Driver to Driver - A Stokes Trucking Podcast
Episode #21 - Best Friends and Best Fleets!
Welcome back after a long break! On this episode, we talk with John Brodie of 1580 Utility Trailer. John has been selling Stokes Trucking trailers for over 30 years. In segment two, we have a follow up discussion with Ray Andersen, driver of truck 695. Then, Grace and Mark discuss Stokes Trucking being named a "Fleet to Watch" by the folks with "Best Fleets to Drive for".
Welcome back after a long break! On this episode, we talk with John Brodie of 1580 Utility Trailer. John has been selling Stokes Trucking trailers for over 30 years. In segment two, we have a follow up discussion with Ray Andersen, driver of truck 695. Then, Grace and Mark discuss Stokes Trucking being named a "Fleet to Watch" by the folks with "Best Fleets to Drive for".
Welcome to driver, to driver, a Stokes trucking podcast on driver to driver. We will discuss everything related to trucking. And put a stokes trucking spin on it stokes trucking doing the right thing since 1979.
Mark:we're back.
Grace:We're back.
Mark:been a while.
Grace:I don't know how long, but it's been a while.
Mark:episode was released on October 24th. So
Grace:been a while
Mark:three months, grace was just talking about her new job. What's your new job, grace.
Grace:I'm a videographer for USU athletics,
Mark:which means she gets to
Grace:film for the teams for coaches, film
Mark:So practice and games.
Grace:Football hasn't started yet. I've been filming basketball.
Mark:You'll fill them spring practice though. right? That's probably the biggest responsibility for the film crew is football. It's the biggest team
Grace:it brings in the most money.
Mark:Well, there's that too?
Grace:it really, it does
Mark:around. Yes. That's. That's correct. We've got a new puppy. You may hear some scratches in the background. That's the, there's the new puppy. That's the old puppy and the new puppy. that came home last weekend. Mom had to have a female rat terrier. So I'm highly disappointed because she didn't name her Carmella.
Grace:You can't a puppy named Carmella. Doesn't work.
Mark:call her.
Grace:Karma Carm sounds like a fish,
Mark:Tony Calder, Carm all the time. Cause that's what you call Carmella for sure. It is like when your garb,
Grace:like what about Ella Carmella?
Mark:Her Ella,
Grace:Her name Ziva. You had a character.
Mark:Yeah, I thought we were naming him after Tony soprano, but apparently we were naming him after Tony DiNozzo.
Grace:are naming him after Tony soprano. It just happens to be a coincidence that we've got a Ziva.
Mark:Okay.
Grace:She nibbles on toes.
Mark:Yes. She nibbles on anything that's available. She nibbles on my shoes. All right. Um, we're finally back no more. Fred Rico's. grace has a new job. Grace, things are
Grace:no longer smell like pizza. Every single day
Mark:Well you're around athletes college athletes.
Grace:Well, no, I'm above them.
Mark:It hasn't helped you get a date. them
Grace:physically. And literally
Mark:There's the problem. It's your attitude.
Grace:I'll let, I want to explain filming the basketball games is really interesting because you look through a viewfinder on the camera and that's how you watch the game. And it's all pixels. So it's like a video game. And then hearing the audience reactions in the back makes it even more like, like you're in we
Mark:So when You said you're going to digitize the old film. How old is the film that's been on VHS?
Grace:I don't know. I just know it's on VHS and they're going to want us to digitize it in some way, shape or
Mark:be some old stuff. Surely they haven't been using. VHS for Forever
Grace:20 years. I remember watching things on VHS.
Mark:Well, Yeah, I guess I dunno a little more, I want to, I want to know more about that. I want to know what's actually on
Grace:I wanna know more about it too.
Mark:Well, it's been, a, I dunno, it's been awhile. Football took a lot out of my, it was a big time. Suck. for me, Especially in November and December,
Grace:they did good
Mark:because they did good. We ended up having three games in DC in November away. And then there was two more the championship game and the bowl game in December. And then we had the holidays and we've, I've been busy. It's been a busy three months for me, but we're back. We've got a couple segments we're going to throw at ya. I am hopeful. That we're going to be putting out a football recap episode, the next episode, which would be 22, that's kinda my fingers crossed plan, um, I've got an interview. I'm really excited. I've got it. I've got the interview done. There's one more. I'm waiting on. I want to put those two together and then I'm going to have, instead of you cohost, I'm going to have Mike he's the co-driver. What
Grace:I'm your daughter?
Mark:Sorry. honey. So with that, let's roll into our first say What was first grace? I don't even
Grace:You were talking to the dealer
Mark:The D my dealer he'd love to be referred to as a dealer. too, if you know? Brody. it's funny because he's, I don't know how old John is. He's gotta be, He's older than Val. Uh, he's gotta be in his seventies, but, um, yeah, John's John's fun, man. John, John he was a, he's a really good trailer salesman. and he very easily could have been a long haired hippie. let's say. so With that But, uh, let's get into our interview with John Brody. Who's our trailer salesman from utility trailer sales, uh, out of salt lake, but now based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, grace,
Grace:let's roll.
Mark:So John, John Brody with utility trailer sales, you've been with utility for how many.
John:I saw I went to work for utility trailer in January, 1900 90. Mike deputy hired me to be the use trailer, man. At that time he didn't have one. So I was the first use trailer manager and I did that. a couple of years, something like that, miles Gagnon was working there. He was one of the salesman I preferred just selling rather than managing people, because I seemed to do better just doing my own thing. So that's what I've, that's what I got hired to do. I did that for a couple of years. He hired somebody else to, uh, be the youth trailer manager short. You know, like a couple of years later, and that's when miles Gagnon retired and he had a lot of customers up north Stokes, trucking, and up to Logan, the Millers, you know, we had three different Miller companies back then, so, and sharp, trucking. And then, uh, the dairy up there, cache valley dairy. So there was a lot, a lot of good business up in Northern Utah. I originally went to work in 1968 for a fruit loft trailer company. My cousin was, uh, from skull valley, Utah, man. He was in town looking for work when he was like about. 17 years old, 18 years old. And I was working for a part store at the time called felt auto parts in salt lake city. And he went over to fru off to, uh, apply for a job in the parks department.
Mark:So a fruit Hoff. Was it a dealership or was
John:fruit Hoff was a publicly traded company. They were the biggest trailer company manufacturing. In the world back then they had approximately a hundred factory
Val:dealerships. They were all
John:owned and operated. None of them were dealerships. So everything was, was owned by the factory. And they had probably about, uh, seven or eight factories throughout the country.
Mark:So when, when you went to work for free Hoff, w was it semi commercial trailers that you were,
John:Yep, exactly.
Mark:were you selling at that time or you went to work in,
John:They hired me to be in the parks department. And so I started delivering parts to Ws catch company. They were a big patch. They were a big tanker company at, of which was crushed Utah Clark tank lines. That was another big one. P I E I M L Milan truck lines, all, all the old names that aren't even around
Mark:so what was fruit, Hoff manufacturing was it,
John:They manufactured, probably more different types of traders than anybody. They manufactured tankers, dry bands, reefers flatbeds, low boys, livestock trailers, dollies.
Mark:anything. It could be both by a semi at the
John:Just about any kind of semi-trailer that was made was pretty much made by fruit Hoff trailer company.
Mark:um, We're driving in and reefer, obviously. What was the trailer length when you went to work there?
John:Oh yeah
Mark:much shorter
John:Back then they were, people were run 40 foot trailers, 42 foot trailers then. Well, actually they went from, they went from 40 foot to 45 foot, but the reefer guys went to 42 and a half footers instead of 45. I don't know why they, the dry van factory or the dry van. Companies, we're always the first to make the moves to go to longer and bigger traders. So the dry van, companies, they would, they would move into the 45 foot trailers and the reefer guys would follow when the, the flatbed guys was following quite a, quite a bit later. And, uh, so they went from 45 and then, uh, they went to 48 foot trailers. And back in, uh, I think it's 1983, Ronald Reagan, uh, the administration did the surface transportation assistance act. And, uh, when they did that, they changed the federal excise taxed or the truckers were paying more money in federal excise tax that went up to 12%. And the way they, the way that used to be collected was the dealers would pay the factor. The FET, they changed it to the retail price or the end-user paid the FET so that the trucking industry had to step up and pay a lot more taxes on tractors and trailers. And. But one of the things that went along with that surface transportation assistance act as they made it 80,000 pounds legal in all 50 states and they made it so that you could run 48 foot trailers on all federally funded highway. In all the
Mark:Prior to that, it was state-by-state.
John:state by state, uh, there was some of the states, uh, uh, or the railroad had a lot of influence that only allowed them to go to, I think it was 78,000 pounds or 76,000 pounds. So, uh, it really helped, uh, kind of standardized trucking throughout the country.
Mark:Well, what was that? Val?
Val:The last two holdouts were Iowa and Illinois, 73,280 pounds. Don't ask me where they came up with those numbers. but That's what they were 73 to 80.
Mark:Run around
Val:Well, a lot of everybody was going around, uh, least the scales, That's what I did
Mark:of course you did
John:back in the day. Spoke wheels. A lot of, a lot of stuff was on spoke wheels, Dayton wheels. They called it and they were actually stronger, but I'm out here in the west, have a buddy preferred and bud, bud was a trade name like Coca-Cola, but bud made the, you know, the 10 hole, uh, ball and seat wheels. And of course back then they were split rims with, uh, you know, 10, 28 and 10 20 twos.
Mark:bias
John:Bias ply and, and tubes in them. And then they went and they went tubeless in the early seventies. And, uh, a lot of guys didn't want to make the change. It's always interesting with change. You know, a lot of people resist change, but I've, I've always told my customers, uh, It's inevitable and you might as well be the first to make that change because when they went to 53 foot traders that took them off a long time to, to get them all up to that,
Mark:So what, what year did you move from parts in to sales?
John:uh, 19, uh, will prove off, moved me up to, uh, Napa Idaho at the time in 1972, they were opening up a sub-branch and then they finally built a building in Boise. Which is where lake city international ended up buying it. But, uh, I went there in 72 and I worked up in Idaho for five years in parks. I was the parts manager up there. And then in 1977, they brought me down to salt lake city to sell a truck equipment. So I sold, uh, anything pretty much anything that went on on a straight truck dumps. Foreign body service bodies, van bodies, lift gates. Uh, we even had, we even sold the garbage equipment. So I learned about, um, you know, stretching out frames and we'll basis and stuff like that and what they needed to do for, for straight trucks. And then, uh, I did that for probably three or four years. And then one of the trailer salesman retired, well, actually, Trailer manager retired. So they made me use trailer manager, fruit Hoff, and I did that for a few years. And then one of the other trailer salesman retired, and I took his position in, uh, in selling and, uh, did that probably from about to 1990. When I went to work for my deputy at a utility trailer sales or Utah.
Mark:when did fru Hoff cease to exist?
John:Well, they, they, they went through a unfriendly takeover by a man named Asher Edelman who, uh, he was an undervalued stock. He was a publicly traded company, undervalued stock. He went in and started buying all kinds of stock to take over the company and they fought him and they fought him and they fought him off. So they finally got him back out of them, out of the business, but it, uh, it blew. It relates, stretched their, uh, their money. And then they came up with a reefer trailer called the space light, and it had no side posts in it. It was just a composite reefer with no sight post. And they thought that was going to be the best thing ever, but it turned out to work. It was a complete disaster for
Mark:them.
John:It failed. Like there was no tomorrow. And so. they, ended up replacing the boxes with no sheet and post reefers, the standard type that we still see today, but that cost them a fortune. So between those two things, they ended up taking out chapter 11
Mark:Hmm
John:and that was in about 1992. Roughly right in there,
Mark:So did you get out because you felt like the end was,
John:near, it was looking not too good back when my back, when I made the move, so I made the move before the, and then Wabash ended up buying them out. So why, uh, Wabash ended up getting their, uh, their trade name, which was. They made their own fruit Hoff made their own suspensions. They made their own landing gears. Um, actually they made more of their own components than anybody did, and they were kind of like Mack truck. So the good thing for them is they were all captive items. The bad thing is people didn't like him because you had to buy your parts and your actual stuff like that from fruit Hoff. So, um, it was a good concept, but, uh, You know, fruit Hoff, they had their own way of doing things and it seemed like they didn't want to listen to the public, you know, with some of the things that needed to change. And they didn't really get those changes done on them and end up going out of business. But I've just read recently that they're going to start making through Hoff trailers again, here in the USA, where there they're already.
Mark:while bash still owns the
John:Um they own the, uh, they own the pro porn name. Uh, but, uh, fru Hoff, I guess it going to, they were making them in Mexico for awhile. I'm not sure if they still are or not, but they are now going to start building them. And one of the old factories, I forgot which one, but they're going to start building fruit, Hoff traders again, but I'll tell you what, uh, uh, working for a utility, uh, Uh, I just, the only regret I have is not doing it any sooner because the Bennett family that owns the, uh, the trailer company, a utility, they're a real. Good family. They're straight up. They're honest. Um, it's a dealer network across the entire country and they support them very well. All their, all their customers go through dealers and it's just, and they make a really good trailer. Uh, we've got a utility just recently opened up a third reefer factory and. Down by where a Freightliner is a value might not know where that is,
Val:well, I think there are factors in Saltiel
Mark:which is across the border from
Val:if I had a map in front of me, I could tell you, I can't say it right now.
John:it's across from Laredo, I believe, or somewhere
Val:It's down there.
John:So they've got three reefer factories to drive and factories in one flatbed factory.
Mark:I heard last week. Correct me if I'm wrong. That they're the biggest reefer manufacturer and the country
John:utility has about 85% market share on reefer trailers. So, but they, and they build the best one. They really do. They make a really good reefer. And I'm not saying that because I worked for them, but I'm saying that because they do.
Mark:So what year did you sell Val Stokes? The first trailer he ever sold him was that after he went to work for utility. Yeah
John:I hadn't met Val yet working for fruit Hoff. So I met him when he would come in to meet miles and then miles retired and, and then every time that every time Val would come in, The price was more money in it. It'd get upset and say, jeez miles would always tell me it's the
Val:same price as last time.
John:It's the same price as last time.
Val:Can I
Mark:Yeah. Yeah, you can defend
John:in there
Val:So miles was kind of a legend down there and throughout Utah, really? I I'd say wouldn't you? A lot of old timers knew miles and he was just just the sweetest old feller. When I knew him, when I was a young, you know, I was in my twenties when I met him and must've bought a trailer or two from him and. then. Six months or a year later, I come wandering in there again. And as soon as he saw me, he's like, come on in here and sit down, sweetheart, sit down there now, So he'd hard. what do you need I need another trader miles. What's the price going to be? Same as last time. Don't worry about it, that's how he talked. to you. and he was sincere. and It was, it was just the best. talking to him. That's how he was. Right John.
John:He was, a good man. He was a world war II vet. He, uh, he was in the battle of the bulge. And so, uh, you know, and then when he was getting a little bit older, he had lost a lot of this hearing and he was even a pow, uh, so he went through. A lot of bad history in world war II, but he was, he was really a good guy. Val wasn't, he, he was used to just coming in and buying them for the same price as last time. Miles was just a real interesting, uh, sales guy. He would go out and make a deal with the customer and then tell the factory what they'd have to sell them for. And they would get so upset with You did watch, you know, we got an, and they would, they would seem to figure it out a way to, to, make a work. So, uh, you know, those days of our, our, our kind of history, as far as that goes, you know, where you, don't the factor of what they need to do, but you know, they've been good as far as when you, when you get on a. uh, a deal where you're working with a customer and tell them that you heard that the competitors more money or whatever they step up and they, they try to help us make the right, the right deals for customers. Um, The, you know, they, it's just been a good company to work for. And, and I've really enjoyed the career that I've had in this business because so many people have become my friends over the years. You know, I retired at the end of 2016, moved down to Las Vegas in 2018 full, full time. My, uh, my wife said you got to do something, uh, because I, uh, I, I didn't have a lot of. And then like, uh, retiring it's, it's, it's way different because it's kind of like forcing some of your friends because you're, you know, when they're, when they've been in the business and stuff like that, you don't see him, you know, talk to him like it did. And he, you lose some of those relationships. And so, uh, uh, I, I had a couple of customers call me up and wanted me to sell them some trailers. And I called Justin deputy and asked him. If I could help get the Las Vegas store going, they had it, they opened up a parts and service store and they didn't have anybody selling trailers in Las Vegas. So I've been doing that out of Vegas now since 2018, of course, right now with the industry is there's. There's no, there's no trailers to sell. Uh, it's just a strange time right now with all the, the demand that we have going on with.
Mark:So 54 years in selling trailers or parts for semi-trailers, have you ever seen a supply crunch,
John:Never. Never, never, never liked this. I've seen, you know, we've had ups and downs and, and times were, um, you've taken all kinds of trade ins for, you know, What you thought was a good, a good decision. And then the bottom drops and then all of a sudden you've gotten all these and that's, I think that's hurt dealers over the past, where all of a sudden you've got all this inventory, that's worth a lot less money than what you paid for it. So you gotta, you got to have money set aside for what they call it. Write down where you're going, write down your equipment and then, and then resell it. I haven't seen anything like that for probably the last. I don't know, 2008 or something like that, you know, it's it's it's and, and I think, I mean, we've got, we got a growing population. That's just, it's hard to, I think that's a big thing to try to keep up with the population. You have everybody eats with reefers. Everybody eats them. So that's always been a. Product line is when things do go bad. Like, you know, when the oil field business went bad, uh, you know, that kind of related equipment slows down, um,
Mark:flatbeds up and
John:plant beds up and down, you know, the construction equipment, uh, you know, we think construction equipment is going to pick up now with, uh, you know, with some more money going out into the inner structure.
Val:So some fun facts, maybe. So when John and I met one another, it was like, we hit it off right we really liked one another right away. And so your memory's a lot better. than mine. What he'd been selling his traders More than 40 years? I reckon.
Mark:It's it's if we do the math, it's a little over 30 or right around 30.
Val:Yeah. Well, a good long time. Anyway, through that we've not only become dear friends. We're like the dearest of friends. Johns. you can take, I don't like my wife. He knows things about me, nobody else on earth knows. So in that way, So, yeah, we're, we're tight, but the thing, so I've learned a lot stuff about you that I didn't know, just sitting here listening to some of your history. I knew a lot of it, but not every bit of it, And it's pretty interesting, but I was thinking about it. fun, some fun facts we might throw out. So when I was a pup, there were a lot of trailer brands out there Freehauf being one, a very common name, you'd see all, all over the place, but you helped me. You probably can do this a lot better than I am. But when I was, when I first got in business, you'd see American reefers comment Dorsey. Who else Fru Hoff
John:mobile
Val:trail? Mobile was a big one.
John:mobile was a big one. Uh, when they got out of business, they started selling them up in Canada. But, uh, I think they're completely out of business now, but calm. It was out of, uh,
Val:well, Idaho,
John:uh or
Val:in the Northwest
John:or something like that. And
Mark:TMT
John:attempting will attempt. He's still making grain
Mark:yeah, I don't think they're
Val:folded into great Dan
John:Tiffany did make a reefer. Trailer. And they build a brand new, uh, uh, factory in Wayne, Nebraska,
Mark:and a hundred times.
John:and then, uh, great day and bought them out. And that was their they're super sealed. And that was, that turned out to be their lightweight trailer. And people used to call it the Wayne Dane because they made it in, in Fort Wayne, And, uh, and then of course, great names been in business for a long time. And there's still good manufact. Strict is still in business, uh, Stoughton still in business, but in Dorsey, I think Dorsey's up and going again, I think, but I'm but, uh,
Mark:I picked up a new Dorsey reefer in Elba, Alabama. One time that didn't have a unit on it.
John:oh yeah. That's what, that was one of their factories. And then Hobbs Hobbs was a division of Fruitland and they were out of Texas. And they made the, uh, livestock trailers, uh, and they made low boys too, but it's the, the industry's changed quite a bit. Uh, when the, uh, the original, uh, antilock brakes came out in like the mid seventies and they were. They were a disaster. They didn't work. People were unhooking them and, and it was given all kinds of truckers grief. And, and then the federal government backed off that law to let them work on coming up with a better solution. And then they got it going again and probably the still early nineties. And Issues. I remember even working through some, but the veil on, on stuff like that, but it seems like they've, they've kinda got the antilock brakes working get.
Mark:So what do you think was the biggest technology change that you've seen in trailers over your years?
John:You know, I, as far as technology goes, not, not a lot, I mean, a bow, you know, they still, the door's still open and closed the same way with the, with the handles that are. I mean they're, they they're very effective, but there's nothing that's really changed much with them. Disc brakes is turning out to be a lot of fleets, including Stokes tracking. It's gone to disc brakes and everybody that was buying them. It seems to like him. I mean, they stop quicker. And you correct me, but, uh, from what we were told from customers that did start running originally, Don Stockley, he, he bought a, uh, Kenworth with a disc brakes on it and he hadn't even replaced the brakes on it. When he traded it in before 500,000 miles,
Mark:we've had a few that have gone that far, uh, It's like everything else, if you, if you abuse it, they'll go quick. You've got to stay on top. The maintenance on them because the rotors and the calipers are so expensive compared to drum. But the stop, just the decrease in the stopping distance, you know, it's a safety thing for us. The truck can stop so much faster. It's a, it's a no brainer to put them on there as far as I'm concerned.
John:I agree. And that's one thing that. Than I did. And, and I still do when, when I, when I see something out there that's new in the industry that I think is a benefit. Uh, you know, the tire inflation systems, um PSI was, um probably the first one to come out with it and, uh,
Mark:I got bought by a Meritor
John:owns them now. And. They're still selling the product. Uh, uh, and then, uh, and Rickson came out with one, what I didn't like about the Meritor was it, it would put air in the tires, but it would never let air out so they could become overinflated. And, um, which, you know, I mean, the, the real thing you want now is to have your tires. At that level that you want them at 95 pounds, whatever you, whatever you choose, but you want to have it regulated. So if you, if you get too much air, it lets air out. And the tire max pro does that with the Hendrickson. And now they've got the tire max pro
Mark:Hello lb
John:it will be that you're going to,
Mark:If we can get them there, there's been some question about whether we can actually get them or not because of parts availability, but yeah, they'll, they'll let air out clear out. Like based off a weight, you can go all the way down to 80 PSI.
John:And that's good when you've got an empty trailer. Yeah. So that's, that's been, that's probably the biggest technology that really happened for traders. That
Mark:I was a little surprised and I guess I shouldn't have been if I'd think about the history, but I was a little surprised when we toured the factory that there's still wood in the. I have a reefer internal in the floor,
John:The fillers. Yeah. Um, it's a, it's a real hardwood. It's a, it's like an appetizer. They grew it over in Asia and it, um, utilities tested, uh, the composite pieces. And, uh, they've got a big testing facility in Rancho Cucamonga and of course at the, at, uh, other locations, but they've tested that and it. All the con uh, composite pieces, they still fail. And so that's why utility stays with the wood because the composite is lighter weight and we, you know, utility does make the lightest trailer out there.
Mark:I suppose there's been some advances in technology and like insulation.
John:Um, it's mainly that the changes in, uh, the installation. Basically just because of federal regulations because of the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, blowing agents, which is a
Mark:greenhouse
John:greenhouse gas. And that's, so that's, that's, what's really driven the, the changes on that and that, and to keep it, uh, even, and then California now has new, uh, regulations on that. So, We were getting a bulletins on that from the factory that we had to have a special foam for anything that goes into California. And they've backed off of that, uh, now for, for awhile. But
Val:somewhat better than they were 30, 40 years ago, but floors are better. They're stronger and lighter, and the liners are totally different than the way they were 30 years ago. And they're way better
Mark:inside of all liners,
Val:Wall liners. Yeah.
John:They've improved those. The, the floor reading has gone up from, it used to be the. the floor reading was 14,000 pounds and the heavy duty was 16, 16,000 pounds. And we've got that up to 20,000 pounds now, one and 24,000 pounds for a drive and on some of the woods. So that's, that's, that's improved quite a bit. Um, they're running 57 foot trailers in Texas.
Val:Oh boy,
John:I haven't. And they've been doing that for quite some time. And then you have the wide base tires that I thought would take off, but they haven't, they really haven't taken off that much. But I, I think it's a good way to go, but people really seem to have their concerns about the fact, if you get a flat tire, what are you going to do? Next
Val:wiring harnesses are much better than they were. in the old day. all that stuff's a lot
Mark:lights lights are better, visibility's better,
Val:less maintenance, more trouble. yeah,
John:yeah they, you know, they went from incandescent lights to led lights, but, um, we're hearing that, that, uh, you know, there there's, there's supply problems now with lights too with, so I don't know if there's supply problems with led, but somebody was telling me they might, somebody might have to go back to incandescent with some. But
Mark:man, I hope not.
John:yeah. You know, w w one complaint that I did hear from a couple of people at this, with the incandescent one, it's snowing, the heat, they put off, keeps the snow melted off the lights. Yeah. So that would be
Mark:LEDs. You got to clean off
John:Other than other than that, you're using a lot less power. So you can, you can put more lights on them if you want to get more lights on them. Uh, currently there's there's shortages of stainless steel shortage is at the aluminum. Again, things that we I've never seen it like this before, as far as you know, or people can't get what they need
Mark:need.
John:So let's hope that it gets behind us then.
Mark:So Val's all about.
Val:Gave me
Mark:a good, funny story from
Val:tell us about some of the characters you've known through the years.
John:Oh, we've, there's been,
Val:I don't know. Can we do that? Can we name names?
Mark:Well, I mean, if, if there's a potential of a little litigation, you can keep the names out of it. We can beep them out too. If we really need,
John:There's always, there's always some, always some good stories. we've had a lot of fun times over the years, you know, we're, we've, uh, we fail, bought his first set of golf clubs that he used once.
Mark:he has golf clubs.
John:Yeah,
Val:Oh,
John:had we took him back to the carrier factory back when we were the, still the, the carrier dealer. And, we went and played golf. Had a good time. Uh, That was left-handed. I mean, that doesn't, it doesn't really matter, but I think that was about the only time he ever played golf was at the time
Val:I've played a few you know, it all goes the same.
Mark:The grass is in danger when you're on the golf course After
Val:about the first or second all I'm wondering what in the world am I doing? here? This sucks.
John:Sometimes I wonder that myself, you know, I had one of my customers, Brian gones, he fired me one day. I got home from a meeting that. Well, you know, where the auto dealer for yard tractors and I got back from a meeting and I says, Hey, aren't you about due for a new Ottawa art tractor? And he says, John Brody, that that should be your job. You should know when we need one you're fired.
Val:So
John:So I said, okay. And I went back and told my boss, Bob Mueller, that I. And he said, okay, we'll have somebody else just work that account. And then it so they had two or three other salesmen work it and they never did really get things going again. So I went back and, uh, it was a good lesson for me, uh, which, uh, was the lesson to kind of think about the customer's needs more than what you're trying to do and stuff like that. So he. I went back and started selling them trailers again. And it turned out to be, they were one of my very good accounts up until my retirement time. So she hated food stores. Good company. He's retired since then. We're still good friends. Brian and I are. And, uh, Jay Payne with carrier Transicold. He is a good friend of mine. A lot of people become good friends and sharp. Larry Miller. He was a good, good friend. Of course he died to spend just about one year ago since he's died. Yeah.
Val:be here in a few days.
John:And so I'm one of the old guys and I'm, you know, I'm, I'm doing, I don't know how many more years I'll do it. I mean, I, I enjoy doing it. I enjoy the relationships. It's a great industry. Good people in this, in this, uh, it's the hard workers that's for sure.
Val:So I'll try to throw out another fun thing that maybe John could I'll get the ball rolling and see if he can carry it to the end zone. So I call him Brody isms. Okay. So here's if it's yellow, let it mellow. But if it's brown, flush it down.
John:I had a man from Budd wheels. His name is Dave Tanner. Good guy, good guy. This was years ago. He came into my office back when they were having a drought and Califia. And they said, one of the things that they were talking about to save water is when you go to the bathroom, if it's, if it's yellow, let it mellow with it's brown, flush it down. I think I'm supposed to told that devel a long time ago,
Val:So here's another one. this is probably my favorite. So if you say, Hey, bill or Jack or Jim, how you doing and you start getting a lot more information than you really wanted to hear, or if they're telling you a story and you don't really care about all the minutia, you just want the punchline. The Brody ism is don't. Tell me all about the labor pains. Just show me the baby.
John:We had we, we in, uh,
Val:I love that one that
John:yeah, this is years ago. We helped, we hired a new guy in the shop to go out there and do bids and stuff like that. Uh, his, uh, his name was Dave, Michelle, and he came into my office. I sold a used trailer and I gave the shopper list of some things I needed to get fixed on it for the, for the customer. And he came in and started telling me all about how they were going to fix it. How many rivets they were going to use and all that stuff. And I looked at him, I says, Dave, don't show me the labor pains. Just show me the baby. And he, uh, he's okay. When he got up and left and, uh, I dunno, like 30 minutes later, th that's back when we had a trailer parked at the side of the building, you know, when we were growing before they built the new building and I go walking in and I was walking by Bob Mueller's office and Bob says, Hey, come in here. I said, yeah, what's going on? He says, what'd you do today? She says, what do you mean? He said, well, he's he says he just came in and told me you are the most condescending person who's ever talked to him. I started laughing. I said, oh, I said, I just told him not to give me all the details about fixing the trailer. Just show me that. Don't show me the labor pains. Just show me the baby. So I had to go out there and tell him I was all sorry, and all that stuff. And tell him that. Go ahead and complete confidence in the, in the shop to fix it correctly. And, and that it wasn't necessary to tell me all about how they were going to fix it.
Mark:Do you have any idea how many trailers you've sold over your career?
John:You know, I used to even have people ask me that how many I'd sell on a year and I, I didn't keep track. I would imagine probably over the, my history, I guess maybe. I don't know, maybe 3000 or something like that. I don't know. You know, a lot of my customers bought one or two, three or four down or 20. I didn't have, I didn't have any real big fleets, you know, that bought 50 or a hundred at a time. So most of them were in the groups of twenties and tens and, you know, 15 stuff like that.
Mark:the labor intensive guys.
John:The guys that the heart and the hard work and people, you know,
Mark:Well we've, we've talked away almost 50 minutes.
John:Wow.
Mark:Just like
John:I hope he had some good stories that we talked about.
Mark:Was there anything else you wanted to get to Val?
Val:I guess I could say a few things about along with John, everybody else down. there, Every service manager they've ever had. Every parts guy, the owners, the deputies, everybody, uh, Claire, the finance guy, everybody down there has treated us so good through the years. Not saying we're a big, huge, giant. thing, But we wouldn't be what we are without them.
Mark:So that brings up another question. You started buying trailers from John after he went to work for utility. Had you always bought utility trailers prior to
Val:no. As a matter of fact, I, the very first trailer I bought was a comet. and I bought that in 1979. When I bought my first truck, the Freightliner dealer ship in salt lake was selling those things. But they weren't set up to service traders or repair a trailer. But I didn't think about that at the timer, you know, so after I didn't have that trailer very long. And a guy that I had working with me Jack now, back in Wisconsin and it screwed up the truck, but it screwed up the trailer too. it. Put a little bit of a bow in the whole trailer. Well, the only place in town that could straighten that trailer up was utility. So when I got the trailer back, you could look down the bottom rail on either side of that trailer. And it was as straight as a string. And after that experience, if I ever make enough money to buy a new trader, I know where I'm going. You know, and we bought, a, I bought a couple of used utilities and then we'd been buying new ones ever
Mark:mid eighties
Val:Yeah. mid eighties, and bought a few from miles. And then John took over. We've been buying them there ever since.
Mark:I feel very fortunate to have been able to get to know you over the last dozen years or whatever I've been around here. I hope you keep selling trailers for a little while.
John:Well, I'm the lucky man I'll guarantee you there's just been a, you know, you guys have become my friends Vous, like a brother to me. I never had a brother in the name. adopted him as my brother. And I think he has with me too.
Val:Julian always says we have a bromance going on and that's fine by me.
Mark:hell. He's a lot of fun to hang out with. So,
John:And then, but you know, the, you know, the Mike deputy he's he's since retired and his son. Spencer and Justin, as they've bought out the dealership from their dad and they're doing a great job, but it's, it's been a good, really, a good company to work for. I've got, I've got no complaints at all. I was the only regrets I have, like I say, is not going to work for them sooner. So, yeah. And then, uh, you know, you guys didn't really get to see how you guys have grown now with your own building now here and, and then. You know, it's, it's good to see the growth and, uh, and the friendships that you make in, in all kinds of ways of life. But this, this is just one of the things that we've got lucky in. You
Val:That's one of the best things about the trucking business It's a crappy business in a lot of ways, but the people that are working in it and supporting it are the best people on earth.
John:That's for sure.
Mark:All right. Well, thank you for joining us.
John:You're welcome. Thank you for asking me. I'm glad that's, it's a privilege to sit behind this microphone with
Mark:All right. We're back from a great segment with John Brody and Val Stokes in that segment. Th we did have to edit out a little bit. There may have been some names in a story drop that I thought wouldn't be great for. I mean, it was really good for broadcast, but that guy has relatives that are still alive. So I didn't want to necessarily put him on blast. So next up we've got Ray Anderson and it's a follow-up from an interview we did earlier with Ray. I can't remember what episode it was. It was 15 or 16, maybe where we talked about him finding his blood relatives, his siblings, his blood sibling,
Grace:biological
Mark:siblings. he finally Has met one of them in person, and we were able to facilitate that and I thought it was a pretty cool story. without any further ado, no, I hate what what, what can I say? Wordle?
Grace:get into that.
Mark:If you, if you're not playing Wordle, let's talk about that for a minute. If you're not playing world wardrobe, Wardle,
Grace:uh, do I've used it. It's never worked for me. Same with irate.
Mark:Okay. We got to explain what Wordle is. Most people don't know. Your mom didn't know
Grace:it was bought by the Washington post.
Mark:Oh, it wasn't really,
Grace:people are worried that it's going to be put behind a
Mark:Uh, no, really? You Did you read how it done?
Grace:No,
Mark:some dude in, uh, England, um, he's a programmer and his boyfriend was really into word games, crosswords, and things like that. And he wrote the program for this game. That's how it started. Um, to give his boyfriend something to do yeah. That, That he created. And I, I love Wardle. If you don't know what it is, Google it, look it up and you can start playing it and you can send me your score every day. That's The, in the fam bam. That's what we got going. Now. All five of us, Caleb, Kaylin, my wife and grace and me, Cindy, each other every morning, the fam bam, the Wordle. And so far I'm success.
Grace:I was doing, I wasn't having a good two-day streak with getting it by the third or fourth word today. Messed me.
Mark:Today was pretty bad. for everybody except me.
Grace:got lucky
Mark:I got it on a second try.
Grace:I like to start off with a nose like K N O w.
Mark:Oh yeah. Yeah. Do you want to use words that don't duplicate That's the best way to best way to go. And then It's just process of elimination from So here we go with our uh, follow-up interview with Ray Anderson driver of truck 6 95 Ray.
Ray:Yes.
Mark:You got to meet your sister?
Ray:I did. Cheryl.
Mark:And she's older than you right?
Ray:She's five years older.
Mark:And there was one that passed and then a brother and the brother's in
Ray:New York
Mark:New York. They did live in San Diego,
Ray:No, my sister isn't saying. and there's another Senator. Yeah.
Mark:Okay. So the sister, you got to meet Cheryl where's she live
Ray:Nevada, Missouri.
Mark:there's a whole state that pronounced it.
Ray:Yeah. That's yeah.
Mark:So I saw the picture. You guys, there's a, you look alike. There's a lot of,
Ray:you should see me. My other sister we really look alike. Yeah. she's got the cheeks and the whole bit. So, and I, you know, I was able to talk to my brother while we were sitting there at her house and I was able to talk to my other sister, which I never had talked to her yet.
Mark:So did you get to meet a bunch of family that
Ray:I did? my grand niece. And then her sons. And, and That was about all it was there.
Mark:That's awesome. Um, so have you met the sister that's in San Diego
Ray:Just over the phone.
Mark:So you haven't seen her yet? You haven't met the brother.
Ray:No
Mark:but you finally got to meet blood relative.
Ray:It was so crazy. I mean, God just watching her and looking at her we were saying the same stuff. really? Yeah. You know, and, and reacting, you know, when we're on our phones and stuck, mannerisms are just crazy. DNA is so weird, you know, you don't really know what's in you, you know, until you see somebody else doing it.
Mark:Did you get to spend enough time there? I know it was,
Ray:it No, it's never enough time, but it was, yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I was ready to get out.
Mark:Yeah.
Ray:But, uh, I could have stayed there the whole week.
Mark:It's so cool.
Ray:We just, we were so comfortable, you know, and she answered every question I had and, and that was all there was to it. I Got. pictures of my dad. I got pictures of my grandpa.
Mark:Oh, no kid. Yeah.
Ray:And, uh, I guess my dad gave her away at her wedding and, uh, so yeah, so it was, so was so crazy. Um, just how everything just came together.
Mark:I'm so happy for you. I'm glad it worked. I'm glad we got you out there. Finally. I know. You've been asking for, well, you went out there once and she had the COVID right man.
Ray:Or at least they tested positive, but they never really got sick. Yeah.
Mark:Cool. So what does she, I guess she knew didn't she say she's a grandma, but she does she work
Ray:No, she's retired. She's raising her granddaughter.
Mark:Yeah.
Ray:so she does that and then she was a dealer down in in Vegas
Mark:Really? So she retired. Did she?
Ray:Yeah,
Mark:what drew her to Nevada, Missouri,
Ray:her friend, her, friend, her friend went out there and seen how cheap. it was.
Mark:Oh, really.
Ray:And you know, with what's happening in Las Vegas you know, with the increase of rants and everything, it was just unfeasible.
Mark:So when did she move to Nevada?
Ray:A Year and a half ago. Other than that she's been in Vegas this whole
Mark:So you'd been driving by her for 30 years to
Ray:of trips, you know, and yeah, And she was right there. And my mom and my dad was there until they passed. You know, and then everybody else was until they just like spread out.
Mark:Well,
Ray:yeah,
Mark:I'm glad it worked out. I'm glad you were able to get back there to see her. It's like the coolest story.
Ray:Isn't it. awesome.
Mark:It's so neat. It's so neat.
Ray:And then I told my brother and a shot, I'm going to get out there, but I'm going to fly out there. I think I don't want to drive in New York. in Western
Mark:New York, somewhere in me.
Ray:Upstate. Yeah. Yeah. gorgeous. It is. Yeah.
Mark:Go, go in like June, go in January.
Ray:Well, you know, I've been looking up like air flights and
Mark:stuff
Ray:and, and, uh, to go into the New
Mark:I don't know where that is,
Ray:Yeah, but anyways, uh, I think it Stevens Steven's airport is the closest one to it. International steward, international, whatever it is. But in order to get there, it's an 18 hour. deal.
Mark:Oh, really?
Ray:You leave here, go to Vegas, to Tampa and then straight up.
Mark:How far are they from? Like Buffalo?
Ray:I don't think very, I that's what I'm going to do is re reroute my thing.
Mark:If, if he's upstate or well, Syracuse, if I remember right, uh, Southwest flies into Syracuse, New York, I think you'd have to it out Yeah. They, they find a New Hampshire too, which depending on where they're at in New York, like Concord, New Hampshire might not be that far. If they're an Eastern, Eastern upstate right there in Western upstate, I just fly into Buffalo, go to Niagara falls, you know, do the tourist stuff, but do it in June or July. Don't do it.
Ray:No.
Mark:All right, dude, that was all. I just wanted to get a little follow with you
Ray:and you know, and when I meet my other sister and brother I'll, I'll fill you in.
Grace:Pretty good segment with Ray Anderson. Good to know what happened.
Mark:Yeah. Yeah. So it was, I'm really glad we had a little part of helping to facilitate him meeting his sibling, his biological, one of his biological siblings. He's got plans to see the other two that are still alive. Um, I don't, I don't think he wants to drive the truck. to New York. So He's probably going to fly out for that one. But then he's got Another another sister that lives in San Diego, and I'm sure one of these days we'll get him down there to, to visit with her. And he's planning to go back to Carthage at some point, spend more time with his, with his sister that lives in Nevada, Nevada, Nevada
Grace:threw me off when I listened to it.
Mark:I love Nevada. They love to mispronounce things in. Missouri.
Grace:Um, I mean, you could say, say the same thing for Nebraska with preg. it is Prague dad,
Mark:preg. if you're from Nebraska,
Grace:mean, we've got her a and Utah, so
Mark:man away Who's ever Lee or Tuella. No no one who drives. past two ELA on IAT, looks at the sign and says, oh, Hey look, it's two ELA. unless they're Yeah. It's tool. It was Tooley to me for 20 years driving truck until I moved to Utah. Uh, grace, what's our question. of the week.
Grace:Our question of the week. It's not from the road actually.
Mark:Oh, it's not,
Grace:it's not from the road.
Mark:Maybe this might be. because It's been three months and nobody's submitted any questions to because they forgot. We had a podcast
Grace:You posted on Facebook about the best fleets To work
Mark:fleets To drive for. So let's, let's go back a little ways here. Um, there's two large national organizations like trade organizations for trucking. One is ATA the American trucking association. The other one is the TCA, the truckload carriers association. We're a member of the Utah trucking association. We've recently joined the truckload carriers association. We looked at ATA, I think it makes a little more sense for us to to be a member of TCA, the truckload carriers, because that's what we do. We're a truckload
Grace:carrier
Mark:14 years ago, the truckload carriers association and a company called carriers edge started issuing their top 20 best fleets to drive. for in north America. So this includes Canada and the United States. Um, w one of my former employers, Fremont carrot contract carriers has been one of the top 20 fleets several times over the years, they're not in the hall of fame. So this year they came out with a top 20, but they also put eight carriers in the hall of fame. The reason they did that was those eight carriers have been in the top 2010 years. straight. And they wanted to try and make some room
Grace:for
Mark:that are doing really good things, but still recognize, you know, recognize these carriers that are year in and year out. They're, they're one of the best fleets to become a best fleet to drive for, to be awarded that distinction. We had to be nominated by one of our drivers to start out with. And then there was a very extensive questionnaire. It was 110 or 15 questions That we had to answer, not like the multiple choice. It was, they were short answer questions that we had to submit after those that were submitted. We did an interview where it was me and Val Ty, and Tyler did a face to face over zoom interview with one of the peoples, with people, with carriers edge. Um, and then they surveyed our drivers. they're pretty scientific in this. They score everything. So every answer gets a score between one and four. one in five. I can't remember which, and then they add up the scores and the top 20 fleets or the top 20. So. There was a little over 200, I think there is 220 that were nominated, um, of the 220. There was 91 of us that were finalists. So that means we filled out our survey. We did her an interview and enough drivers re replied to the survey themselves. I think we had to have 50% of our Pleat that, um, filled out the survey. So the finalists then got scored. There was 91 finalists. We didn't make the top 20, but we made a fleet to watch they named five fleets to watch. So between the hall of fame, people in the top 20 there's 28. So I guess we're in the top 33, which would mean we're in the top third of the finalist and we're in the top 10% of those that were there, 15% of those that were even
Grace:nominated,
Mark:um, and I'm Pretty proud of that. I, one thing through this process, through some of their questions, we've started the process of changing up a few things that we think are gonna make us a better fleet to drive for. One of them was actually announced today. We sent an email out to everybody where we're creating a driver advisory committee. We're asking for volunteers, we want five of our drivers on there, and we want some, some various experience. You know, we don't want the most experienced guys with Stokes. I want some new people on there because they bring new ideas from other carriers they've been with. And they're going to be for things like we're talking about getting. Giving everybody a swag bag like the football does, right. This is where I got that idea. It sort of grew out of this. Hey, what about uniforms? What do you guys think of doing some type of company uniform kind of evolved from that to, we don't want everybody to just dress the same, but I'd I'd like to have a lot of our drivers. in Something that says Stokes when they make a pickup or delivery, or if they're interacting with someone at a port of entry or something like that. So they're going to need some, some swag shirts, hats, coats, uh, cups. like I'm thinking about throwing a couple of flashlights in there. You know, things like that. Um, well we want the driver's input on what we're going to get them, what this is going to look like. Um, so We're creating a driver advisory committee for that. Um, there's some diversity and inclusion things I'd like to do. It's like one of the questions was, how many female drivers do you have? Well, we have one, we can't force anybody to come apply for a job at Stokes trucking, but maybe we can do some things to encourage that. so we're looking into that We're we're we're we're thinking about it. This the best leads process was really, it was really good for us to go through and it's, it's going to make us better and I am gunning for top 20 That's. like, This was the first year we kind of learned about it. We were recognized I'm, ha I'm happy. about that. I will be disappointed if we're not in the top 20 next
Grace:year
Mark:because I feel like we've turned a corner now as a company and we're we're improving every day. Everybody's thinking of how can we make this better? How can we make it a better place to work, a better place to drive and a real home. So I'm excited, Really excited for the future is Stokes trucking. I've finally turned the podcast into an ad, come drive for us. We're a fleet to watch according to the best fleets to drive for. So, right. Grace puppies asleep
Grace:she's in between your
Mark:Yeah. I know. All right. Well we better wrap this up and get onto the next one, huh? All right. Hopefully in a few weeks, we'll have a football podcast recap out.
Grace:We can talk about the bowl game.
Mark:Oh, stadium is,
Grace:it's pretty nice
Mark:to see it is really. something to see. All right, Gracie, it's great. Being back with you. So excited to be back in the original Frankfurter studio,
Grace:studios steals. got the office.
Mark:That's Frankfurter studios. annex.
Grace:Oh, yeah, that's right. I need you. I need to get you a little sign. Frankfurter studios,
Mark:Christmas,
Grace:Christmas. I did want to get you a keep out of my swamp sign Christmas this year put down by the river.
Mark:All right. We'll uh, we'll catch you all in the next episode.
Thank you for listening to driver to driver. Uh, Stokes trucking podcast. For more information on Stokes trucking, please visit our website Stokes trucking.com. You can also learn more about us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at Stokes trucking. The intro and outro music is I can't keep still. The bumper music between segments is fetch me another one, Both performed by the caffeine creek band Driver to driver is a frankfurter studios production