Episode #16 - It's Personal

0:11

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: 0:33

Welcome everyone. To episode 16 of driver to driver, a Stokes trucking podcast. I'm your host mark. lava. I'm joined again by my full-time producer. Part-time cohost. Do You try and make that sound exactly the same every single time.

Grace: 0:53

I, for some reason I am self-conscious about how de script says our last name.

Mark: 1:03

Oh yeah. That's true. They always misspell it.

Grace: 1:05

Yeah. But no matter if I, you know, annunciate my words, it doesn't sound right.

Mark: 1:12

Hey, guess what? Tyler went live with our new website today.

Grace: 1:17

Nice.

Mark: 1:19

So there is a new Stokes, trucking.com www dot Stokes, trucking.com. And if you go to that website and you click the little menu icon, there is an icon for a podcast, and all of our podcasts are on there, and they are actually searchable by key. you seem totally unimpressed.

Grace: 1:41

Well, okay. First of all, I got distracted when he said www, because I was like, you know, I know this is common knowledge.

Mark: 1:51

person thing. Okay. So here's, here's why I said that because he just made it live. And when I tried to pull it up on my phone and I just put in Stokes, trucking.com, it wouldn't open it safari on my iPhone. Wouldn't open it. But if I did www dot Stokes, trucking.com, it worked.

Grace: 2:13

That's not why I got distracted. I got distracted. Cause in my mind I was like, w and then I was like, oh, double you. That's how you write a w I know. That's

Mark: 2:23

Just put that together.

Grace: 2:25

I know I've probably known it, but for some reason it really hits. Yeah.

Mark: 2:34

I love you so much.

Grace: 2:36

That's only in English though, because the w and other languages are different.

Mark: 2:41

They're V's in German.

Grace: 2:44

it's pronounced with a V sound.

Mark: 2:46

Yeah. So I'm going to change my signature in my email and put in the link to our podcasts through Stokes trucking website. Now I'm really excited about it. I'm really like he did a really good job re-engineering our website Tyler did it all. Tyler how that that's, uh, I always, cause we never really decided what his title is. I guess he's our, uh, office manager, human resources director. He's got like three different hats he wears. So

Grace: 3:19

Jack of all trades. Jack of most trades.

Mark: 3:24

Yeah. He just doesn't deal with the equipment or the operations at all. That's Mike, that's my gig, but he did a really nice job on the website. You can actually go to that website and click subscribe and you can, it'll pull up all the different services we're on and click on it and it'll take you right to wherever you listen. So, so you don't have to listen through Buzzsprout anymore. You can listen right through our website. Um, if you listen through our website it actually counts as an apple download. We broke 2000 downloads.

Grace: 3:58

Yay.

Mark: 4:00

Cumulative. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a kind of a big deal. And, um, we're averaging like, a 10 or 15 a day. Like usually there's a spike, you know, when we release a, an episode and then it'll spike for two or three days, and then it goes down. Pretty soon it's down to like two or three downloads a day. And right before we release another episode, there's like no downloads. It's kind of been steady between 10 and 15 a day, every day, ever since the last episode was released. So, maybe it's Tyler building the website, just clicking through to make sure, I don't know,

Grace: 4:39

maybe, but it gives us numbers, whatever messes with the algorithm.

Mark: 4:48

So episode 16, grace, what, what are we going to listen to today?

Grace: 4:54

Our first segment is a tie Walker safety minute. And it's about using personal conveyance. Is that like personal time?

Mark: 5:03

Yeah, it's um, it's off duty time, all drive time. That one of our trucks accumulates has to be accounted for. Right. But the DLT says it's okay for a driver to use a semi for personal driving, That doesn't count against his hours. So in this segment, we tie goes through all the definitions that when it's acceptable or when it is unacceptable. And I think we do a really good job, especially when it comes to our operation, um, giving our drivers examples of when they can use it and when they can't or when they should use it, And when they shouldn't is maybe how I should phrase that. So let's get rolling with the first segment tie Walker's safety minute.

Grace: 5:52

Let's roll.

Mark: 6:03

All right. Hi again, Tai.

Ty Walker: 6:05

how are you doing

Mark: 6:06

I'm Doing great. Uh, We're joined again. by Safety manager, Xtrordinair for Stokes trucking, Ty Walker for Ty's safety. minute.

Ty Walker: 6:16

That's pretty, that's pretty official. Mark. Since you are a boss at Stokes, maybe you could help me get a little like name tag that says that it'd be kind of long. Yeah.

Mark: 6:25

Um, I'm, I'm a boss. Am I? You know how far I walked through the higher end 4th of July parade. The other day

Ty Walker: 6:31

I heard like two miles.

Mark: 6:34

I didn't feel like much of a boss that day.

Ty Walker: 6:36

Well, you're out there repping for the company.

Mark: 6:42

should, we could get you safety manager extraordinary and on your door. Where's your office.

Ty Walker: 6:48

I'm going to put that on my signature for my email. I'm sure people would love that. You got to love that, especially when it's coming from. 27 year old that, you know, I've still got a lot to learn. We've discussed this before, but

Mark: 7:03

speaking of a lot to learn. I heard a rumor that you may have watched smokey and the bandit.

Ty Walker: 7:11

man. Word travels. Quick mark. I did. So last week, my wife and I, we sat down and we watched it all the way through and I'll tell you. I enjoyed it. My wife, on the other hand, she was not very impressed with smokey and the bandit. Well, I don't know, pay me, maybe it's because 90% of that movie is just high-speed chase. Right? It's it's the bandit just running from the law, but I enjoyed it.

Mark: 7:44

She didn't,

Ty Walker: 7:45

she, and I don't think she'd watch it again. And she definitely won't be watching part two or part three with me. So funny story, Mike Pawlik when we're drivers shows up to my office, one day last week has the DVD in hand. He's like, here you go. It was a$5 at Walmart. I'm like, thanks, Mike. You know, my, my job is no longer in jeopardy. Thanks to you because you probably followed up with me. 10 times.

Mark: 8:11

asked you several times if you had watched smoking in the bandit and the answer, every time was no.

Ty Walker: 8:17

No, but I have now,

Mark: 8:19

today it's yes,

Ty Walker: 8:20

it is, I feel good. It's, it's a new chapter in my

Mark: 8:23

all we ask is for, for all of our Employees to do a little better today than they did yesterday. You get a gold star for watching smokey and the bandit.

Ty Walker: 8:32

see about tomorrow, but for today I'm doing good.

Mark: 8:35

So your wife didn't enjoy it. Huh?

Ty Walker: 8:38

She didn't like it, but she's more of like, I don't know. She likes documentaries and, and that type of thing. And it's a little dated, right. I don't know what year that was was made, but she wasn't super impressed with it. So.

Mark: 8:51

She didn't she didn't chuckle at all.

Ty Walker: 8:54

she may have laughed a few times. I mean, there's a few innuendos in there that he definitely got a laugh at,

Mark: 9:02

the best. The best line in that is there is no way. You came from my loins. When I get home, I'm going to slap your mama right in the mouth.

Ty Walker: 9:13

Wouldn't that just make you feel so good. And your dad says that to you

Mark: 9:16

well, he didn't Jr. didn't even get it. Like it didn't click with him

Ty Walker: 9:19

He wasn't worried about it.

Mark: 9:20

He was too worried about dad's app. Yeah.

Ty Walker: 9:25

Yeah. It's uh, it's quite the movie. I'd recommend anybody that hasn't seen it. I'm sure our guys have probably all seen it. That's probably why they want to become truck drivers.

Mark: 9:34

There are way more people that listen to this podcast than our truck drivers. a lot.

Ty Walker: 9:40

that's true. That's true.

Mark: 9:42

I'm going to guess we've only got about we're somewhere between 50 and 75% of our drivers that are listening to this. There several, and it's turned into a, a decent conduit for communication. from us. Um, but it we're getting Hundreds of listens per episode. Well, we don't have we know, so it's a lot of family members and, uh, and other people like vendors, we've got vendors, customers that are listening.

Ty Walker: 10:20

Oh yeah, my family, my parents listened to it. My, my sister listens, so

Mark: 10:25

five or six family members listening. Uh, My mother-in-law listens to every episode intently, there's and there's a whole other, whenever me and grace record our little segments, that amount to six or seven minutes per episode, there's about, it's usually between 30 and 45 minutes of total audio, That is getting sent to my mother, my mother-in-law and my wife. that nobody else ever hears. And it's just a discussion. between me and Grace Grace has been talking about taking that audio and creating her own podcast because it's but quite often there's stuff set on there I don't want no

Ty Walker: 11:07

You know, it's cool though with that, I mean, 20 years, 15 years, it'll be cool for you to go back and listen to that.

Mark: 11:14

Uh, It it's our discussions are, So our family is fascinating and I think it would maybe make it, like, be a decent podcasts because there's, she's a total different generation than me. And most of the time she's telling me something that I don't, I don't understand.

Ty Walker: 11:36

Yeah. And it probably is the same way for her. You're talking about smoking the bandit and. What are you talking about?

Mark: 11:43

last one, you know, the tires, I don't understand what you're talking about with the tires. I'm like well, you've got pressure monitoring on your own, car. Right? So it's turned into this nice little thing that means. Way we communicate, I guess, Yeah. every other week. before we put out a

Ty Walker: 12:00

And you both got your, your perspectives and your little spin on it. So I think you guys do a really good job with it.

Mark: 12:06

Yeah. Awesome. So what's our topic today, Ty. So

Ty Walker: 12:10

today as the safety extraordinary, I wanted to talk about personal convenience,

Mark: 12:15

so smooth.

Ty Walker: 12:18

I wanted to talk about personal conveyance or PC. So for the average guy out there, he's never been in the trucking industry, personal command. So you're going to be like, what the heck are you talking about? I've mentioned it a few times around my wife and the first few times she didn't know what I was talking about. So I grabbed a definition here from the FMC essays website. I'll give that to you. Just so everybody has an understanding of what personal conveyance is. So personal conveyance is the movement of a commercial motor vehicle. 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. So the primary one responsibility of a CMB, a semi-arid they're out there to work, right? They're not out there to just joy ride or go to dinner. They've got a purpose. Personal conveyance is a way for the driver to use that, that truck as a personal vehicle. Am I right mark?

Mark: 13:24

Yeah. Yeah. So if we back it all the way up for the people who really aren't in a trucking at all, our drivers have to keep a log book. They have 70 hours a week that they can work. That includes drive time or on-duty time. So anytime they spend fueling pre-trip loading unloading, That's all considered on duty So 70 total hours in an eight day stretch, they can reset that by doing a 34 hour off duty period.

Ty Walker: 13:56

Yep.

Mark: 13:57

But all the drive time on the truck has to be accounted for whether it's driving or on-duty time loading, unloading, hooking up. trailers, unhooking. Yep. if a guy is going to drive it for personal reasons. that's where personal commands comes into play.

Ty Walker: 14:16

Exactly. We've got to record that somehow there's gotta be a duty status that we use for us to do that. Just like you're saying. So personal convenience is, is the, the way that we, we account for that time. So there's a lot of questions out there as far as what's allowed. What's not allowed with personal concerns. I'll be honest with you, mark. It's pretty vague. Um, there's a lot of gray area with it. I went right to the FMC A's website. I tried to get some information from there just to help, help ourselves help any drivers out there. Just have a better understanding of. Of how to use PC and not get in trouble with it. at Stokes, we've had a couple of situations where we've gotten in trouble with it and really it wasn't like we were doing anything crazy. We weren't driving 30 miles down the road. In PC trying to further our trip. So like I said, there's just this gray area and I wanted to kind of go over some questions and answers that I've pulled right from their website. And we could discuss that. So, so I've got a question here. Um, driver who drops his or her, uh, last load at a receiver use personal conveyance to return to their normal work location, like their home or their terminal. Do you want to take a whack at this? Or you want me to just go

Mark: 15:40

I'm going to guess the answer? is no,

Ty Walker: 15:43

you are right mark. That's correct. So returning home or to a terminal from a dispatched trip is a continuation of the trip and therefore cannot be considered personal conveyance. So that's kind of, I don't know. Do we run into that very often?

Mark: 16:00

We do. So. And here's one situation where it could be. Legal. for example, I pick up a truck at the Arden Treemont and I take a load and I drive to, Logan pick up a trailer, go to Stevenville, unload, reload, come back to Logan and drop the trailer. At that point, I can use personal conveyance to go home. To my house and I can use personal commands to go back to Shriver, but I couldn't use personal conveyance to go back to Treemont and, and pick up the next one. Right, right. Cause that would be for that. Now all of a sudden I am furthering my trip.

Ty Walker: 16:47

Exactly.

Mark: 16:48

That's always the like your litmus test. is, Are you furthering your trip? And one of the places I know we have, we run into this ad. Um, we'll have drivers. We have drivers that live in Ogden that take their truck home. They'll deliver to Logan on a Friday and they'll personal convey home. The problem comes in when they go to leave home on Sunday, they could PC back to Logan. Right, but they can't PC to Treemont in or call Winston now that has to be on duty. or drive time. Right,

Ty Walker: 17:27

Yeah. Yeah. And we do see that quite often actually. Um, it's, it's hard to, and we'll get a, a good amount of phone calls asking them. Is this okay. Here's the situation. So

Mark: 17:41

now that same driver, he could use drive time from low, let's say his next loads out of Collinson. He could use drive time from Logan to call Winston on that Friday and then personal conveyed to his house and PC right back. to Collins, dental.

Ty Walker: 17:58

So kind of the, wherever, the point that you go off duty and going to PC you almost got to come back to that point. In PC for it to be legal, going to a different point. It's not really gonna

Mark: 18:12

work. Yeah. Yeah.

Ty Walker: 18:13

you added a lot of good points with that, mark. So, um, the next question that they had, there was may a driver use personal convenience when they run out of available driving or on duty hours. This is pretty simple. No, right. We can't just be. We've hit the maximum, you know, we've used all of our 11 hours of drive time that day. We can't just say, well, we've got this appointment. We got to make it there. We're going to use personal commands for the last 30 minutes to get there on time. You're going to be in trouble. If you, if you do

Mark: 18:45

now you do in that situation, obviously. Us and, or the FMCSA, neither of us want you to park in the middle of the road. right, right. You just need to go into violate. to the next safe. Haven, safe parking. Yeah.

Ty Walker: 19:02

Yes.

Mark: 19:04

Do a 10 hour break.

Ty Walker: 19:05

Exactly. So before I came over here to your, your recording studio, mark, I talked a little bit with Tyler about this, and I think we both agree that we would rather see a violation on our 11 hour clock, you know, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it might be. We would rather see that than have you use PC. And we ended up getting inspected. And for some reason, It comes back as we falsified her log because of the points that we're going to receive for falsifying. Our log are a lot heavier than just a violation of the 11 hour driving rule.

Mark: 19:40

Well, and the other issue, even in a road side, uh, if they deem it to be a falsification and not a violation now, instead of a mandatory 10 hour shut down, they could actually shut you down for 34. Correct.

Ty Walker: 19:56

And it's, it's gonna really throw a kink in the rest of the week. Like the rest of your week is pretty much shot. Right? You're not going to be happy if that happens, because Mark's going to have to try to figure out what to do now.

Mark: 20:09

Oh, I don't care any more time.

Ty Walker: 20:11

You don't what I remark. So, along with that, though, I've got one thing to mention. Yeah. It can be used if, if a driver is at a shipper or receiver and you've ran out of time, you don't have any time on your clock. And you're asked to mute to move, excuse me, by the shipper or receiver, they want you to move. Um, you can use PC to move, so you don't want to like go wild with it and, and drive

Mark: 20:38

Well, th th that's the question is, can you further your trip?

Ty Walker: 20:42

Well, that's probably the gray area. You probably want to find the most reasonable, safe parking that's close to you. And it's important that. You, um, have like adequate time to still rest. So, so if I was asked to move at like three o'clock in the morning and I decided to just move an hour down the road, and then I get going, and two hours later, I feel like an inspector is going to say, man, you were up at these times in the night, and then you got rolling right at six o'clock that morning, did you really get good rest? And they might dig further into it. And you might be looking at, uh, uh, a violation there.

Mark: 21:21

So the, the less you use personal conveyance, the better off you are. Right?

Ty Walker: 21:29

I think so.

Mark: 21:30

That's what it comes, right? in the end.

Ty Walker: 21:33

Yeah. Feel like, you know, I'm sure for inspectors, that's got to just be like a bit of a red flag. When they're looking through logs, they've got to just CPC. And want to dig a little deeper to figure out if it was being used correctly. So during those inspections, which by the way, mark, I have an update for you. I did get inspected last month. I did in Idaho.

Mark: 21:59

and

Ty Walker: 22:00

It was a clean inspection level one. So I felt pretty good.

Mark: 22:04

Good. good. for you tie.

Ty Walker: 22:07

So. All right, well let's move on here. Yeah. So the next question I have, are there a maximum, or is there a maximum distance or time that can be used in PC? W what do you think has the FMCSA put a number out there? You can drive X amount of miles, X amount of time.

Mark: 22:29

Well, I'm going to answer this accurately. And the answer is no,

Ty Walker: 22:33

no,

Mark: 22:34

but I'm going to qualify that. They have deliberately left it as a gray area to give drivers flexibility, but also to give inspectors flexibility in issuing citations. So just because there isn't a number doesn't mean you can be unreasonable in your use of personal conveyance.

Ty Walker: 23:00

Yeah, exactly. And they have said right on their website, they leave it up to a carrier. If a carrier wants to come up with that specific amount. I mean, we could, but

Mark: 23:12

there are, carriers, by the way, I know the bigger fleets most of them have a 10 or 20 mile limit on personal conveyance. Yeah.

Ty Walker: 23:22

And, and my thing is if we put that limit out, right. I kind of feel like most drivers are going to be like, well, it's there, that's the limit. I'm going to use it. So it's probably better off to just, we can still use it. I mean, it's a tool for us to use. Don't feel like you can never use it. But I guess with that, if you have questions, continue to call us and we can try to talk through it and figure out what would be the best.

Mark: 23:47

Uh, I, I think it would be best for our drivers when they come up on a situation where they're going to be using personal conveyance To check with you or Tyler or me, or maybe Mike. Make sure it's an acceptable use and the proper use of personal conveyance and then moving forward the next time you have the exact same situation, you probably don't have to check with us,

Ty Walker: 24:12

you know,

Mark: 24:12

as long as it's handled the same way.

Ty Walker: 24:14

Yeah. And with that, if you've got the drive time, Well, let's just use our drive time. It's going to make it easier. Right. Um, even if

Mark: 24:24

I'm going to, qualify that

Ty Walker: 24:25

oh, are you

Mark: 24:25

like this. our drivers that live in Ogden? That situation, if you've got the drive time, let's try and drive to where you're going to, where you really need to start.

Ty Walker: 24:36

Yeah. That's True.

Mark: 24:37

next. And then use personal convenience to go home because if you use, let's say they use drive time to go to Ogden. Now they have to use drive time to come back.

Ty Walker: 24:46

Yeah.

Mark: 24:47

And that's not necessarily great. or a Perfect Optum Optimum, optimum,

Ty Walker: 24:55

good point. Yeah. Yeah. That is, that is a good point. Um, so those are few of the questions they have here. Let me see this next. One's kind of given, I feel like most everybody would, would understand this, but can personal conveyance time be combined with other off duty time to complete a 10 or 34 hour break? So obviously, yes, it can. If you want. Moving for 10 minutes in personal conveyance through the night, your 10 hour break, isn't going to be frustrated. You're still. It'll still qualify for that off-duty time. So, so that's good. We've got a little bit of flexibility there. I've next, I've just got some examples of appropriate times and, and times that it's not appropriate to use PC, which really we've, we've covered most of these, these things. I will say one of the, the areas that we kind of got in trouble with, let me see here. So time spent traveling to a motor carriers terminal after loading or unloading from a shipper or receiver, you can't use PC then just like we kind of talked about our driver had had unloaded or here in cache valley and used PC just to go over to our yard to take a shower, which seems totally legit, but they, they caught him on that one. So.

Mark: 26:14

Now, how did he use PC to go back to Logan? Right. I mean, seriously, if he had used PC to go back to Logan and then gone on duty there and started driving, he would have been fine,

Ty Walker: 26:26

Right? Yeah. So it's kind of a, like we've said, it's pretty big, but yeah.

Mark: 26:33

So one thing I want to make sure we clarify, you can use PC While you're under dispatch and under load, correct?

Ty Walker: 26:42

Correct. You can not, not to further a trip, but for personal use, if, if mark or tidy needs to go get that happy meal, whatever it is, we're starving, you can use PC for, for personal things, but not for the benefit of the company, not to move your load down the road.

Mark: 27:03

So Quite often, I'll advise a driver, you know, he'll say. He'll ask me if there's overnight parking and a receiver or a shipper, we may or may not know, but I'll tell him, go ahead and drive there. And then if there's no parking, you can use personal conveyance to leave there, go to safe parking and use personal conveyance to go right back there so that you don't have to start your clock prior to loading or unloading.

Ty Walker: 27:33

Yeah. Yeah, because let's say you have to drive 20 minutes to find that safe parking. Had he not done that. And he starts his day, you know, 20 minutes earlier. And maybe if there's traffic, whatever it might be, that's going to affect him quite a bit down the road and how far he's gonna make it. So that's a good point. So, so with that, I think that kind of sums it up what we have to talk about for personal conveyance. Um, thanks for having me on here today, mark.

Mark: 28:02

Well, you can have your wife listen to this and maybe she'll understand when you say talk about PC.

Ty Walker: 28:08

Yeah. You know,

Mark: 28:09

PC and

Ty Walker: 28:10

I'll tell you this much,

Mark: 28:12

Political correctness.

Ty Walker: 28:13

few, the few times that I've recorded. I'm like, Hey Val, my wife's name is Val. Valerie. You should listen to the episode. Listen to this. She's like, I don't care about trucking. I'm like, come on, I'm on there. I'm like famous. Listen to me. Oh, shoot. But I'll see if she wants to tune in and learn a little bit about PC.

Mark: 28:37

She needs to help us out. Promote.

Ty Walker: 28:39

She does well. Thanks mark.

Mark: 28:42

Thanks Bye. That was a great segment with Ty Walker. I love doing the safety minutes with him and it was really nice to get him over here, to the Frankfurter studios to record, um, Frankfurter studios is opening a annex. Did you know that? grace? Yeah. Yeah. Frankfurter studios west.

Grace: 29:15

attic.

Mark: 29:16

No, And annex is an outside spot.

Grace: 29:20

Okay.

Mark: 29:21

Yeah. Yeah. So we're opening Frankfurter studios west and Treemont.

Grace: 29:26

You mean it's in your office?

Mark: 29:28

maybe,

Grace: 29:30

Just like it's in your home office.

Mark: 29:35

we had a, we've got a spare office at the term at our office at the terminal, and we've got a bunch of, we put some shelving units in there with, um, Stokes. hats Like that. we give our drivers and customers and then we've got a bunch of shirts hung on racks in there and it makes for pretty good audio. I bought a round table, I got a deal on a round table delivered. So now we can do round table discussions at the Frankfurter studios annex in Treemont. in Utah. Anyway, Um, so. What's next up on the podcast.

Grace: 30:12

Our next segment is with Ray Anderson and he talks about him being adopted and finding his blood relatives and a little bit about him trucking.

Mark: 30:23

So the podcast is called driver to driver. Right. And I, um, we've had a few episodes last week was one of them where I didn't talk to one of our full-time drivers. I want to try as often as possible to have one of our full-time drivers on that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to talk about trucking, uh, when we had Charles Ballard on and, and that essentially the whole segment was about mental health,

Grace: 30:52

right.

Mark: 30:53

Um, Dale Swinson and Mike Roberts was all about physical health. This Story of res I think while I don't know if that it's super unique, especially today, but it's really cool. Like, I think it's really, really neat. And I don't want to say a whole lot more than that until you listen to it. We're going to come back and discuss a little more after the segment. So off we go with Ray Anderson

Ray: 31:35

No.

Mark: 31:35

Hey, man.

Ray: 31:36

Hey,

Mark: 31:37

How you doing?

Ray: 31:38

dead

Mark: 31:39

Where are you at tonight?

Ray: 31:40

I'm in prim

Mark: 31:42

You

Ray: 31:42

cause there's a full backup two hours.

Mark: 31:45

Oh man.

Ray: 31:46

It's Yeah, my, my thing saying it's going to take me three hours and 48 minutes. to get to Barstow. So I'm staying Yeah. The thing is over, the epidemic is over. As far as California is concerned,

Mark: 31:57

you know, that was, that was the best thing that ever happened to traffic was the pandemic. Wasn't it?

Ray: 32:02

It was.

Mark: 32:03

Well, thanks for, uh, taking time. Sorry. It took me a minute. I, uh, Scott was off Thursday, Friday and today. So I was pinch hidden and, that always sorta throws me for a loop whenever I have to do that. So

Ray: 32:18

Gotcha.

Mark: 32:19

I want to start with you telling me a little bit about your background and how you ended up in trucking.

Ray: 32:25

I started driving Probably 13, 14 out on the dry farm in the summers, Uh next to the combine

Mark: 32:30

where'd you grow up at

Ray: 32:32

uh, Brigham city.

Mark: 32:33

So local.

Ray: 32:34

and my dad. Yeah. My dad had a dry farm out there. And then he had a farm just, uh, just below, down by water lane by the old sewer plant. So We raised cattle. where he says sheep, all that kind of stuff. And so anyway, I started driving then. And then when I was 18, I got my chauffeur's license and, uh, and I started driving in state and then I, was 21, I started, you know, doing it. Everyone wanted.

Mark: 32:58

You're you're dating yourself, calling it a chauffeur's license, you know, that.

Ray: 33:02

Yeah. Yeah. I'm old. I'm older. So, yeah, You know, and then I, I grandfathered myself into the CDL, you know, I finished college and found out that was what I wanted to do. So I moved on to, uh, just driving and then summertime, we used to do landscaping. I worked at a GSL.

Mark: 33:25

Did you, did you aspire to drive or you just can't. You fell into it because you knew how

Ray: 33:31

it was I knew How to do it Plus It seemed to me like you know, like when I was working construction that, you know, that was going to be the best job know? Cause you were stuck in one place for too long. and uh, You didn't have to get out and actually do much, you know, you could just drive back and forth with dirt or asphalt or whatever. And uh, yeah, it made the day go by fast.

Mark: 33:52

So when did you start driving?

Ray: 33:54

Uh, when I was 21.

Mark: 33:56

So as soon as you could,

Ray: 33:58

yeah, yeah. I was working for five rock products and we went out of state a couple of times to do jobs. and, Uh, thank God I liked it, but you know that, you know, I had to be home. I couldn't, I couldn't be gone overnight because of my kids I was raising my kids by myself. And, Uh, and so, yeah, so I was doing that, going to college and working at the same time. And it was, it was crazy

Mark: 34:22

So how many kids you got

Ray: 34:23

three

Mark: 34:24

and they're all grown now, right?

Ray: 34:26

Yeah. 38 40 or no, 39 41 and 43.

Mark: 34:30

Wow. No kid.

Ray: 34:31

Yeah And then I got 13 grandkids.

Mark: 34:34

Oh, wow. You had kids young. Didn't ya?

Ray: 34:37

Really eight. Yeah. Yeah. 17, 18.

Mark: 34:40

I've never.

Ray: 34:41

then I've got, uh,

Mark: 34:42

I think I've said this before, but to me it seems like everybody, whatever age you were, when I met you, that's how old I think you are. You know? So, so I met you, you know, 11 years ago. And to me you're always going to be like mid to late forties. You

Ray: 34:59

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the only difference is really When you look in the mirror, you know, and you steady yourself. and then you realize, oh my gosh, what happened? it's like, uh, I mean, I still Feel the same.

Mark: 35:12

Yeah. Mentally, I feel like I'm 25 physically. My body's

Ray: 35:16

oh yeah That's Yeah. That's a different. story for sure.

Mark: 35:21

So you've been around, I know you, haven't driven for Stokes for as long as you've been around. What'd you start driving for a seven or eight years ago.

Ray: 35:32

Yeah, eight years, um, for, for Stokes actually. And then it was 11 years over at Paul Jones that we we were doing two trips a week, pretty much every

Mark: 35:41

So 19 years you've been polling Stokes trailers, I guess we had to say.

Ray: 35:47

Yeah. And then I actually, I got hired the first just after nine 11 happened the week after. And, uh, Yeah, I was going through a divorce on top of everything else. and, uh, My mind was at the task at hand and they put up with me for five months and fired me.

Mark: 36:04

Oh, you were let go from, from Stokes once.

Ray: 36:07

Yeah. Bell bell fired me. And I'll never forget. he told me, he told me he says, I really like you as a person. it's just fit. You just didn't work out. And I said, I understand that completely. And, and Thanks for the opportunity. you know? And so yeah, after that door shut on me, then I figured you know, I will go back, and, uh, make that right. someday.

Mark: 36:29

it's not often right. That you hear of somebody that has been let go and, and they end up back there. So that is

Ray: 36:36

Yeah. Yeah. Cause I called like oh shoot, it was like six months later and asked Jimmy, you know, you think. valid? Let me come back. I said No. And I said, well, could you help me try and come back? I said, okay, Bye. And then, and then, Then when I worked for Paul Jones, I was really apprehensive to even call out there and let him know who it was because you know, I don't know what are they going to do, you know, if they find out that I'm, you know, hauling their, their trailers again. but, uh, yeah, it was, it's all been fine ever since. You know, and Dana, you know, trucking, is you wake up the next day and it's a new day.

Mark: 37:17

Yeah. Well,

Ray: 37:20

up the pieces and move on.

Mark: 37:21

that's a cool story, but I don't think it's as cool as the one. I really want you to tell, are you ready to get into this and unpack it?

Ray: 37:30

yeah.

Mark: 37:30

So. Oh, you need to just, I don't know if you can remember everything you told me that day, the first time you called and told me this, but how you put it the first time is how I really want you to talk about it. So tell us about your heritage and how you went about finding out where you really came from.

Ray: 37:53

Well, you know, I, when I was growing up, I always knew. there was something weird or there, was something different. And, uh, in our baby books, my mom and dad had put these envelopes in the back of him and, Where it said do not open until 12 years of age, you know, Well, you know, things go, we forgot about it. So he's almost 13. And my sister was almost 14 and a half when we decided to open them up. And that's how we found out. we were adopted. And, uh, There was this little, little baby bracelet that they put on you in the hospital. And they said The Campbell boy. And then there was a bill that my parents had paid her, her hospital. and, uh, and then I found, that's how I find out her name. Her name was Carol J. Campbell. And so, you know, after I found all this out, it's like, okay, no wonder, no wonder I was feeling like, I was never meant to be there. for some reason.

Mark: 38:47

Why did you do you say that? Cause you just didn't look like them or you

Ray: 38:52

yeah, I didn't look like, you know, I mean, there were black haired, Dark eyed. I was blue eyed, blonde hair, you know, and I just couldn't figure out why I didn't look like it. And, uh, so then I found I got out and then we went to church and my, My sister told everybody at Sunday school that we know, and then friends of mine asked me after it's Like no, she's lying You know, that's not true. She's, she's lying. I mean I didn't want to be different. you know, I didn't want, I just want it to be like everybody else. So, you know, as, as the advent of this. This DNA and how they can find stuff out. It's just amazing. So I, you know, I wanted to do it, you know, I just kept putting it off, putting it off until finally I just said you know, the heck with it. So I went through this one company and they were a bunch of PhDs from Harvard and It was all, it wasn't worth the money. I paid them cause they came back with false advice and everything else. So

Mark: 39:48

So

Ray: 39:49

then I went to.

Mark: 39:50

did you ever try, uh, like the old fashioned way just tracking. Your parents or your mom down and never had any luck.

Ray: 40:00

it didn't have any luck. They told me she was military, um, but she wasn't yet turned out. She wasn't military at all. you know, we heard all kinds of weird stories,

Mark: 40:10

so you ended up going through where, for the DNA test?

Ray: 40:14

Uh, the, uh, the Mormon one. uh, yeah, ancestry.com. So I went, I went there and, you know, and then I did my spit test and about six weeks later, you know, I get the results and it tells me, you know, all you know, like where I'm from and, and, you know, I'm European and this and that. And then, uh, they sent me a bunch of, uh, first, second, third, fourth, cousins and their names. And so I was able to, uh, but my mom. and dad was listed on there and then. Great. You So I wasn't you know, I wasn't really planning on being able to find out anything. in them. And I said, well, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and email these guys. And, uh, you know, see if they have any information. So I did, and it was like an hour. I mean, this was like, I pulled over for lunch, emailed them. And then when I got to Barstow that night, you know, I returned email on ancestry from, for my first cousin. It says, Hey, I think You're looking for my mom's sister. And her name is Julie. And he says, Your sisters had been looking for you and he says, I'll put you in touch. And it wasn't 20 twenty-five minutes later here. I got pictures of my mom, my sisters, my brother. I found out I have three sisters and a brother. And then of course my mom and my dad, which I don't think they were ever married. So, I mean, picture this back in 1960. uh, She had four kids and the fifth one on the way, all under the age of six and no husband. And so it had to have been pretty rough for her.

Mark: 41:51

Yeah.

Ray: 41:52

So, Yeah. And so when the, Yes. When they asked her, when she came Well, you know, because they knew she was pregnant, but still that she'd fallen in the back of it. and miscarried.

Mark: 42:04

Oh. So she didn't tell, she didn't tell the family she'd given you that.

Ray: 42:09

No. And, uh, and then she got, a congenital heart disease. when She was 63. And so she knew her time was limited. So then she told she came out and told the truth, you know, and says, Hey, yeah, you guys got a brother. And, uh, so yeah, they did look at the timing. they didn't really have any information They have, they had a lot less information than I had,

Mark: 42:33

So when did she pass away?

Ray: 42:35

1997

Mark: 42:37

So they'd been looking for you for, cause you just, yeah, you just got these results, like it's recent,

Ray: 42:45

Yeah. In March. Yeah. March,

Mark: 42:48

so

Ray: 42:49

1st of April, actually

Mark: 42:50

four months ago, it was the first time you were able to contact anybody. So the sister, you, your sister, you grew up with that was also adopted you two aren't related.

Ray: 43:02

No.

Mark: 43:03

Okay. Well,

Ray: 43:05

In fact she was, I think he was Navajo or Anyway, she came through, uh, uh, social services, through the church, the LDS, church, and, uh, that's how they adopted her. in. But then with me, see, the doctor was going to adopt me. If I was a girl, you know, I had already adopted five boys that didn't want another, another. boy. And So he called his dad, which was in business with my dad at the time, you know, says, Hey, as Joe, which was, that's my dad's name. He said, Joe, you know, it's joint marijuana. he says, well, Sure. They do. You know? So anyway, they came down and paid everything and picked me in, They just had a private adoption right then and there.

Mark: 43:47

Wow.

Ray: 43:49

Yeah. Yes. So, I mean, it was so buried that, I mean, that, you know, the DNA was telling me The only way to find it. and it was just so amazing. You know, then I can, I can find everybody and I've talked to Cheryl and I've got one sister who lives in San Diego. And I've got another one that lives in Missouri and my brother lives in uh, upstate New York, And then I've got another dog or another sister that she's passed away. About five years. ago. They said, you know, Every every question I have ever had in my entire life. was answered. And just a matter of fact,

Mark: 44:27

so cool. It's so neat.

Ray: 44:29

it changed. Yeah, it changed everything. I mean, you know, my parents had been dead for 20, 15, 15 or so years and you know, me and my sister, we don't talk at all and haven't for years and years. And, uh, so I like, you know, I was just out here by myself, you know, it's like, you know, other than my children, you know, I found it, but it's like, I didn't have any extended family type thing. you know, because that's just the way is the way I felt. But. but then all of a sudden with everything, all the dots were connected and that, had, that had done. I actually realized that I was probably pretty, pretty, pretty well off where I was actually adopted too. And raised because I think it would have been a real shit show, you, know, growing up with them.

Mark: 45:12

had you kind of gone through life, mad about it?

Ray: 45:18

Yeah. You know, and then, you know, I thought, well, Hey, you know, it was Campbell, you know, I'm supposed to be a millionaire or I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to be living this, you know, this hard life you know, this is supposed to be easy or something, but you know, you just you have all these weird ideas, you know, like who you're related to and how you can be related and all that kind of stuff you know? And and then the part that, you know, that got me was like, how can somebody just throw somebody No, because my oldest daughter, you know, uh, I adopted her.

Mark: 45:48

I see. Yeah,

Ray: 45:49

my oldest, my oldest daughter. is adopted. So, you know, um, when me and her mom met, she was actually six months old.

Mark: 45:58

Wow.

Ray: 45:59

So, you know, so and I love her just like, I love all the other kids. you know? But, Uh, so yeah, I've been on both ends.

Mark: 46:09

yeah, I can, I can see, you know, my story. Vastly different. Right. But I can really see how you'd be angry, especially when you're younger, when you're not as worldly, maybe you haven't been through all the things you've been through at this point. I can definitely see why, how a person would get really angry maybe at both at the adoptive parents and, and the parents that gave you up for adoption.

Ray: 46:42

Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, the thing that really bothered me was I mean, being, I didn't find out till I was 13. It's like, come on, you know, what was the big secret for, you know, why did they I don't know what did, what did they hold that back. I mean, were they afraid, you know, is it something that they personally felt, would, you know, would injure themselves by telling me that, you know, how their feelings and everything were tied up. in it, but, You know, and it's like, you know, and I always kind of felt bad actually, for even thinking about looking for my parents, you know, because, you just, you know, you don't want to hurt your adoptive parents, feelings, and all that kind of stuff, but, yeah, you always had that yearning I mean, you just want to find out where you came from. You know, You want to be able to look at somebody and tell them. You know, or you know, and, and I do. I see my sisters and my brother and I can see myself and I'm like big time. And their grandkids and their kids, you know, we just look a lot like my kids, you know, and they all say that my son looks like one of their kids named snoozy or something or other, that's almost like a carbon copy, you know? And we ended up with like, my sister's name is, is melody and my granddaughter's name is melody. You know, my my oldest brother's name is Joseph and my name, my first name is. So, I mean, it's a small world. It really is,

Mark: 48:03

that is

Ray: 48:04

I just, I, I just, I just feel like I won the lottery by being able, I mean, I first time out the gate, bam. And I hit a home run. you know, The very first person I, I sent that email to is, you know, was, it was also a cousin named Joseph and, uh, and you know. he just, he just made it all.

Mark: 48:24

Hmm. So have you been able to meet with your real brothers and brother? I guess you have a brother and a couple sisters.

Ray: 48:34

Nope, not yet, we're, uh, we're good. We're shooting for this fall.

Mark: 48:39

The one in San Diego, I guess is the closest. Okay.

Ray: 48:43

Yeah. And, uh, Yeah. one of these times When I go down there, maybe to that bread place or, or wherever, Yeah. we can meet, uh, yeah, she's busy, you know, they're all busy with their own lives and their own family, You know but I mean? it's still, yeah. We're, we're, we're planning on trying to get it all together and then they're, they're, uh, they're going to get a bunch of uh, pictures and everything like that and make copies of them for me. you know? So I, So I have the story and I think they've got some eight millimeter film of my mother, so that's going to be pretty you know actually hearing her speak

Mark: 49:17

brother, who was in upstate New York, where was the third one?

Ray: 49:23

Vata or Nevada, Nevada,

Mark: 49:25

Nevada, Missouri. Yeah. There's an entire state that strongly disagrees with how they pronounce that town, that's a whole other

Ray: 49:31

How do you, how do you pronounce it? The Veda.

Mark: 49:36

I spent, I spent the night there. This was, you know,

Ray: 49:40

Oh, did you.

Mark: 49:41

many, moons ago. I, I, I woke up in, in Nevada, Missouri, and I didn't know. How to say that town, I didn't even know where I was. It was, you know, back in the day when I had maybe a couple of books. So after a

Ray: 49:57

Yeah

Mark: 49:57

nap, I'd wake up and I walked into the truck stop and I get coffee. And I asked the cashier, where am I at? And she says, Nevada. And I was like, what? And she tells me again, I said, how do you spell that? And she, she spelled it. And I said, there's a whole state that disagrees with your pronunciation, but whatever. Anyway.

Ray: 50:22

Yes. That's funny.

Mark: 50:25

Well, that's not far from Carthage. That ought to be someday. We don't go back there like we used to, but I mean, I'm sure we can figure that out.

Ray: 50:34

Yeah. Give you back there sometime. Give me just a little bit of advanced. a couple of days or so, you know? Yeah, that would be great. because she's retired, and she's just taking care of her. grand baby.

Mark: 50:45

Well, that's cool, but how

Ray: 50:47

So yeah. She moved out there to retire. So,

Mark: 50:50

so? So the other

Ray: 50:51

oh another thing too, is the other one, the other four,

Mark: 50:54

yeah. Your mom did raise them all the way through.

Ray: 50:59

yeah, yeah. She had her sister. And they kind of lived, you know, uh, oh, they lived in Vegas this whole time. They'd been in Las Vegas. this old time

Mark: 51:08

how many times did you drive through Vegas before

Ray: 51:12

thousand at least, you know, And I used to, when I worked for merit, um, my best friend lived down there in in Vegas. So, and he was, uh, and so every weekend, I mean, I was down there every Saturday night, for almost two years straight. And, and that's one of the things we do. some, you know, look through the, phone book. You know, I mean, the internet wasn't really, that big a deal back then yet, but you know, we'd look through the phone books and everything, but it was just ever could find anything. But, uh, Yeah, but they, yeah, they yeah, they all stayed there for most of their, most of their adult life as well, so,

Mark: 51:47

oh. They just recently have moved away.

Ray: 51:49

yeah. Well, I think, well actually I'll take that back. melody has been away for a while. I think it, I think it was, um, my brother and my aunt Cheryl you know, they? Yeah. And then they just, when they retired, they just. think Joe went to where his wife's and uh, you know, maybe that's what drew him there,

Mark: 52:11

Uh, I'm so glad. Thank you so much for sharing this story with us hopefully, maybe it inspires somebody right. To go find their heritage too. I don't know.

Ray: 52:25

Sure. I mean, it's just amazing what you find and then it. you know, uh, I, I just, I'm still just like I have to pinch myself. you know, Is this real? you know, is this, Is this really real? Because I mean, I, I really never thought I'd find anybody. you know, And then again, you know, there's always that apprehension of, are they gonna accept me or are they going to even want to talk to me? Or, you know, did they even know him a lot? Uh, you know, every, every question goes through your head, you know, basically at the same time. but It was worth it. It was worth the risk. you know,

Mark: 52:59

your attitude has changed a little bit.

Ray: 53:01

It has. Yeah, it has. I'm so positive now. I wasn't before

Mark: 53:06

I mean, I've always liked you, right. But, um, you're right. You're, you're just more positive. There's not as much negativity when I talked to you on the phone. but it's, it's, it's amazing. It's great. I love it. I think it's great.

Ray: 53:21

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. very much.

Mark: 53:24

So while we're on here, is there anything else you want to talk about on the podcast?

Ray: 53:30

Not just, I just want to say, you know, um, I've been around a long time, you know, and, yeah. and I truly believe that, uh, you know, this company is going places, so we are doing the right thing And, uh, you know, and it's all because of our our leadership and our management that's doing this for us, you know, and, and, uh, you know, you always, think the grass is greener on the other side, but trust me, it's not, And that's a big, big, big part of the equation too, is that, you know, just, just letting that you know, wanting to go find the bigger, and better deal, just your life, enjoy your job, you know, make the best of what you got.

Mark: 54:04

thank you from the bottom of my heart

Ray: 54:07

Oh you're

Mark: 54:07

for your wonderful words there, We're sure trying. We're not always succeeding but we're trying, trying, you know, um, more, more than we ever have before. we've made some really good additions in the office. Uh, dusty was a fricking home run,

Ray: 54:26

yeah.

Mark: 54:27

the, just the whole term, the whole project, uh, Freightliner building next door jacks in our building, dusty working in our shop. I mean, we're, we are in such good shape right now. It's a good time to build an ad to w where we're at. Right. So anyway, and guys like you, we need to. 20 So if you got a cloning machine,

Ray: 54:59

Hey. Yeah, I'm working on that.

Mark: 55:03

all right, buddy. It was great talking to you. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I'm really excited to get this one out.

Grace: 55:19

That was a really good segment about Ray Anderson and his family

Mark: 55:24

Him being adopted. So I've known a few people over my 45 years. Who've been adopted, obviously I wasn't, your mom thinks I was raised by wolves, but that's a whole other, story.

Grace: 55:37

well

Mark: 55:40

one of my best friends from college Kent Kirkoff was adopted and he was, he was different um, than Ray. He knew he was adopted from a fairly young age. He and I, I don't, Ray loves his, his parents, his adoptive parents, but Kent, I haven't talked to him about this for a few years, but I know when we were in college, he had zero interest in contacting his birth parents finding out anything about. him. He loved his parents. And he was just so happy and thankful that he was adopted. He never, he told me he really wasn't curious like his mom and dad were his mom and dad, but, um, Ray had a little different experience. He was always, always wanted to find him. And I think everybody in that store. His wonderful birth mom for giving him up, knowing that she just wasn't going to be able to provide for him. yeah. And the adoptive parents for taking him in and raising him. He he's a, he's a great guy. Uh, he's been associated with Stokes trucking. He he's worked for us for about eight years, but he's been pulling our trailers. Um, really since 2002, 2003, like if he would have been working for us the whole time. He would be. The longest term employee other than Jimmy Cornwall there. So he's a good dude. It's a great story. And I guess if you know, if you're listening to this and you're a little curious, I encourage you do a little digging on your heritage and see, you know, you don't know where you came from. Maybe you'll find something. Part of the reason Ray started looking, he, he didn't, we didn't talk about this. Um, he had some CS had some heart issues, so he's had some medical issues.

Grace: 57:42

So you need,

Mark: 57:43

and when he'd go to the doctor, the doctor would say, oh, have you had a history of heart disease in your family, and he's like, I don't know.

Grace: 57:51

I had a friend in high school who she was adopted. She didn't have any interest in finding out who her adopted parents were. She just wanted to know the medical history. So she could know in the future what to look out for. And she found that out and she had a little bit of a different story.

Mark: 58:12

I mean, I don't have any data on this, I'm a dumb truck driver just stating what I, what I think it really depends on when you find out

Grace: 58:24

you're adopted

Mark: 58:25

adopted. So Ray found out at 13, generally, you know, teenage years between the ages of 11 and 18, you're already you're rebelling from your parents. If I remember right. Kent Kirkoff, my other friend who was adopted knew right away from the time he was little, little, little, he knew he was adopted So it was just like, it just the way it was, for him, you know, he didn't, he didn't know any different. So I don't know if maybe there's a good age. I mean, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure there's some, there's some data out. there that says,

Grace: 59:05

Or like mommy blogs or stuff like that, but it's different for everyone,

Mark: 59:10

yeah,

Grace: 59:11

you know?

Mark: 59:12

Yeah, for sure. Um, anyway, it's a great story. I have the utmost respect for people that are willing to adopt people that are willing to give people up for adoption when they know they, they need to do, it. um, it's just being responsible. Right. And, and helping to take care of other human beings. I think it's wonderful. So, grace, what is our question from the.

Grace: 59:41

Our question from the road today comes from David Allen in truck 6, 9, 8, and it is, has Freightliner solve the issues with the new trucks problems with the creep mode and weak engine brakes? What is creep mode

Mark: 1:00:00

It's when the truck needs to drive slow?

Grace: 1:00:02

Uh,

Mark: 1:00:03

No,

Grace: 1:00:04

What were the problems?

Mark: 1:00:07

Um, this is gonna take, so over the last 10 years, Freightliners, we've been using Freightliner auto shift transmissions, DD 15 engines, this most recent batch of trucks we got in, and it seemed like over time, everything constantly improved, um, creep mode is, you know, when you got a back underneath a trailer or you're backing up a hill. with. A stick. You're letting the clutch out and holding the brake at the same time. So you're using both feet, you know, and you're Kenny, you're not letting the clutch all the way out. You're dragging the clutch slipping, the clutch

Grace: 1:00:51

never driven stick,

Mark: 1:00:54

but there will be people listening to this that understand what I'm talking about. Caleb, your brother would understand

Grace: 1:01:00

he doesn't listen to this. He's not a podcast

Mark: 1:01:04

Yes he is He just doesn't listen to our podcast. Well, in our auto shifts, they're just two pedals, gas and brake. And those computers control the clutch slipping. So it can slowly back up or ease. I call it like easing under a trailer, you know? So it's not just slamming in there. Well, when we got this new batch trucks, they sorta slam under trailers. so it wasn't, you know, where we've seen this steady improvement. It seemed like every year the trucks were a little better and a little better. All of a sudden it was like we've taken, up, we've gone backwards in time, six years with these trucks that the creep mode doesn't work as well. Um, the Jake brakes aren't so engine brakes hold you back as you're going down a hill. Um, it's the way that's accomplished is the valves on the engine are staying closed. So the exhaust can escape out of the cylinder and that whole, it retards the engine, right? These engine brakes aren't as strong as they have been in the past. They're actually kind of substantially weaker than they have been in the

Grace: 1:02:26

past.

Mark: 1:02:27

And Detroit Freightliner says they should be strong. But they're not like in the real world if, and, and we've done this, we've taken the Utah state truck, gone down a hill with the load and then hooked that exact same trailer to one of the new trucks gone down. The exact same hill started at the exact same speed at the top. The new truck goes faster down the hill than the Utah state truck. So they know there's a problem. They're actively working on it. And this is no joke. My time is to me, pretty valuable. I have probably been spending, I'm going to say an average of two hours a day every day on these issues. Since we got these new trucks some days, the day before we went on vacation, I spent the entire day that entire day on this. problem. And so far. they've got some ideas of where the problem may be lies. Um, they think it could be due to the transmission control module. There's actually a, and I'm going to screw up the pronunciation of this an inclinometer. So there's a little accelerometer, like your phone has an accelerometer, right? So it knows its orientation, whether it's landscape or portrait. So there's several accelerometers built in to the ECM is on these trucks. And one that's in the TCM. The transmission control module tells the truck what its orientation is up or down. Right. So if the truck's on a 3% slope down, it knows it needs to hold the brakes. So it doesn't roll. Well, they believe the inclinometers Are bad, but they're inside this ECM transmission control module. That's a working theory right now. They haven't proven that. Yes or no. That's one of the things we're going to be working on later this week. So, the short answer is no. Did I answer the call? I didn't. the question from the road, the answer to the question from the road. is I don't have an answer. I love our Freightliners, Love the guys who are working on trying to correct this problem. Brad Wiseman has been appointment on this and he is busting his hump trying to fix it, but we're not there yet. I'm sure we'll get there. Today's not the day. There you go.

Grace: 1:05:06

Nice.

Mark: 1:05:08

So

Grace: 1:05:08

I mean, not nice,

Mark: 1:05:09

yeah, I

Grace: 1:05:10

good answer.

Mark: 1:05:12

It's an answer. All right. Thanks again for joining us on driver to driver is Stokes trucking podcast. Please make sure to rate and review us on whatever service you are listening to. I need to have Laura Pronoff some more stickers, and we bought out a driver to drive her bumper stickers. Um, stop by and pick one of those. up. Oh, and I wanted to give Laura and Mike Hampton, a shout out here on the podcast. They organize the Mendon pioneer day breakfast. That was last Saturday. I had just a little piece of helping Laura with that. She, she did it all. She did all the work. All I did was send some emails and make some phone calls to round up some product for, to, uh, to use. She was able to donate a couple thousand dollars to the men and fire department.

Grace: 1:06:06

Nice.

Mark: 1:06:07

Yeah. It was like, it was awesome. Um, so I'm really so proud of her and Mike and so glad To be associated with them. She's been on the podcast. Mike refuses to be on the podcast because he's, I think he'd be great, but he doesn't want to be on, so, I'm good on them. Thanks to Schreiber foods for donating central milling, The flower people, they donated pantry. Yeah. they donated the pancake flour, um, Oakdale farms donated all the eggs Gazner food gave us discounts on milk. And, um, Lauer foods gave us discounts on hands. I think Laura ended up oh, Macy's gave us some, some discounts on some of the paper products and potatoes. Um, and again, thanks to Laura for organizing all that, keeping it all straight. Um, me and mom went and had breakfast. It was wonderful. It was great to see the community. It was really cool. I'm glad I had a little, piece of helping with that. And, thankfully there are people like Laura Hampton in the world to organize things like that. So, uh, we'll catch ya. The next episode is going to be, I don't know,

Grace: 1:07:22

great truck, driving movies.

Mark: 1:07:24

maybe, um, Um, sort of debate about when to release the USU episode.

Grace: 1:07:31

Not too close to

Mark: 1:07:33

I'm afraid if we make that one, the next one, it's going to be the middle of. August. And I really wanted to release that one, like right before the season starts. So, so that one's probably going to come out the very end of August next episode, I think I'm going to have me and Val and tie on and maybe Shane quarters. So until next time, um, what's the, what's the phrase, keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down or something like that.

Grace: 1:08:02

from where,

Mark: 1:08:03

it's like you're talking about keeping it on your wheels. Shiny side up greasy side down. Get it. no, you don't get it.

Grace: 1:08:13

no, we don't

Mark: 1:08:15

keep the bugs off your glass and the barriers off of your ass,

Grace: 1:08:18

I guess I, yeah, off of your, like

Mark: 1:08:22

that's a line from convoy,

Grace: 1:08:24

calm points to move.

Mark: 1:08:26

Convoy of the song. And the movie, the song was written before the movie was, produced.

Grace: 1:08:33

I don't, I haven't listened or watched

Mark: 1:08:37

You've never listened to convoy.

Grace: 1:08:39

Maybe I have

Mark: 1:08:41

I would highly movie's terrible.

Grace: 1:08:45

Who's who directed it?

Mark: 1:08:47

Sam. Peckinpah

Grace: 1:08:49

never heard of him.

Mark: 1:08:51

I can't believe I remembered that. I'm just about positive. It was Sam Peckinpah. Was the director, All right. We better stop this. Thanks again, everybody. We'll catch you on the next episode.

1:09:17

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