look at the trucks, but it is pretty ignorant not to be chained at all. You know, when it's off that, I mean, that is our fault, you know?

And I know I've been through Vail and the one time it was shut down, you couldn't get on and off. But, you know, again, you know, to me, it's the truck driver giving the bad rap or just following his GPS. But he was hung up on the barriers in the roundabout down in the town. Sure. And you just don't go down there. You know, you can't, that, you know, not. You just got to love those roundabouts, don't you? Right, right. And it was a barrier and he drug the trailer to clear up on it

and was stuck. Yeah. You know, I'd have to just... Disagree with that dude that says he estimates 60% of the truckers are not chained. Yeah. Because when I'm up there, everybody's chained. Absolutely. Estimate means he didn't check. Yeah. He just made that number up. I cut it out of here, you guys, but they even make a reference to, they've seen people out in flip-flops and turbans and shorts chaining up. And I'm like, you know, who cares?

Right. Right? What is this Chris Botkins own? Does he own part of that warehouse? I can't tell you that. He's a city council, Jan, but yeah. Yeah, the operations commander with the Vail Police Department. And he was one of the good old boys club that went to college and played hockey with the other guys. I mean, I don't know. The CMCA may actually, they may be ready to sue him personally. Wow. Because he has been instrumental in creating this bullshit.

Yeah, and the whole beef was it wasn't put out to bid at all. They just said, okay, this is the way it's going to be. Absolutely, Dave. Yeah, it's ugly. You know, they, they can't even get the Rocky Mount or the Denver post here to write an article on it because no one wants to piss off the people in Vail because they have so much money.

So the big push, the big payers that are in the CMCA that are paying our attorney's fees for the most part is FedEx and UPS because they're freaked out about it. They're like, if this gains traction and all these little towns decide to do this, you're, you're going to, you are going to put a dent in our business. Yeah. They'll have to charge so much money. They'll have to charge more. Exactly, Jim. And then how long does it take also? Okay, you go to the warehouse, you drop your trailer.

How long are you going to be there for a day? Two days? Right. How long is it going to take to unload? Yeah. Everything about it stinks so bad. And wouldn't they pass that cost on to the end user bus? Oh, yeah. The consumer will take it. These guys aren't real consumers. You know? Crazy. Yeah. Yeah, when you talk to the businesses in Vail, they're like, we don't mind trucks. That's how we get things. Right. And the funny thing is, I-70 goes right through the middle of their town.

They have hundreds of trucks going through town all day, every day. Yeah, hundreds. And a few little electric delivery vehicles are not going to change any air situations they have in that valley. Well, yeah. That's a whole other story, but that's a part of it. Well, they want to bury I-70. Have you read that article?

No. No, I haven't. Oh, God. It's probably a couple of years old now, but they've proposed burying 10 miles of I-70 through, like, have it come out in Eaglevale or somewhere on the other side of that little valley there. And as soon as they drop off the hill, they're going to go into a tunnel. Jesus. They can't add a lane to the Eisenhower tunnels, but they can bury the 10 miles of I-70 because the rich people don't want to see the trucks anymore. Yeah.

Yeah. There's no air pollution in a tunnel. What? What a waste. Yeah. You know, it's funny though, no matter how hard they try, Vail will never be Aspen. Yeah. There you go. Right? I lived in Vail for a season. I lived in West Vail and I would just stay up there. This is when I was working from home. I'd stay up there during the week and wake up about seven and let the snow warm up, go, you know, make a couple of turns snowboarding, come back, finish my job and party all night.

And then on the weekends I would drive down here to my condo because it was so busy up there. I just hang out with my friends out here. It was, it was a cool winter. Oh man, that's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty cool. But having really been snowboarding since, it ruined it for me because after you live up there for me, like I would never drive up there and come back the same day. It's like. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's become terrible. That's just a thing of the past. Yeah.

Cool. Well, speaking about pollution, I guess this will bring me into efficiency. see. So I ran Ragsdale to plan 12 on Monday. I just did one run, no big whoop, but I was really trying to focus on my safety and my efficiency scores. And I just want to share my experience with you guys and what I feel went well and what didn't. So deadheading up to Ragsdale, I'm like, oh, this is easy.

You know, I'm like super focused, just like, you know, barely hit the brakes at all the whole way up there I'm like ah this is like how can't you get 100 you know what I mean then I got loaded and then I got a couple phone calls on my way down to plan 12 and man if you're not focused you know I was on a headset you know nothing of Google was going on yeah but just having a conversation like I would get to a red light. And I'd be on the phone and I'm thinking like, did I take more than a second

to hit my brake? Was that Jake Bacon? Right. You know, like all the things, like no clue. Like, how did I get here almost? So wait a minute. Were you distracted by the phone? I was distracted by the phone. That's the craziest thing. By the phone call. Just a conversation. But completely autonomous, driving, you know, quote unquote safe. Yeah. You know, I didn't blow through a red light. Like it was just, we do it so much.

We're so good at driving, you know, and not hitting things most of the time. It just, yeah, it was just really weird. Like, you know, so then I get off the phone and I'm driving kind of back on, on track. And then next thing you know, get another phone call and same thing happened. I'm like, holy shit. I can't multitask at all. So even with that i ended up with a 97 on my safety score i had a 94 on my fuel efficiency.

I was 100 in anticipation and i had an 87 in wear free braking so the wear free braking is what i was most concerned about too because it was like you know i'm definitely having a break because i'm not focused far enough ahead right where i'm gonna have to get on the brakes yeah was a jake brake on? Yeah. You know, did I anticipate and not have to slam on my brake? Yeah, but definitely needed to use a brake. So I guess the moral to my story is if you're focused on it,

you're going to do well. Yeah. You know, if you're not focused on it, you're not going to do as good. Right. That's it. With, with, you know, including this conversation, Jam, and the conversations we've had, and then with the other drivers doing it and stuff, that is part of the bonus to this program is hopefully the awareness that it brings. Cause like you said, you were distracted, not that you were doing a bad job driving, right. But you were just distracted.

This brings you to the moment you're driving each light, each piece, each day, that's safety. That just encourages safety. Cause you're having to look at that light. You're having to look at that car. You're having to look at the guy coming on at the on-ramp, all of that, you know, and that's, that's what we're hoping for is a really safe, you know, not, I don't want to say year, future. Future, yeah. You know?

Yeah, it was interesting too, on the way up there, you know, I had a couple big trucks get impatient with me and, you know, come around and go past me. One belly dump got ahead of me in Ragsdale. And when I say ahead of me, he pulled in like 20 seconds before me and he was out there getting it. You know what I mean? Just hauling ass. Doing that thing and having to stop at lights. And I'm, I mean, I was doing like half a mile an hour not to touch the brakes and just cruise up.

And it worked. It worked nice. Yes. That's awesome. And that, that person's not going to realize, you know, if he works for somebody who owns zone truck. And we all know it. We've all talked about it. The brake wear, the tire wear, the exhaustion on yourself. You know, if it's not an automatic, the clutch wear, the shifting, the everything triples and quadruples on that truck. I thought about that too. Cause it's like, all right, there goes that guy.

He's probably working for somebody and it makes no difference to him. Man, I bet, you know, it would make a difference to his boss. Right. You know, if he changed his ways a little bit, you know? I mean, it was like the, you know, we talked about it a few stories ago was that everybody pulling the King Soopers trailers, we're using them to, to break, you know, pulling their Johnny bar and stuff like that.

And you're just like, man, that's, that's just not right. That's not the way to do it. Yeah. You're not, you're not being a skilled driver. Oh. The other thing I wanted to talk about just from being out there is let's talk about following distance a little bit more. I know we really, you know, go over it and over and over it, but that question was missed on the podcast challenge two weeks ago by a lot of people. You know, how do we determine following distance?

And the answer is you find a landmark and you count 1001, 1002, trying to simulate a true second, right? A lot of people put down truck, you know, how many truck lengths I had or could fit, you know, or how many lines you could count. That's the one I ran across. People were asking me about the lines. Is it the one about the lines, counting the lines? Yeah. Like, no, I don't know where anyone ever got. Yeah, what lines? The zipper. The zipper? Yeah. And you can, I mean, you can't count it.

Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what I did notice to my point is on the videos, when we watch videos and we watch following distant videos, it's like the opposite of the mirrors that say objects may be closer than they appear because in the in the following distance videos it seems so far away when you watch a video it's like at first i'm like oh that that seems pretty good you start counting and it's actually pretty close and then out driving two seconds

of following distance seems very close right out there right and it's like you know somebody will come ahead of me and i would start counting like wow this you know i'm gonna get an alert i'm gonna get an alert you know and i'd back it off to two seconds i'm like wow that's close so my point is like when you get a following distance alert and the hands go up in there and it's like you know i it's it's i just don't understand how you argue that that's not close right

you're supposed to be four seconds supposed to be four seconds so with two seconds and you're throwing your hands up like the camera's wrong it's like how don't you feel that that's too close right just if the camera's barking there's a reason exactly it's It's helping you be better. Yeah. Yeah. The, my, my pickup's got the heads up display and I think it's a setting cause I it's been up or I've turned it up, but it counts the seconds from the vehicle in front of you. Uh huh.

So it's visibly, visibly shows it on the windshield. Nice. And two seconds is close. Six seconds seems a long ways away though. You know what I mean? Like, oh, wow, I'm six seconds. So yeah, it's, it's, it's just crazy how it looks. No doubt. All right. We want to talk about phone use a little bit more as well. We've had five people get disqualified from the safety bonus for a quarter in the last couple of weeks due to phone use. And last chance.

And last chance too. Yes. That's scary. Why it's still a problem? I just don't get it. Everyone has watched that eight second video.

I mean, we've sent it out on connect jr shows it in orientation i believe kyle and casey are showing it if i'm not mistaken i could be wrong i hope not but anyway we know jr is showing i think yes jr everyone sees that video you know i mean maybe we should send it out again i get i don't understand where the confusion is that if you're distracted you know for five seconds that you could kill someone yeah you're you're that phone is more important than killing someone so i i just it's uber

frustrating i don't know how to fix it yeah and i keep making the point i've made it you know several weeks and it's my whole take out of there is that's he was just any one of us he was joe blow you know i mentioned it over and over that he was you know going to rent a house with his wife or whatever it was and zillow zillow and he never got to that but that is every one of us every day just normal life going on, thinking it's okay.

Yeah. So I don't think people, when they reach for that phone or pick it up, they're not like thinking my phone is more important than somebody else's life. They just don't think it could happen to them. That's what I mean. Yeah. And that's the reason I like to bring up about the, it's every one of us every day. There's nothing more important than that job you're doing at the moment, Dre. Well, here's the kicker to you guys.

They'll look at you and say, well, there was no traffic around me or I was going only 30 miles an hour or 10 miles an hour, but it's the habit that they're in. Yes. Sometime down the road, they're going to be going 65 miles an hour and there will be somebody in front of them. That phone is crack. Yeah, it is. Yeah. The one, the one phone violation I watched and there was a FedEx van over to the side as the driver went by and he was on his phone and all that FedEx van

had to do was decide I'm at the wrong address and you turn. Yep. And you not, you not, because the driver wouldn't have seen him. His, his, he was, his head was down and he was looking at the phone. I mean, honestly that I. I'm kind of putting two things together here, but I do have a shout out now that I think about it, but I'm going to talk about that accident that Vince Meekins caught on camera with the van and the motorcycle. I mean, was that van texting? Was that guy looking at his phone?

You know, we can't see it in the video, but- More than likely he was though. To turn in front of that motorcycle. It's not like that motorcycle was hauling ass or anything like it. That guy just didn't, either didn't look or didn't see him because everybody slowed up. Yeah, the whole thing about it. So shout out to Vince. I mean, he was the first one to get out and run up to that guy and check on him. And it did look like there were some other good Samaritans, like that one lady

was bringing a towel. A blanket. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just, that's outstanding stuff. So good job, Vince. I mean, he's been there, done that because he witnessed the bicycle guy down at Plant 39, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I thought about that. He and Potter. Yeah, that was, you know, that could have been a tough thing for Vince to do just because of his history. Absolutely. You know, and for him to jump out and get down on the ground with that person. Yep.

You know. Yep. Yeah. So shout out to you, Vince. Good job, man. And that just, it's just even that much more important that we have to be focused 100% of the time. You know, like Dave said, we've had a guy texting on the phone at five miles. Well, he was sitting still, didn't realize he released the brakes and rolled forward and hit the car in front of him and then kept pushing it. He was pushing that car. He was about to push it into another car. Yeah.

You know, and that's just. The car he was pushing started diving off into the shoulder because he was going to hit the car in front of him. Yeah. I mean, we've had a guy at the pit let off the brake and drove over a sand pile, you know, smashed the shit out of the bumper, ruined, you know, $1,000 worth of damage on the truck. And then before he even stopped, he finished his text. That text was more important than that truck moving. Oh, he was,

yeah. Yeah. He didn't even set his air brakes on. I don't remember. It was, it was crazy. It was unbelievable. So yeah. Shout out to you, Vince. And then I do have another shout out to 0092 Fabian Sotelo. I don't know if it was this morning or yesterday, but obviously my son's not even in the state, but a buddy of his that lives in Firestone past Fabian. I don't, I'm assuming on I-25 just because he lives in Firestone there.

I don't know whether it was yesterday or today, but sent it from here in Colorado to Sam in Indiana and Sam sent it back to me. That's cool. And it's pretty cool. He goes past and he must have the window down and get him to honk because he's got the phone up and you hear the truck and then you hear the horn honk and it's, you know, it's pretty cool. So good job, Fabian. Way to make trucking fun, man.

Right. I don't know a driver that doesn't get a smile on their face when somebody wants them to honk their horn. So you're saying Sam's buddy was playing with his phone while he was driving down the road. Well, I'm saying he was sitting in the passenger seat doing it legally. Okay. He didn't say that. According to the view of the camera that I saw, Dave, I didn't say he was, well, I did say he was driving, didn't I? Yeah. Yeah. He wasn't driving. He was in the passenger seat. Cool.

But he's got pretty long arms. He nailed it over there. Who knows? Fabium's rocking it. He's really doing a great job. Yeah. He's pretty low maintenance too. Yeah. Silent warrior. It's kind of funny because the clip is so loud. I'll actually play it for you guys. Oh, let's go. So it's actually kind of funny. I didn't know the horn was going to be that loud. You guys may have heard it in the background a little while ago. So it's a whopping seven second video.

That's the truck going down the road. Oh, that's great. Yep. Yep. Good stuff right there. So good job, Vince. Good job, Fabian. Yeah. Get back to Vince and the motorcycle accident. I did put it on Kinect, but this is the time of year. All the bikes are going to start coming out and there's going to be more of them. And the roads aren't, you know, they still may have some sand and stuff on them or I don't know, just be super careful.

On the way home yesterday, you guys saw it. There was a pedestrian and got hit by a car on 60th and Vasquez, you know, right or wrong, whoever's at fault there you don't want to be the person that hits a person right the truck yeah and be aware these motorcycles are going down the zipper when you're sitting at a stoplight and a couple of times i've just been surprised and because they come down and they're they're i think they're doing it on purpose so they're revving their engines

and going you know vroom vroom so the cars will hear them coming but i mean they're i don't know they're six inches off of your mirror they seem more reckless than ever honestly oh yeah yeah jam hands down that's the things that we see is just crazy don't forget that one driver got that one biker got killed over by bernco just last year yeah you know yep and wasn't his fault but you know that truck driver never saw him oh yeah you can't yeah yeah the speed and the whole bit yeah.

Scooby wants to ask everybody if they break their broom handles, please bring it back to the main shop so he can repair it and not leave them behind the back of their trucks. And if they fix a mud flap by the parking spot, please throw away the mud flap. Thank you, everyone. Also, if you change a mud flap at the mud flap changing station, I don't know why we save them, but they end up going in a trash. You could just throw those away.

Yeah, the only thing on that, Jim, that I want to mention, though, is if some of them can be cut off one time and reused. Right. But if it's torn, throw it away. Yes, please. The thing about cutting them off, Jim, when I would do that and I would do it as much as I could, so the minimum length of a mud flap is 10 inches from the ground. If that mud flap, if you can measure 14 inches, I'm just making that up, from the ground to the bottom of the mud flap, it's too short.

So the length of our mud flaps i bet you you could trim them off two or three times and. They'd still be long enough but for me i would want to do the other side as well so even and it you don't have one that's you know nine inches yeah i mean you gotta you gotta look good on there and and if you're gonna do that and you're gonna trim one off please just trim the other one off and take 15 more minutes to do it right. Yep. You just talked me into a new mud flap.

I hear you, Jim. I hear you, man. Yeah, David. I mean, all of that, all that goes along with that, it's not as simple as just throwing the other mud flap away or replacing it or, you know, there's a responsibility there. Like you're saying, can you trim it two or three times? But then you need to fix the other side and, you know, don't just don't throw away a mud flap because it tore out and you think it's junk, you know, when it's not. So it's...

You know, there's a process to everything. You know, it's funny. I was thinking on my drive-in this morning, Jim, how back in the day, I don't know where we got it. If we maybe got it from Owens Brothers or maybe somebody from the Cooley Thornton pit, we had a bunch of that belt, right? We had a whole conveyor belt. And I thought, well, how could we make our mud flaps stronger like the conveyor belts were? I mean, is there a way? Can we, I don't know, put two together?

Or, I mean, they had like fiber in them and they also had layers. Yeah. The belting. Yeah. Yeah. The belting is bad ass compared to a mudflap. Yeah. But I think that's the reason when you tear a belt, Dave, that's the expense. Right. Is the problem. Yeah. They have to use that giant clamp thing to put them back together with 20 screws. Are you talking about making mudflaps great again? Yeah, I am. I am. And I'm trying to figure out how could we do it exclusive to JFW.

But I don't even know, and you're right, where it came from Owens or one of the pits because we've gotten the belting before and it's too wide, too skinny. Yeah. That one chunk we got, and we had that whole row, was perfect. Yes. It was the perfect width of a main flap. 24-inch belting is hard to find. Yeah. Yeah, because you'd get that once in a while, you'd get in that roll and you had to make sure which way you turned it because there was a wear spot.

Yes. From the material, remember the wear spot? We used to cut it with a circular saw. Yeah, because you couldn't cut it with your knife. No. Wow. Yeah. Good, the belt. In fact, I know the belting, it tore some of the back of the trailers. I remember lifting my back axle up with the rock trailer I was pulling back then. Right. And I'm like, oh, shoot, I'm up on my butt. I didn't tear them or anything. I just put my trailer down. Didn't even pull the bolts or not?

No, I sure didn't. Not the belting, Jim. Nope. Yeah. I'm freaked out. Badass stuff. I was like, oh, I'm leaning. And then I'm like, oh, no, my trailer's in the air. My axle. You guys got anything else for the discussion before we move on to what's next? I don't know how to keep beating it up, Jim, but how do we, how do we solve this phone issue? I mean, we, we have, you know, every state in the nation has laws against it.

Yeah. We could put phone blockers in every truck. I mean. We've talked about it. Yet we ask them to use the phone for their apps. Right. You know, but never one time has that been the excuse. You know what I mean? Right. When we've had a phone issue. Nobody's saying they're on, they're on XBE or something like that.

You know what I, and I talked. I don't think you mind me saying it, but I had a good conversation with, with Cowboy, with Troy, you know, about phone use and, and cause he didn't know about one of the, you know, the one we had last week about letting a long time employee go because of phone use. And Troy was pretty upset about it, but you know, I mentioned to him and I think I've said it before, if you have, if it's so bad, just pull over.

I mean, we need you to pull over and, and take care of it. He was, he was upset. We let him go or upset that he was on the phone. No, but Bup said he was on the phone and upset we had to let him go because he's like that, you know, when are we going to learn? You know, it was Troy's point, you know? Right. And the same point you're making, Dave, what can we do about it? When are we going to learn? Yeah. I mean, how do we, do people think we're joking?

Do people, you know? I mean, there's been plenty of people let go at this point because of phone use. I know. I guess I don't understand. But it's the, it's not only us letting people go because of the phone use, it's a proven fact that it causes accidents. Right. You know, sure, it may not happen to you right today, but it will happen. I mean, we had the girl that was on her phone, you know, that hit the back of our trailer that was killed. We've got the eight second video.

We have the, we just, there's so much proof around why, why won't you believe us? Yeah. How many accidents have we had? I mean, I just riddled off two of them. Yeah. Those were just two that I remember. And it's got to be frustrating for all of us. I mean, it was when I was driving, the phone use wasn't near as bad when they'd sit at the light and you'd miss the light. We've talked about that. Sit through the light or, you know, all that stuff.

Why is that person leaving? You get up beside them. They're on the phone or, you know, and then when the minute they hang up, they go from 50 miles an hour to 70 miles an hour. And you're like, all I wanted to do was go around you because you were doing 50, you know, wouldn't even have moved. So, yeah, it's just frustrating. It needs to be a campaign.

I was sitting at that stoplight at 60 in Fasquez going home the other day, right by the grease monkey, you know, where the pedestrian wreck was yesterday. But three cars lined up, right? The light change is green and none of them moved. And I don't know what they were doing. I couldn't see. I was behind them. But I hit my horn because I was like, they were wasting my light. And sometimes that light is way quick.

Oh, yeah, dude. And then I hit my horn and all three of them started off like, I woke all three of them up. I was like, really? Did you make the light? Yeah, I did. Was it a, just a horn like, oh no. Good for you, man. Yeah. Like Fabian's horn in that recording. That's what it was. I'm telling you, I am a jerk. Like I have fully seated myself. I am the jerk, man. I lay on that horn and we can be rolling up to 10 miles an hour. I think sometimes I'm still on that horn once I got them moving.

And it just pisses me off. Like we're here to drive. We're not here to talk on the phone. Yeah. Right. Get, get it in gear. Let's get going. You got a green light. Let's go. Just kills me. Well, if anybody has an idea on how we could, uh, prevent mobile phone use, let us know. All right. What's next is actually what was yesterday. And this was posted on LinkedIn by a friend, Jeff Turner from Asphalt Specialties. Yesterday was National Medal of Honor Day.

At Asphalt Specialties, we take a moment to honor the brave men and women who have received our nation's highest military award. These individuals display incredible courage and selflessness and the face of danger, going above and beyond the call of duty. Their sacrifices remind us of the values we hold dear, integrity, service, and commitment. We are grateful for their example in this service. I know what, you know, like a purple heart is when you get wounded in battle.

What does it take to earn the Medal of Honor? I've read it before, Dave, unless, you know, Jam can look it up, But, you know, the service, the bravery, it has to stand out. I think it's going above and beyond. Yeah. The normal that there's, you know, it can be. Probably some type of extraordinary. You know, circumstances. Exceptional gallantry and bravery at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty. There you go. Yeah. It's awarded sparingly and only $35.25 have been given out

since 1863. 3,000, 3,000, 5,000, 5,000, 525 and that included 19 double awards. It was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Wow. That's cool. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you think about the lives we've lost in, in war compared to that number and that doesn't compare, you know? Mm-hmm. Very cool. Yeah. Thanks, Jeff, for posting that and keeping our veterans in mind. Yeah, thanks for listening, too. We have our freedoms and are allowed to do this podcast because of that. Yes. Yeah.

People really, really forget that we have our freedom because all those brave men and women that have gone to war. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to go back and brag on it. You know, that movie, Taking Chance. Anybody get a chance to watch it? It's a fantastic movie. Taking Chance. Right. Yeah. All right, let's move on to tips and tricks with Armando Delval. Who asked Armando to start doing these tips and tricks? Nobody. No one. No one. He picked that ball up and he scored touchdowns with it.

He's owning it, and I love that. I love when somebody goes above and beyond here. Yeah. Nobody's asked him to do it. He felt there was a need, and he took it upon himself to do one, and before that one was even a week old, he's like, I'll get one ready for next week. Yep.

Yeah, that's good stuff. and uh you know i will mention his punctuation is a little bit better than ray race. Anyway stop signs traffic signals and alternate routes good morning jfw family first i just want to say thank you to everybody who reached out to me with positive feedback for last week's tips and tricks i really appreciate it when we're coming through a stop sign something i do is I don't even look left or right until I make a full stop.

Sometimes when we look left and right, before we come to a stop, we just start slowing down and see that it's clear both ways and in front and roll on ahead onto a rolling stop. I mean, isn't that great advice? Yeah. I've never. Yeah. You're doing one thing at a time there. Your goal at a stop sign is to stop. Yeah. Then look. The first time I said it, I'm like, well, I know I want to see, you know, I'm getting prepared. I want to know, but yeah.

I mean, you got to stop. It doesn't make a difference. Right. Yeah. You're getting prepared to run it. Yeah. Yeah. That's what he's getting at. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When the goal is to stop first, then look. Yeah. Great advice. I mean, it's good job, man. We do this without even noticing that we've done it. Also. Yeah, that is very true. Also, these cameras probably won't pick up that we made a full stop.

I could be wrong, but try this. When you're coming to a stop, just look straight and make a full stop. Then do your looks and we, or then you can proceed. That should take at least five seconds, enough time for the camera to see that you made a full stop and waited at least five seconds and then proceeded. I will tell you the camera doesn't need you to wait five seconds, but it does need you to make a full stop. Remember, cars may show up and stop after you.

Don't assume that they're going to wait for you. If they go ahead of you, just let them through. That's great advice too. Traffic signals. So a lot of times when we go through a solid red light, it's because we're not slowing down when we come to a stale green light. Highway 85 is where we take reds most of the time. so I'm going to talk about this highway. All of 85 is 65 mile an hour except for Bromley Lane through 168th and 104th.

When approaching a stale green light, remember to always try to slow down. That light will turn yellow on you and you're either going to take a red or get a harsh break alert for your safety score.

When I'm approaching a stale green going 65, I drop down to at least 45 to 50 so that if that light turns I got time to make a complete stop without possibly getting a harsh break alert and did you know that when the light turns yellow on highway 85 that yellow light will stay on for five seconds before it turns red I didn't know that keep that in mind so that when you're slowing down and getting really close to the light and it turns yellow and you're about two or three car lengths away from

the light just take it so you're not harsh breaking when you could have gone through, but please be safe doing it. Hey, jam on that. Just so everybody's straight on it. What is a stale green light? A stale green light, I would say, is a light that you did not witness turning green. So it's been green the whole time you've been looking at it. That's stale. There's a good chance that light's going to change. Right. Or you look up and you're, I don't know what the distance is away.

And it's like, wow, it's green. It should be changing, not race up to it, but. That's the stale part of it, is it's getting to the end of its cycle. Yeah. You don't know when it's going to turn, but you don't know how long it's been green for either. And you know it's going to. Correct. Yep. Always does. Yeah. Always does. Always does. All right. Let's talk about alternate routes. Everybody that's been with JFW for over 90 days should already know how to get to every brand and plant. I agree.

So I'm only going to talk about brand and plants. So dairies, contract customers, and third-party plants, I will not discuss. Sounds like Jocko there. Armando, you are awesome, buddy. These are good. So almost everyone should know that every plant has a primary route. Plant 2, 85 South to I-76 West to I-25 South to 58. Same goes with the West plant. Plant 65, a.k.a. Central Plant, 85 South to I-76 West to Vasquez. Plant 55, a.k.a. South Plant, 85 South, I-25 to Santa Fe.

I can go on, but like I said, we should all know the primary routes, but you should also know the secondary routes in case there's heavy traffic on the primary. You can get to Central, take an I-25 South to 270 East, and get on the I-76 ramp and take the first exit and that takes you to Central. This way you could also avoid the DOT inspection and scale that they like to set up on Vasquez.

Going to Plan 13 of Bronco, if Santa Fe is really backed up, you can get off on Wadsworth southbound that takes you to Waterton Road and straight to Plan 13 and it only adds two to three minutes extra if you don't want to take Santa Fe. Plan 14 is pretty self-explanatory. Can I jump in there on that Waterton Road and plant 13. Please do. We've laid a trailer over down there before around the one curve. Yes, we have. Be careful. Be careful, especially if it's a fat load.

Yeah. Well, that's what. Rolled it, huh? Huh? Just rolled it, huh? Going too fast. Yep, sure did. Around the curve, yep. Yep. You don't see a lot of endums tipping over like that. You do when they're going too fast. Yeah, we've had, Dave, we've had two, right? Or three, two. Two for sure, Dave. The one coming out of Morrison. Yeah. And the one going into the gravel pit down there. Waterton Canyon. Oh yeah. Huey. Huey. In the pit. Yeah. In the pit. In the old Sedalia pit.

Yeah. Dang it. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, and the other thing, if you're doing, I mean, I'd have to reread this because I'm listening to you, Jim, is you got to be careful if you're taking an alternate route, what you weigh. Yes. If you're staying on the, staying straight or where, I don't know if it concerns you, just watch your weights. You know, if you go, hey, I'm going to stay on 25 when I should be on secondaries or whatever. Great. So. Yeah.

Plant 14 is pretty self-explanatory, either I-25 or the frontage road. So the point I'm making is that for those that don't know other ways around the plants, ask one of us and we will help you. Or on your free time, look at your map and figure out other ways to get to your destination so that you're not scrolling through your phone looking for another way when somebody calls in an accident that you're headed to.

Instead know that i-25 is jammed so i'm gonna take 470 going to unit 13 remember that we're all in this together and let's be safe out there let me know on connect or what you think about this week's tips and tricks thank you everyone and let's finish this together the jfwa armando del val double 88 that's awesome we gotta give him a cb handle he doesn't have one no oh i've called him drill sergeant a couple times he is a sergeant i'm pretty sure he's a sergeant i think so well maybe

that's it do sarge sarge sarge mondo if i'm wrong armando we'll find out yes well sue what do you think about hitting us with that oh sure all right so i think listening is a problem with everybody and it's not you know intended to be i think a lot of times people have a lot going on and on any given day.

And a lot of times your mind is somewhere else when you're, when you're talking to somebody or they're talking to you rather, but you're having a conversation and you're, you're, you're listening, but you're not hearing, right? So here's a piece about how we can improve our listening skills. Listening is one of the most important skills you have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job, the quality of relationships, and your ability to learn and retain information.

For example, we listen to obtain information to understand, for enjoyment, and to learn. With all this listening we do, you would think we would be good at it. In fact, most of us are not. Research suggests that we remember between 25 and 50% of what we hear. That means when you talk to the boss, customers, friends, or your spouse, They pay attention to less than half of the conversation, and this is terrible.

Turn it around and it reveals that when you're receiving directions or other information, you're not hearing the whole message either. You hope the important parts are captured in the 25 to 50 percent, but what if they're not? Clearly, listening is a skill that we can all benefit from improving. One way we can improve our listening is to practice active listening.

This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words, but more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent. In order to do this, you must pay attention to the person very carefully. You cannot get distracted by what's going on around you or by forming counter arguments that you'll make when the other person stops talking. That is a common problem. People are already thinking about their reply before the dude's even done talking, right?

So do not allow yourself to get bored and lose focus on what the other person is saying. All of these contribute to a lack of listening and understanding. Tip, here you go. If you're having trouble concentrating on someone, or excuse me, on something a person is saying, try repeating their words mentally as they say them. This will help you stay focused on the topic.

To enhance your listening skills, you need to let the other person know what you are listening, know that you are listening to them. Acknowledgement can be as simple as a nod of the head or saying, uh-huh. Using body language can help you pay attention and not let your mind wander. Also, try to respond to the speaker in a way that encourages him or her to continue speaking.

Here are five key listening techniques. They all help to ensure that people know you are engaged and that you truly hear and understand what is said. Number one, pay attention. Look at the speaker. Put aside distracting thoughts. Do not prepare a rebuttal. listen to the speaker's body language. Number two, show that you are listening. Nod, smile, use verbal comments like yes and uh-huh.

Number three, provide feedback. Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear. Reflect on what is being said and ask questions. Number four, defer judgment. Interrupting is a waste of time. It frustrates the speaker and limits the full understanding of the message because you can inadvertently redirect the conversation. I'm guilty of doing that a lot because I want to be part of that conversation.

So I try to interject and sometimes it completely redirects the conversation, you know, and, And then number five, respond appropriately. Active listening is a model for respect and understanding. And you know what? I think it didn't print my paper because it was out of paper. I don't have a quote. Oh. Yeah. Time to make one up. I bet it's downstairs on the printer. Well, I was listening. I know you said you don't have the quote.

It might be on the printer. Yeah, because part of one of the last outlines that Jam printed, it didn't print all the way. And so I was trying to print some applications, so I had to add a bunch of paper and I didn't think anything of it. I just put the outline on top of the printer and then took off.

I know one of the questions for this week. Yeah, I was thinking about, I think we talked about it last week when Dave, you were talking about Sam listening to a radio station and not finishing a song. And, you know, we were talking about TikTok and I didn't have TikTok. I shut it off on my phone and then I put it back on because I wanted to see some of the stuff that JR posted, which is hilarious. You're a magician at that, JR, on some of the stuff you post.

Great jokes. But as you do the TikTok. I think the, and I know we talked about that, the intrigue about the phone is you can just go from short to short to short to short, and it's the best of whatever you're looking at. So it's the highest adrenaline instead of having to watch like the whole movie or the whole conversation, you know, the whole thing. And what I'm getting at when I, when I started off, when you started talking, Dave, was I feel that's more and more what we do with our lives.

When somebody is really talking, we were onto the next thing we're onto. Oh, I could put that on Tik TOK or, and you, you said it in there, pay attention, try to listen to what the person's saying. And see this Jim, I'm nodding. Right. Right. Yeah. You know, you got, you got a smile and you know, myself, I just find myself more and more guilty of, of going off to other things or, or. You know, you know, like this podcast, you talk about, you know, let's say the phone usage.

Well, I might be thinking about the phone usage, but I'm thinking, you know, so-and-so did this, or we should do this. We, it leads to another thought and then you, and then you're lost in what, what was being said. And I'm really, I'm struggling with that. And I, you know, try to concentrate on what, what somebody says. And sometimes, you know, that the misunderstanding of an email.

Like that's not what I meant in the email, but you can reread that email several times and go, well, this is how I'm going to answer. It's not, it's not a skill of listening to the, to the person. Yeah, that is so true, Jim. You know, how many times do you reread an email or a text? Lots, right? Yes. But you can't reread when somebody's speaking. No, that conversation, Dave, that's, you know, to learn that, you know, to relearn that skill or anything.

And, you know, again, we didn't have social media. We didn't have all that years ago. And you had to listen to that conversation or you had to read that book and, and think about it. You had to constantly. Yeah. That parent or teacher was like, are you listening to me? Well, I'm not on my phone.

And what a good point jim because think about it back in ancient times there was no writing no people transferred histories cultural ideas and and everything was done by word of mouth yeah those people had to listen right that's just a story you know and then how did that you know how did that story get changed too dave because i i love when we were in elementary school and you, you set in a circle and you give somebody a sentence or that one word.

Whisper it. Whisper it. And then when it gets around to the other part, it was nothing that started. Right. You know, and I love that. That was a fun game, wasn't it? Right. I love that. Cause it was like, oh my gosh, we, we don't listen. Right. Back to that, that, that whole thing. Yeah. So yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. I got to work on it too. Yeah. I think it's very similar to when Mick taught us about the Navajo stick.

Yes. Because you don't speak when someone else is speaking, and then you pause for a minute before you even reply to them, right? Yeah, the rudeness and the— Well, you've been given time to actually listen to everything they've said and a second or two to absorb it and then reply. Right. Correct. So you have to take that moment in time to absorb it and then formulate your reply because you're not supposed to do that ahead of time. Yeah.

Yeah. It's cause you do, you have the rudeness of responding quickly, but the, the accolades of really thinking about what the person said, cause you, you, you soaked it up. Yeah. You guys are reminding me of this quote. I'm sure you've heard it, but speak without offending and listen without defending. I have not heard that. No, that's a good one, Jim. It is good. That's great. You know, so many times when you interrupt someone, they lose their train of thought that's speaking, right?

And like Dave just read in there, it redirects the story. It tells like I'm doing to you right now. It says what I have to say is more important than what you have to say. True. True. Yes. Yeah. We're all guilty a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it does when you listen, you know, when you do practice not interrupting the person that by the time it is your point to speak, it is not the same focus you had when you wanted to interrupt.

It's very true. Yeah. Yeah. And in conversations and communication, people want to be heard, right? They want to felt heard is a lot of what's going, that's what communication's about. So if you're interrupting, how's that person going to feel heard at all, you know, and then, yeah, digging down to what they want to be heard about is important. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, the whole thing too, of, you know, what you want to say, you, you feel is important.

I can, I can add to that. I can be part of that, you know, I can, you know, yeah, I agree. You know, Can we, can we do that? You know, that kind of, that kind of thing too. Yeah. So interesting. All right. How about some final thoughts? I'll jump in there. They're, they're kind of scrambled. I didn't make notes on it, but the, the gates are about to bust open, man. We are, we're feeling some pressure today. We had some pressure yesterday.

It looks like this week's going to be busy. I know the union plant has a massive poor Saturday. I mean, it's going to go like 24 hours down at Union and we need to have them brimming, like brimming. Isn't it two plants? I was reading Linda's, it's Union and plant two. Yeah. And they, I think plant two is back up. I don't honestly know, Dave, I would have to relook at that. But the point is they all need to be brimming by the end of the week.

You know what I mean? And we'll be running Saturday, continuing to stock and fill the plant as they continue to pour. So it's like some 2,400 yard pour and it's literally next door to union. It's the waste management plant next door. I mean, they were, they were talking just to save time. They were going to pull down a section of fence and just let the mixers drive through the fence. Great idea.

Just because it was that much faster and not out on the street and stuff. So, you know, that's just one thing on top of the, we have a big meeting with Chip Seal tomorrow to go over there, what they're, where they're going to stockpile and when that's going to start, which is, I don't want to say any day because they really ramp up in May, but I bet we'll start some stuff prior to that for sure.

I mean, it could be this month, but, you know, next week is next month, so we'll bump into that and it's going to be busy and I guess, I can't emphasize enough. Now is the time. We've got loads. Go get them, right? Let's make up for winter. Let's compensate now for next winter, maybe. Let's be proactive like we talk about all the time, right? Now is your moment. Young's Ranch is open at 5 a.m. And it was so cool. I studied it this morning.

We had over 21 trucks. Kind of a coincidence, Young's Ranch pit 21. We had over 21 trucks get loaded and out of there by basically 540 this morning. And I don't know how many other trucks were up there. Every time I looked, I only saw our trucks, but I'm sure there were some other trucks up there as well. But man, everybody rocked out of there. It looked like everybody got dumped pretty fast at plant two and central plant.

And we just, it was kind of a blow and go. I mean, we were, we were trucking in and out of there. I mean, it was, it was good. You know, that time of the morning, no traffic. It was win, win, win to get up there and get out of there and get things going. And I just, I just can't emphasize, you know, now is your chance to be a leader of your ship. You're the captain of your ship. You're in control of your ship.

If you choose to not go get that last load and you drag your feet and you know, you're, you're, you're not motivated and you have money problems or issues like that. Now is your chance to make up for that. Let's go get it. Winter is over. You know, we've been held back and constrained by, by a slower economy and, and just other things. So we've went out and fought and clawed and got, got a bunch of things going. And I, I just, I don't know how else to say it. Let's go get it.

Right. It's there for the taking. It's ripe. Let's go get it. Sounds like the Saturday might be a pretty good representation of what Saturdays used to be like. Could be, Jim. Yeah, could be. So we could use some volunteers, right? I mean. Why not, Dave? I mean, that's the, except for checking with dispatch, you know, the, like Dave's saying, I know it's your final thoughts, Dave, but you know, the, the, the five o'clock loads are here.

The, the stuff that getting loaded at six o'clock, being in line, getting going, it's here. It's now, you know, grabbing that preload, asking about a preload. If you're close to the pit, ask about loads, you know, communicate. It's, it's now. Ragsdale's open till 4.30. You know, that, that monthly, that monthly bonus that's based on your previous month, you know, and if you build your previous month, that's a pop, you know, all of this, it's, it's, it's set up to, to, what's the word?

Success. It's set up for success. Yeah. Yeah. For, for you, for you, the driver, you know. I just got to jump in there. Sorry for interrupting you, Jam. It's your final thought. I should hold the Navajo stick, but you know, you eat what you kill around here. You do. You're either eating good or you're not eating very well. The thing is, if you're not eating well and you're looking at the other people that are eating well, just understand that they went out and they killed that.

Right. You know what I mean? Like, it's amazing. We're barely into spring and, you know, seeing some things around the fleet, I just don't have the patience for it this year.

Go out and go trucking when you got hired we had an agreement that you're gonna go and you're gonna get as many loads as you can go get them yeah jam and super dave again it's dave's final thoughts but what's the what's the daily average we make here what do you what do you tell everybody super day i tell everybody between 275 and 375 a day is where you'll fall if i use the truck makes between 800 and 1200 dollars a day and you're making 31% and split that down the middle,

$1,000 a day to the truck means you're $310 a day. Good. Thank you, Dave. That's a great representation of what's going on. And what I was leading up to is when you tell us you're having money problems, but then you take time off when things can be handled at the end of the day or a Saturday or something like that. And the example, I know there was one of the drivers that ended up missing two days, but he's, he's having money problems.

So what you just told me, Dave, is he left $600 on the day, on the table in two days. Yes, sir. $600 is a pretty good car payment. I can lose extra six. Right, Jam. You know, it's, it's not half a house payment, but yeah, it's just, there's, you got, you got to think through it, you guys. You got to, you got to look at the big picture, you know, and, and make phone calls at the end of the day. You know, go up and get your last load.

Stop and make all your phone calls before five o'clock. If you're calling, I don't know, doctor's office, a lawyer's office, the dentist, whatever, and then bring your load down. Yeah. I mean, it just hit me. Another shout out, Pedro Sotelo. I mean, the Sotelos are knocking it out of the park today, but he called in yesterday and Linda said, bring it in. And he's like, well, I'm right here by LG Ragsdale. Yeah. Or Fort Lepton. I forget which, but I mean, they're they're sisters right there

together, right? Either one. And she's like, no, they close at 345. And Oswaldo was like, no, they're open until 430. Last load, 415. And Pedro was like, I'm right here. I'm five minutes. So at four o'clock, he snagged another load. I mean, and shout out to Pedro for saying that. For thinking of it. Yes. Yeah. That's engaged. That's captain of your ship. He's part of the stay loaded program. Yes. Yeah. I mean, that is a win. why come past the place you're at.

Come past two more, three more, four more places on your way to the yard and not get paid for it. Yeah. And we, you know, more than 90% of the time we okay a preload. Even if he asked to make that a preload, then I bet he gets out of the yard before all the traffic, goes and gets it dumped if it's going to the plant and you're back up again. And it hasn't cost you anything, but made you move that hourly figure if that's what you're looking at or that $300 a day total, it moves it a lot.

Yes. i noticed one of our drivers i feel like this is intentional right but he is starting a year off really well and he's used some of his pto time in the winter when we're slow oh yeah maybe he just cashed out days and work but his daily average has to be through the roof yeah you know what i mean his daily average has to be so nice now when he takes a payday off or gets holiday pay it's gonna be nice yeah yeah he's he's working our system he's working

our system like wow how's he you know four grand ahead of everybody right well he did some magic right and and played his cards the right way yeah brilliant good for him some of these guys are creative like oh this is how the system works i'm gonna beat it not beat it but i'm gonna lose it to my advantage yeah Cause no matter what. Jim, they went out and made that money. They killed it. Right. Just like you guys are saying, they killed it. Well, if they killed it, we killed it. Yep.

You know? And, and that's, that's awesome. That is awesome. Yep. Yeah. Win-win. That's what it's designed for. Yeah. Win-win. Yeah. You know? And when you say he cashed out, he had the choice to either take this paid time off or cash out that, and either one is a win-win because it increases their, their time off. Their monthly total. Their future time off. Right. So yeah. I mean, just good, good. job. I've seen that soup. We're going to save Jim here for a second.

You have any other final thoughts? I was going to tag in on what we were talking about here. I once had one of our top money earners tell me that he'll always go get that late load, but he'll always deliver it because then he will be empty in the morning and he can always get the 5am load. Back in the day, was from Fry. Now it's from Young's Ranch, but either way, essentially that adds up to two more loads, one today and another one tomorrow.

So that's something to think about. I mean, yes, it's more hours and a lot of people will choose to bring that or not even load that last load. They do time management because they don't want to waste time and rush hour traffic. Yes, that load will take you maybe a whole nother hour longer to deliver it. But that adds up to your bottom line.

There's no doubt about it. Yep. To piggyback on that, and I haven't read the numbers in a long time, but one extra load a day around here when we were 27% was 10 to 13 grand a year. So let's just say it's 13 to 15 grand a year extra for one extra load a day, right? So if you're a $70,000 person and you want to make 85,000, go get that late load every day.

The nice thing about what you're saying, Super Dave, is that one driver will go deliver it we're flexible enough where that's your choice you know yeah but at least go get that way some days you can and some days you can't but how do you how do you feel you know do you feel like you know what i'd rather get up early and how this one on the ground before anybody gets loaded and be headed up to the pit for my second load when everyone's just going to deliver their first or you want to complete

your day and be empty have a fresh start the next day either way you're ahead of wasting 30 to 45 minutes at the end of the day because you don't want to go get another one when you're paid by the load i don't i don't i'll never understand that so yeah and that's the that's the captain of the ship and that does suck sometimes i mean i remember driving and going to get that last load and you got the people time out of jay and they're they're headed

into the yard five minutes after you left to go get that last load and you had another 90 minutes on your day. Yeah. You know, but guess what? Somebody made money that day and somebody did it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Jim. And here's another thought for everybody, but while we're on the subject, if you do have plans, like you're going out to dinner or you got your kid's basketball game or something, put in a schedule request.

Don't just assume you're going to get off at three 30 or that day or four o'clock. Great point. You know, another point, Cause I've seen three come across the computer fuel up. You guys don't think about right now, like it's going to be the winner. Yeah. Yeah. Top it off. Right. You threw 50 gallons on cause three people this week hit their level on whatever our fuel system, fuel cloud. Thank you guys.

Yeah. Fuel cloud. I got reached their limit and I'm like, Ooh, they didn't fuel up the day before and ran hard. So don't, don't just think you're not going after that other load, you know, fuel up every day, top off. Yeah. Great advice. Yeah, a good one there, Super Dave. Yeah, yep. Turn? I can go. Let me strap my boots on. It's a good one, you guys. It's not a lot. One day there was a big fire in the forest. All the animals fled in terror.

Suddenly there was a jaguar that watched a hummingbird fly by, but the hummingbird was flying towards the fire. Then again, the jaguar watched the hummingbird fly towards the fire. The jaguar asked the little the hummingbird, what are you doing? I'm going to the lake. I get water in my beak and carry it to the fire to extinguish it. The jaguar laughed. Can you put out that huge fire with your small beak? No, the hummingbird said. I cannot, but the forest is my home.

It feeds me and shelters my family. I am very grateful that I am part of the forest and that the forest is part of me. I know I'm not, I know I cannot put out the fire, but I must do my part. I cannot count the number of times the forest has fed me and sheltered my family, and now I just give up when things look overwhelming and are not going my way. Should I not attempt to help when things are not going my way?

If I fly away and complain that the forest is burning, what will the other animals think of me and my forest. Maybe the forest is not worth saving. Is it easier to get other animals to run in fear and give up on their home without effort? Yes. But standing and fighting the fire together is the hard part. If my beak is full of water and I'm working hard to overcome the fire, the other animals cannot hear me complain no matter how much I want to.

Because I respect the forest that feeds me and shelters my family, what will I do, even if the fire is small? I love that. It's good. That's amazing. I really like that. My closing thoughts. You can apply that to a lot of things. You can. Or you sure can. But, you know, that forest, it shelters me and feeds my family. And sometimes I have to do things that I don't like, but I do them because I know what it means to all the animals. Right. Yeah.

It does no good complaining about it. Nope. Nope. Fill that beak with water. Especially when you have a platform. Right. Yeah. Love it. I'm glad my, I'm glad my beak's full of water. Yes, sir. Good stuff. Man, you've been killing them. The one with the bowl full of water. Yeah. And that one. The water walking around the church. Hey, it never spilled. Yeah. And I didn't see any of those other people. Did you notice all those other problems? Sure didn't. Nope. Yeah.

The one I ran across, Jim, just another one I really liked because I was going to use it and I didn't think it was quite impactful is, you know, when you're, when you're on a ship, you, you usually don't see the captain and you trust him to, to captain the ship, right? You get on the plane and you don't see the pilot, but you trust the pilot to fly the plane.

Right. You get on the bus, you don't know anything about the bus driver, but you trust the bus driver, you know, and, but you don't know anything, you know, about him. You don't see him. And so why can't you do that with God? Right. you know you let him let him pilot your ship or your plane or whatever pass the gym come on somebody.

Good stuff all right everyone don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel 23 part podcast hit that follow button also don't go 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 respect 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. Have a great day and a great week. Have a great week, buddy. Stay off the phone. Let's get it! Music.