Episode 179 - "Rising Above Average: The Journey to Excellence"

Jim, you're the type of person you've had probably multiple people in your lives, coaches, teachers, trainers, pastors that have all reached you and you've tried to be better at some point in some capacity at some time in your life. Still trying.

Point exactly, right? Dave, the human nature is to just survive and be average. That is human nature. We're asking for someone to be better than human nature. Music. I see those big, bright, shiny red trucks, just a-truckin' down the road. Those big, bright, shiny red trucks just looking for another load. Well, it's a family tradition, any Rocky Mountain day. Our fathers before us showed us the way.

We work for asphalt cowboys and congregate kings, but that's never been a problem because we got diesel in our veins. We've got diesel in our veins. What's up, JFW family? Welcome back to the Channel 23 podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to reach out and touch your fleet, to engage and inform everyone with all things JFW. Good morning, Jim White, Brother Dave White, and Super Dave Weldon. Hi, everybody. Good morning. I think we're all excited for today's podcast.

As part of our excitement, let's say the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Man, that was some good cadence, wasn't it? Like, we were rocking. Yeah, it's unfortunate that the AI just kind of... Garbles it up a little bit, doesn't it? Yeah, it sounded good this morning, though. The rest of it's great,

but it's like anytime we all do something in unison, it's like you hear one person. Yeah. So clean it up. It tries to clean it up. Tries to clean it up. Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to go out and do some trucking today. We pray for the safety of our fleet, all of their families, and all the other families and individuals we come across on the road today.

We pray for patience in making good, safe decisions. We pray to be accident-free, and that we'll 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, anything and everything you hear on today's podcast is just our expressed opinion. It is not the official opinion of James. Amen.

My mic sounds very muffled today, which is weird. And it's got, uh, everyone else sounds great. So we'll just not keep rolling. Episode 178 had 286 downloads. We are at 93.3 thousand total downloads and we have 742 followers. That's outstanding. Pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. We picked up like six followers this week. Very cool. That's awesome. I thought you were leading into a dad joke though with your mic problems. Nah. I thought you were like going to take us down that road. Nah,

I decided to stop doing that. Oh, give a minute. I'm going to be more serious.

I don't buy it. Well, you guys know I've been pretty open and honest about different addictions that I've had. Right now, I'm trying to overcome my hiking addiction. I'm just not out of the woods yet. Do you guys have the koi fish going this year? They go. all year long they don't come out they stay in there all year long do you know what you call a fake koi fish a fake koi fish, I don't know, a koi toy? I don't know. A decoy? A decoy.

That's neat. You were close. That's so ironic. Are you done? No. Keep going. Because my joke is a fishing joke. Oh, sweet. My last one is when a cougar gets so old, she needs a hearing aid, she becomes a deaf. Oh, man. I've seen this one before. She becomes a deaf leopard. Oh, that's a deaf leopard. Yep. Yep. Love it. Love it. Now I'm done. I, yeah, I mean the fishing, right. It's fishing season, man. Spring has sprung. They are like slaying some fish, some, some hogs up at McConaughey.

I just saw they did a late post last night. This dude caught a 31 inch walleye yesterday up there with that spoiled guide fishing service. I mean, they're, and they're, they're trolling the heck out of the dam and just going, they're just, they're slaying them. Like it is like a convoy against the dam of boats.

There are so many boats they're directional like you have to go north when you're against the dam and if you hook a fish you have to pull out so the other boats can continue trolling and then you turn around and you go down the other side to turn around come back it's for real shit but anyway onward to my joke do you guys you know i guess i'll kind of segue that a little bit to colorado because you guys know like we're the marijuana

capital i mean you go out of colorado to other states you know when marijuana first got legalized here you know they're like oh you got some on you or anything like that so do you guys happen to know how fish get high. With power bait smoking a bowl seaweed. That's all i got one and done i'm out man this kind of weird chicken or uh cougars and fish because mine's chickens. We're all animal jokes to me? Chicken on the sea?

What did Mozart resent about chickens? I don't know, but I resent the same thing. Something about symphony or something. They go on about bach, bach, bach, bach. I love it. That's awesome. That is awesome. What does a possessed chicken lay? Devil legs. There you go. Devil legs. There you go. and the last one you guys got to get this one what does the chicken order at a bar, Buffalo wings. Wow. Wild turkey. Oh, man, you guys. A cocktail. What?

Oh, cheekbone. Pretty good. Sympathetic without a turn-alone mom joke? No, but I just Googled out of nowhere. I just Googled sarcastic jokes. Oh, right up there. And this website popped up that, I mean, these jokes were mean. Oh, boy. I couldn't even read half of them, but some of them were bad. And, uh, I thought this one was worthy. So, you know, I hate it when I go to hug someone that's really sexy and my face smashes right into the mirror.

And did you know, I am totally great at keeping secrets. It's the people I tell them to that chance, but always remember you're just as unique as everyone else.

Your mind wants to dance but your body is really an awkward white guy so good luck, i relate to that one me too jill that's awesome all right new employees we got henry gock justin herrera and dan dominowski welcome to the fleet man yeah well welcome and then in the wash we had two people start we had james or and landon giavonini welcome you guys welcome to the jfw guys celebrations anniversaries we had a couple big ones ricky de leon hit five years on monday happy birthday

happy anniversary ricky happy anniversary ricky way to go ricky yep, sergio cortez and randy alvarez hit one year yesterday happy anniversary guys Man. One year. Yeah. Sergio seems like he just got out of here. Right. It was so funny because I didn't know his last name and I'll, I mean, I'll share. I'm like, man, the Sergio guy must be good. I only know Sergio Portillo. And I'm like, if this guy's worked here a year and I don't know his last name, he's got to be good.

You know, and everybody's looking at me and I'm like, who, who is this guy? And they're like, you talk to him every day. And I'm like, what? Sergio in the shop. I'm like, oh my God, that was his last name. I felt so stupid. That's my bestie. And then let's see. Also, Randy Alvarez, he's done a great job in the last year. So thanks for being here, Randy. Jack O'Crembo Mejia, six years yesterday. Oh, congratulations to Jack. Yeah, that's awesome. Congrats, guys.

Birthdays and family birthday celebrations. We have none available. Can't believe it. We got a bunch of prudes working here. Yeah. No family. Right. You want to give you a shout out there, BD? It's number one on the list. Yeah.

The wife and I were at Costco on Saturday and ran into Pedro Sotelo and he introduced me to his wife and daughter. And they were just super nice. You know, I mean, we stood there and chit chatted for a few seconds and it was just, just refreshing to see somebody out of the work scene. It was kind of funny because we were kind of being typical truck drivers.

And what I mean by that is we were both pushing the carts and we were kind of hiding out on a corner on opposite corners right next to each other. Like, like if one of us would have went, we would have pushed our basket into the other basket.

You know what I mean? but he was behind a like a sign and i just totally didn't see him you know what i mean and and we're as we're we're closer than we are here at the table right and all of a sudden he popped out and he was like hey you're doing some shopping here today and i was like whoa whoa what you know i was so caught off guard you know what i mean so yeah it was it was cool to see him and meet his meet his wife and i don't know if he has more than

one daughter or not but that's funny i've I've ran into Pedro somewhere before. Yeah. And I can't remember, I almost want to say it was like sportsman, not sportsman.

Cabela's maybe or i can't remember it was years ago but i just think that that's it was just so funny because i you know we talk about this all the time right jam you're kind of code what would that be code yellow or whatever when when you're you know and i i kind of i'm looking at people right like i'm looking around i know who's in there and i'll i'll generally if i recognize someone i spot them and i'm like oh that's such and such and man i was i was two feet

from pedro never saw him behind that. It was like a poster or whatever, advertisement, I don't know, price. How much was it? Price sheet, whatever, you know what I mean? And he popped out and I was like, oh, just totally caught off guard. Wow, Pedro, you're $4.99. I'll take two. Cool. J.R. has wanted to give a shout out to Enrique Escalante and Gerardo Sanchez for helping me empty the two overfilled trash cans at the Death and Fuel Hounds.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, way to go. So, yeah, JR sent some pictures too, and they were way over full. Yes, talk about overflowing. Yeah, yeah, they should have been dumped before then. It was nice to have some help. I thought they'd get dumped almost every day. Apparently not. I think of being missed or something. Something in the wash bay happened. When Rich was here. Yeah. Tommy Trujillo, he came up to me the other day to show me his fuel efficiency score. It was up 23.8% out of 99.

Nice. congratulations that's amazing that that's fantastic yeah everybody is trying so hard every time we talk about the stats and i talk to you guys about your groups and different stuff it's uh it's a it's a chunk of people that are doing it right yeah we got a lot jr actually gave me uh guys down secrets about you you should have some stats from jr that we're going to discuss Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A couple of those are just, yeah, amazing. Mind blowing.

Yeah. Mind blowing. Yeah. It just, it's good stuff. Can't wait to sit down with the insurance company. Yes. This is amazing, actually.

It is. It is. What a, what a difference. Yeah. Oh, great. I was just trying to say, think of something, you know, you can't, can't lead a horse to water or whatever the saying is. And we've led a lot of horses to the water. And they're drinking. They're drinking. That's what I mean. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Yeah. We, we drink it. We changed the, the outlook. Yes. For, for the better. Yes. A lot, a lot of positivity. There's been a shift. Yep.

Yep. So another pleasant person, he's pretty new, but calls Beltran. He's pretty engaged and happy to be here. And he's been recognizing other people. And he says, hey, Jam Hopewell as well. I wanted to give a shout out to Valentino and 0088 on the next podcast. I wanted to let everyone know how great he is as a trainer. His work ethic is above and beyond. He went through all my training and detail.

He didn't miss a beat from driving a truck on the road to jumping at different plants and also getting loaded at the different pits he went as far as texting me a list of all the different pits and plants to make sure i knew what channel i needed to be on to talk to the right people so that's something i'd like to give him credit for he's an amazing driver and either and even a better friend slash brother sounds like a bromance to me nice job

valentino we were just talking about you earlier very well earned and deserved shout out there absolutely man that's just you know that's outstanding when you know dave sits down and he has to pick the people and the trainers and put them together and do all of that and what a great review you know just to throw two people together and it turned out fantastic so good stuff right there contrary to popular belief, I do put some thought into that. I know. We were joking about it yesterday.

I want to give a shout out to Super Dave for putting the cheat sheet on the front of the pit list that also has the CV channels. Good job, Sue. Omar Reyes, another great guy. Big shout out to Greg. Talking about Greg Wise, the night course guy. Every time, not sometimes, not once, but every time he takes my truck out to get reloaded, he leaves it better than he found it. Also, he communicates very well and answers any questions one might have on ice. Yeah. I'd like to agree with that.

Shout out to Greg. You know, he's been here, I don't know, three years now, but he has gone above and beyond to try the different jobs we have, you know? Yes. He jumped right into the super dump and became our ace in the super dump. Now he's doing night cores, which is a big job and a lot of responsibility. Very much. Yeah. More now than four, because we had two guys before and now we only have the one.

Right. So he can be spread thin sometimes if they're running four lines in that. So great job, Greg. Yeah. I don't know that we've ever really had a shout out like that for Mike Coors. Yeah. From, yeah, I think that's, he's doing a great job. Couple of fun facts about Greg. Hope you don't mind Greg, but he is on a fitness journey as well. But the fun fact is Greg actually has had a sanctioned MMA fight. Wow. Very cool. Did you? Yeah. No, no, it didn't. What you don't know, right?

Now you know him. I think Biggie used to say that. Yeah, and the job he's doing on Night Coors, that's not to take anything away from Jason Gammage. Because Jason Gammage like rocked that position so flawlessly for the better part of four years at least. Yeah. I forgot about Jason. Jason did a great job. I'm just saying we stand being on days already. Sorry, Jason. You also did great. He truly a warrior.

Yeah. You know, so yeah, he's got some superstars. Yeah, I think what we'd went through, you know, and then, and even the people that work with Jason and he helped them out and stuff is we had no problem with Jason.

So he becomes forgettable, right? Because it's just, he's not on the, not on the tip of your tongue. That's the reason I'm bringing it up, right? Exactly. But everybody else that we've had on there and worked with, there was, there was a struggle with some people. I think the problem is that people that were paired up with Jason kind of took all the attention away from him. Yeah, it's true.

Yeah all right so here does anybody else have any shout out i do i do right you go first you you go i'm getting better remember i'm gonna be a few minutes i just want to throw a shout out out there to kyle galitz he's out sick having some problems and they don't really know what's going on so i kind of you know just want to wish him better maybe we should have thrown him in the prayers but i know our prayers are with him so kyle hopefully

if you're listening yeah you get to feeling better they figure out what's going on and and we you get better soon and then to to uh how does jr say it to to add to that or to copy on that or he always says something to add to that piggyback to piggyback on that thank you jam yeah j that's jr's thing to piggyback on that and he just jumped right in and took over for kyle's team and none of us really even thought about it like i or i should say i never

thought about it i don't know about anybody else like It was just, oh, well, hopefully Kyle's team's doing all right. You know, it just never even occurred to me. There's JR, you know, again, thinking of what needs to be done and just jumping in there and took over, you know, and I don't know where the teams are at and all of that. But, I mean, I know he's reached out and covered, you know, any issues or questions or conversations that have happened and, you know, helping out Kyle's team.

So, you were. I thought just let him sink. No, you didn't, Jim. None of us thought that, but none of us thought to think we need to cover it, you know? So yeah, that was, I just thought that was awesome that, that, you Again, JR is thinking outside the box. So thanks, JR.

You continue to amaze us and jump in there and cover more and more and more stuff that, you know, we're not even thinking of. And then another one here is Eric has made it pretty well known that she's been trying to get her class A CDL and she goes to school here. And I think next week, the fifth. Okay. All right. Seems like it was a five, five date. Yeah, I agree. I buy that. And anyway, she passed her permit and has her class A CDL permit.

So good job, Erica. I think there were a couple hiccups in there, but you persevered and hung in there. And I did ask her, Dave, 90 days last night. Okay. That's how long the permit's been for. So not that long, really. Not really. Yeah. And they do send her a temporary permanent plastic license. Really? Instead of the paper, because that's still your class C. Okay. And you have to use it to like fly and travel. So it's a hard copy.

Interesting. Or plastic. and then you know when you get your cdl right or your pass then you get another plastic yeah they did explain that so she has a cdl b and c right now right uh a she passed her a so she's permit permit permit yep and she'll be going to school next week yeah and she i mean for everybody and everybody is you know or the younger guys have taken her younger drivers have taken it because she teased me i want you and

uncle dave to take it and i'm like i don't want to take it i probably I can't pass it, right? It's been so many years. But she had her class B for a couple weeks and struggled with the combination part of the test. You know, and I know one of them questions, Dave, and I don't know if she talked to you or talked to Casey, but one of them was an alcohol dryer was one of the questions. Wow. And Casey was like, I don't think they've used an alcohol dryer on anything or added alcohol.

That's what I mean. Some of the stuff is so old. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting just questions is all. Yeah. I don't know if you have it on there, but isn't Sam going to school? He is. Yeah. Yeah. Are they doing it together? No, they're two weeks apart. Oh, that would be so cool. Isn't that ironic? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. He's, I think he's here for 30 days, Jim.

And I booked him for three weeks of the 30 days because the first week he needs to study and, and take that online class and study the book. And he's got to get his permit like Eric has got. And then after that, he's got two weeks of, of CDL class, CDL school. So yeah. Yeah. So kind of interesting. He's pretty fired up about it. That's good. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's not, I mean, it was, it was something we talked about

and he's like, yeah, how do I do that? I'd love to do that. That's cool. Yeah. And they're, cause they're going to 303, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. Truck driving school. Yeah. No one better than CDL three or 303 CDL school. Right. Yep. Those are the guys we had on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out. Shout out for them. Use them if you know anybody that's looking to get a CDL. They're the.

They're the shit because they add in the mountain training. Yeah, the mountain training and then their course is a little bit shorter. It's designed a little bit different, so it doesn't take as long. Gotcha. Gotcha. And the mountain course, I mean, you're here in Colorado, give a mountain course. Yeah. So I got a question for you. Are Eric and Jam going to test out in a manual transmission or automatic transmission?

I don't know about Jam. Sam is. Did I say Jam? I'm sorry. You did say Jam. Sam. Sam. I know Erica's been moving TNT, you know, and, you know, just in conversation, I haven't seen her do it or anything like that. I'm like, Erica, just the big thing about a diesel or that is you can't kill it. You don't need to give it fuel. You don't need to do anything else. Just let out the clutch as long as you're in first or second gear. I said, they don't die.

It's not. And, you know, me trying to teach people to drive for so many years is everybody wanted to give a diesel fuel, you know, and slip. Slip the clutch. Yeah, slip the clutch and it just, you don't have to do that. Some people give it gas. A lot of it. Bash the gas and slap the dash. Yeah. And then my last shout out here is to John Moore. Sounds like he's- You took mine, Dave. Oh. No, no. If you got it. I knew if, I was waiting to see if somebody had it on their list.

So yeah, do it, Dave. Yeah, no, he's, this week is the end of six weeks from his first knee surgery and his PT's going well and sounds like Friday he gets the second knee done. Second one, yeah. I understood too. Way to be tough, John, and man, you're getting through it. Hope the round one goes just as smooth as this one. Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think he's had any complications, any issues, hiccups, and I think he had, there was some setback,

but it was like minor. I think he kind of hurt his back is what it was. Oh, that's right. That's right. And it slowed up his feet. He had nothing to do with his knees. But it was like one day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of setback. Yeah. Yeah. I was enjoyed, you know, I know we checked on John, but John's kind of given us an update and just him being involved, you know, letting us know. I've sure enjoyed that. Yeah. And I know that's, that's, you know,

work on his part. Yes. But it sure helps us out and, you know, thinking of him. Engaged. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely engaged. Yep. I wonder if, uh, nurse Laurel had something to do in his recovery. Making sure he did all his prehab and rehab. Yep. Yeah. He's the first person that ever said anything about prehab. Yep. Yes. You know, Randy, never did. Rich never did. No. No, I think that's... A bunch of benefited from it. Yeah. My mom tried to send me the prehab. Prehab, I think. Prehab, yeah.

They should have prehab for kids. That would be good. Listen, this was going to be like a kid home. Just so you know, he's going to have scared straight. Yeah, my own kid. Right, yeah. Yeah. Oh, man, that's funny. For sure.

I don't know if we've mentioned it before, but I think we mentioned that he was back working here, but to marty wanted to give a big shout out for him because and i and i always forget is he 78. 78 78 years old and i asked him the other day and i know he got i got bored at home and wanted to do some other stuff and we just really don't have an opening for him to drive but he's coming in here a couple days a week and helping scooby

out and he's making jfw better yes that's the thing you know to be to be world class you have to have you know have to take care of all the little details and he's back there taking care of the little details, helping Scooby out. And it's just a, it's just a pleasure to see him and, and still have him around. So thanks Marty. I appreciate that. I'm really glad you brought that up. Cause that was my other shout out was to Scooby and to Marty.

Oh yeah. We crushed a culvert last week on a delivery up in Fairplay out of the Fairplay pit. We've been, they, Fairplay, Brandon has been picking up a lot of deliveries out of there And it's just kind of a growing pit as such, not just for Brannon's own use. And we did the delivery up there and it was, it was a, he said, she said, you know what I mean?

I don't know that, I don't know who was at fault, but anyway, a culvert got crushed that we were trying to back over and Scooby and Marty went up there yesterday and they, they, they repaired the culvert, right? We had them jack the dent out, you know, Jim, you and I have done it before and fixed many culverts and made those repairs. And it was kind of funny because, you know, Brandon was asking the, the particular person we were dealing with.

She was like, well, the, the customer, you know, it was a blame game, right? Like he wasn't there. I told the driver, the driver, you know, it was, it was just a not good situation. And I was fine. I finally just sent an email like, listen, we're going to go up there. We're going to offer to fix it. We're going to do our best to fix it. If that's not good enough, we're going to move on. Yeah. And we did. And the customer was thrilled.

I mean, it's my understanding from Scooby. The customer was absolutely thrilled. Called Brannon. Thank you so much for taking care of this. You know, and that was Marty and Scooby. You know what I mean? Marty, 78 years old with Scooby, you know, 77 years old and goes up there and shows. I'm sorry, 57 years old. Sorry, Scoob. I just got to tease you a little bit, man. And they went up there and fixed it, right?

144 years between them or something like that. It's funny, because I'm sitting here, I'm sitting here, and I'm like, how'd Scorpion get an assistant? You want an assistant? And then I was like, oh, wait, that's his supervisor. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then they're going up today because we had a really weird thing we got to get to the bottom of. I just don't understand what happened. I'm not two and two or five on this one. They're not adding up.

And anyway, we had a gate pop open when we crossed the cattle guard leaving pit 21 and pop open. And they just took all the rock and pushed it against the guardrail. And Scooby and Marty are going up there and having to clean that up today. And I guess that's something we should kind of bring up. I know we're still in shout. Is it, is there? Yeah. Okay. All right, good. I'll, I'll leave that alone. Well, at least I thought it was unless I misread it. Touch on it later.

Still, I talked to him. Okay. I mean, it is along with the, talking, talking about the culvert, Dave, and what we need to do about when a customer's not on site. And, you know, we, I don't, like you said, I don't think we really did anything wrong, but we shouldn't have attempted it.

You know, you're trying to make the customer happy, but then at some point you got to go, nope and and that's hard it is hard when you're kind of trying to please yeah you're dicking up and going hey you're not here I'm gonna go back in there yeah when Jim you or I would do it yeah we know it was yeah yeah that tough there's nothing tough calls yeah yeah for sure, Yeah. And it wasn't, just so everybody understands, the end of it didn't get crushed.

We didn't turn the trailer across it. We didn't cut it short, nothing else. We dented it because it didn't have enough top, not topsoil, sorry, material over the top of it. Yeah. Like three feet in from the end. Yeah. It collapsed. Yeah. Yeah. You can't for going across that culvert. Time for it. Got it. You know, and that's the other thing with any culvert, because if it's not installed correctly and compacted on the sides, they all crush.

That's what gives it the strength is the material around the culvert. Right. Yeah. Some engineering. Needs some flow fill. Yeah. I got one more shout out for, uh, Eric Eichner. Eric Eichner was injured. He was mentioned in one of the knowledge challenges as the shredding machine.

But Eric, man, he is, uh, as he's shredding, he's doing his finger exercises and trying to get the swelling out and you know doing pt and exercises and yeah he he wasn't supposed to go back until next week but he kept pushing to get released he wants back in the truck yeah yeah yeah because the surgeon cleared him but comp wouldn't yeah comp's like you don't have enough hand strength grip strength to get in and out of the truck safely which the other point we push a three-point count yeah

three points of contact they got to be good points you can't like be hooking them with your wrist yeah yeah yeah well he yeah no i was just gonna say i i bugged him i'm like hey i heard you got released and he yeah i sure did i said well you gotta make me a promise and he's like what's that and i'm like i don't want to ever see you in here ever ever eric he was like yeah yeah so yeah good he's got a good sense of humor he does he He ended up getting a ride. He's got hardware in his figure.

Yeah. He broke it. Yeah. Yeah. He said it might not ever bend again. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. The one dad broke doesn't, David doesn't close well at all. Yeah. But he is officially released and he's out driving today. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's good. Way to persevere. Yeah. Right. And you want to, I mean, we've seen a lot of different people in there shredding. Eric's the man. He is. Yeah. He puts his nose to that grinder wheel and it's like, oh.

Right? Yeah. I've told Super Dave when it stops, it's peaceful. Yeah. But also cleans up and vacuums after each time. And like. Yeah. He's a rock star. Yeah. He's JFW. Yeah. Yeah. Class. Yeah. Class. Yeah. World, world class. Did you have any suits? He's being the best. He is. He can be at that. Yes. Absolutely. Like just what we talked about earlier today, it doesn't matter if he's shredding or if he's driving, he's doing his best. Or if he's getting hurt.

He's doing his best, right? Yeah. He does that really good. I didn't see that coming. Yeah. Oh, sorry, Eric. All good fun. Yeah. I just, one more shout out, and I know Dave mentioned her and, you know, I'm being selfish because I have a platform here and it's a little public.

But for all your, all you dads and it's, it's a little different because I also work with Erica and I, you know, work with uncle Dave and, you know, me and uncle Dave have had our issues, you know, through the years and stuff, but yeah. Right. There's been a few yelling matches, probably more on my part than, than brother Dave's part. I've seen some throwing tools matches. But I have to say, you know, I'm going to give Erica a personal apology.

We got into it yesterday more of a family thing than really a business thing. And as a father, I lost my temper and I said some things that I probably shouldn't say. And hopefully that there's nothing better than a public apology. And I hope everybody kind of, whether it's with your wife, your kids, or your brother, or sister or whatever, that take the moment to think about if you've had a conflict that you just, you know, practice some grace and, you know, say, I'm sorry.

It, it ends things. So Erica, I'm sorry. You know, it's my fault and I, I didn't handle it well. I apologize. I think we've all been there. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, Jim, that is so noble because everybody has those moments. Emotion takes control. But some people are completely adverse to apologizing. They think it's a, I don't know, a hit on their image or. Like it's a weakness. A weakness. Yes, Dave, thank you. And it's not. If anything, it's a strength. It really is.

Yeah, the strength I'm finding, Dave, is because I was really an ass.

So I have to, I have, but thank you. I, I, I agree with that. I think there's. Emotions are powerful. Yeah. And I, but I think there's, there's just a point where, you know, and I do believe that comes with age where we all, you know, life's getting shorter. Humility. You know, and yeah, there's that, there's that thing. And we talk about it here. I, I hope farther in the, in the podcast here, we talk a little bit about it. Cause I think that's something we practice here at JFW is, is grace.

You know, and that, that makes us better also. Sure. So Dave, I want to apologize to you. Apology accepted. Thanks. Moving on. I got nothing. Apology accepted. The OCB would have been F you driver.

So i do want to apologize if i don't mention your name here so i'm gonna name some drivers here that we know are out there doing it right just because your name isn't on here it doesn't mean that we think you're doing it wrong you're probably doing it right we probably have other reasons to know you're doing it right but these people here just in the last couple weeks have come out doing it right. And what I mean doing it right, driving, dumping, playing on a scale,

not being distracted by their phone. You bet. Not being in their back window while dumping. Distracted by their phone. Yep. Just doing the job right. Number one, and I heard you guys talking in the office, where did these names come from? And some of them are given by other people and some of them are given by me.

Number one todd scuba doll number two mike flat tire cisneros mike i know where that one came from but i i haven't seen that for a while so good job, dustin i think it's the shiner shiner but jr reminded me it's also c cup so dustin c cup courier, I don't know where that one comes from. I do. It came from Veronica, I think. Veronica, yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Gerardo Hedda Sanchez. Matt Stay Loaded Cummins. Let's hope that's talking about trucking. Yep. Dustin Gordo Jr.

Andrew No Nonsense Nonis. And Daniel Double D Sanchez. And he's a new driver on here, so to get on this list quick is good. That is awesome. That is awesome. So Daniel, we had, we had a double D work here before and it was because he'd taken out, was it two drive shafts, Dave? Right. And that was his initials as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Double D. So great job guys. It's nice to just know that you're out there doing it the right way. Yes. Thank you guys.

Outstanding. And like Jim said, I know there's a lot more people or drivers doing that. But, you know, this is who made the list just today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, hopefully we can discuss this just a little bit, but they're the ones stopping at the stop signs before they pull on the scale. They're the ones with zero phone use. You know, they're the ones looking out the back window when they dump, like Dave said. They're the ones, you know, they're just doing everything right.

Not following too close. Not speeding. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. World class. He's knocking on his CD while they're pulling on the scale. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're, they're doing it better, making us the best. Yes. They're being the best they can be. Top notch. Yes. Yep. Absolutely. So. Yeah. And you make that stuff, you do that stuff pretty soon as a habit. Yes. It's just, it's the way I, that's the way they do it.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they're breaking our backs to do it the way. No, no, Jam. I think that's the. I think it's easy for them.

That's what makes it cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. let's get into the discussion this has come up a few times especially with some of the new newer drivers on your pay stubs when you're looking at your pay stub and pay com you'll see a plus or minus number those numbers on your check are comparing your current check to the last check for example the way that it's really coming up is they'll see on your safety bonus this big plus number and then.

The next one is a minus. Minus 200. Did I lose $200? No, you just didn't get the same amount on safety. It's the difference. It's the difference. Or, you know, on your gross, it might say plus 350 bucks. Well, what's that? Well, it's just $350 more from the last check. Yep. Interesting. Yep. Okay. This came up. Your dump valve. That's the lever on your desk that makes your trailer go up and down.

It should be manual to go up. What I mean by it should be mounted to go up, that means you have to hold it up to get your trailer going there. When you take your hand off, it stops going up. You got it spring-loaded and it's got a— And it goes back to the neutral position. It goes back to the neutral position. That is a safety feature so your trailer is not just going up on its own.

Okay? Going down, you put it in a down position and it just gravity feeds the whole way down and that lever doesn't spring load back up into the- It should stay in the down position. It should stay in the down position. So a few things, number one is if you put your trailer valve up and it just stays there and sticks, there's something wrong with the valve. It probably needs to be replaced. It's not cool.

It's a problem. And it might be cool because it quit doing that and you don't have to hold your hand on it when you're dumping. That is not cool. And the big part about that is because we hit a bridge. The Alameda Bridge, we owned it for a year until somebody else hit it. And that's because the PTO stuck on and the, and the, the dump valve was in the raised position and we, we raised it up and hit the bridge. Yep. Total the trailer. It's also not cool because we don't know how many hoses

we've blown out. Yep. Hydraulic hoses. Yeah, lock, lock them and blow them out. is as far up as it can go that pump is still continuing to pressurize and try and dump the load because it's got plenty of oil to do that so we've burned out we've blown out hydraulic lines we've also burned out hydraulic pumps because if you hop out of the truck after you've dumped and you've left it in the raised position because it sticks there and you're looking at how much material could be stuck or what

your liner looks like or any material in the trailer and it's stuck and we've burned up a fuel pump before, or I'm sorry, a hydraulic pump before. So yeah, there's always a reason. Always, always a reason. And some damn good reasons. Yes, damn expensive reasons. Yeah, I got a question. Do we still have any trucks that were... The mechanics installed the valve upside down, so they have to push it down for the trailer to go up. Do we have any of them left? I hope not, Dave, but we sure could.

Do we have them ride it up if there are valves like that? That just goes against nature. It does. It's just an unnatural movement. Up should be up and down, down, right? Yeah. Right. That's just an, it should be illegal. No. When I turn left, I want to go right. When I turn right, I want to go left. Right? No left. No left. Now, if it's installed upside down, the spring load will still work. So you just have to hold it down for it to go up. But if you let go, it goes back.

Yes. Yes. The spring part of it, but the spring part of it is backwards. Like these two are saying, the nature of it, it's going to spring down. Right. Which is up. And the thing is, you guys, we may have had a transmission repair to Kenworth and they took the two lines off underneath. The valve is normal, but the plumbing is backwards. And it is literally like as fast as you can slide under there. They're all on quick connects and you swap the two lines.

So if that happens, would you have to hold it to make the trailer go down? Yes. Would it stay? Correct. Yes, it reverses. It would stay in the upside. The lever direction would be correct. No, the lever direction would be backwards. It's wrong, yeah. Yeah, so I'm actually wrong when I said that, Jim. You could just swap the lines and it's wrong. It's wrong. Down has to be spring loaded at that point. But then the other case that we started to discuss is the valve could be in backwards.

Yes. You want the spring loaded to the top. You want to have to hold it in the raised position. Well, yeah. So there's no confusion. The spring loaded shoves it back down, which is down. Spring loaded, you have to hold against the spring to get it to go up. If it doesn't work like this, ride it up. You want your trailer to go in there? Close your lever up and make sure you have to keep your hand on it for the trailer to go up. 10-4. All right.

I'm as clear as mine. To get your load off, you have to keep your hand on it. In the up position. All right. Uh, we're just barely scratched the surface here. So this is going to be interesting. This is going to be a long one. All right. Jazz wants to say while slips heating or coming back from time off, please report issues with the truck and trailer. For example, mud flaps ripped or falling off, dirty cab, missing items, et cetera.

A text with pictures to someone in leadership helps so we can find out the driver who left the truck in that condition. so we can hold that person accountable. Totally agree with that. Please make sure it's worth our time though too. We have had some pictures come across and it's like a McDonald's back from yesterday that's just sitting there. It was forgotten. Yes. It jumped out. Right. Not a big deal. The biggest one was, I left my hard hat on the seat and now

it's on the floor. They threw it on the floor. Do you remember who that was? 30 people? I left my phone charger in there and they just threw it on the floor. I. They stole my phone charger. Boy, how many of those have we had? Four hours later. Oh, I found it on the dashboard. Did you look everywhere for it? I looked everywhere. Yeah. Oh, I found it. It was on the seat. Or it was actually in the glove box. Yeah. Or the side box. Yeah. Door panel. Yeah.

All right. From Linda. And this goes back to the, not fair play, but Hartzell Culver. Review driving over sidewalks and culverts. The driver has authority to refuse going over them so we do not cause damage. You are the captain of your ship. Call dispatch and let them know too. So yeah, absolutely. If a customer asks you to do something that could cause damage, you can say, I'm not going to do that. When I was a ready mix driver for AI, anytime we backed over a curb,

the customer would have to sign that they're taking responsibility for that curb. Absolutely. Yeah. And you can do the same thing most of them. I mean, all the drivers really should have an hourly book with them. Just fill out the hourly book. Backing over the curb, you take responsibility. Backing over the culvert. Same responsibility. I mean, it's kind of funny, Jim, the tickets have changed so much because they're just like that cardboard pop-out piece.

The old carbon copy tickets used to have that. Yeah. When that customer signed for that ticket, they were signing and accepting the delivery issues if there were any. I mean, it was right there in the fine print. You had to show it to them, but just a different world today. Yeah, very true. Yeah, 90% in a plant. Yeah. The difference. Yeah. If you are talking to the customer and you guys can't agree on who's going to

be responsible for doing that, don't get into an argument. Just give dispatch a call. They're really good at talking to the customer. They are really good. And they'll take it from there. Yep. Yep. All right. The do's and the don't do's of dumping next to each other and plant courtesies. It's come up a few times where drivers don't understand actually what is safe and what's not safe and what is courteous and discourteous.

And it happens at Plant 12 a lot because at Plant 12, you can have somebody dumping sand and you can get set up to dump your rock or, you know, you could potentially back into a bin that's far enough away from that other truck. You know, some drivers just hear like, hey, if I'm over here dumb, don't, you know, don't come around, don't do anything, right?

It's all about communication and courtesy. So, you know, Super Dave, if you were dumping sand at Plan 12 and I saw you were just backing up to the pile or barely starting to lift your trailer and I came around that rock stockpile to get set up to dump rock, especially if I'm dumping it in the stockpile there is absolutely nothing wrong with that right we can both dump at the same time.

Nobody's in harm's way I'm not trying to cut you off we're actually being efficient the other thing is is if your trailer's in the air and you're empty the hazard is pretty much over from you tipping over so if you're letting your trailer down and the same thing I come around to go get set up coming past an empty trailer Or it's not the end of the world, guys and girls. It's actually okay. That makes sense and it's efficient.

Now, if your trailer is coming down and I drive in front of you while your trailer is coming down and your tractor is moving forward, that's not good because now you got a brake. And we have mixers do that to us a lot. We call it the turtle move or the mixer move. That'll piss somebody off. I don't recommend doing that. Okay. The other thing is you can't dump one bin away from each other. You know, you can't be in the sand and then we skip the sand bin.

And then there's a rock band and I'm in that next rock band where we're not far enough away from each other, where if my trailer, your trailer fell over, somebody could get hurt. Right. So I would say, you know, the trails are 35 or 38 feet. I would say if you're not 45 or 50 feet away from the other truck, don't dump next to each other. Okay.

I mean, we've seen it happen here locally. We've seen it. I mean, we had that one photo from my brother-in-law worked at the, one of the copper mines in Arizona and they had these two big bins. It was kind of a, well, it was a copper mine and they were just bringing raw materials in all day long, 24 seven. Like those bins, they were hogs, man, as much, as fast as you could dump. So those trucks were dumping next to each other.

I don't know what the failure was, but they were dumping next to each other. And one trailer laid right over on top of the cab of the other. And it was, it was not pretty. And then here locally, it's been years ago. And I mean, many people here probably don't even know who Tom Bechtel trucking is. They used to have all the green trucks, Pete's and Kenworth's. You know, he probably had 25 or 30 trucks at one point.

And I forget who laid over on top of who, but a Calabrese truck laid over on top of a Bechtel or a Bechtel laid over on top of a Calabrese. Luckily, nobody was injured. It was more trailer to trailer. And then they were pulling each other's trailers at one point. So we were calling them Becca Breezy.

And the the point is it's a hazard yeah people can die right i mean i know i'm making light of it but it people could die you you those those cabs have zero that's a piece of aluminum over your head that's it it's nothing more than a pop can to keep water off you so yeah they are also i mean it's good to be efficient but don't get in a rush you know if you gotta wait a minute you know just to be polite and be more courteous, that's okay too.

But like you mentioned, Jam, it's about the communication. That's your brother or sister there dumping, hop right on the radio. Hey, I see you're empty and trailer's coming down. I'm going to start running mine up. You know, or I'm going to back bike. I mean, it's the communication and efficiency. I'm coming in front of you, that okay? Yeah. You know, or anything like that. That's all you have to mention. Yeah.

If the trailer's all the way in the air, you don't want to drive right in front of them. If the trailer's three stages down, you can practically drive right in front of them. You know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. So big, big difference there. The other thing I want to mention is we have leasees running out of these pits as well and plants, I should say.

And if you see one of them doing something, not the JFWA, you're actually allowed to go talk to them and have a conversation like, Hey, I don't know if you know, but we don't jump next to each other.

And this is, this is why it's really dangerous. And we don't want anybody to die.

You know and if if they don't want to cooperate or they give you any any you know shit back just like dispatch now you know dispatch they definitely respect dispatch because that's who keeps them working you know and they they may not be aware they don't have the training program that we have they haven't seen the things that we've seen they don't have a safety team guiding them so feel free to talk to them i mean those guys

they like jfw wear their bread and butter that's how they get fed so talk to them spread spread our culture to them yeah yeah all right i think this was from casey he was talking about backing and dumping with the windows down and not up. Safety concern can't hear, safety concern. You can't hear what is going on around you while completing the task. Also, make sure all air, electric, and hydraulic lines are not on the catwalk, as this causes unnecessary wear and abrasions.

This is also a rideable offense for DOT, and an easy reason to pull you over for an inspection. Pack it up to the back end, dumping your windows down. Especially trainers, if you're outside of your truck guiding your trainee or spotting him, and he has his windows up, just stop him. Have him roll his windows down so he can hear you. It doesn't make sense if you're training and the windows are up. Yeah. It's a good habit. Yeah, it's a great habit. Got to do it. We talk about that all the time.

It's going to save a problem. Yeah. Absolutely. You can hear what's happening on that truck. You know what's going on. You have vision. You have audible issues you can deal with or hear, know what's going on. We talk about pulling it in and out of the shop. Roll down your windows. We do it in our spots right here. Not because we really need to. Right. Yeah. But it's a habit. It's like, we're going to roll our windows down and back up. Yep. Some of us.

Okay, me, like twice a week. I have to see the fence. I don't want to hit the fence. There you go. Right? Yeah. And if you do hit it, you want to hear that you hit it. What was that? Oh, that's nothing. Just keep going. Oh, shit. When in doubt, guess it out. From Dale Boyes up at Arcosa. Morning, Jam. Please remind the drivers that Arcosa is a pit. Just like all the others, we cannot be out of our trucks while getting loaded. And they have to have their PPE on at all times outside the truck.

We had a loader up here honking at one of the drivers that was out of his truck with no PPE on. I have also told that. Thank you, Dale. I'm saying PPE, not PPE, just for the record. So that's your personal protective equipment, your hard hat and your safety vest has to be on a roller coaster. Yeah. Thanks, Dale. That was a good note. And again, that's just back to being world-class. You're in a pit. You know, you're on our job site. You know, the whole morning there is in the dark.

You know, somebody might not see you. All that, all that kind of stuff. It's what needs to be done to be better. And I think it's easy to lose track of that up there because it is like our own job site. Yeah. Nobody around. up there. It's us in the loader. It's our loader. You know what I mean? I can see totally losing that. You're right, Dave, but when's the best time to do things right? Every time. All the time. When nobody's looking. I do have a question on it.

This could be a podcast question or not, but do we still have the blue room up there? Is it usable? Because I totally forgot about it. I just I just heard about it like two weeks ago. That it was, I haven't, because we're paying for it. It's being cleaned, everything. I know. I guess that's my question. I had just heard that it's blown over and like. Left? Gone or just left like that. Or I don't know. We may need to ask some questions. I would have thought Dale would have said

something. I mean, he's up there all day long, so. He would have to use it. Why? So, unless he's using it sideways or something. There's a talent to that. Open up the book. Also, keep in mind, a COSA is a mine and it's under M-shell. So if M-shell comes around and you don't have your stuff on, that's some big trouble right there. Deep doo-doo. Yeah. I was going to mention. That too about the leasers. A lot of times they don't use their PPE.

So friendly reminder, if you see one of them getting out without a hard hat or safety vest, give them a heads up. Yeah. And if you do it polite and you don't get a polite answer back, we can let dispatch know. We can do something about it. That's part of our culture also. But keep in mind, you guys, and we're going to talk about this in a few minutes, they have no one helping them. No one.

You know, everyone here, and like I say, we're going to talk about it, but every single person here has someone helping them be better. What I mean by that is these reminders, everything we've talked about for the last hour, you know, about having the windows down when you pull in and out of somewhere, when you back in or not dumping next to someone or, I mean, all of the courtesies and things that we've spoke about, they don't have anyone. You know, an owner operator, he's it.

He's his safety team. He's his permit guy.

He's his accounts payable he's his payroll he's his he's got no one he's got him you know and some of these guys with just one or two or three trucks they're still that same person they're the one doing everything from the seat of that cab of that truck so you know if we can help someone be better because that's we're after changing this industry and changing what people think of us we got some good leases too some of it like uh what does it want he does a great job I mean,

he knows what's up. Yeah, J&J. Yep. And I got Michael's work for us for a long time too. I saw him in the office just the other day and I was like, hey. Mm-hmm. Michael. Yep. Absolutely. Somebody want to take this next one? Leaving a scale of pitch 23? I got it. Well, I saw a video on it. Okay. Yeah, you guys. So I'm driving to work this morning, right? and I'm going down 270. Well, I mean, it starts before that.

My kind of routine starts, or not routine, a habit, maybe. Maybe it's a habit. I'm not sure. I come down I-25, and it doesn't matter what lane I'm in or what speed. I don't really have anything I really think about on I-25 when I'm driving. But the minute I turn on that left blinker and I get ready to catch the 270 turnpike exit for 270, 76.

There's a bad spot in the slow lane when you make that exit and it's directly across from the car dealership and the cart place, you know, and it's a horrible hole and it's just in the slow lane. So you have to push off to the, to the dotted line, to the zipper to avoid it or, or you hit it. Right. And then you start around that curve and you get almost out of the curve just before you would have to change lanes to the right.

Again, in the slow lane, the transition from the bridge to the highway, horrible transition. So I go like 45 miles an hour through there or 40. I mean, you go through there at 60 in my pickup, you're going to die. You're going to crash, right? Or bounce your head off the ceiling. And then you, you kind of slow down for the, for the, I call them the speed bumps on 270, right?

And then when you approach the bridges, I still, even after they've top decked them, I still scoot over cause there's some potholes. So I'm riding the shoulder of the road over the bridges. And then when I get off at the two, at the Vasquez exit there, I totally hug the guardrail. Like I'm 12 inches off the guardrail to avoid the holes in the center of the exit. Right? And here's my point. You know where there's rough spots at on our highways. We drive them every single day.

We know that cattle guard is one hell of a bump coming out of pit 21, right? Do we want to hit that at 30 or 10 miles an hour? Well, we're asking you to save on the trucks. We're asking you to be better, just like we're going to start talking about being better and how we're helping to train you to be better. And if you were to ever leave here, you're leaving here a better driver because we've helped you be better.

So we're asking you on that cattle guard up there at pit 21, don't cross it at 20 or 30 miles an hour. Please cross it at 5, 10 miles an hour and then accelerate. You know it's there. You know it's going to be hard on the truck. You know it's going to, it's a beat down. So drive accordingly. Plus to get, I mean, to hit that cattle guard at 20 miles an hour, you're speeding through the pit. Yes. You're still in the pit. Yes. Let's try to do five miles an hour until we get across the cattle guard.

Agreed. That would be my recommendation. Agreed. Yeah, Jim. In addition to being one hell of a bump. Right. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. You launch when you go across that thing. Yeah. The reason this came up is because they complained about it. They did. Yeah. The pit called us and was like, hey. You got somebody like getting ready to go to NASCAR. Yeah. They're hauling the mail to go 30 miles an hour on the road out front. Right. Yeah. And the video, I mean, talk about bouncing around in the cab and you don't think that hurts the truck. That's the illusion that really just baffles me.

Yes you know the you can't stay in your seat you don't think it's hurting the truck right yeah not not good yeah so we want to help you be better and slow down and be better and take care of that equipment and and be all you can be in that seat of that truck mm-hmm.

Enough about that let's uh go over some samsara stats jr was kind enough to put together i can't wait to talk about or hear him jam like and i know him right i heard him last night i was like i know he did send uh something else for speeding let me just pull that up yeah it was down too yeah connect yeah oh dude we should all do do all have to be able to help you out jam it's a good thing we're parked and pulled over because we're all on our phones i haven't even looked podcast

i got it all right so let's talk about the improvements we made from 2024 the last trimester september 1st to december 31st to january 1st to april 30th 2025 first trimester so so we're comparing two quarters well not two quarters two four month period yeah yeah yeah Yep. So 2024, the last trimester, we had an overall safety score of 91. And this first trimester, we're finishing at an overall safety score of a 96. Wow. Yeah.

First trimester or last trimester of 2024, we had 84 harsh breaking attempts, 84 in four months. First trimester of 2025, we had 18, which was an 80% improvement with the implementation of the new driver safety and efficiency metrics. So pretty badass. 80% improvement. I mean, is that just freaking amazing or what? And I happen to know it's 80.6% improvement. See what you can do when you try? I want everything out of that we can get. That 0.6 matters. You know what I mean?

It blows my mind. It's crazy. It just really blows my mind. I mean, that should be information for all of you to sit back and go, oh my god we are all safer yeah we we as a jfw company, We're 80% safer. You know what I mean? 80%. Yeah. That's mind boggling when we've lowered our harsh break events that much. And that tells you how much further down the road we're focusing on. That tells you how much our slower speeds are affecting that, right?

Because we're not driving as fast, so we're not pushing as hard. So we're not running up on that vehicle in front of us, following too close. You know, before the camera just used to yell at you and now the camera is not yelling at you because you're not following close because you're not speeding. I mean, it is just win, win, win, win. I mean, we have a meeting with our insurance, a safety audit, so to speak. It's with the safety guy.

And what is it, Jim, next week? I don't even remember the date. May something. Yeah. That's a statistic to show them. Right, Dave? Oh, boy. Yeah, and they were just out in January, and we renew here at the end of June, and we can't wait to share it with him. I mean, because he took all the notes from when he was here in January, and I mean, here's the data. Here's the data, man. We got the data. Yes, and it just, golly, it makes us, the leadership team here, so proud of this program.

And I know we've had some pushback on the program. We've had some pushback that, oh, you know, this is just something else. This is corporate. This is this. This is that. God dang, you guys, use your heads and listen to what we're talking about as we sit here and speak of the leases that we have that no one's helping them. They have no coach. They have no mentor. They have no leader. They have no one but themselves. And everyone here, you have someone.

You have a shop looking out for you you have a safety team leader helping you you have your teammates helping you you have us helping you you have the leadership here helping you you have you have everyone this isn't cheap talk this is we're walking the walk and you you guys are you're in the race you guys are you guys are leading this race and it's it is so so just amazing to see i mean when you really sit back and look at that statistic and you didn't bring up jam i don't think jr

obviously put it in there so we're 80 percent better and this didn't this number didn't go into account the four months last year was 1.6 million miles the four months this year i believe is 2 million what one. It was 400,000 more miles. Oh, I did. I just did it for the quarter, Dave. You're right. It was because the quarter was 1.8 and we went four months. Yes. So it's 2 million miles. Yes. So, so we're not only that much safe, more safer, right?

We're, we've increased our. We almost did a half a million miles more and still dropped it by 80%. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We want to compare apples to apples in regards to exposure.

Yes. But we're still even better. even better not comparing apples to apples i mean it's like we're comparing apples to pumpkins realistically there was a good chance it would go up yes yes right four hundred thousand miles right in in our old program it would have that's just how it was because we were there was no challenge yep it's uh right where's the challenge to be better it's super nice for us too because we try a lot of things here we try to

get people engaged we try different programs we add this some things take you know traction some don't you know and to put so much effort into something and see it work it's it's pretty rewarding so it is it i mean those numbers they're staggering do you want some more numbers i do i'm i'm like geek us out jim speeding in the fleet overall has improved this trimester by 30 percent light speeding improved by 26 percent moderate speeding improved by 45%,

heavy speeding improved by 60%, and severe speeding improved by 50%. Wow. Could you imagine those numbers? Could you imagine getting that pay increase in your paycheck? 25, 30, 40, 50% more money? I mean, look at what those numbers mean if it was just pay. And we're doing it in safety. We're doing it in speeding. I mean, to just give some kind of comparison, what that, what that means, what's those numbers are huge. Yes.

You know, it's not one or 2%, you know, nothing you mentioned was under 25%, Jim. Right. That's just, that's, that's crazy. So I guess I got to ask everyone out there, are we helping you be better? Cause no one else is. Yeah. And right. Who else is giving you this education, this challenge, this ability, this knowledge, you know, this continuing effort, this continuing ask. You know, we're, we may be the teach everyone out there. I don't, I don't know.

We're about to like blend into the tips and tricks. So I'm like. Almost. We got some more. Okay. All right. Let's keep going with the stats. Driver efficiencies for April, 2025, 121 drivers in a fleet 10 are under the minimum score of 80 for them. I had 79 and with a great day today, no doubt they can end the month with the 80, which will give you your bonus. Yeah. Yeah. If you get both right. If you, yeah. If you're where their safety is. 96 drivers are over the minimum overall score of 80.

86, which are over the 85 mark for the extra percentage for the driver efficiency. Wow, that's awesome. Wow. And we have 15 drivers with the overall score of 100 for the month. How many? 15. Wow. Safety scores. Perfect. Out of 121 drivers in the fleet, 112 are over the minimum score of a 90, nine or under. 79 drivers have a score of 95 or over, which will qualify for the extra percentage. Granted, they meet the required driver efficiency score as well.

And then nine drivers achieve to the end of the month with a score of 100. Wow. Wow. So good stuff. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Let's cruise along because I know Brother Dave is chomping at the bit to get to these chips and drinks. What's next from this patch? We're still looking for a Saturday night course driver or drivers. You know, Greg Wise is solo on the nights that he works, but Saturday nights, we need somebody else.

Yep. Yep. And I did look at the calendar. Next Monday is Cinco de Mayo also. So celebration there. Nice. Then I think there's Mother's Day. Mexico? Hmm? Mexican Mother's Day? Is it? Or our Mother's Day. Our Mother's Day. Everybody's Mother's Day is coming up, but I know that we can announce it. I didn't know that. They're two different dates, Jim? Yeah. Huh. Interesting. We should celebrate those. I was going to say, celebrate them both. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Questions from the audience. Omar Reyes wants to know, will there be a washout at Yard 23? No. I got back you up to for what's next too. I made a quick note and, you know, your question reminded me of it. So we are done digging at the new yard and we're compacting and bringing material up to will be the correct grade for foundation.

So what's next is a foundation. we'll start we'll start forming a foundation and and pouring mud just as soon as we get the dirt all back in and compact it so uh-huh we passed our first couple compaction tests and we're we're cruising going up it's it's all positive we're moving on up moving on up it's awesome it is it was a good day yesterday yeah it was a really good day so then the the washout i i don't know we got enough water lines maybe something we should we should keep in mind you

know it's just someplace though, we have to clean up. Yeah. You know, if you're washing out, we got to, right. We got to clean it up, but we should, it's a big yard. That's, that's washing out would be world-class. Yeah. It would be nice for the drivers that couldn't get washed out somewhere to have a place to go and take care of it. Yeah. With all of that though, you got to think of, let's not abuse it.

We bring back a ton of material, you know, that kind of stuff should be sweeping out at the plants, but yeah, that's a good, it's a good question. We should have a place to make us world-class. Yeah. I mean, I'm still torn on it because everything we have is capable of being swept out, Jim. You know what I mean? Are there some occasions that a washout would be nice, right? Would that be nice? Yeah, it would. And I feel, you know, like Jim said, you still got to do your

job, Dave. That's what we feel. It's that borderline, like, I hauled a load of Coors. I need a washout. No, you don't. You need a broom out. You need a sweep out. You know, there's, there's no load of Coors you can't sweep out good enough to go get a load of sand or rock. There's not. And, and I, I struggle with that. So, I mean, it's like how much grain all of a sudden would we have back at the yard or, you know, like you said, it would, it would be washed.

It would, we would have this disaster area. We could probably reclaim grain and then just how 25 tons of grain. Yeah. We could feed it to all the deer running up and down Sand Creek, right? You know, and then you got that too. You guys, you know, when you're washing out at the pits, that's just lake water. That's just their plant water that they're running in. You know, I imagine there's a cost to it, but the only water we have over there is city water.

Yeah. It's drinking water. So there's going to be a cost to running drinking water too. And I know we wash our trucks and all that kind of stuff, but there's always more to the situation. And we're not going to have fire hose capability like the pit has, right, Jim? Yeah, no, it's not. We're going to have- We got good water pressure, but it'll rinse the trailer out. Will it do that?

Fire hose? Yeah, I don't think you're going to stand a trailer up in the air and spray 35 feet up to the nose from the ground. It's not fire hose. Yeah. You don't want it. It ain't going to be fire hose. I can guarantee you that. All my rays will not have a wash. Safety topic of the week. If you are tired, do not fight through it. Pull over and rest. Get out of the truck for a little bit. Man, it is scary to...

Watch somebody fall asleep when they're driving. Yes. You know, if you didn't get a good night's rest, you know, is it upsetting if somebody called out because they didn't have enough sleep? Yeah, it's a little upsetting, especially if you're calling out the whole day. But, uh, you know, if you're out trucking and you're getting tired and you know you're tired, we will not be upset at all.

If you pull over and get some rest or get out of the truck and stretch, get an energy drink or drink more water, whatever it is, that's going to get you through it. But don't, don't fight it because you're, it's a losing fight. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the airline, I want to say it was one of the airline unions. I don't think it was a specific airline, but you know, I mean, that's a, that's a big deal flying a plane, right?

You can't be, can't be sleepy and oh, I'll put her on autopilot, whatever. Anyway, they did a study and I don't know how long the study was jam, but they proved between coffee, energy drinks, you know, yada, yada, yada. You know, what keeps you up the best? Water? Water. Especially if you're over 50. Right? Yeah, because you're awake because you're about to pee your pants. Yeah. Yep, for sure. Yeah. I was going to say sex.

Sex keeps you up. Heck, yeah, that keeps you up the best. Puts me to sleep afterwards. Talk about it, Tony.

Too funny. All right. Tips and tricks. Here we are. we don't have, tips and tricks as you are used to this everything we do here is a tip and trick so i'm gonna read you a couple things because i threw this out to the team yesterday we actually have a podcast chat which has been game-changing for me for these outlines because all the leadership team just writes in on this podcast chat then i just go and pick things out of there put on the outline which is great so

in the chat we threw out that you know we're looking to see what does jfw do to make drivers better so i'm gonna give you a little synopsis and we're gonna dive deeper right if you become a driver at jfw we guarantee you you will be a better driver than when you got here everything from your pm your pre and post trips all of our truck systems to safe mountain driving you will be better from working here joanne went on to say and this is an adult show so i'm just reading are you yeah okay yeah

how do you know children don't listen to this show they listen at the beginning love the music for the music so joanne joanne leonard everybody in case you.

What's hilarious about the hr hr hr hr is gonna lay it on you here yeah how jfw makes better drivers we fucking care 100 no no no it just i don't want to forget sorry we forgot deb in the office as a new employee and then we remembered it and i forgot again we need we need to yeah welcome her yeah yeah deb we are we're sorry we hope you accept our apology i mean she's been And it was her third day, and she's been full of smiles and joyful and saying hi.

Not crying about that. Yeah, not crying yet. We haven't put her on our lock. I haven't ran her off yet. Yeah. So, yeah, welcome, Deb. Sorry we missed you. Sorry, I just thought of it, Jim, and... Thinking about HR. You could blame your department head for that. I think you should rewind and start over. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. Cause you had a pretty powerful entrance there. It was pretty good. From Joanne, our HR lady. How JFW makes better drivers? We fucking care.

100% want people to succeed for themselves. We want to help people and help this industry be great. It's not only the leaders who do an awesome job at training, but we have drivers here who really care and want the best for everyone. Amen. Boom. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's, that's just said. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to jump right in there. Cause I've been like chomping at the bit, the whole podcast. I know you guys are. Hold it back. Hold it back. Right. I have.

Somebody want to go before Dave? Yeah. Let me, let me get in there. We're releasing the hounds. Yeah. No, I just, I, the, this whole thing is about being better and about helping you be better. You know, and everybody thinks, oh, you know, the, you know, I'll throw Rick Gray out there and Rick, you don't do this, but a guy that could do it is like, oh, I'm so tired of hearing the same thing every week, right? We've had drivers with Rick's tenure say that to us.

Like, I don't want to listen to the podcast anymore. It's the same old thing. We're helping you be better. The goal here is to be better. You know, and I have so many things here and I hope I don't jump around and I'm too scatterbrained, But, you know, one of the big things is this one guy that I happen to follow, Sebastian Ingen, and he's a motivational speaker, has his own business, an entrepreneur.

And during every interview, he asks these questions or this question, and he wants to know your answer to it. What's most important to you at your job? Money? Relationships? Accolades and recognition? Or growing? Okay. And there's only one answer. Only one answer. Growing. Growing takes care of the money. Growing builds the relationships. Growing creates the accolades and the recognition. When you focus on growing, everything else comes into play. We are helping you grow here at JFW.

You may not realize it, but if you step back and you look at the training we provided just the first two weeks you were here. If you realize the questions we asked when Super Dave sat you down and hired you at the interview, we are helping you be better. And I bet you left that interview. Jam, we were talking before the podcast and Jam's like, I'm a grown ass man. First thing I did when I left this interview is called my mom and was like. Mom, this place is different.

I think they really care. We really care. We really do. You all at some point in your life, either your spouse or you or your children, you have had a teacher, a coach, a mentor, a pastor, a someone in your life, a parent, a sibling that has helped you be better. And to be better, they've been tough on you. Yeah. You probably hated them. You did not like that person. J.R. just mentioned it yesterday. He said, owning my own home. My dad was always on me growing up.

You need to do this. You need to do that. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And He goes, you know, it wasn't until I owned my own home that I understood why. And I really appreciate it. But he goes, it was, there was sure a lot of days there. And I made the joke like that, like the, the karate kid, you know, wax on, wax off. What? You know, that kid spent weeks polishing the floor, polishing cars, waxing things. Like, why am I doing this? And, and you know, Miyagi-Do had to show him finally, right?

These are the reasons we're helping you be better. And we just talked about it. Is anyone helping that Lisi be better? He's got no one. He's got no one in this industry. You have every single person that works here helping you be better. So we're providing the tools. We're providing the information, but you still have to participate. You still have to be in the game. It's human nature to be average. We're asking you to be above average. You know, the list of drivers.

We're not, I got to interrupt you, Dave. We're not asking. We're helping you to achieve that. It's us to you. Asking, asking you is one thing, giving you a path, giving you the tools, giving you the directions, setting the bar. Right. Then it's up to you. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. Sorry. But it's, but it's still that teacher. We're being that teacher.

If, if you were, if you had your T, I bet there's someone that's listening right now that can name the name of that teacher, either in grade school or junior high or high school that was on your ass. That first report card you got, you had a C or a D or maybe even an F and they're like, this sucks. I'm not doing that. This teacher's a blah, blah, blah, blah. And it was the teacher's fault.

And at some point you hit that note, you hit that moment where you had the realization of, wait a minute, I can do this. And you do it. And at the end of that year, you know, you finished that class. Hell, it may have only been a C, but you passed. And that teacher taught you something. We are that teacher. We are that coach. We are that mentor. We are that, you know, I use the reference to Jam, a pastor. There's, you all have someone in your life that helped you be better.

We're here to help you be better. And we're asking you to be better. We want to be the championship team. You know, again, we talked about it before the podcast, Peyton Manning, when he stepped on the field here as a Denver Bronco, our game just got elevated. You know, and again, we talked about it. His offense took us to the Super Bowl the first year and won. The second year, our defense took us to the Super Bowl and won.

Peyton Manning wasn't on the field when we won that game. I mean, he was, but metaphorically, he raised the level of our defense because of his passion for that game. We are elevating, JFW is elevating our game. We need you involved. We need you to be better. We are challenging you and you guys are rising to the top. When we hear those statistics, we're 80.6% or we have 80.6% fewer harsh break events in half a million more miles.

Game on. You guys are crushing, crushing it, but we need everyone involved, right? We need everyone involved. We need everyone to be like this list of drivers that, that, that jam read off that, uh, they're doing it. They're doing it right. They are not distracted by their phones. They are not texting and driving. They are stopping when they come to the entrance of the scale. They are doing it right. We've looked, we've seen it. They're doing it right.

And again, that's Todd Dull, Mike Cisneros, Dustin Currier, Gerardo Sanchez, Matt Cummins, Dustin Jr., Andrew Nonis, Daniel Sanchez. These are a few of the names that are doing it right. You know, and just like Jam said, because we didn't read your name doesn't mean you're not doing it right. But you need to look at the other stats he read. We have a lot. Absolutely. We picked 10. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm just, I'm really hoping I'm making the point that we are the people here challenging you.

If, if you found something here you don't like, step back and realize what you don't like about it. Do you not like it because we're asking you to do something you don't think you can do or you don't want to do, you know? Or it's just plain hard. Yeah. And if you don't, again, if you don't have a challenge, you're not doing anything. Human beings don't thrive until they're challenged. Otherwise, we just survive. It's just survival mode. Yeah. You know, and- Sharks in its head.

Right? And, you know, we use that term getting off the island, you know, and we spoke about it again before the podcast, right? You know, you're surviving on the island. Yeah. You might catch a fish once in a while. you're not going to die. Yeah. But you're just on the island. You're just surviving. You're living. You're fine. You will spend the rest of your life on that island. Being better is figuring out how to get off that island. Right? That's being better.

And that is the goal. You know, I had Dave bring out his training booklet that we talk about all the time. And oh my God, you look at the things we train you guys on. You know, over a week ago, we were at the, or I guess last week, we were just at the state patrol safety awards and ceremony. And we spoke about it Wednesday morning. It was Tuesday night. We spoke about it Wednesday morning at our table sat one of the guys that's worked at the monument port of entry for five years.

He's been a manager for the last two and he's, he's risen up in the ranks. He was so familiar with us, but you know, we mentioned in here about your lines dragging the deck plate. And he's like, Oh, first thing I look at. If you're letting your lions drag the deck plate, you're not doing anything else. I love to look in your cab because if you're a pig, you're not doing anything else. You're not doing the tough stuff. You're just surviving. Well, be better.

Here's our ask. Be better. We're challenging you to be better. Anybody? Yeah. I just have to add that, Dave. And I know you're harping on that about us challenging us, but I still, I got to back up because that tough teacher, that tough coach, that tough pastor, they challenged you, but they gave you the tools or they gave you the guidance to make you better though, Dave. And worked with you. And worked with you.

We're not just telling you to be better. Yes. It starts with Super Dave's interview. It starts with JR's orientation. It starts with the class. It goes to your trainer. It goes to dispatch. It goes to Joanne, Kathy, and Deb upstairs, you know, working the HR, helping you with your paycheck. We've got apps. We've got questions. We've got this podcast. We've got safety bonuses. We have 401ks. We have insurance. We talk about post-trip. We talk about pre-trip. We've trained you for electronic logs.

We've taught you how to go out of town. We tell you how to bump your tires. We teach you what that tire is at when it gets hot, why it gets hot. We've done everything to make you a better person and a better driver. We do that. We just don't go, oh, I hope you get better. No, Joanne's right. We fucking care about what your life is going to be.

Okay Dave talks about surviving on the island No, we want you to thrive We want you off the island We want you to be the best Because we want to be the best, You know, we want to be world class And you can't do that by just surviving You know And the people that we mention In the, you know, the shout outs And different stuff like that You know, Marty, 78 years old He's thriving, 78 years old You know, I think that's amazing you know, and,

and going up there and fixing the culvert that makes us world-class. The shout outs here, what company, where have you worked that they have shout outs? You know, and, and, and, and maybe it sounds like we're bragging, we're bragging so we can be different and better. We send out the anniversaries. We celebrate your kids' birthdays. Where are you guys going in finding that in another company?

And again, you know, I've taken the stance in the last few months and, you know, it, it, I try to be humble, but I'm tired of be humbling, humble when we work so hard at trying to be better. And, and we have, you know, that list of people, we have our safety scores, we're doing it. Right. We are doing it, you guys, and you guys are the ones doing it. Thank you. Amazing. Amazing. You know, I've said it. This will be the third podcast when we talk about Nike.

We are on the curb cheering you on every day. You know, we show up here early and with you, the management team, the, you know, the owners, whatever you want to look at. The mechanics are here early. The wash bay. or wash bays out there just making you look good because they wash your goddamn trunk. Making you look better. Yes. When does somebody realize that we're doing it? It's being done. And if you don't want to be part of it, if you don't want to hear it again, that's your problem.

Well, you will slowly fade away. Yeah. And that's sad to say, but there's some of those teachers that have kids in class that fail the class. Yep. And that teacher has given them everything they can, just like we're trying to do. You know, you mentioned we're Nike. We're the ones standing on the curb supporting you, Jim. And, you know, I go back to your favorite saying, you know, about the warrior in the arena. You guys are the warriors. You guys and gals are the warriors in the arena.

You are the men and women getting it done on a daily basis. But guess what? We're your support team. We're the ones who sharpened your swords. We're the ones who gave you the padding and the protection so you don't get beat up. We're the ones who fashioned your armor. We're the ones who gave you the guidance, who taught you the moves, who gave you the skills, who gave you all of that to be successful. And that's not to brag at all.

That's to influence you to hope and help you realize what you have and what you are getting. And again, challenge may not be the right word, but the ask to continue to strive to be better. Don't be average, right? Don't just survive. No, you can't just survive. And the speech there, Dave, you know, the man in the, I like to change it to the person in the arena, even though for the time it was, it was man. But the thing is the, the, the, the, the.

The one I love, the, the piece of that I love trying to spit it out is the person who errors. Yes. You know, cause his face is blood or their face is bloodied and marred and dusty and dirty. We don't even care if you err, if you're trying. Yes. Because we'll brush you off. We'll pick you up. We'll, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll get jammed to put a, put a, a compress or a tourniquet on your bleed. We'll get the shop to sharpen your knives. We're going to clean up your, your, your uniform. Right.

And when, when, and we, when we say we, that means every one of us, every one of us, there is no just I here, you know, and it, and it, you know, if we hear the I or my, it's right. It's irritating. It is irritating. Cause there are a lot of great people here making all of us better. Because we are a team. Yep. Just like we are the JFW family. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I feel, I feel like most of the fleet does want to be better. Oh, absolutely. Look at those stats. You can't argue it. Right.

But, but I think we need that, that sermon. You know what I mean? We need that refresher course. We need that, that I don't want to say slap in the face cause I don't want it to be a slap in the face, but want it to be that. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. Right. Yeah. I was recently asked in a conversation about JFW and, and it was, you know, did you, did you get recognized? Did, you know, do they, do they talk about you when you're doing this?

Do you know, when you get this award, do the other people know that you, you got that or you're doing this?

And I was like, no that's that's not what this is about our actions and our people speak so loud that that we don't need that and then and then it was followed up well you know didn't really mean that i'm like does your competition know that does your is your competition doing that and i'm like we're too busy looking ahead yes i'm like i don't know and we we don't care we're we're better than our competition with our words and our actions, you know,

and not because we're looking at them like you just said, we're looking forward, no matter what's going on with the competition. We don't have time to look at them because we're so busy working on ourselves. Exactly. And then the last question, well, no, no, no, I don't really mean that. You know, I don't mean anything about that. Are we doing the right thing is what I mean. And I'll tell you what, when we have stats like that, we are doing the right thing.

When we have a group of people that you announced that are doing the right thing, we're doing the right thing. There's no question about that. When we look the way we look on the road, when we have people compliment us, we're doing the right thing. And when you leave here, that's the whole thing. Lifetime drivers would be awesome. When you leave here, though, I know in my heart, and I'm saying I this time, not the we, the I, you are a better person.

You are a better driver unless you just survived here. If you assimilated our culture and our programs, you're better. I kind of have to go with even if you just survived here, Jim. Well, you're a better driver because there isn't anybody that doesn't take something. Something away. There isn't somebody that doesn't take something that, that makes them better. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, we're asking you to follow rules and, and. Oh, it's this endless.

It's endless. Yeah. And it's not going to end. We live in a day and a time that's different from 30 years ago. You know, in, in working with Erica, everybody and their brother tells her, well, back in the day, back in the day. And I mean, she'll start a conversation. She's like, I know, I know back in the day and back, you know what? back in the day was? Back in the day, it doesn't matter. It was yesterday. That was back in the day, right? We don't do it like that anymore.

We have to do it like this to serve. Here's the analogy or the fact. If we ran things like we did back in the day, we're done, out of business. Give us six, not even six months, done. I don't want anybody to do it. God, Please don't do it. But Dave's best analogy is how long can you look in your rears, your rears, your rears? How long can you look in your mirrors, look behind you and drive forward? Just not very long. Not very long. You're going to crash. Yep.

Yep. Yep. You got to keep looking ahead, man. Yeah. And that's what we do. We continue moving ahead. We continue moving forward. We do even continue raising that bar. You know, last year we thought we had a fabulous safety program. And man, we had some accidents. It was- Last year was probably our worst year in- We hurt people, Dave. Last year was our worst year in several years, and it was disappointing.

And that's what, when this safety program came together, I mean, I've said it before, and I will say it again, I couldn't stop smiling when Sam was reading those statistics. I mean, where we have come from thinking we were safe last year to where we're at today, mind boggling, absolutely mind boggling. And that's due to being challenged. We are going to continue to challenge everyone.

And I hope everyone realizes that they can take an analogy and realize, oh, this is like the teacher I had in the third grade or ninth grade or the coach I had in college or whatever the case may be that it kicked my ass, but I am so better because of it now. It's unbelievable. Yep. So, Dave? I was going to chime in.

And all of that effort that we put in to teach, to coach, to train, to lecture, and it's not just us, it's maybe some of those teachers back in your grade school days or your parents or whatever, that can never stop. Because as soon as you stop, then the effort goes away.

And even though you know you don't like it right to say you're a kid and you're tired of hearing your mom say clean up your room guess what when you're an adult your room's clean and you're telling your kids clean up your room and so it never ever stops unless you want to stop being better or stop learning or just survive right Dave if you're just okay on the island yeah if You're just okay. Yeah. And you know, if you're, if you're good enough and I use that in the interviews a lot.

What is good enough? It's not good enough. Right. Totally, totally agree, dude. Yeah. And the thing with all that is, and I just love to think about it in my, in my whole life, you know, and, and even with you, you three sitting at the table is, you know, and, and as, as my kids are obviously adults, um. And Dave said, you know, we're challenging you. We're challenging you here. You know, we've tried to give you the tools, but my wife challenges me every day.

My kids as being adults, they challenge me every day. You three men here at the table, you challenge me to be better. You know, the, you know, the, the drivers that are out driving right now, they, you guys all challenge me to be better because, because I, I, you know, I'm going to say the words, I owe it to you, but I owe it to myself to be challenged by you, to, to, to make, to make, make you better, make me better.

Jim, that's the reason this Sebastian Ingen, it hit home so hard for me, you know, for him to ask his, his interviews, you know, when he walks in the room to interview someone and he goes, what is most important to you at your job?

And how many people do we have come in here and money money i need to make money i'm in a bad spot i i have to make you know two thousand dollars a week whatever the case may be money money money you know and he asks him is it money is it relationship is it accolades and recognition is it growing what is it he even goes a little further in the one specific reel and and says you know he'll put those four options in four corners and say. You know, give them a percentage, right?

Is this 10% important to you out of a hundred? Right. And, and, you know, add up to your hundred. So, you know, so he knows, right. He's, he's even going another, another gear deeper to find out about it. And man, when he just comes out and says, anybody who tells you those, those others are more important than growing and being better at your craft, he's like, they're wrong. Period. Point blank. They're wrong. When you focus on growing, everything else comes into line.

Every single thing else comes in line. You know, and Dave, you've said it before in a different capacity. You know, we'll have people that work here and they're just, they're in a bad spot in their life. They're going through problems, right? And pretty soon they're missing a day a week or two days a week, or they have to leave earlier, they have this hiccup or they have that hiccup. And you've said it a thousand times, man, just come to work every day and the

rest of the shit works itself out. Truth. I've seen it. I've seen your words come to fruition for years. And those people that I got to leave here, I got to be off or I call out, this happened, that happened. And they're living in their drama and. They're growing their drama because of it. And then pretty soon they're jobless on top of all their other problems. And it's just come to work and things solve themselves, right?

You continue to grow and continue to push and continue to raise that bar and continue to challenge your spouse, challenge your kids. If they're challenging you, you challenge them, accept their challenge, vice versa, whatever the case may be, to be better. to grow. When you focus on being perfect, the rest of the stuff does come in line. You don't think the O-line when Peyton Manning was behind the center, they weren't challenged every snap of that ball, right?

They weren't just looking at winning that game. They had to break it down to play after play after play. They had to dive into the devil in the details and they had to be like, I got to block this guy. I got to block this guy for 60 minutes, you know, for, for 78 snaps, I need to block this guy so he doesn't knock my quarterback down and we can win this game. Right? Yeah. It's, it's, here's the tools. Here's the information. Here's the knowledge. Here's, here's what we're providing you.

You need to be a sponge and absorb it and grow with it and, and take it and you raise your bar.

I love it. Do you? Yeah. Challenge yourself too absolutely yeah yeah yeah there's no yeah yeah i mean i was thinking about the the work comment day where you and we've have seen it where people get deeper and deeper and deeper because they're not showing up at work you know but it's the same thing you know show up at work show up for your relationship yeah show up for your kids yeah you know show up just show up Yeah. You know, the thing is, is that's the, that's the important thing.

You gotta, you gotta show up and we're, we're, we're sitting here, you know, cheering you on, trying to, trying to help you show up. Yep. And we work, we work really hard at that. Absolutely. We have people talk about work-life balance. This is a tough damn job to have work-life balance. That's, that's it. That's. But your point of showing up, you show up when you're at work, you show up when you're at home with your kids, you give them the all the time you're with them.

Yeah. Right. You can't just sit down and bow out. You need to spend time with them, talk to them, pick them up from their sport, go to their teacher conference, go to whatever, you know, participate with them on a weekend. Do, be involved. And when you're involved in their life, it doesn't matter if it's for one hour a day or five hours a day. They know you're involved. They know you're there.

Yeah. You know, pick up the phone and call them and have a conversation with them when they're on their way home from school on the bus. You know what time that is, right? You can tell Siri as you're driving down the road, hey, Siri, call Bob, call my friend, call my son, call Sam, call whatever. It's up to you. You're going to get out what you put in. Yeah, so true. Man. You just want people to realize that. That's the, you know, when we've had people, we've asked people,

you know, go find success elsewhere. Yeah. Because that's not what you're doing here. Yeah, so. And, you know, the great thing is how many great people we have that believe like we believe. Right. And if you don't believe like we're believing again, there's a... There's going to be a separation. You know, it's going to be, it's going to be an issue and probably not for us, but we have to, we have to protect the like-minded people that want to grow.

It's just hard. It's hard. By the way, I fixed my mic. We all sound better. I had my, yeah, this is embarrassing. I'm still learning 179 episodes later. This is the best I've ever sounded. So it's the man in the arena jam. Yep. Yeah. I had the mic backwards.

I'm just looking at mine now because it's the first time I've had one of these mics yours is great mine's been forward all the time so anyway I just fixed it we all sound better because mine was this way picking up everything and not me, we got some reverb going on here driver it's so funny because you mentioned that before we even started the album I sound muffled like something's weird but everyone else sounds great but now we all sound even better and yeah I got this thing tuned up so,

it's just hard when you get the person that doesn't want to be better you know i i don't want to be negative and i kind of hinted at that in the beginning before we started but, i'm still struggling when we get the person that doesn't care and doesn't want to be better it's hard for me to want to fill their cup when they don't have a cup to be filled yeah and yeah like you said like eventually like if you don't want to be better and you don't care about anything that we're

doing and you're not happy here and you're a cancer and you're spreading that just go somewhere else. Yeah, we don't need you here. Especially if you got nothing but complaints about us, then we're not the right fit for you. Yeah. Maybe, obviously you don't believe in what we believe, so don't torture yourself. Yeah. You know, find a better place. Maybe they're there and maybe they're not. I believe that they're not, but that's how much I believe in what we're doing. Agreed.

Whether we believe there are or aren't, I mean, obviously we're biased, right? Mm-hmm. Maybe you find a place that's a better fit for you because they don't really want to be better or they don't care about the things that we care about. Or maybe you find another company, even a different industry, that's a perfect fit. When you're here, we want you to be happy.

Yes. You know? And then, yeah, I mean, I think that was the most recent thing is, you know, looking at somebody that's just not happy to be here day after day after day, it's like, we've had enough. Yeah. If you, if you're not going to go find, if you're not going to go find happiness, we'll help you along to go find it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And, and wish you the best. We, that's the other thing. We wish you no. We don't want anybody to fail. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Cause there's, there is probably people counting on you. Yeah. You know, and that's that, we don't want those people to have to fail. And the thing is, is we wanted you to be better from that for them since day one. You show up here, we're ready to fill your cup.

Yep. yeah so yeah but you damn i mean i know you said it dave you gotta grow, i mean you've you've said when you focus on growing everything else comes into life yeah sebastian says it you know you know the the this is probably a stupid analogy but i just because i think about it a lot and we've talked about it is i ran across the guy for for alzheimer's you know and there's the different stuff about taking this vitamin

and doing this and staying inactive and everything else, and Jam, you'll love this. Is they took 5,500 sets of twins. And the reason I remembered that is because they took them at age 55 and up, this group of them, and they all did squats. Hmm. And there was in the 50, in, in the 55, the 5,500, and I don't know how, I don't remember how they split it out doing squats, but the twins that, you know, they, they split them right.

A twin and a twin, one didn't, one didn't. But anybody that did squats, their cognitive recollection, recollection, recognition, all of that. Recollection. Recollection. Yeah. All of it improved no matter what. They were better because they did squats. Wow. And so you just got to do it. That's what I'm trying to get there. And that's growth. You're growing your legs. You're growing your muscles. You're growing because you're, you're, you're just, you got to do it. Yeah. You know?

How deep are they squatting? I was all that, all the way. Is that, that just body weight? Is that with the weight? Because I'll start doing them. Anything to, to, you know, save off, you know, any, anything. You can't pick up a beer bottle at the bottom and leave it in coming up. Oh, that's funny. That is pretty cool. Yeah, it's just a great stat just from doing squats and helping. I'm going to digress a little bit.

I mean, way out in the weeds, but creatine they're now finding is really, it's like brain nutrients. You know, just regular creatine monohydrate has been proven to give your brain what it needs. So they're starting to use that in like therapy and stuff like that. But creatine is a great cheap supplement that men and women both should take to help with brain function and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. The creatine, I think lots of good studies on collagen. And then, oh, what's the other one?

And for aging, there's the. Red light, red light therapy. Previgym.

Well i mean there's also that deal that you know because they're trying to find out why has alzheimer's and dementia increased tenfold in the last 30 years or 20 years and they're really trying to isolate it and and i mean there's speculation that they're coming out with that's also the same time we started all the cholesterol medicine cholesterol is one of the the the binding agents around your brain that protect your brain and provide it food and, and nourishment.

And we've lowered our cholesterol level because we've been told because of studies that it raises heart disease and stroke. Right. And so there's some studies, right. You know, and it, man, I'm, I'm telling you since 2020 with COVID. Everything about the human body has been exposed. You know what I mean? The whole, the big pharma, the rabbit holes, the what do you believe? You know what I mean?

How big government controls us. And when I say big government, I mean, it's not only big government, but big pharma, fuel, you know. It was a sales. They all sold you something. Right, the cattle association, the drink milk, the- Yeah, the food. The food. Food. The food industry. Yeah. The best way to make money is to sell you something. Right. Tell you it's the best for you. I get it. Yeah. So, I mean, there's, you got to educate yourself on a lot of things. There's a lot of things.

Magnesium is the other one, Jim. Oh, okay. That I'm understanding is a helpful. That's almost like a cure-all. On a lot of this stuff. That goes back to like the 1500s, Jim. Yeah. Yeah. And then, but that's the reason the squats, Dave, are, you know, working out all the time, Jam, because we just don't do that as a, as an older society when all this, we have desk jobs, or we watch a lot of TV, or we sit a lot. We're not out doing something.

We're not out walking, farming, hunting food. We're not doing any of that. Right. There is no muscle building. We ain't running from the lion. Well, I'm not going to the gym today, because usually Wednesdays, I don't want to have a doctor appointment, but 10 a.m. tomorrow. Yeah. You guys want to do those squats? What's your toughest day? Sundays. Sunday morning's me and I, 6 a.m. I thought you'd grab a hold. Oh, today.

Today today todd zelinski yeah shout out to todd wow that's awesome yeah it is yeah yeah when we said that he's like today i'm like some bitch that's a good answer yeah that is a good answer no doubt soup you want to hit us with that high road hauling, wow i've never seen super dave punch something i'll be all right, i'm used to it i'm as i'm as boxing w in our shared office there yeah i've been a punching bag before keep throwing stuff in the back of my head that's just sunflower seeds,

god i'm gonna spit wads so i i don't tell everybody this but i don't do a brand new high road hauling every week oh my gosh say it isn't so I'm too busy what to sit down maybe I don't even have an idea sometimes I don't even have an idea I want a refund last week's was new this week is recycled from January of 2019. But I've been doing this for 10, 11 years, right? Yep. So there's a lot of them, but this one fits really, really, really well. And I just really liked it when I came on it.

So passion, your job and your life. If you want to be successful at your job, you need to be passionate about your work. You need to be motivated and driven to be the best that you can be regardless of your job or your work. Passion, drive, motivation, zeal, call it whatever you want. It is a self-driven attitude about your job and your work that can help lead you down the path to success. Regardless of your current job, bringing passion to your work can lay a foundation for success.

Not just success in your current job, but success for everything you want to try.

Get better at or become the best at You may have great aspirations for your future But the attitude you take towards it Can play a pivotal role in your career and your entire life Passion is an emotion that comes from within you It is your enthusiasm, your zeal, your drive, and your motivation You don't want to just feel passionate about your job You want to put passion into it, You want to apply all of your skills and all of your energy into your work, whatever it is.

Passion does not go unnoticed. People will see how well you do your job and your attitude towards it. They will see even if a task is hard, you don't give in. You apply yourself even more to overcome it. They will notice that your drive and your motivation and their impression of you is that you put that passion into everything that you do. A company has all sorts of workers, each with their own attitude towards their job and their work. Let me show you two types of workers as example.

First, there are the ones who know their job. They do it well without complaint and are always looking to help out for the greater good of the team. The other kind are called clock watchers. The clock watcher muddles through their work just waiting for the clock hands to strike break, lunch, and time to go home. These people dread coming to work. They hate Monday and they are fired up on Friday. But not for their work. Is this who you want to be?

Ultimately, it is about your attitude. You may have heard, if you change your mind, you can change your life.

This is a perfect example. to be passionate about anything you have to care about it change how you look at your job remember it's not about how you feel about your job it's about putting passion into your work be passionate about your work you must be motivated to be the best that you can be over time people will notice how you feel about your job will change and how you feel about yourself will too and the quote this week is just one of the best if if a man is called

to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as michelangelo painted or beethoven composed music or shakespeare wrote pork poetry excuse me he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper. I'm having trouble with that.

Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. And that was spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. So no matter whatever you do, whether we're talking about your job or your relationship or anything that you put in front of you, do it with passion and do it with love and do it with pride. That's the moral of the story, by the way. I love it.

There's not much different, you know, like Dave with the Sebastian Ingen, I think is how you say it, the last one, or Eden, however you say it, but there's not much difference between passion and growing. You know, I mean, if you have a passion about it, you're going to be growing. If you're growing, you must have had some kind of passion about what you were doing. You know, we're just talking, because to be the best street sweeper, you had to grow in your job.

You know, maybe you had to add more water. You had to adjust the brooms or you had to go a little bit slower or whatever. You had to be better, right? You had to, you know, take more time, whatever it was. There was always these tips, right? Always these little tidbits. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think it's so funny, Dave, because this morning you guys are going to crack up.

Dave's listening to me. I'm preparing my final thoughts and he's, he's listening to the stuff that I'm listening to and I'm writing it down and I share the same quote. Hmm. And we had, we had no, until this morning that I didn't know his high road hauling. I didn't know what he was using. And until he heard what I was working on, then he goes, oh my God, Dave, we're, we're, we're sharing this, this little portion of this quote.

I heard you guys go. I'm so far ahead of the curb. I was talking about it in 2019. Right, Dave? Right, right on, man. The message never goes south or whatever. Yeah, right, yeah. You can never stop. It proves we haven't stopped. Yeah. You know what I mean? it proves we haven't stopped. And I guess I'm just going to jump in there because I'm already talking about it, but I wanted to share some things that I truly believe in. And I've abducted a lot of this from Nick Saban.

He's a world-class college coach that just recently retired. And I mean, he's a national speaker. He's a motivational speaker. He just has this amazing insight with athletes and kind of people in general. He can motivate people beyond what the typical person can do. And he shared a story about being the best you can be and to try and help people to be the best they can be. And it goes a little something like this, that if you want to be happy for an hour, Jim, eat a steak.

I know that would make you happy for an hour, right? If you want to be happy for a day, Jim, go golf, right? If you want to be happy for a week, take a cruise. If you want to be happy for a month, maybe go buy a new car. But if you want to be happy in your life, just ask one question. If I didn't show up tomorrow, would anybody miss my ass? That's when you know you've accomplished something of significance. And I always relate this back to my job to just be the best you can be.

Now I'm going to steal something else that, that he spoke about from Martin Luther King had a speech 60 to 70 years ago. He starts to tell a story about a street sweeper. Isn't that ironic, Dave? Yeah. And before he, he tells the story of a street sweeper, he goes on to explain that he goes, I always get my, my shoes polished when I'm in green, Green Bay, Alabama. And he goes, there's only one person I let polish my shoes. And I go to this

gentleman and he does it with gusto. He's, he uses the perfect polish. He, he, you know, rolls that rag across the tips of my shoes and puts a shine on it like nobody else. He carries on the best conversation, his heart, his balance, the way he moves the rag, polishes the shoes, details, the threads, everything he does simply makes him the best shoe shine in the world. I won't have my shoes shined anywhere else.

Then he goes on to say that if you're going to be a street sweeper, you have to do it better than anyone else. You have to do it like you're building the Sistine Chapel, like you're Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. You want to do it so well that you post a sign in your yard that says, you're the best street sweeper in the world and this is where I live. If you do that, you will accomplish the very best things in life.

This way, you are knowing you did the best to be the best you can be in life. Now, the challenge of this isn't normal. It's not natural. Human nature dictates just to survive, just to be average, just like we talked about earlier. If you can survive just staying on the island, why leave? You're on the island.

You'll live forever until you grow old and pass away, right? But if you want to be better than that, if you want to win the championship, if you want to be the best in the world, if you want to be the best driver in the world, if you want to work at the best business in the world, this is something you have to fight for every single day. And this is truly my belief that the JFW family is helping you win your championship.

We're helping you be the best street sweeper we're helping you be the best shoe polisher we're giving you all the tools to be the best truck driver you can be not to just be average not to just be normal but to be better than that so our ask is for you to be the best that you can be all right that's good yeah i absolutely do thanks for doing that me i'm i'm up i'm up i don't know i'm. Thinking on Dave's stuff, because you just, you, we just really want people

to grab hold, you know, to think about that. Right. You know, that's, that's, uh, you know, I, I have two things. One I have since I, and I sent it to, you know, jam and, and Dave and super Dave last week and I can't get it out of my head. I, for some reason it's stuck there, but the, the first one is kind of like what yours, you're talking about, Dave, always do the right, always do right by the people that you are responsible for. And in my mind, you are responsible for everyone around you.

Leadership is everyone's business. You should always be asking yourself, how is it that I can positively affect the lives of those around me? You know, and I mean, it's basically the same thing you've said, same thing we've been saying. When I die, I hope somebody thinks, man, he was a great leader, but by the word leader is that I positively affected somebody's life. That's the thing. That's the goal.

The thing that's just been stuck in my head, and it's the simplest, and you guys will laugh because we talked about it. Hopefully, you can listen to this part over, or you can really just dive down in the simplicity of this line. And we talked about the people that we've had here at JFW and people in life. But I guess I'm going to ask, are you the person who comes to the potluck, a potluck empty-handed, right?

I think everybody knows what a potluck is. A potluck is where everybody gets together and they bring food. Everybody brings an item. Everybody brings an item. It doesn't matter. We could have 10 salads, but you brought something, right? You brought something to the potluck. But are you the person that shows up to the potluck empty-handed, complains about the food that everyone has brought? So you brought nothing, but you're going to complain about all the food that was brought.

And then thinks they are entitled to take leftovers home. I mean, if you guys, if you guys just, man, that's just so powerful to me. And it's so simple. You're talking about a potluck. You're talking about a party, but you're not going to bring anything to the party. You're going to eat all the damn food and complain about it.

And then you're going to want to take the leftovers home. I mean, just, just don't be that person. We can, we can all be better than that. My, my final applause. I like it. When's the potluck? Good final thought, Jim. You got the potatoes. You got anything else, Sue? Oh, I'm good. I see you looking around like you had a head on. No. No? No, I'm good. Your final thoughts were so powerful, I'm not going to get all, I don't have anything profound like that to say today.

What's a profound, Jim? I don't mean to interrupt, Jim. I'm talking about potluck, man. You got to make it profound. It was a profound potluck. Go ahead. I'll never show up to a potluck empty-handed. Right, feeling guilty. You don't mean either. One thing that has been on my heart a little bit these past couple weeks is if you are struggling with your fitness and you want some tips and tricks on that or just where to get started, just let me know. I'd be happy to help you. Oh, fantastic. Yeah.

You know, it's not as hard as you think. And some people just don't know what to do or where to start. And I'd be happy to. Can't believe you're a full-time personal trainer, but I can get you pointed in the right direction. So, and other than that, don't forget to like and subscribe to the Channel 23 podcast. Hit that follow button. Also, don't forget to go back and listen to episode 72 to help find Amber's mom. Links to her story will be in today's show notes.

Let's say the creed and get on out. Together, we face and overcome all that stands before us. Together, we are absent and free. Together, we joyfully create honest value for those we serve.

Together we celebrate our differences and respect those with whom we work together we are accountable for our world's interactions together we are the J-OPSW family alright everybody thanks for listening be the best you that you can be care, show up, give it 100% gotta be growing, gotta be passionate and you gotta bring something to the potluck that's it dig in and challenge yourself have a great week everyone be safe everybody Thank you, Dave. I see those big, bright, shiny red trucks. Music.