This episode is filled with great advice for Truckers! First, our new Director of Retention & Recruiting at Stokes Trucking tells us about himself and offers tips for new drivers. Then, Ty Walker, Mike Hampton, and Brad Long discuss winter driving. Finally, Ty Walker talks about the proper uses of Personal Conveyance and Yard Move. All good tips for new and experienced drivers alike! Don't forget to check out www.stokestrucking.com for more information on our company.
This episode is filled with great advice for Truckers! First, our new Director of Retention & Recruiting at Stokes Trucking tells us about himself and offers tips for new drivers. Then, Ty Walker, Mike Hampton, and Brad Long discuss winter driving. Finally, Ty Walker talks about the proper uses of Personal Conveyance and Yard Move. All good tips for new and experienced drivers alike! Don't forget to check out www.stokestrucking.com for more information on our company.
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:Okay.
Grace:Are you recording?
Mark:Yeah, I turned it on right away. Cause I never know with you when it's gonna be something good.
Grace:I'm not. I'm rusty, dude. It's been what? Six months? You didn't even the last podcast. I wasn't even on here. Yeah. Cuz you thought I was too.
Mark:Hang on, I had you turned way down. Can you hear it better now? You were too damn busy with your own stuff.
Grace:I was in Italy,
Mark:What about my stuff? You weren't in Italy? Cuz it released on the
Grace:What? No, the last one I remember is like you decided that I wasn't good enough. because I was in Italy.
Mark:That was not the No, you just had too much going on and I need to now, it's been six months. Oh, by the way, welcome back to Driver. To Driver,
Grace:Sorry. I breathed
Mark:Sorry. We took a six month hiatus. I'm your host, mark Laver, joined by my usual co-host.
Grace:Grace. Laver. I'm your daughter. Yes, I'm his daughter. If you didn't know that. we've been busy.
Mark:We've been busy.
Grace:It's called football. Well, unfortunately.
Mark:that's true too. But we're back. And um, this episode, actually, all the segments were recorded in my office at the office. crazy. Except for this right here. We're in the, uh, the original Frankfurter Studios right
Grace:Yeah. He's with us right now.
Mark:He actually just walked in the door. he's very judgemental
Grace:Yeah. he just has expectations. He's British. It happens. They're like that. I talked about stereotypes this week in my film class and my teacher like, He asked for examples like we stereotyped Italian people and then French people, and then British people, and he's British. So
Mark:your teacher's British? Yeah. Oh, not just the cat? the cat's not British.
Grace:Frank is British.
Mark:I, he's not
Grace:He's not from the south, no. Does does he look like he's from Mississippi? No, he's. British
Mark:There's a great joke there.
Grace:He's British.
Mark:All right, so, uh, first up on the podcast is Jason Douglas. Jason is our new director of retention and recruiting at Trucking. And there's been a little bit of, um, Well, I shouldn't say a little bit of, I know of one person for sure. That was a little confused as to why we hired a, a retention person, someone who specialized in that. Mostly it was because Thai Walker was too busy with safety. and Tyler's too busy with accounting payables, you know, making sure everybody gets paid. Collecting our bills to do a really good job of getting new drivers through orientation, recruiting potential new drivers, and also making sure our current drivers are happy. That's why the first word in Jason's title is retention, not recruiting. Jason's taken on a lot of little projects around the office that I wanted, uh, handled. So we've got all the drivers' pictures, scrolling on the TVs in the break room, so, so you can see who everyone is, what truck they drive, when they started, that kind of thing. he took the best fleets. Running the show on that this year, making sure the questionnaire gets filled out and we're hitting all our, our timeline dates. Um, but he's also worked through a lot of new policies. We wanted to roll out a, a pet policy. we did, uh, continuing education for not only our drivers, but also their spouses. We've also implemented a new. EAP at the office, um, employee assistance program where we're paying for additional counseling sessions for, for all of our employees up to six and their spouses and any children they have up to the age of 13. So, and every one of these policies you've gotta kinda work through and make sure. Not only that, it's a good policy for your people, but you've gotta have some, some standards and rules that apply to that. And he's doing a lot of the heavy lifting on that and bringing it back to me and Val, and Tyler and Ty, and we're working through it to make sure it's something we wanna put out there for everybody. So, so as we've grown. We realized we needed someone to really work on the retention side, not just recruiting. So that's why his, his main job is retention. If we take care of the retention, we don't have to worry that much about recruiting. So you listen to it? What'd you think Shrug of the shoulders does not show up on radio.
Grace:Well, okay, so like full disclosure. Yes. Listen to it. Half awake.
Mark:Okay. Were you studying?
Grace:Yeah, I was actually that day, but I was like falling asleep.
Mark:So uh, the life of a college student.
Grace:it's wonderful.
Mark:All right. Without any further ado, here is our segment, uh, introducing our new director of retention and recruiting. Jason Douglas Grace.
Grace:let's roll.
Mark:I'm joined today by Jason Douglas. Jason is our new director of retention and recruiting here at Stokes Trucking. Jason, tell me a little about yourself.
Jason:Well, um, professionally, I've been in the industry for 13 plus years. Starting from. Uh, local plumbing warehouse that had local deliveries and then, uh, working my way up to an over the road trucking company, dispatching, and then, uh, moving my way up from dispatching to sales. Then, uh, did a couple years of sales. Uh, moved to recruiting, kind of stuck in the recruiting and picked up safety along the way. So I had kind of a hybrid position of safety in over some recruiters. And then, um, fast forward 10 years later of that, and here I am at Stokes, uh, trying to keep the trucks full and drivers from Quentin in a very competitive industry,
Mark:uh, competitive environment for sure. So what have you seen here that's different from previous stops you've made along the way?
Jason:my career has been mainly over the road trucking, so, Uh, I know it's a dying breed of the guy that kisses his family, you know, at the 4th of July and sees him at Christmas. I've watched that generation weed itself out of trucking. Um, but typically with some of the other places that I've been at, people are on the road two to three weeks at a time where, here at Stokes, um, You know, I was in shock my first week here. We had a safety meeting on a Saturday, and, uh, 85% of the drivers were here on a Saturday at a meeting. which was great. I knew nobody's name, but to see that many people here was a culture shock to me.
Mark:Awesome. Uh, what, what exactly did you want to talk about today?
Jason:I didn't really want to make it a focus. Recruiting for Stokes. Um, that's always a bonus. But, uh, people that know me and know me around the industry, I, I've always taken phone calls whether we could hire the person or not. Um, I'm happy to give information, point'em in a direction, uh, whatever it may be. So, Some of the miscon conceptions, uh, going around the industry and recruiting people, offering outrageous hiring, sign-on bonuses, advertising faults, uh, pay per mile, things like that, that really kind of rub me the wrong way there. There's things that people need to be on the lookout for
Mark:I
Jason:to be the advocate I am for the driver. So any information that I can help share from my experience, um, I like to put out there.
Mark:I see. So you gave me some, some notes to prep off of here. what, what do you think, what do you think the reason is that the turnover rate in the trucking industry is so high?
Jason:one reason companies like us that really care, um, that put that touch on there. We can't touch a new driver for two years. So, uh, a new driver's not gonna see a personal touch employer like us that has a good safety rating, good equipment. Um, sure they might get hired by a five truck guy, but uh, he might not have worker's comp insurance. He probably doesn't offer benefits. And chances are not, you know, he might not even run legal. So, uh, they're getting burnt immediately in their first year into the industry. Um, that's very common. And then, uh, you know, there used to be a lot of overnight pop-up schools that would pride them themselves in helping people get their licenses and. 14 days, I think I can think of one off the top of my head that they advertised, which is not enough time. And then they, there'd be companies that would put them right behind a wheel, so they're fighting an uphill battle. Um, and then they could go the route of, you know, a farmer company that, that has thousands and thousands of trucks and some of'em, Some of them have good programs and mean well, and sometimes people just get lost in the mix. Uh, they go, they're not trained, right. They go with a trainer that is maybe an owner operator and he wants to put'em in the driver's seat, so he gets as many miles as possible and they're, they're not trained, right? So I think that's what it gets down to. They get burned because they aren't trained. Right.
Mark:So in this, the notes he gave me, uh, from cnn, average driver turnover rate is 95%. I imagine that's lower. Since the economy slowed down a little bit, don't you think?
Jason:Yeah, I'd imagine it, it's dropped from that. Um, that's a 2022 statistic. I know around 20 20, 20 19, right there before Covid hit. Uh, the average turnover varies. Were over a hundred percent. So, uh, it, and it's been that way. I, people that are listening to this have probably heard the magic words of driver shortage. I've heard driver shortage since I've been in the industry, so it's just kind of progressively gotten worse and I think that's why you've seen pay go up, cuz. What was your first cent per mile job? Do you remember what you were paid?
Mark:I think the very first job I ever had, I worked for 28 cents a mile. No bonuses.
Jason:no bonuses. See, I remember hiring, uh, I could hire somebody at, at a year, um, if they had a clean MVR or just under a year, and they were starting at 26 cents with a per diem paid into that. So, uh, I, I believe it was like 14 cents would show on. And then 12 cent per diem.
Mark:Wow, that's a huge percentage of per diem.
Jason:Yeah. Yep. And, and I know it will, and it's fluctuated. Uh, you know, some of the, depending on who's president, some are more friendly trucker rules and not, um, what they can do on their taxes. But I've seen it jump up from 26 cents to I see people advertising 70 to 80 cents a mile now. is some of the stuff I want to talk about. Cause it's, it's not quite there. Um,
Mark:70 cents a mile isn't much if you're only running a a hundred miles a week.
Jason:Exactly. Exactly. I mean, you, we could pay 200 cents a mile and send them across the road and call it good. Um, if we felt good about ourselves with that. But, you know, people had in, uh, insurance, I mean, everybody that's. in the industry knows insurance, health insurance is what I'm speaking of is, is outrageous. Um, companies are paying premiums of thousands of dollars. Well, Companies aren't eating that cost anymore, so they're adding that into their cents per mile because of it, uh, how expensive it is. Um, which is fine, but it's not quite trans transparent. If you're telling a guy he's making 80 cents a mile, but it's really 50 cents and 30 cents going towards its premiums, that's not what he's taking home. So, uh, I see a lot of that going on. Which is fine, but a lot of what you say too, people get in short miles. Uh, I know some companies, I've seen their pay stubs where they'll pay more if it's between one and 500 miles, but they're waiting five hours to get loaded. And then maybe they have two drops and one's 300 miles, and the other one's 249 and it's three.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Jason:Um, I've spent the better half of seven or eight years collecting pay stubs from other carriers just so I could really get a fill of what was going on. Um, and I, I, it's insane some of the, the variances of what people pay and how they get creative. I wouldn't necessarily say hide, but, um, and, and there's a lot of people that pay good wages. It's out there.
Mark:Mm-hmm. I think, um, I actually feel the majority of trucking does. we we wouldn't be, I mean, the driver's shortage, everybody talks about the driver's shortage. The store shelves are not empty. Right. Um, the, the things we really need are getting moved. So I don't know that the shortage is huge. When you think about all the millions of trucks that are moving every day, is there how many thousand are sitting empty? That could be hauling a load that day. If they were, if they were seated.
Jason:See, and you hit another point there because, um, I think the ones that get it and the ones that are doing it right, are seated and are moving, but there's hundreds of companies, thousands of companies, 20% of their fleet empty against the fence. I mean, that's a real thing. Yeah. And. And I think those are the ones that are running people a month at a time over the road. You know, the younger generation doesn't want to do that. Nobody wants to do that, really. Um, especially, people with kids, families, hobbies, um, over the road. Life just isn't for. Anybody anymore. And, and it's dying out. I mean, when we start to talk to people and we put our money where our mouth is and, and we have'em home every weekend, that's why our turnover rate is, is drastically lower than 95%. Yeah. For that reason.
Mark:So, and we, we just look this up, right? Our turnover rate is a legitimate, last year was a legitimate 40%.
Jason:Mm-hmm.
Mark:Um, if we look at, if we take out the drivers that. Had to remove for safety issues. It was actually what, 22%?
Jason:It, it was at 22%. And yeah, that was, uh, um, involuntary terminations. Mm-hmm. 22%, excuse me, 22% voluntarily left us for whatever reason. Um, when, when we do exit interviews, it typically seems to be not a trucking job. home every night.
Mark:some, some type of local. Yeah. A cha a career change or retirement. We had a couple retirements last year. Yeah.
Jason:And, and that's a big thing. And, and those guys that, that run like that are really hard to replace, especially the ones that have 7 million miles accident ticket free. That, that's, that's one thing that happens with. To revert back to what we were talking about, the new people in the industry when they're not trained right? You can really mess up your MVR in the first year, especially with things like PS p, things that get ran and get checked, you know, by carriers. Uh, you can make yourself on hireable in six months pretty quick.
Mark:when we first started looking for you and we said it was a retention, not, not just recruiting, it was more about retention. Did you believe that?
Jason:I didn't I, uh, you know, you guys used a third party, uh, recruiter to help, help find, um, somebody for this position. And I remember specifically saying, here's what I do right now and here's what you want me to do. Am I correct? And he's like, yes. And I'm like, are you sure? But you know, as, uh, as this goes on and I, your drivers get to know me and get to know that, uh, I do what I say I'm gonna do, it'll pay off. Um, you know, the, the, I've had. It's snowballing right now. Um, guys are starting to call back and ask for things and, and even just to talk, and that's what I'm here for. Um, and sometimes it's just like telephone, right? They, they've talked to the same post person for two or three years and they think it's just the same message and they're afraid to say, Hey man, I don't want to go here anymore. But, but they don't wanna say it. So when they can come and say it to me and I can be like, yo. They don't wanna go to California anymore. Can we mix it up a little bit? Or they want to go to California. And um, that's one thing I had a misconception of before I went here is California was a four letter word for me, for drivers ate up their clock. Um, the, it's 55 miles an hour. It's not trucker friendly. Northern you have, doners and Southern you have traffic. So, Anyway, you slice it. Nobody wanted to go to California. Well, then I come here and we got drivers running two trips a week and home on the weekend getting 3,500 miles. And it just, that blew my mind that, cuz you know what I was used to is man sitting for a day, then reload the next day and then come back out. Next thing you know, it's three and a half to four days in California because of traffic and, and loading and unloading. So,
Mark:mm-hmm. a little more efficient.
Jason:Yeah, efficient. It's big. You know, we, I have this MSN article right here in front of me too, as, as we're kind of talking about these things and it says, new drivers could rake in anywhere from 120 to 150,000 in their first year. And I won't read who said it as a name by it. It's a, it's an article and uh, that's part of what we're dealing with. Somebody's gonna. To one of these places and expect that we do have drivers that make a hundred grand here. They do. They work their, their tails off to get that. And, uh, you know, they, they're still home for 34 hours on the weekend, maybe once during the week, but, but they are running 35,000 miles a week
Mark:That's 3,500.
Jason:3,500, excuse me.
Mark:Yeah. It, it's pretty typical to run 32 to 33 here. Yeah. Um, certainly 35 isn't, that's not very uncommon. It's common somebody every week's doing that.
Jason:Right?
Mark:right, right. every once in a while we'll hit a 4,000. I mean, that happens legitimately, legally, we do that. So,
Jason:and that's like the peak of your clock. Yeah. Like 4,000 is pushing it. Anybody that's saying they're doing more than that is also adding to the. Big churn of drivers
Mark:Yeah. And, and to do that, you've gotta be. The driver has to be really mindful of everything that he's doing that's taking time. Cuz it's the, it's adding up, the clock is ticking. Uh, I'm not saying you have to be unsafe, but you have to be mindful. You can't leave yourself in on duty for 30 minutes while you're getting a, a whopper, you know? Right. Things like that.
Jason:I'm learning the, the more I'm in this industry as being mindful of being more safe. If you have your clock and you're watching where you need to be and when you need to sleep, and you set up some sort of consistent routine, it's much more safer than one night unloading at one in the morning and then being ready to drive in the morning and then unloading at two, and then going to sleep at 2:00 PM and then waking up at 2:30 AM and then driving seven hours or blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. You know, some drivers have such a funky screwy schedule where they're never getting consistent sleep. So keeping, um, in mind and being mindful of, of where they need to be and, and when they're gonna unload and when they're gonna fuel, I think keeps drivers more aware and safer.
Mark:Certainly. All right. Well, Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Jason:I always like to say, uh, when I go to, trucking schools or talk to people, you know, I'll talk to a guy that's an Uber driver working on getting his license and whatnot, and, and my advice is always protect that. Protect your license, protect your nvr. protect your driving record. get two years experience, accident free, ticket free, and, and that a hundred thousand dollars job comes to you if you wanna work for it. Um, you can work for, you know, smaller fleets like us, or, or find a niche and, and haul fuel or haul cars or own your own truck. Um, if, if driving is something that you want to do, you can make it whatever you want, but protect your nvr.
Mark:Cool. All right. Well, it was great to meet you. Thank you.
Jason:Right. Thank you.
Grace:That was an awesome segment with Jason. I really loved learning about his job.
Mark:Yeah. Uh, Jason's been a great addition to the office. He, he brought a lot of really good experience. He comes from a company that functioned a lot different than how we do that wasn't quite his old company wasn't as driver focused as we are. So there's been a little bit of an. For him where we're actually trying to retain instead of just trying to recruit and replace all the time. But he's great. I can give him a project. He takes it and runs with it every time. Uh, it's been a lot of fun working with him. He and he is brought a lot of really good ideas. I think the drivers really enjoy talking to him and, uh, we're looking forward to him being there for, for many, many years. So, next up. We have Ty Walker, miss having Ty on the program, it was great to get back with them and we did things a little different this time. So instead of doing a question from the road that Grace asked me, essentially Ty Walker started out with a question from the road for me. I gave him my opinion. But I also was able to snag Mike Hampton, who is our most senior driver mike Hampton's been working for us for over 20 years. he's not that old. He's the same age as me, but he, he started working there when he was 24, so I got to get his opinion on winter driving, and I also was able to snag Brad, Brad long as well. I act, I misspoke when I introduced Brad, I congratulated. On driver of the year, it was actually driver of the month for the Utah Trucking Association.
Grace:Now it doesn't sound as
Mark:Yeah, well, it, but it's correct. I misspoke in the segment with Brad, but, so you'll hear me and Ty and I questioned. Ty asked me and then, uh, You'll hear a transition to, uh, Mike Hampton and then one to Brad Long and we'll be back. Uh, the end of the segment is with Ty, and we're talking about, uh, personal convenience and yard move.
Ty Walker:Ted testing, 1, 2, 3.
Mark:tie. Oh boy. I, hang on, I gotta move that off. The
Ty Walker:Hi, mark.
Mark:Does your, does your phone uh, vibrate?
Ty Walker:It will, yes.
Mark:you better move it off the table.
Ty Walker:You had me a little worried yesterday when you told me to bring Clear Sinuses.
Mark:Well, I recorded with Jason yesterday and my sinuses were a little stuffed. I'm still, I don't know how long I'm into this, like three weeks and I'm still like, not over it.
Ty Walker:You're a long hauler right?
Mark:Don't tell Mike. He'll be all, all sorts upset if he finds out that I, I got the vaccine and now I'm sick. And Yeah.
Ty Walker:be pretty worried. So yeah. I, I didn't know if you were still doing this podcast
Mark:I was starting to wonder myself. I, uh, I didn't have time. I just need to make time for it.
Ty Walker:Yeah. You're a busy man. You got a lot of, a lot of irons in the fire.
Mark:Uh, yeah.
Ty Walker:so I understand. Well, I have a, a question for you. Okay. I did a little bit of driving earlier this week. I drove out to Northern Cal and back, I haven't done a lot of driving on winter roads. Right? Snowy ice, icy roads. So a question that I have for you, it's pretty easy when you're in a pickup truck or a car to like really fill. How good attraction you have, but in a semi, it's not as easy.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Ty Walker:So what are your pointers or your tips for that? Like is there a, a telltale sign like, Hey, I'm slipping, like coming over, what is it? Immigrant Pass, I think that's just west of Carlin Nevada. Right? It was, it was pretty snowy, snowing pretty good. And the, the roads. Snow covered, but I'm like, I feel like I still have really good traction, but I couldn't really tell, you know, when I pick up you just gas it and if, if you spin out you're like, yeah, roads are pretty slick. Any any tips there?
Mark:The very first thing I always looked. It's easier with our new modern trucks cuz they'll actually sense tire slip and there'll be a light that comes on on the dash. The traction control light will come on. Right. Okay. In the older trucks though, my first sign of trouble was always if, if the tachometer started to come up and the speedometer.
Ty Walker:then you're spinning out. Yeah. Okay.
Mark:Yeah. If, if all of a sudden your, your revs go up and you know they shouldn't
Ty Walker:Yeah. And you're not really speeding
Mark:Yeah. I'd always see the, the tack move before you'd feel. Now, pretty soon you'll feel the, the back end of the truck start to
Ty Walker:Side to side a little bit.
Mark:forth. That's, and that's kind of
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.
Mark:It's way worse if you're going downhill. than uphill. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Nobody ever told me this, but downhill when I've had that happen, downhill gas it straighten drive drive out of it, right? I mean, that's what you're, which is not the instinct. The instinct is to hit the brakes, but we actually have to do is apply some throttle to try and straighten yourself out.
Ty Walker:So what about our trucks have, I don't know what you call it, I've heard it called the Johnson Bar, right? Mm-hmm. it applies just the trailer brakes. Have you ever, you ever use those to, will that straighten you out as well if you started to?
Mark:Um, I've never done that. The only, and you know, maybe somebody will contact me and say, oh yeah, that works great. One thing, uh, my wife has an uncle that used to haul bread, bread and potato chips.
Ty Walker:Mm.
Mark:Kansas City to Omaha. he told me this, and it's always in the back of my head. I've never done it. If you ever start to get blown over, hit the trailer breaks,
Ty Walker:Mm.
Mark:pull those down and it'll set the trailer back down on the, the ground. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah.
Ty Walker:I. You're never in that experience to test it but you never know really. It could happen next week.
Mark:Um, that's good to know. Other than that, for winter, I, I would probably. I'm probably not the guy to talk to about winter driving because a lot of the standard rules they tell you to follow. I don't,
Ty Walker:well, you know, the reason I ask, I'm chugging along at, I don't know, I felt pretty good at like 45 miles an hour, but I still had trucks. Blowing by me and I'm like, eh, I don't know. I, it's just hard to tell how good attraction you really had. So figured I would ask you, I know you had a lot of, a lot more experience than I, but you bring up some good
Mark:points. Yeah. The the best advice is drive it a speed you feel comfortable with. I don't care what everybody else is doing.
Ty Walker:Yeah, yeah. True.
Mark:Dr. You know, a lot of times in like snow we're talking snow pack. My, my speed in my head is 35. 35, but that's what I'm doing. And if I lose a little traction, I slow down a little more, or, or if I start to feel a little more confident, maybe I'll speed up. But 30 five's kind of my, I don't know why I, I, I don't know why. Mm-hmm. I've always thought at 35 mile an hour, I'm probably not gonna.
Ty Walker:Yeah. And it, and it's a slow enough speed that I feel like it would give you enough time. to maybe get things under control. I mean, if you're cruising down the road at 60, I just feel like stuff happens a lot quicker. know, so I think that's a good speed. I think this would be a good question for a lot of the drivers we have here. Like what are their, are their best practices? How do they know their safe speed? Cause it's probably a little different for everybody.
Mark:Sure.
Ty Walker:Maybe we should ask.
Mark:Yeah, we should. I finally got Mike Hampton to come on the podcast, and I've gotta, it's an easy question. Okay. How do you, it came up when I was talking to Ty Walker this morning. How do you know when you're starting to lose traction in your truck?
Mike Hampton:When the tires are spinning
Mark:Well, and that was, I didn't feel like I gave Ty a great
Mike Hampton:answer. I said,
Mark:you know, with our, with our new trucks, there's a light that'll come on on the dash. Right. Traction control light will come on. But you're one of our more experienced drivers. How do you know?
Mike Hampton:It just feels different. I don't know. Can't really explain it.
Mark:You, you feel it in your seat A little bit.
Mike Hampton:Yeah.
Mark:Like you're starting to,
Mike Hampton:well, it depends on how bad it's spinning. It'll get sideways.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Mike Hampton:like on a bridge or something.
Mark:Yeah.
Mike Hampton:But I don't know.
Mark:Bumps tend to Mm-hmm. rough roads. When, when you're driving in snow pack, is there a speed that you have in your head that you like to not go above or
Mike Hampton:it depends on the traffic around or anything?
Mark:So your answer on Highway 30 through Park Valley's probably different than on I 80.
Mike Hampton:or I 15. I 80 is generally not bad for traffic, but.
Mark:mm.
Mike Hampton:you know, if there's a lot of traffic around, kinda wanna, I don't wanna be passing everybody, but I don't want everybody passing me either.
Mark:So you want to be in the middle
Mike Hampton:When they're, when they're all around you, that's when it's dangerous. I wanna be by myself.
Mark:Yeah. how much do you think you increase? One of the things I always do is try to increase my following distance. How much do you think you increase your following distance when
Mike Hampton:double at least. if not more so. But then again, if there's traffic, then they're gonna use that spot, so.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Mike Hampton:you kinda gotta keep it just enough to keep people out of it. But enough that you can stop.
Mark:Yeah. it's, it's so hard at like, I find it hard to answer those questions because some of it's just experience, like, I don't know what the answer is. I know what I'm comfortable with when I'm in the
Mike Hampton:a drug. Right? Yeah.
Mark:Because there's been, well, through my career, there's been a time or two and I've had to stop or slow down dramatically. And I know, I feel like I know what I can do but I don't know if that's necessarily the case either.
Mike Hampton:Yeah. I think it's a feel for everybody to each their own, so to speak.
Mark:But yeah,
Mike Hampton:I do what I feel comfortable with too, and it's never let me down yet. Yeah. So,
Mark:well, I'm glad I finally got you on the podcast. I told you it'd only be five minutes and we've been on for three and a half,
Mike Hampton:so it, it was, it was still under protest, but I'm here
Mark:Next time maybe we'll have a, a drink or two.
Mike Hampton:Right. I might could do it then.
Mark:All right, Okay. Wise, you, you don't know how loud you're talking. Last
Brad:It sounds a little weird, but
Mark:last one that was in here was Hampton. So you got Hampton Germs on your head. Headphones,
Brad:ear wax.
Mark:Uh, so Brad, uh, Brad Long, congratulations on the October. Utah Trucking Association Driver of the Year
Brad:Thank you.
Mark:I had a question that came up this morning when I was interviewing Ty Walker about when do you know when your truck is breaking traction on slick roads?
Brad:Oh goodness.
Mark:So how do you, how do you judge that?
Brad:Well, I think. it's something you just know. I do that your truck gets a little squirrly.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Brad:you might lose speed and you think you need to step on the pedal, but you just spin.
Mark:Mm. so this week he took a load out to Northern California and he was coming over immigrant. And it was snowing and he said, you know, I felt pretty good. I was going, he was going 45. Is there a speed, like if it's snow packed, completely snow packed roads, is there a speed where you're like, yep, I'm not driving past, not driving faster than this?
Brad:Yeah. Yeah. You get to that point that I'd rather drive in snow than unless there's ice under it. Yeah. And that you just have to judge. What it feels like. You, you know, it's kinda like playing an instrument. You just got a feel for it.
Mark:Yeah.
Brad:And it, if you start losing traction, you sure wanna take your foot off the pedal and let it calm down and you don't want to use your, um, your brakes or anything to. just kinda let it adjust itself.
Mark:Didn't you spend a lot of time driving? Um, dump trucks, construction.
Brad:Yeah.
Mark:So I imagine you were in and out of construction sites in the mud.
Brad:Yeah.
Mark:Slick. Do you think that helped you today as an OTR driver where you're on the interstate?
Brad:Yeah, yeah. Construction work is a lot different. It that, you know, I learned from R Trucking.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Brad:I worked for them for 12 years, then I went to Parsons, so I spend a lot more years in a dump truck than in this one. Well, I'm catching up But yeah, there's a, there's a difference
Mark:so? You've been with us for, it'll be 17
Brad:17 years in January.
Mark:Okay. And how long did you spend with Parsons?
Brad:I was with Parsons for eight years I'd have never left them if they hadn't changed their, You know, they kind of sold, sold out is what I called it. But they, uh, joined forces with other companies and they, they started taking all of our material halls away from us. I, I was mostly doing asphalt, And when we weren't able to do asphalt, we'd haul material to all these batch plants and. In Utah and then they started leasing that out to Francis.
Mark:Hmm. So how many years of trucking do you have?
Brad:Well, I, uh, right outta high school I started working for EA Miller and I was with them for 11 years and, I drove one of their little short trucks doing deliveries. Okay.
Mark:Like a straight truck.
Brad:Yeah. At the end of my career. And I, that's basically all the training I had there. when I moved back over here, I, I halt straw to Fillmore, to that mushroom plant for a while. you know, that's kind of where I got my first experience driving. A real semi might say Yeah.
Mark:tractor, trailer.
Brad:But, uh, yeah, I, I got a lot of my experience through reps.
Mark:Interesting.
Brad:a back and drive straight down the road, you know, and it was a pretty good company you work for. They, as far as training they got a lot of training through them and then, The Parsons came up and back. Back then it was, you know, he was lucky to get a job with Parsons because they, nobody quit. They were a family owned company and, and um, he was lucky if you could get on there. And a guy called me and said that they needed drivers cuz they had two that was retiring. And so when I went there, I just automatically got a$4 an hour raise
Mark:Hm.
Brad:and they knew me because I haul material out of their plant and Brigham. So when I was with her ups,
Mark:So are you at, uh, are you at 50 years
Brad:basically? Yeah. I got my CDL license when I. As soon as I became of age, so I've had it most of my life.
Mark:Wow.
Brad:Yeah, like probably 52 years now.
Mark:I feel like I'm sitting in, in the presence of greatness. great
Brad:yeah. I remember when you interviewed tar. But he, you know, and that, that's where I met him as it erupts.
Mark:Hmm.
Brad:I've known him forever, so he, he's a good guy.
Mark:Yeah. Awesome. That was all I wanted. I wanted your opinion on, uh, on slick driving.
Brad:Yeah. Well, I don't like it at slick driving it. It's, uh, you just gotta be careful out there and hope it doesn't happen to you. We sure see a lot of trucks off the road anymore.
Mark:Yeah, take your time.
Brad:Yeah.
Mark:All right, sir, we'll do this again.
Brad:All right, well, thank you.
Mark:Cool.
Ty Walker:well, thanks for the info there. Sure. I wanted to talk about that. I know we were gonna talk a little bit about some hours of service
Mark:the elephant in the
Ty Walker:regulations. So um, we spend a little bit of time, well, I shouldn't say a little bit of time. We spent a lot of time here in the last few weeks talking about personal conveyance. Uh, mark, you know, this yourself, Tyler, and, and, and. We all had a call with a very high up individual.
Mark:I think we can name him. David Garcia. He's the, uh, Western Regional Director of the FM c s a. Mm-hmm.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.
Mark:So
Ty Walker:nice guy.
Mark:Really nice guy. But essentially the, the top of the food chain when it comes to hours of service now. He did tell us in that call that they do leave it up to the individual states to interpret and enforce.
Ty Walker:which is
Mark:Which is frustrating. But he also said so, so for everybody. who's listening to this, who maybe doesn't understand that. So it's up to the individual states to come up with their own standards on how they're gonna enforce the hours of service. They can issue citations, they can shut trucks down. If we don't feel that that citation was justified, we can it sort of appeal it through a data queue. now that doesn't do anything for the driver roadside at the. Right in the immediate
Ty Walker:mm-hmm.
Mark:but hopefully we can get that violation off of our record.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm. Correct. We've done that a few times. From what I understand. When you do that, when you submit that data queue, It basically goes back to that officer that issued the, the violation mm-hmm. and then they review it. So, does that do
Mark:anything? So here's a question. I know the drivers have their own CSA score. Mm-hmm. does that data queue. Show up on their record too, or not?
Ty Walker:I don't know about the data queue. I, I'm not sure. I would think if it's removed, that's something I oughta look into. I would think if it's been removed, then it's gonna come off of the drivers'. Okay. Score as well. That's a good question though. I should do a little dig in there. Um, and it's honestly a pretty easy process. Like I said, we've done it a few times. We've been successful with a few others not, but it's, you're not out anything. So you know, if there's any other companies listening that haven't played around with that. Yeah. You might as well give it a tray. Doesn't cost anything. So anyway, uh, with personal conveyance as we were talking, we had a pretty good conversation with, uh, David Garcia. Really what we're trying to do here is just make sure that we are being proactive in the way that we interpret, in the way that we follow these regulations. And, uh, as far as it goes, I'll just read the plain and simple definition to you, so everybody out there. You know, hear it for themselves. Personal conveyance is the movement of a commercial motor vehicle for personal use. While off duty, a driver may record time operating a CMV for personal conveyance as off duty only when the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work for the motor carrier. So you've gotta be off duty. Any if you think about it, anything that. Is helping the company, whether that's putting fuel in that truck so that that truck can carry the load down the road, putting def in the truck,
Mark:getting it serviced,
Ty Walker:it serviced, doing a pre-trip, stuff like that, that all needs be on duty. So you could not do anything, um, like that while using the duty status of pc. Personal conveyance. This is solely for personal use. If I. Pull off the road and use the restroom. Sure enough, I'm gonna use pc and you're fine to do that. Um, it,
Mark:we need to get very particular here on that definition. At what point can you go into personal conveyance if you're going to use the restroom or stop and get something to eat?
Ty Walker:Well, that's a good question, mark. And here's the thing that I think about. Now you might say the second my steer tires hit that exit ramp, I'm gonna reach up there and put it in PC I, I guess you could. The thing is, when you're doing that, you're taking your attention off your driving. I've done this before. You've done this before. Anytime you reach up. changing your duty status, you're not really full attention on the road. So I
Mark:the other thing with personal convey is you have to enter a comment. So it's not just pressing one button, but you've gotta come up with a, you gotta, there's a
Ty Walker:Yeah. Right? Yeah. So I mean, I, I don't want to sit here and say, well, you're gonna come to a, a stop sign, hurry and do it then. Cuz then you're, you're still doing that while you're sitting there. Ah, that's a hard question because I know every second's counting. You want that time to be in personal conveyance. I would say whenever you can do it in a safe spot. Yeah. Or a safe manner.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.,you're good to do that. You're good to change it over to pc. So, um, I guess the, the other thing to, to consider there is, It can get tricky because I might be getting off the, the exit there to get fuel and take a break. Well, taking a break is personal, right. I'm doing that for myself. But fueling, as we said, no, that's not, that's work related. So if you're doing that, you need to, you need to be in drive. Get off the freeway, go fuel up, show your on-duty time park, and then, you know, if you, if you gotta move around some more for food or whatever, sure. Use pc, save that drive time, or, or if you're worried about your 70, you don't have to show yard move if it's personal. So honestly, I guess the thing to, to look at there, if it's personal, solely personal use PC and. Uh, what was it June? This last June, Tyler and I, we went to a safety rondevu put on by the uta and there was people from all over the
Mark:Utah Tracking Association.
Ty Walker:Yeah. Yeah. So, There were people there from all over the Western states and it was good. They had, they had a highway patrol there. Can't think of his name now. I think his last name is Coward. Justin Coward, actually. We talked to him.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Ty Walker:Nice guy. And he knows a lot about hours of service. Obviously he's pretty high on the, the food chain. Um, but anyway, he really just mentioned that with pc, if you're trying to hide anything with. It's, it's not good. It should not be pc. And that's kind of where I guess this next point takes us because this gets a little, a little juicier as far as, um, if I'm gonna take a 34 hour reset, can I use PC to go home and come back and, and all that good stuff. So this is really where us in the office kind. Uh, for a time we were a bit divided. Would you agree, mark?
Mark:Absolutely. You bet.
Ty Walker:because it's, there's so much, uh, opinion and interpretation of, of what the FM C s A gives us. So just to kinda share what we came up with here at Stokes. Kind of what we're trying to, to move forward with, with our drivers. So if you've already, okay. Let's say you've received your dispatch information for next week. I'm finishing my load at Logan, Utah. Okay. I've just drove 3000 miles a previous week, and now I'm done for the week. Hallelujah. I'm gonna go home. I look on, oh, go
Mark:think it's important where you finish your load Uhhuh, like, um, I think it's important where you, where you terminate, right? So Zollinger's is not the same as Schreiber Foods.
Ty Walker:True, true
Mark:at Zollinger's, you can't PC home and then PC back to Schreiber.
Ty Walker:Very true. And that's, I'm glad you brought that up cause I just said Logan, Utah, so Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. Okay. I finished my load at, uh, I don't know, Zollinger's or Gossner. Okay. If I'm gonna come right back to that same point and I've already received my dispatch info for next week, I can use PC to go. I can use PC to come right back to that same location and continue that, you know, that dispatch, that trip that I had already received. So last night I actually had a call from Jeremy, which a great question, right? He's like, Hey, I'm finishing at Gossner, but next week I've already got my dispatch info and it picking up at Shri.
Mark:Mm-hmm.
Ty Walker:He's like, can I PC home and then come back? They're only like a block apart from each other. I said, no, if you can go over to Schreiber's and, and check in and, and you know,
Mark:yeah, just drive over to the parking lot. Drive over there in drive time.
Ty Walker:drive time.
Mark:Switch yourself to personal
Ty Walker:Yep. Yep. And he did that even better. He went over there and he showed a little bit of on duty. Yeah.
Mark:As a post trip or,
Ty Walker:yeah. Yeah. And so now next week he's going to, he'll be able to use pc, go right back to Schreiber's in Logan and go on his merry little way.
Mark:if there's any work performed on his truck here, deaf.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm. anything
Mark:anything like, All of a sudden
Ty Walker:it changes.
Mark:Yeah. It's not personal commands anymore, it's drive time Yes. To come here to the yard.
Ty Walker:Yep. Exactly. So, yeah, that's a good point. If. Basically he needs to be using that truck as a commuter. Mm-hmm. Right? He's just using it to commute from tribes and Logan to go, you know, home or wherever that location is and then back just like if you're driving your Honda Civic. Yeah. So,
Mark:so in the. the answer is use drive time.
Ty Walker:Yes, exactly. If you've got the drive time, man, just keep it simple. Just use the drive time and. We'll all be better off, but I understand, you know, when, when it comes down to it, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, that could be pc that could make or break your, your following week. So I can see why some drivers are like, yeah.
Mark:So here's a question for you. Uh, we'll, we'll use Jeremy yesterday as an example. Um, he's got 15 minutes left.
Ty Walker:Mm.
Mark:it takes about 25 minutes to drive over here to the yard. What do you want him to do?
Ty Walker:Hmm.
Mark:I know what I do
Ty Walker:Well, is it the same situation?
Mark:Yeah. I know what I would do.
Ty Walker:If it's the same situation, I would say do what he did. If he's gonna go to Schreiber's and he can show from that point, he's going to PC home, I would say use pc. You're gonna say probably different drive.
Mark:yeah,
Ty Walker:a violation or the
Mark:with that becomes now he has to use drive time when he leave. Right. So in his, in the drivers, from the driver's point of view, I'm losing 25 or 30
Ty Walker:minutes. Mm-hmm.
Mark:Mm-hmm. that day I leave.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mark:It depends on where we're going.
Ty Walker:Yeah. Because in his mind he might know, oh, there's a great parking spot. kick Carson. Yeah. Or somewhere right around there. And if, if I don't, if I have to show that time as drive, I'm not gonna get to that parking spot.
Mark:My guess is if I start from Logan, I can make it to Eeds.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.
Mark:if I start from Tremont before I go to Logan, I can only make it to get Carson.
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.
Mark:Eeds is a loves with a, you know, it's probably his fuel stop. He's gonna take a shower. Maybe he wants to spend the night there and then shower in the morning. That's what I usually do.
Ty Walker:Yeah.
Mark:So I'm gonna default back to, I'm gonna use drive time. I'm not gonna make it to Eds, I'm gonna get to Kit Carson. Mm-hmm. but I'm gonna have to leave about 45 minutes earlier the day I leave to allow myself that 45 minutes that I'm gonna use now taking a shower at, at Eids.
Ty Walker:Right.
Mark:It, it comes down to you've gotta leave home a little earlier. But I'd rather show the drive time, show the violation, than have some, have something happen. Even if I drive over here and I don't do it, but Dusty works on my truck while I'm off.
Ty Walker:Yeah.
Mark:And then someone runs into me, right? Yeah. Now they can go back and say, You falsified your logs.
Ty Walker:Yeah, exactly. And I guess that's what it comes down to. That's why we're trying to be as proactive as we are, because in the world we're living in, if something happens, they're gonna dig up every little detail, everything. And even if that log was edited, you know, if you went and changed it back, those edits, they're all discoverable. They can be found, they can be seen. It's best to live by what's on the side of the truck and do the right thing.
Mark:There you
Ty Walker:And that's all we've got for you today, And as Mark said, if you got the drive time, use it. So that's, uh, those are a few things there with pc. Maybe that'll be helpful for some of our drivers. We sent out a some info to'em yesterday and haven't really got too many questions yet, so we'll
Mark:Did you wanna address yard move at all?
Ty Walker:You know, I guess we could mark, it's a little more straightforward, but we still see some bending of the rules there. Um, I guess let's talk about, uh, what proper uses of yard move would be. It's an on-duty status, right? So anytime I'm moving around in a drop lot, a shipper, a receiver, a truck stop, stokes. Yard transport, diesel. I could, I can use yard move. Okay. Perfectly fine. Perfectly kosher to do that. Right.
Mark:Okay.
Ty Walker:Um, if I get off the freeway and there's a truck stop two blocks to the west, I need to wait until I'm in the yard. I should not put it in yard. Move and drive on a public roadway in yard move. Cuz it's the same thing if a little kid runs out. or anything if anything happens. yeah, and we're in the wrong duty status, then we're in hot water. So it's best to just have it in the correct duty status. So if you're on a public roadway, leave it in drive. If you're sitting in, stop and go traffic on the freeway as much as it eats at all of. To just watch that drive clock, just tick down while we're not moving. Um, leave it in drive. Don't put it in yard. Move. If you're sitting on the freeway in, stop and go traffic. Uh, that's really where adverse driving comes in. If you wanna, you know, if it's a unforeseen event, we can go in and we can claim adverse driving, right, rather than putting it in yard move. For however long while we're stop and go traffic. Um, some examples of improper use. We've kind of talked about those, right? If you got fuel and then you're headed back out onto the roadway, don't accidentally forget and cruise three to five miles down the road in yard move and then switch it over, which we might as well mention this as well. So we use Sam. It's a great, uh, a great platform for our, our logs, um, asset tracking, all that good stuff. So they offer an automatic transition so that it'll move from yard move to drive if the truck exceeds 25 miles an hour. We did turn that on yesterday. We're gonna. Move forward with that. I think it's a good thing. It's gonna make my job a little easier and it takes one more thing off the driver. So I like that. I hope moving forward, everybody'll be okay with that. Um, yeah, that's that yard move for you. Mark. Anything you want to add to that?
Mark:Uh, just, uh, your, your litmus test is if you're on a public roadway, right? Yeah. If you're on a public roadway, you either need to be in drive or personal conveyance. And we've already addressed personal conveyance. We want to use drive time if we have the drive time. Yes. So, uh, yeah. It's, uh, it's d. these days. You've gotta really, you have to really think about how your week is gonna go and, and always plan ahead. Right. It still comes back to planning, like the, the situation we were talking about with, with Jeremy. You know, I, I wanna leave Logan instead of Treemont. Well, I just have to plan that, that extra stop in
Ty Walker:Mm-hmm.
Mark:to my, to my week now.
Ty Walker:true. Yeah. You're looking a week in advance trying to, to plan out every day and every stop that you're gonna make. Yeah. You know?
Mark:Yeah. Absolutely. All right, Ty, it was great to have you on again.
Ty Walker:Hey, you know what? I'm glad you would have me on, mark. I'm glad I, I'm still welcome here on the podcast, It's been good to catch up. And I'm sure we'll have more safety topics to cover in the future. In the meantime, I hope everybody's safe out there and has a, a very merry Christmas and a good New Year.
Mark:All right, we'll see you later.
Ty Walker:Okay, thanks Mark
Mark:That was an awesome segment with Ty Walker. I'm glad he was back. It was great to get Mike Hampton on the program. Mike's been like a, a white whale for me. He didn't want to come on. I was trying to find him and he, he wouldn't, he didn't want to come on and it was also good to have Brad on. So did you learn a little bit about personal conveyance and yard move?
Grace:That's when I fell asleep
Mark:Oh. Oh. So, well, that's not a great That's not a great review of the podcast. Grace.
Grace:Give me some break. It is finals like month.
Mark:not finals. Yeah, you were gonna say finals week.
Grace:It's finals month. I have three essays to write. Each of them are 2000 words. Do you know how hard it is to write 2000 words about a topic? It's really difficult.
Mark:Really? We actually nominated Mike Hampton for Driver of the Year from the Truckload Carriers Association, and we had to keep it at 500 words or less. We ended up at 4 97.
Grace:It's different when you're writing about something you're like, you're passionate about. I love all of the topics I'm writing about, but when I have to follow APA format and make it like a research paper, it gets really
Mark:What is APA format?
Grace:American
Mark:Protagonist Association.
Grace:I think it's American Psychology Association. Hold on.
Mark:What? Psychology.
Grace:Hold on.
Mark:It's just a, a writing standard.
Grace:Yeah. Like mla.
Mark:What's mla?
Grace:Another writing standard. That's what everyone teaches in high school. But then you transition to college and they all use APA and it doesn't make any sense.
Mark:Well, they all use the same,
Grace:nothing. Makes sense. Ah, American Psychological Association. Association. Really? Yeah. It's a form of writing for research papers. Mainly used for social social sciences. Anyways, it's really
Mark:It's good practice for you cuz someday you're gonna have to write 2000 words on a subject for work.
Grace:Well, well with how my career path is going. It doesn't really seem like it.
Mark:you will. Really. I started driving truck when I was your age and I had to write 500 words about Mike Hampton.
Grace:Anyways, it's finals month on top of. I have the possibility of being gone for half of the finals last week.
Mark:Hmm. When is finals week? Is it the week before Christmas?
Grace:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like our last day is like the 17th or something?
Mark:Hang on. So today's the fourth, fifth through Now, cuz if this is, if this coming week is dead week, the following week is finals week.
Grace:Yeah.
Mark:and then nobody's leaving until the 22nd for the bowl game
Grace:practice.
Mark:But you're not gonna be gone.
Grace:I know, but like practice still takes a lot outta you.
Mark:really?
Grace:Yeah. Have you ever been
Mark:you'll be practicing in the indoor? You will be.
Grace:there's not enough space.
Mark:That's where they'll be practicing.
Grace:Bendor is like a jungle gym.
Mark:We found out today that the, uh, Utah State Aggies made a bowl game, the first responder bowl in Dallas, Texas on the 27th of December, which means I get to spend Christmas in Dallas.
Grace:Honestly, I don't feel like that's a bad place to spend Christmas.
Mark:There's worse places. like. Yes. Although the Boise Bowl game, we wouldn't have been gone for Christmas.
Grace:No. But like if
Mark:But who wants to go to the potato bowl? No, I've been there. It's not. It's cold. Wants to go to a cold place for a bowl game. Anyway, off we go.
Grace:go. Aggs.
Mark:Here we come. Dallas and Gerald are Ford Field. That's where smu. You get to play the Memphis Tigers. It ought to be fun.
Grace:I hope it's fun.
Mark:It'll be fun for somebody. Your mom will have fun if she goes, yeah. If Grace doesn't go, then
Grace:mom isn't going.
Mark:spending Christmas with the team. And Mike.
Grace:Mike. Mike Goldsberry.
Mark:That's true. Mike Goldsberry will be there. Yes. Maybe me and Bo will smoke a cigar on Christmas day.
Grace:You know, look at the positive side
Mark:Maybe with ba Bonner. maybe
Grace:Mr. Bain.
Mark:Mr. Bain likes cigars
Grace:That doesn't surprise me.
Mark:Yeah, I know. And beer doesn't, again, doesn't surprise you. Oh, all right. Uh, I don't know what we're gonna do when the next podcast will be probably after the first of the year. I did figure out though recording in my office is pretty easy and it sound, the sound quality I think was decent. Uh, so I'm hoping to get back into doing it a little more regularly. Plus football's about over,
Grace:So I have a life
Mark:And me too. So those are
Grace:positives. Don't get me wrong. I love my job,
Mark:but it is a little busy in the. Since you are a full-time
Grace:Yeah, I have spent too much time in the, what is it? Gym Lo North End zone building. Yes. A lo end zone building. Too much.
Mark:You know I heard he was actually really upset that they named that after him. Really? Yeah. didn't want his name on
Grace:uh, what else would they name it? I don't know. They could name it after me. They should name it after me. Should they? Yes. I spent 12 hours overnight in that building this summer. I went crazy in that building. I deserve it.
Mark:That was an odd situation.
Grace:It was those two mannequins. If I go to the bowl game, Manny and those mannequins are there. Uh, no. They will be, their limbs will be somewhere scattered throughout Dallas, Texas.
Mark:Manny's going to the bowl game. he went last year. Why wouldn't you go this
Grace:those mannequins, and. I dislike those
Mark:Yeah. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to go to Dallas and spend a week. I really hope. I hope you and your mom will be able to spend it with me. God.
Grace:I'm sorry. I got it from work
Mark:for going to Hawaii. A cold.
Grace:Really? I had that. I had a sinus infection in Hawaii. I went to the top of Montea, nearly passed out. Yes. I'm not joking.
Mark:How many people are listening to this like, oh. poor you
Grace:poor me. The
Mark:to the top of Montea.
Grace:Okay. You know, actually I was thinking about this. You know the reason why Monolo is active right now. It's because my nose bled at the base of it. I bled half my body weight in a nose bleed, and the volcano was like, you know, I really, I love that. She's like giving her body to me. It's like a human sacrifice. I have enough
Mark:I am so sad that the
Grace:We weren't there. I know.
Mark:know. Cause you can actually like drive by and see the lava
Grace:people are like camping out and watching it on Saddleback Road right now. That's so cool. I've been seeing like a bunch of videos and live streams of people just like, they're just driving by, just sitting and watching
Mark:all right, grace. Um, hopefully we get to do this again soon. Maybe in.
Grace:yes. My boss is calling me.
Mark:Uh oh.
Grace:oh. Hello?
Mark:bill.
Grace:I'm
Mark:Grace just had to run outta the room to talk to her boss. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up the podcast. Thanks y'all for listening. Be sure to rate and review us on whatever service you're listening to us on and tell your friends about Driver to Driver, a Stokes Trucking podcast. We'll catch you all on 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