Truck Troubles and the Art of Innovation

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Bound.
I am Patrick and you are myfriends, chili.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Buttermilk.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Eric Jerry.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Eric Kayla.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh man, it's so good to be back from the week that
we've been gone and it's justbeen so much happening and I'm
so tired.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
But you know, we're doing the best.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
You know, we have taken all the caffeine pills
that Circle K had and we aregoing to try and do this.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I went with Tim Hortons today because I was
desperate.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
That's the desperation that needs not.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
But it was either that or Pilot I should have done
.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Pilot.
Pilot House Blend a littleFrench Vanilla.
They have the cold heavy creamtoo.
What did you like?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I didn't take my immersion with me there when I
brought you the battery charger.
But anyway.
So I ended up with Tim Horton'scold brew with three Splenda
and I choked all but like aquarter of it down.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Does anybody else think of Tim Hortons slash.
Tim Hortons has a who.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I imagine they're good for their sweet coffees
where you're adding 5,000 poundsof sugar no, it's still not
good.
And their pastries or cookiesno, listen, Listen.
I love our friends.
I've never been.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I love our friends from Canada.
I remember my first Tim Hortonsexperience was at the TA in
Monroe, which I think isMichigan right.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, they had a Tim Hortons, and so Eric and I went
there and I got some goodpastries which were just pure
sugar, like Krispy Kreme.
You know, I don't think KrispyKreme in the sense of pure sugar
.
Some of theirs gets a littlesweet, but like they also have
flavor and there's depth ofcharacter to their donuts.
There's a place in Baton Rougethat I used to go to all the

(02:00):
time Excellent donuts, a lot offlavor, spices in the flavor.
It wasn't just about the puresugarness Dunkin' Donuts, tim
Hortons, pure sugar.
It looks like chocolate but ittastes like sugar.
It looks like strawberry but ittastes like sugar.
There's just no.
And if you're a Tim Hortons fan, bless your heart, because,
again, canadians, they're sonice.

(02:21):
I do like our Canadians.
Your heart because, again,canadians, they're so nice.
Yeah, yeah, I do like.
I do like our canadians.
Uh, friends from up north.
So we're there.
I ordered a cafe mocha becausethat's what I used to get.
That was my old default drink.
I don't really get it anymore,but I did back then.
And she goes over, pumps thechocolate syrup in, adds a
little hot milk like steams themilk in the espresso steamer,

(02:45):
adds the hot milk and then goesover to her pot of coffee.
That's been sitting there andpours the coffee into the cup of
milk and I'm like where's theespresso?
Like a cafe mocha, is that notan espresso drink?
It is Everywhere in the worldand so no.
So I talked to her about.
It is everywhere in the worldand so no.

(03:06):
So I talked to her about she'slike oh no, we don't use
espresso in this.
We use our, our regular houseblend, our regular coffee.
And I'm like, oh, and I'mthinking like, okay, well, this
is about to blow my mind, youknow, it's about to be amazing,
because that's why they do it.
I took a sip of that swill,that battery acid, and I was
like this is terrible.
So we went back two or threemore times to try different

(03:26):
things, because I'm thinkinglike they're a big company,
clearly I'm missing somethingand all I can figure out is that
they just have excellentmarketing.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Excellent marketing.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
They must.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
They really must.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
That's funny, that is really good.
How do y'all feel about?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
it.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Kayla's like oh it's great she's like I'm a Tim
Hortons fan.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
She's like I have a punch card I don't eat there, I
don't drink coffee, out of allthings we do have one in Bucyrus
.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Well, you guys are Canada adjacent, so it makes
sense.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, you deal with our geese, we do.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's when my cousin was out here for the Madonna
concert.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
She wanted a Tim Hortons.
We did a Tim Hortons drivethrough.
She's like this is so delicious.
I'm thinking you're fromSeattle, You've got really great
coffee.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
You got the mothership, I know.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
But it was just something she wanted to check
off that bucket list.
So we did a Tim Hortons.
I did not get one of that thattime, only she did yeah, so
Pilot House, so next time you're.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I needed some, though it was a busy day they got the
heavy whipping cream and it'sice cold and you literally drove
right by it.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I'm sorry I didn't drive right by it.
I parked in the parking lot,true, you did.
And then I drove by it likefour more times today.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yes, it was a super busy day, so a lot of times I
will check in with all thisdifferent staff, and today I had
some meetings planned but theygot canceled and so I had a
little bit of like a lighter day.
So when I was talking to Vinceon the phone this morning I was
like if you need anything, justlet me know, and he's like I
would love to have your help andI'm like dang it.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
I have to be desperate to ask for your help.
I have to be desperate to askfor your help too, you do.
I'd rather you not be in theyard.
I mean, I know how busy you are, so I'd rather you take care of
that than be in the yard.
I think the former is more truethan the latter.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
But I knew when you said that I'm like, oh, it's
going to be a long day, and itwas, it was I mean like I know
y'.
So it's super late and we'reall super tired, but we're very
excited because, as you may havenoticed, our cast is a little
bigger.

(05:30):
Tonight we have the one andonly well, the two and only
Kayla and Eric.

Speaker 6 (05:36):
Again, again.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, again.
Yeah, they were here last week.
We're double feature.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
They'll feature the month.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yes, that's what we're going to start calling
home.
One more and you becomepermanent cast.
You do it is true.
You do become permanent cast,it is true.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's a long drive in from Bucyrus, but you'll figure
it out.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
We're busy next week, that's true.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (05:54):
True, no, no.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
You're doing next week's Thursday, two days from
now.
So for those of you that don'tknow, we're actually going to do
a this week.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
we're doing two episodes because our Recording
them, recording them.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Not dropping them, so we're not releasing them.
So you're listening to this one.
Next week we will already haverecorded that episode.
I'm confused.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Anyways, I have that grandbaby to go see.
You have a grandbaby to go see.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
You have a grandbaby to go see that you're all
excited about I am so excited.
Yes, I can't wait to hear back.
I've already seen pictures,I've already seen video.
I've already talked to him.
He speaks well.
He does, I don't understand whyhe has a British accent but,
we'll get to that later.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Very strange.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Because his family's not British.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
No, we left off last weekend with he was going to be
well.
They went in on Tuesday to havehim, but he was born the
following morning, on Wednesdaynight.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I like a contrarian.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, he's like oh, you think.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Wednesday or Tuesday.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, I'll show you.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
A rebel from day one.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
That should be his first motorcycle, A rebel.
Well, we're so happy to have Iwas going to say Melissa and
Eric, and I still don't thinkthat's right.
Kayla and Eric are back with usTo catch the audience up real
quick.
Eric, you have recently beenhired onto Highfield Trucking,
Correct as the maintenance.

(07:21):
Guru Correct and you are.
You've been out of the truckfor a year, so you are two years
, so you are actually coming outhere.
You're working with Vince andMel Lee when she was with us,
but she's currently doingmissionary work down in
Tennessee.
But you were up here working toregain the guruness one might

(07:45):
say to regurunize oh.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
I like that, my mind.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Your mind.
That way you can Correct yesand so when we first talked to
you last week, you were like aday or two in.
You were getting your feet wet,you were having fun.
It's now been 14 days later.
Don't check the math, please.

Speaker 5 (08:06):
Yeah, we won't check the math.
It feels like 14 days.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
How do you feel now the fun has?

Speaker 6 (08:13):
sucked out of it.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Boy.
He fits right in.

Speaker 6 (08:19):
Yes, no, it's been fun.
I've never worked, even thoughthey were our mentors.
Now I get to work with himevery day.
That's been fun.
He's been teaching me some newstuff, certainly learned not
only learned new stuff, butgained knowledge that I once had
.
I'm learning new things too,and we've got to troubleshoot
some things and that's been thefunnest part making sure my mind

(08:42):
can still figure that kind ofstuff out.
So it's been good.
I've only got a few days left.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
How are you doing with the pivoting, like when
something happens?
Because I find that happensoverall.
Well, first off, in truckingright, you knew that when you
were all trucking, you knowsomething you make plans
whatever, and then those plansgo out the door because you get
a load.
But you make plans whatever andthen those plans go out the

(09:10):
door because you get a load, butwe have to pivot.
And I find that in the yard,vince is always sharing that he
has a day plan, but then there'sthings that arise and you have
to pivot.
So are you finding that, um,there's a lot of that or not a
lot of that, or how do youhandle it?
Or I don't know really what myquestion is there, but it's
every day yeah, it does seemlike it's every day.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
Uh, priorities change depending on yeah who's going
in a truck and who's gettingwhat truck and what shop decides
to call to say, hey, this isdone today this is done now some
, some, some of them.
We deliver one.
You know we drop it off thatday, we have to go get it that
day.
So, um, it changes every dayvery fluid well it happened this

(09:44):
morning, right.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
But we talked about what we had to do and we got
fortunate today that the pivotdidn't hurt us, but it helped us
, with Patrick and Melissa goingto get that truck from FIDA for
us where we could stay focusedon what we were working on.
So pivots aren't alwaysdisruptive.
Sometimes they allow us tofocus more on one thing and
spend a little more time on it.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
So it was good, Absolutely, but the one this
morning that me and MelissaButtermilk helped you out on.
I wasn't expecting to call youin the fuel lane at a pilot and
be like I have an emergency.
I literally started theconversation with I have an
emergency.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
And as soon as you said that, I was like Turn the
truck off.
He shut the truck off, didn'the?

Speaker 2 (10:28):
I did not shut the truck off.
I didn't shut it off.
I don't know what happened.
We've got to figure out if ithas an idle shutdown or what
happened?
Something happened, and itturned itself off.
And when it turned itself off,and that amount of Spontaneously
, I have a pretty good ideabecause I've done this long
enough.
Like if I jumpstart a truck andI drive it so far with so much

(10:49):
time, it should give enoughbattery to crank itself up.
It was dead.
It wouldn't turn a light on.
I'm like oh it's dead dead, Likeit's dead dead, it's not even.
There's no redemption, there'sno clear.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
There wasn't anything .

Speaker 2 (11:02):
There was nothing left in it Because that happened
.
Instead of bringing that truckback to the yard, I immediately
said let me take it out to ourshop that changes our batteries
and investigates alternators andstuff like that, because I
think I feel like you're leavingpart of the story out, though.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, I was going to say the same thing.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
I feel like that is part of the story.
So I get a phone call After theemergency.
Can you bring me to your box,okay, but in all, fairness.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
We've got to clarify.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Let me set the scene.
I've got to set the scene.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Okay, so I am outside.
Steps are removed.
So on these big trucks, thebattery boxes.
There's two different placesfor them.
One is adjacent to the steps ina battery box.
It's really easy to access.
The other one is underneath thesteps.
So, like the two steps youclimb to climb into the truck,

(11:50):
that's where the majority of ourtrucks are, but a lot of them
are on the side too.
So this particular one happenedto be on the other steps.
So I had to remove the steps.
I had to remove the battery boxcover.
It's very little clearance.
There's a lot of stuff pluggedin these batteries, so you're
trying to grab a clip and tryingto just finagle it on, just
enough to get some battery.

(12:11):
So I did that.
Buttermilk, on the other hand,walked around the truck, jumped
in the cab and was sitting thereready to turn the truck off for
me.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
So it's a Western Star.
It is the Western Star.
You have to remove the entiresteps and the ignition key is in
the middle of the console.
Which is not normal so it's notlike the Cascadias or the M2s,
where it's right there on theleft-hand side.
You stick your hand up thereand start it, so you can't do it
from the outside.
You have to go into the truckto do it, or a second person?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, which, which is what I did.
So now I'm sitting in the truck.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
And I'm trying everything.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Nothing's working.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
The lights on the dash come on when he hits the
jump, yep, and he's like crankit and it's not even going
Nothing, it's doing nothing,it's just nothing, nothing.
So I'm like okay, so we turn itoff.
He's like okay, and he redoesthe.
I turn it on.
Dash lights up, lights in thecab come on and I turn it.
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
We did this for and he's got me on the phone.
We did this six to eight timesbefore we ever called you,
before I called you and thenhe's like well, try the
generator and that's what Isuggested, trying the generator.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
You suggested that, so I went back there, it did not
fire.
So he's like come back, comeback, let's try it back up here.
I'm like, okay, so we did itagain a couple more times and it
still wouldn't do it, and Vinceand I are starting to realize
we're about to call.
We're about to call the writer.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
And there is trucks behind us sitting there looking
at us wondering when are wegoing to go and if you're a
trucker, you know that stressit's like we have to get it.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
This is not an okay situation, so you're ready for
it, it's the worst place.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'd rather be broke down on the side of the
interstate.
It is just a terrible place tobe broke down.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
So there is an engine check light on which Patrick
said it had been on since hepicked it up.
I'm looking at some otherthings.
I'm trying to look at the dash.
What's it saying to me and myeyes?

Speaker 5 (14:02):
happen to shifter and it says that's funny.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Are you ready?
What does it say?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
It says D For dumb.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
For those of you that don't know, trucks will not
start if they're not in neutral.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yes, so does it drive ?
I relate that to Patrick, andPatrick says to Vince some joke.
He Patrick says to Vince somejoke.
He says we're amateur at thisor we're truckers or something.
It was so funny.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
The funny thing is I couldn't hear you.
But I said to Patrick, is it inneutral?
And I don't know what he said,but he was like, oh yeah, it's
in drive.
So I think we had the thoughtat the same time.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, you did so as soon as we put it in neutral,
she fired right on up yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
With his jump, though .
It needed another jump, but itthen fired up and we quickly.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Fired right up too, like it was just like vroom,
like it was just ready to go.
But I think that was just likeroom, like it was just ready to
go, but I think that was just,uh, the tell of our day, though
it really was.
It really that was at noon,yeah, so it was a.
It was a great eight hoursafter that.
So I brought that truckstraight to and the whole time
I'm on the way to the shop andit's a good what 20 minutes from

(15:20):
that there to the shop yeah I'mjust.
I'm just sweating, sweatspouring off me and I could have
turned the AC on but I wasnervous, so I just had the
heater full blast and I'm justsweating all the way down to the
shop, just nervous of like, didthis thing cut off because it
doesn't have an idle cutoff onit, or am I going to be driving
and I'm just going to lose all?

Speaker 4 (15:40):
electric on the truck .

Speaker 2 (15:42):
And so, spoiler alert , I made it there fine and I was
able to find a good parkingspot, which is can be tricky
there.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
It can be.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
I was able to get one right away and walked over
there and everything was fineand I got the other truck and
was able to go.
I actually got great newsthere's another truck that we
were not expecting to be ready.
That is ready.
You know it ended up being fine, but, whew man, that was a
tense ride back over there, Iwas just like please don't die,
Please don't die.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Why would the AC be on?
Make it die?
You said you were nervous toturn on the AC.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
If the alternator has a problem and it's not
generating enough electricityfor the truck to actually run
with.
The AC would draw more power.
So if the alternator is notgenerating enough electricity,
it could shut off, so likenothing's on.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Like I don't have the power to the sleeper on.
I don't have the—.

Speaker 6 (16:30):
Why do you turn on the APU and let the APU run the
whole time?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
So it's a truck we bought used and it has a
generator we don't use on it.
Generator we don't use on itand the reason we don't use it
is because they are particularlyprone to getting damage in rain
when you're going down the road.
So it doesn't have our truckAPUs.

(16:56):
They've placed their filters inthere and their intakes and all
so that when you're going downthe road, if you need to fire it
up, it will work and it willnot ingest water.
When you're going down the road, you need to fire it up, it
will work and it will not ingestwater.
When you're going down the road, you know you think about all
the water that sprays off yourtruck and if you've been behind
18, well you know there's tonsof water comes off it.
These particular generators, umthat that are that's on this
particular truck will actuallypull that water in and create a

(17:21):
lot of damage so that's why wedon.
Yeah, it was raining all daytoday, so that's why we don't
usually spec this particularunit, and actually one of the
things it's doing at the shop isit's getting new batteries and
we are taking that generator offand putting one of our regular
APUs on it, because we don'twant this to be a problem with
the team once it gets in there.

(17:41):
Yeah, so it's just how do youminimize the electricity draw so
that the truck has enoughelectricity to run the computers
to get you down the road?
Gotcha, it was a harrowingexperience.
It was fun.
It was Stayed in the right lane.
Yes, Mm-hmm.
Yep, it's got some weird thingsto it too.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
I made some notes.
I can lie to you and say thatme and Vince wasn't laughing the
whole time you guys were on.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
That's fine.
It was pretty funny.
I thought it was comical in theend, you know 20 tries and it's
still in D.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
My first thought was just another thing to add to
this great day.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
It just goes to show that sometimes the simplest
answers are the right answers.
You just forget to check theobvious.
It happens all the time.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
I've been on the phone with drivers really way
before Jimmy came on board, evenactually when Jimmy was first
starting.
I remember getting the calls oflike okay, I'm talking to a
driver, the truck won't start.
And I do remember asking him isit in drive?
And him being like.
I'm assuming remember askinghim is it in drive and him being

(18:49):
like.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
I'm assuming it is.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Why would it not be.
I'm assuming it's a neutral.
Why would it not be a neutral?
And I'm like ask the team.
And then, sure enough, that wasthe issue.
So, like it happens to all ofus at some point where we're
like what is happening, I thinkwe've all been there, I think
we've all done it.
It's the same for all the.
We have two differenttransmissions we use and it

(19:10):
works the same, no matter whichtransmission you have.
If you try to start it anddrive, she won't do it.
But yeah, that's been.
It was a fun day.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
That was part of the day?

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, how was it in the yard it day?
That was part of the day.
Yeah, how was it at the yard.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
It was a fun day at the yard.
I liked it.
The weather held out theweather, the rain wasn't so bad
that it was unbearable.
That cold wind, though, kickedmy tail today.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (19:36):
Eric and I were doing great Yesterday too.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
Yesterday too, eric and I had a great week.
Eric troubleshot an APU.
Today it wasn't working.
And had a great week.
Eric troubleshot an apu today.
Uh, it wasn't working.
And I was doing an outsidecheck and this particular apu
you open the side door.
It's a pretty big unit, it'sgot, it's a tank unit and when
it's got power to it it's got agreen light on it.
It requires the apu to berunning in order for the water

(19:59):
heater to work.
So the apu was running when Iopened that door to check that
cabinet and I noticed that thelight was not on on the water
heater.
So I went and grabbed Eric.
I said, hey, did you have hotwater?
He's like no, I was trying tofigure it out.
I said come here.
So I actually had plugged it inand I unplugged it and tucked

(20:19):
the cord back behind the waterheater and he came around and he
looked and he immediately sawthat it was unplugged.
So, but that was one of thosethings where all of our water
heaters don't work the same way,right, but that one does.
He immediately saw it wasunplugged, plugged it back in,
went, fired it up and it wasworking just fine.
So, but those are the littlethings that you don't think of.
You look at the big picture.

(20:40):
Oh, did we trip a breaker?
You know, is the water heaternot working?
But he picked up right awaythat it wasn't plugged in.
So that was a good positive fortoday we had some positives.
We got a lot of work done.
With the help of you andButtermilk, we got a lot
accomplished today that I wassurprised we accomplished.
Like the last truck, we did theinitial on.
I didn't think that wouldhappen today, but because you

(21:02):
guys helped us out, we were ableto knock that out today and
tomorrow we can move on to thenext thing.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, productive day, but stressful, but stressful,
stressful for sure, sure.
And then tomorrow, you know,we'll be back at it.
I think all four of us will beback in the yard again, so it'll
be a little different day.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
We can move through some stuff tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Absolutely.
It's funny how it's just likean expediting where everything
ebbs and flows and it's kind ofbeen flowing pretty good for the
past few weeks and then all ofa sudden we get like a little.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah, burst A little.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Smack in the face A little smack in the face, a
little burst of pressure, andwhat's going to happen is, over
the next three weeks, we'regoing to declog it and it's
gonna be fine again, but it'slike for now.
It's like, oh okay, well, wegotta do this, let's get in and
let's let's figure some thingsout.
Um and again, you know, youkind of hit on it when you were
like talking about how thingschange with the shops.

(21:56):
It's like people don't realizehow much we are at their mercy.
We really are it is brutal um sowe are.

Speaker 6 (22:04):
We have a few good shops, though.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
We actually have some great shops.
We do All the shops that are onmy list of approved Columbus
vendors are really good.
A couple of them are reallyslow.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
But they do great work.
No, and that's been afrustration because we've
actually talked to other shopsto kind of be like, hey, maybe
you're a good alternative, and alot of times we find out is
they're not as good.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
So, it's like they're not as good or they don't do
the type of work we need.
You know our trucks are prettyspecialized and they aren't
familiar with them.
Yes, so do you allow them tolearn or take it to the truck we
built, the shop we built in thefirst place and take a little
time?
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
All I have to say I love what we do.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
It's just been a day.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
But this weekend we had some beautiful weather.
We actually got to hang out and, if you'll all humor me, I
think we're all going to do thistogether, right.

Speaker 6 (22:57):
Yeah, me, me, me me me what are we doing?

Speaker 2 (23:03):
We're singing again happy birthday to you happy
birthday to you happy birthday,dear buttermilk happy birthday
to you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
And anymore.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
So how did you get the name Buttermilk?

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Oh, I named myself, that's the best way to do it
right?
Yes, so, speaking of Cincinnati, as you're coming down from
Kentucky, dropping down intoCincinnati, there is the
Buttermilk.
I'm sorry what Coming downKentucky dropping into
Cincinnati?
Cincinnati is lower thanKentucky.
Am I the?

Speaker 2 (23:47):
only one, that's.
I was letting her just go withit.
Did I say it wrong again?

Speaker 5 (23:52):
We were northbound on .
I-71.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Okay, but if north is south, south is north, Go ahead
.
Oh sorry, so at any rate you'recoming down into Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
And Up Down.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
Down the hill, oh, down the hill.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
Down the hill.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Now I follow.
You're talking elevation, notnorth-south.
We were northbound on I-71.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
So you're dropping down into Cincinnati, there is a
big green sign that saysButtermilk Parkway.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yes, Very familiar.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
And Cincinnati.
Usually, as you two know, whenyou drive shifts, it seems like
you always drive through thisspecific city and your partner
doesn't kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
It always seemed to work that way, and this was at
night.
It's lit up beautifully.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Something about Buttermilk Parkway made me
giggle, and so I'd be gigglingby myself.
It was our last ride.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
It was our last ride.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
It was our last trip.
I was driving us back fromafter a vacation and um in the
truck and vince was sitting upfront and we come up on it and
it's like the first time we'veever ridden through cincinnati
in the three years we've beenout here together and I shared
with him.
I said buttermilk makes megiggle, buttermilk Parkway, I

(25:04):
don't know why.
And then I looked over at himand I said fun fact, my
indigenous name is Buttermilk.
Buttermilk, hoo, ha, ha.
And we both started cracking uplaughing that I had this name

(25:24):
and blah, blah, blah, but at anyrate.
So from then on it's been arunning joke and I have now been
called.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Buttermilk for probably.
How long have we been off theroad now?
Two years.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Two years and I've been called Buttermilk for two
years Vince calls me MDAC,m-d-a-c, which are my initials,
and wherever in a crowd he callsme MDAC, it's normally a Vince
thing.
And that forever in a crowd hecalls me mdac.
It's normally a vince thing andthat's been a relationship.
But I can hear mdac likeliterally if we're in a crowd,
because sometimes melissa gets alittle lost on my ears, but

(25:53):
should he say mdac or buttermilk?
I know exactly that I'm theperson that should be looking at
someone talking to me your nameand my email is mdac.
Mdac, yeah, which is fine andit's okay if other people call
me that um, I don't ever callyou that.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
It's just whenever I type in your name in my email,
that's what pops up for somereason, yeah, so but well, we
all embraced uh buttermilk.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think pretty well, right, I think so, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
And for me when people call me that it.
It is a time or a roughreminiscence for me of what it
stands for, which is driving onthe truck.
Again, I would literally begiggling by myself in the truck
because I don't know why.
It just made me just one ofthose words that make me laugh.
So buttermilk it is.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
So from here on out, your name tag doesn't need to
say Melissa.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
It just says buttermilk.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Well you know, and because we already had another
Melissa on staff too, it reallyhelped having your name be
buttermilk.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, yeah, if we're ever in a room together and
people don't know.
Her and I, mel Lee, melissa Lee.
Her and I have agreed that I'mMelissa and she's Mel, like if
we're literally in a group.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
And that's easy to differentiate from.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
I try to call her now Mel yeah, all the time, to
differentiate from I try to callher now Mel yeah, all the time.
Yeah, it's a lot easieractually, because Vince, that's
all Vince calls her.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
So it's a lot easier for me to remember who's.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah, you know she's Mel, but see, I screw it up all
the time.
I call buttermilk Mel.
A lot of times you do itbackwards.
I get itied against it.
So Melissa liked to be calledMel in high school that's kind
of where she took that up andthen carried it through college

(27:30):
and all those years and I alwaysrallied against it.
I was like, no, you're Melissa,you're not Mel.
But I think it's because I hatewhen people shorten my name.
So in my head it's like no, ashort name is bad, so let me not
do that, and uh they try tocall you pat.

Speaker 6 (27:49):
No, people used to.
I see I don't see a short yeahpatrick.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
So pat is it, and they used to call me that, not
no, they never did call me that.
People will try that and I willsay, no, it's patrick.
Like I hate that name, so uh,so that's why, like I never
would call her that, now I'veembraced it because it's just
too dang confusing.
You know there's been times.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
And we voted Her and I kind of I don't want to say
voted, but her and I did it very, you know, diplomatically, and
I'm like, if you want me to doMel, I'll do Mel.
It's not the only one I won'tdo is Missy.
I vetoed that all my life.
I agree.
I said if you want me to be Mel, I'll be Mel.
That's cool.
And she's like no, no, no, no,I'll take Mel.
You do Melissa, and I'm likeokay, bye.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
My grandma would call my sister Missy yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
I'm not.
I'm not.
I've never been.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
My mom was pretty poo-poo against it too, it just
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
How'd you get chilly?
Everybody wants to know.
I don't know if you share thatstory, it's really my
temperament, my temperament'spretty calm pretty chill.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
I'm pretty level all the time.
I was in a restaurant in Vegas.
I was working not in therestaurant, but I was in Vegas
for work and the guy who I wasworking with was my partner and
I went to a restaurant with ourmanager and some other workers
they're friends of ours, theywork in the show as well and we

(29:13):
went to a Mexican restaurant andthey had a dish called Dueto de
Chili.
It was a pair of chile rellenoson this dish.
So myself and the other guy, mypartner partner, ordered that
dish, and when it wasn't calledthat on the menu, on the receipt
though, it was called duetto dechili.
So my manager sees the receipt,he starts laughing.

(29:35):
He's like oh, these guys areduetto de chili, we're gonna
call you chili number one andyou chili number two.
So I became number one.
So the next day we go into workand my partner was only there
for a couple of days and he wasflying home and I was.
He was there to help set up thefirst couple of days and he was
done.

(29:56):
So he was done that night andmy manager was like hey where's
chili number two?
So he wasn't there the rest ofthe show, but I was, so I became
chili at that point.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
So we didn't learn how to differentiate between one
and two.
We only had number one andnumber two.
We just had me.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
And you've been chili ever since.
So you're a solo to chili, I amsolo to chili, and it's chili
with a Y, not with an I.

Speaker 5 (30:18):
However.
Oh, I do it with a Y, I do itwith a Y too, the funny part, as
I met my manager's mothermonths later she lived out of
town.
She was in town.
I met her months later Afterwork.
I met her months later.
I'll roll up to the bar and shelooks at me.
She goes you must be Chili.
Yeah, so the name was soentrenched that his mom, when

(30:39):
he'd talk about work, his momknew me as Chili.
Wow.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
Yeah, and it's just stuck.
It's just stuck.
And Patrick, you don't have anickname because of why.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
So I do.
I never really had one growingup because I just didn't like
them and I hated the name Pat orwhatever.

Speaker 6 (30:55):
So I never really had one growing up, so we should
vote on one for you.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Hold on.
So I did get a name.
When I went and saw Kelly andJimmy down in Georgia we went to
a friend of theirs house.
He's an old ornery man.
Pain in the ass man TNA.
What do you want?

(31:19):
Tna?
That would be the one.
And he looked at me and waslike what's up, red?
And I've been Red ever since.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I have this red beard .
I don't have red hair, but Ihave a red beard and that's it.
Red Beard and that's it.
And so I'll call down and maybeI have to.
You know 7 o'clock call and youknow they're watching the
football game or whatever, andI'm like, hey, jimmy, I got to
ask a question real quick.
Or Kelly, I got to ask aquestion real quick, and they'll

(31:48):
be like, okay, whatever, it'sRed Red's on the phone, they
don't use my name around him.
That's the closest thing I haveto a nickname.
You should hear about Jerry's.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Jerry, jerry, bear, is it B-E-R?
Is that how you spell it,j-e-r-b-e-r?

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Let's talk about the better one, mr Bear, jerome
Barrow, jerome Barrow.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
That's a nickname that you gave me.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
How did you get it?

Speaker 4 (32:14):
I.
That's a nickname that you gaveme.
How did you get it?
I really don't know.
I don't remember.

Speaker 6 (32:18):
I just know you started calling me that, or you
don't want to tell us.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
I just remember you started calling me that.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
So we were in Poland.
I don't even know where to gofrom there.
Why did I pick Poland?

Speaker 4 (32:30):
I don't know nothing about Poland.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
We were in the USSR, which, yes, it was dismantled
before I was born, but we werestill there, we were still there
.
And he wanted to go see thisstatue of Stalin and I'm like I
don't know that it's appropriateand he was like he's an idol to
me.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
So now I.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Why did I start calling you Jerome Barrow?
I?

Speaker 3 (32:54):
think it was on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Was it before the podcast?

Speaker 4 (32:57):
It was right before the podcast, but my nickname, my
real nickname that a lot ofpeople know, is Boogie.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
Oh yeah, I've heard people call you that.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
So that was before Expediter Boogie.
Absolutely.
I was a little baby and I wouldsit on the floor Whenever.
My dad's a musician and hewould play music and I would sit
on the floor and twist anddance on the floor, and so he
started calling me Boogie, andit stuck with me my entire life.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
That's pretty cool.
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
I've ever heard that from him.
Me either, me either.
So whenever I started, myYouTube channel.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
That's why I came up with Extra Daughter Boogie.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
That's awesome.
I've literally traveled theentire.
I've been to multiplecontinents with this man.
Is this?

Speaker 3 (33:43):
the first time you're going to mention it.
That's a cool story.
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
That is very cool.
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Do you two have nicknames.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
Can we play some music?
Can you show us we?

Speaker 5 (33:55):
would love to.
I'm going to tell Do you twohave nicknames.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
Can we play some music?
Can you show us?
Yeah, show us some of thosemoves.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
We would love to Come on.
Look, I'm going to tell yousomething right now.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
I am too old to be doing that.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
I can't drop it like it's hot anymore.
I got to let it out like it'swarm honey.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh that's funny, that's funny.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
Eric.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Highfield.
Do you have a nickname?
Eric Highfield.
Do you have a nickname?
I don't.
We worked on Slim Shady for awhile but I think that's already
taken.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Copyright Frenchman Same with.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Slim, jim, it's copyrighted too, and you're not
a Jim, I say.
Enrique occasionally, butnobody really takes that one,
you two, you have nicknames no.

Speaker 6 (34:31):
Not, since I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
You don't have pet names for each other, nothing.

Speaker 6 (34:34):
No, not, since I was a kid.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
You don't have pet names for each other, nothing.
Honey, baby, honey yeah, thoseare just honey baby.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
All right, anyways, sugar Pot, honeycomb, that's a
new one.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
I'll have to write that down.
Don't you know that?

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I love you.
No, I can't help myself.
Nobody knows this.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
I had a nickname up until moving to Ohio and it just
didn't transfer states, that'sbecause nobody knew it.
Actually, then everyone calledme Idaho, when.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
I moved here for years.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
And then, when I married him, the kids were
calling me Idaho and he had toex-nay that he's like you guys
can't call her Idaho.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Quick question.
She's got a name.
Quick question Can we changeour Kayla at Eiffel Truck into
Idaho at Eiffel?

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Truck, I can change it to whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
We'll talk about that later.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
But prior to that it was Tiny Tot, Tiny Tot.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Oh, like Idaho potatoes, tiny Tot.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
I don't know, I was really she was 5'2 and this big.
Yeah, I was really small mywhole life until I became a
truck driver.
This big, yeah, I was reallysmall my whole life until I
became a truck driver, and so Ijust the guy who came up with it
.
He's like you're just spunkyand small.
Your name is Tiny Talk.
That's pretty funny and itstuck until I moved here.

Speaker 6 (35:47):
That's pretty cool.
I forgot about Idaho.
My brother started that,actually Everybody at the moose.
Where'd Idaho go?
Where'd?

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Idaho go.
I don't think people knew myreal name.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
His best friend is from Tennessee and for the
longest time that's all I everknew his name, as was Tennessee,
because the kids in schoolcalled him that, and then it
went to Teanack.
His first name is Ryan, lastname is Spring.
I'm going to put him on here.
I don't know where Teanackcomes from, but I still

(36:18):
sometimes call him Tennesseebecause that's literally all I
knew his name Mom Tennessee'scoming over, mom Tennessee's
coming over, and then somewhereit shifted to Teanack.

Speaker 6 (36:28):
We called my oldest boy Buddha for so long.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
I've heard you talk about him.
I've heard you talk about.

Speaker 6 (36:34):
Buddha To where Dylan , dylan, his brother.
He was going to school.
We were like we called him Ericand he was like he, literally,
at school, was like who's Eric?
This is Eric.
He was like no, that's mybrother and his name is Buddha.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
He's 6 years old 7 years old and didn't even know
his brother's real name.
That's my brother and his nameis Buddha.
He's six years old, seven yearsold and didn't even know his
brother's real name.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
Wow, that's funny, that's hilarious, that's good
that one tops the cake.

Speaker 6 (37:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
That's hilarious.

Speaker 6 (37:04):
And his mom hated it.
I mean hated his nickname.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Hated Buddha.
Yeah, hated it why?
But he must have had like aBuddha belly.

Speaker 6 (37:16):
I'm not sure, yeah see when he was born he was 10
pounds and 5 ounces and he cameout of a very small person and
he just my dad immediately waslike he looks like a Buddha doll
and I'm going to start callinghim Buddha.
I mean he had the big belly hischeeks were out to here and the
name just stuck.
I mean, literally he's 26 and Istill like, yeah, buddha's

(37:37):
coming over.
I still call him BuddhaEverybody still calls me Buddha.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
You were telling a story today and you said Buddha
and you corrected yourself andchanged it.
I thought that was kind offunny.

Speaker 6 (37:47):
Yeah, yeah, he's, that's what everybody knows him.
Hey his people on his footballteam.
His coaches was like his name'sEric.
My dad was the head coach atthe time.
You know he's 13 years old.
I never knew his name was Eric,that's what everybody?
Called him.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
I was one of those big babies.
I was, you know.
I look at my birth certificateand I'm like oh geez, sorry, mom
, sorry.
Mom, Of course I was aC-section baby, so it was a
little.

Speaker 6 (38:18):
Better for her.
I guess, I don't know, I've hadone of each.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
You have Really yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Right here One plus one is two.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
You have a lot more kids than that, this way or this
way.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
I've had four, but one of them was a C-section.
I mean, everybody says a lot ofstuff about a lot of things.
I'll tell you the labor, thewhole process, even the recovery
for her, was way better thanthe other three that I had.
I mean honestly.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Oh yeah, I'm like man .

Speaker 6 (38:50):
I wish I could have went back and had just said
man't you do this?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
So my first, my first , my oldest sister, who's now no
longer with us.
She died when she was five, butshe was the original the OG
breech baby, and they had acesarean route and I guess back
then, once you did that, theypretty much just which they
don't anymore.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
They all had to go that way.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yes, now that's not the case anymore, but it was
back then.
I do remember that mom had avery distinct scar which she was
never intimidated by because itwas just a thing back then
which now I think would bemortified by most people, but
back then it was just what it is.
So we all came out the same way.
So by the time she had me shewas accustomed to it, kind of

(39:31):
knew what she was getting into.
But I was a huge baby and mymom was a petite lady.
She was very, very small.
So I just, you know, I felt badbut I had no control over it.
I'm not the one that told herto keep eating the pickles and

(39:51):
ice cream that's on her.
But we wanted to get back thisweek a little bit towards the
high-filled thing.
We've been, you know, a coupleweeks now.
We've diverted, we haven'treally talked about it, but
we've been getting some feedbacksaying like, why aren't you
following up with thehigh-filled story?
And I teased this out a couple,three weeks ago about talking

(40:12):
about one thing we did in theindustry that really kind of
changed the straight truckenvironment.
Some would say for the better,some would say not so much, but
we made a big change in the waywe built our trucks, from our
first two bathroom trucks to oursecond two bathroom trucks.

(40:33):
So we changed things from ourfirst two bathroom trucks to our
second two bathroom trucks.
So we changed things from ourfirst two bathroom trucks to our
second two bathroom trucks.
We knew we always wanted tocelebrate the teams that were
high-performing and were reallykilling it out there.
And a lot of times if you'rereally high-performing and
killing it, it's because you'restaying out for a longer period
of time, right, right.
So how can we make you morecomfortable and more excited to

(40:57):
stay out?
So we immediately said thebathroom truck, which is why in
our first what three years, weended up buying two of them.
But for those who don't know, astraight truck in most states
not all most states is limitedto 40 foot long.
They cannot be longer than that.
We try to make, try to.
We have no choice, but we haveto be under that 40 foot, right?

(41:17):
So 39 foot 11 inches kind ofthe goal, and so that's kind of
dictated how we build thesetrucks.
Back in the day, theFreightliner Cascadia which we
built on had a short nosevariant that was a 113 inches.
Bbc is a bumper, front bumperto the back of the cab.
That's super short and so wewere able to, you know,

(41:39):
basically take all right, weneed a 20 foot box, because
that's what was required to be aD unit with both carriers 113
inches from the front bumper tothe back of the cab, and that
kind of gives you your spacingfor your sleeper, right.
So that's kind of how we faredit up.
You're spacing for your sleeper, right?
So that's kind of how we faredit up.
Well, if you do that math, a120-inch sleeper truck doesn't

(42:01):
fit right, like when youactually sit down and make the
dimensions out, because that boxhas to be 20 foot of usable
space.
So you've got think about,you've got thickness of your
back doors you've got thicknessof the wall on the very front,
plus if it's an insulated truck.
So if it's a FedEx truck it'sthree inches of insulation on

(42:25):
top of that on both ends.
And then you can't.
These trucks are air-ried sothey're bouncing up and down so
you actually have to put a gapbetween the box and the sleeper
because as that sleeper goes upand down on its own independent
air ride suspension, if it'sright next to each other it'll
rub against it and it'll work apull in the back wall.
So you have to put like a threeto four inch gap there so that

(42:48):
you can let that freely bounceup and down and not hit.
So we sat down and we said allright, how can we make this
happen?
And the initial response wasit's impossible, you can't do it
, there's not enough room.
So we built two trucks, as wesaid in the podcast a couple
weeks ago, as supersedes.
These are 18-foot boxes butthey have that extra tag axle so

(43:13):
they can carry a ton of weight.
They just can't carry the full20 foot of cargo space.
That would be ideal.
So we did two of those and itreally bothered me that we were
not able to.
We're spending this much moneyand we're not able to maximize
our earning potential.

(43:33):
Right, because you do give up alittle bit having that smaller
box.
Not earning potential.
Right, because you do give up alittle bit having that smaller
box not a ton, but you do giveup some.
So we sat down, eric and I wentdown to texas and we sat down
with uh wayne, who ran double asleeper at the time and at this
point we'd already built twotrucks of them.
He'd already already renovatedone of our trucks.

(43:54):
He knew who we were.
We had pretty good rapport andI said you know, I know we have
114 inches of real sleeper spaceto work with, because if you do
all the math it comes down to114 inches, six inches shorter
than a normal 10-foot truck or anormal 120-inch sleeper.
So I'm like, if we can do a120-inch sleeper with a bathroom

(44:16):
, why can't we pull six inchesout of this somewhere?
And I'm thinking maybe we pullhalf of it out of the shower,
pull half of it out of a closet.
You know like I think there'sways to manipulate this.
And he's like I hear whatyou're saying, but A we don't
know if it'll work and if it'llsell.
And B the shower molds they getwere literally a one-piece

(44:37):
shower mold.

Speaker 5 (44:37):
So there's no wiggle room there, so there's no wiggle
room there.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
So I'm like there's got to be a way, we've got to
figure it out.
So he and I molded over, I keptsending him drawings on CAD
paper of kind of what I wasthinking, and he would come back
and say here's why this won'twork.
And we just went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth
.
And he called me one day out ofthe blue and he was like hey,
what's up, wayne?
He said I was literally in myshower.

(45:08):
This morning and I had this ideaand I'm like pray tell.
He said I think we can takethat one-piece fiberglass shower
, cut it down the middle, cut itagain three inches over and
re-fiberglass it back togetherso we don't have to change our
mold, we don't have to doanything with that and

(45:33):
re-fiberglassing fiberglass isreally easy and it can be done
very, very nicely.
You'll never know.
And he said I think I can dowhat you want to do.
I was like, let's build it.
So I put it in order with mysales guy two trucks and told
him how we're going to build itand he literally told me this is
a terrible idea.
I'll do it because I'll takeyour money.

(45:53):
He said, but you're buyingthese trucks.
If you get them and you don'tlike them, you're buying them.
And I said that's fair.
You know I'll take the gamble.
So we built them, took a fewmonths.
They come up to Columbus, ohio,from down in Texas and Eric and
I are still at this point,we're still driving.
So we're out there riding theroads and I get a phone call
from my dealer my dealer.

(46:14):
It sounds like From my trucksalesman and he says, hey,
patrick.
I said well, your truck showedup on the lot today.
I was like, oh okay, how dothey look?
He said they look amazing.
He's like I can't believe youdid this.
Like he was completely floored.
He's like like everything isjust shrunk down just a little

(46:38):
bit to where he's like it feelshuge inside.
They're very, very nicelyequipped.
We did solid surfacecountertops, we did undermounted
sinks, we did, you know,undermounted cooktops, which we
actually changed that later onbecause that didn't work out as
nice we thought it would.
Everything was chrome faucet.
You know like it was.
It was super nicely done.
And he's like I can't get overhow nice these trucks are.

(46:58):
And so I was like, oh, I feelpretty good about that.
So we were able to go throughand we got those delivered.
We put a couple teams in them.
Then we ordered I want to say,four more of those Along with
the regular 8-foot, 96-inchnormal custom sleepers Without a
bathroom.
Without a bathroom for, like newteams coming on board, you've

(47:20):
got to cut your teeth somehow.
We did that.
And then we built one on aVolvo as well.
That went to Kelly and JimmyReally dialed that design in and
you know, when he told me hereally liked it, part of me was
going like how much of this isyou really like and how much of
this is you're just blowingsmoke up, mike.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Because you want me to buy more trucks, right?

Speaker 2 (47:39):
That dude went on and sold tons of these trucks to
everybody and his brother.
It became the hottest sellingtruck he had.
Wow, and I was like huh, Ididn't get no cut of that.
All of a sudden we helped bringthis industry into a really
cool place and get no props, butthat's fine.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
I love that story it started.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah, yeah, thank you , I really do.
It was a tough project to getdone.
It really was not easy, but Iknew that was the way forward
and so we pressed on and again,working with someone like Wayne
really helped.
Aa was going through somechanges and so we actually had
the opportunity to build one ona Bolt sleeper, got to work with

(48:28):
Bolt.
Bolt's design process verydifferent than AA, very
different so I had to go andlearn that process with them.
We built one of those trucksand it was really cool.
A couple things we messed up on, but we learned.
Like you know, your first designis never going to be perfect.
Even on the four more that wedesigned from AA after the first

(48:49):
two, we modified things right,like you, always perfect.
So we were super happy.
We had this product we love.
It's great.
Yada, yada.
And don't you know,freightliner Cascadia came out
and they said or.
Freightliner came out and said,hey, we're redesigning the
Cascadia, here's the newCascadia.
And it was pretty.
They changed the dash, theychanged the hood, the suspension

(49:11):
changed hood, the suspensionchanged.
It was really massive changes,changes your dimensions, and
because of that they made theirnose longer.
Oh so on the short nose truck,it actually had a longer nose
than the old one did, so we hadto kind of go back to the
drawing board and go like allright, where do we pull two

(49:31):
inches out of?
oh wow, and so, and two inchesis a lot when you're talking.
It's a lot.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Staying within specs for DOT or whatever, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
When you're talking like those massive ARIs that we
all see at the truck shows, orgoing down the road 144, 156,
168, 180, those massive big dogs.
They got so much room in there.
Things don't matter as much,right, but when you're talking
about cramming all that stuffinto a little bitty sleeper,

(50:03):
when you lose two inches, it'sbrutal, sure.
So the current design we're atis 110-inch.
So we've actually whittled itdown two more inches.
So we're at 110 now.
So we've actually whittled itdown two more inches.
So we're at 110 now, and wehave worked very closely with
Bolt to be able to pull this off.
As a matter of fact, if youlook at the ARI stuff, I know a

(50:24):
lot of people have asked whydon't we have more ARI trucks?
We have zero ARI straighttrucks and part of that is they
can't do it period.
So the bathroom integratedsleeper 110-inch truck so we can
still put the 20-foot box inthe back.
They don't have the ability todo.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
So that's one reason why we don't have any of theirs,
but it's been really cool to gothrough and be a part of that
change of the industry.
Yeah, and now we're doingbathrooms on M2s.
Kayla's kind of helping me workthat program over at Panther,
which has been interesting right.
Yeah, I mean it's been a lot offun.

(51:07):
We're experimenting with singleaxles versus double axles and
finding freight lanes that workreally well.
With the single axleapplication.
We're about to do our first noliftgate truck over at Panther.
And not because you would thinklike, oh, you're taking a
liftgate off, that's bad forbusiness.
You're going to be able to doliftgate loads, but there's

(51:28):
actually a bunch of auto.
Is it auto?
We're doing?
Yep, for Nissan right andGeneral Motors.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Mostly General Motors .

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Okay that they are.
They won't accept a truck witha liftgate.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
Wasn't Ford like that when we used to drive?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yes, that's because it can't latch underneath yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, okay, so it's been so long, I'm trying to
remember.
So when you back into a dock,they have a green light and a
red light.
Yes, if I remember correctly,some of the docks have a hook.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yes, basically, yeah, like a grabbing arm, yeah.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
That comes up and grabs the ICC bumper.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Okay, yeah, the ICC bumper.
Okay yeah, icc bumper.
Yeah, it grabs that.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
And if it hooks onto that, then the light turns green
.
Yes, and on the inside you havea, I'm sorry.
The outside light turns red sothe driver knows they can't
leave.
On the inside it turns green,so the people working on the
dock know it's safe to enter thetruck.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, and on the new like on an older plant, I think
they could be manipulated alittle bit.
They could be bypassed.

Speaker 5 (52:32):
But on the newer ones they can't Safety-wise they're
not.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
So like if you don't have an ICC bumper and you back
into that dock, it never latchesRight, it never turns red and
they cannot.
They can press that button allthey want, it will not raise
that door.
They will not be able to loadyour truck.
So there's a segment of freightthat we've been okay missing
out on.
Uh, but we are kind of talkingto other fleet owners, we're

(52:59):
talking to panther, we're tryingto like navigate this and going
like you know what, we need totest it, we need to see what
it's like, get an idea of it.
So we're actually about to putour first non-liftgate truck on
so we can capture some of thatfreight that we've been missing
out on.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Get some data points.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Absolutely.
Get some data and figure out.
Where does this make sense,where doesn't this make sense?

Speaker 6 (53:19):
You can always add one later.
You can always.
Yes, that's the beauty of aliftgate you can always add it
later it.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
That's the beauty of a liftgate you can always add it
later.
It's not a set in stone forlife kind of thing.
Or you may find that one teamlikes to run auto parts and
another team hates it.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Because it's different shippers, you're
dealing with differentpersonalities, all that kind of
stuff, so it's always nice tohave options right.
I'm very excited about thefuture of this kind of bathroom
sleeper project.
But also, for those of you whodon't know, the Freightliner M2
is no longer the M2, it's nowthe M2 Plus.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
It's beautiful, it's a nice truck.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Such an improvement.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Such an improvement.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
So we've been making some big changes with that as
well.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Jerry, have you driven in one of the new ones?

Speaker 4 (54:07):
I have not driven it, but I was in it.
I did a video with Kayla andKelly.
It's a gorgeous truck.
I was really shocked andsurprised.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
And you've been in one, Eric, since you've been in
the yard Much different thanwhat we started in.

Speaker 6 (54:21):
Yeah, and I got to drive it across the yard.
It's definitely somethingdifferent.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
That's cool, it's nice.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
It's nice, for sure.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
It is really nice.
I felt like the first time Igot in it and got in the truck I
had to get out and inside thetruck I felt like I was in a
Cascadia and I get out and closethe door and look at it and I'm
like this is like in the movies, where somebody's they're
showing somebody in a certainvehicle, but when they show the
outside shot, it's a differentvehicle.

(54:50):
Movie magic and that's what itfelt like.
It was like I was in a Cascadiaand now I stepped out and I was
in an M2.
I don't get it.
So it's a very differentexperience.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Even on the outside the aesthetics they've changed.
It's all LED.
Well, not all LED, I guess it'sLED headlamps and bright lights
, but I think it's regularincandescent turn signals.
They have moved to a reallycool-looking chrome, more
aggressive grille.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
Grille, they have.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
The sun visor over the cab is now chrome.
It's not white anymore.
They've done a lot of things toreally just kind of make it
look a little bit nicer, edge itup a little bit.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
So mud flaps on the on the front fenders are still
too long.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
But you know they'll fix that, you know that's, it's
funny, those, those, thoserubber mud flaps they're.
They're that thick, hard rubberyeah and so when you make a
turn and um, they are, like Isaid, too low.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
You just just hear the most horrible scraping noise
.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
But you know, you do that a few times and enough that
rubber scrapes off and it'sgone.
So if you're driving, you'relike why is there like rubber
randomly in different spots?
Well that's why we contributed.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
I pulled over the first time I drove a truck that
did that and it sounds terrible.
It sounds terrible.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
I pulled over like this time.
I drove a truck that did thatand it sounds terrible.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
I pulled over like this truck is breaking down.
I was like I can feel it in thefloorboards.
I'm pretty sure I calledmaintenance.
I was like I can feel it in thefloorboards.
It sounds terrible, something'swrong.
And he's like it's your mudflaps.
I was like, okay, well, atleast I'm being cautious.

Speaker 5 (56:25):
I did the same thing.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
I pulled over and I did the same thing.
I got out and looked.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
I was like what's going on here?

Speaker 4 (56:28):
I did the same thing, I think I actually called
Patrick because I'd never drivenan M2, and I was bringing one
back from Bolt.
It did it to me and Iimmediately called him and I'm
like something's wrong.

Speaker 5 (56:47):
Bolt is actually the one who installs those, and they
always Cut them way too long.
When I did the first one, Icalled Melissa.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
I was like I need to find another job because he's
going to fire me for whateverbroke.
It's terrifying.
I remember the first time I gotone, I picked up an old Fida
and I was driving to I want tosay maybe Pilot to get an empty
weight ticket or something likethat, and I got off the
interstate at the Pilot, wentright around, did everything and
I was going through the Pilot'sparking lot because the Pilot's

(57:12):
parking lot in Columbus is justwhew.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
It's mountainous.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
And it should not be.
I drove over one of thoselittle Humpty Doos and it was
like gah, and it did quiet, andI was like what on did quiet?
And I was like what on earthdid?
I just like what just happened.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
And then another one happened.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Another one happened and I could not figure out what
it was.
And, uh, it got a little scaleand everything's fine, and I was
driving home and or drivingback to the lot and I made one
of those right right left handit was.
Then I was in a rut, so thetire went low in the rut, but
right outside of it thatconcrete, you know, swoops up
and it grabbed and it made thesame noise and I'm like what is?

(57:53):
That's a brand new truck.
What is going on?
And so I got back to the lotand I'm like I didn't even
called our salesman.
It was like dude, I don't knowwhat's going on.
We gotta, I gotta bring thisback and figure it out.
I got to the lot and I'm likearound trying to figure out what
it was, and I saw the mud flaps.
Already getting eaten away.
And it was already eaten away,rough and I'm like, because when

(58:14):
I picked it up the mud flapswere smooth and nice and pretty.
It was through me driving itaround that they started shaving
off that extra and it just kindof looks nasty like almost like
a blown tire.
You know how a blown?
tire has that rough rubber, lookto it.
And I was like, oh, that's whatit is.
And I was like I have a feeling.
So in our yard there's a fewplaces where for the drainage it

(58:37):
kind of like slopes down.
So I specifically drove intothat and could duplicate it and
I was like, oh, okay, now I knowwhat it is.
So yeah, but I always forget totell people that because it's
just, it only happens for alittle while, it's brand new and
then, once it's shaved down,it's gone.
It'll freak you out.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
It's so weird.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
I'm curious how long it lasts.
I'd like to talk to a team whogets one brand new.
How long until that stopshappening?

Speaker 6 (59:06):
Talk to the people getting an M2.
Yeah, because it happened to meat the yard.
The sales guy said something.
They talked about it when wewere picking it up and it
happened to me at the yard andif it wasn't for them talking
about it, I would have forgotabout it.
I'd have been like what?
Because it happened, I thoughtyeah, it's got to be.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Did you get to meet our sales guy over at FIDA?
Yeah, he's a fun guy right.
Yeah, he's nice, that's great.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
People often ask me when I talk on the phone doing
recruiting.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
And you know I'll try to relate.
You know I too drove on thePanther's side for three years,
blah, blah, blah.
Husband and I have been off theroad now in staff roles and
people ask me you know, why didyou choose to come off the road?
Why?
Why?
Why make that move?
And I first I'll start with,honestly, we didn't think it was
going to be that.
But my biggest reason is firstoff, I believe in what you're

(59:57):
doing.
I think you're setting upcontractors you know new to the
industry or or wanting to make alife change.
You're setting them up forsuccess with many things the way
that you have implemented amaintenance program, definitely
the mentor program, and thenjust the staff, all but maybe
one or two have actually donethe industry.

(01:00:17):
So we all understand.
But I think the biggest one isyou have vision.
Both you and Eric do.
You have this hunger forlearning and wanting to do
things, maybe slightly different, but slightly different to be
successful.
And I feel your story on how toget that sleeper down to the

(01:00:39):
right size and just beingrelentless on it and seeing that
vision and that you knew itcould be done.
You just needed to find theright combination and those are
the things that fuel my passionpersonally, um, for wanting to
be something, wanting to be partof something bigger and
something successful and, uh, tosee others come in and be a

(01:01:01):
part of that as well, even ifyou're a contractor or as staff
members, but definitely as acontractor I I think that's just
something fun is the visionthat Highfield has and that
future vision.
So I think that's pretty coolthat you did something like that
, that you created it, that youknow trucks out there on the
road have the Highfieldsignature to it or whoever

(01:01:23):
created it, whether you gotbonus points for it or kudo
points or whatever.
But that you're just part ofthat.
And I see it with other thingsthat you've done and I'm not
going to share other storiesbecause you probably have those
down the road but differentthings that you're doing to the
trucks.
You know different parts andpieces of the equipment that
you've had your hand in with umdesign or tweak this, tweak that
, and and all for the comfort Ithink of, of the contractors, or

(01:01:49):
some people call themselvesdrivers, uh, but also, you know,
for um optimal um equipmentefficiency.
I I see you doing both andcoming up with a happy medium
that is successful, not only fora business owner or business
entity to be successful andprofitable, uh, but for the
comfort of the drivers, thecontractors.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
And I love being a part of that.
We really do try to stayfocused on the future and
perfect what we already have.
I think it's one thing that weboth and I think most of our
staff feels is that we're notcontent status quo.
We're not content with justdoing okay.

(01:02:31):
We want to be trendsetters andwe want to be leaders and trying
to figure out what that lookslike next year and in five years
and in ten years.
You know it's funny.
I talk to friends and I'm likewhat's your ten year vision for
your fleet?
Look like right.
And these are not people I wantto work for me, these are just

(01:02:51):
friends and like what are youseeing?
What are the trends?
You're thinking and think 10years out and they're like I'm
thinking how am I going to paymy bills next week?
And I'm like that's not a placewe want to ever come from.
We want to be like, how can wedo something that is unique,
that is trendsetting, and wetalk about our slogan being like
team trucking reimagined.

(01:03:12):
So how do we reimagine it?
And if we reimagine it and webuild it and it's going a
certain way, then how do wereimagine to make it better?
How do we reimagine to make itbetter?
How do we reimagine to makethat better?
How do we, how do we, uh, getbigger, better, smarter?
Um, you know, we're always goingto be contractor focused.

(01:03:34):
We're always going to bethinking about the person behind
the steering wheel of how, howare they going to be able to run
their business?
How are they going to be ableto make money?
How are they going to becomfortable?
How do we bring that to evenother industries outside of
expediting?
Yeah, so it's kind of what'salways on our brain.
Yeah, and then going forward,some of these things are
long-term, multi-year-longprocesses and some of these

(01:03:56):
things are, you know, changing.
Next week we're going to dosomething different, so it's fun
.
And then also, you know,literally litmus testing
everything.
Hey, did that work?
No, it didn't work.
Well, let's scrap it.
You know if it does work, great.
If it doesn't work, I mean I'vegot.
Next week we'll talk about somestuff with the APUs and we'll

(01:04:19):
talk about things that I'velearned over the years and not
all of it's going to be pro-us.
Some of it's going to be like Imade a mistake, so we'll talk
about that next week.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
I got to hop in that unique.
You were talking about it lastweek.
I think it was the unique buildwhere the bed's on the side and
the bathroom's in the back.
Eric came home talking aboutthat one.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
It's like an apartment.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
You forgot to send me a picture.
The counter space is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
It truly is yes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
I hopped in there today and I was just woo.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
I love the fridge.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
Oh, I love the fridge .

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
Yep, it cuts your space down a little bit Like
when you walk from the cab tothe bunk.
You don't have a little lessspace there because it's not as
wide.
Sure, I mean that layout.
I was like I was thinking, man,I wish we would have this
layout.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
it was nice yeah, it was great.
What kept you from reproducingthat?

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
the bathroom is smaller than the best currently
the bathroom yeah, the bathroomis a little petite.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Um, the people that were driving it weren't super
tall.
The, if you notice, the entireoutside of the truck looks
different.
That is a larger sleeper, andso we had to use a Western Star
product that had a shorter noseon it to be able to make it
happen.
Because of that, there weresome compromises, so we don't
have the transmission we prefer.

(01:05:40):
It's a good one, it's still gota great transmission in it, but
it's not the one that we prefer.
It's an Eaton Fuller Auto.
It's not a Detroit transmission.
It doesn't have the steeringwheel controls.
It's got that chrome,old-fashioned steering wheel on
it, it's got all the buttonsthat are on the dash.
There's a ton of buttons on thedash because everything is

(01:06:01):
button-driven.
Dog house really cuts into thecab quite a bit.
A dog house is the hump fromthe engine.
Because it is a shorter nose,the engine actually kind of goes
into the cab area.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
I didn't notice that today.
That's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
I just hopped in, so it's not quite as fuel efficient
.
It's pretty good, but not quite.
It's got those old-fashionedrectangular headlights, you know
from like 1974.
Those aren't as great as thenew halogen projections or the
LED lights, and so there's justa number of like things and it
was more expensive.
That's a more expensive chassisto have.
It's a very durable chassis.

(01:06:37):
That thing will last forever.
That's a two million mile truckand you can see it too Like if
you look at the coolant tank.
The coolant tank is black steel.
It is not that clear plasticthat we're used to there's
almost no plastic underneath thehood of that truck.
It is a very robust, very strongchassis.
It's more expensive because ofthat, Losing some of the

(01:07:00):
creature comforts of thesteering wheel and such.
We just decided that wasn't agreat way to build going forward
, so that's why we don't havemore of them.
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:07:08):
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
If I was driving a truck I'd be so happy.
I think it drives good.
It actually rides pretty goodon the interstate, but it is
different, I think, if it wereme and it was like I owned the
truck.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Personally, my color choice might be a little
different With the white.
The white does make it feelairy, or at least the headboard
of the bed, or when you firstwalk in.
That surprised me.
And then it was like, oh aha, Iremember you told me about this
truck.
I think a mural there would bekind of cool.
And again, this is all justaesthetics.
On the inside If one was to ownit was mine.

(01:07:43):
But the layout I agree withEric.
The counter space which I knowyou talked about that last time,
that's really kind of what theteam wanted.
Very, very.
It almost felt like anapartment kind of, with the wall
and a building, and it just hada different feel to it than

(01:08:04):
just open air space or openconcept of what the new trucks
are Not that I'm saying that thenew trucks aren't just as
fantastic, but it was different.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
That one's uber custom and we did put a lot of
thought into the team.
Being an older couple, this isa team that's been with us from
day one.
They just recently retired, butthey were with us for over 10
years.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
And they drove this truck the whole time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
No, not the whole time.
They were in three or fourdifferent trucks with us, oh
okay, but this was the last onethey were in.
So the one before this wasidentical, the sleep was
identical, but it was on aCascadia.
But it was that short-noseCascadia and it was one of those
18-foot boxes that we talkedabout, that we built years ago.
So then this truck same thingLike the refrigerator, was a
little higher off the groundthan they normally are because

(01:08:44):
they didn't like to bend over asmuch Below.
It was a huge drawer that hadthe ability to put pots and pans
and things like that in.
There were a lot of little likehey, can we get this added?
Can we tweak this?
Tweak that You've got a teamthat's been with you for six,
seven years.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
You do it, it's pretty cool If you have time
when you're down.
I was gonna say I should golook at it tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
I've heard about it from so many different people.
Now that I I have curiosity isgonna make me go down there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
Yeah it's a cool truck and we're actually about
to uh lease purchase that truckout, um.
So I think the people that aredoing it listen to this podcast.
They're probably hearing ustalk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
It's pretty cool.
Have you been in it, Jerry?
I have not Well you might getin there before it goes off the
lot, but it's a pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
It's unique.
It's unique.
It's a very cool build.
We did an extra.
You know most of our steeraxles are 13.3.
We did a 14.6 on that onebecause we knew it was going to
be a heavier truck.
It's double-framed.
It's ridiculous.
It might be one of the heaviesttrucks we own.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
But it's a really nice build.
It's one of those where it'sreally well-built.
It's going to last a long, longtime.

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
I think it shows the evolution of the product that
you now have.
That's fun to look back, maybeat history.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Yeah, and this truck.
I mean we could still buildthat today.
Sure, you know that truck todaywould probably be close to
$400,000.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Yeah, close to $400,000.
Which that didn't exist fiveyears ago when we built it Right
.
It's a unique build.
Yeah, I was very proud of thatone, though.
I mean that was that's one ofthose things where we spent a
lot of time designing andbuilding just for one team.
It got built, it got done, andthen we kind of focused on the
more mass-produced sure umbecause I really wanted to
identify like.

(01:10:38):
This was a really unique bespoketruck for a particular couple
and it was fun to do.
But what I really but but likewhere I really put a lot of my
focus was on the how do we makethe the best of all worlds in a
different truck?
Yeah like that truck, forexample, doesn't have television
in it.
I didn't even notice that and so, because they just they could

(01:10:59):
care less about it, we did putthe satellite in and we did have
a place for the television.
It's just not in there majority.
Depending on the evolution ofthe bathroom truck, you get the
new ones now, like yours, jerry,had the pull-down TV from the
ceiling right.

Speaker 6 (01:11:12):
Yes, I've never seen that one.
I like those.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Yeah, so that's you know.
You see little things like thatthat are like I think that's
more appreciated by teams.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
Get more counter space.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Yes, Getting by teams .
Get more counter space.
Yes, Getting it off the roof.
Making sure that we have enoughroom on the counter for the
sink, the stove and the coffeepot Right Now.
Granted, people aren'tnecessarily bringing out their
$1,500 Breville coffee makerslike Jerry did, I didn't I
didn't.
But, yeah, make sure we havedependable, quality stuff that

(01:11:47):
will make a lot of people happy.
I think that's what we have,that product we have right now.
I'm very proud of Our 96-inchsleeper trucks, our 110-inch
sleeper trucks, ourside-by-sides that we have on
both sides are very good, very,very good products that we've
really been working hard to dialin.
So, yeah, I'm proud of that andit's been fun watching that

(01:12:09):
evolution happen.
And I just saw thatFreightliner is dropping a new
Cascadia soon and I'm like ohgreat let's see.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Let's see what we've got to change now.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Can't wait.
I remember when those thingswould happen, like when the 5700
from Western Star came out, howexcited I was about this new,
exciting new product.
And now I'm like I guess myheart burned.
Why do we have to changesomething that's working?
We'll deal with it.
We'll make the necessarychanges.

(01:12:39):
I think we have dragged on longenough.
It's been a lot of fun.
I always enjoy my time hangingout with y'all.
I welcome Kayla and Eric.
Enough.
It's been a lot of fun.
I always enjoy my time hangingout with y'all.
I welcome Kayla and Eric back.
It's been a lot of fun havingy'all here as well.
Thank you, I think Jerry saidis it one more episode?

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
Yep One more and you're permanent.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
One more and you're permanent cast.

Speaker 4 (01:13:01):
Make sure you hit that subscribe button.
Hit that thumbs up button,thumbs down.
If you don't like us, but Idon't know why you would Go
ahead and visit us over athighfieldtruckingcom if you are
interested in learning moreabout Highfield and what we do
over here in the expeditingindustry, and shoot us over an
email at theouterbeltpodcast atgmailcom.

(01:13:22):
If you're interested in givingus ideas for shows or anything
you want us to talk about, we'dbe more than happy to oblige
with that.
You can also listen to this onyour favorite audio podcast as
you're driving down the road.
We are available on all themost popular streaming apps out
there.
Also, call us at 833-HIGHFIELDNumbers at the bottom of the

(01:13:44):
screen.
Someone in recruiting wouldlove to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
The Outer Belt Podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
I did the.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
The Outer.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
Belt, you're going to get a call that says can we
talk to Buttermilk?
I know right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
Oh, I had some Highfield's page.
They post birthdays for all ofcontractors and staff.
Somebody wrote happy birthday,Better Milk.
I thought that was pretty funny, Pretty fitting.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I thought so too.
Yep, was it me?
No, it was someone else.
Someone beat me to it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
It's Trey Sensen.
Shout out to him.
I know he listens, he watches,he is a loyalist of Highfield
and all things and when the timeis right, I know they will make
the jump over to us.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
They've been watching for a while now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
Very beginning of when at least Vince and I
started and I think even beforethat.
But we've done dinner with himand his family and some others,
but anyway appreciated all thebirthday love and I know it's
not about me, but buttermilk'spretty funny.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Well, thank you all for hanging out with us Again.
Thank you one more time toKayla and Eric.
Eric, welcome again to the team.
Can't wait A few more days inthe yard, then you're on to the
computers and phone calls andyou're going to start going gray
.
Thank you to my Outer Belt cast.
It's a lot of fun hanging outwith you.

(01:15:05):
I appreciate all that y'all doon a week-to-week basis.
In the meantime, until nextweek, I should say stay safe,
make good decisions, don't leavemoney on the table and keep
those wills of turning.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
Good night.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
We'll be you next time.

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