Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Rollin' 18
Podcast.
This 40-year veteran is herefor anyone wanting to stay up to
date with the trucking world.
Grab your coffee, hop on boardand let's get on down the road
with Walter Gatlin.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everybody and
welcome back to Rollin' 18
Podcast.
I'm your host, walter Gatlin.
I hope you guys enjoyed your4th of July celebration.
It is a celebration for theUnited States of America.
I know there's a lot ofdiscrepancies out there by
anti-Americans, but they canpretty much keep that to
themselves.
History is what it is.
(00:42):
It is history.
We can all learn from it.
We can't change it, but we canmove forward.
Don't worry, america is stillthe greatest nation on the
planet and the vast majority ofAmericans say so, including a
lot of people that are notAmericans around the world that
still love our country.
So with that I say God blessAmerica.
(01:02):
Today's story is about NATSO.
Have you ever heard of NATSO?
Natso is a truck stop ownersand operators type of
organization.
Basically, what they do isNATSO serves as a vital advocate
for a diverse range ofstakeholders within the truck
stop industry, for most amongthese are truck stop owners and
(01:25):
operators.
Just like there's a truck owneroperator, there is a NATSO, a
truck stop owner operatororganization.
You see what I'm saying?
Kind of like the OOIDA, butthis is NATSO N-A-T-S-O.
Now the interesting thing, andthe reason I bring this up, is
because they have a CEO thatdecided she wanted to go out on
(01:46):
the road with a driver and seewhat it was like on this end of
the spectrum in order to figureout what we could do, what they
could do, to improve Natso'sinvolvement with the
owner-operator truck stops, andshe went out there.
Well, let me start from thebeginning.
I guess Now Natso, representingTruck Stops and Travel Plazas,
(02:08):
and Werner EnterprisesIncorporated, one of the
nation's largest transportationand logistics providers, kicked
off a CEO ride-along as part ofa unique safety collaboration
between the travel centerindustry and professional truck
drivers.
We understand the logistics oftruck stops because that's why
(02:28):
they call them that.
The vast majority of peoplethat need those are the trucks
they have placed in gas stationsand stuff like that, stuff for
four-wheelers, which is nice.
They don't completely cater tothe four-wheeler.
Their vast majority of theirbusiness is going to be the
truck driver, I would assume.
But you know they do provide uswith showers.
They provide us with all kindsof different things we can
(02:50):
purchase.
They do provide us withamenities that regular gas
stations and fuel stops do not.
Now Natsuo president and CEOLisa Mullings is joining Werner
driver Jennifer Evans on aweek-long 1,200-mile trip
beginning in Juliet, illinois.
They will stop along the way attruck stops and travel centers
so that Mullins can experiencelife on the road professional
(03:13):
truck drivers have to deal with,and Mullins will document her
experience, delivering insightsto the travel center executives,
owners and operators.
Now, before you say it, oh myGod, they're going to take a
whole week to do 1200 miles.
I could do that in my sleep,going backwards overnight, yeah
right.
Well, no, that's not going tohappen.
Anyway, I understand what youmean.
(03:34):
No, they're not doing this towin any races or to go on a
6,000 mile trip or whatever youknow, so they can cover the
whole week.
No, they're going to take theweek to primarily concentrate on
the information they need tobetter themselves for you, and
that is an enormous challenge.
Even though you're only lookingat 1,200 miles, you're probably
(03:54):
looking at quite a few stops.
I am hoping that I can talk withLisa Mullings and find out her
experiences while she was on theroad.
See how many truck drivers shetalked to, see what kind of
ideas they come up with.
You know, owner-operators ofthe truck stops, things like
that.
I mean, this is such valuableinformation that she can gather
(04:15):
and she seems like a very smartwoman, so I imagine she's going
to ask very legitimate questionsand, being on the road, you
know I've been a truck driverfor over 40 years.
A lot of you guys have been outthere.
It doesn't matter if you'vebeen out there a year or 40
years or 60 years.
The thing of it is things needto get better.
As we end up with more trucks onthe road, more cars on the road
(04:35):
, as we end up with morecongestion in general, as we end
up with more freight that hasto be hauled because more people
are buying products and thatincludes everything in between
picking up the freight anddropping it off, which primarily
would be your truck stopsBecause you need to stop to fuel
(04:58):
, you need to stop to getsupplies, you need to stop to
sleep, you need to stop to takea shower, you need to stop to do
a lot of things, and it is aprimary safe space for drivers
out there on the road so thatthey can, number one, be safe,
number two, take care of whatthey need to do and, number
three, continue on with theirload in order to deliver it in a
(05:19):
timely and safe fashion.
Now, according to natso'sfacebook page, they put down
that natso representing truckstops and travel plazas and
warner enterprises, one of thenation's largest transportation
and logistics providers, todaykicked off a, a CEO ride-along
as part of a unique safetycollaboration between the travel
center industry and itsprofessional truck driving
(05:40):
customers.
And that was dated on the 24th,so I imagine the week is pretty
much up by today, you know,which is Friday.
So I'm thinking that maybehopefully within the next week
or so, I can get some answers asto how the ride went.
I'm also going to call WernerEnterprises and see if I can
(06:01):
talk to that driver as well,because we it's important to us
and it's important to everybody.
I know they want to, you know,go out and do this thing
together, and they did, and theywant to provide the information
with the truck stop owners.
That's cool, but maybe there'san audience out there of truck
drivers that can also benefit onwhat they've learned on the
road.
And they did post a couple offew posts here.
(06:22):
Natso president and ceo lissymullins stopped for a break with
a one million miler, jenniferevans and buddy, which is the
dog at natso member will'sRacine Petro as part of the
Warner Enterprises ride-along.
I'm not sure where that's at.
It didn't give a city or statethat could be.
It Looks like it might be aquick trip, so I don't use quick
(06:47):
trips very often.
In the next post on the 27th,natatsos president and CEO Lisa
Mullins stopped for a break atthe member quick trip as part of
the Warner Enterprises and theydidn't put city or state, which
is unusual.
But anyway, that's the wholedeal there and I'm going to see
if I can get a hold of theseladies, do a small five-minute
interview and see if I can picktheir brain to see what they
(07:10):
found out.
Now, aaa had predicted 71million Americans would hit the
road on the 4th of July week andI'm assuming a good portion of
that was probably going to be onthe 4th of July, day before or
day after.
That is a 5% jump from lastyear and 8% more than
pre-pandemic levels.
(07:30):
And they were telling peoplesafe travels, get your supplies
here, blah, blah, blah.
All that good stuff.
But I'm I'm amazed, uh, by thefact that the CEO decided to go
out and spend a week withJennifer.
Now, I'm assuming when theystopped they stopped and did a
bunch of investigations, asked abunch of questions.
(07:50):
I imagine she stayed in a hotelduring their stopover or
whatever.
You know, 1,200 miles isn'tvery far to go to spend a whole
week out of the truck, but theweek could be the five days as
well.
This is stuff we're going toask and find out exactly what
route they took, what stops theymade and what questions they
asked.
(08:10):
Now the important thing here torealize is that now that you
have this information aboutNATSO, n-a-t-s-o I'm going to
put a link down below in thedescription of this podcast.
I want you to click on it.
I want you to read it.
We are the customers and if youguys have issues with certain
truck stops, that NATSO is apart of.
This gives you another avenueon who to contact to see if we
(08:33):
can rectify some of themproblems.
We know what the problems are.
Some truck stops have more ofthose issues than others.
It just gives us another tool.
If we take the time and becordial about it, be diligent
during our off time, you know,send off an email, call them,
contact them however you like todo things, and then bring up
(08:55):
your concerns about thatparticular truck stop, natso can
get involved.
The truck stop owners can getinvolved and maybe they can
solve that problem where youdon't have to deal with that
again, if you stop there quiteoften or if it's a one-off, you
can keep the next driver fromhaving to go through it.
It's very important that wework together and that things
(09:16):
like this click.
It just gives us another toolto use in order to make our
lives on the road a lot betterand more efficient.
Now, I did not tell you guys onMonday that I was taking
Wednesday off simply because ofthe fact that I forgot and I
need to start making show notes.
Even though my podcasts areonly 15 minutes long, I need to
start using show notes so that Iremember what to tell you.
(09:38):
But I would suggest you become,you know, like my Facebook page
.
I got Roland18podcast.
All the links are down below inthe description and that way
you can click on it, you canfollow me and when I put up
posts and stuff, you'll be ableto see exactly what I'm going to
do, and that's important to allof us in order to keep track of
whatever discussions we'rehaving.
So I apologize for not takingthe time to let you know there
(10:03):
was not going to be a Wednesdaypodcast.
If you notice there's going tobe a holiday falling around that
time and I do forget.
At least you'll go.
Well, it's a holiday, that'sprobably why he's Now.
I want to remind you drivers todo a great post-trip.
Pre-trip Only takes a fewminutes.
Look at the very importantthings your connections, your
tires.
Check out your rims.
(10:24):
Make sure there's no damagethat wasn't there before.
Look in between the tires onyour tandems.
I noticed a picture on theinternet the other day of a cat
that was stuck inside betweenthe two tires on the front left
tandem of a semi and to me thatwas scary.
I mean, I love animals and it'sunderstandable if one gets to,
(10:45):
you know, a bird slams into thewindshield and gets killed while
you're going down the road oryou hit a deer.
But if we can prevent stufflike that and we do a pre-trip,
we can check to make sure thereis nothing that is crawled
underneath your hood, underneathyour trailer, inside your
tandem wheels.
They literally had to take thewheels off to rescue that cat
and I thought it was pretty coolthat they actually took the
(11:07):
time to do that, because I knowsome good old boys that would
say, well, you have bad lucktoday and it's going to get
worse, and then they would takeoff, so let's not try and
squeeze them cats and make themsound like ketchup packs.
Let's do our best to save theirlives and do a walk around
Pre-trip, post-trip, whateveryour company requires, and then
go above and beyond that Becauseultimately it's going to be
(11:29):
your time that's going to bewasted and your company's money
or your money and that'ssomething that just deteriorates
bonuses, deteriorates otherthings, raises things like that.
Let's keep track of what we'redoing and let's stay safe on the
road, and the best way to dothat is pre-trips, post-trips,
and do a full walk around eachand every time.
(11:49):
Every time I stop, I walkaround my truck.
I don't care if it's for fiveminutes to grab a sandwich.
I do a complete loop around mytruck Takes all of 60 seconds
and my eyes are everywhere.
That way, I can see anyanomalies, any discrepancies,
and I can point it out and say,okay, I need to get something
done about this.
(12:10):
Now I don't know if you'venoticed, love's have started
numbering their parking spotsand a lot of people were
concerned as to whether or notLoveowe's was going to start
going all paid or half paid orwhatever.
Cdl Life reached out to themand here's what they said the
truck parking spaces at newlocations are now numbered so we
can better serve our customers.
(12:31):
One way they're currently beingused is for safety reasons.
If there's an issue with adriver, we can easily direct
emergency services to that truck.
Additionally, it helps map outthe truck parking area for
Love's team drivers as they goabout their daily duties.
Some truckers say that they areusing the new numbered spots in
(12:51):
order to help food deliverydrivers find them more easily,
which sounds pretty reasonableto me.
They have asked Loves and theysaid it's for deliveries like
DoorDash and Walmart.
You can give them a spot numberso they can find your truck
easier.
Otherwise they will get lostwith the you know five blue
freight liners next to eachother and stuff like that.
So all that's reasonable.
(13:12):
So if you see numbers at thenew parking spots at New Loves,
just remember new and old.
They're going to start doingthat.
Number one for emergencypurposes.
Number two DoorDash can reachyou a lot easier.
Number three they can identifycertain things for you.
You can say hey, look, I'm atspace number 15, and there's a
bear behind my truck.
(13:33):
Dnr can show up and take careof the bear.
I don't know, sounds reasonableto me.
But anyway, I appreciate youfolks listening to and or
downloading my podcast.
Check out all my links downbelow for Facebook, for
Instagram, for YouTube, forRumble.
I'm all over the place and Iappreciate you folks supporting
me, as always.
(13:53):
God bless, be safe.
Keep it between the lines.
Driver.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
God bless, be safe.
Keep it between the lines,driver.