Episode 2 - "Bulletproof": Inside Charlatte with Rob Lamb - The GSE Podcast

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(01:04):
All right, we are we're livehere and the second ever GSC
podcast I've got with me today.
Rob Lamb, the VP of Sales andMarketing for Charlotte America.
Hey, what's up, Rob? How areyou?
I'm doing great man. I greatlyappreciate the opportunity. Look
forward to talking to you today.
I would like to know why it wasnot selected as number one, but

(01:27):
I guess we can talk about that.
On another day, if you will.
Yeah, I think number two ispretty good man. But you know, I
think I've always known you. Youknow, as far as like people who
are VP of Sales for differentcompanies. I think you're the
second that, that I ever met,really. So I know. We were I was

(01:49):
originally with tog. And we metshortly after that, because you
were my competitor at the timeworking for Charlotte.
Yeah, what was it down at theMemphis barbecue where we met
down on the 10th there? And?
Yes, I do. And two together. I'mlike, You're

(02:09):
that guy? Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry.
I just gotta say me, and lets,you know, it was wonderful
meeting you. And I think you'reone of those examples of just,
you know, there's there's 500People in this fraternity of
GSE. That matters. And you'reone and I'm one and, you know,
we all get along?

(02:30):
Yeah, I think Brad told me whenwe were talking that I was 499.
So I just made the cut, youknow, which is super exciting
for me. No, but I remember thesame thing. So to give a little
background here, I was theaccount manager for FedEx for
photog and you were the accountmanager or I imagine at that

(02:52):
time, you're still the VP ofsales there as well for for
FedEx. And they invited both ofus to join their barbecue
competition Memphis in May. Andyou know, I think it speaks a
lot for the industry. Becausewe're well are just you, I'm not
sure which but, or maybe both.
But we showed up. And like Isaid, we were competitors at the

(03:13):
time, both calling on the samecustomer. And you were just so
nice to me. And I was verygreen. Right? I think I had been
in the GFC for about a year,maybe less. And you were just so
nice to me, even though youknow, you were my competitor.
And it was it was fantastic,man. And we've been we've been
friends ever since. And I reallyappreciate that and how nice you
are to me.

(03:34):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, whenyou're in sales or any kind of
marketing, you know, you're, Iguess you're you're born with
this gift, and that is readingpeople. And when I met you, I
mean, I knew from the verybeginning, you and I were gonna
get along, just body language.
Eventually, the stories we toldhim and I really appreciated the

(03:54):
friendship ever since.
Yeah, man. And I didn't know ifyou're being nice to me, because
you were such a nice guy or thefact that I think pretty sure I
bought the keg of beer. So Iwasn't sure if it was the keg
that won you over or just mypersonality, but it could,
again, could have been both? Wedon't know. Yeah, yeah, a
combination of both. And we'reall smiling because we're eating

(04:16):
some of that fantastic. Memphisbarbecue. So I want
to say we came in 19th overallthat year in ribs, if I remember
correctly,however, the first year, and
I'll get into my history in aminute, but the first year I was
I was on the team, but I wasn'ton the team. They would never
let me you know, touch thebarbecue cook anything. Like you

(04:39):
said, I think I might have beenin charge of you know, procuring
a few things here and there. Andit was not a FedEx event. But
several of the team membershappen to work at FedEx or were
retired from FedEx. Yeah, it wasthe first year and I was 1997
and I was down there and thenreads that turn the account over

(05:00):
to me. And I'll be darned. Youknow, there's God, I think. And
it's probably still this way.
Today, there's like 300 cookingteams. And you've got ribs,
whole hog, or shoulder andother. And the team that I was
on used to cook ribs. And therewere like 120 teams doing ribs.

(05:23):
And they would crown a championfor each category. So we had
four champions. And then at theend, they would crown the grand
champion. And the team that Iwas working with there called
the other team, they won thegrand championship that first
year that I was there. Sothey're like, oh, Rob, maybe
you're gonna love Charmin like,I don't think so. Because after

(05:47):
his eight year, I went forprobably another 20 years, and
they never wanted ever again. Sothey're there you have it,
they've placed high and this andthat, but they have not won a
Grand championship. And sincewhen I recall, it was a nice pay
out for those guys that actuallyran the team and were
technically on the team. So canI ask you a question? Yes, sir.

(06:11):
Do you go around claiming thatyou are a barbecue like World
Champion? To like your friendsthat really don't know the whole
story?
You know, what? That because Iwouldn't know. It depends on how
gullible the person is. Okay.
All right. But But no, you know,it did cost me some money
because I felt like I then hadto go get a green egg and learn

(06:31):
how to do this and that, youknow, this temperature and, and
that and peel the back of theribs of membranes, all that. So
let's just say I'm the best atcooking barbecue on my street.
I gotta tell you, I think wecould have a barbecue podcast at
this point. I'm thinking weshould maybe start that. And

(06:52):
actually, I think it's thereason that I have a big green
egg is because you got a biggreen egg. This is a funny
story. So you got a big greenegg. And then I imagined that
cliff Chapman got a big greenegg. And then I went to cliffs
house. And I was like, I gottahave one of those big green
eggs. So I'm pretty sure thattell the story went in. So
you're actually the reason that,that I'm into barbecue as well.

(07:14):
Look at that. Well,and, and you know, and that sort
of ties and, you know, to mybackground and how I got into
this business. I got a green eggbecause Ben Reeves had a big
green egg. So we'll go back hereto the beginning of Rob lambs
life. And that was I was born inmetro Atlanta, and ended up
going to Auburn University. Andhad a really good time over

(07:39):
there. I can say this and bevery proud of it. We'll show you
how long ago it was. But when Iwas there, we never lost to
Alabama. Sonearly as impressive.
I graduated in December of 1989.
And it was funny back theneverything was on the quarter
system. I did not go to gradschool. So I don't know what

(08:00):
would have happened then. Butnever ever was on semesters. And
Oh, see, I thought I thought youmeant the quarter system was
quarter beers. Oh, is that not?
Is that not? Okay. I thought youjust gave like somebody a
quarter and they gave you abeer. That's not what you're
talking about.
No, no, don't make me do Auburnmath. You know, okay. Well,

(08:24):
there's a beer is the equals 12pack or kids?
Okay, yeah. So you were atAuburn University. And you all
were on quarters.
Okay, so at Auburn, they were onthe quarter system. And that was
a wonderful thing. Because ifyou had a really bad quarter,
which was exactly 10 weeks, hecould make it up to next

(08:44):
quarter. So to reference that,people at Auburn would say, Are
you graduating in the spring ontime and I got to say like many
others was Nam coming back foran extra football sees because
school would start in the middleof September and it would end
the first week of December. Soyeah, I was there for national

(09:06):
football season. graduated in89. Met my lovely bride there.
Julie, who I've been married tofor 31 wonderful years. So I'm
two years older than her. Sowhen I graduated from Auburn, I
worked at a local exerciseequipment manufacturing company
down there. Many people may haveheard of this company. It's

(09:29):
called diversified products DPFit for Life. If you're older
than 50 years old, I'm quiteconfident you had one of their
pieces of equipment in yourhouse and made everything from
orbitron weights, to treadmillsto air mics and this and that.
And so it worked there for twoyears waiting for Julie to

(09:50):
graduate. And I tell you, it wasprobably the most enlightening
experience I've ever had becausethis was a gigantic company
where We had at least 10 or 15assembly lines. And these were
pretty impressive assemblylines, you know, back in, you
know, 9090 9091, you know,before robotics came out and so

(10:13):
forth. But anyway, so shegraduates from Auburn, like
anybody else, we moved back toAtlanta, because in my opinion,
at the time, it was verydifficult to make a living and
South Alabama so I came back tothe big city, just basically
threw my hat in the ring goingthrough the newspapers back then
as I can age myself, you know,the Internet was not really

(10:36):
quiet around yet. So I found ajob, you know, interviewed a few
different places and ended upand started my airline career,
if you will, with a big cargoairline called Emory worldwide.
Emery airfreight had been aroundfor several years. And I took a

(10:58):
job there as an account managerin charge of the East Coast of
the US handling theirinternational air freight that
sort of fit the bill because Igraduated with a degree in
international business, foreignlanguage trade Spanish. So that
was pretty cool. I'm like,alright, well, I'm dealing with
imports, exports, you know,customs brokerage and all of

(11:20):
this. And, you know, I cut myteeth there for five years. That
was a, a more enlighteningexperience, because I was
selling a good product, but itwas, in my opinion, expensive.
We've provided the service, butit's a very competitive
business. It's even more todaybecause there's so many freight
forwarders not just theintegrated carriers of you know,

(11:42):
FedEx, UPS and DHL, there's,there's all these other people
that are moving freight aroundthe globe, but we could talk
about that supply chain messthat these people and all of us
manufacturers have been dealingwith forever. But long story
short, Ben Reeves, and I were inthe same fraternity. And Ben got

(12:04):
married to a lovely lady namedAmy. And her father happened to
own a company called tugmanufacturing in Kennesaw,
Georgia. Well, I ended up goingto a Christmas party at her
dad's house, Don Chapman onenight and Don occurred or he
learned that I worked for andrear freight. At the time, Emery

(12:26):
was a pretty darn good customerof tugs. They had a hub in
Dayton, Ohio, and an oldcolleague and friend of mine,
who we both know very well, whoI believe was your first
podcast, Brad Compton washandling the Emory account up in
Dayton, Ohio. And Brad being theprofessional salesperson and

(12:50):
successful as he has been allthese years had just sold. I
believe it was 40 M H crew vans,basically where they took the
back where the, you know, theshape tail, I think we call it
two. And they basically cut itout and made it so they put two
benches on each side and wouldtake people out on the ramp back
and forth to the aircraft, thecrews and so forth. Well, I

(13:12):
think that I've may have solddawn that I had something to do
with some of the operation orprocurement or something. And at
Emory, and next thing you know,he asked me to come work for
Tang, and I get there and I'mlike, kind of surely hope he
doesn't expect me to get anybusiness because I don't know
anybody in operations. Nobody inprocurement, I was in sales,

(13:35):
trying to sell the airframe. Buta long story short, I guess we
could say that, that Ben got mein this business. I'm forever
grateful to him. I've made somany incredible friendships. I
spent eight years at tugmanufacturing, it was tug
manufacturing that it was StuartStevens and Stuart and Siemens

(13:58):
and tug and then come 2005 Itwas dive rated apart and decided
to take a big risk. And youknow, they always say the bigger
the risk that the higher thereward. And I think that
somewhat applies in this case,because I got recruited away to

(14:22):
go work for a French companywhere I work now. Charlotte of
America and Bluefield, Virginia.
So I was gonna go from the bigcity of Atlanta, up to the up to
Central Appalachia. And yeah, ittook me a while, you know, they
told me, you know, robins notpronounced Appalachian, it's
Appalachia. But I finallyfigured that out. Louis Galliano

(14:42):
was the president of Charlotteat the time and he basically met
with me and offered me the joband I saw that the industry was
was trending towards electricvehicles, even though it was a
limited market. At the time, itwas still a market that, in my
opinion had been untapped. Andsome of the sales management

(15:07):
they had at Charlotte at thetime, or previous to me, made it
pretty easy for me just to comein there and, you know, get out
in front of a customer and makethe calls and they just weren't
selling or marketing theirvehicles correctly, because
Charlotte had a superior productto its competition. And now the

(15:27):
rest is pretty much history comeSeptember will have been there.
18 years. Wow.
So that's at that time. Yeah, Ihad hair back then. Man. Oh,
man.
So long time ago, man. So at thetime, when you when you left to

(15:47):
go to Charlotte, what were whatwas their product line? Was it
the like the T 137? Or was itthat time was the 135 or
something? And then did theyhave the belt loader?
Yeah, so it was mainly just, youknow, the, the DC powered bag
tractor along with a DC poweredfull size belt loader. Okay.

(16:11):
And, you know, they've had toolarge customers have done too
little of two of the legacycarriers, but they really
weren't doing business withanybody else. So there was some
low hanging fruit. And, boy, youknow, they say timing is
everything. And I think my moveto there was a perfect example
of that.

(16:32):
Well, yeah, you've doneincredibly well there. And it's
more than just timing. I mean,you're, you're obviously a great
salesperson as well. So so theyconverted the both the bell
loader and the electric Braggtractor to AC I would say a
couple years after you gotthere. Is that correct?
Yes, sir. That is absolutelycorrect. It is. You know, and I

(16:53):
know we'll we'll talk abouttechnology as we move through
the podcast. Of course, I know,that's something you want to
talk about. But yeah, itespecially when we get to new
products, and so forth. As wemove forward, we still only had
one dc product here recently.
And that was the intermediatebelt loader. And that was one of
those things, just you know, ifit ain't broke, don't fix it.

(17:14):
But we're finally going AC onit, even though it's one of our
most dependable vehicles. Buthonestly, in the realm of
electric vehicles, a belt loaderis probably the best application
because you use, you know, sofew amp hours and running a belt
loader, or at least the conveyordeck of a belt loader. So

(17:34):
do anyhow, yeah, I've a randomquestion for you here do have
anti-collision on the beltloader.
Yes, sir. We do. We call thescout system.
Oh, when did that come out?
Um, I guess three years ago,maybe Wow, shortly after IATA
hit, you know, come out and saidthat they would like for folks

(17:56):
to put that on there. So yeah,we do provide it. Quite
honestly, it's not somethingwe've been surprised that not
many people have mandated it.
And sitting back, it's like,well, we know the customers know
their business. If, if they'renot specifying it, you know, I'm
not going to ask them to pay thex $1,000. To put it on there.

(18:17):
Yeah, it's honestly one of thesethings where so I have, I have a
car that has all the anticollision stuff on it, but my
wife's car does not. And I havea very hard time going from
driving my car to than her car,because I'm used to the
technology, right? So I knowthat my car is not going to get
out of its lane and things likethat. When I get into her car.

(18:41):
I'm not paying as muchattention. And then realizing
like, Oh, I'm out of my lane,because I'm so used to that. So
I think it's like, a lot of itmay be that, yeah, these
airlines and things like thatthey don't want their operators
to get used to that technology,and then all the sudden because
if they can't convert the wholefleet, right, then it's safer
almost just to keep the fleetnon non anti-collision just for

(19:04):
the simple fact that unless youcan convert them all don't
convert any of them type ofmentality, it would be my guess.
I don't know what your thoughtis on that.
Yeah, I think you're right. Andas we say back in the 90s dittos
rush. I know where you're comingfrom, you know, cuz I've got to
the same situation with with anolder car and a brand new car.

(19:26):
And it's it definitely issomething to get used to. I do
not have a self driving car, butI do have all those those bells
and whistles on it.
Yeah, unfortunately, I don'thave the self driving car
either. But maybe one day.
Well, we are in GSC you know, wedon't make millions knits right
now. But anyway, yeah, so I'vebeen around airplanes for for 31

(19:50):
years. And this industry hasbeen so good to me. I've learned
you know, so many things from somany CEOs that I work for Don
Chapman, Mike Grimes, JohnKeating, Louie Galliano, and
even now my my current boss,bass, Jen novo, hello from
Sharla Mandy tension, just somebackground here. Sharla is a

(20:16):
company that is owned by theFiat Group. And the Fiat Group
is a French like the word group.
And one designator of that is,is that it's not a corporation
in that I can buy common shares.
The Fiat Group is 231 company'sin 170 countries and John

(20:41):
qualify and Lauren find out,basically are the shareholders
and we work for that family. Andthey own 70 companies with about
100 different subsidiaries is inCharlotte America is one of
those companies where mypresident manages both
locations. The only differenceis is you know, the destination

(21:05):
of the vehicle, how it's builtwith C spec or not, as he
handles the, you know, the p&land the operations management of
both our facility in Burgundy,as well as in Virginia. So we're
both called Sharla. It's justyou know, from a legal
standpoint, we're CharlotteAmerica, and their Charlotte
Mandy attention. So as far as myresponsibility goes, I am my

(21:31):
sales territory is all of theAmericas. So I can go from
Halifax, Nova Scotia, in theMaritimes, down to Lima, Peru or
Santiago, Chile. Oh, it's agigantic area, and I got a few
people that helped me with it.
But, you know, most of ourbusiness is in the US and
Canada. Okay.
Do you all bring units over fromEurope and sell them in the

(21:55):
United States? Are you onlyselling units that are produced
in the United States in theAmericas? Well,
you know, it's, it's interestingthat technically, we have two
way traffic across the Atlantic.
Okay, we build, I think we'rethe only manufacturer that
builds like vehicles in bothlocations. However, there are
right now, two products thatwe've been selling for years.

(22:21):
The T 208, which is like alittle, a little gate Tugger, if
he will, little toe eight tons.
I love that vehicle, because itmight be the most reliable
vehicle that we sell. And it'sreally, I love it, because we
don't have much competition, weactually we have zero

(22:41):
competition there.
So that is that a smaller bagattractor, just less weight, and
just smaller footprint?
That's exactly right. We used tomarket it on time, you know, two
thirds of size two thirds, theprice of the T 137. Wow. So so
that one they still build overthere. Because we sell a ton of

(23:02):
those to all the automanufacturers over in Europe,
how that makes sense. I haven't.
And even though I'm selling itto three different airlines,
here on this side of the pond,we just haven't gotten up into
those big numbers over 100 toactually, you know, assemble
them, err, it's easier for usjust to build them there and put
them on an ocean container andbring them over the other

(23:25):
vehicle is the CFB 2000 TheCharlotte flatbed 2000. So we've
talked about the MH earlier,great. Textron bills, it's very
similar to to the texture on MHexcept it's electric. It's a
little more narrow and it'slonger. But anyway, it's it's
got a real flat battery in it,like underneath some panels in

(23:49):
the deck on the back and gotlike 4000 pounds on it and it
will and you can use it withbaggage rails around it, you can
put a mark of a baggage cart onthe back with a shelf in it and
curtains the whole deal, it willstill pull, you know so as 3000
pounds of powerbar pull evenwith the weight on that deck. So
it is another product is veryunique to us. We're seeing a lot

(24:12):
of a lot of interest in thatvehicle right now.
Yeah, that because it's got itsnarrow, it can pull a lot. Seems
like there'll be a lot ofapplications for that.
Yeah, and just like any otherhigh speed vehicle, it will do
25 miles an hour. Wow. In manyapplications, many applications,

(24:33):
thank goodness for the Curtiscontroller you can you can dial
speed, you know, if you have aspeed limit of 10 or 50 miles an
hour or rap, we can make it thatthat's the you know, the top
speed if you will.
Well, that's incredible. Sothat's still being built in
France. Along with the was itthe 208

(24:56):
Yep, the D 208. The eight on theend of that stand Inspiron
little that it will tow eighttons. It only goes eight miles
an hour, but tow basically16,000 pounds. It is just such a
unique little vehicle turns on adime. And when you see it, you
can tell why. But just like allof our other vehicles that we

(25:18):
build it or electric, eventhough internal combustion is
still part of our business to80% of its electric, they all
have a version of the sameCharlotte rear axle. And the
reasonthat is is a big part of it,
Terry? axle?
Yes, sir. It is gotten. We buildthat in our factory in Burgundy,

(25:39):
France. And it's one of the it'sprobably 50% of the reason I
went to take the job atSherlock, because it has been so
dependable. They've beenbuilding it since the early 90s.
It's the same design, whether itgoes into 208, the belt loader,
or the T 137. It's the Charlotteaxle. We design the front X, we

(26:02):
have another supplier build thatfor us. But that rear axle and
its reliability is what makesour our product line, you know,
almost bulletproof.
You know, that's so funny thatyou said bulletproof because I
think I've heard other people inthe industry describe the axle
as bulletproof. And I was gonnasay, so it's basically both. So

(26:24):
that's pretty good. Yeah, butI've heard I've heard I've heard
stories about this axle. Soapparently it is it is something
that you all have that nobodyelse has, and makes your units
very reliable. And it's thereason that you sell a lot of
electric tractors.
Yeah, we sure do. It. No, theproblem is, though, you know,

(26:48):
electric vehicles, unlike theinternal combustion ones, where
you gotta replace an enginehair, and yeah, all that
maintenance with, you know,internal combustion, the problem
with electric vehicles is, isthey last too long. Now, if you
take care of electric vehicle,you're not going to sell as many
because you can get 1520 yearsout of the model the ramp. I

(27:08):
mean, yeah, there's, you know,there's tough push backs, and,
you know, some some old, youknow, Stuart Stevenson's and pay
movers and all those guys outthere, but push backs different,
you know, they're not working awhole lot. They can last, what,
30 years plus, but for some ofthem that's running around the
ramp all day, you know, the lastfor 15 to 20 years, is pretty
darn impressive.

(27:29):
So speaking of push backs, doyou offer a push back or an
electric push back?
We have played in that arena inthe past. And, you know, we've
only sold a few handfuls ofthose, we would like to be in
that business. But it is justit's difficult because we don't

(27:50):
buy enough from the axlemanufacturers because we would
not make that axle that wouldnot be a Charlotte rear axle. No
guys on that. And we currentlydo not have a an axle
manufacturer to supply us those.
I'd like to be in that business.
Because last time I crunched thenumbers, the price for one of

(28:12):
those with the batteries thatyou know, would be the ballast
on each pontoon on the rightside is the same amount of money
as an internal combustion. Yeah,but you know, as grants drive
our business and so forth, it'sit's usually just the tractors
and the belt loaders when theyget all the, you know, the
emissions credits back and notnecessarily the push backs,

(28:34):
although there are some forthat.
Okay. Yeah. Because I think, youknow, as the industry moves
towards electrification, whichwe can, we can discuss, you
know, you would think thatCharlotte would want to be able
to offer like, a full narrowbodypackage, right. So that way, you
have all, you know, the pushback the belt loader, or the
baggage tractor, you know,enough to support in an entire

(28:56):
operation, but I do understandthat. I mean, if you don't buy
very large quantities of thesethings, it can be, they can get
super expensive, I imagine.
Yeah, and, you know, the pushfrom the airlines, if, if
somebody came to me and said,Robin, two years, SCS made 100
of these, we'd go back to thedrawing board. And, you know, we

(29:20):
would redesign a vehicle to makeit happen, but I just don't
think the quantities are theretoday. That could be changing.
But yeah, we're, we're satisfiedwith our portfolio with not
having one of those.
Yeah, so let's talk aboutelectrification and GSC. So,
obviously, you know, you've beenselling electric tractors since

(29:41):
the 90s. They've been out there.
They are not. I wouldn't saythey are the majority of
tractors out there, but there'sobviously a push from the
industry to go more towardselectric. What are your
thoughts? Is that going tohappen? Is there going to be II?
Is every location going to goelectric? Where do you all see

(30:03):
that going?
You know, it's it has been funto watch it grow every single
year, I spent about 10 years onthe advisory board than every
and stands for Electric PowerResearch Institute, that was

(30:25):
really eye opening, because thatwas sort of the, at the
beginning of all of this, Ithink I was around 2000. If that
makes sense. I think I carriedit over. And I think I was there
when I was with Brand X. Andthen I think I stayed on when I
came over to, to Charlotte, Ihaven't been on it many years.

(30:46):
But back then, the state ofCalifornia was basically paying
my salary, and keeping thelights on Charlotte out of
America, because theCalifornians are the ones that
started this whole thing. Not ahuge fan of California, cost a
lot to live there. And it's longways from home. But they started

(31:07):
out with the memo ofunderstanding the California Air
Resources Board, you know, andthey went hot and heavy on it.
Next thing, you know, all thesedifferent grants and so forth,
are, are popping up on the WestCoast and everybody started
electrified airports, you know,from LAX to Burbank. But to
answer your question, to giveyou an idea, I just told you

(31:29):
back then it was pretty much thestate of California with with a
little bit sprinkled in on theEast Coast and this and that,
but there wasn't a whole lot ofmoney to get from the
government. So if you did it, ifyou did go electric, you had the
infrastructure, and you werejust smart enough to know to go
electric and tractors and beltloaders. Because of the cost

(31:50):
savings that's there. The ROI ishigher on an electric vehicle
than it is on an internalcombustion engine. And I'm sure
you've seen all those studiesand this and that, but I'm not
going to sell you on that today.
But to give you an idea, so thewhole state of California, at
least the major airports there,they're making a push to go
electric. Then you see the bigcities, you know, the SeaTac

(32:11):
Airport, both airports inChicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia,
all the hubs in Texas, Memphis,Denver, Dallas, Las Vegas, in
here, most recently, we've gotKansas City, as a mid sized
airport, as I might describe it,Vancouver and Toronto, this, you
know, everything's starting toreally burst at the seams.

(32:34):
So you hear a lot of people talkabout infrastructure at the
airports, and that's the reasonyou don't see a lot of electric
equipment at the airports isbecause the infrastructure,
isn't there. So are these grantsalso covering the infrastructure
for these airports?
Well, you know, there's, there'sdifferent types of grants. Each

(32:55):
airline is they have anenvironmental department. And I
guess I could just very simplysay that, you know, some
environmental departments aremore engaged with tech ops,
customer service, or GSE,depending on how that airline
manages their business throughtheir different departments.
Yes, the I word, if it weren'tfor infrastructure, I would be

(33:19):
selling at least 100% moreequipment than I sell right now.
What happens is, and these arenot things that happen
overnight, it doesn't matter ifit's the wealthiest state, the
wealthiest County, you know,every airport has its own
challenges internally. And thatcould be from the airport

(33:40):
management, it could be thestate that they're in, it could
be where they are with, with thefederal government programs that
are offered the actualunderstanding of the grants,
knowing the deadline of thegrants are the big issue. But
the main driver of the lack ofinfrastructure is the age of the

(34:03):
terminals where they want to putin the fast chargers to charge
these vehicles, even up totoday. The reason Europe has
sold twice as many vehicles asme and my competition has here
in the US is because they don'treally use fast charging over in

(34:23):
Europe. So if you're not usingfast charging, you have to buy
twice as many vehicles right? Asyou might not have time for
eight to 10 hours to you know,plug it up to a standard
charger. Well over here, ifpeople are going to do it,
they're going to make their bestattempt to do it right and to do
it right is to spend the moneyand bring in the utility

(34:45):
companies to help pay for thisand that and the grants but
bring in the the experts youknow that that sell the fast
chargers and build a terminal orfind the power in an existing
building. And then it's got 480volt 38, three phase behind the
wall. So you can put in thesefast chargers that will take an

(35:07):
electric vehicle for 20 to 80%and two and a half hours. And
that's a flooded lead acidbattery, okay? Those numbers are
improving as the technology andbatteries come along, too. But
anyhow, it's, it's all driven bythe age of the terminal, who is
going to pay? Okay, I can't tellyou how many times we've gotten

(35:31):
almost to the finish line withan airline and or a city. And
all sudden the project getscalled off. And and this is
mostly in some smaller cities.
Yeah. And the reason and thereason it gets paused or delayed
is because the city and theairport pump the airline was
paying for it. And the airlinebought the city and the airport
were paying for theinfrastructure. Yeah. And that's

(35:52):
that's a true story. But youknow, it happens. Again, it all
comes back to sales, one on onecommunication. But we have seen
that improved greatly. recently.
And I think this Kansas Cityproject, I can't speak for
everything that went went onbehind the scenes, but I spoke

(36:12):
at a at a conference, anelectrification Conference in
Long Beach, California a handfulyears ago, and and met with all
kinds of different utilitycompanies and so forth that, you
know, had a stake in this KansasCity project. And in my opinion,
it sounds like they got it donebefore, you know, they expect it

(36:35):
to, and today we're shippingvehicles for multiple airlines
to Kansas City. All right.
Well, no, I appreciate youexplaining the infrastructure
deal to me. I just have anotherquick question for you here. So
what do you find to be like themost challenging aspect of your
job?
Oh, well, goodness. Right now,last year, five years ago, 10

(36:59):
years ago, let's speak inpresent day. It would have to be
having enough flexibility totravel and be in front of the
customers face to face. That iswhat I'm not able to do enough
of that I want to do more ofbecause this business is all

(37:20):
about relationships. Yes, youhave to have the solid product.
But you have to have thatinteraction with the customers.
And you know, with moremanagement duties, the growth of
the company, spending more timein Virginia, I live halftime in
Atlanta, and I've got atownhouse in Virginia, that's
just absorbing more of my time,and you know me pretty well,

(37:44):
it's we have more fun on theroad than we do at a factory.
Right? That's for sure. That'sthe challenging part is trying
to get back on the road and dowhat I do. Being the face of
Sharla. Yes, I do have peoplethat worked for me, that are
doing a fine job out there inthe field. But, you know, doing

(38:06):
this for for so many years,there's I got a lot of friends
that I've known for 25 yearssince I got into GSC.
Specifically. And yeah, I missthose guys and gals. We're good.
Yeah, yeah, the traveldefinitely got cut back during
COVID. And all that. And so nowjust trying to get back out

(38:26):
there. But on that topic, Ithink this would be a good time.
So do you have like a memorablestory or like about a project
you worked on? You know,specifically in GSE?
Yeah, one thing I was gonna say,too, if I can just come back.
Yeah. One of the reasons I havebeen spending so much time in

(38:46):
Virginia, during COVID sinceCOVID. Is is the supply chain
mess? Do I think it's gettingbetter? Yes. Are my customers
frustrated? Of course they are.
If somebody tells you they'renot having supply chain issues,
that's an OEM and GSCI. I would,I would bet they're probably not
telling you the whole truth.

(39:07):
Though, right now, my biggestchallenge besides the selfless
challenge, what I think it'sgood for the company and keeping
those relationships alive andworking with the customers to
find solutions is balancing thesupply chain as it relates to
those components going intofinished goods versus

(39:30):
replacement, spare parts at eachend. And that both ways, it's
just how we fraction it up.
We're struggling with that allthe time. Do we make money on
parts? Yes, we make money onvehicles. Yes. But, you know,
sometimes that well, many, manytimes the same people that are
buying the finished goods thethe T 137, CBl 2080 208

(39:52):
Whichever of our our numerousproducts that we have I can't
get them the large number offinished goods that they're
trying to I, and provide themwith all the spare parts and
replacement parts. So that's oneof the things we've been trying
to juggle or turtle. I thinkit's getting better as each

(40:14):
month goes by. But there aresome crazy things that we just
can't get our hands on thatbalance there is, is what's
interesting, because thecustomer needs to put the
vehicles back into service, youknow, that they're ordering the
parts for which is my vehicle.
But then again, they want toknow where the new ones are,

(40:35):
too. So that's probably the thereal challenge of the OEM
itself.
Yeah, we think that makes sense.
Oh, it totally makes sense. And,you know, our previous guests
that was on the podcast, havesaid the same thing. I mean,
it's, it's, we're all dealingwith the challenge of the supply
chain at the at this moment intime, and hopefully it is

(40:55):
getting better. And I bet thatis a difficult thing to juggle
on, on what you're going to whatyou're going to supply, right,
whether it be spare parts or thelawn, and they went both, quite
honestly. And as a customer,you'd want both, but some, you
know, the the current state ofthe industry and the supply
chain, sometimes you're gonnahave to make that difficult

(41:16):
decision. And I can Yeah, I'dsay that it's probably a really
challenging part of your job atthis moment in time.
Yeah, but that's what they payus for. Right big guys. That
is it. So so now I'm gonna goback to go back to my question
here. So do you have like amemorable story about a project
you've worked on? But 50 dividedthe value of only about 50

(41:40):
projects you've worked on? Ididn't know if you had a good
story in the chamber here youwanted to talk about?
You know, it's interesting.
We'll go with a G rated story.
Yeah, those are always bestrated.
But the one I'm most proud of, Ispeak Spanish. Some might
consider that fluid. Some mightconsider it trash. However, you

(42:05):
know, I can travel anywhere andget by and you know, I would
think any dialect. No, Spanishis the second most common
language around the world. But Ihave a my sales manager. His
name is Todd Goins. and he'sbeen with the company. You know,
I hired him one year after Iarrived there. And he is fluent

(42:27):
in Spanish. He worked for a bigair cargo carrier down in
Venezuela. He worked for acharter airline down in Miami.
He's and he's actually from fromBluefield, Virginia. Ironically,
as when I did the search andfound him it was sort of that
old company monster. Adam. Yeah,they're still remember them.
Yeah, no idea where he lived inliving in and town, I thought I

(42:49):
was going to have to getsomebody from, you know, from
Charlotte, or Bristol or Roanokeor, you know, even Washington,
DC. And here, this guy comes towork for me. And he's been
managing the sales for me. Andhe's been in charge of Latin
America, because he isabsolutely fluent in Spanish, he
speaks fluent. And his house islovely bride is from Venezuela.

(43:14):
And one of the first things wedid in the first five years I
was there, the most memorable,you know, besides bringing on
the legacy carriers, and thevery large discount carriers,
and all those big wheels up herein the United States, he started
poking around, down and down inLatin America. And if you're

(43:35):
familiar with NAFTA, andeverything else, Chile is the
country that's probably the mostlike the United States when it
comes to standards of living,and so forth. And he started
working with some groundhandlers down there that were
doing some business with, withland at the time, and other
called La Tam, and these groundhandlers. I think there were two

(43:56):
different ones. But long storyshort, we all know, you know,
what the geography of Chile isfrom north to south, you know,
the long skinny border on the onthe ocean there. But once it was
all said and done, after a fewyears, we had accomplished
putting electric tractors on 10different airports in the

(44:17):
country of Chile. And that isprobably my it's in my top 10 of
success stories. But I thinkit's unique to show that we've
gone to markets that otherpeople have it and been
successful. And that's why didthe foreign language make a
difference? Heck, yes, it did.

(44:38):
But anyway, not superimpressive. My fake. Yeah,
married andthey were like, gosh, I didn't
know there were 10 airports inChile. Well, we're Americans may
even everybody else, we'reignorant to geography. I mean,
unless you've been to Chile orwhatever, you're not gonna know
there's 10 airports so but therewe know there's all always
Santiago. Have the New York Cityof Chile. But it's just really

(45:00):
cool to see how many differentspots on the map. We've
delivered electric vehicles tobe a belt loader to Dubuque,
Iowa, or to some tractors toKalispell, Montana. It's not
just the big airports in the bigcities.
Yeah. And I would say that youand Todd are pretty unique in

(45:23):
the fact that you can speakSpanish fluently. And from that
part of the country, I thinkthat's pretty impressive.
Yeah, you know, and if I weregiving them the, the GSE
business, I think that'ssomething that, you know, we
should talk about maybe that itwas on your list. If somebody
wanted to enter this industry,and they were an individual. The

(45:44):
first thing I tell them is towork for a family company.
That's my opinion. I did thatwith Don Chapman. And I've done
that with the Fiat Group, John,Claude and Lawrence, I have
owned Charlotte since 1999. Sothere has been no change. And,
you know, the senior management,we basically worked with

(46:07):
autonomy, they let us do whatwe're gonna do. And we've been
profitable, really, ever sincewe opened the doors in 1993.
This is our is our 30 yearanniversary. So we're very
excited about that congratulatedme my number one, hey, thank you
very much. You know, I'd tellsomebody to go work for a
private company. But then tocome back from what I said a

(46:29):
minute ago, if you're going towork for an international
company, especially when like,the Fiat Group, or any other
Fortune 500 learn a foreignlanguage. It's not it would not
be easy for someone my age. Butif there was a young person
coming in to enter the GSEbusiness, I'd tell them to learn
a foreign language. No. Andspecifically, since it is the

(46:51):
second largest in the world, I'dsay Spanish. It is pretty funny
when I tell people, no, I workfor the French and they say, Oh,
you speak French? I said, No, Ispeak Spanish. They're like,
well, what's that all about? I'mlike, all you knows, French is
is very similar to Spanish.
However, you know, when you getover here, and the Americas,
unless you're in Quebec, orHaiti, there's not gonna be

(47:13):
anybody that speaks French.
That's right. And that's what Istudied in high school was
French, and I made a hugemistake.
Well, you know, it's, it'samazing how different how
similar languages are, but thenagain, how different they are
just because they're separatedwith by that mountain chain, and
that little country of Endor, upon the top of the mountain

(47:34):
there.
But your geography is fantastic.
By the way, I wish I know, halfthe amount of geography that you
do. This is super impressive,but you were international
business. So I imagine that, youknow, so how has the industry
changed over the years? Is thereany like, you know, future
trends you see in the GSE?
Sector?
Yeah, there is. But I want tocome back to that other

(47:56):
question. I just wanted toexpand on, you know, back again,
you know, trying to help thepeople that are coming into the
GS O's, yeah, let's,let's hit up those people do
that,you know, that, you know, these
kids are graduating from,whether it be University of
Georgia, Alabama, Nebraska, USC,whatever. Besides trying to find
a family company that you getthat you can work with learning

(48:21):
a foreign language, I think thatbigger is not always better.
Everybody in the Europeans liketo call it a full liner, or
something a little bit lost intranslation there, and that's
fine. But companies in thisindustry, it doesn't matter how
big you are, or how manyproducts you offer, you're never

(48:42):
gonna have everything thateverybody needs on the ramp. If
you have airstones, GPUs, beltloaders, this, that and the
other, you're not gonna havetail stands or towbars, there's
always gonna be something thatyou don't sell. But you need to
find a company that's reallygood at what they do, what they
focus on, and is at the top oftheir game. And that's what I've

(49:02):
done. And then you go out, andyou build the relationships out
of this people, the 500 people Iwas talking about before, and
you create those relationshipsand turn them into, but let's
call them loose partnerships arevery good friendships. You go in
and you see somebody and they'relike, you know, I'm talking to
him about all our vehicles. Andthey say, Rob, you know, we need

(49:24):
a new tow bar manufacturer, anew vendor. Well, good. My
friend, Scott Kennedy at Hallindustries a call if I'm going
to see a small regional airline,and you know, they need some
small stairs or something likethat call Chad at Clyde. So
that's just something that Iwould I would throw out there.
Are we envious of the really bigguys at times? Sure. But when

(49:47):
the rubber hits the road, it'snice to work for a smaller
company, where you can control,supervise and even advise As
senior management what you'redoing, and be on site where
they're building the product dayin and day out, if you have
34567 factories on everycontinent, and you're selling

(50:12):
something to somebody, it's backwhen I was selling air freight,
I couldn't control the guydriving that truck up to the
dock in Amsterdam, whether ornot he was going to actually get
it on the airplane, ship it toJFK, get it down to Dayton, and
have it delivered in Columbia,South Carolina, you have no
control. And that's what Ireally liked about working for a
small company,I would have to agree with you.

(50:34):
So I work for Sasser familycompany, which owns Exede. And
I've so much enjoyed working fora family company. And we kind of
have the same, I mean, speaking,generally, we have the same type
of mentality you do, right,which is go to the people who,
you know, what I'm trying to sayis we buy the best products from

(50:57):
the best manufacturers. Andthat's the reason we buy a lot
of Charlotte electric tractors,because you all are fantastic at
that product. And we can kind ofpick and choose what
manufacturers we use for whatpieces of equipment provide our
customers with, you know, withthe best pieces to fit their
operation. So very much agreewith all those points that you

(51:19):
make there.
Yeah, and, and to that point, Iknow, it's gonna sound like I'm
kissing your butt. Butplease go ahead. You know, now,
you know, you piqued myinterest. Go ahead. Okay,
well, and anyway, you asked me,you know, what's the most
challenging part of my job?
Well, we could say I could bevery sarcastic and say, getting
the customer to pay their bills,pay that invoice. You know, your

(51:43):
net 30 Come on, you know, we'reout 61 days, where's my money?
Yeah, the deal. The DSO justrambles out of control. And I
have seriously told my seniormanagement, you know, where my
equals or whatever you'd like tocall them, that start to panic,
my VP of Finance this or that?

(52:04):
You know, we're selling a lot ofequipment to exceed, you know,
and this is a new line. And Idon't know, Rob, are we
comfortable with this? I'm like,Yeah, I say because they're set
up like we are. I said, exceedis its own company, but they
have a parent. That is thelargest manufacturer of rail
cars in the world. I have thatright.

(52:27):
We do not manufacture we leasedwe lease all of them. And you're
right, though. I mean, we Yeah,they've been in business since
1928. And we yeah, we have avery long history. I think we
lease every kind of vehicle.
That's, you know, we leased carsfrom these trucks. We leased
rail. Yeah. So Sasser is verymuch in in all those industries?

(52:49):
Yeah. So I tell I tell mymanagement, I'm like, I'm not
ever worried about, you know,exceed not having the money,
they're gonna pay their bills,because you do have the Sasser
structure behind. And that justmakes just a huge difference.
after that. So you and I are,we're in the same comfortable
position.

(53:09):
Yeah. And from my understanding,I think we we pay, like, net 15
or something i, we pay veryquickly. And so I think that,
that works out for everybody. Sohow has industry changed?
Well, I think if, if you look atit from a very macro

(53:30):
perspective, you know, I thinkyou're gonna say, Well, it's
pretty simple. It's the mergerof all the legacy carriers, the
large carriers, they changedsome things. I mean, I remember
years ago, I'm down in Houston,Texas, and I hear something
about Houston and Chicago andall this. And actually, you
know, I've worked out thisfantastic deal. And the TWA is

(53:53):
of the world, the America West'sthe Northwest's, we won't go
back as far as Eastern. But youknow, there were just so many
carriers that were buying allthis equipment. And they almost
got a little bit nervous. Shelike, well, I'm doing business
with those guys about theseguys. They're merging, are we
going to keep that business? Sothat is really what I think,

(54:15):
changed over the years, andreally was the vehicle that that
got GSE. Accelerated, is becauseall of these airlines merge. As
far as the trends that we'reseeing. We talked about DC the
AC earlier. Yep, we played withthe hybrid thing. We've done

(54:36):
hydrogen fuel cells, there'slithium ion batteries, or
lithium polymer. Now, there'ssodium ion, which I think sounds
pretty cool, because we knowthat there's hardly any danger,
you know, if you're using sodiumion, so we're looking forward to
proving that. I think thatthat's one of the business

(54:58):
trends overall. not just in theGSE sector, but in life, in
general is the LinkedIn tool. Ithink that we've had some
success with that. And it's at500 people, I keep talking them
out again, you know, if you goto mine or anybody else, and
you're gonna say we have 500connections, yeah. Are those 20
people? Or 50? People trying tosell me a new something? Maybe.

(55:21):
But I think that's been a usefultool as well.
I completely agree. Yeah, yeah,we do a lot on LinkedIn, or at
least we're trying to, and itreally helps have those
connections and let them know,you know, maybe you have some,
some products available, thatare quicker on demand ready to
go. So it really helps outletting them know that. So what

(55:43):
I'm, what is Charlotte workingon right now? What are your new
products, any new innovations?
Well, you know, couple tradeshows ago, we are they we were
one of the first DSC companiesto come out with an autonomous
tractor, that was gaining a lotof momentum. And then COVID, hit

(56:05):
and Riot, right as we came outof COVID, nobody's gonna spend
$150,000 on a bag tractor, youknow, even if it didn't need a
driver, that just too manyunknowns there. And I think just
people are comfortable with ityet. I think it's coming. We've
built a handful, we've sold acouple. But that is something

(56:27):
that it's going to be on ourproduct offerings, but it's,
it's not at the top of the list,what I will tell you is at the
top of the list is cargotrackers that are electric, the
T 137. In the four to 5000 pounddraw bar pole, Rach, we want to
build a cargo tracker. So we'regonna be showcasing the Las

(56:51):
Vegas show, the vehicle thatdoes 60,000 pounds, oh, wow,
this handsome, this has someinterest from many different
prospective clients around theworld, we're gonna put a very
large battery in it, you know,so they can run our long, long
time. And if you're going to askme, you know, what's the next

(57:11):
biggest thing and in GSE are oneof the bit the most significant
growth opportunity in the GSEsector is its electric cargo
operations. Okay, all theseairports and airlines, they've
been buying vehicles for theramp, you got to move the
people, you got to move thebags. Okay. As I said, when I

(57:34):
was in the air freight business,Robert was the one thing he
really liked about the airframebusiness. And I think a flight
attendant would tell you this,or anyone that works for a
passenger airline is that whenyou're in the cargo business,
the packages don't talk back.
They can't complain. Yeah. So.
So that's a nice thing. But theramp is pretty much caught up. I

(57:55):
mean, they're gaining all thismomentum with all the different
cities and the grants andeverything we talked about
before. But the cargo folks arein different buildings, which
brings back to infrastructurework. So they've got to get the
infrastructure, and they're in adifferent a whole different
budget, then, you know, airportoperations, or at least I would

(58:16):
presume that it at most airlinesanyway, depending on the size,
but the electric cargo tractoris going to be the next thing
because the cargo operations, asthe airlines continue to make
money, they're going to get thatfunding. And the sky's the
limit, people don't realize, onthese gigantic hubs all over the

(58:40):
world, that all of thosevehicles with those big diesel
engines in them to pull the tabthe six 810 1000 pounds of draw
bar, you know, they're going tobe replaced by electric
vehicles. Little bit of thechallenge, there's coming up
with the ballast, and that'sjust a matter of r&d and so
forth. But I think that's wherethe big growth opportunity is

(59:01):
really.
So with this new 6000 poundtractor will this be on the same
frame as the T 137. And will ithave the proprietary axle that
we had discussed?
It is going to have theproprietary axle however, it's
it's the next generation of ourCT five series. If you look back

(59:22):
at the at the CT five thatstands for cargo tracker, 5000
pounds draw bar, there's a verylarge cargo airline, they came
to us and said, Hey, Rob, welove the T 137. We use it all
over all over the world.
However, when we want to drop adolly or pick up a dolly as we
sort during the night or theday, make sure would help if the

(59:44):
operator were in a rear cabdesign so they can reach back
grab the tether, pull the hitchup and drop the load right there
and drive off. So they asked usto basically build a rear cab
design electric tractor. Well,what we did may sound pretty
simple, even though my chiefengineer has been a Surelock

(01:00:08):
since inception 30 years ago. Tokeep it simple, stupid, what we
did is we added more ballast.
But in our vehicle, one of theselling points of the T 137, is
you open up the trunk, andeverything is there. Okay, you
got the old panel, you got theCurtis controller, you got your

(01:00:28):
power steering pump motor. Andall we did was we moved
everything from the trunk of thevehicle and put it in the front
of the vehicle. And then wemoved the driver compartment to
the rear, added more ballast,and that got us to 5000 pounds.
So it is a totally differentframe than the T 137. And the CT

(01:00:53):
six is going to look like this85 Just a little bit different,
it's gonna have some more, ithas lines on it, it's, it's
actually a pretty nice lookingcargo tractor. We'll be rolling
that out at the Las Vegas showin September.
Man, that sounds nice. So Willpeople be able to drive it
there? Is there? Is it going tobe in the demo area? Or just at
the booth? Are they going tohave a demo area, I don't even

(01:01:15):
knowthey are gonna have a demo area.
And and I would bet that'sprobably where we're going to
put it. Okay. Along those samelines, as far as what Charlotte
is doing. And trust me, it hasnot been easy with getting all
the bodies to come back to workand hiring new people that
everything else that that's notjust you know, in the world of
manufacturing and assembly ofeverything from painting to

(01:01:39):
welding, but it's also anengineering side. A lot of
engineers, you know, where arethey, I could probably use
another one right now. But wefound a nice balance to still be
able to create these newproducts, even during the COVID
Catch up, as I call it. Andright now, what we have done is

(01:02:01):
there's two other projects, andone of those is taking our
electric tractors to a highervoltage. Right now everything is
is 18 volts, okay, and 80 voltsis fine. However, there are some
customers that are demandinghigher voltage and their

(01:02:22):
vehicles to make them morecompatible with their own road
vehicles. And they can chargethem at the same place at the
same time. And it all makessense. So that is one of our
engineering projects that'sgoing on behind the scenes is
that a very difficult project?
No, it's not. It's just a matterof finding the components and
the time to do it. But it is onpaper, and that's going to be

(01:02:46):
showcased as well in the future.
But one thing that I do have thewas at the Paris show is what we
call a P ad. That's Papa eco ad.
That is a vehicle that is notquite the Charlotte flatbed. But
it's heavier than a burdencarrier. burdening carrier being

(01:03:09):
the little ones, you know, yousee on the golf cart, or you
might see over in theprovisioning area somewhere in
an airport. And it's right inthe middle. It's priced more
than the burden carrier, butit's not near as much as the
full size flatbed electric thatwe sell. And we think we got a
real winner there. It's going tobe at the show. And it's

(01:03:30):
basically a here I'll say itagain, it's a bullet proof.
There you go. burden of carrieris what it is. I mean, it's got
its typical Sarwat you know,design, it's still all around,
you could run something into it.
And it's going to be less thanthe cost of a t 137. Actually.
So will the was it the PE ad andthe T six? Will they both be

(01:03:53):
manufactured at your facility inUnited States here?
The CD 60 will be in thebeginning. But the P the P 80.
Is the P 80.
That's right.
Yeah, the P I'm sorry, the P 80.
O is a distance okay. Yeah, hejust stands for electric. I wish
I wish I had a chance to namethese things I would have given

(01:04:15):
a really cool name like, likesome kind of wild animal or
something.
Yeah, they really need to giveme that opportunity. I'll talk
to whoever you need me to talkto. Yeah, they
covered leaks and the rest ofThat's right. But they came out
with the name of this darn thingbefore they asked me about but
anyway, we've got two of thoseright now we're bringing one to

(01:04:35):
the US to demonstrate with oneof our customers and that's
something you got to be carefulwith too because if yes, I'm
really hot they all want a demoand it's hard for my guys to
convince me oh we need for demoswell that's that's for it's for
assets that are out in field notmaking any money. Yep. But yes,

(01:04:56):
that we plan to build that onehere too because we believe that
The demand is gonna be so highfor it. And you look at those
things. I mean, of course,they're not near the quantity of
the bag tractor or about loader,especially not even a forklift.
But they do exist on everyairport. And there's a big

(01:05:17):
market for that. And that's whatwe're gonna be bringing to the
Las Vegas show as well.
Nice. Well, that'd be great.
Now, the lot of new things thatcheck out from Charlotte at the
GSC Expo, so that'd be a lot offun.
So it's a, I have a couplereally impressive they were able
to get this done very, verypolished COVID, when lead times

(01:05:39):
are, where they are andeverything else that I can keep
some engineers focused. We'revery proud of that.
Yeah, you went into developmentduring the slowdown. But I think
that if I remember correctly,that you all kept building units
during COVID. And and then theyweren't they were gone.
Incidentally, I'm pretty sure.
Yes, sir. We havea an old friend in the industry

(01:05:59):
that basically kept more of ourpeople employed than we should
have, let's say, we had tofurlough many employees, just
like anybody else did. But yes,we stayed open, we remained
profitable, because we werebuilding 100 D one, three sevens
for one of our largestcustomers. And we can't be more

(01:06:20):
grateful to them. And it'ssomething we'll never forget.
It's a great partnership we havewith that airline?
Yeah. And I mean, you know, youyou built your bread and butter,
and you kept innovating. Andyou're still here today because
ofit. Yeah. And if we could just
get our suppliers to keep up Imean, this electric, tidal wave

(01:06:43):
that's coming, I don't think allof us are gonna be able to build
as many as the industry is goingto want. Because, you know, they
all want them yesterday. Yeah,of course. And that's just
because of the planning,planning processes of, you know,
different finance departmentsand the other drivers behind the
curtain.

(01:07:03):
I mean, honestly, that's, that'swhere exceeds, been able to kind
of come in, just because, youknow, I remember. And I was, I
was telling Brad, this on thelast podcast, which is, when I
first started, you know, youcome in every day, and they
would tell you, Oh, you know,lead times are six, eight weeks.
Now, you come into that office,and no matter no matter what
manufacturer, you're working fortheir easily, six, eight months,

(01:07:26):
I mean, it's completely changedthe industry and Exede has been
able to, you know, buy up a lotof equipment and, and inventory
it. So you can have a quickstartup. If you're a ground
handler or an airline, then youknow, we can provide that
equipment on a lease and, andget people going because these
lead times are just currently asa supply chain and the demand

(01:07:50):
are, are a lot longer than theyused to be.
Yeah. And I know that you'reseeing your management's kicking
yourselves, because, of course,the hindsight is 2020. And I
think everybody's crystal ballwas running low on batteries.
But I mean, just think if, ifexceeded, had bought 100
vehicles, I still could havebuilt those 100. And in addition

(01:08:12):
to the ones I was building, formy friends in Texas, yeah. You
know, I know. Yeah. You know,you guys are just sitting there
thinking, I've goodness, if wejust taken that risk and gotten
those because, I mean, you guysare with the product. And you
and your team, from Carla allthe way over and up. I mean,
everybody is such aprofessional. They're even

(01:08:33):
working with my people. My salescoordinators, we just added
another one to her name isEmily, Jessie. They can't say
the best things. I mean, they dosay the best things about
working with your folks. Andlike I said, we know when we get
our order from exceed that,it's, it's gonna be solid.
You're gonna be reasonable withus. You know, when we give you

(01:08:53):
the lead time, you understandthe business. That is what's
that's what's so important yetso many people have been around
a while. They do know thedifference, you know, between a
tractor a belt loader, I believeus that referenced before, but
you wouldn't believe how manypeople that don't.
We have a lot of experience onour team. Yeah. And we love

(01:09:14):
dealing with Todd. Obviously.
He's just he's fantastic aswell. So I know you brought him
up before but but yeah, it'sworth mentioning how great Todd
is, what a great guy he's got onyour team.
And you know, we've got Troy onthe West Coast. And, you know,
he brings a very specific skillset to our team because he was

(01:09:36):
on the other side of the desk.
25 years. That helps. Yeah, the,the regional airline he worked
for was was different than anyothers. That was he was
electrifying putting electricvehicles in the cities that you
know, I've never heard of, well,maybe I have. Yeah, maybe
Yeah, exactly. That was justgonna bring that up. Maybe

(01:09:57):
you have but yeah, you know, Allover, you know, Idaho and North
Dakota and Washington state andOregon and all these other
places. But what he was doing,he actually helped us design,
what we call the CBl 150 II. Andthat is the intermediate belt
loader that has a 20 foot deckon it. And it's the 48 volt mA.

(01:10:21):
And the way he and myengineering department designed
it was, well, yeah, you know,fast charging is wonderful. But
what if I, what if I buy this orone of my hubs, and I can fast
charger, but then all of asudden, I have a need for
something. And in Bozeman,Montana, and we say, well, it's

(01:10:46):
48 volts, it's a battery thatyou can take from 20 to 80%,
pretty quickly off a 110 chargeand the wall overnight. And in
those cities, we know they'renot hubs. So we know they're not
flying airplanes at night. Sowhat we did is we put the fast
charging plug on there, if theyhad a fast charger, well, they

(01:11:07):
did have a fast charger in thehubs. And then when they sent it
to that outstation, as we allcall them, they were able to use
that same exact asset, becauseit had a cord on a reel, and
they could plug it on the wall.
And you need no infrastructurefor that. So that's one of the
things that he taught us, andcontinues to be more of a
solutions expert than anythingelse. And that's why we're,

(01:11:32):
we're so fortunate to have himon arcane, because he can see it
from the other perspective. Youknow, I don't you and I had done
on that side of the desk. Andhe, he sometimes helps us
understand how the differentprocesses work, you know, when
it comes to finance andpurchasing, and, you know, the,
the tech ops piece and so forth.

(01:11:56):
So, but now, he helped designthat. And it's been a big winner
for us. And what we're doingwith that vehicle right now, is,
it's probably my fault, becauseI did not market it as well as I
should have. But there's a lotof airlines that think they need
a full size belt loader. And ifthey're flying, all

(01:12:18):
narrowbodies, and especially ifit's a 737. You don't need a
full size belt loader. You know,what's the door sill height on
one of those things is very low.
And with a 20 foot deck with allthe electric gadgets on it that
the full size one has? Why spendall that money on full size, we
do it with an intermediate beltloader downplays erim.

(01:12:40):
And over that's like that thingneeds to be in Vegas as well,
man, it sounds like a greatproduct.
Yeah, you know, I haven'tchecked with with Adam and Emily
on how much square footage webought. I know it was it was
sizable, but we're making thosedecisions by the end of this
month of what we're going totake.
So is that of those reasons? Oh,sorry. Go ahead, Demeter. Yeah,

(01:13:03):
I was just gonna say one ofthose reasons we got to make
those decisions is because whenI build those vehicles, they're
gonna take slots. Yeah. Forvehicles or I could be selling
finished goods assets to for acustomer that means they're
things yesterday, I don't wantto wait that six to eight months
that you mentioned a moment ago.
Well, that'sa really interesting product so

(01:13:23):
that that belt loader, is thatquite a bit cheaper than the
larger belt loaders that we'reused to. I think those are the
CBl 2000 Is that do I have my Doyou have a numbers correct?
You're absolutely right. Andthank you for having it correct.
Again, I'm gonna go back and Iuse this before but it's it's

(01:13:45):
two thirds the size and twothirds the price it's sort of
like that T 208 versus t 137.
But we're I think that you youbenefit in this area is the
price of the battery. I'm onlygoing to speak I'm only going to
speak from the flooded lead acidside. But you know, you can get
a 415 amp hour battery in there.

(01:14:08):
48 volts with only 24 cells aheck of a lot less expensive
than you can the big ones thatgo in the the electric bagging,
Pargo crackers. So that's apiece there too. And as I
mentioned before, as well,unless someone is driving about
the traction motor, that is whatis going to eat all of the the

(01:14:30):
amp hours out of out of thebattery. However, if you have
the regenerative braking sethigh enough it will push the
lamps back into that battery.
But if you just work it in andlet's say a three gate zone news
driving it from one diamond tothe other, and go into that door
and slowly driving up the door.

(01:14:51):
We can crank that thing backwith the electronic controller
to go a half a mile an hour asit approaches an airplane so you
really know some people Look atit. So you need an ERP system?
Because though it ain't gonnaget there fast enough?
Well, it's a super interestingproduct. I'm glad you brought
that up. I was I don't think Iwas aware of that product. And
it seems like a great option forcarriers who are only, you know,

(01:15:15):
have narrowbodies in theirfleet. Yeah. And,
you know, I mean, and I thinkwe're all learning something. I
mean, it's, it's been on themarket for a while, but I'll
take the blame on that one,marketing it not marketing it to
every airline.
Hopefully, we're doing it rightnow. You know,
yeah. And it's, you know, it'sgot, it's got front brakes, it's

(01:15:37):
got a rear suspension on it. Soyou don't get stuck in the
snowed where one wheel justspins and spins, it's safe.
It's, like I said, you reallywouldn't notice driving it, you
know, then it's that muchsmaller. Because it does have a
20 foot conveyor deck, see ourfull size one as a 25 foot

(01:15:58):
conveyor deck. I believe ourmajor competitors have 24. And
that really probably does thejob on an ace creating even. But
yeah, we like that comfort zoneof having that extra foot on the
full size, but you definitelydon't need it on anything with a
wide body. And I think maybewhat the airlines are doing is
when they go to purchase a valveloader and we can basically

(01:16:22):
pitch this CBl 150 E. It's like,okay, well, you might not want
it in your hub operations,because you never know if one of
your, let's say, unseasoned rampoperator is going to hop on it,
drive it over to to gate be 18.
And, you know, that's, you know,an area that a wide body is
coming into, and you know, theygrabbed the wrong belt loader,

(01:16:44):
because they do look the same.
Yeah, you know, he's not goingto be he or she is not going to
get the job done. However, ifyou're buying GSC, for Omaha,
Nebraska, let's say, I don'tknow of any widebodies coming
into Omaha, I don't know, I'venot been there in a while maybe
I maybe that's a bad example. Solet's use Macon, Georgia, then

(01:17:07):
you got narrowbodies coming inthere, maybe maybe a 717 or an A
321. You can buy that GSEspecific to that city. And you
know that the wide body is notgonna be coming in where you can
use that CBl 150. Now, theairlines may argue, well, we're
always moving our stuff around.
And I get that I understand thatbecause the schedules change and

(01:17:28):
everything else where they tryto figure their business. But
yeah, I think they can manageboth fleets, save some money.
And, again, if it's electric,once you train your employees
that people love to work on, andthey're easier to work on that
internal combustion has been oneof the exciting things all over

(01:17:48):
these years is, is the trainingand enlightening. Some of these
employees are even older than methat have been scared to stand
in the puddle of water and plugin electric vehicles, as I think
they're gonna get shocked. Yeah.
Natural legs and realize we'vealready had shocked and all you
have to do is change a contactorand maybe we'll then definitely

(01:18:13):
have changed tires. That's onething that happens with electric
vehicles. But first two years,you're not really do anything to
walk your vehicle. And then whenyou already hands up really
good, too dirty, because notdealing with all the pieces that
are, you know, associated withan internal combustion vehicle.
Well, we only have five minutesleft. So I'm going to ask you
one last question. And thenwe'll we'll wrap it up here. So

(01:18:35):
so how does your how to short alot stay ahead of the
competition with productofferings and customer support?
Well, it's, it's a solidproduct. We've had many people
come after us. I'll say I thinkwe're on top as a guy can back
that up with our backlog. Andwhen you're on top, it's it's a

(01:18:59):
little bit of a nervous place tobe because you're never gonna
stay on top forever. But yeah,well, I'd love to be but I'm a
realistic person too. But youjust have to focus on what the
customer wants. Like I told youa minute ago where I failed that
the CBO 150. Okay, we've soldmany, many of them. I just think

(01:19:21):
we could have sold more andgiven the customer more
solutions. But the solid productlike I said before, in all
those, you know, the tractor,the belt load the D to await we
make a lab truck and a watertruck to same axis. All we did
was stretch the T one three,Senator, I didn't even talk

(01:19:41):
about those products. Those arefor narrowbodies as well. That's
one of the cooler products wemake. It was definitely will
also be in Vegas.
We'll have to cover that on onthe sequel to this podcast. Go
ahead.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, meI'll talk forever. But anyway,
all that being said We have notchanged too much. They broke

(01:20:03):
don't fix it. Yeah, we went fromDC to AC, we're using, you know,
a better power steering pumpmotor. Yeah, we're trying to
find the best electronics, youknow, the going from ABC
controller over to Curtis's hasbeen a wonderful thing. But when
I took this job almost 18 yearsago, I did not take me taking

(01:20:27):
this job was contingent onSharla bringing back one of my
most valuable employees. And hisname is Martin Locke. He works
for me too. And he is mycustomer service manager in
charge of all field service, aswell as warranty and QC about

(01:20:47):
may sound different that he's incharge of QC, but she to have a
successful manufacturingfacility, the person that's over
manufacturing, your productionmanager cannot be over QC,
because he's going to try to getit out the door. So we have
those checks and balances. Ithink you're right about Nazis.
Yeah. And Martin oversees allthree of those things. Okay,

(01:21:08):
field service warranty and QC.
And he has the best electricalmind when it comes to
troubleshooting a vehicle. And Idid this almost 18 years ago, I
told Louis Galliano. I said,I'll take the job but only if
you bring Martin Lockback MartinLocke was not terminated he he
left Virginia to come down to toConyers, Georgia to work for

(01:21:33):
Komatsu came down here. It's toohot for me, I'm going back to
the mountains or it's cool. Soit worked out. Martin and I came
on board at the same time. Andwe're incredibly mutual respect
for each other in our, ourfriendship is even stronger. You
know, him and his people, alongwith just Adam homemaker,

(01:21:55):
answering his cell phone at homeon a Thursday night, or a
Saturday morning. That is whatsets us apart. When I came to
work there. I say guys, answerthe phone, and we will get the
business. Because there are manyother companies that don't even
do that. I know that soundssilly, stupid, and simple, but
that's the truth.

(01:22:18):
Yep. I agree with that. Well,this, this has been great, man,
I I really appreciate you makingtime to come on here and talk to
me. And we'll definitely have tohave another one of these again,
and just really appreciate thetime.
Sure. Hey, round two is fine forme. Maybe we maybe we visit

(01:22:38):
after the Las Vegas show. And wecan talk about the successes of
that.
There we go. I think that's a Ithink that's a fantastic idea.
Well, this is Ben, Matt and RobLiam from Charlotte on the
second GSC podcast and thanks alot and we will talk soon.
All right, sir. Have a greatday. Again for the No problem.

(01:23:01):
Thank you. Bye

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Episode 2 - "Bulletproof": Inside Charlatte with Rob Lamb

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 2 - "Bulletproof": Inside Charlatte with Rob Lamb