The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Speak English or be Put Out of Service: A Trucker's Podcast
After a brief hiatus, the Outer Belt podcast crew reunites with their trademark humor and industry insights. Beginning with helium-fueled antics and catching up on recent travels, the hosts dive into the significant changes reshaping the trucking landscape in 2024.
Jerry shares his fascinating two-week grand jury duty experience, offering a rare glimpse into the justice system from a trucker's perspective – including mandatory jail visits and tasting prison food. Meanwhile, Patrick and Eric recount their enlightening trip to the FedEx Fleet Summit in Memphis, where they discovered game-changing developments for owner-operators and fleet managers. The biggest news? FedEx Custom Critical has been absorbed into FedEx Freight, while FedEx Freight and FedEx Express are becoming separate publicly traded companies – yet both retaining the iconic FedEx brand.
For drivers facing the persistent challenge of finding safe parking in major metropolitan areas, there's welcome relief: FedEx Freight facilities nationwide will soon open their gates to FedEx Custom Critical contractors. This revolutionary change allows for parking during mechanical issues, wait times, home time, or even while drivers take cruises – a significant quality-of-life improvement that signals FedEx's renewed focus on driver support and company culture.
The conversation then shifts to the controversial topic of English proficiency requirements for commercial drivers. What began as an Arkansas state law has now expanded through a presidential executive order, reinstating provisions that place drivers out of service if they cannot communicate in English. The hosts thoughtfully examine both safety concerns and potential discriminatory implications as this development gains momentum across states.
Want to share your thoughts on these industry changes or learn more about trucking opportunities? Contact the Outer Belt podcast at theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com or reach Hyfield Trucking at 833-HYFIELD. Keep those wheels turning, and we'll see you next time!
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
Call us at 1-833-493-4353 Option 1
Facebook: The Outer Belt Podcast
Instagram: The_OuterBelt
She's like I've been with him for two weeks. How long have y'all been together?
Speaker 2:A week and some days. Okay, it was a week on Saturday, wasn't it? Just a few days. He's got her voice.
Speaker 1:Well, you aren't normal now.
Speaker 2:On micro high pitch Wicked.
Speaker 3:Wig.
Speaker 2:Oh, are you on the same one? I'm doing two, you too. I'll get you, my friend, and you're gonna die too. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, get it together. Let's get serious, you ready.
Speaker 2:We've already wasted a precious moment.
Speaker 1:Okay, huzzah, hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. My name is Patrick, I'm Chili.
Speaker 2:I'm Buttermilk, I'm Eric, I'm Zucchini, I'm Eric, I'm zucchini. Bread and cherry Cherry. Oh y'all, it's been a while since we've all been together.
Speaker 1:And you're in the animal zoo. What is it called?
Speaker 5:The morning zoo. The morning zoo, yes.
Speaker 2:We're having too much fun.
Speaker 1:All right, enough of that, shenanigans.
Speaker 3:Thank goodness.
Speaker 1:Thank goodness, that's over.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, you sure had to suck a lot of helium to make that happen.
Speaker 3:I know. Thankfully I've got more oxygens now.
Speaker 1:Well, that helium tank was expensive.
Speaker 5:It was expensive, it was worth it though it was so worth it, I didn't hail to you so worth it, I didn't. I didn't, no.
Speaker 1:How you doing, jerry Bear. Good, how are you? I'm doing all right. Long time no see, just a little bit. We'll tell everybody real quick If you've noticed we. So we're going to keep that going a little bit longer. But, Jerry Bear, it's pretty much all your fault, Is it that was my understanding.
Speaker 5:That was my understanding. I think we all voted and agreed it was Jerry's fault.
Speaker 1:We did, we voted. I think.
Speaker 6:I voted for like two episodes a week and they just decided to go every other week, so y'all blame them.
Speaker 5:Really, I thought you said two episodes a month. No, really, I thought you said two episodes a month.
Speaker 6:No.
Speaker 2:That's what I voted for.
Speaker 1:I don't remember the voters' ballot he said bi-weekly, I thought he meant every other week, not twice a week. That's what I thought he meant too.
Speaker 3:I was uninvited to the meeting. I am so confused.
Speaker 5:Well, patrick, and.
Speaker 1:I voted yes.
Speaker 6:Without none of us.
Speaker 2:Without none of you. So that's with all of you. So that's with all of you. Jerry made the suggestion, but we all didn't get to vote Nice.
Speaker 1:But well, really, you know, what determines the frequency is, of course, the sponsors and, of course, today we are proudly supported by Jerry OTR Services. That's right, what? Yeah, okay, moving right along.
Speaker 2:So doesn't matter, they're our sponsor. Otr sponsors what OTR?
Speaker 1:sponsors. Otr sponsors are service of the day. Yes, oh my goodness.
Speaker 6:What service do?
Speaker 2:they provide.
Speaker 6:Carb testing in the Columbus Ohio area. Really, what is carb?
Speaker 1:testing Is that, where they like, check the food and they see how many carbohydrates are in it, I wish.
Speaker 2:And how many Do they plug us in?
Speaker 1:They're like Patrick, you are 92% carbohydrates.
Speaker 2:It's like plug you in Okay pass gas.
Speaker 6:We'll find out if you're good to go.
Speaker 2:That's a snap test.
Speaker 3:Different kind of emissions that's a snap test. Different kind of emissions that's a snap test.
Speaker 1:You've been sitting too long. We need you to get up five times Exactly. Five times. That's good. So what is a CARP test?
Speaker 6:If you plan on doing any type of freight into the state of California. It is their new emissions regulations, so it is a test that is currently required twice a year, annually, every six months. Your due date is based off of your VIN number if your truck is registered outside of the state of California. And yeah, it's an emissions test.
Speaker 1:And so with that emissions test, the proper name of it is what? Hdmi or something. No, that's a cable.
Speaker 5:No, it's something like that.
Speaker 1:HD Harley Davidson no New and but if you go to HD OTR-servicescom, that's OTR-servicescom. They've got all the information there, a little fact sheet. It will tell you what to do before you come in right.
Speaker 6:Yes, just go in there. The most important thing is just not having any lights on on your dash and you can go online, schedule, book your appointment, pay and one of our techs will be out to see you.
Speaker 1:And they've got a great group of techs. They're super nice, super friendly. They'll come out, they'll plug into the truck and do your right.
Speaker 4:Heads up. Do you need to have your engine running ahead of time, or does it need to be cold?
Speaker 1:Either Okay, either is fine. But you cannot under any circumstance have a check engine light or a mill light. Which the mill light? Is that amber. It looks like a check engine light but it doesn't say check on it. None of those lights. If you have those lights on, go ahead and dealership up. First, get that cleared out, do five, turn your truck on, get it hot, cool it down five times it's called a warm-up cycle and then you'll be good to go.
Speaker 6:And that does have to be warmed up and then cooled completely down. And if you have an APU that is tied into the engine, don't be running that because it'll keep the engine hot.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Let that baby get cold, which is a challenge. Well, hold on. First I'll say thank you, otr Services.
Speaker 2:Thanks, OTR Services.
Speaker 1:For sponsoring the channel. I appreciate that royalty check every now and then. I think I got like 12 cents on the last one. Yeah, I have to split that with you all at some point. So, speaking of the weather being harder to let your engine cool down, how about that weather Today? It's gotten toasty.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, overall, yeah, but it's not here to stay. I think we're going to get some spring weather.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's going to go back down into like the upper 60s 70s Okay.
Speaker 1:I'll take it Right. Yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 5:Oh my goodness, it's only going to be in the 60s, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying it did peak, it peaked, it got really hot. Yeah, hot 80s, that's hot, it is.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you a question, With it getting all the way down to the 60 thermals insulated socks, insulated weatherproof boots, base layer shirt, regular shirt, light sweater, parka, raincoat, beanie, insulated gloves to work at 60?
Speaker 5:At 60, I still am yeah.
Speaker 1:Around here people are jogging up and down the street, like in Speedos.
Speaker 5:It helps with the weight loss.
Speaker 1:I sweat it all out, but the bottled water budget goes up considerably.
Speaker 5:I want to say that last Thursday was the first shorts day of the year, that's exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very exciting.
Speaker 5:I was excited to be in my shorts on Thursday, cool. So I'm going to go ahead and continue to work on my spring tan Nice With my shorts.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, they call that a mechanics tan. Right, they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was in the kitchen making coffee or lunch. You don't want to mess with the white balance, and he kind of hops out of the bedroom and he's like ta-da, and I'm like what ta-da he's like look.
Speaker 5:Oh, he's sporting the shorts.
Speaker 4:No you weren't.
Speaker 2:You were sporting the shorts.
Speaker 1:You know, it's the thing that's like. I love the warm weather. I'm very grateful for it. Last night we actually had a chance most of us to hang out and smoke a cigar and just chill out and decompress. There's been a lot of crazy schedule stuff been happening lately. We'll talk about that shortly. But just being out there in shorts, sun going down, it was so nice and so comfortable and I miss that so bad. We've hung out outside but it's been bundled up with the parkas and the propane heaters all around us.
Speaker 1:It's about a six-foot section. We have eight propane heaters. I believe we're putting out 340,000. Btus of heat to keep us warm and you just pray. There's no wind because it just wipes it all away. But it was very nice. But my only concern, complaint, negative thought about this weather is we are very much in that you wake up and it's 40 degrees. Right Middle of the day it's 79. And then it goes back down to 40 degrees again that night.
Speaker 2:It is doing the dippy-do.
Speaker 1:It is hard to plan your entire daily wardrobe. You really got to layer up. You do so. You can de-layer. You shed some layers as the day goes, yep, and then re-layer later, but that's better than the dead of winter when it's just.
Speaker 3:No layers.
Speaker 1:Well, all layers, all layers and then, come off and they never come off and you stay cold.
Speaker 2:Why was it put to a vote to go biweekly?
Speaker 1:Oh, the crazy schedule, oh, schedule. Oh, I'm not going to say who, oh, but Jerry took two weeks off in the most Like in life. You have three reasons to not go to work. Right, right, sick. Option number one is sick. Can't go to work if you're sick, we all kind of recognize it. We may not like it, but we all recognize it. Number two dead. Oh, should you accidentally die at night? They don't, unless you work at a restaurant, because they will ask you, they will drag your ass in there what's?
Speaker 1:it called Drag your ass in there, or a family show. What's it called? Not Bernie Sanders?
Speaker 4:Weekend at Bernie's they will.
Speaker 2:Weekend at.
Speaker 4:Bernie's you there.
Speaker 1:Next jukebox and the only other thing that gets you out of work, unquestionably, is Jury duty, jury duty and you got the two-week lottery ticket, the golden ticket, to the Franklin County Willy Wonka.
Speaker 6:I'm telling you you don't know how bad Dawn wanted that. I'm telling you For days, every morning, that's all I heard is oh, I wish I could go. Oh, I wish I could go. Can I take your place?
Speaker 1:Don's calling like it's a restaurant. I'd like to take Jerry's shift.
Speaker 6:Can we just?
Speaker 1:What I thought was great was at the end of the two weeks. You sent us the letter, the official, and it's like do. What I thought was great was at the end of the two weeks you sent us the letter, the official and it's like do you think we thought you were lying?
Speaker 6:I'm pretty sure it would have come out. I didn't even know they were going to give that official letter. Oh really, yeah, showing that you were there for these many days and everything. So whenever I got that, with all their signatures and everything, I'm like okay, I'm sending this to Hafeu.
Speaker 1:I have one of those letters too.
Speaker 5:I just haven't pulled it out yet. I'm waiting for the right two weeks you got to get Jerry's and get it photoshopped.
Speaker 1:No, you can send it down to Fiverr or wherever that company is I?
Speaker 3:just had one made.
Speaker 5:I know a guy.
Speaker 3:Whose signatures do you have on it?
Speaker 5:Don't worry, about it, don't worry about it, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter, none of us are. Are we comparing?
Speaker 2:Are we going to the Secretary?
Speaker 5:of State website.
Speaker 2:Yeah don't worry about it. Have you done jury duty before?
Speaker 6:Never in my life.
Speaker 2:And so this was an experience, though for you it was I mean, without getting into details- yeah, it was.
Speaker 6:It was so in the state grand jury it wasn't just a regular.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you were the better jury.
Speaker 6:Well, I wouldn't say better, but it was grand jury and my letter says great jury Okay. So before you can be charged with a federal crime in the state of Ohio, it has to go before a grand jury and you're basically just deciding if there's enough evidence to bring charges. You're not deciding guilt or anything like that. So it was very interesting. I learned a lot about the law, about the state law in Ohio. Many, many—Ohio y'all love your guns. I'm telling you that seemed to be three-fourths of the cases, Wow.
Speaker 3:Guns.
Speaker 6:that seemed to be three-fourths of the cases, wow Guns. It was either something at home with a gun or getting pulled over, and they call it a disability. You're either drunk and a disability, so your disability is you're impaired.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 6:Okay, yeah. So you had a gun and you were drunk, or you had a gun and you were high, or pot or whatever the case may be, sure, so a lot of that stuff, but there was a few of the more serious things like murder and stuff like that. And then there was one that was extremely out in left field that caught me off guard, but overall it was great.
Speaker 2:Jimmy, did you make any friends? I mean, I don't know, are you making friends when you're on a jury?
Speaker 1:Are you allowed to see I was going to say are you allowed to go into the?
Speaker 2:bathroom together, or the lunchroom together or the hallway together, I mean are you Facebook buddies now?
Speaker 1:I would think it's like AA, where they want you to stay anonymous? Is that the case?
Speaker 6:No, we were welcome to talk to everybody and all that. And the way they set it up is you have nine jurors I was juror number six and then you have five alternates in case one of the main jurors are out. So we all sit there and listen to, we have people with officers and detectives and all those come in, they testify, they give us all the facts of the case and Objectives, and all those come in, they testify, they give us all the facts of the case and then, if all the jurors are there, the alternates step out and the main jurors vote. If one of the main jurors is out, then an alternate will step in. And yeah, you're welcome to talk to each other. You're welcome.
Speaker 6:Everything was pretty casual. They just asked that you keep your phones on vibrate. If you had to step out to take a call, then you didn't vote on that case or something like that. Wow, wow. That's way different than regular jury duty. Yeah, it was pretty relaxed and laid back and it's because it is a set two week time period. Sure, you have to go the entire two weeks. It's not just do a jury duty until they come to a conclusion and you go home.
Speaker 2:How many cases did you see roughly in the two weeks?
Speaker 6:We did on average, I would say a busy day was upwards of 50. Wow.
Speaker 2:And on a light day.
Speaker 6:It was upwards of like 22, 25.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was a lot.
Speaker 2:Wow, I've never been picked for jury duty Ever.
Speaker 1:I got picked.
Speaker 2:Oh wait, I have. But I had to say no thank you because I was a truck driver at the time.
Speaker 1:Did you really. Was it thank you, though, or was it just?
Speaker 2:No, they said the next time. Well, I said I couldn't do it because I was on the road. I mean, I gave my reason and they said, OK, you get a one-time pass, but then you have to do it.
Speaker 1:Then I think by then we had switched our licenses from oregon to elsewhere, so jokes on them. You left the state, right, yeah, so when that's her, that's her new thing every time she gets called for jury duty she just leaves the state.
Speaker 6:When I went for the selection, uh, you go in on. I went back in january and, uh, so they literally had hundreds of people in this huge auditorium and they tell you, if you have a job where your income depends on it and you cannot get off, you know, I guess if you're a commission base or something like that, you had a chance to get out of it. You had to present your reasoning as to why you couldn't do it and then they made the determination if you could get out or not. Nice.
Speaker 1:And you were like no, I got plenty of time. No, I actually did go up there.
Speaker 5:You only for two months.
Speaker 6:I did go up there and try to get out of it. But the first thing they asked me was does your job depend on it? And I was like, eh, and I was like, well, I kind of have to be there. It's a small company and she goes are you salary? And?
Speaker 3:I no.
Speaker 6:I'm like okay, so that's exactly what she said to me.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my jury duty. I got a call twice and both I've been called three times. First time I got out of it I was in college, so they pretty much just immediately if you're going to be in college, we don't even want you. So I got out that way. Second time they said we'll let you get out of it for 30 days. Louisiana is very strict and on day 31 you will be in this courtroom. And so I was like, well, if that's the case, I'm just gonna go like this is stupid, right, right, um. So I went and I was in and out on day two. They let me out halfway through, never saw anything more.
Speaker 1:That was at the old library, which if you're from Baton Rouge, louisiana, you know the old library. If you're not, imagine an old library. It's been torn to the ground now so it's not there anymore. I can't show you. It was so boring. It was so boring I hated it. The third time I got called for jury duty back in Louisiana, but this time it was the courthouse, because the old library had been torn down and so we were in the brand new courthouse and the brand new courthouse had this huge auditorium and we all hung out in there, they catered food for us, they showed movies while we were waiting, and I only did that for one day and they cut me loose and I was like that's not bad, it's definitely gotten a lot better wow but um, I haven't done anything here in ohio yet.
Speaker 1:I you know as soon as I say that it's going to show up in the mail.
Speaker 6:But we did get to do something that not everybody gets to do, and that is once a quarter. In the state of ohio, the grand jury has to go to the old jail and the new jail that they built, which opened up within the last two years, and we actually had to tour the entire jail, look at the facilities and we had to actually write up a whole report on it, on what we thought about it, the food, how the inmates are treated, wow.
Speaker 6:The conditions, everything on both. Did you just look at the food? How the inmates are treated? The conditions everything on both.
Speaker 1:Did you just look at the food, or did y'all actually eat there? We?
Speaker 6:had to eat the food.
Speaker 2:At the jail.
Speaker 6:It was not good.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't like all the prisoners or the jailers Incarcerated. It's not like all the incarcerated were like we can't wait for grand jury day, because that's when the good food comes All of a sudden it's like, ooh, what is that? Fresh collard greens.
Speaker 4:And what is that?
Speaker 1:Little red beans and rye. Look at me. I'm going South Louisiana all of a sudden.
Speaker 4:What was?
Speaker 1:that Chicken fried steak with gravy on top oh, they're eating great in here.
Speaker 6:The old jail was tacos and when I got my plate we had to walk down a little short hallway and back into this room where we ate. By the time I got my plate and got back in the room and sat down, the shell was so soggy from the grease from the hamburger. I had that much grease and, for those who can't see, two inches of grease in the bottom of my plate and it was literally slop, wow. And then the new jail. I got up there there and they had this stuff that was supposed to be Salisbury steak, but it was green.
Speaker 4:Oh.
Speaker 6:That didn't look that gravy to me Well, so I didn't have that. I passed right over that and had a hot dog, and even that was questionable.
Speaker 1:And how did your reporting go?
Speaker 6:Pretty much everybody said the same thing the food. But you know me and one other person was like you know, you really can't complain Like it's not a Michelin restaurant, it's jail.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You're you know they get three squares a day. It doesn't mean they have to be good.
Speaker 1:I think you're. I think at that point you're arguing the humanity of it, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Is it Because?
Speaker 1:I think back to these privatized jails back in the day. It's illegal now in most states, but not too long ago they were serving these square bars, blocks of oh, like a protein block kind of thing Like a protein block thing. It had vegetables and protein and, like everything that you needed to sustain life was in there it was literally the three squares Heather just mentioned.
Speaker 5:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:A square for the morning square yeah it was disgusting and that was the only thing you ate, and so they pretty much have said that was inhumane. And I don't think anyone does it it, or at least most places don't sure. So I think that's what they're trying to prevent but I do.
Speaker 6:I want to mention, though, the new jail was absolutely amazing. The facilities are top-notch like. I have never experienced anything like that in my life from. They actually do all the bookings in the new jail now, and so we got to see everything from them coming in on the bus to pat downs to booking the whole nine yards um the facilities. They had one room where those who are striving to do better and rehabilitate themselves and stuff like that they actually like wake up at eight o'clock in the morning and they go through classes.
Speaker 6:It's like a wide, open community area. They're locked down at night whenever they're asleep, but other than that they open the jail up and everybody gets to walk around and do what they want and and stuff, and they have a TV in there, but the TV doesn't come on in that particular room until like two, 30 or three o'clock in the afternoon, because in the mornings they're all like these classes and trying to better themselves and stuff like that. One gentleman that we actually talked to, who he's been in there for just almost three years, he's actually getting ready to get out within the next eight months, I believe, and he's been offered a job. So it's pretty cool of everything that they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Good, so were these jails or prisons?
Speaker 6:This is a jail, but everybody that is in there is top offenders, the ones that we've seen. So we're dealing with everybody, from your rapists to murderers, to it's all felony crimes.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So he started the trend for Time Off.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, well, no, I guess not really, because we did the Mid-American Truck Show. It was before that, but that was a quick thing and we still recorded the main show during that time. But he did his two weeks off and then Eric and I had to go, didn't have to go, we got to go to, I almost said, new Orleans to go to.
Speaker 1:Memphis, Tennessee, to do a FedEx fleet summit. So FedEx Custom Critical will try to bring the fleet together, the owners, so either owner-operators or fleet owners and do a summit to talk about what's happening with the company. You get a State of the Union address, basically for the company. You get a here's what we're growing, here's the kind of trucks we need for the future. So kind of like it's their way of saying here's where our business is going, so that you can then plan your business to help us with that or not, your choice. You know they don't force you to do anything but right kind of here's the direction we're going.
Speaker 1:So you know, kind of like, maybe don't buy cargo vans because we're not really going that direction, that's that sort of thing, and that's not something they said, that's just an example, sure. And so we brought Kelly and Jimmy so, if you know, they've been on the podcast before, but Jimmy runs our maintenance department and Kelly is our FedEx fleet coordinator within our fleet so they came out there and we spent three days sitting at FedEx Freight's world headquarters in.
Speaker 1:Memphis, which is literally on a golf course. That's not figuratively on the golf course, it's literally on a golf course. That's not figuratively on the golf course, it's literally on the golf course. We were sitting in the conference room. It's nice. They built it in 2019, not realizing they weren't going to be able to use it for three years. Wow. So they built it in 2019, and everything in there is pristine and brand new. And you turn around from the conference room and behind you is just like an Arnold Palmer grade golf course. Wow. I can't remember the name of the golf course, but Jimmy, who does a lot more golfing than I do, he does know it. He's like oh my gosh, there's a big tournament here every year. I've seen this on TV a thousand times. I never realized that was. Oh, is that the one Kelly?
Speaker 5:mentioned on the on the conference call TPC. Yes, that's it. Tpc stands for the players club championship or players club, but their TPC courses are. Are the crazy high end courses, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:He was shocked. He was absolutely like floor. That it's like like, and what's really cool is like FedEx the freight world headquarters on one side of the golf course and the other side is FedEx Express World headquarters. So you do see, like they're on it's basically FedEx's golf course is what I'm saying, and it's beautiful and it was, but it was a really good time over. There Got a lot of insight.
Speaker 1:So there's been a lot of changes. It's very public so I'm not breaking any news here, but FedEx Custom Critical has been absorbed into FedEx Freight. So we still operate as FedEx Custom Critical, but the money flows, if you would, from FedEx Custom Critical's bank account into FedEx Freight's bank account, whereas before we used to go into FedEx Express's bank account. Not only are we a part of FedEx Freight, but FedEx Freight and FedEx Express are actually separating. They are becoming two separate publicly traded companies. So there's a lot going on behind the scenes and they kind of talk to us about what does that mean for the future and how does that help us with our business and all this stuff. The real bottom line gist of it is it's great FedEx Ground, fedex Express are staying together. If you've watched any news lately, you've seen that FedEx has been on the struggle bus financially with the FedEx Ground and the FedEx Express operation. They've been selling airplanes. They got rid of their US Postal Service contracts. They could stop flying during the day. They've done a lot to reduce their expenses and try to get their company under control is the wrong word, but more efficient. Fedex Freight, on the other hand, is I'm not going to say printing cash, because that would be the wrong way to put it they're doing quite well. Custom Critical is the other branch that we have always made money. It always makes money for FedEx. It's a great brand. They love owning Custom Critical. So they kind of put the two high-earning companies together and that's why they're spitting us off. So they did disclose we are going to keep the FedEx branding. So there will be two FedExes FedEx Express, fedex Freight. But they are going to be both branded FedEx, even though they will no longer be the same company.
Speaker 1:And you see this like it's not crazy uncommon GE. There's like five different GE companies. They used to all be related but they're not anymore. So, like GE Healthcare is not related to the GE that makes airplane engines. Rolls-royce Cars is not related to the Rolls-Royce that makes jet airplane engines. Westinghouse which we all probably have a Westinghouse microwave or TV or refrigerator at some point in our life has nothing to do with the Westinghouse that builds nuclear reactors, like they all kind of. At some point a lot of these really massive companies do break apart and so that's that's what's happening. So they really kind of laid down here's what's happening, here's some new lines of business that we're going into and stuff.
Speaker 1:There was some stuff that was disclosed that we are not allowed to talk about. Um. So you know, publicly traded companies do have rules about what can be shared publicly, what can't be shared publicly. So there was certainly some stuff that was talked about internally that we are not allowed to disclose. Um, not insider trading stuff, nothing like that. That's all pretty well public. But just like new places where they're going to go after freight that they haven't been going after, that they don't want the world knowing until they start doing it, but they need trucks to accomplish that mission. So it's important that we know A lot of excitement happening. I think that's the biggest takeaway I got. Eric, would you say the same thing?
Speaker 4:Basically a new relation between freight and custom critical. Are they going to work together more than they have in the past?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and just like when I look at so, in the room there was the fleet owners, owner operators, there's also these FedEx freight employees and there's these FedEx custom critical employees. And obviously we know the custom critical employees because we've known them for years. We've had 14 years or whatever with.
Speaker 1:FedEx, so we know them quite well and seeing their genuine excitement about what's happening and where the company is going is just awesome. We have not seen anything like that since 2019, 2018. Maybe, Eric, would you say where those employees are genuinely excited about the things that are coming up.
Speaker 6:Yeah, Wow, that's a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is I mean, don't get me wrong In the past six, seven years, FedEx has.
Speaker 4:That's basically when we were starting. No, because we got started in 2012,.
Speaker 1:So that was probably five years in. Okay, so over the last five or six years we've clearly made really good money with FedEx Customer Critical. They're not like just because the people are excited doesn't mean they've been a bad company or whatever. But there definitely has been a lack of excitement about future activities, future growth plans and all that stuff, and right now it's like everyone's just like this is finally going in a direction we like to see it going.
Speaker 4:Even our contractors are going to be happy with what's going on. Yeah, and they're in.
Speaker 1:Some of the development, some of the big projects.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:It's always exciting when you see a big company put millions of dollars in infrastructure in so yeah, maybe electronic scan in a barcode and quit writing out BOLs One day maybe. There were products presented to us so I can't say what all they're there for, but some of that stuff's going to be rolling out real soon.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Yep, I am excited. One thing that's really exciting that FedEx is doing that. Fedex Freight is doing that I'm really excited about. That's a lot of excitement.
Speaker 6:We can tell you're excited.
Speaker 1:It's passionate to us because we obviously have talked about it many times on this show is parking as y'all, we operate the lack of parking. We operate in a lot of majorly huge big cities that don't have very good parking situations. Fedex Freight is now opening their doors, literally, and their gates, to FedEx custom critical drivers to be able to park in FedEx Freight facilities.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so if you are headed to Chicago, where we all know Chicago has a horrible parking situation.
Speaker 4:Or Los Angeles.
Speaker 1:Or Los Angeles is another good one, or New York City, san Francisco, san Francisco.
Speaker 6:We'll spread along out.
Speaker 5:There's.
Speaker 1:Oregon, Seattle, there's Portland.
Speaker 5:Omaha.
Speaker 1:Nebraska, omaha, nebraska, omaha, nebraska. No, they got the casinos.
Speaker 2:You got Not Dallas, not Dallas. Did we already say Atlanta?
Speaker 1:You did start with Atlanta, dallas is a good one, because Dallas has an abundance of parking down south, but you might also get shot. Atlanta is the same way. Atlanta doesn't have much very good parking. Memphis is maybe, I don't know. West Memphis has plenty of parking, though.
Speaker 4:Yes, but do you want to use it? They know that is a dangerous side. Is it West Memphis?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh, I thought that was better than the doesn't matter so.
Speaker 2:At any rate, they're opening their gates.
Speaker 1:They're opening their gates. So if you're a FedEx custom critical contractor, right now today you can call in and there are a large number of FedEx Freight facilities that you have access to. They implemented that a month or two ago. That's awesome, but it's not all of them, but it's a lot and coming up really soon it will be opening to every FedEx Freight facility.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So that's huge. That's very exciting because there's FedEx Freight in every city and, like Los Angeles, there's like eight FedEx Freight places. Yeah, it's a big city.
Speaker 2:So is it just intended for parking and you leave or you park and you can stay on site?
Speaker 1:They are allowing multiple things for you to park at. If you have a mechanical failure and you just need a place to go so they can get a truck to come in, like a service truck to come work on your truck or whatever, they're allowing you to park there while you bring a service truck in, they're allowing you to. You got too much time on the load and you just need a place to park. Angeles, where when you go for home time you have a hard time parking because there's not good, safe parking. They're allowing them to park their vehicles there for extended periods for home time.
Speaker 1:So, they're really, really rolling out the red carpet. What I think is really cool about it, too, is we have a lot of teams like to cruise, and so I know that's a common thing. Get a load down to Florida and then leave your truck at a truck stop and hope for the best as you go on a cruise.
Speaker 4:Well, now it doesn't get towed.
Speaker 1:Yep, and now you can. Just if you're a FedEx, you can leave your truck at a FedEx freight facility.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 1:While you go on your cruise and come back and know it's there. So some very cool stuff that's happening and I think they're working on they don't have it yet, but they're working on getting everybody full bathroom, lounge or driver's lounge areas at the FedEx Freight facilities as well. So when you go in there and you're like down for a little bit, you have access to a microwave or a lounge if you want to sit instead of just being inside the truck, if you're down for a weekend or something like that and a bathroom.
Speaker 3:And a bathroom.
Speaker 1:They don't have that yet, but they're working on it. So yeah, the bathroom thing gets a little.
Speaker 3:Can be a little tricky.
Speaker 1:A little tricky. It's some really cool stuff. I'm very excited to see these changes and you know, that kind of thing doesn't make fedex any more money, it's just a hundred percent to improve the quality of life of the driver. So that's the kind of thing that's like. That's cool. That's exciting that they are actually focusing on the, the driver's experience. They, they really, really drove home. It was the very first thing they talked about which, which was their culture. And I remember seeing that thinking like, okay, well, all these meetings are about your culture, right. And then, as you go throughout the meetings, we realized, oh, they're serious. Like they are, we will fire you serious about getting their culture into a very supportive community. So I'm excited to see that Because I think you know, jerry, you've been around a long time, many, many, many years Like whew a long time Back in 2002.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you remember, you're paper log old, so you remember the culture at FedEx used to be very business but also driver. We're all in this together, kind of focus, right. Yes, and I know because you got off the road only a couple years ago. You saw that kind of fall apart over the last few years, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it really kind of that culture aspect. Not the company didn't fall apart because they're still again great money-making trucks, they're just the culture kind of like it disappeared, it took a backseat to the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's great to see it like this new management get in there and go. No, no, no. We're going to clean this up Like our culture matters. We're going to clean this up Like our culture matters. The purple promise is what I was brought to bring in, which is what again?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4:You have to wear purple. We promise to wear purple.
Speaker 2:You have to drink the Kool-Aid, I don't know. Get a tattoo.
Speaker 3:Like, what are we doing for purple? I never did the tattoo thing.
Speaker 6:I remember. I can see it clear as day in my mind on the side of the wall if custom critical, but I don't know it by heart.
Speaker 2:They'd like a slogan.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or a motto, or whatever you call it.
Speaker 6:Motto.
Speaker 2:What's a motto? What's a motto? Nothing.
Speaker 5:What's a motto to you Hakuna Matata?
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, what a wonderful phrase. The purple promise is to make every.
Speaker 2:FedEx experience outstanding.
Speaker 1:Wow, just that easy, and they do mean that, in the terms of driver to customer, from employee to office, worker to driver, dispatch to driver, employee to employee, like that is the like, everything has to be outstanding, and so that used to be like a huge part of the culture.
Speaker 6:it was crazy just a couple weeks ago. Um, don's niece she is, she's not a ranger, but she is like over a huge department in the wildlife forestry up in upper michigan, in the upper peninsula and uh, so she sends me and don a message and she's like I've got something to ship. Who can I call? So we give her a call and ask her a couple questions and everything, and come to find out they had this huge box that needed to go out to Washington State where they were actually going to be doing whatever they do with it and then ship it back and after filling her out and a couple questions, she actually called FedEx and shipped it with FedEx.
Speaker 1:Cool, that's pretty cool yeah, it's a great company. Love working with, with them Like really do, and I've enjoyed the partnership we've had over the years. It's nice to see excitement again. It's nice to see culture again, and part of that too has just been COVID. Covid kind of came in and made everybody work from home and it was hard to keep a culture in that kind of environment, but it's just nice seeing all that come back together. I think, of course, being in Memphis was kind of a neat change. Usually we used to do these things in Cleveland, ohio, akron, ohio area and just getting a change of scenery, being in Memphis and seeing like oh, here's the actual headquarters, here's all these things, and I really like that. They took us out to a baseball game. Memphis has the cutest little baseball park. They took us out to a baseball game. Memphis has the cutest little baseball park. They have the Redbirds there, which of course means they're owned by the Cardinals.
Speaker 4:That makes sense.
Speaker 5:Redbirds.
Speaker 1:Cardinals, which I think is funny because apparently Redbird is an insult to a Cardinals fan, but it's their minor league baseball team, so I'm like interesting.
Speaker 3:I mean you could kind of see that right. You're playing like a Redbird instead of like a.
Speaker 1:Cardinal yeah. But, overall great experience at FedEx as Fleet Intermediate. We have one coming up with Panther in July, I want to say. So you know, it's always fun to go and hang out with these people and see kind of where their minds are at and what they project the business to be at and things like that, so you can kind of make plans. And yeah, nice. Now, melissa, what, you're not getting off that easy. What? When Jerry left, you also left, and where did you go?
Speaker 2:I went to Oregon.
Speaker 1:The trail.
Speaker 2:Close, About 20 minutes from the trail. Yes, I went to Southern Oregon and visit the younger son and his family and the grandson the youngest grandson and stayed there a little over a week. Bestie's there too, so stayed with her and then when I left there, I flew into Arkansas where my older son was with my older two grandsons and stayed there for a few days, and then the older son and I made our way here to Columbus.
Speaker 1:Y'all road tripped it.
Speaker 2:It was fun. We stopped in Memphis. He had never not Memphis. Well, we did Memphis. We had a wonderful suggested barbecue lunch in Memphis down on Beale Street. That was a lot of fun. And then we did Nashville down on Broadway for Monday night and then we made our way home. Now we've been here. So, yeah, april's been kind of full.
Speaker 1:Kind of full. It just kind of flew by, didn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Looking forward to a relaxing May.
Speaker 2:I see why we've gone to every other week. Everybody's been kind of Well, and then we're coming into summer when vacations happen.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it's been insane we do have to talk about. Are we going to take a summer break like we normally do? Are we going to try to?
Speaker 2:Like a hiatus.
Speaker 5:Yeah, are we going to try and get like 15 shows in over the next few days. We could, yeah, we could.
Speaker 1:I say we do another one right after this. Yeah, we should, you're right. I think I have plans.
Speaker 2:I definitely got the vote. I got the ballot on that vote.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jerry and I have something we need to do. They're going to go.
Speaker 6:We are getting up there in numbers. I mean we're like at episode 28 or something, since we started. No, like this season. Oh wow, just this season.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's the most we've hit. So far. That's pretty consistent for us. Wow, I'm shocked. I'm shocked, it is Well, we do need to talk about one thing, which is the news, which is the news that you've all been sending me emails and text messages.
Speaker 4:Instagram messages. Are they doing telegraph DMs on X?
Speaker 1:DMs on X. Your blue sky is blowing up, isn't it? Oh, the blue sky is blowing up, isn't it? Oh, the blue sky is red. It's insane. And then it's all about these non-English speaking drivers that we talked about not too long ago.
Speaker 2:Oh dear.
Speaker 1:Apparently it's been all over the news after we covered it. Just want to point that out, that we covered it first.
Speaker 2:Oh, we covered it first. Yes, live from the outer belt.
Speaker 3:Yes, we heard it here first you saw it here, first the outer belt.
Speaker 1:Yes, we heard it here first but there's been like 17 different forms of upgrades, of changes, and laws are changing and people are getting fired and someone said they were going to make things great again and I have not caught up with the latest little bit of news. I've just seen what I've been getting Again. It's literally been a lot. I've probably got 20 different messages and emails about this one topic, so we need an update. I think Think of anyone better to talk about that subject than my man, the one, the only Chile Whoop, whoop, whoop. Check it out.
Speaker 5:Whoop, whoop. I am so unprepared for this.
Speaker 2:We're hyping you up, are you really?
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 1:I'm ready. Okay, good, you had me scared. You had me scared, I'm like this frightened you.
Speaker 5:So a couple episodes ago we talked about the bill that was introduced in Arkansas. Yes, that would require a commercial vehicle driver to have a domestically issued CDL. Correct, and there are also language provisions to be able to speak and read English. Well, that bill was withdrawn. Oh, and a new bill was introduced that took away the domestic driver's license portion and only required language proficiency for commercial motor vehicle drivers in the state of Arkansas. If you're going to drive a commercial motor vehicle in Arkansas, you had to be proficient in English.
Speaker 1:So kind of what we talked about with. I don't know how they can do this, because of the.
Speaker 5:Mexico and the interstate commerce and all that Okay.
Speaker 1:So they heard our podcast.
Speaker 5:They heard our podcast and they said he's got a good argument.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah, we do have a very large Arkansasian fan base.
Speaker 4:I don't know if y'all know or not we actually do, we do, we do.
Speaker 1:A little rock and all. There's a huge group in Bentonville. I've heard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rock and all.
Speaker 5:There's a huge group in Bentonville, I've heard yeah, huge, yep, huge, huge, yeah. So that passed in Arkansas. And then, just in the last couple of days, president Trump signed an executive order that requires English proficiency in speaking English, communicating in English and being able to read English. So a lot of folks are saying, well, that's in the handbook for the longest time. Well, the executive order that President Trump signed the other day actually requires a truck driver to be able to speak English or be placed out of service.
Speaker 1:Oh so he gave it actionable penalty. Yes, he did.
Speaker 5:Wow, which apparently was in the law before.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 5:And in 2016, the policy change was made under the Obama administration that removed the requirement to place a driver out of service if they couldn't speak or communicate in English, read English, that type of thing. So this is just reinstating that provision to put a driver out of service.
Speaker 1:So I will say, if you are not super familiar with trucking rules, when you get pulled over for a roadside inspection there are a list of things that if they catch you with like a blown tire, it's an automatic out of service. You have to get that repaired.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they shut you down right there on the spot until you're repaired. Exactly.
Speaker 1:If you have something else. I'm trying to think of what they are. It's been so long since I've looked at that list.
Speaker 1:I want to say like maybe a clearance light or something is out, maybe a clearance light or something is out, or I think the last time I looked at it was about LEDs, because nowadays they make the LEDs with, like it's, 100 LEDs in one light, right, and they said, if you have half those out, it's not out of service, because half the light is still working, but it is a violation and you have to get it fixed. Right. So they'll send you on your way, but you've got to get it fixed Right, so they'll send you on your way, but you've got to get that fixed.
Speaker 5:Got to get it fixed.
Speaker 1:I think brakes are the same way, aren't they Like? If you're an 18-wheeler, you have to have at least 20% of your brakes functional.
Speaker 4:Yes, well, we should know that. We should know that. Something like that.
Speaker 5:So if you have one brake, that's not's, it's, it's kind of that thing. Yeah, so that's the basic gist of what. What happened here? Uh, there's lots of folks that are are coming out behind this. Uh, oida is is all over it. Um, the arkansas people, um legislatures are are happy to see this be going national and not just an ark thing. So there's a lot of folks that are happy to have this back in play, because we're looking at now yes, it's a safety thing is where we're coming from. If you can't read English or communicate with somebody in English, meaning you can't read road signs or understand them- Are they governing weights or any of that?
Speaker 5:Exactly weights or anything. It's a safety issue and we want to have folks on the road driving large commercial vehicles that are able to communicate in English.
Speaker 1:It kind of makes sense because, again, I just looked up the law it is 20% of your brakes have to work. So if you have an 18-wheeler, you've got 10 sets of brakes. So two of those cannot be functioning. Sorry, two of those cannot be out, because that would equal 20%, right, but if you had one out, that would be considered less than 20%. So you would actually they would just write you a citation for it, but you'd still be able to roll on. Or if you have, like, one of those heavy haul trucks that has we've all seen them they have 28 axles or something Just insane amount of axles.
Speaker 1:If you have three or four of those out, they'll send you on your way, but that makes sense because you've got all these other systems, so you've got 80% of your braking ability left. If you can't read English, you can't read a sign. They're not even saying. I did see one thing they were talking about. There is a set. I'm all over the place. That was a part of the conversation we had was who is coming up with this test? What do you have to read?
Speaker 2:That was in Arkansas. They do actually have a mandated here. What do you have to read it?
Speaker 1:was in arkansas and they do actually have a mandated. Here's what you have to be able to read, and if you can read this, you're good. So there is like you don't have to know all the english, you just have to know these basic things, uh, to be able to get by. So if you can't do those basic things, then you can't necessarily read. You may be able to read a speed limit sign, but, like you said, a bridge that says you know, you can only cross it at 60,000 pounds, but you're 80,000 pounds.
Speaker 5:You can't read that. Or a sign that says emergency exit.
Speaker 3:Construction signs no the escape ramp. Yeah, the escape ramp.
Speaker 5:You know those types of signs. Runaway, runaway truck ramps yes, or construction signs, yeah, where it's more than just a number.
Speaker 1:Their trucks are Right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so those things are important.
Speaker 3:It also says that under Trump that they have to be able to communicate with traffic controllers safety.
Speaker 6:Yeah, if you get pulled in.
Speaker 4:Your officers, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I mean yeah, you go in for your inspection, you get pulled in whatever. Okay, Turn this on, turn that off.
Speaker 1:If they don't understand what that is how are we going to do this?
Speaker 1:Absolutely Blow your horn, what that has to be a thing Exactly. It's interesting to see how much of this is coming back and what the language they're putting back in and stuff, because we did talk about a little bit of how much of this is safety, how much of this is racism, bit of like how much this is safety, how much this is racism, and, um, it does feel like a lot of it is reverting back to what it was and it does to me feel less like racism and more like safety the more I've delved into it sure on its surface level, I think you could make the argument of like well, they just don't want mexicans here.
Speaker 1:But when you you dig into it, you're like well, no, that's not the case, Because they did roll back that provision and they are being very specific on this is what you need to know how to read. And they are saying like it does seem to be coming from a very safety-minded philosophy.
Speaker 4:It does.
Speaker 5:It does. But if one were to play devil's advocate and look at it a different way?
Speaker 1:If one would.
Speaker 5:But if one were to play devil's advocate and look at it a different way, it could be also seen as a very well-crafted bit of. We don't want others here. If you take into account other things in our society right now, it could be seen that way. However, I will give them that this is a safety thing. I've been on the road and had to try and communicate with somebody who didn't speak english and wasn't able to because they didn't my. My spanish wasn't good enough, um and you speak good.
Speaker 1:So those you don't know he speaks very good, uh, spanish. We've been to mexico together. He's able to to really help out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was unable to help this person and get this person taken care of, so I actually had to grab somebody else and say, hey, can you help Because we're not communicating. So fortunately it wasn't a dire situation where it was an emergency. But I'm dealing with another driver who I couldn't talk to, no doubt.
Speaker 1:No, I do, but I'm dealing with another driver who I couldn't talk to, no doubt, sure, no, I do. Again, I say, if you take that big view back and you look at it and you go, here's all the context you could certainly come up with that conclusion, but if you really dig into it, you try to like okay, now that you've seen what they're trying to do, now argue against it. Sure.
Speaker 2:You can't. I want to see statistics. I know that takes time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it says since Obama administration that traffic fatalities have gone up. Yeah, concerning trucking, sorry, trucking fatalities have gone up. I would like to actually look and see what the actual statistics are as well. Is that just because of that, or is that because there's more people on the road driving, or less people on the road driving, but we still have more fatalities?
Speaker 1:Yeah, or is it? What is the increase? Is it one person?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 5:To that point, though originally, during the Obama administration, the reason it was taken away was they said there was no.
Speaker 3:Did we need truck drivers as well? Was that a thing of trying to get more people out there helping out on the road, do you think?
Speaker 5:So in the article this is from Freightways, by the way it does say the reason the CVSA members voted to remove English proficiency from its out-of-service policy in 2015 was because, quote they could not substantiate the safety impacts. End quote. Fmcsa stated in its 2016 policy change so they weren't seeing that it was a safety issue then. That's why it was removed. It wasn't just a let's fill the trucks with foreign truck drivers. They didn't see the safety issue in the English proficiency the safety issue in the English proficiency.
Speaker 1:Does it say when the Mexico-US program went into effect that allows Mexican drivers to CDL holders to come into America?
Speaker 5:This article does not address that at all.
Speaker 1:Because I wonder if there's a correlation there. It could be. You could make the argument that, hey, once, maybe people who kind of have been raised around seeing the road signs even though they don't speak English, they know what they say. Sure, like, if I go to Mexico, if I go to Canada and I see Quest, I know it's West because I've been there enough. So if you look at it and go, okay, well, these other people came in from Mexico where they have no point of reference.
Speaker 1:They've never seen this because of this program and then, all of a sudden, the numbers have ticked back upwards. I'm just curious. Sure, everything I'm saying is a pure hypothesis, right, but I would like to see some of that data. They haven't given it to us. So you're right, that is a little frustrating. But I can also see, you know, the knee jerk of crashes are going up. What can we do to pull it down? And sometimes you make those decisions without having all the data, so this may be that I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, I can say that probably the outer belt will be keeping their eyes on this story.
Speaker 6:Yes, oklahoma did just introduce the same law, so, yeah, it's spreading by states as well it's not just oklahoma.
Speaker 2:There's a couple of wyoming or another one had done it and the last time we reported and talked about it, a couple of other states had done it yep, it's starting to grow and get some steam behind it, so I think it will be nationwide relatively soon.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the executive order. It's federal interstate highway system. So that actually does kind of hold a lot of weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, yep, great story, great story.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Now people are more in the know.
Speaker 1:I never thought we'd stumble upon this. We talked about it the other day.
Speaker 5:I thought this was just an interesting case, I thought it was a one-off kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And here we are. Who would have thought Arkansas would lead the charge?
Speaker 2:Well, I think people need to keep commenting.
Speaker 1:They do. Yeah, what else do you want to hear about? What else do you all see? Things that that we talk about, that you're like, oh man, there's all this other stuff. Right, keep us on our toes, because sometimes we see it like this story was big enough that had no one mentioned it. We still called it, but it got mentioned quite a bit. No, we appreciate that feedback. It really helps us guide and figure out where we need to head to next.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for hanging out with us. You've been a wonderful crowd, uh. If you do have anything you'd like to tell us, drop us a comment. You can send us an email at the outer belt podcast at gmailcom. That is the outer belt podcast at gmailcom, also referred to as the outerbeltpodcast at gmailcom. Shoot us an email, shoot us a comment. You can call Jerry at 833-HIGHFIELD-extension-5. And talk with him if you'd like. If you are interested in joining Highfield Trek and come over the road with us. See what we're all about. A couple weeks ago we talked about lift gates and the reason that we have them and all the thought that went into putting them on there, and we plan on getting back on that as well at some point.
Speaker 2:Well, if you want to talk to a recruiter such as myself, you can call the 833-HIGHFIELD.
Speaker 1:But not 5.
Speaker 2:But Well, at some point. Well, if you want to talk to a recruiter such as myself, you can call the 833.
Speaker 1:Highfield, but not 5. But not 5. It'd be option 1, monday through Friday, 8 am to 6 pm Eastern time.
Speaker 2:And we know that Highfield's a weird way to write it. The way we do it, It'd be 833-493-4353, 4353, option 1.
Speaker 1:And if you're driving and you can't write that down right now, you can always find it where Jerry.
Speaker 6:At highfiltruckingcom.
Speaker 1:Or the comments.
Speaker 5:Or Facebook.
Speaker 1:Or the description of the video, absolutely.
Speaker 5:Well, if they're driving right now, let's not look at the description.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying when you stop, it'll be in the description.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You can find us at highfieldtrekkingcom. Do we still have a chat function? We sure do.
Speaker 6:And who mains it? That would be Melissa, mainly.
Speaker 2:Nice and I do Facebook Messenger, which is pretty instant. I mean, obviously, if I'm on a call I won't respond at the same time, but promptly after I'll do Facebook Messenger, instagram Messenger, any instant messaging service, including our website. I'll be the one behind it.
Speaker 1:Aol Instant Messenger yes.
Speaker 2:Maybe not that one MySpace. No, no, no.
Speaker 5:No, but you can find us on Friendster.
Speaker 1:What about ICQ?
Speaker 3:ICQ, icq.
Speaker 6:I used to use that back in the day. I did too, oh my gosh. I used to use that back in the day.
Speaker 3:I did too. Oh my gosh, I forgot about that one.
Speaker 1:How far back do you want to go?
Speaker 5:No, I used to use Pong. Oh no, that's different.
Speaker 1:So look log on to CompuServe and if you go down to the I didn't use CompuServe. I used it a while. Sorry, didn't use CompUSA. I used AOL. Sorry, is it CompUSA?
Speaker 5:Do the CompUSA get the free CD? If you go to the CompUSA and get the free 80 minutes of AOL.
Speaker 1:Drop it into your CD-ROM on your compact passario. Yeah, that's too funny, you're all good.
Speaker 5:You're all good, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Just make sure to disable call waiting when.
Speaker 2:I was a young man.
Speaker 1:No, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with y'all. Please continue to drive safe. Make good decisions.
Speaker 6:We'll see you next week, don't leave money on the table and keep those wheels at heart Night.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye, ciao, table and keep those wheels of.
Speaker 4:Turner night. Bye, ciao, thank you.