The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
The Road to Zero Emissions and Weekend Wanderlust
What if you could navigate the complexities of California's evolving air regulations like a pro? Tune in to discover the intricate dance between the California Air Resource Board's ambitious goals and the real-world challenges of phasing out diesel trucks and locomotives. We'll break down CARB's latest move to pause its stringent regulations, analyze the impact on air quality improvements, and consider the future of zero-emission commercial vehicles. As we unravel how politics and innovation collide, you'll gain insight into the state's roadmap to a greener future and the hurdles that come with it.
Curious about the latest in electric vehicle advancements and their implications for the trucking industry? We've got you covered with updates on Tesla's semi-truck tests and other exciting developments in the EV space. From urban buses to long-haul trucks, explore how electric vehicles are transforming transportation, one kilowatt-hour at a time. We'll address both the opportunities and challenges of this transition, including range efficiency concerns and the broader environmental impact.
Join us for a light-hearted wrap-up as we share tales of our weekend travel escapades and sprinkle in some lively company banter. Discover our misadventures involving flight delays, unexpected encounters, and a two-truck mission that tested our patience and planning skills. Along the way, we'll offer some practical kitchen tips and a glimpse into the camaraderie that keeps our team thriving, even amidst logistical hiccups and green bean cooking conundrums.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
Call us at 1-833-493-4353 Option 1
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you all know my friends Chili.
Speaker 3:Buttermilk Eric Zucchini bread.
Speaker 4:And Jerry.
Speaker 2:Oh, and we're coming to you live, not live, it's sort of live, we're live, we're live from the Outer Belt Studios in Columbus, ohio. I am so glad to be here today. It's been a crazy, crazy few weeks. But first and foremost, we've got to talk about the breaking news out of California. The California Air Resource Board has suspended its regulations to phase out diesel trucks and locomotives.
Speaker 5:They requested an EPA waiver on advanced clean fleets, advanced clean fleets. They have dropped that request from the EPA. So when they make this rule or ruling it has to go to the EPA, carb, california Air Resource Board. They make a ruling that covers California, but the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government, has to approve it.
Speaker 2:So just to back up a little history so CARB is California's EPA. Yes, exactly, it's an EPA that just does its state, just California, and they are by far the strictest of air standards. Which makes sense. If you look at an old 1970s movie based in California, Los Angeles you can't see nothing. There's no mountains back there, Nothing.
Speaker 5:It's just brown and nasty.
Speaker 2:When you go to Los Angeles today you're like, wow, wildfires. No, our hearts are with everybody there impacted. But when you go to Los Angeles now, it's actually quite clear. It is quite clear. It looks beautiful Blue skies, you've got all the mountains around you. You have smoggy days, but they're few and not nearly as frequent as it used to be. I remember growing up as a kid, you couldn't see.
Speaker 5:From where I lived in South LA, you couldn't see the Hollywood sign because of the haze. Every now and again wind blew. You could see the Hollywood sign and then, as I grew older, realized wow, you can see the Hollywood sign daily now because of the emission standards that came into effect.
Speaker 2:I've seen it every single time I've been to LA. I've never even thought that you wouldn't be able to see it. That's crazy. Carb has done a lot of really good work in the state to get emissions down. A lot of the emissions that we all deal with today are because of emission standards, are because of what CARB put out 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker 2:Some have been great Like. I think all of us are happy pretty much that unleaded gas is the norm and that we have catalytic converters in our cars. It's a reliable piece of technology. Every now and then you've got to replace a cat which stinks, but I mean most of them now are good for 200,000, 300,000 miles, so it's a reliable source of emissions cleaning and they've made some good strides. The current DEF SCR system on diesel trucks is actually really good. It's really good. It's fairly reliable Fairly, fairly reliable. Actually, the system works fine.
Speaker 5:The system works fine.
Speaker 2:It's the sensors that cause problems, only the sensors can be made better, but nobody wants to do that because they got you on the hook to come back and get new sensors? Yeah, I get it, but nobody wants to do that because they got you on the hook to come back and get new sensors. Yeah, I get it. Products designed to fail that's a whole new topic we could discuss.
Speaker 2:But anyways so emissions level of all these big trucks and everything's come down quite a bit over the years and there's been dramatic improvement in air quality going on for a long time. Now and again California's kind of spearheaded this, but you do see other major cities like New York City is also experiencing quite a bit less haze because of it. They also help with emissions from smokestacks, from refineries, things like that, because California does have a large refining presence as well.
Speaker 2:I think they might be the second largest refiner or third, they're big Like after Texas, I think I think they might be the second largest refinery. Or third, they're big Like after Texas, I think I think. So they're not like an evil organization, but we kind of portray them that way. We really do, because they tend to be very zealous and like we want the future now and so over the years I've seen quite a few times where California will implement a plan and industry ready or not, we're doing it, we're doing it, here it is, here it is, and sometimes, like with the SCR system we have now, it was kind of good, like everything's kind of worked out pretty good.
Speaker 2:But if we go one level past this to the original DPF filters without the SCR component to it, which is selective catalytic regeneration, Something like that. Something like that To just diesel particulate filters. That was a disaster. Those engines were horrible.
Speaker 5:Those years were terrible.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was an EPA mandate, but it came because California was doing it. What has happened is California has said by is it 2035? Yes, I think, by 2035, you are no longer allowed to purchase a diesel vehicle in the state of California and operate there. So the Advanced Clean Fleets Is it Advanced Clean Fleets? Is that what it's called ACF, acf, alcohol Combustion and Firearms? I'm trying to find out?
Speaker 5:Did they just jump Advanced?
Speaker 2:Clean Fleets, advanced Clean Fleets. So the Advanced Clean Fleets was this idea that by 2035, I believe it was 2035. Is it not 20? I think that's the date. 2035 would be the last year that they could sell diesel-powered vehicles in the state of California. So 2036, no more.
Speaker 1:Does that mean civilian pickup trucks or just semi-trucks?
Speaker 2:You know, I think it's just commercial vehicles.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:But I'm not positive. It's very vague. Again, this is kind of breaking news. Sure Well, that's not breaking news, but what we're going to talk about is breaking news.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I don't have all my facts Sure. I've got enough to be dangerous.
Speaker 1:We're just going to say commercial vehicles.
Speaker 2:So they said 2036, no more sales of commercial vehicles. 2035 will be the last year you can do it and that would line up with their ban, I believe, on cars. Is cars not 2035?
Speaker 5:2035 is for vehicles, yes, so what?
Speaker 2:we're going to talk about doesn't affect that 2035 cars in California will still be electric or hydrogen only. You will not be able to buy a gas-powered car in California after 2035. I know, but we're talking about trucks. So what they did was they said if you have a lot of trucks, we're going to call you a high-priority company and starting in 2025, 2024, 2024 you will have to start slowly moving your trucks over to either hydrogen or electric. So starting in 2024, a large fleet I don't remember the exact number, it it's not many trucks you will have to start buying electric or hydrogen only, so you won't be able to add any more diesel powered trucks into your fleet. Now you can still run them, but you can't buy them, and their whole goal was, I think, by 2046 or something like that, to be completely phased out no diesel powered vehicles in the state of California period. So it's a very advantageous goal.
Speaker 2:In reality, when you look at the lifespan of a truck, 10 to 15 years is about the healthy, profitable. Anything past that, you're really putting a lot of money in repair and maintenance, so it's hard to keep those kind of trucks running. Now there's plenty of them out there. I know you're probably thinking like well, I know my Uncle Joe has a 1984 International. He still runs. Yes, there's plenty of them out there that still run, but large fleets. No one's running a truck over that many years old. So the 2046 date being, you know, 10 years after the last that you could buy the internal combustion or internal diesel engine, it makes sense, like that time frame does make sense, but it still seems very fast to those of us in the business.
Speaker 2:What they did was to be able to do that, they have to kind of what Vince was alluding to earlier. Kind of what Vince was alluding to earlier. They have to send this to the EPA and say for our state, we want a waiver against your rule so that we can enforce this policy different than how you enforce it across the country. And they got the waiver on the cars. They did not get it yet on the Advanced Clean Fleets Act. And what they're talking about, or what they just did, that's breaking news is they have withdrawn that request. They are no longer going to pursue this Advanced Clean Fleet initiative for four years.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Now that timing may sound a bit ambiguous. It does sound that way, but if you dig deeper You'll find out that they're actually doing it for a very political purpose.
Speaker 5:Very political.
Speaker 2:They have looked at the previous Trump administration and saw what they will approve and won't approve. They have sat down together and realized there is no way this gets approved under Trump's EPA, and so, rather than have it declined because that's a whole other world of if it gets declined and then they have to reapply for it they're just withdrawing it. They're going to sit on it for four years until he's out of office.
Speaker 5:Wow, and then resubmit, and then resubmit, and then resubmit and hope they have a more favorable
Speaker 3:administration.
Speaker 2:Which, in all fairness, I'm sure they would resubmit regardless who runs in the next four years, because Trump won't be eligible anymore. So anything's an unknown, it is an unknown, whereas they feel like with Trump, it's a known, is an unknown, it is an unknown, whereas they feel like with Trump, it's a known.
Speaker 5:His previous administration, like you said, already showed that his administration is not going to allow it this time either. That hasn't changed, right.
Speaker 4:Correct, yeah.
Speaker 5:So in four years it depends on what that administration looks like, based on their track record as well, whoever the president is and then people that he appoints. So, yeah, they may or may not in four years, depending on what that administration looks like yeah, it's really, it all can be postponed. It can all be. It's all been postponed at this point and it really truly looks it.
Speaker 5:That gives manufacturers additional four years to develop clean energy vehicles, zero emissions vehicles that right now are in limited supply in the commercial vehicle market. And then if you go into the locomotives, they don't exist.
Speaker 2:They don't exist Right.
Speaker 5:So it gives manufacturers a little more time to work on that.
Speaker 1:And this is vehicles that are only being purchased.
Speaker 2:In the state of California, so you can still run a diesel truck in Ish. So if you are a high-priority fleet, even outside of the state of California, to run your truck in the state of California you have to register with CARB, even though you're not registering, or even though you're not a California company because you're such a large fleet, they're saying that which is part of the EPA waiver thing is it's kind of national but not really well.
Speaker 5:Um, so you also have to register any diesel engine, not a vehicle necessarily. You have to register the reefers that are on our trucks have to be registered with carb so that's a new one and that's actually related to this story.
Speaker 2:So I've read conflicting articles and I'm waiting to see which is correct. I've read some articles that say that there is a thing called a TRU electrification, something, something, something. So basically what they're saying is TRU temperature regulated unit.
Speaker 2:So refrigerated truck right, or refrigerated trailer or refrigerated train car or whatever. They're saying that they want those all electric as well. So that obviously affects us, since we run FedEx and we have a bunch of reefer trucks out there. So for a lot of us, when they first came out with this, they're doing the same phased in approach. So starting this year or next year I don't remember which one it is we're supposed to, any new reefers we buy are supposed to be electric and then we're supposed to, every couple years, rotate out 15% of our fleet and put electric on there. Where it gets really fun is that they don't exist. And I don't mean like production's down, I don't mean like Supp down, I don't mean like Supply chain issues Supply chain issues.
Speaker 2:I mean like Thermo King and Carrier go we got nothing.
Speaker 5:They don't exist, they don't exist.
Speaker 2:Thermo King has a prototype out now and Carrier just released a prototype. None are big enough for the size boxes we have. Actually, that's not true. Carrier's isn't big enough for the size boxes we have. Actually, that's not true. Carriers isn't big enough for the size box we have. Thermo Kings is, but it won't run off of a diesel-powered truck. It's only designed to run off an electric M2 and a Rivian or something like that truck, or not a Rivian truck. That'd be funny.
Speaker 5:It would be a tiny truck. That's a pickup truck, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It is?
Speaker 2:yeah, it might be a BYD truck maybe, or something like that that it can run off of. That's the only two models it can run off of. So all of it, and you think about our business, with what we do across country with these refrigerator trucks, home and pharmaceuticals and what have you. So it's like, hey, well, what about we can just do smaller trucks.
Speaker 5:Well, think about all the Domino's locations in your city in California.
Speaker 2:Think about all the DiGiorno pizza trucks that you've seen and all the like small local bakeries that run these reefer trucks and stuff. They're running 20, 22 foot boxes, 24 foot boxes, like we are, and there isn't a product that exists. It doesn't exist and even on those levels, like a small refrigerated truck, like a 24-foot typical Ryder Rensome, that kind of size truck, refrigerator truck, is probably around $160,000 right now. To get an electric M2 with a reefer on it, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of like $550,000 right now. To get an electric M2 with a reefer on it, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of like $550,000. Easy money. So it's dramatically more expensive. Now that price will come down right. When Tesla first came out they were $100,000. It was an S when it first came out like $108,000, something like that $110,000?
Speaker 2:They were up there yeah.
Speaker 5:And I guarantee.
Speaker 2:The s is still in that range, sure, but you have a three is 36 000 40 000, 40 000, yeah, yeah, with everything on it.
Speaker 2:And if you want to go with a, a leaf, or if you want to go with uh, what's the new one chevy just put out? I mean, those are even lower. So, like we're seeing in cars, those prices are dropping fast, even if you look at a hundred grand for a tesla, one of the nicer teslas. 100 grand gets you a lightning ford lightning which has the same range and all the abilities of the cyber truck. Plus you can also buy. You know, a ford must Mustang a used one.
Speaker 5:You still have money left over, you can buy a Hummer for the same price as a Tesla.
Speaker 2:That market is drastically coming down in price. It's going to happen the same with trucks. It just hasn't happened yet Because this technology doesn't exist. There's a lot of us or there's some of us, I should say that think this might just be their way of stalling, because they know they jumped the gun too fast. So, in other words, if it wasn't the Trump administration, they would have found another reason to pause it or to stop it or to give it a little break. They have kind of shown the industry their cards and what they're about to do. The industry is trying to catch up, but they realize, hey, there's not a solution here yet, but there's solutions coming, but they're not here yet. And so this is not the first time California's done this.
Speaker 2:California has put stuff out there before and pulled it back after having it out there for a little while. They have a kind of a track record of that. So there's a lot of us thinking, hey, this is what California's doing. It is a scare tactic, and they also got a lot of people to do some of what they wanted to get done, and for the rest of us, california's going like all right, we understand you need some more time. Thermo King carrier need to work this stuff out because the products don't exist.
Speaker 2:And guess what If you can't get food at home and I know there's some exceptions for food and stuff that they were talking about throwing out there um, but it's it's. It's not easy stuff to get, just like when the dpf uh ruling came through california. You had to have a dpf filter to operate in california. They did give farmers an exemption and some municipalities as well, but those did eventually go away. Yeah, I think I I do. I lean in that camp of like. I think this is just one of California's ways of stalling and saying you know, hey, we still want to do this, but we kind of recognize it's not possible. And so all the major manufacturers realize, hey, we've got four years to figure some of this stuff out and get electrically changed over.
Speaker 1:So are they fining. No, they changed over, so are they fining? At some point?
Speaker 2:No, they're not. They're not fining, as a matter of fact, the TRU and the Clean Fleets. They did not get their waiver from the EPA signed yet. So when it went to effect in 2024, they came out and said we're not going to enforce it, but we will do it retroactively. So if you don't do it retroactively, we will come back and get our money. And then they went to court and then they decided you know what we're not going to retroactively get our money, we will wait.
Speaker 2:So recently I think it was September or August they came out and said hey, we're not going to do the retroactive thing anymore. Again, just within the last 24 hours, they've come out and said um, we're completely withdrawing everything altogether. But that was the original thing was finding if you're, if you're in the state of california, they just wouldn't let you register the truck, right, so you'd have a truck you couldn't use it like crazy. And what's really happened that's unfortunate is because and they talk about it in these articles that we've read and researched on to get this information is they have gone and, um, scared all these people. So there's been a mad rush on 2024 trucks. All these people have gone out in 2025 trucks and bought all these trucks last year, thinking all these big fleets thinking it's gonna be our last year to buy these diesel powered trucks. So they've bought all these trucks in preparation for it, losing money and all this stuff, only to find out now none of that was necessary.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Since they've withdrawn that, they don't have to. That's not the case anymore. So next year they can buy a diesel-powered truck in California, no problem.
Speaker 1:So how does it equate to Highfield Again? Can we run our trucks into California and right now it sounds like maybe for four more years before they possibly take it back to the federal thing. And then again you just mentioned that we're not getting fined. But was that originally what's supposed to happen if the FedEx trucks weren't complying with an electric?
Speaker 2:So here's where it gets interesting Is California is doing what California does best and they are not explaining what they consider a fleet.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Is a fleet, a group of trucks that a large company like FedEx runs. Fedex Custom Critical who we operate under. Are they the fleet? Or is HYSG, who operates 70 or so reefer trucks? Is that the fleet? We don't have an authority. We're not a motor carrier. We don't have any saying over that stuff. We lease our trucks to individuals, individual companies. Who is the fleet in that case?
Speaker 2:Every department of every state government that we work for says FedEx is the fleet we operate and maintain our trucks to. What FedEx is held to, california is refusing to say they want the ability to go in and take on whoever they have to take on Like. If so, there's, like some smaller fleet owners within FedEx that have, like you know, three to five trucks. They're going hey, it doesn't pertain to us because we're so small. But what happens when the state of California goes like, oh, fedex is the fleet, now you're on the hook because you've ran these trucks into our state that you're not allowed to?
Speaker 2:So there's been for the past year or two that we've been kind of working through this. This is all behind the scenes stuff that we've been trying to figure out and FedEx has been trying to figure out and a lot of us are like watching webinars and it's a lot. I know Don has had to put together several spreadsheets of data to be able to turn over to the state of California to make sure we're compliant. That has been an ongoing thing for the past couple of years and it's so vague no one knows. So what we did was we register all of our stuff to cover our own self.
Speaker 2:You know, in case that we do go into California and they go like, oh no, we want to see you this way or that way. Either way we're covered. And so that's kind of how we've been approached it A lot of smaller companies, owner operators and stuff. I mean, if you're an owner operator operating under the fedex truck, with one truck under the fedex's fleet, and you go into california and they say, oh no, you can't be here. Here's a ten thousand dollar, fine, you know like it's just, it's been very scary and so seeing this at least get paused for four more years yeah I think is great a little more research too, maybe.
Speaker 1:Maybe they can sort out what a fleet is. Maybe more questions will be asked.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're not going to do that.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:So it's exciting news. I'm very excited to see that they're putting a pause to this, because there has been so much vagary on what's going on and who does it apply to? Who doesn't it apply to? How do we meet these goals? This equipment doesn't exist. How do we change something when it doesn't exist? I did think it was interesting because this topic Zucchini Bread you sent us over a. I did get several teams that reached out to me about this as well. I think you got one as well and you got one as well. Right, jerry and Vince both got one, but Zucchini Bread you sent over an article that I thought was really cool, kind of.
Speaker 2:It kind of merges in really nicely with this, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:It does.
Speaker 2:And it's about a Louisiana company which you know we're based out of Louisiana. We're big-time fans of Louisiana.
Speaker 3:So Big time fans of Louisiana. So I saw it and I thought we should check it out. So Louisiana company SIA.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, is it SIA or SIA? I don't. I've always heard it as SIA.
Speaker 3:It's S-A-I-A.
Speaker 1:We've all seen it on the road, oh yeah, everywhere.
Speaker 5:There you go, right If you push the button on the side of the trailer, it tells you how to pronounce it.
Speaker 2:It does. It's pretty cool, is it really? Yeah, yeah. And if you can't reach the button because you're driving, you use the QR code next to it.
Speaker 5:You do, oh, okay, and it just speaks. It Sia, sia. Depends on where you're at in the country.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it, got it, so your article.
Speaker 2:Louisiana company.
Speaker 3:So they've been testing out some of the Tesla semis.
Speaker 2:Aren't we supposed to boo that? I don't know. We just talked about everything's pro diesel. No, I'm kidding, we love, I like electric. I think it has a place, anyways.
Speaker 3:That's a place. So they tested out comfort, they tested out range. They tested out comfort, they tested out range, they tested out payload capacity and it scored pretty high. They didn't get as many kilowatt hours out, that's not right Per mile, as they were hoping.
Speaker 2:I did see that.
Speaker 3:But it was pretty close. I did see that, but it was pretty close. They said they got 1.73, and it was supposedly 1.6 when Tesla did its own testing. So it's pretty close.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of like EPA mileage for your car. That's what I was about to say, like you know, when you buy a brand-new car, like Jerry your car said, you get like 38 miles per hour per gallon on the interstate and you'd be really good.
Speaker 4:No, it says 31 highway and 21 city, I believe, and I think it's like 26 combined.
Speaker 2:And how do you get on the highway?
Speaker 4:I honestly don't know.
Speaker 3:I'd say it depends on how fast you drive.
Speaker 2:He's averaging 14 right now, though that's the problem. I just drive, but we averaging 14 right now though that's the problem I just drive. But we've all gotten that right. You get a car it's like, oh, it's going to be a 30-mile-an-hour car and it's not that, it's not that. Yeah, same thing.
Speaker 5:That does come in pretty close though 1.73 kilowatt hours per mile, based on the benchmark that Kessler had at 1. 6 kilowatt hours per mile. But they're saying it's in line with the DHL trial. The Willa had early detections of 2 kilowatt hours per mile, but other tech companies that have tested the Tesla NFI, martin and Brouwer are all in that same range. So they're all getting very similar range from the Tesla.
Speaker 2:So it's getting better than what the industry thought it would get Right, but it's not as good as Tesla. Well, Tesla's going to run that through there. Well, all the manufacturers do that. We know that.
Speaker 5:My iPads must get 85 hours on a full battery charge.
Speaker 2:I know, at full brightness in the sun, right exactly.
Speaker 5:While running 15 videos at once. Yes, sorry.
Speaker 3:Well, no, I think it all depends, though, because you do trials. But is that really true life? Whatever True, that's what I think. It's only fair that it's off a little bit.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize that a majority of the Tesla semis on the road are for internal use, or for their lone major customer, as they put it, pepsico. I didn't know that. I guess I thought we were a little more advanced in the electric semis, but apparently we aren't.
Speaker 5:No, we're still really early on. So, tesla, I forget what their projection was for when they put the semis on the road when they first announced them, but they kind of fell behind on that, which is not unusual. Pepsi was one of the first companies to put a large order in.
Speaker 5:And so far, most of the semis have been going to Pepsi in California for a lot of testing, because they're close to well where Tesla's headquarters used to be at the time, sure, so that's where most of their semis have been going. There aren't a whole lot of them on the road compared to other manufacturers, but Pepsi's been doing a lot of testing with them in and out of like Reno, from Sacramento and San Francisco, where they're getting some range, but also getting the Donner. You're going up Donner Pass, so they're getting that as well. So there's a lot of good test area right there for Pepsi.
Speaker 3:They're hoping to mass produce, starting this year out of a new place in Nevada.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rolling out 50,000 new vehicles per year.
Speaker 5:That's their goal.
Speaker 1:And they're hoping to get into Europe and the rest of the world soon. It says here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Musk made that announcement not too long.
Speaker 3:Or not. Announcement.
Speaker 2:I don't think it was announcement.
Speaker 3:It was a very excited statement. You know how they do these days. They don't really nobody announces anything anymore.
Speaker 2:They just half-handedly say something mid Right, exactly, and then it's the announcement. It's the announcement. It's no longer the.
Speaker 1:I didn't know this fun fact, but medium and heavy trucks account for more than a quarter of national fuel use, despite representing only 4% of the vehicles on the road.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, that makes sense because think of the miles. I don't like that percentage or that figure because it doesn't factor into the number of miles.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 2:Now, if they would have said car miles or vehicle miles, then it would have been different. Vehicle miles, then it would have been different. But that's not the case, because you know, one 18-wheeler does easily 150,000 miles a year and some do 200, some do 100. It just depends on what industry you're in. Your car's not doing 150,000 miles a year.
Speaker 5:No, I was just going to say it's a 2014. It's got 180,000 miles on it in 11 years, versus a truck that we put on the road and two years later it's got 250 on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 2014,. One of our 2014 trucks, I mean that'd be. I can't imagine what it would be if we stopped those in the fleet.
Speaker 1:We don't anymore but I just. How many trucks does SIA have?
Speaker 2:roughly.
Speaker 5:Do we know?
Speaker 2:About 5,000.
Speaker 1:That's what the article says. Oh, I'm sorry I missed that part.
Speaker 2:They've grown significant over the past few years. I mean, they were one of the people that bought a bunch of the yellow terminals as well, oh, so this article is very opinionated.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so it's definitely very I mean, it's very left-leaning.
Speaker 5:The article. The source of this article is the cooldown. The cooldown is a green energy.
Speaker 2:Initiative company yes, exactly.
Speaker 5:So their entire platform does lean, green and clean, so I expect that from the cool down Not a bad thing, no, but if you understand that that's the platform of this website, then you expect to see that.
Speaker 2:Well, what I like, too, is everything at the top of the article is very fact and good Sure, and it's only that last couple sentences that show their agenda, which is great.
Speaker 5:I think there's a place for electric. We're not going to see it in long haul over the road trucks for quite some time. I think the companies that are testing them are using them in LTL where they're doing, you know, hub to hub, and they have the facilities to charge Pepsi's doing them on local routes as well, to charge Pepsi's doing them on local routes as well. So we're not seeing anything going from California to New York in an electric vehicle in a fast amount of time that's not the word I'm looking for, but efficiently. We're just not seeing that in electric. Yet they're working on it.
Speaker 2:Well, the benefit of having you know. Sia didn't buy one truck, they bought two to test right. Sure, and there's a reason. You drive one from one LTL terminal to the next Right. You drop the trailers and the truck, charge the truck, grab the next electric drive it back to the other terminal, sure.
Speaker 1:Park it and you're done.
Speaker 2:That driver's done for the day and you're charging both trucks Like it's not like a mistake that they bought two like that.
Speaker 5:No, it's not, it's planned.
Speaker 2:And a lot of these companies. If you see them, their maps are very round-robin or it's very short out and backs. And you know, electric's great for inner city. I do. I'm a big fan of electric buses. The fact that we are still really pushing diesel inner city buses blows my mind. Because you can do electric. They can run the city all day long and then charge all night and then run the city all day long again. Zero pollution. I mean. How many of us have been next to the road and had a bus pass us and it's like cough cough, the smell, the smoke or whatever you can. In electric you can make that disappear, sure. And the city doesn't have to buy electricity or electricity. The city doesn't have to buy gas or diesel or natural gas or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Like it makes sense. And plus I mean municipalities.
Speaker 2:Municipalities, no, they don't all have a lot of money, but government is more likely to give money to government so like um, the federal government's more likely to give a local municipality or a school board or something like that, money to buy those electric vehicles. And again, they only use electricity when they're running. So having to make several stops in town isn't burning through electricity. Now, air conditioning, heating is, so there is a degree of like in the extremes. Like in laredo, where you're running ac all the time, all the time you're killing your battery.
Speaker 2:Up in the north, where you're running your battery heating up all the time, that definitely impacts it as well. So there are those that that that part needs to be worked out. Uh, but still, that's that's where I see the best use of it. Or, garbage trucks. Garbage trucks, another example of horrible emissions, because they're just going so slow and it takes a lot of power to start it and and and so they're wasting so much diesel. Uh, when they start going and so much emissions come out right when they start going and then they're immediately stopping.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 2:Because they're getting the next start-stop.
Speaker 5:Start-stop yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like the worst thing you can do. So electric eliminates that and again, while they're dumping it, the garbage truck is using zero power. So I definitely think there's some applications right now that we can do to improve and think about it.
Speaker 2:Garbage truck, city buses, that's in the city sure like that directly impacts everybody's um quality of air yeah so the over the highway truck running through arizona right now, not really impacting nearly as much as the garbage truck and the recycling truck that passes in front of my house every twice a week, or the dump truck that comes through here, or the mail truck that goes through, you know, I remember when that article came out that the US Postal Service had abandoned what was it like? Half the order that they were going to do electric. They made gas instead of electric.
Speaker 2:I thought, like what a short-sightedness of that. It just what a perfect chance to get a lot of emissions off the road and they blew it Like it. Just that made me so angry when I saw that. I mean, I get it.
Speaker 5:They got to save money, but there's still such a thing as an oil lobby.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 5:That still wants their piece of the pie because they've got such an investment. But at some point we've got to look at that and go okay, I get it big oil, but let's look at other stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, that's slowly happening, right it is slowly happening.
Speaker 5:We're still a long way away from mass adoption of electric vehicles On the consumer level as well as the commercial level. We don't have the infrastructure for charging like we'd like to have. People still don't understand electric and its uses. They're still tied to internal combustion engines, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I honestly like so many of these people that I know that I'm friends with that have sports cars or love sports cars and they hate electric. I'm like we need to go for a ride in a real, like a real electric car Sure. Not a $20,000 one, but like let's go do the $100,000. Plaid.
Speaker 5:Tesla Roadster, tesla.
Speaker 1:Roadster or Tesla Plaid.
Speaker 5:And you will change your mind. And there's still a place for internal combustion engines. If you want to get out there in your sports car and spend the money on the fuel, go for it.
Speaker 3:If you like the sound.
Speaker 2:There you go. Who was it? I saw it might have been BMW or the Volkswagen Group was talking about. No, I'm sorry, it was Cadillac. It might have been Cadillac. Anyways, they're talking about engineering the sound for their electric car so that you still get that.
Speaker 4:That's what Corvette did too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get that like.
Speaker 4:Rumble, that rumble yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I just think it's hysterical, Like hear the rumble of my electric motor If my electric motor, if my electric car has to have a sound.
Speaker 5:I want it to be the Jetsons.
Speaker 3:I think if you send something to Musk, he probably would program that in for you.
Speaker 5:Probably would. I can't be the first person to think about that.
Speaker 2:The reverse is move, Get out the way.
Speaker 1:I saw a meme the other day that George Jetson turns three this year.
Speaker 2:I did too. That's funny. Where's my freaking spaceship and why am I not living? In a cloud city. I don't know, you know why I loved the Jetsons growing up, because I was a Star Wars nut and I loved the cloud city and the Empire Strikes Back. I always thought that was so cool. Well, that's enough talking about news. How's your week been so far, melissa?
Speaker 1:Well, hmm, we recorded last Saturdays before we had gone on a two-truck mission, you and I. That was a long two days.
Speaker 3:Can I tell you?
Speaker 1:Look at your smile. It was not long for you.
Speaker 2:Why was it not?
Speaker 1:long for me.
Speaker 2:It was not near as long as mine.
Speaker 1:I feel, like I wasted Wednesday. I'm like.
Speaker 5:Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Can I go back to bed and do Wednesday again? Well, aren't Wednesdays for wasting? Apparently, the best part of Wednesday was it was Rhoda, wasn't it?
Speaker 5:Yes, it was. Rhoda.
Speaker 1:Rhoda.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:At Chili's at the John Glenn Columbus Airport. She was the most amazing human ever for five and a half hours of my life and she hooked me up in a booth in Chili's and I just sat tight. My flight got delayed three times and then I rebooked to a much later flight and it didn't make sense to come all the way home because it's about a 30-minute drive from the airport for two hours of my own home to go back then and redo check-in and it just didn't. It was silly, but she hooked me up. She got me some complimentary chips and salsa. I sat there and listened to some podcasts for my one hour flight at six o'clock. So at any rate the drive was lovely. It was kind of nice to get back out and drive, you know, 400 plus miles and it was a beautiful sunny day. We hit the snow storms in between that last week.
Speaker 2:It just, we hit traffic in between this, like that last week. Yep, it just yeah, we hit traffic in between the cities in between traffic.
Speaker 1:You commented on Indianapolis. You're like I've never seen it like this before.
Speaker 2:It was dead. It was dead, there was nobody.
Speaker 1:It was before rush hour.
Speaker 2:It was before rush hour, it was about 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, yeah, and we just scooted right through there, I think, slowed all the way down to 55 miles an hour. Whoa it was. And that was only one spot, and then it was open again.
Speaker 1:Maybe three miles worth. It wasn't very long. Yeah, it wasn't very long at all, because we exited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great, Beautiful drive. I ended up so right before that, so the day before that flight, I ended up getting a little sick.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 2:Not very sick, just a little bit sick, and then, uh, I got worse. The day of the dry or the day of the travel the day of the travel and in the airport I was like I don't feel really good. And then I flew to detroit and in detroit I'm like I really don't feel good. And then I flew on to missouri and that's when, when we came into land, my ear wouldn't pop and it I was like tears coming down my face. It was hurting so bad.
Speaker 2:I mean, as soon as I got to the airport the first thing I did was drop my bag down and bust it open and grab Advil and a decongestant to try to like please something yeah um, the good news is, you know, seven hours later it, hours later it cleared up enough when it wasn't painful, but it still felt like I had a pillow Stuffed in my ear, and then the next day showing up. It was a little bit of drama At the pick up, but we're not going to get into that.
Speaker 1:No, but I did ask him Am I your bad luck charm?
Speaker 5:I'm going to stop coming with you to pick up new trucks. I told him that.
Speaker 1:Because when we went to Dallas last time it wasn't bad luck, I just there was a shift in plans for the. This is last year when the three of us went Vince I and Patrick but there was a shift in plans and I ended up actually staying and taking a truck to AA and flew right back, so literally it was an all-day airport adventure for me, maybe you and airports are bad luck.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:No more flight dates At any rate we did end up leaving St Louis with two trucks, which was the goal and the plan.
Speaker 2:And what was super nice was, while I was inside handling the drama, you actually were able to go outside. You started pre-tripping both the trucks and you got the signs put on the truck.
Speaker 3:I did.
Speaker 2:And did everything to make us DOT legal. So when I came out there, my pre-trip was abbreviated because you'd already handled most of it, so that was super nice.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to get home at midnight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we hit the road and I remember telling you like we're going to stop because I needed water. I was like we're going to need to stop as soon as we get to the first truck stop. And the first truck stop was like three miles down the road.
Speaker 1:And it was a love and it was a loves which is where we go.
Speaker 2:And you were like you want to stop here? And I'm like no, and you said like oh, you want to get some miles underneath you or something like that or whatever. And I'm like how are you doing? She's like I'm good. So I was like let's roll on.
Speaker 1:And we ended up rolling on to like it was a pilot that we ended up stopping at.
Speaker 2:That was a bathroom break.
Speaker 1:more than anything, it wasn't effing him. It was in the middle of Illinois. It might have been Was it effing him At any rate, we ended up. He's like really, you can't make it to Tara hot. And I'm like how far is Tara hot? It was effing him. He's like an hour and a half. Nope, Nope, the bladder's not going to make it an hour and a half. So we stopped at the pilot. He got water.
Speaker 1:We did just kind of a double check. We picked up some washer fluid because I had noted that both of our fluids were rather low in the trucks, and just in case we needed it.
Speaker 2:Who knew what the weather was? Well, we were between those two storms, so we didn't know if we were going to catch them.
Speaker 1:And I think after that we made the one other stop on the other side of Indianapolis. We made the one other stop on the other side of Indianapolis and we were pretty golden. We literally entered Franklin County or Columbus Ohio outskirts and while the sun was down there was still a light glow of the sunset in my side mirrors and I'm like we kind of got back before the sun went down.
Speaker 2:Of course, pulling in a storage lot it's completely dark, no lights.
Speaker 1:It was good I did catch a cold.
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 1:We're going to blame it on Kelly McDonald. I hear that's where it originated from.
Speaker 2:We're going to call her patient zero.
Speaker 1:But all in all my weekend was great. If anybody wants to know, zucchini bread and Vince and I we went and tried a new coffee place out in Plain City.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 1:Looking forward to going back. It was really good.
Speaker 2:Well, at least it's close and convenient.
Speaker 1:Right next to Costco. Well, it was kind of a two-for-one.
Speaker 5:It's about five miles past Costco.
Speaker 2:Oh, Plain City.
Speaker 5:Yes, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I was thinking what's the city over there next to where Fight is at Jefferson?
Speaker 5:West Jefferson. There is a sign on that exit for Plain City, West Jefferson. Okay, Plain City is really not that bad.
Speaker 1:I retract my sarcastic comment. It's beyond Costco. It's beyond Costco, just beyond Costco. Plain City is just beyond Costco. Can you get coffee?
Speaker 2:inside of Costco. Have you tried that yet?
Speaker 1:No, that's not a specialty shop.
Speaker 5:You can buy coffee beans inside of Costco. True, but what was it called Rooster Hen?
Speaker 3:That's not far I should have it, shouldn't I?
Speaker 1:Hen and the Chick? I don't think they do. Red Hen, was it Red Hen?
Speaker 5:They were busy.
Speaker 1:They are. They have a place to be.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we got there just in time.
Speaker 2:So it was good, it was good.
Speaker 4:It was good.
Speaker 2:Delicious. So finally, you go to a good one and you don't take us.
Speaker 5:Well, how do we know? You were sick? You were offered. You decided to stay home. I did get that text. It was a safe decision, yeah it was.
Speaker 2:Saturday morning I did get that text message of how are you feeling, Because I felt pretty good Friday night we still socially distanced and didn't get together. No, and I was like, oh, you were chatting back and forth. I'm like, okay, let's see how I feel tomorrow. And Saturday morning I woke up and I'm like it's not happening. Yeah, which is fine, and we can't take Jerry to new coffee places, jerry's a coffee snob.
Speaker 5:We can't take Jerry to new coffee places. Jerry's a coffee snob. We can only take him there once we go there and tried it and we know we like it.
Speaker 2:Tried it a few times.
Speaker 5:Right and we hope and pray that Jerry likes it and Jerry approves.
Speaker 1:Do you go to new coffee places or are you just a Starbucks fan, Jerry?
Speaker 4:I'll go to new coffee places we just don't get out that often yeah. It was cold this past weekend, so I just stayed in.
Speaker 1:I needed meat Meat in the freezer for the week, so I'm like we're going to go past Costco.
Speaker 4:I stayed home and played Playstation all weekend.
Speaker 1:Did you win?
Speaker 5:Maybe it wasn't the kind of game where you win. Maybe it's a quest kind of game. I'm just speculating Could be Boggle?
Speaker 4:I'm just speculating.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 4:Could be Boggle. I'm more into puzzle games. Horror role playing there you go.
Speaker 2:Did y'all know he was a gamer?
Speaker 5:No, I did not know Not until we were there for Christmas and his mom bought him something for his PlayStation or something.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't even know that. When did y'all talk?
Speaker 5:about that christmas when we're at his house. When I was there talking about the gifts his mom gave him yeah, we rode together, so I might have been making green beans at that time.
Speaker 2:You may have been. You're right, you may have been.
Speaker 5:I think you were counting out the uh dried onions. I think you had the right amount I think it was funny.
Speaker 2:I showed up so like we got together at their house. Is this secret or no?
Speaker 1:no, I think we've already talked about it. I I think we did too Last weekend.
Speaker 2:But we got together at your house and I rolled up and we were there several hours early to play games and I asked you, like can I borrow your stove for the green beans? And you said yeah. I said cool, so I show up with, you know, the green beans uncooked, the raw onions, like all my ingredients, all my accoutrement, all two ingredients.
Speaker 1:Three ingredients, all my accoutrement, all two ingredients.
Speaker 5:Three. He had the salted pork this time. That's right, he did Special Christmas version.
Speaker 2:There was more than three and I go there and Don's like I thought you were going to bring done green beans and we were just going to keep them warm and I'm like no, I just figured we'd cook them now. I mean, it's a lot easier to bring it all over in parts and pieces than it is to have to figure out how to get liquidy beans to your house and I don't have. So my mom had all this stuff and now I understand why she had it Like Tupperware with like not Tupperware, I'm sorry Corningware, which is like these porcelain dishes, but they all had these rubber lids that would snap on.
Speaker 2:And she has like all this stuff to be able to go places and transport. I got none of that.
Speaker 1:The little three quart Instapot would be good for your green beans because you don't have to use it as an Instapot. You could use it like as a crock pot, as a warmer, but it has the lock lid so you could just pick up and travel around wherever you want, nothing spills.
Speaker 2:How many people could I feed with that, you think? Because I'd like something that? Because typically if we get together there's six to ten of us.
Speaker 1:It's enough. The size of the container is about what you use with your bigger pan.
Speaker 2:All right, Because beans for those of you that don't know, green beans are kind of like my brain to think. If one of y'all makes green beans better than me, I'll give over the reins.
Speaker 1:No, next time you do it, I'll remember to loan you mine and see if it works for you, and then you'll know if it's something that would be worth the purchase.
Speaker 2:And then I'll have to find out if the budget allows.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that would be a thing.
Speaker 1:So Keeney Bread, how goes it here? How goes it Well. You and I were talking today that you're at like two and a half three weeks. Yeah, yeah and yeah, I'm still here. Woo, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you feel you've accomplished anything?
Speaker 3:A few things. There you go. Crickets, do you have?
Speaker 4:the cricket pen over here I'm waiting for you to elaborate.
Speaker 5:That's probably best.
Speaker 2:That's probably best. I was actually talking to Kelly McDonald Patient Zero, as we affectionately call her, yes and I was telling her how I felt bad because as soon as you came on board I was already on a cruise in the middle of the ocean. So for the first three or four days I didn't even get a chance to really talk to you or hang out or anything. And then come back and I, what did we do? You were sick.
Speaker 2:It was get sick go get was, get sick, go get a truck, go get another truck, like all these like I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like the worst welcome to the company uh there could be, especially being your role is gonna be working so closely with me, eric kelly's. Like you know, she's like every day working with jerry, kayla or me or Melissa, or going to the Yard Events or whatever she's like. By the time you finally do get to catch up with her, she's going to have this great bed of knowledge that she already knows, so that hopefully it'll be an easier transition.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, I never thought about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you got high praise from Kelly. Well, thank you, that's what I'm saying I've been trying.
Speaker 3:She did learn some of the little things, right, yeah, so I've got, like she said, an idea of getting to this side of the business, as opposed to just being the driver's side of the business, you know, learning the different side makes a difference.
Speaker 2:We definitely operate our company a lot different than someone who's operating a company from the cockpit of their truck.
Speaker 1:She was sending back dishes today, satellite dishes. Maybe there was a misorder. She needed some tape and we scrunched through the junk bucket that we've got.
Speaker 5:There was no tape in the junk drawer. Yeah, it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1:She had duct tape white duct tape and purple duct tape to seal the boxes with Guess what color. She went with Purple, of course she's a FedEx Duh.
Speaker 5:Purple yeah.
Speaker 3:That's my favorite color too.
Speaker 1:I'm like she's shipping them FedEx. That would be funny, right. I looked over at the boxes. I'm like, oh, you want purple, huh.
Speaker 5:We've got to break that dedication. It's red and black now.
Speaker 1:It's red and black Anyway.
Speaker 3:I needed the clear for the label so I wanted to make sure I had enough that the label wouldn't get destroyed.
Speaker 1:I was giving her a hard time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a weird situation that happened.
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:That company. I get props to that company. I do look forward to doing more business with them, because we're several weeks past the return policy and they still made it right.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I opened that up. I'm glad you did too. It was a mispick. So we ordered these satellite domes in white and they sent it to them in black. And you know, all the trucks are white, so a black dome would look kind of silly up there and the pick list did say white.
Speaker 5:Yeah, everything said white.
Speaker 2:And they made it right. They sent us the new ones asked for the old ones back, didn't charge anything. Great customer service.
Speaker 1:Nice Big time props for them.
Speaker 2:Look forward to working with them some more. But yeah, Cool. Well, anybody got anything else? Eric, you got anything.
Speaker 1:I haven't heard you say anything yet.
Speaker 4:Not this week, not this week.
Speaker 2:Not this week, all right. Well, in the meantime, if there's anything we're forgetting to say, jerry will chime in right now.
Speaker 4:Make sure you hit that thumbs up button. Caught me off guard.
Speaker 2:That was a little lag.
Speaker 4:I should have known what was coming Comes every week. Make sure you hit the thumbs up button. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so. It really does help us out with the algorithm and a lot of you are watching but not subscribed. I did want to throw out here at the end that we actually hit our most downloads on the audio version. Wow, wow, yay.
Speaker 5:Big props to everybody. We got to three. Finally, in one week, the audio version hit 100 downloads.
Speaker 4:Wow, yay, big props to everybody. We got to three final no In one week. The audio version hit 100 downloads.
Speaker 5:Wow, wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So that was really really great. Zucchini bread. People are interested.
Speaker 5:They want to know how she sounds.
Speaker 4:If you're interested in learning more about Highfield and everything that we have going on over here, make sure you check us out at highfiltruckingcom. Give us a chat over there. Online, you can talk with recruiting. You can give us a call at 833-HIGHFIELD or 833-493-4353. And one of our lovely ladies in recruiting would love to speak to you and give you all the information you require.
Speaker 1:Option one.
Speaker 4:Option one Monday through Friday 8 to 6 pm Eastern Standard Time. Yeah, if you have any suggestions for the show, reach out to us at theouterbellpodcast at gmailcom, and Mr Patrick will be happy to respond to you, because he gets that.
Speaker 2:I will, if you have anything for me, just send it right there. It's easy peasy Access to the talent.
Speaker 1:The Outer Belt to the talent.
Speaker 2:The talent At the Outer Belt podcast. At gmailcom.
Speaker 1:Always forget that at gmail part it's important. Well, it's easy to forget.
Speaker 2:That's the thing Until next week. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Everybody, stay safe and make good decisions.
Speaker 5:Keep those wheels a turning. You're around the circle. He's last.
Speaker 1:He does say, it Say his line oh wow. Don't leave money on the table. That sounds familiar. What did you say? I said he's supposed to say don't leave money on the table, literally looking like that's mine.
Speaker 5:That sounds familiar strangely enough.
Speaker 1:What did you say? I said he's supposed to say don't leave money on the table.
Speaker 5:I said keep those words of turban.
Speaker 2:He didn't even catch it. I'm waiting on you to say your line.
Speaker 4:That's why I was like wait a minute.
Speaker 1:He did that on purpose. I thought you were going to roll with it.
Speaker 4:I did, and don't leave money on the table, woo.
Speaker 1:All right?
Speaker 2:Do we want to redo that? No, no, let it roll. Let it roll. It seems silly.
Speaker 5:It's a lot, that was a lot. We're silly If they're still listening. They're dedicated hardcore, that's right. Good night, we love them, goodnight Bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you.