The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Tolls and Tribulations: The NYC Congestion Debate
Have you heard about New York City's bold attempt to tackle traffic congestion through congestion pricing? In this episode, we unpack the recent decision that has resulted in $49 million generated in just one month but has also brought about political controversy. With over 85% of toll revenue arising from passenger vehicles, the implications of this program stretch well beyond the financial aspect. We explore the motives behind this strategy, including its relationship to reduced crime rates in public transit, and how the additional funding may be allocated to enhance public safety measures.
We also dive into the growing tensions between local and federal government, as the Trump administration challenges the tolling system. Governor Kathy Hochul's determination to fight back showcases the complicated dynamics at play in this urban transportation experiment. Our discussion also seeks to put the outcomes into a broader context by comparing NYC's strategies to similar initiatives taken in cities like London and Paris. This exploration opens up significant conversations about urban planning, public safety, and community engagement.
Tune in for insights, opinions, and lively debates as we navigate the layers of challenges and triumphs presented by New York City's approach to congestion pricing. We're excited to hear where you stand on this hot topic—please engage with us!
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Are we ready?
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:When Hurry, Jerry.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you all know our friends Chili.
Speaker 1:Buttermilk.
Speaker 3:Eric.
Speaker 1:Zucchini bread and Jerry Woohoo, I can hear you.
Speaker 2:Glad you could make it to the show. Sorry to be rushing in like this, but we have some breaking news. We've got some craziness that has gone on and happened. We reported on this a couple weeks ago and the Trump administration, with the new Department of Transportation, Sean Duffy.
Speaker 5:Duff.
Speaker 2:Duff Like the beer. Yeah, they have given New York 21 days to turn their congested tolling off. That's right, you heard me correct. They are not fans and they have told the state you cannot do this any longer On any road they get federal funding Correct.
Speaker 1:Quick correction it is Duffy, just in case there's any credits going out there. Well, that is what I said. Well, I just want to make sure the story going forward is fact-checked.
Speaker 2:I rely on the people that I employ their services and producing ways to not let me down.
Speaker 4:Well, when I ran this article through AI to summarize it, so I didn't have to read it it didn't give me a name, so I apologize.
Speaker 2:Well, as you can imagine, there's some tension, right? Yeah, so the governor now I do not know how to pronounce her name and I do apologize. It's like Hocule Hocule. That's what I was going to say in a not-at-all-kind-of-way. It's Governor Hocule H and it's Governor Hockenell, hockenell, hockenell. There's no N-R-A in that name. Hockule Hockule. She has said that we're going to take this to courts and we're going to challenge you on it. Now, so far, it's been in service for about a month and the state has made $40.1 million on it, something like that. $49. $49 million out of this toll $49 million in a month. In a month.
Speaker 1:In a month.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the numbers were interesting because $10 million of it is from rideshare.
Speaker 1:For hire vehicles, For hire vehicles, so that would be rideshare taxi, limousines, that nature because you do have a lot of limousines running around that area. Of the remaining $38 million, it says $85 was for passenger vehicles 85%, yes, 85%.
Speaker 2:$85 million of the $39 million, 85 million of the 30.
Speaker 1:No, no, no the 49 million 85% was for passenger vehicles and 15 was for trucks, buses and motorcycles.
Speaker 2:Which is interesting because that was the big concern up front was that the trucks were going to pay a disproportionate amount towards it, and it doesn't seem like the ride.
Speaker 1:share the friars.
Speaker 2:The ride share, definitely in Friars the ride share definitely, and the private vehicles. Those two are by far the biggest contributors. Now I do think, although this number is huge, I do think it'll probably scale down a little bit, because I'm sure there's a lot of people that are trying to figure out, like you know what I'm just going to drive in and I'll try to figure out my bus route or my train route and after a couple months of paying this, they're going to be like, yeah, screw it, I'm jumping on the LIR or whatever you know they're not, I'll take the path into it, which is the New Jersey LIR Long Island Railroad. So far, they've seen really good results out of it. Yeah, which is? You know? Again, I was a fan of it, if you remember. I, which is, you know, again, I was a fan of it, if you remember. I know a lot of people aren't, don't take it out on me if you're not a fan.
Speaker 2:That's cool. I understand that there's a lot of people that are not for it, but I am. I like what it provides. But the Trump administration has sent a letter saying you must quit doing it. They are calling for an orderly cessation of the tolls. And the governor replied back with that's nice, we're going to do an orderly resistance to your mandate. So it is in the government's hand right now. So everybody's kind of expecting that, from what I've read, that the courts are going to pause the DOT's stop.
Speaker 6:Orderly cessation Orderly cessation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're going to allow New York City to continue those for a little bit while they can build a case. You know, because it's happening so fast, the court will sometimes step in, even if it's not going to be like. This is not the judgment for what's really going to happen, it's just a we've got to pump the brakes and give you a chance to respond, because that's moving a little too quickly. A lot of people do think that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:I think about all the wonderful things they were saying that that was going to be allocated for. You know, you have 49 million Wow.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting if you look at some of the crime statistics.
Speaker 1:That was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2:And they contribute a lot of that to.
Speaker 6:so those crime statistics, I'm trying to pull them up If someone has it up you can go ahead and say what it is A more than 36% drop in major felony crimes, including murder, rape and robbery, across the system compared to January of last year, along with a 73% rise in arrest. The transit agency credits more officers riding trains and working overnight shifts, as well as a new fare evasion spikes on turnstiles as part of why some of this reduction. But who knew that limiting the number of vehicles coming in on the city would decrease crime like this?
Speaker 2:It's part of that thing is where they're allocating those funds right. So they are putting some of that money towards improving infrastructure and they're putting some of that money towards getting more cops in stations to make them safer, because that's been a big concern. It's like why would I want to ride the subway when it's falling apart, constantly delayed and there's high crime on it? Well, if you decrease the behavior and also increase funding, you can make big changes and so far. We're a month in and we've seen that that has actually been the case.
Speaker 1:It seems pretty drastic all the way around for just one month.
Speaker 6:It really does.
Speaker 5:Didn't they also say too I mean it also less congestion.
Speaker 2:They have an easier way of getting to whatever the situation is.
Speaker 6:Part of this article that was sent out isn't a press conference. The governor was at the MTA meeting earlier today and she was talking about it took two hours to get into the city to go see a play or something, and how? Now, with this congestion pricing, there's less congestion. They have all this revenue from it, but there still is less congestion and people are able to move around the city a lot more efficiently than they used to be able to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, this is one of those things I said last time we talked about it. We talked about it having traveled around Paris and London and some of these other places that do congestive pricing and seeing what a major change it has done. It does feel un-American. We don't like tolling anything right. We all hate toll roads. This being penalized to drive somewhere it feels like our rights are being infringed upon. But driving is not a right, you know, I mean it's not, and it's the benefits I think greatly outweigh.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And again, I know there's a lot of people that disagree with me, and that's totally fine, you know it's. I do think something like this needs to be voted on. It's a big change. It shouldn't just be mandated by God or our politician. It should be something that people agree on. But it is. I have seen it very effectively done and people love it. They hate it at first and give them five years and they're like we don't ever want to go back. That's why I'm kind of I'm very curious to see what's going to happen as of right this second. March 21st they'll have to quit, but that's three weeks from now.
Speaker 2:A lot can change in that little bit of time and we will be watching this over the next few episodes and keeping everybody up to date on the changes and the punches as they come.
Speaker 1:I said you just think the crime. People just don't want to pay for the tolls. I was being jokey.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can see that. Well, they do say I can't have that charge. Well, they talk about how part of the part of the arrest because there's a huge rise in arrests have been. They talk about fare evasion, spikes on turnstiles. So you do have people that are jumping. That's just people jumping turnstiles.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they don't want to pay the fare. So the city's cracking down on that and going no, no, no, if you're going to use our subway you've got to pay. And it's funny One of the podcasts I listen to the girl that's on it. They podcast on New York City and she for years always talked about jumping turnstiles and how her and her partner would do it and everything. And then she got busted for it and spent a night or two it. And then she got busted for it and spent a night or two it might have been two nights in New York City jail and after that she's like never, again.
Speaker 2:She was like I will pay my fare from here on out. It was not worth it. So I mean, you know, I do think we have a ridiculous number of arrests, and so when you hear about a higher percentage of arrests, sometimes it's like ooh, but if it's not petty crime and it's like which I guess that is, but if it's not something, that's like ridiculous and and you do see major crime coming down yeah, that number was pretty big yeah, feels like it's. It's helping. Uh, jerry, what do you think?
Speaker 4:I was just thinking about the, the crime part of it. I mean that's a good way to catch people, if you think about it, because I think most they're doing the easy pass for pay in. I mean that's registered to a vehicle, it's easy to track.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So, yeah, and you catch people with plates because there's more cameras now. With that no.
Speaker 6:Well, that's a whole thing too, with the ghost plates issue they're having on bridges in New York.
Speaker 2:That's a whole different story. I watched the Instagram reel the other day and they were showing a car that had a. It looks like a little shade. You would pull down over a window that just kind of came down. They go through the tollway.
Speaker 2:You see the lights go off to try to capture the plate. There's a plate there because it's been covered. They get a little ways down the lights go off to try to capture the plate. There's a plate there because it's been covered. They get a little ways down the road and it just scrolls right back up. So if a cop pulls them over, they've got a plate right there.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you're talking about Wow, yeah, but that's the all-time. People are. People are just Any way to.
Speaker 4:I've often wondered on our trucks.
Speaker 1:You're not doing that?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, no that would save us a ton of money.
Speaker 4:but no, I was thinking. Patrick ain't going to jail if you save a few dollars. No, what I was going to say was is often, whenever I was driving over the road, I used to think to myself, like whenever you go through there and it takes that picture because our license plates are on the back and usually there's an overhang from the back of the box I used to always wonder does it actually capture that license plate?
Speaker 2:It does oh okay. That is a valid question.
Speaker 1:I like that. It is a very valid question.
Speaker 3:As those of us that collect Ask me and the carrier, yeah.
Speaker 2:So sometimes because we have toll transponders in all the trucks but they don't always work. Sometimes, so sometimes because we have toll transponders in all the trucks but they don't always work. Sometimes they break and, yes, we get those toll violations all the time. Good to know.
Speaker 3:Very effective. What are you guilty of Speaking of?
Speaker 4:that I'm not guilty of nothing, can I?
Speaker 1:follow upup question Is there legal building of a vehicle, a CMV vehicle, of where you can place the plate for those type of machines that are capturing our plate? Does that make sense? Are there rules to like where you can?
Speaker 2:So the rules are kind of vague, like tractors that are apportioned have to be down on the front, buses and straight trucks that are apportioned have to be on the back, which is why sometimes we even have drivers call us and go hey, got pulled over, did a roadside, walked around the truck.
Speaker 3:In Texas, state of Texas, oklahoma.
Speaker 2:Said that our tag has to be on the very front or says that we should have two tags. Both of those are common things we get.
Speaker 2:But according to Patrick and I have had that personally Maryland, Maryland yeah, but according to IRP, straight trucks have to go on the back. But there's not a lot of industries that IRP a straight truck. They don't have to use a portion of plates, like, if you are a I'm trying to think like a delivery like you deliver frozen pizza around Columbus, ohio you're not buying a portion plates because you're only going to be here, sure, so you're just getting a regular commercial tag. So most straight trucks are commercial plated vehicles. They're not apportioned. Apportion is where they take your registration fees for the year and they spread them out across whatever states you tell them that you're going to be driving through. And by doing that, in most states not all, but in most states you don't have to have special permits to drive through those areas. If I had a route that was like going Detroit to Laredo, then I could get just Texas. How would I go that way?
Speaker 2:okay, texas, missouri, oklahoma, um, into illinois, and then indiana, right then michigan, yeah, so I could literally just get those states on my portion I see now we apportion for all the states and, uh, the southern provinces of canada, because our trucks run well, not all the states and the southern provinces of Canada, because our trucks run Well, not all the states. We don't apportion for Alaska or for Hawaii, but we do apportion for all those so that our trucks can run all those with no issues.
Speaker 1:I think my question is because it's piggybacking on what Jerry was saying is that the license plate on our trucks is tucked up and under. Jerry was saying is that that license plate on our trucks is tucked up and under, so are there rules or guidelines saying that it has to be right on the back, which obviously ours aren't, or like? Are there guidelines as far as placement placement of, because to me it seems I I want to use the word hidden, but I know that's not, not in a nefar.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It is just where it is on all of the trucks that Highfield has. But I get what Jerry's saying is you always wonder can the camera capture it? So that's where my question is Are there rules when you build a vehicle where that license plate needs to be placarded on that backside?
Speaker 2:So two things. One is the stuff that I've read online. I've never found anything more than it has to be in the back and conspicuous. Conspicuous is what keeps you from being able to put that film over it or do anything. It has to be able to be visible at all times.
Speaker 2:It also keeps you from hiding it behind something. Secondly, all of our license plates holders actually come from the factory, not from Freightliner but from the liftgate manufacturer, and they're already predetermined by that liftgate manufacturer. So I'm assuming that that liftgate manufacturer has gone to the DOT and said you know where does that need to be? And that's where they determine where they place it on the back of the truck.
Speaker 2:So, if you look at different brands and different models, you can have a license plate dead center. It could be off to the right, it could be off to the left. They do move them around but they're never all the way forward. They're always like kept somewhere conspicuously where you can see it. So I'm assuming they're going by the rules and they're seeing and they know, like when their lift gate's folded up it's probably, you know, two foot or three foot from the back of the truck and maybe there are rules about how far it can be or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, I've never really thought about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've not either. That's an interesting point, jerry. The only thing I've ever really heard about is just people getting in trouble quote-unquote for not having it on the front of their truck.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've had that happen in Texas, for sure.
Speaker 2:We ran them on the front for a long time.
Speaker 3:So Louisiana, where we used to— yeah, when we first started we thought we were doing something wrong. When those particular states said it's on the wrong side and in the state of Louisiana.
Speaker 2:On their apportioned plates they used to say all apportioned vehicles, it goes on the front, except for buses. So they never said they never broke straight trucks out of separate. Since then we no longer apportion out of Louisiana and even before we could quit apportioning out of Louisiana they did change the rules to where it said it actually outlined straight trucks instead on the back of the vehicle. So that's law. You know the problem with knowing that, because we've had some people who talk about like, oh, we put in the permit binder, here's the ruling or whatever is. None of us want to be on the side of the road with a piece of paper saying look, cop, this paper says this, because now you're just going to get a level one inspection for help, Because now you're a sovereign citizen and you're telling them that they can't arrest you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the time to you know. Oh, I didn't know that. I'm so sorry. I'll tell the owner of the truck.
Speaker 1:I know this is going to be a silly question the owner of the truck. I know this is going to be a silly question because no way station in any state or state to state is the same. They're all so different. But why isn't where that license plate goes just universal for all the states? I know probably a rhetorical question.
Speaker 6:For the IRP. It is where it goes, is mandated by the IRP, which is an attractor, gets to go up front on a bus or a straight truck in the back. That is part of the apportionment.
Speaker 1:It says the back of the truck is okay.
Speaker 6:Yes, for that type of truck, straight trucks and buses.
Speaker 1:How come some states panic? Are they running on different?
Speaker 6:rules Because you have inspectors that aren't familiar with straight trucks. That's newbies.
Speaker 4:They aren't educated.
Speaker 6:They think they all should be in the front. And plus, those inspectors are usually watching video monitors of trucks pulling into the weigh station. And a truck pulls in with no plate in the front and they're lighting you up to stop or come around the back, sure, and then that's like when you're in your case.
Speaker 6:That's what happened to me, that's what happened to you. You got pulled in and they looked and said, oh, you're in a. They had the camera in the back where you were parked. They saw your truck and realized duh, it's a straight truck, move along.
Speaker 1:I mean, I still had to provide everything.
Speaker 5:Sure, they did a very they may as well do all that right. Yeah, while they got you Check that one off the list for the day.
Speaker 2:I had that happen. We were getting they were doing it in Louisiana. They were pulling everybody over in the weigh station but they weren't checking just for weight, they were actually checking fuel and some other stuff and they were waving people and there was several of them out there working and this one guy saw me in. In hindsight I realized he was trying to tell me to wave on and I was like I had my window. I was like I'm sorry what? And he was like yeah, no, just go, go in. Like he was mad, he's having a day. And so I was like okay, so I'll go park, grab all my stuff, everything, I go inside and, uh, give him all the like, just set it down in front of him and open it up. And he's like you're in the straight truck, are you in the FedEx truck? And I was like yes, sir, he's like just try to pay attention to what I tell you next time. He's like but you're good to go, didn't even look at my paperwork. And I was like okay, yes, sir.
Speaker 3:You didn't come with an LED sign.
Speaker 2:I didn't close the book gently or quickly. I closed it gently and walked out very calmly.
Speaker 1:But inside you're doing the happy dance.
Speaker 2:Inside I'm scared to death. He's going to be like you know what.
Speaker 3:Yeah, never mind. Level three Level three.
Speaker 1:Level one let's do something.
Speaker 4:It was Don that got pulled over in Texas when we were driving, and normally I'm exactly the same way, but for some reason I was in the sleeper and I was just having a day, I guess, and I was tired. And whenever he got pulled over, as soon as I heard the officer telling him well, I stopped you because you don't have a plate, I come up out of that sleeper and I threw that curtain open and I argued with him for 10 minutes until he went back to his car, and he was in his car for about another 10 minutes and then he come back and he's like well, I'm going to let you go this time. No bull crap.
Speaker 2:You went back there, ready to go again.
Speaker 3:You found out that I'm correct and now you're just trying to play it off. Yeah, we placed that thing in the sheet in the permit binder having to do with the plates, so drivers would read that and possibly speak to the inspectors with a little more knowledge on what was going on.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't work sometimes you just got to be so delicate. You do, you really do.
Speaker 3:You know more than the inspector, but you got to listen to them, it's also that thing of.
Speaker 2:I have a sheet of paper that you handed me. How real is it?
Speaker 6:How fraudulent is it Right exactly.
Speaker 2:You could have typed this up yourself, Absolutely the only way to know is to actually go back there, grab your green book, scroll through it. You know 8,000 pages of it until you find that one about With three different pairs of reading glasses on.
Speaker 5:So you didn't give us a letter that was notarized so that it would be official. It wouldn't matter if it was notarized.
Speaker 2:They don't know who Judge Judy. Judy is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do. They know, Judge Judy. How about Wapner? Most of them probably aren't old enough for Wapner.
Speaker 5:Can we get notarized by?
Speaker 2:governor or whatever.
Speaker 5:Who's Judge, harvey?
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's great. So excellent question. Jerry, appreciate that. Look forward to seeing what happens in New York City, me too.
Speaker 1:I'm excited more for the crime rate. I mean granted their money, their monetary. That's good too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's a super high-tax city, so I can certainly see why people would be like, oh, more money, more taxes, or whatever. But as someone who goes to New York City a couple times a year and actually utilizes their public transit, it could use some love.
Speaker 1:So how fast do you think they're going to utilize that $49 million?
Speaker 2:It's already gone.
Speaker 5:They had the money allocated before they even got it, so it means they've got people starting repairs and whatever I would be willing to bet, like you said.
Speaker 2:Like Zuccanibret said, they've already figured out they're going to be taking this money in and they started working even without it, yep, which is why you had cops on the subway and all that ahead of time, right so?
Speaker 2:but those infrastructure projects take forever to get done. I mean, you know it's not going to be a quick process, just like they're trying to redo the QBE. Eric and I watched a video on the QBE, which is the Queens-Bronx Expressway. I watched that video. That's crazy. So the QBE is something like Eric and I have driven it. We drove it several years ago and ever since driving it I've been fascinated by it, because it's such a weird road.
Speaker 3:Closest thing to that is like in Austin.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:The two-level interstate in Austin.
Speaker 2:Yes, but here's the difference. Okay, if you're in the QB Expressway, you may have seen it on TV and not known that it's what you were looking at. It's basically in Queens there, or is it the wrong? Yeah, it's Brooklyn. Is it Queens? It's the Queens section.
Speaker 6:Quizzing me now to see if I actually watched the video. I am, yes, I think it's the Queens section. It's the Queens section.
Speaker 2:There's a section where it's on a bluff or a cliff, if you would, yeah, and instead of running the expressway Six Lane Expressway through the flatland where houses and businesses are, they actually came up with a really kind of genius solution.
Speaker 6:I think it is, or was it?
Speaker 2:was. I'm not a huge fan of the person who came up with it, robert Moses. He did a lot of great things but he did a lot of horrible things, but it was his idea, and so what they did was at the bottom of the cliff you've got a road like a local area road, just for local traffic, right. Then, if you go up a level, there is a road that sticks out like cantilever off the cliff. So it's over the other road but it's just shooting out. There's no support on the far end and it kind of just hugs the cliff. And then there's one more above it. So you've got traffic going one direction on one bridge that's sticking out Three lanes of traffic on the other one above it going the opposite direction, and then above that they did one more level that is just a boardwalk.
Speaker 2:So it's like it looks like a layered cake of bridges that only connect on one side. On the left side of the road it connects to the wall of the side. On the left side of the road it's connected to the wall of the cliff. On the right side it's wide open to overlooking the city. So it's very unique. Actually, you know what? Here's a picture of it. That's kind of cool right.
Speaker 6:It is kind of cool. It's very cool.
Speaker 2:The problem is it's just old. It's been there since the early 40s.
Speaker 1:I would think that they maintain it or go out and see if it's structurally sound, so they try to.
Speaker 2:The problem is it's concrete and rebar Salt water, because they salt the roads and then when that snow melts, it's gotten to the cracks of the concrete over the years and it's gotten to that rebar and it's resting the rebar, so the bridge is resting from the inside.
Speaker 3:But no devastating accidents have happened yet, like parts of the road falling down.
Speaker 6:They maintain it as much as they can Trying to repair.
Speaker 3:that is like closing down part of the George Washington Bridge. Yeah, Can you imagine what that's like down part of the George Washington Bridge?
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Can you imagine what that's like they want to replace?
Speaker 6:it and they have a couple options for replacing it, but they're expensive and some of them just aren't feasible because of where it's at, and you know it's six lanes of traffic.
Speaker 5:It's a lot to shut down. Where would that reroute to?
Speaker 6:That's exactly it. They have no way.
Speaker 3:They have no way to reroute it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's devastating. It'd be devastating regardless of what they do. So, now they're trying to figure out what they're going to do with this, because you've got an infrastructure that's literally crumbling and they were talking about. I think the thing they're going to do is going to have it shut down for like 20 years or something. It's insane how long it's going to take to get this thing.
Speaker 1:That's when you quit your job and either work remotely or find something local like literally down the block.
Speaker 5:Yes or move.
Speaker 2:It's also the kind of project that you get hired on the QBE we're going to rebuild this bridge or this highway project and you can actually work on that your entire career and then retire.
Speaker 6:Start as an apprentice.
Speaker 2:Yes, day one apprentice, a day one apprentice.
Speaker 6:And work your entire career on that one project, on that one project, and then retire.
Speaker 2:Like it's nuts how long and how expensive it's going to be. So I mean, that's a drastic example of an infrastructure project in the middle of New York City and it's 3.8 miles long, something like that.
Speaker 6:The section that's a problem.
Speaker 5:It's not even that long Still, if it's not there.
Speaker 3:Three New York miles.
Speaker 2:I think the whole thing is 3.8 miles. That section is only 1.5 miles.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 2:Wow, but you think about the subway. How much bigger is it? Right and it's got the same issues. It's going right through the heart of everything.
Speaker 6:I'm actually reading an article on BQE Vision. The 1.5-mile section of the BQE they're talking about includes multiple bridge structures, including the historic .4 mile long triple cantilever.
Speaker 2:Okay, so half mile.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I only know about the.
Speaker 1:BQE from Quick Change, one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 6:It's a great video to watch. If you're interested in infrastructure and transportation, it's a pretty cool video to watch.
Speaker 2:Again, having driven this, it's kind of cool. It's really cool seeing it Because I remember like being on it. I don't even think I was driving. I'm pretty sure Eric was driving. I was sitting in the passenger seat and just riding through and it's like wait what?
Speaker 1:Hold on. I think I've been on that.
Speaker 2:What's going on here? It's like this is odd I don't really, because you see it like split out, it's like what? It's kind of the same thing as like if you've ever driven over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. It does the same thing where it like splits traffic up and then brings it back together and stuff.
Speaker 6:It's just Well downtown, los Angeles, the 110 freeway going north of downtown into Pasadena. Trucks aren't allowed there, so if you're in a truck you wouldn't see it. But the roadway there's a mountain and there's tunnels. So the roadway actually goes through tunnels, but the southbound traffic goes above the northbound traffic. You don't see it unless you're really paying attention to it or unless you just like that kind of stuff. But yeah, they built tunnels on top of each other to make it through that narrow area on the mountain.
Speaker 2:They did the same thing on the Oakland Bridge right the 580 actually was double-decker.
Speaker 6:It's not any longer after it collapsed during the earthquake in 88. I forget when the earthquake was. It collapsed during that earthquake and it's no longer a double-decker in that area.
Speaker 1:Cool. I'd like to see, like, not just on this bridge, but going back to the original opening, you know article, I'd like to see some kind of a long-term documentary on it. You know of how it's affected, whatever it's affected. So especially like on the New York on it, you know of how it's affected, whatever it's affected.
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah, so especially like on the New York City.
Speaker 1:Tax. You know how's it affecting law enforcement, how's it affecting your businessman or your arts people who are, you know, probably living modestly but they're going and performing every night downtown. I think those would be some really fun things to follow.
Speaker 6:There's actually a little known website that you might be able to find information like that on over time, right, Maybe not much on there right now, but videos and stuff on that type of thing. It's YouTube Y-O-U-T-U-B-Ecom.
Speaker 2:Thank you. If you go there, that's the YouTube right.
Speaker 6:I have a bookmark. I haven't typed it in a long time, so it might be the YouTube.
Speaker 4:It's a small website.
Speaker 6:It's not very big. We haven't gotten used to looking there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know I prefer I go to Googlecom, okay right. And I go to put my search in there and then I press videos Interesting I search in there, and then I press videos Interesting yes, interesting.
Speaker 6:I just did that with images, so I didn't think about doing it with videos.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I just think it would be fun to see. I know you're teasing me, but I think it would be really cool to see how whatever has changed.
Speaker 2:There's some really good ones on Paris and London, and I think Amsterdam is another one that has it. I've only been to Amsterdam's airport. I've never been to the actual city.
Speaker 5:I've been around Amsterdam, but we never drove, so we just came in by train.
Speaker 2:That's because you hired a limousine to pick you up.
Speaker 5:In my other life.
Speaker 2:It's nice when that Mercedes S-Class pulls up and it's like can I get this bag for you, ma'am?
Speaker 1:I think what happens is, all these big cities have not changed anything. They're built on old. At this point, Sure. And how do you now upgrade things when you're overpopulated in your areas? There's nowhere to grow for a lot of population right.
Speaker 6:I mean, if you think about the BQE, there's congestion all around it. They can't go wider. The reason they did the cantilever in the first place was they had congestion.
Speaker 6:We know when a new freeway gets built they're either buying up the homes that are in the way or in a domain or they're going out further, and then by the time those freeways are built they're out of date and their congestion on them is too much because it takes so long to build them. So it's just the infrastructure that we use currently just doesn't work as well as we'd like it to, and what they're finding is mass transit really is the way to go. Unfortunately, if you go mass transit, you have to do kind of a similar thing of finding right of ways for trains if they're above ground, or boring tunnels which cost a lot of money. So there isn't a whole lot of investment in the smaller, smaller cities as there is in the big cities, where that's the only option they have.
Speaker 2:You know, it's one of those things where, like well, none of us have the money to, as there is in the big cities where that's the only option they have. It's one of those things where none of us have the money to re-roof our house because it's such an incredible amount of expense. But when you have to, somehow you figure it out.
Speaker 6:You saw a lot of plasma. You saw a lot of plasma.
Speaker 2:The city. Right now they've got to sell a lot of plasma. The big cities. The thing I like about them is they have so much power financially, mentally, politically that they are able to get some really cool stuff accomplished.
Speaker 2:But I mean, you look at, like Chicago, you know we talk about like there's not enough room Downtown Chicago. They got to a problem on Wackeracker street I think it is, where it was, just so much congestion. It's such an issue, whatever they just said, to heck with it. We're building a whole new street, one floor up, I'm not kidding, and they literally built and decked out the entire top. Uh, built a whole new bridge system, basically for the entire street in downtown Chicago. So when you're on that street and you're walking around, you don't even realize you're on a bridge. There's actually like all these buildings had to go in and build new entrances.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:All the stuff to them and you can go down to lower. Lower is where all the loading docks are. It's where the trucks go through and everything.
Speaker 5:We delivered down somewhere there. Yeah, that sounds very familiar.
Speaker 2:It's a very creative solution Now it's incredibly expensive, very easily lost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which creates a really good industrial level to the same buildings.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because we'd be like driving here and we're like wait, we're supposed to be over, like yes, yeah, and you do see, like again, this is a Robert Moses project.
Speaker 2:You do see a lot of his projects that didn't age well In Boston, the whole big dig yeah, I believe that was originally a Robert Moses project where he put that interstate system going right through the heart of Boston. A lot of your major cities that have interstates going right through the middle of them or right along the edge, a lot of those are either Robert Moses designed or one of his people buying into his philosophy. Today we recognize it's a terrible idea. You cut your population centers in half. You end up with that wrong side of the road or tracks, the good side of the road or tracks business.
Speaker 2:You displace families, you uproot communities. A lot of people have recognized that's a very bad way of doing it. But for a long time, maybe from the 20s until the 50s, that was standard operating procedure, which is why so many cities have that. If you look at even New York City from the Cross Bronx Expressway, which we've all been on, we all know that one very, very well right, jerry? Yeah, the 95 right through New York City.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Go over the George Washington.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 6:The bridge.
Speaker 2:Go over the GWB, sit in traffic for two and a half hours, go six miles and you're in Connecticut. That section's Cross Bronx Expressway From there on either side of Manhattan is two interstates. I guess one's an interstate, one's a highway, but it's like a six-lane highway so it might as well be an interstate. That's his idea.
Speaker 3:So you take all that beautiful— FDR Drive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the FDR.
Speaker 3:Follows the entire coast of Manhattan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know prime real estate on the water. We have an interstate, Like what a stupid idea that was, but that was.
Speaker 1:He wanted you to have a pretty drive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what his philosophy was back then, and everybody nowadays is like no, you could do anything else but that. Like that could be parkland, that could be homes, that could be all kinds of stuff. Yeah, so a lot of his projects we're seeing are getting fixed, and this was, unfortunately, another one of them.
Speaker 1:I just don't think maybe they knew any better until they knew better.
Speaker 2:They didn't they also. I mean, you got to think about a Model.
Speaker 5:A Model T.
Speaker 2:Model A was the truck they were working with back then. In that video we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 6:they actually showed you know what trucks looked like when the QBE was built, what they look like now and it's like yeah, they were just short of being pulled by horses back then.
Speaker 5:They basically were the weight of vehicles has changed too. The weight's changed. Yeah, you've was a whole different thing. Vehicles has changed too.
Speaker 6:since then, the weight's changed yeah.
Speaker 5:So, you've got a lot more wear and tear physically, just besides the nature.
Speaker 2:And quantity. There's so much more traffic than there used to be.
Speaker 3:In one of the videos Patrick and I were watching, they talked about carriers trying to overload their trucks to get away with overweight fees. Yeah, and how they're using.
Speaker 6:they have weigh-in motion, not at a weigh station, but they have weigh-in motion in the city, because carriers are paying more to get vehicles into trucks into the city, so they're overloading them so they can get more cargo on them and that's damaging the roads as well. But they now have weigh-in motion so they can try and catch those things. That was a very interesting video.
Speaker 2:It was and I thought about like what are you hauling heavy into the city? Like you're not. Everything they're not bringing concrete mixers into the city. So much, there's a lot of exemptions.
Speaker 6:But they are. I mean because they're doing big projects, but they're not doing it like in Texas.
Speaker 2:But then I got thinking about it. So this guy I know used to work for a flour mill company in Baton Rouge and they would take wheat and turn it into flour Very cool process, I learned all about it. And he talked about how at the beginning of the day they would make a run out to Lafayette, louisiana, and there is a weigh station between Baton Rouge and Lafayette. The first truck went out even, and then they would report back if that weigh station was open.
Speaker 2:And if it was closed they didn't, because those tankers that they haul the flour in, because they're huge tanker trucks, they're not bags of flour, they're giant bulk tankers. Like when they're two-thirds full. That's about the amount of weight they can handle, but if you're not worried about weight, fill them up, fill them up to the roof. Yeah, and run it out there, get a lot more product each turn.
Speaker 6:We carried a load of canned goods in Louisiana, actually from a food distribution warehouse, a grocery store distribution warehouse, and we took it to a food bank.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 6:And the truck was donated by Panther. We got paid, don't get me wrong. The truck Panther's part of it was donated, yes, and they're loading us up and I'm like, wait, canned food is heavy. It's heavy was donated, yes, and they're loading us up and I'm like, oh wait, canned food is heavy. It's heavy. You got to slow your roll because we can't carry as much as the 53 footers. Yeah, it was so we had to slow them down and stop them from trying to stuff as much as they could in our truck.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Because it was donated. Food too, it was donated food.
Speaker 6:We got to the food bank. We could use our lift gate, but unfortunately the weight of the pallet was too heavy, so Melissa and I had to get up there. We had helpers at the food bank. We had volunteers, so they were helping us unload and carry stuff in.
Speaker 1:There's probably 30 people there.
Speaker 6:Until we could get it light enough to use the lift gate to pull it down. I said I won't tell the rest of it. But I'll tell you when we're done with the video. No, we broke a lot of stuff down. We broke it all down and gathered out the trunk and it didn't seem like very much was going down on the lift gate but like maybe Half of the pallet and you know you're like and that's all that she's going to take, and then you know we would pull it off.
Speaker 1:And then they were actually doing hand carts.
Speaker 5:So then they were taking it off the pallet putting on hand carts to take it in their building.
Speaker 1:It was very rewarding. It was very humbling.
Speaker 6:It was just a great experience all around.
Speaker 1:But woo-wee A lot of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a lot of time. Well, a lot of stuff's heavy like that you don't think about.
Speaker 1:You don't? Kangas are very heavy.
Speaker 2:Eric and I did a print shop load one time and it was like four pallets not a lot.
Speaker 6:Of paper, of paper, oh we've done that.
Speaker 2:Woo-wee, that was heavy, that was another one we got Liftgate Two instances.
Speaker 3:The one you're talking about was the pamphlets that went down to Florida.
Speaker 2:Yes, we get down to Florida and the guy's like all right, you can just unload them over here.
Speaker 6:And we're like no, we can't.
Speaker 3:That's before we knew.
Speaker 1:I could get more money for that Good unload by him, the entire truck. Yes, now, thankfully they did actually cart them away.
Speaker 2:And I will say this it was a good paying load, sure, regardless, but yeah, it was. We were in so much pain after that I was like we're getting a hotel South Florida. Parking is a pain anyways, let's get a hotel. We can park the truck at the hotel and get some sleep.
Speaker 3:Take a mini vacay.
Speaker 6:Yeah, all right. Well, I'll tell the rest of my story now. Then, since you guys covered that, melissa and I looked at each other because we didn't get paid for a hand unload on that load. We looked at each other and we're like we need to get paid for a hand unload. And then we thought about it and we go we're getting paid pretty damn good for this it's going to a charity. So no, we won't do that. We did get paid very well for a 50-mile load yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, those low mile loads always do good, they always do good we went camping afterwards.
Speaker 5:We did do camping afterwards. Yes, we did. You took a little mini weekend.
Speaker 3:It was like a holiday inn or something Exactly. Oh, no, no, we went to, we rented a car west we go.
Speaker 6:West, we go yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember that trip.
Speaker 1:It. Oh, I remember that trip. It was so much fun he kept sending us pictures of food from back home. It's like three things, yeah, he enjoyed this trip Airboat, it was good.
Speaker 6:We did the airboat tour. Yeah, oh, we can go back down there. I haven't been to Louisiana in so long. I know it's been too long Way, too long Way too long.
Speaker 2:Now's the best time, you haven.
Speaker 6:Well, I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
Speaker 5:I find that North Louisiana doesn't know about that.
Speaker 3:Ash Wednesday is a lovely time to be in.
Speaker 2:Louisiana.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:Well, melissa, I saw that article about your parking company. I know the truck parking club yes. Well, first give a little backstory on it.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking about this. It was what Two years ago, now Three years ago.
Speaker 3:Three years ago.
Speaker 1:We were at Matt's and I had walked by their booth. They caught my attention, listened to their spiel about what they were doing and they were just a baby company at the time, providing truck parking at private entities.
Speaker 2:Super nice people, very nice.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, they were just amazing people. But I know I saw a vision. I don't know if anybody else did, because there is a need for truck parking. We all know that and you know they're drumming up vacant lots and private properties and then they've got an app and they're providing all the details about. You know what that parking provides Trash light services security whatever. I mean you can dial it right in they got. His name is Hudo and he is.
Speaker 2:They stole him. I know they stole him, no, but they look, know they stole him. They poached him. They looked like they were friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I saw somewhere where he mentioned that they were good friends and ended up getting somebody from Truck Stop.
Speaker 2:Yes, not like your local Truck Stop. No, no, no, no, no, no. So truckstopcom, basically from what I understand, is a load board. It's a fancy, fancy load board and they do fleet management. I don't know freight management and things like that as well, but it's just a really nice load board.
Speaker 6:I see a lot of people comparing them to DAT but they're just like more Well, they're not strictly a load board, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're more advanced, right, more advanced yeah.
Speaker 6:They work on behalf of carriers, brokers.
Speaker 2:Truck drivers Truck drivers as well, you know.
Speaker 6:Sure All around Like a load board.
Speaker 1:Truck parking club. They stole him, they stole.
Speaker 3:Mr Brent, they poached, poached, poached.
Speaker 1:Brent Pudo. He's got decades of the experience. Did you see that he worked for a short time at Randall Riley? I did.
Speaker 2:Which is a parent company of Overdrive.
Speaker 6:Yes, where the article was from.
Speaker 1:Yep. He's widely recognized for his work in developing solutions to critical industry challenges, including the truck parking crisis, so I'm excited. You know, I was reading how many they're up to and I thought it was like 1,400 locations.
Speaker 2:They were not at 1,400 locations three years ago, they weren't, and actually I remember when we met them being like, oh, this isn't going to work. I remember that we were at the show. Panther had a booth and they had one of our trucks in it and they invited us hey, since your truck's going to be in the booth, bring your crew down, hang out with us. You, hey, since your truck's gonna be in the booth, bring your crew down, hang out with us. You can tell people about your company and we'll talk about our company and how we kind of work together, that sort of thing. So we did, we brought a whole crew down and we kind of took shifts. Uh, certain people would be manning the booth and the rest of the time we could kind of go and walk the show, because it's a really cool show to go to and see. So you had actually gone out and walked it.
Speaker 2:While I was talking to, some other people and I remember Butter Monkey were like I got to show you all this one booth. Yep, because we're going to head over to the ARI booth. And you're like I want to show you this one booth. It's very interesting, not these 15 booths, I found Right this one booth.
Speaker 2:This one booth and it was these people and talking with them and the way they work with drivers and all this stuff, and they give us some information to tell to our people and I'm pretty sure we report it back. And if you go back three years I think you'll find we talk about it.
Speaker 3:We did On the show. On the show, yeah, we did.
Speaker 2:What they were doing then was, they said, building from the ground up. So they were really trying to build up, getting locations and working directly with drivers. Now they are trying to work with the big major fleets. Yes, they are, and say hey, your drivers are already using us. Why don't you work with us as well? Right, and we can help you with your parking solution needs for your trucks while they're out on the road. So it's very cool to see how they are taking this foundation. They spent a couple years now building yeah.
Speaker 2:A few years now building and they are trying to scale it and build it bigger, which I'm sure is why it's like yep, we've got to tap some people.
Speaker 6:Well, they've got so many more locations down than they used to have. Yes, I recall when we talked to them this was the March before Highfield at Sea, which was the following January, and we were asking about what they had in the Orlando Florida area.
Speaker 1:Yes, because people are going to need to park.
Speaker 6:People need to park and they didn't have anything down there.
Speaker 2:No, they did in like Miami, but not in Orlando.
Speaker 6:Yeah, but not in Orlando, if you look now they've got, and if you look nationwide, they kind of showed us their map of where they had vendors at the time and it was very few.
Speaker 2:It might have been 200, 200.
Speaker 6:Nothing really on the West Coast. And now that map is just, it's grown.
Speaker 1:I'm curious are any of Highfield's contractors using the truck parking.
Speaker 5:How do you find it? Is it an app? It's an app.
Speaker 6:You can find them at truckparkingclubcom.
Speaker 4:They have an app. My recent trip through Georgia, I actually seen numerous billboards with their signage all over, really yeah that's awesome in southern georgia cool, that's awesome, very cool.
Speaker 1:Well, and if you have used their places, where I want to know what kind of parking you're parking at. Is it, I wouldn't say a field, but like, is it in the middle of farmland? Is it a defunct walmart? You know where are you parking?
Speaker 2:because, there's.
Speaker 1:There was one in illinois that we would park at. It was a closed down walmart. They, you could tell they shut it down, sam's club, it was something, and then. But we could talk back there. Other trucks were parking there as well. We We've done it in Texas, nope, louisville. We've parked in one in Louisville right across from a Cracker Barrel. It was a defunct, big, huge mall and it had gone out of business and other trucks were parking there. So just curious, where are you parking with this truck parking club?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm looking at their map right now.
Speaker 6:I am too.
Speaker 3:And there's all over the place. They have some parking and some are free parking.
Speaker 2:Is it Okay?
Speaker 1:I think it ranges, you know, because one of the things in their article about going directly to companies and saying, look, your drivers are already doing this, is they're trying to set up where the company puts in, let's say, $1,000 into a fund and then their drivers can say I work for this company and I want to park here, and then they can charge it or bill it to the company. Because the drivers were having a hard time getting reimbursed for the expenses of using truck parking if they needed it.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm scrolling through their app right now. So professional doing the research mid-show.
Speaker 6:Sorry.
Speaker 2:Jerry, this is pretty slick, so they've got like. They'll show a. You type in where you want to park and they will pull up an earth view. What do they call that Like? A satellite view of a piece of property and then they they will put a green area and say this is the place where you can park. Here's how many spaces are available.
Speaker 2:Here's how much it costs per day, per week, per month, and then you can book right there. It's a hotel just off your app and that's really cool. They also do show you, like Eric was just saying, they do show where free parking is. So if you are actually going to be in an area that has free parking like this, right here I mean, it says rest area, highway marker 177. It has a number. I wonder does the number mean the number of spaces it has available? It couldn't be that accurate.
Speaker 6:But it does. No, it doesn't. I think it might be that accurate. Well, actually, I'm looking on the website and it shows me the space here in Columbus that has nine spots available and just on the map itself, on the satellite view, it gives a green block of where you need to park.
Speaker 2:So this number in the blue is the number of spaces available, because like.
Speaker 1:Here's one that says low availability, Is that with the free parking? That's the free parking. That must mean people have booked it. So if you're going to Well this, is free parking.
Speaker 2:There is no booking.
Speaker 6:There's no booking.
Speaker 2:But it just tells you how many people are sitting in that area right now. Huh, that is slick. I want to go back on the road. This is really cool, sorry.
Speaker 6:I didn't mean to.
Speaker 2:Like this one is low availability 5 availability. 37 availability.
Speaker 4:I wonder how they're tracking that, are they maybe, even though it's free?
Speaker 2:They've got to be working with the city or with the DOT, or do you think it's from people?
Speaker 4:I was just going to say. Even though it's free, they may still require you to book a spot, so that way they know how many are available.
Speaker 2:No, they don't even give you the ability to.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:Not on a free one. Not a free one.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at the closest one to the pilot, our.
Speaker 2:Flying.
Speaker 3:J in Columbus, there's one of these locations just south, on the highway from there. I'm looking at it and it's saying no spaces available, live data. And then it gives you prices per day, per week, per month.
Speaker 2:But you don't want that.
Speaker 6:Right per month. But you know what, right the ability to book it. Now They've only got two spaces there at that spot.
Speaker 5:You say you see what I'm looking at.
Speaker 6:I do, yeah, and that could be nothing available tonight.
Speaker 2:Well, I do like too. They talk about like. I just randomly pulled one up. They said they could do bobtails and up to a 26-foot box truck. So it wouldn't work for a tractor trailer, but if you're bobtailing it would 24-7 access. It's a lit area.
Speaker 6:I know right where this place is.
Speaker 2:It's a lit up area. They have food and restaurants in the area. Uber, lyft and taxi is available.
Speaker 6:That's a good message too. That's a good message.
Speaker 2:They have cameras, uber Eats, doordash and Grubhub in the area, a hotel close by and it is parking on gravel. So they tell you that much information.
Speaker 1:That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So if it's rainy, maybe you don't want to park on gravel.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 5:Gravel's better than mud.
Speaker 1:True, but then you can make that decision of how heavy you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's still not the greatest so you know I was thinking about, like how do they know with these free spaces where they are? I just drove back from Texas and actually quite a few of the rest areas. They now have big signs that will tell you what's available. So I guarantee you they're tapping into the DOT feed and that's how they're able to let people know. But still it's super helpful.
Speaker 5:Super helpful, but I mean if they've got live satellite, because they're showing you, even like, where those empty spaces are in the places that have spaces.
Speaker 6:I don't know if they're showing you where the empty spaces are necessarily, or what spaces are reserved for truck parking club.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 6:Because I'm looking at the one here just south of us, here in Columbus Truck Parking Club. Oh, okay, Because I'm looking at the one here just south of us, here in Columbus. It's a trucking terminal and they are saying they have the map view red arrows showing how to get into the facility and there's a big thought bubble that says park. Here, in the two spots highlighted green, you should be lined up with the end of the building in front of you when you back in so it gives you that impression of where that's, and so there so they've got.
Speaker 6:There are businesses that are only renting out extra spaces. Yeah, and they want you in specific spots.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because when I saw was like six spaces here, five spaces here and ten spaces here or something.
Speaker 2:I almost wonder.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool, though, because, again, these are entities, businesses, landowners, whatever you want to say that.
Speaker 2:I saw some like storage lots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, aren't doing anything with their extra space, right, so why not profit off of it? And you're also providing truck parking, which is a deficit. I just had an idea.
Speaker 2:I did too, so my question was going to be I wonder how easy it is to turn it on and off? Yeah, exactly Because like we are still looking for a home in Columbus area. We're still trying to find a place to Not personally. Not personally, but our home for the business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so right now we're working out of a temporary facility. We're looking for a more permanent facility. It's just hard to find. This is not a very industrial-friendly place, so it's tricky. But once we get that place I wonder if it's something where we can put five spots in Sure.
Speaker 3:Because you know I'm going to want to be able to park 50 trucks, but we hardly ever have that many trucks.
Speaker 2:Well A, we've never had that many trucks parked. When it says space is available, I would think you could say Well, that's my question is can I pop in and tell them like hey, normally we have 10 available, today we only have 5, because I need to use 5 for myself. I wonder if it's that easy to turn on and off.
Speaker 3:We need somebody to take care of it live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, apparently we ought to.
Speaker 3:Pay attention to it the whole time.
Speaker 6:I just felt that.
Speaker 1:Three years ago I felt something about their company and I have watched it grow. We've talked about them before on a couple of episodes because they're doing really great things. I hope that they can make it pretty profitable.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Not just for themselves, but for the drivers, for those that have vacancies, to where they can park. I mean, it just seems like a win-win.
Speaker 2:And I saw the rates were varied between like $10 and $25 a day. So you know, obviously the more premium space you're in, the more you're going to pay. I imagine the South Florida places are expensive.
Speaker 1:But again I don't know if you'd want to use this on like while you're under a load and you're traveling, you're doing all that. But, like vince was saying, you know where people were traveling, or trying to get close to orlando to hop on a cruise ship and there was, they didn't have any at the time something like that. Or what if I wanted to tuck into a city and not have to uber 30 minutes to get there or rent up the car? You know, maybe I can look on here and see if there was something more centrally located so then I could could either A walk or my Uber ride would be cheaper.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I love that idea. I think of something like Los Angeles. Like say I wanted you know, because LA is someplace that Eric and I would end up frequently, and we would always rent a car.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the only problem with that is from A at the truck stop.
Speaker 5:It's a paid parking period so you're already paying, you're already paying From there to.
Speaker 2:anything we'd want to do is an hour drive, right. So if I could pay the same price or maybe even a little bit more.
Speaker 6:but be closer and not have that hour drive Sure.
Speaker 6:Absolutely Think about it this way too, and we don't think about this a lot because we don't have as many tractors as we do. Straight trucks, Sure, but you need to go somewhere in Columbus with your and you're driving a tractor, pulling a tractor trailer for us, and we don't have tractor parking. I'm sorry, we don't have trailer parking, Right. So something like this, the place we just talked about, if you can drop a trailer and bobtail somewhere For $15? You know exactly, you know you can't. People do all the time at the pilot they drop their trailer in the hotel, but you're not supposed to, and if you get towed you're screwed.
Speaker 2:Now you're at two grand.
Speaker 6:Now you're at a lot of money, so to be able to find some place like this and drop a trailer is great.
Speaker 2:I remember we had a situation a while back where we had to have one of our tractors not too far but a few months ago and we called one of our dealerships or one of our vendors. They let us park the trailer there for a couple days, but even that was like hoo-fah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, exactly, that's a new issue. It's a new issue.
Speaker 2:We don't take the box off our street trucks?
Speaker 6:No, we don't, they just take it right along with you.
Speaker 1:They're not our sponsor for today's show, but I do think they're doing really great things. Excited to see where they continue to go. And you know just again, 1,400 spaces. I'm excited to see how Mr Hudo is going to. You know, really improve things and see where they are. In a year Is it going to double?
Speaker 2:You know I really like being right. I'm sure you may have noticed that by now. Yeah, I'm sure you may have noticed that by now. I don't like being wrong very often and a lot of times if I have a really deep gut feeling, it's right and I'm happy to say I was wrong about this one. I mean, like I know, we brought it back and promoted them. My gut feeling was like this sounds like a great idea, and then these places are going to see the pee jugs.
Speaker 6:They're going to see the trash.
Speaker 1:They're going to see the trash they're going to be like.
Speaker 2:No and then this is going to crumble, and it hasn't, and uh, that's wonderful I'm really glad this is actually.
Speaker 6:I'm really happy to see them succeed they were super nice guys. Yeah, they took the time to hang out and talk with us.
Speaker 2:Super nice guys absolutely well in uh. Along a similar vein, I saw one other article I wanted to bring up real quick. It doesn't really help us here in Ohio but our Georgia friends, I thought, may want to do this and it was an investment opportunity.
Speaker 1:I thought it was a great investment opportunity You're committed to it, though for 10 years, 10 years.
Speaker 3:Well, to that particular truck parking. Yes, we have RV parking. We might could.
Speaker 6:He said he had RV parking.
Speaker 2:And we could possibly even put this on.
Speaker 6:We possibly could yes, I'm sure there's a spot there for this particular situation.
Speaker 2:So Cleveland, georgia, which is in the mountains of Georgia, northeast.
Speaker 6:It's a beautiful area.
Speaker 2:Gorgeous city. It's right down the street from Helen Georgia, which is the Alpine Village. Is that how you describe it? You've been to Helen.
Speaker 3:Mm-mm.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, you've been to Helen, it's the Mini Germantown, mini Germantown. We were there for Oktoberfest one time. It's a really cool place. So Cleveland, Georgia, as we all know, the world famous home of the Cabbage Patch Dolls.
Speaker 6:The Cabbage Patch Dolls. Yes, the Cabbage Patch Dolls, that's correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, I've been there, I've been there. Oh, we worked.
Speaker 6:We haven't been to the Cabbage Patch Dolls facility.
Speaker 1:I stood outside, but we were outside.
Speaker 6:We picked up you got the gist Directly across the street from the sign where it said you know how to adopt a cabbage patch.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I went out there and watched them birth the cabbage patch?
Speaker 6:Did you?
Speaker 5:I got to watch the nurse I got to watch the nurse.
Speaker 2:She injected the cabbage with the Venom.
Speaker 3:No, that's garbage pill kids. Those are garbage pills. It's a magicillin Nice, Magicillin Nice.
Speaker 2:And yeah, they got to cut the root and everything. It was pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:But if you're- they got to cut the root. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:So, if you're interested, again, I think it's a great investment, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was six bed.
Speaker 2:It's a six bed, six bath. Hold on, I lost it 42 acres. Yes.
Speaker 1:Includes cabins a pool, a sauna.
Speaker 2:RV and boat parking.
Speaker 5:Listen, I'm telling you right now Because you might need to buy you a boat. Well, no, we'll do the RV parking and boat parking.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm telling you right now Because you might need to buy you a boat. Well, no, we'll do the RV parking, the truck parking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6:What the?
Speaker 1:hell were we just talking about. Well, are you going to share the catch?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So there's one catch, though, yeah. There is a deed restriction requiring you to keep this operating as a clothing optional resort for the next 10 years Are you willing?
Speaker 5:to bear it. All. It says optional, it doesn't mean you have to it actually says as a nudist resort.
Speaker 6:Yes, it's the wording in the article.
Speaker 2:So it's Serendipity Park Nudist Resort in Cleveland, georgia, for $1.8 million, which, for 42 acres, is a bargain. It's just that 10-year thing. I have a confession to make.
Speaker 1:I feel like you can get your money back though.
Speaker 6:I have a confession to make. When this article was sent out, I called the credit union about a loan.
Speaker 2:So I may be relocating. How many?
Speaker 6:acres can you get?
Speaker 1:I may be relocating to Cleveland, Georgia if I can get this, well, you can get a 16th of an acre 16th and a half and a half, that's pushing it, that's pushing it.
Speaker 2:But for $20 a night you can get a parking spot.
Speaker 6:That's right. It's right there.
Speaker 2:Enjoy the show. Now I saw this come across my Facebook feed from a legit news organization yeah, this is not like.
Speaker 6:The.
Speaker 2:Onion or something like that. And they said North Georgia and I'm like I'm interested and the pictures are beautiful. There's no people in them, thank God. And I'm like, holy crap. 42 acres for $1.8 million. And then it's like oh, I mean, I guess if you had it laying around and you wanted to play the long game you could, because you know in 10 years. It'll be worth the long game I like that.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying in 10 years it'll be worth the long game. I like that. I'm just saying in 10 years it'll be worth $10 million. Yeah, of course, and then you can do anything you want with it, right?
Speaker 1:Literally, that's what she said.
Speaker 2:Literally, because they'll be like, as long as you can make it not a clothing optional resort, we'll let you have whatever you want.
Speaker 1:I bet you it's a profitable business, oh.
Speaker 6:I'm sure it is. I don't know. They're selling it. I bet you it is, they're selling it for $1.8 million.
Speaker 1:Maybe they're ready to move on and do something else. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 6:Again, it is in Cleveland, georgia, which is nothing against Cleveland.
Speaker 1:Georgia, blue Ridge Mountains Come on.
Speaker 6:That's the catch too. Blue Ridge Mountains that's what I'm saying, Just don't do it nude. It might be time to fire them up.
Speaker 2:Start getting them ready.
Speaker 6:Make sure the batteries are good. Get on a battery tender maybe.
Speaker 1:I was going to say put the Aquafina in them, but I don't think that's right. It's the Aquanet.
Speaker 2:No, what's?
Speaker 1:that it's a seafoam.
Speaker 3:I don't think they even make that anymore they do I knew it was some 1940s sounding yeah, exactly A little sea thumb in the gasoline.
Speaker 1:Yesterday, I would have ridden.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:Had we been in daylight savings time yesterday, week and a half.
Speaker 6:Next week.
Speaker 1:I would have and it was in our garage because currently they're being stored elsewhere. But if it was in our garage and daylight savings time and Vince got home at the 4.30, 5 o'clock hour Boy.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of, there's a lot of fairness. I would have said and I would have had my riding gear cleaned and the seat heater worked.
Speaker 1:I would have said jump on your bike. And again, this is at 4.30,5 o'clock, it was still lovely yesterday. I would have said jump on your bike, we're. We're at least going into pal doing the little loop and come you know, like a 30 minute ride, warm it up just uh, but it was beautiful yesterday after all this sub-zero temperature we hit. We had numbers that started with the five, maybe even close to a six.
Speaker 6:Very close to a six, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the past two days I drove a truck back from Texas. Oh you did and I was sitting down at the shop. They weren't quite ready when they said they were going to be done. They said they were going to be done around one.
Speaker 2:They ended up being done around four. But I waited. You know what are you going to do. So I ended up sitting outside. 71 degrees, light breeze, full sun, blue skies, not even white puffy clouds just every now and then, you know, like the little streak of white Duh, I mean just beautiful day and I'm like boy if I could just be sitting out here with a whiskey. It was really, really, really nice. And I knew I was coming back up here to really cold, nasty weather, and so I was like I'm just going to soak this in and enjoy it, and the drive back was beautiful weather. And then I woke up this morning to just gray skies and rain Yesterday was just beautiful.
Speaker 6:Yesterday I woke up to a very sunny day, beautiful day. We did get a little overcast, a little rain for about half an hour or so and that blew out and it was just sunny and clear the rest of the afternoon gorgeous I tell you what it was. It would have been a great day to ride the bike that mississippi river drought yeah it's over.
Speaker 2:Oh good, I drove across that thing and I'm like I'm not sure that the tugboat should be that close to the bridge. It was like, uh, in memphis, right there, you know, there's like Memphis is kind of a weird area to cross over Mississippi River because there's this huge flat farmland area and then the levee, which is unusual.
Speaker 2:Usually, the levee is right on both sides of the river, and when I came across it it was water from levee to levee, wow, and so it looked like the river was two miles wide at that point. It was really cool to see Was it lit up pretty the bridge. I came across.
Speaker 6:You came across the bridge and not 55 south of it. I came across the bridge during the day.
Speaker 2:I actually ended up staying in West Memphis, which I don't normally do. Normally.
Speaker 6:I stay in Memphis.
Speaker 2:But I was literally going to be like 15 minutes short on my clock and I'm like well crap, so I stayed in west memphis and, uh, actually your home safe thank you. I was really impressed by how nicely uh was it gated the hotel. Yeah, well, you know I was, I was in memphis a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 6:Yes, I picked up a tractor from a dealership in memphis that's why we actually missed, uh, the last recording.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 6:So I stayed overnight at a Fairfield Inn in Memphis.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 6:Very nice hotel, yeah. However, the entire thing was gated. Yes, when I got there about 10 o'clock at night, you had to press the intercom button to get access. You had to give them a name of a reservation before they allowed you access to the facility, the grounds. Now again, once you got inside it very nice, very clean, very nice hotel.
Speaker 5:I got upgraded to a suite for six hours of sleep. But hey, I'll take it. I wasn't gonna say I, only you know I'm like whatever I just. I just got a sprawl across the king bed instead of exactly.
Speaker 6:I just want to go to bed. So, yeah, whatever, you know, um, and then the next day, when I left, the gate was open. The gates open between 7 and 8 o'clock at night, but I was surprised at this, memphis that's.
Speaker 2:Memphis for you. Yeah, I actually heard it was the inspiration for the Mad Max movies.
Speaker 6:I got to tell you that was a fun drive, though I had rain, I had a little snow, I had some clear weather. Those tractors drive so nice. If you've ever driven a tractor Bobtail, they're the roughest ride in the world. These 150 inch sleepers, cadillac, cadillac oh my goodness, yeah, it's beautiful. So I got my driving fix in for a couple days. Cadillac, cats meal Cadillac oh my goodness yeah.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful, so I got my drive and fix in for a couple days or so I did Podcast listening, drive and fix. How about you Back from Texas? You get podcast listening in.
Speaker 2:I did I got quite a bit of podcast listening in. I'm just digging through right now really hard into Fly on the Wall which is David Spade.
Speaker 1:You sent me one of those.
Speaker 2:I did send you one that dropped this morning.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can't wait to listen to it.
Speaker 2:I've gotten like five minutes in and then Kelly called and I had to talk business. But it says David Spade and Dana Carvey Originally Fly on the Wall. They started talking about SNL, but now they talk about all kinds of stuff. I have a bunch of guests on SNL, but now they talk about all kinds of stuff. I have a bunch of guests on. It's a really cool show. If you want something to listen to and you like David Spade or Dana Carvey, you'll love this podcast. The chemistry is great. And then I also listen to Conan because I was the right age for Conan. I got to walk with him from the late night after Jay Leno to taking over to Jay Leno, to getting fired by Jay Leno, to going over to TBS USA TBS.
Speaker 6:TBS, tbs, tbs.
Speaker 2:And being over there for years and I've just been able to follow his whole career and I thought it was hysterical back in the day. I still think he's funny. I can certainly understand why people don't like him, but he has a podcast that's really really good as well and it's Coder O'Brien Needs a Friend and the whole shtick of it is he does these hour-long interviews with people that are major celebrities and he talks about like, how do you feel about being Coder O'Brien's friend? That's the whole shtick.
Speaker 2:And then he just explains like on the show you get three minutes, five minutes, seven minutes and everything's everything's prepackaged like they're, it's all promotional stuff, it's all promotional stuff, yeah, and they usually come in and they say here's the questions to ask me okay because they're prepared for that so it's not like Conan's, really thinking geez, what do I ask? But they get to have these long, hour-long format conversations. I've really enjoyed it. Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. That series is like six years old, so there's lots of episodes of it. That's cool. It's really cool. If you're just looking for something to listen to, that's not just the regular Marc Maron and whatever else anybody else listens to.
Speaker 3:If you like comedy, if you don't like comedy and you don't want to laugh, don't bother.
Speaker 2:If you like comedy and you want to laugh, it's pretty good Sword and Scale.
Speaker 1:That's true crime, don't even Mike Bidet's voice is dreamy. He could read the phone book.
Speaker 2:I like when he says we'll leave the light on for you.
Speaker 5:No, that's not happening, oh goodness. Well, that's fine Goodness.
Speaker 2:Well, it's good to be back. It's good hanging out with everybody.
Speaker 6:It is good, good hang.
Speaker 2:Not that we really talked about anything trucking with us, but if you are interested in hearing more about our company and what we do and why we put this podcast on and all that stuff, reach out to us at highfieldtruckingcom.
Speaker 6:Or email us at theoutertrekkingcom. Or email us at the Outer Belt Podcast Dot com.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, At gmailcom, wow, we really speeded that up, Jerry. It sounded like they were going through bad reception.
Speaker 2:Can you clarify that? If you'd like to call us, reach us out to us 888-833.
Speaker 6:I don't know the phone number. I didn't call the phone number 833.
Speaker 1:Highfield, that's right, you're all close. 833.
Speaker 6:Highfield. So what's the email address? Again, because we got that screwed up too.
Speaker 1:Jerry knows that one.
Speaker 4:The Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 6:That is. The Outer Belt Podcast at gmailcom, I think you just screwed that up because Jerry and I were doing a contest where we see who can go lower in the voice.
Speaker 4:And Vince is going to win All right 833.
Speaker 1:Highfield, 833 Highfield, and you can option one Option one for recruiting.
Speaker 2:We are really not doing good at this, are we?
Speaker 1:4353.
Speaker 2:This is the fun part, though Jerry's going to be isolating.
Speaker 6:You 4-3-5-3.
Speaker 1:This is the fun part, though Jerry's going to be isolating you.
Speaker 6:ready I am ready 8-3-3.
Speaker 2:8-3-3. Option 1.
Speaker 1:I don't know the phone number.
Speaker 4:I know 4-8-3-3,.
Speaker 6:I feel 4-9-3. 8-3-3. 4-9-3.
Speaker 1:4-3-5-3.
Speaker 6:4-3-Y-F-I-E-L-D.
Speaker 4:What Patrick does is Jerry. What's the?
Speaker 6:phone number, or just do what I do and call directly and say hey, I don't know if I need to call you on the Highfield number, but I got a question for you, yeah.
Speaker 1:Monday through Friday, 8 am to 6 pm Eastern Time. Delina or myself would be happy to chat with you.
Speaker 2:And if you'd rather text not text, if you'd rather chat with us instead of calling us, because buttermilk can be very intimidating on the phone. You can reach out to us at highfieldtruckingcom. The chat feature there.
Speaker 1:And I'll chat with you.
Speaker 2:Yep hyfieldtruckingcom.
Speaker 3:And it's not Hayfield, no, no.
Speaker 1:Hayfield.
Speaker 2:I know, I'm just saying it's not.
Speaker 1:Hayfield.
Speaker 2:We do get that a lot. We do get that a lot.
Speaker 4:And if you're listening to the audio version, we do have the text function on there as well, so you can text me directly if you're listening to the audio version of the podcast. If you're interested in an otr mattress, we do have those available as well. You can give us a call at 380-222-3364. Are you sure?
Speaker 2:One more time 380-222.
Speaker 5:Ha 3364.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'll have the number at the bottom. What?
Speaker 6:if I want to email you.
Speaker 4:Jerry at otrmattresscom.
Speaker 6:And what's the website?
Speaker 4:That will be wwwotrmattresscom and that is coming very soon, nice.
Speaker 2:Yes To a theater near you. I think someone has to approve something To a computer near you.
Speaker 1:Oh, computer To a computer near you or a phone near you, can you sit on your?
Speaker 5:two-way internet device iPad, I mean near you.
Speaker 3:Or a straight track near you.
Speaker 6:And if you can't remember any of this, but emailing the outer belt podcast at gmailcom, we will route you to the right person. That's right, the outer belt podcast at gmailcom Best way to get ahold of us Any of the other stuff that we talked about different email addresses or phone numbers If this issues an email and we'll get you to the right place.
Speaker 2:Or call us at 833 Highfield, option one.
Speaker 6:There, you go.
Speaker 2:So again, thank you so much for hanging out with us. If you like what we did, hit the thumbs up button. Subscribe to us if you are not subscribed yet. It really helps us out. Keeps us going. Keeps us going. They're all like unsubscribe. No.
Speaker 6:Stop them.
Speaker 5:Stop them If you didn't like what?
Speaker 2:we did hit the thumbs down button twice and two thumbs way down. Leave comments.
Speaker 1:Thumbs down button twice and like two thumbs way down. Leave comments.
Speaker 2:I want to know what they think about New York. Leave comments, suggestions, ideas, thoughts, complaints. Yeah, and we'd be happy to reach out or take your comments and reply back and then, cater your show to you. Make this show what you want it to be. In the meantime, everybody, stay safe and make good decisions. Don't leave money on the table.
Speaker 4:And keep those wills of Tarnum.
Speaker 3:Good night, bye, ciao, we'll be right back.