The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
When Regulations Retreat: What the EPA Rollback Means for Your Fleet
The trucking industry just experienced what the Trump administration calls "the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in US history" with the rollback of EPA 2027 emissions standards. Patrick and the Outer Belt crew unpack this dramatic shift that has sent ripples through the entire transportation sector.
For years, trucking companies have been preparing for a massive buying frenzy in 2026, as the impending 2027 emissions regulations threatened to add $30,000-$40,000 premiums to trucks with unproven technology. The catch? Only Paccar (Kenworth and Peterbilt) had developed an engine clean enough to meet these requirements, with competitors struggling to catch up. This regulatory change provides enormous relief to fleets still recovering from the freight recession and facing high interest rates.
The conversation shifts to practical trucking solutions as the team shares their experiences with modern jump boxes – compact portable batteries that can start a dead commercial truck instantly. These devices have revolutionized roadside assistance, replacing the cumbersome chargers of yesteryear that required hours to get a truck running. The hosts reminisce about earlier days when getting a truck jumped meant waiting for service companies or rigging multiple trucks together with jumper cables.
Another industry-changing development comes from Georgia, where courts will now allow juries to consider seatbelt use when determining accident settlements. This seemingly common-sense change was previously forbidden, potentially contributing to the astronomical rise in trucking lawsuit verdicts – from $2.3 million in 2010 to $22.3 million in 2018. The team debates whether this will help reduce "nuclear verdicts" that have driven up insurance costs across the industry.
Have questions about trucking or want to join the Highfield team? Call us at 833-493-4353 option 1 or email theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com to learn more about opportunities with our growing fleet.
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Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing boys.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you know my friends.
Speaker 3:Shirley Buttermilk.
Speaker 4:Eric.
Speaker 3:Zucchini bread. I'm so glad you're back.
Speaker 1:And Jerry oh man, it's the whole crew. We're all here again. Finally, we got her back from the great state of Montana. And Jerry oh man, it's the whole crew. We're all here again. Finally, we got her back from the great state of Montana. Woman power.
Speaker 3:He got it right.
Speaker 1:I pay attention and I have it written down on a cliff note, but still.
Speaker 2:As you should, as you should. As a good Boy Scout, be prepared, you, always be prepared you wear your badges all that stuff, I thought about be prepared.
Speaker 3:You wear your badges. All that stuff, I thought about being prepared.
Speaker 1:The one. I went to Montana badge.
Speaker 2:I went to Montana and I survived, and all I got was a stinking badge.
Speaker 1:No, I also got some huckleberry pancake mix, oh, okay.
Speaker 5:All right I didn't get the pancake mix, but I got caramels and some.
Speaker 1:Did you get the huckleberry syrup? No, oh, it tastes just like blueberry from IHOP I thought it tasted like strawberries.
Speaker 2:myself Does it On a summer evening.
Speaker 1:Huh, I don't know how to go from there. So, speaking of being prepared, I just did the round trip to Bolt Custom Trucks in Indiana. Yes, you did, and I thought about our good friends over at Expeditor Boogie. Yes and of course we're talking about Jerry, of course, and he's a good guy.
Speaker 2:He's a good guy. He's a good guy. We talk bad about him sometimes.
Speaker 1:We talk bad about him. He truly is a good guy Most of the time, but he's a good guy, yeah, he means well, anyways, anyways. So I went over to Bolt Custom Trucks. I was thinking about him because I left at 4 pm in the afternoon, actually closer to 5., and I was just going to go there and come right back, get back home around midnight and I was like that's cool, I can do this. So I grabbed my usual bag with my permit book in there and water and 5-hour energy and all that stuff and I head out of town at about halfway to Fort Windy and I was like boy, I hope this truck starts, because I didn't bring any clothes.
Speaker 1:I didn't bring a spare anything, I'm like if I have to get a hotel while I'm here, I am making a trip to Walmart, so luckily everything worked fine. It all panned out good, didn't even have to use the jump box and was able to get back safe and sound.
Speaker 3:Good Way back before midnight.
Speaker 1:So my Boy Scout badge would have been ripped off of my shirt For preparation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did see the jump box was still at 80% this morning so I got it on the charger, so we're ready for the next time. Very cool, yeah, good deal.
Speaker 3:Do you have to put it on the floorboards this time of year or is it holding charges? Like in the wintertime, you have to get it toasty.
Speaker 2:It holds its charge, no problem, but it wants to be warm in order for it to provide max power.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I also learned that if it has the cold error on it, it'll still work. It just won't provide max power when it's cold.
Speaker 3:I see.
Speaker 1:So, you can start a go-kart. Right exactly, you couldn't start the Jeep, but you could start a go-kart, or maybe like a Volkswagen Bug, if you put the jump box on there.
Speaker 2:The original, and then you pushed it and popped the clutch.
Speaker 1:Well, you need the extra weight for leverage Going downhill. You know it's something about physics. I have a fun fact Go ahead.
Speaker 5:It doesn't matter how long the jump box is on there. If the truck is not neutral, it still won't start.
Speaker 1:Oh, what a fun fact, this is true.
Speaker 3:I got another one for you. Did you just learn of this Sort of?
Speaker 1:It also doesn't matter how long the jump box is plugged in and how many times you run through the cycle. If your negative post has accidentally popped off because you didn't have a good grip, it too will not work.
Speaker 5:That'll cause a problem too, so just some good troubleshooting, you know ideas? Huh yeah, Neutral.
Speaker 3:Imagine that I know right.
Speaker 1:I tell you what if I drove a truck anymore, like, how do do I? That's the wrong way of phrasing it on a regular basis if I was yes, if I drove truck on a regular basis, I would buy one of those things and have it with me all the time. Oh yeah, you know, apus fail, chargers fail, like to be able to just grab like, oh, battery's dead. Let me just grab this thing and we're off the races. Nice little that it's such a handy little tool.
Speaker 3:I would have one. I think about when Vince and I first started.
Speaker 1:Back in 1847. Yes. What the protocol was, which was you had to get a branding iron really hot and then you hit the back of the horse.
Speaker 3:Well, or sometimes you had to call a tow company out to jump you. We still do.
Speaker 1:We still do, yeah, we still do, we still do.
Speaker 2:Not in the yard, you mean when we first started in the yard, when we first started in the yard the trucks that were.
Speaker 3:We did have Rusty's, the trucks that we had in the yard. That was your way to get them to fire off. You had to call. You had to wait hours He'd finally arrive and then it would jump, and Vincent a little research.
Speaker 2:We could jump a truck in the yard with jumper cables and another truck and another truck. When we had to call Rusty's was when the truck was out of fuel in the yard. Oh, maybe that's what it was and we had to get them to fuel it and then jump it, because the APU doesn't run with no fuel either. So that's when we used to call Rusty's. We haven't called Rusty's out in quite some time.
Speaker 3:I'm sure. More on top of making sure our trucks are fueled, and I think it's a great investment though, too, even if that's what you were doing and also I didn't do- the research.
Speaker 2:Patrick had already purchased that before he left, and it arrived when we were there.
Speaker 3:It's a nice, it was a nice addition. It's a nice, it was a nice addition.
Speaker 2:It's paid for itself over and over, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I found it and they've gotten cheaper. They're actually. You'd think something like that would get more expensive. They've actually gotten a lot cheaper. I was at our good friend's down at ELW and I was going to get a truck jumped off. Battery was dead Again and he came over in his Dodge like he normally does. He's got a big engine so he could usually just jump a truck off with his truck's battery, and so I was kind of business as usual, and he walks out with this little tiny lunchbox-looking thing and I'm like what is that?
Speaker 1:And he's like we're going to jump your truck off and I'm like with that, yeah, not a chance.
Speaker 3:And it does, it looks like a little lunchbox.
Speaker 1:It fires off like it's perfectly fine, yeah, like it doesn't even. It's, you know, like a normal, like you're jumping off a car. It's just vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. It's like vroom, like the batteries in the's all lithium, I think.
Speaker 2:When we used to go over to TK and a truck would sit there long enough, it would have the same problem the battery died or something. They used to wheel out the big stand-up charger that's four feet tall and have to run extension cords to the shop and had to sit there for a couple hours to charge the batteries. I remember that, and now they have one it's actually a lot smaller that works pretty well as well. Yeah, and then the guys over at Carrier did the same thing. They finally invested in one and they worked great.
Speaker 1:I remember that one that old fighter used to have and they'd walk out to your car and it was on a dolly, two big giant wheels, and they'd plug it up and they'd hit it and it'd be as it's trying to like, and then that one.
Speaker 1:We would get started that way and sometimes it wouldn't, and if it didn't have enough charge it was like, oh my gosh, gotta bring it all the way back. It was always a hassle, uh. And they eventually moved to the smaller portable ones. But my favorite was cap city trailers theirs they took a golf cart. They were like screw this, hauling this crap around a golf cart on the. They took a golf cart. They were like screw this, hauling this crap around A golf cart. On the back of the golf cart where the back seat would be. They put in like a bank of like four or six batteries and then had the little control module and then that's what they used to jump vehicles off.
Speaker 1:Wow, they just drove up to you, but I think now they've moved to a jump box.
Speaker 2:Everybody's moving to those things. They're all using this, except for TK. They're all using that same one we have.
Speaker 1:You know, there was a truck that was broke down or something. I don't remember the situation around it entirely, but Jimmy had to go out. It was near where they lived and Jimmy had to go. I think we had already moved the team to another truck or something. I can't remember all the details, but Jimmy had to go pick the truck up and he drove out. There wasn't sure if the battery was dead or not, and so he went into his local O'Reilly's. They didn't have a large enough box for that size engine, so he got one that was for like a 7 liter and his idea was we'll charge it, we'll try it. If it doesn't work, we'll return it. Sure, but it fired the engine off. Yeah, and he said it was dead dead when he got to it, hooked up to it and it fired it right off so.
Speaker 1:I don't think it can do repeated ones like ours can do. It can do multiples.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We can jump a lot of trucks off with ours on our single charge.
Speaker 3:I don't think that one can, but it had enough power to get it done once, and that's kind of all you need then charge it back up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, that world has come so far, but again the one I've got, like I keep a personal one in my vehicle. It's a small one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a couple hundred dollars. Yeah, like they're not expensive at all.
Speaker 2:The good ones are not expensive at all.
Speaker 3:Seems like a small investment, for if you had to wait for somebody to come, you know. Yes, because you're on vacation and then you've got to wait for somebody to come jump you off or whatever else.
Speaker 2:Ours has paid for itself over and over again.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Not just in having to pay Russies to come out, but in our time, yes, you know to get the jumper cables out, get another truck in position where you can reach it and that kind of stuff. It's paid for itself just in our time, Absolutely so.
Speaker 1:Yep, no, I think it's great. I definitely would have jumper cables. We always did have jumper cables on the truck, but I would also have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did also.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's nothing like asking somebody hey, can you give me a jump? Oh, do you have have cables too?
Speaker 1:you know it's a lot easier when you hold the cables up and say can I get a jump and they're more apt to help you that way, especially with a big commercial truck having the heavy duty cables? I mean, my jumper cables were a hundred dollars at walmart they were the heaviest ones.
Speaker 1:They made and they're plenty good, um, but you get. You know, normal person, their normal car has the 15, 20 jumper cables. They can't handle that much current and you talk about risk of fires and stuff like that. A couple little things to make life on the road easier. Batteries die. It happens all the time, all the time.
Speaker 1:Just being prepared for it definitely takes that situation from bad to horrible. Because, imagine, you've got to wait on a jump, so we have to turn this load down. Yeah, we have to pull off a load because we're wait on a jump, so we have to turn this load down. Yeah, you know we have to pull off a load because we're waiting on a jump Again. Something like that could pay for itself in one jump, sure.
Speaker 1:But I did get some really great news this weekend that I wanted to talk to you all about, or this week. So, as you all know, one of my roles here at Highfield is to plan out truck purchases and work with the dealerships and figure out when we're going to buy equipment and we're not going to buy equipment. And I've been hyper, uber, crazy, stressed, because 2026 is supposed to be the year of truck purchases. Everybody and their brother is doing it. It's an absolute nightmare because in 2027, the EPA changes that are coming out are extremely strict and, as of right now, paccar has an engine that is clean enough to meet those standards, and it's 2025. Let's keep things in mind this is a year and a half away. Paccar has an engine that's clean enough to meet those guidelines, and nobody else Really. So Kenworth and Peterbilt they have an engine that's clean enough to meet those guidelines.
Speaker 3:And nobody else Really.
Speaker 1:So Kenworth and Peterbilt they have an engine and no one else does. So Cummins has an engine that they say is almost done it should make the guidelines and they've invested some ungodly amount of money into getting this engine to meet all the clean air requirements and everything. And they're talking $30,000, $40,000 premiums on top of whatever we're paying for trucks now for this new engine.
Speaker 1:I don't believe Detroit has a solution yet. I think they're still working on it and I don't think Navistar, which is international. I don't think they have one for it yet. I haven't seen anything come out from Volvo about it either. Now maybe they do and they're just waiting to release it, but I haven't seen it out yet.
Speaker 1:So it's been a bit of a panic because everybody's going like, well, these engines A, they're going to jack the price up way high. It's a brand new technology. None of us know if it's going to work out. We, like Eric and I in Highfield, have been victims of a new EPA control system coming out. That was a nightmare and almost bankrupted our company Called the Ardhead yes, the Ardhead fiasco with Caterpillar.
Speaker 1:So what everybody's doing is in 2026, they're planning on buying tons of trucks, thousands and thousands and thousands of trucks. Truck manufacturers have been kind of waiting on this to happen, talking with their suppliers, making sure they're going to have enough equipment to build all these things, talking about when they want to add on the additional staff, be able to do the multiple shifts. It's been a big deal. That's been coming now for a while and everybody's kind of been sitting getting ready for it and it's truly terrifying of like when they release those spots. If you don't immediately get on it, you're not going to get a truck, and then your next option is going to be one of these 2027 models, which is going to be unproven technology. It's going to cost way more money, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:So it's been a big, big, big stress point. Everybody's been freaking out about it and, as of a week or so ago, the EPA, with the Trump administration, has officially rolled back that requirement. How'd they put it? They've overturned rules. They call it the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in US history.
Speaker 1:I think that's a bit much. I think that's just the administration doing what they always do. But it is, I think, a huge win, you could say, for the trucking community, Because it's clear that we need to keep pushing these greenhouse gases down. And I think you know unless you're a rolling coal kind of person, like there is some climate change that we can affect on it, but the technology is not there and the scramble has not been good. Those EPA measurements they basically said, like we're not going to do it right now, let's put it back in the EPA's hand, come out with some new timeframe to implement these things, give these manufacturers a little more time to make it happen. But what that has effectively done is they have destroyed that not destroyed, but they have gotten rid of that whole buying frenzy that's about to happen.
Speaker 3:So will they have too much product.
Speaker 1:No, because they haven't started building yet.
Speaker 5:Is that a good thing, then, or a bad thing?
Speaker 1:So it depends on where you sit on this. It does so. If you're a trucking manufacturer, the truck sales are already pretty good. They're not great, they could be better. Truck sales have definitely slowed down, but they're pretty good. People are starting to buy again. If you are a dealership and you've not been selling trucks, it probably kind of stinks, but from a fleet perspective, from the end user perspective, it's great news.
Speaker 1:You know, coming out of this kind of bad economy situation or this recession freight recession we've been in, a lot of trucking companies are kind of weighing the whole. We need to buy these trucks when we can, but we also don't have the money to do it. Interest rates are pretty high, so that affects companies, because companies borrow money to buy trucks. So it's like compounding issues. It's the trucks are expensive, the interest so the money is expensive and oh yeah, there's been a freight recession so they already don't have a lot of money to work with.
Speaker 1:So there's been a lot of fleets that have been kind of like what do we do in this type of situation?
Speaker 1:Because there's people that you know if you've got a two or three-year-old truck, you may have wanted to run that thing out to five years.
Speaker 1:But they're now saying you know, I'm going to go ahead up with a 2027. Because if you get a 2829, well then it's been out there for a couple of years, so it's not as scary, and so it's been a huge stress point on fleets not knowing how they're going to be able to afford these things and how they're going to be able to buy them. And even again, if you even can get them, because it's going to be the ones that don't already have them that are going to be taking the brunt of it. So we've been looking at it and going like all right, how do we, how do we play this? Do we want to, um, order a bunch of trucks in 26? Can we order a bunch of trucks in 26? Do we need to get those? And when I say 2026, you have to order them in 2025 to give them a 2026. So they're, they're fresh on our plate of conversation and this just just drastically reduced changed that.
Speaker 1:Personally, as an end user, as someone who runs these trucks, it makes me happy.
Speaker 3:How long is the delay for?
Speaker 1:They haven't said yet. So they basically got rid of the rule and said EPA. You need to work on this and figure it out.
Speaker 3:So could it come back and still be 2027?
Speaker 1:Doubtful, doubtful. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the administration, the EPA of the current administration. It's just like the California law we talked about, where California withdrew their request for CARB stuff because of the current EPA. So it's very doubtful. So it may come back in the next cycle with a new administration, but there'll still be that time limit.
Speaker 2:You have a few years on this, and you'll have time after that too, because they still have to go through all the processes. The regulatory processes actually make the rule, and then you have to have time for people to actually be able to buy the equipment.
Speaker 1:It's still a few years away, but yeah it certainly could come back. It's also possible that it comes back with this administration. Right, it is possible that you know, towards the end of the Trump administration, that they do release these rules. I mean, you know the EPA still is trying to reduce greenhouse gases no matter who's in office gases, no matter who's in office.
Speaker 1:Now it may be they're not as strict or they change some rules, but they in general they're not loosening things up so much that it's like wild wild west. I mean, trump was in in 2016 16 to 2020.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, and in those years he didn't remove uh any of the uh trucking uh greenhouse gas regulations and, as a matter of fact, in so there's 2012, or 2010 was the first one. I think there was a 2017 or 2018 greenhouse gas increase or not increase, but a stricter rule that played on through. So I mean, he's never restricted them before. This is the first time they are restricting it and it is literally because the industry is going we're not ready yet.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:This is about to cause a disaster.
Speaker 3:Especially, like you said, there doesn't sound like very many manufacturers are ready for it. You said Paccar, and that was it.
Speaker 1:Paccar and Cummins is about to be there.
Speaker 3:About.
Speaker 1:Yes, so, like, even when you look at on the so we run heavy-duty trucks, right? So we run Class 8 heavy-duty trucks. We have Class 8 engines. These are million-mile trucks, like when you hear people talk about a million-mile truck, these are the ones. Our engines, transmissions, everything is designed to last that long. The engines are wet-sleeve, which means, if you know what I imagine, a piston going up and down the cylinder, the wall that surrounds the piston, um, on a normal like your car, is all a part of that that big giant block of iron. On a commercial truck, that is a class eight. It's a wet sleeve, which means, um, you can actually there's a thin layer of metal around that piston that you can actually remove and put a brand new one in. So it takes all the abuse of that piston going up and the fire and the combustion and everything, and then when it's petered out, when it's no longer good and it doesn't have a good seal, they can literally just remove that and put a brand new one in there.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:And the block and everything stays the same. So these are really well-built, long-lasting machines. A Class 7 truck or class six medium duty is what they call that. Those do not have wet sleeves, so they are like your car. When the engine's junked you can rebuild some elements of it, but the majority of them you're just taking the engine out, putting a new one in. Usually at that point your truck's done. You're not going to do all that, but on those right now you can buy those from Cummins, you can buy them from Paccar, you can buy them from who's the other guy? Cummins, paccar, detroit and Detroit and PACCAR have already said we're out. So with these new greenhouse gas emissions, cummins is the only one that's selling those medium-duty engines. So it doesn't matter. In a couple of years when you buy a medium-duty truck, you will only have Cummins as an option.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter what brand you choose, but it's because the cost of developing these new emission systems are so incredibly high. I mean, you think of like these companies are billion-dollar companies but they don't have a billion dollars in free cash sitting there to pour into R&D. So a lot of them are taking what caterpillar did in 2009 or 10 when they said we're out, we're not doing this anymore. It's cheaper just to focus on something else than it is to design these engines for the submission system, so um heather has a question yes, ma'am just want to make sure I'm understanding.
Speaker 5:So the reason of the frenzy is because if you buy the trucks before 2027, you're kind of grandfathered into not having to meet the EPA standards. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yes. So that's why, yeah, emission standards are for that calendar year.
Speaker 5:So they start anything that year are new or made Correct, okay.
Speaker 1:Yes, and there are things like EPA credits. They can do so. For a long time, detroit Diesel was actually selling clean air credits to International because their MaxForce engine was not clean enough. It didn't meet the standards. It was close but not quite, and so for every pound of greenhouse gas that they determined that this thing wasn't as good as they had to buy credits from other companies that exceeded the greenhouse gas rules. So detroit was running cleaner than what was required so that they had leftover tax or epa credits. They were actually able to buy them from detroit and and do that, and that they were probably buying some from Detroit, some from Volvo, some from Cummins, like just to meet demand.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the big reasons why Volkswagen Group had to step in and buy them, because they blew all their money on tax credits and they never could get that engine the way they wanted it. It's also what gave them such a bad name. I mean, those Max Force engines were just garbage, absolute garbage, and it was all because of the emissions stuff they put on it. Again, I don't think this is going to kind of what you're saying. I don't think it's going to kill the emissions mandate, it's just delaying it. I do think it's going to come right back in a few years Just giving them a little longer.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well, and then?
Speaker 3:maybe somebody doesn't monopolize, you know, give those other companies time to catch up and get their engine where it needs to be, and so it's a little more equal opportunity for selling, buying, purchasing power, that kind of thing Absolutely I get it.
Speaker 1:Well, and you look at like at the EPA 2010,. Then there was the 2014, 15, 16, whatever it was. Everybody was able to do a few minor changes to meet those new standards, and so there wasn't a lot of pushback. This new line of standards is just going so far that it's like, oh, we have to rethink everything.
Speaker 3:Well, it doesn't sound like an even playing field for selling of product. You know, maybe that's where it's coming from. You know, if the only one that has it is Paccar and you've got three others who are your major manufacturers and they're not even close, how's that equal? Yes, you know kind of three against one's take it to. I mean, I don't know how it all shook out, but to me that's kind of you know well, and and cummins will sell to anyone they don't care, but pat car won't?
Speaker 1:packers only gonna put their engines in peterbilt's or kenworth's period. So it's not even like you could buy a freightliner with a pack car engine in it, sure. So it's very interesting. I know I'm trying to convey how strong of an issue this is. So Ford and Chevrolet slash GMC trucks slash International, and I put all them together because they actually Chevy, gmc and International all build their trucks in the same exact factory.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then Ford builds theirs separately. But they are all supposed to be doing better when this comes around because they have gasoline options, not because they have a better diesel, because if gasoline, gasoline isn't impacted by these it has an impact about these. Cummins just released their very first gasoline-powered engine ever Wow Because of this regulation. So it's a big, big, big deal in the industry. There's been lots of R&D going behind the scenes, lots of.
Speaker 3:So they're trying to get away from diesel. So they're trying to get away from diesel.
Speaker 1:No, they're trying to get away from diesel. Diesel is actually better than gasoline. It's just that those gas engines don't have that same standard.
Speaker 3:I see.
Speaker 1:Because there's so few of them.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:If you're going to buy a big truck, you're probably not going to put a gasoline engine in it. So there's so few regulations that Cummins came out with this engine to give people alternative.
Speaker 1:You don't want to buy that untried, untrue uh diesel. So interesting, it's definitely a. It's a weird world. We're living in the economics of it, with that big pre-buy not going to happen anymore and, um, I mean again, for years we've been talking about this. It's literally been something. We've been talking about this. It's literally been something we've been talking about since like 2020 leading up to 2026 gonna be the time to buy.
Speaker 3:Yes it's.
Speaker 1:it's literally been a point of conversation for that long and, uh, the fact that it is now kind of with the stroke of a pen scrapped and everybody just took a gigantic sigh of relief, it's just wild.
Speaker 5:Do you think there's going to be an overflow of trucks? Because they were anticipating this as well.
Speaker 1:No, they haven't built them. I think, yeah, I think we're far enough out that they don't that, they wouldn't have gotten that far in the process, yep, yep. And who knows what CARB will do. Carb could always come back and say well, if you want to sell a truck in our state, then you have to meet these greenhouse gas emissions, or something.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what the California pulled, though, back in February, where they were petitioning for a waiver to set their own rules. Yeah, and they pulled that petition because they figured the EPA wasn't going to go for it.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what's crazy is? They pulled that, but they left in their carb testing.
Speaker 2:Well, I think they left in the things they already had a waiver for.
Speaker 1:If there's a waiver already there.
Speaker 2:They didn't bother it because it's already approved. They're just enforcing it more Well. The enforcement started on January 1st of 24, but, yes, now they're enforcing it a little bit stronger.
Speaker 1:Well, that's just some crazy changes in our industry, some things that have brought me great relief, and I thought I would share that with you all because it's huge impacts on our industry.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And one thing I'm curious too, talking about how it could change, is the Biden administration said all the Class 8 trucks got together.
Speaker 1:So Volvo, Daimler International and Navistar and PACCAR all got together and petitioned the EPA and the president to allow them to factor in aerodynamics of the truck into lowering those greenhouse gases, to factor in aerodynamics of the truck into lowering those greenhouse gases.
Speaker 1:So in other words, if they're saying like you need to get that down to 10 miles per gallon which I know it's way more than that, but let's say that's what it is Then they wanted to say well, if we built an engine that was pretty efficient but we could also do some things aerodynamically to make it even more efficient and the whole package meets your requirements, can we do that? And the EPA and the Biden administration said no, this really just focuses on your engine and you have to stick with that. So I'd be interested to see if that becomes a part of the new ruling once they do roll it out eventually. Sure, because that's a way where they can. You know, maybe the engine doesn't have to be as difficult to produce if we can aerodynamically make it a little more slippery through the air so it's using less fuel.
Speaker 3:Sure Gonna have a bunch of like Disney bullet trains driving down the road, that's right.
Speaker 5:Tesla looking at.
Speaker 3:I don't know I just was thinking something aerodynamic.
Speaker 1:You've got the Shell Super Truck which is right here. That's slippery. Yes, look at that thing, got that little cone nose on it and everything. Not cone nose but raked nose. That's a slippery sucker, that thing. You know it's crazy. They've been able to get pretty good fuel economy out of it. But if you go back to the original, which is this old Peterbilt cab over, I was going to say a cab over probably gets no aerodynamics.
Speaker 1:They don't. But if you look at this Peterbilt cab over right here so you see the similarity, right, it looks like the Shell Starship, I think is what they call it, they do. Is way more aerodynamic than the 372. So you see, the 372 is a camover. It's very basic, and all they did was put the ever so slightest curve on the front of it and the windshield, and then they added all the fairings and stuff which were not common. So this truck came out in 1988.
Speaker 3:The cab over the cab over did?
Speaker 1:yes, the Peterbilt 372. It's funny because a lot of people say it's the Darth Vader looking one. Yeah, but it kind of reminds me of the old Honda Pil pilots that they called the white ones were Stormtroopers.
Speaker 3:No, that's a Honda Ridgeline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Ridgeline. Yes, yes, had one of those, so this one being the Darth Vader. But even like, look at the mirrors, they're pretty standard mirrors from back in the day. They're not super aerodynamic. This truck Well, let me go back. So the, the super new modern starship, gets got 10.8 miles per gallon.
Speaker 1:That's what they were able to do, which, if you think, about 80 000 pounds at 10.8 miles per gallon, that's pretty impressive that's super impressive um, now they weren't going very fast and aerodynamics played a lot to it, and they had all these experimental gear ratios and yada, yada, yada, that was 2018. In 1988, 30 years prior, the Peterbilt 372 got consistently over 11 miles per gallon.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Consistently Isn't that insane Very much.
Speaker 4:Could it haul the same weight?
Speaker 1:Yes, they were both doing 80,000 pounds. It's just unbelievable. But now, as far as which is cleaner, even though the Peterbilt got better fuel economy, it was definitely doing a lot more to pollute the world. They had no what's an emission in 1988? The only emissions they were worried about back then were cars and getting let out, but no, these things.
Speaker 2:I wonder if a part of that is how they closed the gap between the trailer and the cab.
Speaker 4:I wondered about that On the Peterbilt. Definitely be, better airstream.
Speaker 2:Versus that space there.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that's absolutely you know it's part of it.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:The idea is you get that gap as small as possible right yeah, but then you limit your turning radius and that type of thing. It is what I love about the Peterbilt 372. Is this ad right here, because they didn't do aerodynamics back then, but they straight up call it out. You know, comparing the rounded kind of it's so not rounded, I mean, it is just barely.
Speaker 2:Barely yeah, but.
Speaker 1:And how they're comparing it to the front end of a bullet and showing how the airflow goes around. Again, this was really unprecedented stuff. The only truck really before this came out was in like 86 or something, was the T600 from Kenworth, which, again Peterbilt-Kenworth being the same company or owned by the same company, it's not surprising. One does an aerodynamic and then the other one does another aerodynamic. Sure, they weren't really talking about this back then. It wasn't really a concern, you know.
Speaker 2:No, because fuel was cheap, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yes, yep, and you know back if you go back even further in the 70s, when fuel was not cheap, trucking was regulated so it wasn't really a fair market for trucking or for freight. So if fuel was expensive, people just had to pay it. You know like customers had to pay it. It is what it is. When they deregulated, that really pushed the pricing down, but that got a lot of people in the environment and so, yeah, it's just I don't know. I love this, the stuff where it's like all these old trucks and uh, and then seeing what they could do back in the 80s, which 88, I guess, feels like, does it feel like yesterday?
Speaker 5:sometimes for of us, maybe more than others Exactly.
Speaker 2:I'd like to not revisit 88. That's when I graduated high school.
Speaker 1:This truck was just coming out it was.
Speaker 2:I was too young to drive it. Still I was 13.
Speaker 3:Fresh teenager I was.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to talk about how old I was, graduated high school, yeah, junior high.
Speaker 3:I was junior high, eighth grade Junior high, maybe ninth, eighth, ninth.
Speaker 2:It snowed in Baton Rouge in 89 yeah, back in 88 we were doing the WAP the WAP none of you will get that, but there's someone out there that'll understand that I made a little bit of money, I think.
Speaker 5:I did.
Speaker 2:It was a dance, it was a dance yeah huh, there's a few people out there that'll get that, but not many back in the 80s.
Speaker 3:Well, if you know that.
Speaker 1:Please let us know and comment.
Speaker 5:I think you just feel so old.
Speaker 3:I still feel old, hashtag Vins or something.
Speaker 1:Hashtag Chili Wap.
Speaker 3:That's right. Did you want to demonstrate it for us? So people know I will not.
Speaker 5:I won't even provide Jerry with the video. Did you want to demonstrate it for?
Speaker 2:us. So people know no, oh, I will not. Okay, I won't even provide Jerry with the video of it.
Speaker 1:But Melissa did and here it is. It's here Just kidding. So, as you can see from these pictures, aerodynamics make a huge part of the efficiency of the trucks, and the more efficient they are, the less fuel they consume. Sure. Which just by that the less fuel, the less greenhouse gases they put out. Yeah. So, that's why they want to incorporate it. And you know, unfortunately, so far the answer has been no, but I think it will change. I really I don't know.
Speaker 3:I have a question for Jerry Out of the bullet train, or bullet-looking truck, and the 88 truck, which one would you?
Speaker 4:pick the newer one.
Speaker 3:You'd see yourself driving a newer one, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's your style? Yeah, but that's not fair, because he likes little creature comforts like power steering, air conditioning.
Speaker 2:Absolutely they conditioning. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:They had cruise control. I heard about it.
Speaker 3:They take this little stick and they would shove it between the dash and the I don't even want to know what they did back then. Huh.
Speaker 2:Think about it too A lot of excited driving yeah.
Speaker 3:I know my dad was a truck driver. He had a cab over.
Speaker 1:A lot of those were limited to 55 miles an hour. Can you imagine seeing the country at 55?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they weren't aerodynamic, they couldn't go any faster.
Speaker 5:Weren't there rules.
Speaker 2:It's like driving a wall of bricks.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when the speed limit across the country was 55.
Speaker 1:Was it Johnson that required the speed limit across the country was 55 back then. Was it Johnson that required the speed limit, or something?
Speaker 2:like that.
Speaker 1:I forget who it was Well, it was because of the fuel thing right, Because the fuel cost was high.
Speaker 5:Yes, they're like hey, if you only drive 55, you'll get your best fuel economy Right.
Speaker 2:But the law, the legal limit then was 55. And if you didn't move your limit down to 55, you didn't get federal funding for highways Correct. So they kind of forced the states to do that.
Speaker 1:They still kind of do. They've inched it up, but I think 80 is the max right now. You can't go 85.
Speaker 2:80 is the max yeah, Speaking of 80 being the max speed limit and 55 was safer, Zoom, zoom. There are rules in effect at every state where you have to wear a seatbelt when you're driving a vehicle. Yes, and in Georgia they are looking at allowing jurors in lawsuits involving motor vehicle accidents to be told if the plaintiff the person that's doing the suing, the person that was injured, if the plaintiff was wearing a seatbelt or not, and to be able to use that fact in determining the amount of a settlement or a verdict or damages being paid to the plaintiff. So here's what I'm saying If you and I are in a car accident, you're at fault. I'm injured because you're the one that was at fault in the accident. This is all speculation. Patrick is a very, very, very, very safe driver most of the time.
Speaker 1:I will say I've only totaled one vehicle and it was in Georgia. But go on, there you go. It was in.
Speaker 2:Georgia, so I get injured in said accident. I'm sorry. Okay, and I accept your apology. When we go to court.
Speaker 1:Can I get you to sign that?
Speaker 2:No, Can I get you to sign the apology that you just?
Speaker 1:made to me. No, I cannot.
Speaker 2:I have it on recorded.
Speaker 1:I'm always recording.
Speaker 3:Jerry's recording.
Speaker 1:Jerry's recording when he's in court. I was on the phone with Jerry when I got that totaled up car. That's true, anyways.
Speaker 2:So I sue you for damages. I'm hurt. I got a broken tooth or something. I'm hurt, so I sue you for damages. We go to court and, during the process of going back and forth, my attorney can tell the jury I'm sorry. Your attorney can tell the jury. Well, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Had he been wearing a seatbelt, maybe he wouldn't have broke his tooth on the dashboard because he wouldn't have went so far forward. Vice versa, my attorney can tell the jury the facts have to prove this right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's assumed. I mean like we should already be able to tell that right.
Speaker 2:That I was wearing a seatbelt or not. Yeah, maybe, maybe not.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying I should already be in court being able to say, like well, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Your Honor, no, but you can't.
Speaker 2:You currently can't Really Cannot. Yes, that does not play a factor in the jury determining a verdict. They do not have to or cannot be told whether I was wearing a seatbelt or not.
Speaker 1:That's insane. Yes, sorry.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the whole purpose of this new law in Georgia is to try and reduce some of these astronomical settlements.
Speaker 1:Nuclear.
Speaker 2:Nuclear settlements that are coming out or verdicts that are coming out that are costing insurance companies a ton of money, when someone may have prevented this accident or the severity of their injuries had they been wearing a seatbelt. That's what they're looking at doing with this new law. So this article is dated is actually from FreightWaves. It's dated on the 25th of February, so it's about a month old and I don't know where it's at currently, but it looks like it's going through the Georgia House and Senate and the Republican governor of Georgia has signaled he's going to support the rule.
Speaker 5:In March 24,. It says they signed into law a bill that lets juries hear evidence.
Speaker 2:There you go. So it is now law in Georgia, in the state of Georgia 24.
Speaker 3:That was last year.
Speaker 1:No, that's Indiana Indiana.
Speaker 3:Oh, indiana did it. Sorry, I apologize. I need to verify that States matter, so Indiana did it last year. Correct, I should have verified that States matter, so Indiana did it last year Correct. I think that's important information to know.
Speaker 2:I think it is too, in making a decision, I agree.
Speaker 3:Now I'd also like to know, though, medically speaking I'd like to hear from a medical expert witness would it have mattered if you had your seatbelt on versus not having your seatbelt on for the chipped tooth? And to me as a juror, I would hope to take in some of that as well.
Speaker 1:Well, he chipped it on the curb when he flew out of the car.
Speaker 2:Would I have flown out of the car? Sure.
Speaker 3:Sure, I get what you're saying. Had I had my seatbelt on, I get what you're saying. Had I had my seatbelt on, I get what you're saying they have a lot of.
Speaker 5:I guess they've done so much research with seatbelts. I would think they would be able to say this wasn't caused by or was caused by. If the person had been wearing their seatbelt, this is more likely what their injuries would be to this level.
Speaker 1:And if you've been in a bad car wreck which unfortunately I have in Georgia the seatbelt left a mark, sure Like it was a clear brace against me from where that happened and Eric had the matching mark on the other side.
Speaker 2:I wonder if no, go ahead, Continue. Please Don't insist. Well, I was going to change the subject a little bit from where you were.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I'd allow you to continue. Oh, so so I wonder if you take into account also.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure they can figure out if they had it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know how egregious were the defendant's actions that caused this accident.
Speaker 1:Well, I would assume the seatbelt would have to play a role in what happened, like if an 18-wheeler rolls over a truck and kills the entire family and everybody's still inside the truck and no one's wearing a seatbelt.
Speaker 2:It won't make a difference.
Speaker 3:Because a Camaro you can just drive right over it.
Speaker 1:But if occupants are thrown out of the vehicle? If they're thrown out of the vehicle, of course. If they're thrown out of the vehicle but the vehicle's also crushed and burns into flames, it may not matter.
Speaker 5:That's a 90% chance that not wearing a seatbelt might have helped you Exactly, but in general, when you look at crashes, seatbelts save, like it's an astronomical number. It's like 88% or something Way higher than not wearing a seatbelt.
Speaker 3:I think that knowledge, though, should play a role in the deciding factor of whatever they're going for, whatever class action or whatever. I think it just again. If it matters, why has it been withheld all along? I?
Speaker 1:guess, why are we being?
Speaker 3:nefarious. Why does it matter that?
Speaker 1:Sure, but we can incorporate, we can tell people your blood alcohol level or we can do things like that. So why has this been withheld? That is an odd thing, but I will say, at the end of the day you think about it, it's like the insurance companies are the ones that are benefiting from this.
Speaker 2:They are there's actually a quote from a senator that is against this law, saying that nothing in the bill requires a single penny of premium reduction. What this bill does is hand more power to the insurance industry. So one of the reasons for doing this is to prevent these nuclear verdicts and reduce insurance premiums. Yes, well, I haven't seen anything in the article, at least, that says that there's proof in Indiana that insurance premiums have gone down.
Speaker 4:Sure.
Speaker 2:And we all know that price on nothing never goes down, it just goes up.
Speaker 1:Well, that's not true. There are situations where insurance premium never goes down, it just goes up. Well, that's not true. There are situations where insurance premiums go down and you do look across the country and in different states where they are. Like Las Vegas is one of the highest insurance rates for a car you can have because the amount of accidents they have, they're insane. Even moving from Louisiana to Ohio our car insurance dropped because Louisiana has so many more thefts than Ohio has. Like State Farm straight up said here's what's up.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:So they certainly do take that into account.
Speaker 2:I understand that they'll take things like demographics and location into account, but in Georgia, with this law now, are people going to see their insurance rates just reduced, because this law is hopefully helping prevent some of these nuclear verdicts.
Speaker 1:I don't know. But I also know it's not just Georgia premium holders, it's also commercial trucks that go through there.
Speaker 2:Sure, I get that and commercial trucks have insurance.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it even comes down to drivers and stuff. So if you, as a driver, get in a wreck and you cause over, whatever it is X number of dollars in damage, most carriers will disqualify you and you're out, sure.
Speaker 1:And then it's really hard to get a job again. But a lawsuit gets factored into that. So if you're in a lawsuit and they award that person $150,000, that may push you over that threshold, right, whereas if they look at it and go, no, that person should have had their seatbelt on. We're not going to give you that much money. It could save that person's job and, as someone who owns a trucking company and manages it, I know whatever we can do to get our insurance rates lower. We try to do so.
Speaker 1:We started putting safety systems on the trucks. We've batted around the idea of cameras. Cameras seem like like great idea until you get the nuts and bolts of it and then they. They come with a side of liability. Um, there's the, there's the. Uh.
Speaker 1:What happens if your driver did cause the wreck, which you know fine that it's a good thing, uh. But what happens, uh, if your driver, um, if something, gets caught on there? That's not trucking related, sure, but it invades the privacy of your driver, right? So there's a lot of like, a lot of stuff that goes along with that. These are even more detailed stuff that I don't want to get into um, so cameras become a challenge, uh, but it's all to drive those insurance rates down. Insurance is a huge expense in trucking and so I can certainly understand, from a trucking perspective, insurance companies wanting it going down, and I believe so they were talking about in Indiana that they were critics, were saying that the legislation distracts from the bigger question if it actually caused an accident, so whether or not you had the seatbelt on doesn't matter, kind of like people that get ticketed for or get blamed for being drunk driving when they didn't really cause the accident.
Speaker 1:So they say that that is a distraction from it. But Chris Spear, who is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, said that the law provides jurors more incomplete information to render a verdict. So it seems like, from a trucking perspective, most everybody's in favor for it. It's only your local politicians that don't like it, because their constituents don't like it.
Speaker 3:Sure, which is their role right, that's their role, that's their job is to be the voice of their constituents. So I think it Sure.
Speaker 1:Which is their role? Right, Right, that's their role, that's their job. That's their job is to be the voice of their constituents. So I think it's good.
Speaker 2:I think it's good too.
Speaker 1:For me it's a blind spot. I didn't know this wasn't allowed in the first place. Yeah, I didn't either I had no idea until I saw the headline, I would have thought for sure.
Speaker 5:Everything I can see it says it's cleared that it's gone through in Georgia.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming, way back when. This is like somebody objected and then there was maybe a law that said the seatbelt thing couldn't be brought in. I mean, like, is that part of legality, though? Like you can talk about it? I mean, I just feel like there was a law that maybe went against it to begin with, and now we're trying to do something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think there has to be something.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Maybe not even a law, but a precedent.
Speaker 3:That you couldn't talk about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think, maybe a precedent or something that said, you know a judge that said, yeah, we don't want to hear that. Or someone that did something you know, hey, this cloud's cause, cause. So we don't want to cloud cause. But I agree, if you give them the complete picture of it then you can factor in both cause and hey, this person was doing this illegal thing. That also contributed, right, because there are contributing factors. And so you know we see that with a lot of accidents it's not always 100% one person's fault. Sometimes there's a little blame to go around everybody, or not necessarily everybody, but a few people.
Speaker 2:So if I can touch on that a little bit, I went back and looked at the article about the Indiana law back in 2024. The CEO of the American Trucking Association back then, chris Spear so same person still back then, chris Spear, so same person still After the bill was passed in February allowing it. He said that the existing law forbid seatbelt uses evidence for jurors. So in Indiana at least there was a law forbidding them from knowing. It took four years and four attempts. So every year for four years they tried to pass this law in Indiana allowing the seaport evidence to be put to be presented to jurors, and it finally passed on the fourth year. That's, that's interesting, wow.
Speaker 1:That is Well. I think there's one thing I mean like. Even back in Louisiana we saw a lot of reform coming with these crazy verdicts and these outrageous sums of money. Sure, and Louisiana trying to wrestle that down and make it like, no, because that cost. It seems like, oh well, you know who cares if corporate America loses money, but that just gets charged back to us, it does, we pay it, we pay it we sure do, we sure do.
Speaker 1:It may not be vocally said, but it comes in the form of a rate increase the next year. We've got anything to help keep those costs down. And also, the good thing about it is it still for the people that are genuinely wronged? It still allows for them to be compensated for. It's not saying, hey, you can't do X, y or Z. It's just saying did this contribute? If it did, then you pay a part in it. So you don't necessarily get as much as someone who is completely innocent.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:It's your article. If I can share one more piece of information from the Indiana article, also on freight waves million in truck crash lawsuits rose, on average, from 2.3 million dollars in 2010 to 22.3 million dollars in 2018. Wow, I mean that, that's, that's not just inflation, that that's crazy money, you know, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a big difference, um it just makes me think it's attorneys have learned how to work a jury.
Speaker 2:They have?
Speaker 4:Oh sure they have, Because it don't help when you see every other TV ad no.
Speaker 3:Or a.
Speaker 1:Biotrach. It's hard to have it in partial jury when that's what everybody in America is seeing, right Very interesting.
Speaker 3:Thank you for bringing that to us. And who knew it was not permitted before?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no idea.
Speaker 3:I guess I would just assume it's all part of the case, all part of the evidence. Why are we hiding that?
Speaker 5:I think I don't know. I feel like this sums it up the primary focus is the defendant's negligence, not the plaintiff's failure to buckle up. So they're like it shouldn't matter that person was wrong. It doesn't matter what the not wrong person was doing.
Speaker 1:But I think to me it still matters. If a person gets hit by a car and they're jaywalking is different than a person gets hit in a car in a crosswalk with a green crosswalk.
Speaker 5:Sure, I get that, agree, not saying. I agree with that statement but I think that's what the base is.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it's a well-formed thought sentence. I just disagree with it.
Speaker 2:I think an important takeaway from this entire conversation wear your seatbelt. Wear your seatbelts. Just, it's safe. Wear your seatbelt. Wear your seatbelts. It's safe. Wear your seatbelt please.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does blow me away when I see the number of accidents and people that don't wear their seatbelts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Every now and then it happens once or twice a year we'll get a driver disqualified for not wearing a seatbelt and it's like yeah or not wearing a seatbelt, and it's like yeah, Like or not wearing a seatbelt properly. That one gets a little gray to me because in a big vehicle like that the upper part doesn't do as much as it does in a car, I understand. So I still wear my seatbelt properly every time because it's the law. But I have a little empathy for those situations With the people that don't wear one at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just blows my mind because a truck is relatively safe. You're a huge item, so when you hit something, the entire truck absorbs the impact, sure, and it actually doesn't impact, like it doesn't impact the driver nearly as much as it does whatever you hit. It's kind of the school bus thing, right, like school buses don't generally have seatbelts.
Speaker 1:A lot of them do, but when I was growing up they didn't. They didn't when I was either. And even now that they have them, they're mostly lap belts and the reality is like they're not very effective because there's so little energy. Like you think, like oh my gosh, a school bus just hit a brick wall and came to a stop right and everybody flew forward if they were wearing a seat belt.
Speaker 1:Well, there's so much energy in that truck, in that bus that that it are so much mass that absorbs so much energy that a kid it's kind of a weird thought. But flying forward into that padded cushion of a back seat doesn't really sustain much harm, like it's pretty safe situation. You think, like that's crazy, you can't imagine, but but it kind of is, whereas a seat belt you could actually uh, kind of fold yourself in half, talk yourself, cause back injuries and things like that. So it's not like a super when you're driving. They are relatively safe. But it is very easy to get in a car wreck or a truck wreck and get thrown out of your truck. Sure, that is still something that's pretty, especially on the Cascadias and Volvos Internationals with the big, huge windshields those are easy to fly out of and drivers still drive with no seatbelt.
Speaker 3:I just don't get it. Roll it over, a wind gusts and blows you over Any of that. Where are you going to go if you're not attached to your seat?
Speaker 1:And you're in a huge cab, so there's lots of room for you to move around Seatbelt, wear your seatbelt. And if you see your driving partner not wearing a seatbelt, tell them put your seatbelt on.
Speaker 5:I would like to keep my partner so we can keep our job.
Speaker 1:If you don't like that thing rubbing against your shoulder, because I know a lot of people don't they've got these big fluffy padded things you can buy and put them on, yeah, and they take all that paint away. They're actually kind of nice, so definitely like. There's options out there. If you don't like it, there's ways to get around it and tolerate it. It's not worth losing your job over.
Speaker 1:It's not worth losing your life over. All right. So we have an option I'm going to poll the audience and we're going to do it live that way. You all see it. We've gone long. Shocking. We have to discuss an element of high-filled trucks, per the request. Jerry and I identified it already and we missed it last week. We can talk about it now, but it's going to be another discussion week. And we can talk about it now, but it's going to be another discussion, or we can table it for next week. Your choice. It's riveting.
Speaker 3:I hear crickets in my head Chirp, chirp.
Speaker 1:I think that if I talk about it now, I won't be able to do it justice.
Speaker 3:So let's table it.
Speaker 1:So we'll table it.
Speaker 3:Is it a specific viewer?
Speaker 1:No, it's just continuing the Highfield story.
Speaker 3:Oh, I think you should table it and start next week with it All right. We'll do that or next episode.
Speaker 1:So next episode, we will start up in front and we are going to talk about are you ready, drum roll? I front, and we are going to talk about are you ready, drum roll? I don't have a drum roll, I can't. There you go. I don't know if that's actually picking up. Anyways, we're going to talk about lift gates. Ooh, lift gates, yes, and boy do I have some thoughts.
Speaker 3:I like to put the Traeger on it, but until next time, hit that like button if you like us.
Speaker 1:Our thumbs up button if you like us. If you don't like us, hit that down thumbs arrow twice. Really, let people know you don't like us. Drop us a comment below. We see some of y'all are commenting. We appreciate that. Anything you can do to help support our channel definitely helps us out. Anything you can do to help support our channel definitely helps us out.
Speaker 4:If you want to reach out to us, you can email us. You can email us at theouterbellpodcast at gmailcom, or visit us at highfieldtruckingcom if you're interested in learning more about Highfield or joining the Highfield fleet.
Speaker 3:You can call 833-field, which is 833-493-4353, option one, and you can speak to either delena or myself. We'd give you lots of information over the phone, monday through friday, 8 am to 6 pm eastern time. You can also do live chat on our website. I'd be happy to respond to you there. You can do Facebook Messenger. I do a lot of those as well, so reach out, ask your questions.
Speaker 2:Comments.
Speaker 3:What?
Speaker 1:That's all I got Anybody else anything? No Going once twice. Well, thank you all so much for hanging out with us. We look forward to seeing you next time. In the meantime, wear your seatbelt, stay safe. Make good decisions.
Speaker 4:Wear your seatbelt and don't leave money on the table. Wear your seatbelt and don't text and drive and keep visual atonement.
Speaker 5:Good night, good night, bye, bye, bye, goodnight bye, thank you.