Episode 178: Behind the Scenes with JFW Leadership

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

The purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch a fleet, to engage and inform everyone with all things JFW. Welcome Jim White, brother Dave White, and Super Dave Weldon. It's been a little bit since the four of us have been in this room. Yeah. I feel like I got to prep again, like how to do this. I've had separation anxiety. I'm nervous. You look nervous. Good morning, everybody, though, by the way. Yeah. Hi, everybody. Good morning.

Let's rock it out with the pledge. 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. Before we get into the truck of prayer, we got three people I just want everybody to keep in mind. Anthony Harper and his wife Bean, she has been diagnosed with cancer. So when we're praying, we're wishing her, you know, some special healing.

We want to give condolences to not I, but JFW would like to give condolences to Kendrick for his father's passing last Saturday. And then we also want to pray for Bob's daughter, her house caught on fire a couple of days ago, I believe. So keep them in mind during this prayer. Absolutely. Yeah, we say it a lot. A lot of life happens around here. A lot of life. Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to go out and do some trucking today.

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

As a reminder, everything you hear on today's podcast is not the opinion of JFW's, but it is our expressed opinion. Episode 177 had 278 downloads. We're at 92.9 thousand total downloads and we have 736 followers. Nice. Yeah. Jim, you asked me the other day, was it yesterday, how my food program's going and this and that. Yeah. Let me just tell you, I ate 12 eggs this morning. Yeah. Damn. Are we rolling into a dad joke or is this fact? No, I had 12 eggs. Wow.

At least the price of eggs have come down, huh? They were the Reese's eggs. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. You don't know it. I wish you would just play along. I do have a question for you, Super Dave. What weighs more, a pound of water or a pound of butane?

They both weigh the same. wrong butane is a lighter fluid.

Oh man, it's time for the dad joke challenge shoot you been going want me to jump in there mine's kind of long, so a man is lying in the hospital bed and he's in serious condition he's got an oxygen mask over his face and stuff and the nurse comes in to check his vitals And he kind of moans and mumbles Hey Gosh I don't want to mess this up, Not a good start right He says Are my testicles black No, And the nurse kind of looks at him and says, sir, I'm just here to check your

pulse and your blood pressure. That's all I'm here for. One more time, he just mumbles. He says, are my testicles black? And the nurse is checking his blood pressure and she notices that, you know, he's distraught over this and it's elevated.

And so she goes ahead and lifts the sheet and she's got his manhood in one hand and his testicles in the other and takes a good look and looks up at him and says, sir, there is nothing wrong you know there everything is fine and he pulls off his masks and he says listen listen to me really careful careful he says are my test results back. That's a good one that's funny all right i'll jump in there this is uh this is about a guy who has a drinking problem.

And his wife told him that if he ever comes home drunk again, she'll leave him. She's done, right? Like just, she can't put up with it anymore. So nonetheless, he goes out. Guess what? He drinks so much, he winds up throwing up all over himself. And he turns to his friend and says, man, what am I going to do? You know, you need to help me. And the friend just has this brilliant idea. And he says, here, go home.

Tell your wife someone threw up on you. And then pin a $20 bill with a note to your pocket and just show her the money and show her the note and say it's there for the dry cleaning bill. He says, oh man, that's a great idea. So he goes home. Sure enough, his wife is pissed at first and he explains, listen, this guy threw up on me at the bar. Look, I have a note, you know, from him apologizing and, and a $20 bill to pay for the dry cleaning.

And she calms down a little bit and she's like, well, why do you have two $20 bills and two notes? She asks, and he says, oh, the other one's from the man that shit in my pants. Top that, Dave. Right? All right. Well. He's cracking up in the office. He was. I got a couple of them that are pretty good. So, you know, today I asked my phone, Siri. I said, Siri, why am I still single? And it activated the front camera. And so, you know, my grief counselor died. And, you know, he was really freaking

good. So good. I don't even care. Wow good delivery and i don't have a carbon footprint i just drive everywhere, and you know the old saying you know teaching a guy how to fish right then he's fed for his whole life yeah well you know if you give a man a match he'll be warm for a couple hours but if you light him on fire he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Man morbid right definitely some dark humor this morning morbid dave oh too funny yours are good when joke started out dave i see that tiktok all the time where that guy comes to his wife and goes hey if i won the lotto what would you do and she goes i would take half and leave you and he looks at her and goes good i just won 40 bucks here's 20 see ya.

Those were good ones all right we had uh two new employees join the fleet monday and that would be pedro maglianas and jesus arujo welcome aboard you guys yeah glad to have you on board welcome guys celebrations wow this one's hard to believe it seems like a lot longer in the most positive way, but Andrik Andrade hits two years tomorrow. Ah, congrats, Andrik. Happy anniversary. It does seem longer, Jim.

We're rockstar handling the tipper stuff and the other, I'll call them Coors accounts, but they're not Coors accounts, but they're Wilbur Ellis accounts, you know? So yeah, very cool. Yeah. He's done a lot of things around here from picking up super tandems to- Right. You know, running the tippers. Yes. I mean, he's a go-to guy for sure. Agreed. Yep. And then Rich Trujillo, he also has an anniversary, two years as well on Saturday. Yeah. Congratulations, Rich. Congrats.

Birthdays. Mark Dillon had a birthday on Sunday, 420. We probably should drug test Mark.

Happy birthday mark mark's a guy that's really man he's he's an upbeat dude i don't know if you guys have much chance to talk to him but good guy just always positive he's a gearhead he's got a race car he builds his son his son drives and yeah he's just a pretty interesting guy to talk to he went past the hall on monday and thanked me for wishing him happy birthday and i said well of course that's awesome so yeah yeah david munford uh he also

had a birthday yesterday dustin romero has a birthday tomorrow and Troy the Cowboy Hunt also has a birthday, I want to say, tomorrow. Happy birthday, everybody. Yeah, happy birthday, guys. Family birthday celebrations.

I'll let Super Dave tell this one. Well, yesterday was my daughter's 37th birthday. Your youngest daughter. My youngest daughter. Happy birthday, Sarah. Happy birthday, Sarah. Tommy Trujillo's daughter, Santavia, and Dustin Currier's daughter, Brooklyn, both have birthdays today. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. And then the brothers, do you want to make this next celebration?

Yeah. You want to jump in there? Yeah. Rich, hopefully, since you're officially retired, you're still listening to the podcast. But Jim and I's buddy, Rich Trimble, retired from Garney Construction on Friday after 30 plus years in the industry at Garney. 33, because they get him a jersey. Right. That's a thing. Right. Not to interrupt you, Dave. Yeah. No, it was great to see him, see his family. And you know what was really cool was all of the work friends, right?

They say that's the work family, but the work family showed up, man. Like, it was funny by the end of the event, you could tell his crew was around him. You know, they were like, this is our leader, you know, and it was so cool. They were, they were just, it was like, he was the, he was the man on stage and they were the audience. You know what I mean? It was really, really cool to see. That is cool. Congratulations, Rich and Shelly. That's quite a, quite an earmark for you.

So I hope you have a lot of fun and you guys, you know, can live out the rest of your lives blessed. Now I know Rich was concerned or maybe concerns, not the right word, but what's he going to do? He had a list. He's got a list. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he said he's your age, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think he's, he might be one year older than me. So yeah. He's got a list. Yeah. Like a honeydew list or a list of things he's going to go do.

I mean, he already told us a story. He was, they went up to the cabin and. They kind of went up there on a whim, wound up staying longer than they thought they would. Oh, that's cool. Their daughter, Holly, and grandkids called on a whim and wound up coming up. Oh, that's funny. You know what I mean? Like nothing was planned.

And he's like, I was up there working and he goes, it's springtime and the turkeys are just running rampant up there. Like they're everywhere. And at one point, you know, he said they're walking right in front of the garage and he practically called him into the garage. Wow. And he goes, oh my, I can't have him in the garage. You know what I mean? Like, so yeah, he was just, he, and it was, it was so cool to see the excitement on his face, telling that story.

Like, like they're going to go make some memories up there. You know what I mean? It's, it's really cool. Yeah. Super excited for him. So congrats Rich and Shelly. Yeah. And if everybody doesn't remember, Rich was on the podcast. We should have looked it up, which episode it was, but he was, you know, he was really good on the episode too. Yeah. Enjoyed, enjoyed his feedback about his crew and Garney and all that kind of stuff.

Yep. Yeah, I could look it up when somebody else was talking about something. Shout outs. Emilio Silva, he wants to give a shout out to 0018 Stingray for helping me out with my top on Monday. Ah, congrats. Way to go, Stingray. Yeah, thanks, Mike. I want to give a shout out to Sergio Portillo. Last night at the fuel aisle, I'm sitting there, I'm talking to him, trying to brush up on my Espanol.

And i'm looking at him and like i could just tell like in his neck i'm like sergio have you lost weight and he's like yeah i've lost 25 pounds i'm like congratulations that's amazing what did you do how are you doing and he's like all i've done is cut out sugar and flour wow yeah and he's drinking more water so wow nothing crazy just so the flour is kind of like carbs right yeah carbs and sweets basically yeah it's a real quick carb that converts to fat very easily yeah You know,

so, uh, so yeah, good job, Sergio. Zach Tharp. He said he wants to give a quick shout out, but in Zach fashion, he, he packs a lot of words into small spaces. That's a compliment. Shout out on the podcast to several people in the JFW family. This is truly an amazing place to work at because of the people here and the willingness to help each other out. I've recently had a couple random mechanical issues, and several people have volunteered to help me out in a big way. That's awesome.

Georgie, 0093, and Erica last week were extremely helpful when I needed to swap a trailer. I called into the shop, and they told me to swap trailers for the day. While things were being figured out and determining which trailer I'd swap with, George, who dropped his N-Dump and switched to the Step Deck, reached out on the radio and volunteered his Endum trailer for me,

for the day. When I arrived at Yard 23, Erica was on it with the plan to drop my trailer in my space and help me hook up George's trailer to get me rolling quickly. I was on an ELD, so I was grateful to get rolling again to pick up more loads and take care of our customers. This week, I had a headlight bulb go out just after getting loaded at a pit, and Georgie 0093, again, was there and helped me to switch it out quickly.

After that, my top wouldn't roll in and Ms. Linda rerouted me to Firestone so I wouldn't have to deadhead back. Thanks Ms. Linda for getting me rerouted. Then Vince in 008 and Anthony in 00104 both reached out to me to see what my ETA was to Firestone so they could help me get my top rolled in to get loaded and get back to the shop.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for living up to our creed and helping me out. This is an amazing place to work out. I can't forget Ricky and Sergio that got me in and out of the shop with a fixed top, all while doing it with a smile on their faces. Appreciated the teamwork. Zach and 0075. I want to give a shout out to Zach. Yeah. And here's why. Not because he gave a shout out, right? And mentioned all of this stuff. But when he called in on the radio, he had all the facts.

You know what I mean? He, he, he was able to give the shop every answer they asked and he gave it, he preempted it. You know what I mean? Like I'm here, this is the situation. The tarp is, and I think it was actually out at one point. I can't remember. Anyway, you know, I'm like, this is my next load. This is what I'm running. This is where I'm going. And I don't hear it clicking from the box. I've done a key reset. He just, he gave all the information,

you know, and it just, I just love that. When I hear that on the radio, instead of I blew a tire, well, have you stopped and I don't know, I'm still going down the road. You know what I mean? And, and cause we get that, you know, we do and it happens. And you're like, so yeah, shout out to you, Zach, cause you're, you're engaged and you, you're, you're, you're a step ahead or, or almost where you should be. Right. Not a step ahead where you should be. And, and I'm thankful for that.

We're thankful for that. Yeah. Communicating well. Yes. You know, listening to, listening to the conversation and, you know, cause we're so.

You know, I think all of us, you know, of us are used to being asked something and we're thinking farther ahead and you don't really ask answer the question you know so it's helpful to get to the to the bones of the situation i want to piggyback on that because here's the deal zach just listed things that would ruin somebody's day yes like i had a shit day my tarp and my trailer and didn't know what trail i was have and you know blah blah

you know just it would have been a bad day good point jim yeah i'm i'm on eld i'm losing time yeah i mean you could have just zach's over here you know with the help of jfw solving problems and doing it you know he complimented everybody for helping him and even ricky and sergio for fixing it with a smile on their face, I guarantee Zach was smiling the whole time. Right. Cause that's who he is.

Yeah. You know, and it's just to see a guy like this, that's engaged, you know, it makes me want to do anything for the guy. Exactly. Zach calls. You need something. I want to help him. Yep. You know, and then we got people, we can't get them to, to do little things around here.

And it's like, but then they ask for the world and it's like, why would I, why, what, like, you know, it's like, you know, for, you know, the, the saying is you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. But these people are like you scratch my back and i get my back scratched you know.

So it's just it's just nice to see somebody have this experience at jfw yes because this isn't the same experience other people got and i'm convinced that it has to do with the person oh with your your attitude attitude gratitude and effort yep so all right you guys got any shout outs, you know i have one here and it's i don't know it's a kind of awkward a little bit because it's kind of based on rumor and fact and we're kind of more fiction

but we're more fiction dave huh we're more fiction so the rumor is ralph martinez trucking is going out of business that they basically closed what tuesday jim was it tuesday i think it was tuesday or wednesday last week or yesterday last week last week and and we don't have that confirmed we haven't called Ralphie or.

Chanel in the office or anything and i guess just i mean it's a rough business you know and and i mean we have it pretty much 99 rumor checked that that they are and i guess i kind of want to give a shout out i mean ralph senior passed away that started the business years ago and ralph jr and i believe his sister right jim we're running it i think so yep and i believe they're ralph senior's. Wife, Laura, I believe is still alive.

And, you know, she was a sweetheart. We did, we did, we go so far back. We actually worked for them because they had a minority contract, at Stapleton, not DIA at Stapleton, you know, and we would, we would work all day and then we would run out of spec ag at night delivering to one of the runway expansions at, at Stapleton. And I mean, that's a minute ago, you know what I mean? I can literally vouch, Dave, it's 42 years ago.

Right, Jim? I mean, I know what truck I was driving and I know it was my first truck. Right. I mean, I was out there at night and I was sitting in the passenger seat because I didn't even have a license. Right? No, you were riding with me. Yeah. And I guess it's a bit of a burn or a sting and yet, you know, a compliment to them. When I say it's a bit of a burn or a sting, I feel for their situation and I don't even know it. Right. I don't even know the situation.

Don't know anything about it. Hopefully they got to retire or something. It wasn't because business, because it's a hard business and they had to go out of business. Right, right. So anyway, yeah, a shout out to Ralph Martinez Trucking and the Martinez family. They're a good family. Yeah, great family. They've always tried to do it well and do it right and good people. Yeah, always have treated us very well. Yes, yes. So wish him the best, whatever the situation is, good or bad.

And yeah I guess that's all I have to say about that like I say a bit awkward yeah.

I have a couple. I'll talk about it a little bit later, probably both me and Dave will, but we were able to go to the state patrol award ceremonies last night and their awards. I should write it down so I can go through it because they give out, what, four or five or six categories, Dave? Somebody that saves somebody's life, hurt in the line of duty, outstanding officer, Trooper of the Year, you know, Hero Award, all that kind of stuff.

And it's, it is wonderful to hear the stories and, you know, what they face every day. And, you know, but part of my, my shout out here is Casey and Kendrick, or I'm sorry, Casey and JR were able to go with us last night and it's a semi-formal event and they were both looking sharp, represented JFW very well. And, uh, it was just fun to be out with them in a different setting and,

and enjoy the evening. And then, you know, later on when I, you know, discussed a little bit more, but we were paired with Mitch. He just introduced himself and first name is Mitch. And he also got an award, but he's, he's a roadside inspector, but a manager or, or however he stated it, but works with the port of entry. Yep. but he's a roadside manager and works out of the, I say Dumont, but a monument port and knew us, knew JFW, had nothing or nothing good to say, had everything good to say.

Nothing. I was going to say nothing bad to say. And he, he said, it's just a pleasure. Part of his duties though, is he really focuses on human trafficking. And, you know, we all sat at the table and he told a couple of stories and you, you know, I told him, I don't. In dumping and being local, I don't, you know, focus on that or think about that, or it's not part of our, our business, I guess. And yet, you know, when you get over the road drivers, that human trafficking

is a, is a big concern. And, you know, that's a, that's an eyeopening, something else I learned last night. You just, you know, if you're. You know, I'd ever thought about that, Jim, you know, you think about some kid getting abducted and get, you know, get thrown into a 1975 Chevy and then driven across state lines. A fan. A creepy fan, right? But boy, you think about that, these over-the-road drivers that, hey, can I have a ride? Sure. And then boom, they're gone. Yeah. Yeah.

One of his big stories was he did find a girl that was also on the- Missing person's list. Missing person's website or, you know, the posters or everything that we've seen through the years. Milk cartons. Yeah, milk cartons. Yep. Yep. She was one of those girls. And then when he located her, she just had turned 18 and refused any kind of help. And he could tell that, you know, she, she was still in trouble, in trouble, in that lifestyle.

And there's nothing he could do because she turned 18. And we talked later and we should have asked, Dave brought it up as, you know, being on the missing, missing children's deal.

Did they at least contact her parents? say she's alive she's alive you know and and you know she's living what you can call living her life yeah but yeah it was it was eye-opening but a but a great event and then i just have one more it's kind of a personal shout out but still very much with the business and and you know it's a part of the business that.

Nobody really sees. I mean, every, you guys here in the office and stuff and have seen it for years, but, uh, we've had, uh, the CPA of ours, David Wright, we've had him, I think 2003, Dave, isn't that what we finally went back and looked about it last time he was out and I was like, what? Right. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Been, been that long, but anyway, just a shout out to him, because obviously we just went through, you know, tax season here and having to turn all your taxes in and stuff like that.

And, and he called me and he's just so gracious. You know, he handles JFW stuff, but he has always handled mom and dad stuff. And he just called me and had some more questions on dad stuff. And he just doesn't have to do that. You know what I mean? It's, it's your responsibility to file your taxes, do your stuff and things like that. And he just steps up and helps us as a family, helps us as a personal friend, helps us as a business. and he's just a good guy and I appreciate that he,

he takes the time to do that. So thanks, David. I appreciate that. So. Ditto, David. Thank you. Thank you for looking out for our family. You know, and I'm sure as busy as he is, he, you know, he's an avid reader, but I don't know if he's a podcast listener and if he'll ever listen, but you know, it's more for everybody out there.

If you, if you find those, again, you find those friends or you find those, those work friends or family, you know, just like here that we call all you guys family, some of those relationships last your lifetime that you can make a phone call and you can appreciate. So even if he doesn't hear it, you know, maybe, maybe one of you guys can reach out to your, your friends or a, you know, a business acquaintance that you haven't talked to and say, Hey, and you know, have a conversation. It's,

it's, it's good stuff. Yeah. It's nice to have people you can trust, you know, and rely on and not question it. And that are looking out for you, Jim. Right, that go above and beyond. Yes. And it takes a long time. Sometimes you get. Three bad CPAs before you run across a guy like David. Oh, yeah. You know, the thing is, that's an area where no one is an expert in that. If they're an expert in that, that's what they do for a living. Right.

You know what I mean? I don't know anyone in taxes or when they do their taxes, if they do their own taxes or go to H&R Block or whatever every year for their taxes. You know, that's, and especially with a business. I mean, we have so many things that we have to keep up with and new tax law and tax guidelines and yada, yada, yada. Yeah. So the big, good call, Jim. Good, good shout out.

I want to bring up a little more on the human trafficking. And I thought Janet was impactful in her, her assessment of that because it's something you don't see. And when she made the analogy for me of, you know, we were all sitting there at the table. It wasn't like she did it for me, but like homelessness, you see it, right? Drug use downtown, you see it, you know, all of that stuff. You see it. You just don't see trafficking.

You know, or, or I don't, you know, I'm not, you're not supposed to Dave, right, right, right. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's like the, the drug deals and stuff like that. There it's, it's definitely behind closed doors and dark alleys and unlit rooms. Right. Yeah.

You know, sketchy, sketchy. You know, in the sleeper or if it's big enough human trafficking in a trailer. Yeah. You know, both of these. Yeah. There's been, you know, I don't know how many people, but many people who die in a trailer. Oh, totally. Too hot or stuff like that. Yeah, not good. Another little problem of our society that goes unseen. I mean, I'm not saying one crime is worse than another, but you got to be a real POS to steal people and sell them,

especially like young kids for sex. It's disgusting. Yeah. And the thing is, Jam, the statistics on it, And I don't even know them, so I'm not even going to quote them, but the, the statistics in that are skyrocketing because they're, for the people that are doing that, they're taking these kids and selling them, you know, or selling them for sex acts or whatever, a drug, they sell it, it's gone. Right.

That, that human person, they sell it and it comes back, you know, two hours later and they sell it again and they sell it again and they sell it again. And that's day after day after day, year after year after year that the value of that kid is way more than drugs. And it's, it's disgusting. It's slavery, you guys. Yeah. Yes. Kidnapping, slavery, all that.

I'm going to digress just a little bit here because we're kind of on a subject, but this was more, I don't know if one of you guys talked about it or it's just something that I've heard a few times, but it came down to they were interviewing a sex predator,

you know, a child predator. Wow. And he had, you know, abducted so many kids and they were interviewing him and they asked him like, you know, we notice that all your kids are, you know, different nationalities and like, there's no like, how do you pick your kids? And he answered with this, he's like, I look at their dad and if their dad doesn't seem like they're a threat, I go after their kid. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So fathers out there, be a threat, be dangerous.

Not everybody needs to be a sniper or a Navy SEAL or a SWAT team member, but pay attention and, you know, if you're a lover, you better be a fighter. So, yeah, I think that, you know, dangerous jam, I, just to be dangerous, you probably just have to care and you recognize that. And that makes you dangerous, you know, whether the care is love or however you want to do it, but that makes you dangerous. Yeah, I was going to say when you're talking about different crimes or the.

Severity of them, and you kind of mentioned it too, Dave, but a drug dealer selling you the drugs, you have a choice to buy the drugs or not buy the drugs. Do the drugs, not do the drugs. But when you're selling or trafficking people, your choices are gone. Yeah, it is not the same. Yeah.

Sad stuff. All right. Moving on to, is everyone done with shoutouts? Yeah. Oh, by the way, I did look it up. Rich Trimble from Garnie Construction. Guess how long ago he was on the podcast? It seems like a while. I'll have to go, I'm going to go 97, 96 episode. Further. Really? Yeah. In the 50s? Higher.

He was on episode 69 which was recorded on february 22nd 2023 wow wow it doesn't seem that long ago but wow i know we were talking and we were looking for a guest and like i called him the night before and he was like yeah i'll do it you know and that's just i mean that's how rich rolls you know and he was he was here and prepared and and took care of us so yeah good stuff yeah Yeah. All right. Yeah. We did, we did ask Mitch to the port of entry officer to be on the podcast.

Oh. And he was excited any, any time. Really? So we'll have to, he said he's going to reach out. He didn't have a card on him last night, but Dave gave him a card and he's going to reach out. So we'll, we'll have to hook him up, Jim. Yeah. It'll be good. It'll be good. I mean, I guess hopefully we can, I can fit in what he talked about. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Moving on to the discussion. National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week started on Monday, and it goes through the 25th.

Heads up, April 21st through the 25th is National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week, and the Colorado Department of Transportation's I-70 Floyd Hill Project is reminding motorists to drive safely through the work zone, not just this week, but always. Construction workers, similar to commercial motor vehicle drivers, are essential staff who work long hours both day and night and want to get home safely at the end of every shift.

Here are some reminders as you drive through the I-70 Floyd Hill project and other construction projects across Colorado. Heed the speed. Expect reduced speeds as low as 45 mph through the work zone, which are necessary due to increased barrier and decreased lane and shoulder width to accommodate for construction. Expect tariffs. Expect traffic shifts. We are expecting tariffs to come. Yes. Expect traffic shifts.

Crew shift traffic to make room for construction. Because the roadway conditions are changing and some traffic shifts may take place on a downhill grade, it's critical to remain diligent while driving through the work zone. Watch for barrier and narrower lanes and shoulders. We just ran into this a couple weeks ago. Concrete barrier line and construction work zone to keep our crews safe.

With narrower lanes and shoulders, it's important to stay in your lane and focus on the road to avoid barriers hits that compromise the safety of the crew in the work zone. Yeah, if you hit one of those big barrels and that goes flying and hits somebody, that's not good. It's also going to mess up you, your vehicle. I mean, they're just not, you know, they just might look plastic and are made to be moved, but they screw up whatever they hit. They're heavy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Plan a trip by signing up for project text alerts or using Codetrip.org. The I-70 Floyd Hill project is performing rock scaling and blasting, requiring traffic holds in I-70 during weekdays. The best way to stand informed on those and other construction-related impacts is by signing up for text alerts. Text Floyd Hill one word to 21000.

For real-time traffic information, use Codetrip.org. so i mean does anyone know this jam if we if we text that floyd hill i'm gonna do it which is one word to 21 000 do we get do we get the i mean it's real-time updates or for real-time updates we need the cotrip.org which obviously i think we all use cotrip with with the amount of trips we you know this winter while we were running i70 for updates for chains and stuff like that but it would be interesting

to see if we get you know live updates via a text that would be pretty damn cool. What are we about to find out? Sweet. Floyd Hill. Oh, damn it. Not one word. Didn't do it. I'm going to use a little time filler here and hope Jam outweighs looking at that. Linda just sent me a text and wanted to let us know that A1 Chips Hill starts tomorrow. Hey.

Put it on the podcast. So, I know they were talking about possibly May firing off, but sounds like we're going to start rocking and rolling a little bit early. And that's something, you know, those are going to be stockpile situations.

So boy do we need to be sure where we're going where we're dumping we need to be sure we're level we need to look for overhead lines you know multiple materials going there so we need to be sure what we have on versus what we're dumping on you know this can't be a a rush in screw up and go not my problem type scenario it's gonna gonna require a little more you know enthusiasm to get out and check the material and get with someone on site if they're there.

A lot of these, there might not be anyone there because we're going to be going early, probably going to be doing a lot of preloading out of the yard up there off highway 93 and stuff like that. So yeah, going to be a kind of a game changer as far as a little different dump site than we're typically at. Yeah. And several different dump sites. Yeah. You just can't be the, you know, the old school name can't be a plant puppy. Right. You know, you're not just pulling in on the concrete.

Exactly. Yeah, a lot to go with it. I just... Oh, sorry. No, no, go ahead. I used to love running those chips. Oh, absolutely. Because you would go somewhere like, you know, Estes Park or, you know, you go, you know, take a load of chips to Fort Collins. Yep. You know, it was good miles, good windchill time. There's usually a little bit of a, not fire drill, but like a bunch of trucks

going together. So you might have a convoy with proper following distance, you know, five or six trucks headed up to Estes or something like that. It's a good time. Yeah. I can't stress enough about being clean too. That is super, super clean material. When, when we say quarter inch chip, I mean, it is nothing but. There are no other sand or any other size materials. It is clean. When you have that pretty gray, blue, half inch chip in there and,

you know, five brown, three quarter inch river rock rollout. Yeah. Yeah. You will be on you. Have to clean under your liner, around the edges, under the Z-strip so you don't have, like Dave just said, three-quarter inch rock ball out. Right. I mean, it's just like delivering golf course sand to a country club. You've got to be perfectly clean.

Yeah, and the thing too, and Dave's safety points about, you know, the back window, you know, checking the materials, dumping on the stuff, everything else. You know, but there's an art to that too that you need to keep the piles tight. We're stockpiling. The loader might not be pushing up. You know, there'll be usually some big areas we dump in, but keep the piles tight, but let's not leave a bunch of mud flaps all over the place too, where you're backing out. Right.

A mud flap is not as important as looking out that back window or being stuck on a job site where there's no equipment or anything like that. So that's, you know, that's important, but let's, let's do it the A1 style. This, this is a company that used to use us. They contacted us. They want our services back again. They've been doing some different things over the past few years and,

and, uh, it was a great meeting. And, and again, there, we have to, we have to show them we're the same company and better than, than the one they used to use. So exciting stuff, good, good, good company, good, good stuff to be doing. It's not, it's not somebody we don't know, I guess is what I'm trying to get at. It's, it's like Jam said, it's fun. Yeah. It's a good, good customer. Yeah. So I text Floyd Hill, one word to 21,000 and I got a message back says, thank you for signing up.

To receive construction updates and travel info via text from the I-70 Floyd Hill Project Team. Wow. Sweet. Yeah. Time will tell. Yeah. For real-time traffic information, use CodeTrip.org. The I-70 Floyd Hill Project Team is thankful of the contributions of commercial vehicle drivers and look forward to improving the safety and driving experience on I-70 between County Road 65 and Evergreen to the Veterans Memorial Tunnels in Idaho Springs.

So you can do your job and make your driving experience better. We appreciate your partnership and commitment and keeping I-70 safe for all. To learn more about the I-70 Floyd Hill Project, visit cdot.gov slash project slash I-70 Floyd Hill. Hmm. So there you have it. Very cool. Yeah. I know Jim, cause I don't obviously not driving every day, but I went back and got the, got the car and used our car trailer. Dad's car trailer and pulling it behind my pickup.

And there was a lot of construction and, you know, Albuquerque and Tucson and all that kind of stuff. And you pull in a little bit wider trailer like that, running a construction zone. I'm like, man, I'm barely fit. And who measured this?

Cause this just is not wide enough to get through so you know everybody does all you guys do a great job getting through all our construction zones narrowed up you know the concrete barriers everything you mentioned jam and and you know part of that is just slow down don't don't don't rush through there and the safety of the people working alongside the road is so important oh that's that's number one yeah yeah it's tight has really because they had more deaths more

fatalities last year than they've had in history of cdot workers wow and a matter of fact they mentioned two of them last night that were that were killed in mesa county last year yeah and those those two just to so we know they were off the road with a protection vehicle changing a road sign and they still got hit yeah yeah it was a rough gig yep and did they happen to say like what happened did the driver have a heart attack or were they speeding or drunk or

was it was it drinking because they didn't mention it but i believe i mean just from talking to ray in that case because he's up there and that's with a c dot and mesa county and all that i'm pretty sure it was a drunk driver but date but daytime or early morning or not you know not it wasn't yeah it wasn't a night job no drunk driver shouldn't have been out dave at that point i do remember too i think it was a jeep dave was You know, not like a JK or a JL, but a Jeep was mentioned.

So it was, what I'm getting at by the Jeep is it was an SUV. It was a pretty big vehicle, Super Dave, you know. Yeah, not bummer stuff. Definitely. Yeah. Nobody should be killed for changing a road sign. No, and CDOT is, that's what I was leading up to. CDOT has really ramped up their advertisements for it. I just saw an advertisement, you know, that, and it's several CDOT workers and they're on the side of the highway and they say, you know, I want to go home to my family tonight.

And then another person pops up like, so do I, so do I. Yes. And then the third person is like, so please be careful when you're driving through a construction zone because we're all standing here working and we want to go home to our families too. Absolutely. And it was a pretty impactful commercial. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking about it, I was just wondering like how many people died last year from CDOT versus how many cops were killed from the state patrol.

Yeah. But there's a significant difference. Right. Yeah. And, you know, whatever that difference is, Jim, like we could, we could all look it up or look it up after this is, you know, the state patrolman, I mean, they kind of signed up for the job, right? You know, they might get shot at, they might be, you know, you know, even last night in the stories, they might have somebody that's shooting at them.

And, you know, several stories came up like that last night, but the, the state worker alongside the road, they did, they didn't sign up and go, Hey, somebody's going to shoot at me. No, or, or run me over. That's not part of the job. They didn't take the oath to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it just did not happen. JR wanted to bring up running overweight on the interstate, like 84, 900 pounds to make more money.

It's not worth it if you get an overweight ticket, you get possible violations on an inspection, loss of day's earnings to go to court, and a loss of a three-month safety bonus, et cetera. You know, if we, you know, if you get an overweight ticket and we pull your tickets for the day and we see that you've been trying to run, you know, up to 85,000 all day long, you're on your own. We're not going to help you. No. And there's such a, I mean, I still believe there's a controversy there, Jam.

And, you know, we've taken the policy, we've made the, you know, made the statements and stuff like that. But, you know, the last time we were really pulled over, you know, or, or, you know, written a ticket for that, you know, it's been a long time. And I think it's the reputation of, you know, JFW, we, we, you know, slide by, maybe it's the, you know, lack of state patrol officers and stuff like that. And I seen JR put this in the notes and, you know, he's a hundred percent correct.

But, you know, after going to that insurance symposium, we talk about nuclear verdicts and things like that. Guys, this is, this is that when you have a crash and they look back at your driving record and you're risking that chance. maybe it's not even your fault, but they want to blame you. They want to sign you some kind of blame. It may be, you know, 5%, 10%, 50%, or a hundred percent. And here's your driving record. Here's what you've done. You're willing to take that load and be illegal.

So again, back to the thing, what if, so you're, you're okay with driving overweight, being illegal. So what else are you okay doing? You know, and they'll, they'll just tear you apart in the court of law, you know, or, you know, and you get sued. And I get it. It's most of us, we're not, well, I hope none of us, we're never faced with that. We'll never be pulled over, possibly driving around here in town. It might happen, but it might not. Right.

And you won't be in an accident. So what we're preaching here doesn't matter because, oh, it won't happen to me. But again, what if, you know, what if, So don't do it, you know, but you know, on the other hand, I know if I'm, you know, there's a big lineup at where we've been, where we've been backed up at Firestone, you know, and I pull on the scale that I'm 82,000 and there's a line of 10 trucks. I'm leaving with the 82,000, you know, it's just, it is just not worth that.

And I, I know that that sounds, you know, I don't even know what controversial or, or I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, but you know, some things make sense and some things don't. Well, that's Jim. Sorry, Dave, go ahead. I was going to say, if I may jump in there, our policy is meant as a courtesy, just like what you just said, Jim, if you're in line and the line is long and that loader guy screwed up and got you heavy, you can leave, but it's not meant to abuse the law.

Yeah. That was Jim's point on, yeah, we're going to look back at your history. Is every single load you haul 84.5 plus? Yeah. You know what I mean? Or are you, are you the 79.5 guy and, and we're trucking and this is the one load that Jim talked about. There's 60 trucks in the pit. I just waited 45 minutes to get loaded. I'm 82.3. I'm hauling ass. I've got a wonderful story for that. Let's hear it. The cop that runs downtown, right? We used to call him the Aurora cop, the boots guy.

No, he's a Denver cop. Oh yeah. What was his name? He was Connell or something. Yeah. The bald guy. Pussy boots. That was Aurora. So it was like my third, fourth load of the day. And I got pulled over right at 58th and I 25. And I gave him one of my legal scale tickets when he jumps up on my window and says, you had a scale ticket? I said, sure. And I gave him one from a couple hours earlier and he goes, well, this is the wrong scale ticket. It's like 1130 right now. And I'm like, okay.

And then he says to me, let me have all of your tickets. And so I gave him all four of them and he looks through them and I wasn't hauling heavy, but that one load was 82,000. And he says to me, he goes, well, I see that you've been good. The loader operator must've just got you heavy on this load. Tell him to lighten it up. And he let me go. That's cool. Right? He gave me all my tickets back and let me go. And I said, I will.

Thank you very much. And so that's the point, you know, where, okay, I got a heavy load. I wasn't going to go back and mess around with it. You, everybody here knows that your time is limited throughout the day. The pits open at six, close at four. So you can't waste too much time on any one load. And, and he understood that. Yeah. Yeah, because you were doing everything else correct, Dave. Right. You know, that's the... I had three other tickets that were good.

Yeah, back to that same point, you know? Yep. So true.

Joanne wanted to talk about some benefits housekeeping, and she asks that everyone downloads the MyCigna app on your phone to find doctors and dentists in our plan near you. Also, you will be able to see your ID cards. Cigna will not mail you these cards. You will have to request it on the app.

Thanks. so yeah and definitely not throwing this driver under the bus but we had a driver he was sick and he mentioned to me you know it's been hard not having insurance because he's not getting the medications he's needed and I was like well when did you start and I figured out he should have had benefits on April 1st and check with Johan and he in fact had benefits April 1st and you know just wasn't aware that that started so you know definitely advocate for yourself pay attention to that.

You know, I use my Cigna app. It's really great. You could, you know, like she said, pick your doctors. You also see your explanation of benefits on there. You could see where you're at on your deductible, you know, how much money you spent on insurance and stuff like that. So, or medical care, I should say, and treatment. Yeah. And it is a little weird just having the electronic card because I've had a couple of doctors for him and they go, can you I have your medical card.

And I go, it's just electronic. And I haven't ran into an office that hasn't said here, email it here to me. Oh, and, or, or, you know, do somehow they get it. They understand that it's not. I've actually had them copy my phone. Like I pulled the card up on my phone and they've taken it. They literally laid on their copy machine and made a fricking copy of it. Oh, that's cool. I mean, the easy ones just email it to me. Yeah.

You know, they hand me a little sticky with the email for the doctor's office. Those both sound pretty easy. See, I've been in offices where it even just says email insurance cards. It's like already up. Oh, right there. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. You could save it to your Apple wallet. That's another thing I've done where people just looked at my phone. Yeah. And I think by now the whole prescription thing, that's all squared away.

It's all squared away. Everything's good. Your prescription shouldn't. I mean, if they ask you to pay for your prescriptions before you purchase, you need to contact us or contact Cigna. And I know you may be going and have to have the prescription right there, but try to plan just in case there's a problem. I got to tell you that. I went to a chiro. my, my Cairo works at the same place that I got my injections for my neck and all that. Oh yeah.

Yeah. And I had never seen him there. You know, I used to just see him privately. And pay him cash or whatever. And they asked, you know, they ran it through the insurance and it was like, I had two visits. It was like 120 bucks, which is probably just a little less than, you know, So for what he did, I've paid $90 for somewhere else, $95, you know what I mean? So I thought that was pretty cool that they put it through insurance and then I didn't pay anybody there on the spot.

Actually, I probably don't. Oh, no, I did pay it. They have a portal, yeah. Yeah, some of the stuff, you just don't know what's covered. And it's not like I'm going to say weird things are covered, but sometimes some care is covered.

Yeah, they're going to push it through and run a discount. Even if it's not covered, it still counts against your out-of-pocket. Yeah. Yep, so. Absolutely. Uh, back to Linda. She wanted to, and I think JR, somebody also sent this, but no U-turn on highway 66 when leaving C-Mex. Drivers have to go east to the second driveway and make a U-turn on highway.

Drivers have gone east. This is the wrong way. drivers have gone east to the second driveway and made a u-turn on highway 66 to go westbound on highway 66 back to arcosa when leaving cmex back to arcosa you need to travel east to hover road make a ride and go south to 119 or diagonal parkway and then go west back to boulders foothills and go south yeah yeah kind of scary because i mean i was just up there on 66 and u-turn in across 66 at CMEX.

When I saw that, the first thing that went through my mind is we have someone doing that? Right. You know what I mean? Man, yeah. It's dumbfounding, right? I mean, there's a great big sign there that says right turn only. Great big sign there says right turn only. Yeah. And again, you're not in a car. Right. It is a truck. Yeah. And even in a car, it's illegal. Right. You know? So yeah, I'm- Please. I hope none of us did that. Right. And she was just being precautionary and,

and that was that. But generally when we make announcements, it's happened. I hope none of us have done it. And very likely a lot of times the pits will just be sending out a cautionary statement because other companies do it and not us. Not us. Yep. You know, we, we throw out the warning to say, Hey, don't do this. And it could be a moot point. None of us are doing it, but others are. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right. Do you guys have anything for the discussion? You want to talk more about the Colorado State Patrol, Jim? I can just throw that out there. The gentleman we sit at, like I said, his name was Mitch, and I believe his wife's name was Jessica. Hopefully I have that correct. That's what I thought it was. Was too. And it's always a pleasure to sit with somebody out of, it's not a roadside stop, right? You get to have, it's business. So you were sitting with the enemy, Jim.

Right, right. Absolutely, Dave. And, you know, it's good to sit with the enemy, but be able to converse and have a real conversation. And when we were talking about the human trafficking, what I wanted to bring up is because he likes to work roadside. He doesn't like to be in the scale house or in the port or whatever. And he said about the roadside, he says, I like to walk up, open the trucker's door and take a look.

And he says, I tell everything about how the stop's going to be from opening the truck's door. And I'm like, oh my gosh, Mitch, you know, we, we preach that and preach that and preach that. And, you know, he, he's more on the human, human trafficking side about looking in there, what's going on, passengers, stuff like that. But I brought up, we, you know, we view it as our office and how clean we keep. And he goes, oh yeah. He said, I take all that into consideration.

And, you know, I brought up, if you're, if you're not keeping your cab clean, if you're not, if you don't have, you know, Dave, Dave brought up, I'm jumping around a little bit, but you know, the, the hoses rubbing on the deck plate and, you know, Mitch brought up, he goes, well, if you're not doing that, what else aren't you doing right? Oh, totally. You know, and, and the same thing we've said on the, on the podcast.

Oh yeah, for years and years. Yeah. Yeah. And he was, he was such a, you know, pleasant guy to talk to when I, when he said that about what else aren't you doing right? He gets this big smile on his face because you can tell he's like that. I got you. You know, you're not. And he goes again, any one of those troopers there, you know, whether, and they mention that it's very hard dealing with the public to keep that great attitude all the time.

But when you talk to him in an atmosphere like that, and you really get down to the core there, you know, he said, we're there to educate safety to help you. He just said, sometimes that education comes with a ticket and that's all there is to it. But any one of their troopers there last night, their duty is to help you and make safety better. It's not to write you a ticket, you know. But, you know, Colonel Packard, you know, he said it. If you're speeding, you're going to get a ticket, right?

I mean, they saved the one guy's life, took him to the hospital, made sure he was going to be okay. Yeah. And then rode him for drunk driving. Arrested him. Yeah. For drunk driving. Yeah. But they saved his life first. Saved his life. That's what they did with Doogie way back in the day. Officer Northrop, he gave him a ride back to the yard here and dropped him off. Actually to his house, wasn't it? Yeah, to his house. Gave him a ride home. And then wrote him a ticket.

Yeah, and then wrote him a ticket. Hey, on that thought though, Jim, I just thought of a shout out. My yesterday afternoon interview, we were doing it in 0028. Got to give you a shout out, Sammy. He opened your door and looked in there and said, oh, wow, this driver keeps a clean truck. And he didn't even like want to jump in there. He's like, oh, wow, I'm just afraid to even step in this thing. Ah, thank you, Sammy. Yeah, good job, Sam. Isn't that cool? Yeah. Isn't that cool?

And that's what this troop, this was Port of Entry. Yeah, Port of Entry. You know, was, that's his thing. Yeah. You know what I mean? He goes, you can tell. You know, those are the things we go on and on and on about. And I know some people get tired of us hearing it, but, Trust me, we get tired of fighting it. You know, the hoses dragging the deck plate, a light out or lights out or, you know, whatever the case may be. Trash all over the camera. And we understand the lights that happens,

right? You have one that happens, you know, or we have a short somewhere and we're blowing a fuse. It's, it's, that's part of what we fight, you know? One of the stories in here, I forget who it was, the dread jam, you know, had a head, oh, Zach. No, not Zach. Yeah. Someone had a headlight out at the pit. Okay. Yeah. George Shelton. Yeah. Helped him fix it. You know, and it just, those things happen, right? We're about to start calling him Georgie.

So anyway, yeah, do the simple things because that's going to lead you to do all the other difficult things. You can't just let it slide. You know, and that's, I mentioned the human spirit is what breaks us, you know, and, and causes problems out there. And he goes, oh, that's all there is. That's all there is to it. It's, it's the human being wanting to do it or not.

And we have to be better. Yeah. And we talked, Jam, just quickly because doing the awards, you don't get a long time to talk, but we talked about one of our drivers having his ex-wife in the truck and both of them having restraining orders against them. They're both getting arrested. We have to go get the truck. And I said, oh, you've never heard that story? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was a minute ago, Jam. Yeah, that was like two minutes ago. So, um, but the, I, you know,

and that he said, I said, that's as close as we can get to human trafficking. And he laughed. He said, oh, that's a good one. You told him that story. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, but I, but I also mentioned, and, and we don't think of it, but our cameras have stopped that. There's something else that our cameras have stopped. And he was familiar with Samsara, but we told him, you know, about the cameras.

And I mean, he was just, you could tell he was interested because of his smile, but he was also getting an award because he's engaged. That's part of his award was being an engaged trooper. But Dave was telling him about the, you know, our safety bonus and the points and the camera and what it does and, you know, being able to measure the metrics, matrix, metrics, metrics. And he got a big old smile again, Jam, because he understood.

He said, you know, that stops me from looking for hot brakes or out-of-adjustment brakes or, you know, how you've been driving. And I didn't get a chance to tell him, and, you know, maybe if he's on the podcast, but what I really wanted to tell him last night was, well, you want to help your safety inspection. When you pull one of our trucks over again, ask the driver for his safety score

and efficiency score. And I said, you can either go on with your stop or you can read his scores and go have a good day. You know, and, and he would, Mitch would have liked that. He would have, he would have thought that was cool. He, I mean, he got geeked out when I brought up the fact that it's recording the time you lift off of the throttle till the time you're on the brakes. And he's like, are you kidding me?

Like you have that availability? And it's like, yeah. You know, that's when I finally, you know, J.R. Jumped in and was like, yeah, what this is recording and giving us the metrics for, you know, we've just scraped the tip of the iceberg, right? You know, and for you drivers, you know, as long as, you know, he's not finding something serious, have a discussion with the trooper that pulls you over. Show him your safety score. You know, they're human.

Everybody's there for the safety. Go look, this is my safety score. This is what my company's doing. I'm fully engaged in this. And I bet even if you were maybe going to get a ticket, you may not get a ticket, you know, cause you're, you're engaged and you care. That's, that's the whole point of that. You know, we're, we're. You know, one of his comments and I don't remember, you know, cause again, a lot of it was about human trafficking, but you know, we're trying to be better.

And again, here's the stigma that truck drivers have are doing human trafficking. How much more can that be detrimental to, to our brother and sisterhood, right? Yeah. The state patrol's core values and, and fundamentals are honor, duty, and respect. Looked, I looked that up too. I just didn't write them down. Cause I wanted to, I wanted to make sure I had Colonel Packard's name correct to Dave. And I tried to look up Colonel and I'm like, you know, I know Colonel is spelled weird.

And I'm like, I just, no, David, I was like, I knew it was a C, but I was like, cause it's nothing like you say it or like we say Colonel.

C-O-L-L-O-N-O-L or something like that. Yeah, E-L, you're spot on. Did you guys see I put, the one question was, the answer was Theodore Roosevelt, and I put Colonel Sanders, the guy from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Some people actually picked that. What was honor, duty, and respect? What was that? Core values and what? That's their core values that are fundamental to them is honor, duty, and respect. I'm not saying people should write that down, but.

Hint hint right you know and then and you know when i looked up colonel packard and we've we talked about this last year dave that a lot of people call him chief yes and i'm like okay so is he a colonel or is he a chief right and he he is a colonel on the state patrol but he's the chief of the state patrol of of the motor vehicle division is kind of how it breaks it out is how they're trying to explain that. But either term is correct.

And he's just, you know, my final thoughts, I'll speak about him a little bit more. He's the chief of the motor carrier? Not more, Colorado, like DOT. It's all rolled into one. That's kind of the assignment is he's the chief of that, but he's the colonel of the state patrol. I'll have to- There is ranks, like you could be a sergeant. Oh yeah, master sergeant.

Master sergeant, yeah. He's a colonel. Yep, yep, yep. But people call him the chief, And I, I get confused, Dave, because like, is he a chief or is he, is he a colonel? Correct. And he, he is both. Yep. I think chief is like you to man. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, that's, I mean, that's kind of all I have on that, Jan. Okay. Dave, you got anything else to throw in there? No, not on discussion. No. So. All right.

All right. Jack Oquendo Mejia had a question. Let me pull it up. He bookmarked it yesterday and he sent me the question this morning. Nice. Here it is. Good morning, Jan. I have a question for you guys with material coming out of LG Firestone Pit for Union Plant and plan 13. Is there any other solutions that can be discussed with Brandon? What I mean is what's going on at LG Firestone pit is there is usually a huge line to scale out.

Now that it has taken around 30 minutes to an hour to scale out with all the material trucks and now having all the road-based trucks there also, is this temporary or are there other solutions?

Yesterday at new what time did he send that jam because this morning at 5 50 oh gotcha well we need to ask because i thought we switched yeah i thought they did switch right right i did yeah yeah oh maybe he wasn't on that yesterday yeah because didn't didn't, Three of them switched to- Yeah, I understood we switched to another pit again. Yeah. I mean, it's on the Kinect. I'm looking on Kinect. I know I saw it and I'm not seeing it.

But the other thing to that is we can really stir the pot and ask a lot of questions and do that. But so much of this is temporary, Jim, and it will change within a couple of days. And I know there was the big backup on Wednesday or Thursday. We tried to separate the trucks out, but then- Right there, the first one. Yeah. But then, you know, Friday when we ran it, because all the road-based trucks and the, and the construction or the, you know, their part wasn't running,

we were zipping in and out of the pit. There was hardly any wait time. So it's kind of, it's kind of unfair to really complain about something that's going to be temporary as far as bugging Brandon about it, because we have to have our ups and downs.

And you know it may be a poor example for you jack but you know there has to be a lot of times you pull in the pit get loaded right away and leave the pit and we allow a certain amount of time for you to be in there you know is are you willing to give a discount because you got in and out of the pit really fast it it kind of works both ways and sure you know that's where we talk about it in this. And I'm sure Super Dave's biting his tongue, but you got to look at the big picture.

You can't look at that load, right? But we also have to know if you're waiting every load all day for a week. Yeah, let's make a phone call. I mean, we can't have that. No. We can't have that. I mean, if you're not making any money, we're not making any money. So I'll just read the announcement to starting today, sand for plant 3 and plant 13 will be coming out of LG Fort Lupton. So we did get two plants worth of sand off of there.

Right. You know, maybe we can see if we can, I know Linda made the ask last week, you know, and you guys know we've done that in the past. Hey, can we at least pull the first round or whatever the case may be? I keep being told that road-based job is. Is going to be done Tuesday. It's going to be done Tuesday. And we were told that last Tuesday, we were told that this Tuesday, and apparently they're still running out. There's a lot of Tuesdays left in the year. Apparently. Yeah. Yeah.

So I, I, good question, Jack. You know, I definitely, good question. And, and we do have to know. And I was asked tactfully. I like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You have to ask. Jack's always tactful. Yeah. He's always super polite. When he needs his CB worked on, he's always apologizing. And then I fix the CB and he's like, thank you so much for taking the time.

And it's like, Jack, it's okay, buddy. That's awesome. By the way, BD, since I have my, I meant to tag you in this the other day and I forgot, but did you, did you see the 10,000 chat messages? I was super, super happy to get that. But I am glad, I guess I'm on the, cause what is it? The, the, let me read it. Hang on. Oh, of course I logged in. I ask about it, Jim. Cause I was like. Admins only get to see that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Which, you know, because you said the only way I can get away from

getting that off is I'm not an admin. Not an admin, because I got that same story. That might not be a bad idea. Yeah. Because I asked Dave, I said, I thought Jam was going to remove that. And Dave goes, he has to remove you as an admin. I'm like, oh. I mean, it's a major achievement. It is. We are dedicated to effective communication. Yes. And it's making an impact on our bottom line, so. I really do like Connected. It is pretty cool.

Yeah. You just told me, and I didn't know this, that you can video call. No, Erica was wrong. Oh. I got to say that. She couldn't find it. Duh. Yeah. Yeah. So retract that, Dave. Sorry. Okay. I didn't follow up with that. I take that back. She was trying to get the iPhone and Samsung or Android to talk. Gotcha. Gotcha. Thought Connect was the helper. Thought Connect was the way to go. Yep. Clearly not the way to go.

Our uh safety topic of the week is from erica and she says when asking for help or she says ask for help when hooking up a trailer because we are all here to help there's a lot of times you'll go to hook up a trailer and you just miscalculate space a little bit and you end up breaking something yeah whether it be the hydraulic line itself or you might hit a glad hand or there's just a lot that could go

wrong having a second person there watching you you You roll your windows down as you're backing up, he or she could let you know to stop. It's just easier, and we don't mind doing it. I strongly advise to look out that back window when you're hooking up because you can actually see when the apron plate is getting close to the fifth wheel versus in the mirror. You can't see that. Yep. You know, so that. Yeah, that back window is key.

Yep. Yeah. Saves a lot of money. You can see if you're lined up with the kingpin. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I know, I think the reason this came up for Erica was that we did ruin the butterfly valve on the trailer side. And if you bend that or mess up the threads, you can't get the butterfly on it. And I'm, I'm pretty sure they're like 45 or even more. Oh yeah. They're over a hundred bucks. Yeah. Per end, you know, you, you know, as a set, uh, like Dave said, they're over a hundred bucks.

And, and the thing about it is I know she went to help another driver and the, you know, driver was like, Hey, I do this all the time.

And the, and you know, obviously does it successful, but I think that still that hydraulic hose you know they let it drag up the fifth wheel and you know you didn't damage it that time but maybe you are damaging it because I have so many that I've went to hook up and the butterfly is very hard to turn on and you cross thread it and that's the reason that's the reason it got like that because that's also brass that's soft and you drag it up the fifth wheel every time and it ruins the threads and.

That, that, that butterfly should not turn on their hard at all. I mean, it should spin right on until it pushes the button in the hose and you run it down, you know, a turn or so and it's locked in there. So please, you guys, if every one of these guys are around, just ask them for some help. And I know there's some people that aren't around and, you know, Erica talked about, I think, you know, brother Dave or maybe J.R.

Casey or one of them, you know, about grabbing a shovel and just holding the line up as the truck backs up. That way, you know, you're not in the way, you're not in the way of the driver or anything like that. And I told Erica there, there's also, if you're stuck by yourself, you know, besides possibly using your hammer to hold up the fifth wheel plate on the, or not the, the apron on the trailer, but you could also take your shovel and let the hose ride on it with nobody around.

The shovel's just going to fall on the deck there. Or when you get past that point, get out, grab your shovel and hammer.

You know, there's so many ways to do it, but you, you just got to take your time and make sure you don't tear stuff up yeah if you do a lot some people have bungee cords don't bungee the hose up you know I just noticed on some of the trailers jam there's no place to hook yeah that's the because the other trailers with the steps in the front they were awesome hook it and go yeah you have to have a lot not necessarily a long bungee but I've

been wrapping the bungee just to itself around the hose then you can pull it over to the fender outside but I mean you it's got to be a fairly flexible bungee yeah you know what I mean yeah. And then also, I mean, it's a good idea to use wood back there instead of your hammer. It is. Oh, yeah. When you're using the hammer, you just have to get out an extra time.

Yeah. As soon as that apron plate gets on the lip of your fifth wheel, then you stop, set your brake, get out, remove your hammer, and then you can go back under. Yeah, and you remove the wood as well. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean. Erica's learning along with it, and she's asking me and Dave and probably all you guys a lot of questions, and people are giving her a lot of tips.

But just like you said, Super Dave, she said, well, the one guy didn't want to put his hammer under it because he'd run over it. And I told Erica, I said, no, you just barely pull on, so the plate grabs the front of it, then grab your hammer. It's not falling, you're not running over to it, and that's just the couple of steps we're missing. Just like, I mean, you know, Super Dave, I don't even know how many trailers you've hooked up.

Too many to count. A million. But that's also when you check and make sure your hydraulic hose is securely out of the way. Yes. You're not going to, you know, catch it in your jaws or anything like that. I'm pretty sure, don't they drop and hook over to two-day class? I'm pretty sure they do, yeah. I think so. I know next week I'll go over this stuff because Erica has been taking her test, her CDL test, her class A, the last week or so here.

And she passed the, I guess the written practical and air brake side. And then there was a combination and she was just basically, you know, she was complaining to me and Dave that she couldn't take the test, like how we train here at JFW. We just go that extra step. And she assumes that would be on the test.

I mean, one of the, one of the deals, the questions on the test yesterday it was for a combination vehicle jam was that when do you check your landing gear when the truck's hooked up or unhooked and i don't know what would you guys what would you guys answer when would when do you check check to make sure it's up or down what just check it out just check it safety wise check it out make everything make sure everything's okay

on it dave well it depends if i'm hooking up a trailer then i'm going to check and make sure after my fifth wheel's connected If I'm dropping the trailer, I'm going to make sure before I pull away. Right. Right, Dave, right. Well, there is no dependent question. It is, you know, with the tractor unhooked, you take a look at it. And like you, I'm not dropping my trailer until I know I got two landing legs, some pins, right? How we do it, you know, or it cranks down.

So anyway, it's just interesting. So we can go over that and review that. And, you know, I'm sure all the newer guys, the younger guys, because I told Eric, I said, But I probably can't take the test and pass. In fact, I'm sure I would fail it because logically that's not the way I would do it. And I never had to take a driving test. Right. I mean, well, I did, but I think it was like 20 questions. So, yeah. Gotcha. Grandfathered in. It was nice.

Let's see. Oh, look at the soup. You want to hit us with the high road hauling? Oh, sure. Is that next? That's next. All right. Let me make one up. Shoot from the hip, Dave. I do too. So have you ever heard the saying, the early bird gets the worm? Yeah. I always wonder what the worm gets. Well, he gets turned into fertilizer. So that basically is telling you to take the initiative. We've all heard that expression before, but we might have dismissed it outright because it's unrealistic.

When could we ever be the first at anything, right? But the motivated people among us know that the expression isn't about laziness or even going to bed early so you can get up earlier. It means that the wakeful bird is showing some initiative. What does initiative mean? It's a noun that means the power or opportunity to do something before others do.

In essence, initiative involves three things, a self-starting nature, a proactive approach, and a persistent persistence in goal in pursuit of a goal. Initiative is one of the essential qualities of a strong and competent leader. It's a way of making it clear that you have a plan and are putting it into action on your own without somebody telling you to do so.

You have probably spent 12 or more years in school where you learned how to follow directions in exchange for praise, grades, or awards, so you might feel uncomfortable with the idea of taking initiative. But the first step to challenging is to ask why. Taking initiative is scary. You are drawing attention to yourself and trusting your ideas and beliefs, and they are strong enough to stand on their own. It can mean exposing yourself to the possibility of rejection or worse, total disregard.

Luckily, it's possible to start small and still get noticed for your proactive nature in school or the workplace. Taking initiative can be as simple as asking your boss or mentor, how can I help? Acting instead of reacting starts with baby steps and most academic and work-related skills can improve over time. Prove your competence with confidence. Self-confidence leads others to have confidence in your abilities. If you put yourself out there, you may get rejected, but you might not.

Suddenly, you'll be in a position to see that your ideas in action gain more experience and prove that you are creative and capable. Once you prove yourself, others will count you as a reliable member of the team. Supervisors will offer you opportunities for further leadership before others. When it comes time to give out promotions or awards, your new experience will rise to the surface and you will rise through the ranks. and save the day by stepping up.

Taking initiative can be a form of problem solving and in many cases can save the day. When you are comfortable taking the reins, you can steer any project back on track. This can make you an invaluable team member and those in charge will remember that if it ever comes time to call the herd, you might not be amongst them. So what does taking initiative mean? It means showing off your self-confidence by putting yourself out there first.

It means catching the worm even though you might miss because you know that's how you learn and grow. And the quote this week is by a very famous motivational author and speaker. A gentleman by the name of Stephen Covey once said, The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about, and prioritizing life around the most important things. Nice. So let's all take a little initiative today. Love it. Final thoughts, everybody? I'll talk about Colonel Packard.

He said he was going to end last night on the same way he ended last year's jam. And he gave a, he's well-spoken, he's thought out, pleasure to listen to. You get those guys that, you know, you enjoy listening to them, puts their thoughts together well, because he doesn't have a teleprompter, he doesn't have any paper or anything like that. And, you know, his speech was that, that, you know, he's, he's asked, what does he do or what's his job or, or anything like that?

And he says, I have never hesitated once to tell everybody how proud I was to be a state patrolman. And he went through the deal about, you know, serving with his brothers and sisters there and then putting their life on the line every day and, you know, saving lives and their commitment to safety and, you know, different things and how proud he was to be in that position. And he said he has the greatest job in the world and he wouldn't replace it for anything.

And you know I listened to the to the words and every one of them I could turn to you know to JFW you guys the drivers you know you're you're not carrying guns you're not expected to jump out with Narcan and and save a life you you probably you know some of them you know maybe there are some guys I know Jam does carry tourniquets and you know you can't get and easily just stop and help somebody alongside the road, right? That's not what you're doing, you're drivers. But.

I have never been prouder than I am every day to be part of JFW and this family and what we've all built together. And, you know, you take the words and, you know, saving lives out there. You guys go out and do a pretty much impossible job and you save lives every day because you don't, you're not irresponsible. You're safe. You know, you're not on the phone, let's say. We're not,

we're not doing, we're not distracted. And you're, you know, with this new safety bonuses and stuff, you're, you know, you're anticipating lights. We've, you know, the stale lights or stop signs or school zones and, and you're saving lives just like a state patrolman. And, and you go out and you do this job every day and, you know, state patrolman, it's, it's dangerous for a state patrolman. They're liable to get shot at. They're going to step in front of a, you know, bullet for you.

You mentioned jam, they, they signed the ultimate check. You know, they're, they're willing to give up your lives. And I know you guys are willing to do anything to, to make us better and safer. And you go out and do an impossible job every day. And, and on the backside, you risk your lives. You know, you're, you're in that truck. There could be an accident at any point.

And, you know, maybe you avoid an accident or you roll it over, you know, you have coming down the Canyon, you You have a truck coming the wrong, you know, in your lane. I mean, we've, we've had so much stuff go on and I, I just wanted to make sure. And I, I, I believe I said it last week, even earlier. The Nike comment about, we're on the sidewalks, we're under the streetlights, we're cheering you on. And again, I want to make it clear that I am so proud of everybody and thank you.

And I was inspired by Colonel Packard's speech of how much he believes in his brothers and sisters. And, and I just wanted to make it clear that I, I believe the same thing. I'm proud of all the brothers and sisters that are, that are truck drivers.

You know, it's, it's a, it's an honorable needed profession and you should be very proud, you know, and just to, just to kind of end on that note too, your, your profession is being upgraded every day by the rules of safety and amount of tickets you can have and DUIs. And this last step is, and maybe Super Dave, I don't want to get off my final thought, but the clearinghouse just stepped up linking licenses to the, to the clearinghouse.

There was a step that happened last year and the report I just saw was there's 177,000 drivers that just got downgraded. And, and I, and I don't think it's like right now, but over this last period that can't get through the clearinghouse. So that also makes you guys, you know, the brothers and sisters that are out there doing it correctly, not, you know, taking drugs. Using drugs, driving safe, you know, having a good driving record, all that stuff, you guys will be sought after.

And that's the, that's your career and that's your career path. And so again, I'm, I'm, I'm proud of everybody that's, that's here doing, doing what they need to do to help us out. I love it. Yeah, that was a good one. That is really good. I've got a couple of things I want to back up and give a shout out to Marco Gutierrez. He's a very young new driver here, but not new to JFW, just young to driving. Sure. And he had his first accident last week.

Congratulations. Right. Not his fault. Yeah. Right? Not his fault, no. And I know there was a lot of... Exhilaration going on. You know, he was pretty amped up. I think he did a good job in that. I, you know, I hope our safety team is going to have a moment to sit down with him and, and just review things and go over things and, you know, his fault or not, was this an avoidable accident or anything like that, you know, and just give a shout out to him.

I just missed it in shout outs. And I was thinking about that. And then something else I kind of ran across. I follow this guy called, his name is Simon, I wrote it on internet. Yeah, Simon Sinek. Thank you. And, you know, he's a motivational speaker for leaders, right? Or just motivational speaker, period.

But he emphasizes leadership. He used to host a podcast called Entree Leadership. So yeah, you know about that. He's done a couple of good TED Talks too. Oh, outstanding. Yeah. I mean, he's, his, his, his, his little tidbits and nuggets that he provides are just phenomenal. And I just saw one and I, you know, I wish we could just clearly play the video, but it's such a fast video. You know, you'd have to, I have to play it like time over time after time and again to get all the words out of it.

And, you know, some of the things he does, and this is one thing that he mentioned is when a new person starts as his employer at his business, he picks up the phone and he calls him and he tells him two things. He says, congratulations and welcome aboard. And he says, you're here. You're now part of something that's bigger than yourself. And he said, we're going to empower you. We're going to educate you. We're going to give you all the tools to do the job here that you need.

And I just have, you know, and give you all the resources, but I just have one request of you. And it's that you apply them. You know, and I'm like, bingo, right? We talk about that all the time. We, you know, we feel here at JFW, we're not perfect, but we feel we do a really good job at giving you all the resources, right? But it still falls on you to apply them. You still have to apply everything that we're asking you for.

We're asking you to apply the pre-trip and post-trip information you've been given, literally the tools you've been given, you know? I think we're doing a great job on your safety score, that as a tool. Doing a great job on the efficiency score. That is a tool, you know, making us better. And his one and only expectation for you is whether you stay there forever and finish your career or you move on, he wants to be sure that you leave there a better you than you showed up and more qualified.

And I just love that. You know, I wish that was something that we did a better job at conveying that, hey, we're giving you the tools, but it's still up to you to apply them.

We talk about it, but I think that might be a little more powerful way of saying it, you know, and maybe it's said earlier, you know, but like Jim mentioned, you know, a lot to talk about at that, at those awards ceremony, you know, and we, we brought up that talking to Mitch sitting there as a port of entry officer that, Hey, you know, 20 years ago, we just had a trainer. We put that new guy in the truck with them and was like, here, here's the book.

Here's the handbook, get them to sign off on these pages and we're good to go in a week. Well, we had, you know, 10 different trainers that were training 10 different ways. And, you know, we didn't 20 years ago, we had one and I'm sitting right here. Anyway, we ran into that as a problem. We wanted the McDonald's, right? You go eat a quarter pounder here. We want it to taste the same as a quarter pounder here. Right.

And so now we have J.R. do the orientation day one, you know, Casey and Kyle in the class on day two and three. Then we have the trainers help train and verify that. Then at the end of the two weeks, we're doing the written and the practical. And he's like, man, you guys, you guys are not the average end dump company. You know, he goes, you're, you're, you're going above and beyond. And, you know, I, it, it looks to us as though it's paying off, but I can't emphasize that it's still up to you.

Every step you make is still up to you. We've handed you all the tools. We've given you all the information and we'll gladly continue to go over it just like we are on this podcast. It's still up to you. So I guess be a better you and do the best that you can, you know, really, really dive into what you do, dive into your craft because your craft is important.

Your final thought is a lot more positive than mine's going to be, but it's talking about the same thing. And I'm not trying to be negative, but call it, call it like I'm having. And this is something we could talk about on a podcast or I could have talked to you guys about privately because we support each other all the time and we have these conversations. So call it a leadership character defect if you want. But I'm struggling with people that aren't giving their 100%.

And I remember being a personal trainer and most of your clients aren't going to be athletes. They're going to be your average overweight person.

Some of them may not know a single thing. you know some of them are going to try you know and some of them aren't you know but when you when you get a person you know when you get an athlete you know it's like your training the whole thing is different like you guys are both on the same page and there's going to be some suffering to get to where you want to be and that's kind of understood my chiropractor who does dry needling some people hate dry

needling because it kind of it's it we'll call it it hurts when you're doing it. It's painful, I guess you could say, but there's a reason it's painful and it's going to be worth it. So athletes are willing to go through pain to get the results that they want, right? Then you have your non-athletes and some of those people are also willing to go through pain and give their very best to try to achieve their goals.

Not to say it's going to be perfect, not to say one week they may gain a little weight or whatever their goal is, they may go in the opposite direction. But then I would have these clients that I don't know why they were in the gym. They need to be in the gym and they need to get healthy. They probably need to lose a few pounds or maybe 50, right? But they don't want to work for it. They want the magic solution where they're going to come and it's just going to happen.

But when they're at home, they're not doing their work. But then you would even get the people that you would have to convince to come and work out. And those are the people that would suck the life out of you. Like, oh, listen, I don't think I'm going to come to the gym tonight. Well, listen, I'm going to charge you if you don't. So you might as well come here, otherwise you're wasting your money. And you said you've been thinking about losing weight for a year.

You need to come in and let's do it. Those people would just kind of suck it out of you because you wanted it more for them than they wanted it for yourself. And I feel like sometimes we experience the same thing here. We got guys like Zach Tharp that, you know. Here and they just, you know, add value to the culture and they get it and they appreciate what JFW is and what we do.

You know, like you said, we're not perfect, but we, we try to be, we want to be, you know, we don't make everybody happy every day, but that is our goal is for everybody to have a good job here at JFW. But man, when, when nowadays, when I come across a driver that I think just doesn't care, it's hard for me to care for them. You know, it's like, you don't want to care. You don't, you don't care about your job here. I start caring less about your job here. I care about the safety.

I don't want you to have an accident and hurt somebody yourself or cause JFW money. But man, if you don't care, why should I care for you? You know, and that's just super Dave. You're really good at it. You know, just you're, you're very consistent and you, you always love the one you're with. And you know, I respect that, you know, And then I think the rest of us, we kind of flip-flop around a little bit, you know, where it's like,

you know, you, you believe a hundred percent all the time. Super David. Yeah. We vary from that. That's a gift. That's a gift. I don't have that gift. I don't have that gift. So, and I don't even know where this final thought is going, but I guess I just want to get it off my chest. If you don't care, I probably care less than you, but I want you to care so I could care with you and I will guide you and I will help you. I will go to bat for you. I will spend the time with you.

But man, if you're just a poison and negative and just, you got nothing positive to say and you don't want to participate in what we got going on here, because we do got a lot of great things going on here.

And you could tell because when you talk to people from the outside super dope when you when you tell a new candidate what we got going on here unless they're full of it because we're getting a representative i think it's impressive you know i think when people walk in these doors they see an organized company that cares about their employees not everybody gets that it's just a jlb and they're going to do it their way and their career here is not going to be you know and this

isn't a threat to get rid of them, but their career is probably not going to be long lived because of them. They're going to get tired or they're going to get frustrated or they're going to, you know, want, not want to put in the effort to be that athlete. You know, they're not going to want to show up every day with a smile and that's on them. I guess it's my final thought. I think that's a good final thought, Jim. It's very factual. I don't, yeah. I mean, you agree a hundred percent.

Yeah. Sorry, David. You get what you give in life. You eat what you kill. Right? And that's, I mean, that's just how it is. I mean, no one has ever handed Gemini a thing. Right. I mean, I mean, most people, no, none of us have gotten anything free here. Right. You know, maybe we did win the lotto and it's 40 bucks, you know, or 20. Right. But I mean, if we stopped giving today in a year, we're done. Done. If Jim and I stopped giving today, we're done.

Probably faster than that. Right. I mean, this isn't a business you stop working your ass off in. Right. It's just not, that's not the industry. You want that? You're in the wrong industry. That's just fact.

Yeah. Listening to you both, you know, and Jam, you're, you're, you're spot on and it's more than a final thought because it should be, it should be a discussion, not a final thought. We're discussing the final thought. You know, it's taken me so long. I, you know, in the last few weeks, I wrote into the one podcast last week, you know, there, and I'm just, I have this humbleness about me or I don't like to brag. Maybe I've been around braggers and I, I just, you know, don't like that.

But I am, and it's not bragging, I am proud of it, that I know when you leave here, if you've at all applied yourself, your word, Dave, you are a better driver and a better human being. Absolutely. If you stay here, you continue to grow. If you leave, please take that with you. But just one point about your message there, Jam, is the guys that you just give and you give and you give and there's no response. When you have nothing but complaints about us and there's nothing wrong with

what you're doing. Right. There's just nothing wrong with what you're doing. And you have PTO complaints, you have pit complaints, you have how many hours you work complaints. You're like, we're never, we're not the company we used to be complaints where you just rip us apart. It's like, wow, there's nothing you can do to change that. It's got to be exhausting being perfect.

Right? It is all up to us. And the thing is, is every one of us here and anybody that's bought in, we are doing everything we possibly can to make ourselves better. There isn't one question from 150 people that we don't field. Right.

Imagine this. also treat treat jfw the way you want us to treat you as well i know that's kind of a i know that's kind of a that's what my mom taught us or whatever what i don't know what i'm trying to say there do you got it in the lord's prayer absolutely okay but imagine calling me and and telling me just for example hey jam i feel like there's something wrong in my pto can you take a look at it. And I'm going to give a shout out to somebody in a second on it. Sorry, I digress.

And I told you, yeah. And then the next day he came to me and you said, Jam, did you have a chance to look at my PTO? And I told you, you know, I was going to, but I decided to talk to my friends all day instead. I mean, what the fuck would you think about me? What would you think? You'd be like, what do you mean you decided to talk to? I mean, And these are the things that we hear, you know, it just blows my mind.

So if you don't want to do it the JFWA, but you want, and you want, and you want, and you ask, and you ask, and you ask, eventually that, that tree is going to run dry. Like, you know, I don't really have a lot for you. Right. You know, we, we got a lot of leaves growing on our tree, but if you don't add some water, they're not going to continue to grow. Yeah. A quick shout out for Chami Trujillo and I'll wrap my final thought up. There's just ways to get things done around here and ways not.

Tommy Trujillo called me yesterday and said exactly what I just told you about. Hey, Jam, I noticed there's a problem with my PTO. Can you explain to me why I have XXX amount of hours? You know what, Tommy? It's after hours right now. I'd be happy to take a look at it in the morning. If we made a mistake, I'll be glad to fix it, or I'm going to give you an explanation to why your PTO is where it's at. Wow, that sounds great. There's other people that'll call and be like...

You know, you guys took my, you know, just a different approach. So shout out to Tommy for just, you know, being mature and polite and just one explanation for things. That goes a long way. Very cool. Anyway, my final thoughts are done. Let's say the creed and get on out. Sounds great. Together we face and overcome all that stands before us. Together we're absolutely free. Together we joyfully create honest value for those we serve.

Together, we celebrate our differences and respect those with who we work. Together, we are available for our words and our actions. Together, we are the JFW family. Hold on. Just so my final, final thought, right? We've all heard the creed. If that's a piece of paper to you, it probably doesn't mean much. But if you read that, kind of like you were saying, Jim, you'll leave JFW better than when you get here. That creed, I mean, you could apply it to your entire life.

You know, and if you have any questions about what you're doing, I mean, some people say, well, what would Jesus do? You know, around here at work, we're like, well, what does the creed say about your actions? So make it more than a piece of paper. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next week. Thanks, everybody. Be safe. Thank you, guys. Have a great week. Music.