January 23, 2025 • 47 mins
Transitioning from a diesel mechanic to a key player in the ground support equipment (GSE) industry, Mark DiMaria's journey is nothing short of inspiring. His global career, marked by stints in Spain, Ireland, Norway, China, and Saudi Arabia, showcases the adaptability and dedication required to excel in this field. Uncover the unique moment at a Saudi holiday softball game that propelled Mark into a pivotal role with Stewart and Stevenson, where he went from technical instructor to managing their European office from a humble broom closet at KLM.
Billy Ash takes us further into the global nature of the GSE industry with his riveting career path, which was set in motion with a move from Tennessee to Texas. His chance encounter with Stewart and Stevenson led to a role that took him across the world 27 times, from Abu Dhabi to the United States. Billy's stories reveal the critical importance of skilled technicians in aviation ground support operations and his adventures highlight the industry's evolution, from pushbacks to air starts, showcasing the integral role of companies like Stuart and Stevenson.
As the GSE industry embraces electrification and technological advancements, challenges and opportunities abound. Our discussion covers the shift from mechanical systems to electric equipment and the implications of EPA regulations. Discover how training through online platforms like YouTube is revolutionizing the way technicians approach troubleshooting and maintenance. Finally, hear about innovative solutions like mobile charging stations and the potential for telematics to transform equipment management, setting the stage for an electrified future in ground support.
Looking for reliable and flexible ground support equipment leasing solutions? Look no further than Xcēd! As your trusted partner, Xcēd specializes in tailored operating leases for ground handlers and airlines, offering top-notch equipment and flexible terms to suit your needs. Whether you're seeking the latest electric GSE or traditional equipment, Xcēd has you covered with competitive rates and exceptional customer service. Keep your operations running smoothly and efficiently with Xcēd. Visit xcedgse.com today and soar to new heights with Xcēd Ground Support Equipment Leasing!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Matthew Weitzel (00:07):
Celebrating 10 years of trailblazing in ground
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(00:29):
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This anniversary, we renew ourdedication to empowering your
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Exceed driving excellence on theground year after year. Explore
more at exceed gse.comthis is Brad Compton. This is
(00:56):
Luke brown. This is JeffBarrett. This is Tessa Fauci,
and you are listening to the GSEpodcast. I am here with Mark di
Maria and Billy Ashe. Mark diMaria, formerly of Textron and
Billy Ashe, a current Textronemployee, and Mark, I will, I
will start with you, and I justwant to hear a little bit about
(01:20):
your career and how you startedin the ground support equipment
industry. I want to go the wholeway back.
Mark DiMaria (01:28):
Okay, I started off where I was working
overseas, and I came back to thestates to live and I wanted to
get overseas again. So a friendof mine says, Have you ever
tried the airline industry. AndI was thinking, why would the
airline industry want a dieselmechanic? Had no clue. So I
applied for Saudi ArabianAirlines, and I ended up getting
(01:52):
a job in Saudi Arabia as atechnical instructor for GSE,
and that was back in like 1990so it's a couple years back. So
I went to Saudi Arabia, and Iworked there for close to 10
years as a training on GSEmechanics.
Matthew Weitzel (02:13):
So you were, were you working in diesel, I'm
guessing, like, Where does yourcareer start, before ground
support equipment, then indiesel engines?
Mark DiMaria (02:20):
Yeah, just diesel in general. I work for an oil
research company right out oftech school. And funny enough, I
didn't work on many dieselengines. At first in the oil
industry, I worked on everythingelse, really funky machines, and
then I ended up working onremote crews, like in Egypt and
Dubai, on all types ofequipment.
Matthew Weitzel (02:43):
So you started out stateside, and then, and
then got this opportunity out inSaudi Arabia.
Mark DiMaria (02:49):
Well, I worked international for oil research
on a ship, Spain, Ireland,Norway, New Foundland, and then
went to Egypt for on a landbased crew, went to China on a
crew up there for a little overa year, and then went to Dubai.
Here. What was Egypt, Dubai? Andthen China went back to the
states for about three years.
And that's when this opportunitycame up to go to Saudi Arabian
(03:13):
Airlines. Wow,
Matthew Weitzel (03:17):
that's incredible. So then, so you're
at Saudi Arabian Airlines, andthen does this tug at that point
are Stuart and Stevenson, like,who gets a hold of you at that
point from and then, how did youmake your transition from Saudi
Arabian Airlines to, you know,landing at the tug slash
Textron? Well,
Mark DiMaria (03:34):
Bill o'conn and Ben Reeves came to Saudi to do
some training, but it happenedto be during one of the Saudi
holidays, so no training wasgoing to happen. So Ben asked,
Hey, would you like to go out todinner? Well, I was playing on a
men's softball league So, and wewere short people, so I just
told them. I said, Hey, look, Ican't go to dinner, but you guys
(03:57):
would like to come out and watchsome softball and eat some hot
dogs we'd love to have you. BenReeves popped up. Yeah, they
came. And I picked them up atthe hotel. We came out to the
compound, and while we'replaying softball. And after the
after the games, he was talkingabout they wanted to open up an
office in Europe, and was wantto know if I'd be interested in
(04:19):
being a manager for the Europeanoffice. And I said, yeah,
definitely interested. A fewmonths later, he sends me an
email. He says, if you're stillinterested, I'd like to take the
talks to the next level. And Ijust sent him back an email and
said, welcome to the next level.
And next thing I know, I gothired and went to work for it
(04:39):
was when Stewart and Stevensonhad just bought tug, okay, and I
went to work in Amsterdam.
Matthew Weitzel (04:48):
And is this the broom closet? The infamous,
Mark DiMaria (04:51):
the infamous broom closet, okay, at klm, you know
the equipment services, yeah,that was,
Matthew Weitzel (04:57):
I've heard a lot about that broom closet.
Yeah. Yes, it
Mark DiMaria (05:01):
was, it was, it was small that
Matthew Weitzel (05:03):
That's hilarious. Let's get billion on
this conversation. I
Billy Ash (05:07):
met Mark in the late 90s, and we did air
conditioners. Stewart andStevenson bought Lear Sigler,
okay, and so we built the airconditioners, and I was over
there doing some repairs. Markwas doing the training. So we
got together. He invited me tohis house.
Matthew Weitzel (05:25):
So, Billy, how did you start your career? Did
you grow up in Texas and thensomehow start working for
Stewart and Stevenson? Or howdid all that work?
Billy Ash (05:32):
I grew up in Tennessee. Okay, graduate. As
soon as I took off to Texas,because I had some friends down
there in Houston working in theconstruction business. I went
down there, moved in with them,started working, walking to the
store, guys. GTO was broke down.
I said, Hey, can I help you?
Said, Yeah, ma'am, I put oil inthe car, and now it won't start.
(05:55):
It's all lights on. I said,Okay, let me check it. Checked
all he had overfilled it. Oh,and I said, Man, you put too
much oil in he said, Man, theoil lights on. I put oil in it.
I said, Man, it's too much oil.
It's not going to turn over. Canyou fix it? I said, Yeah, I fix
it. So I towed his car to hishouse next day. I fixed it. He
said, You need a job. So I got ajob, but I'm always looking for
something else. He said, Well,I'm the personnel manager for
(06:16):
Sherman Stevenson, so if youcome see me Monday morning. I'll
put you to work, and I'll payyou good I want to work for
Stewart and Stevenson. That is
Matthew Weitzel (06:25):
the craziest story. No idea that's that's the
the Billy ash origin story. Justgot lucky. That is, that is so
funny. I love that. So Stuartand Stevenson at that time, what
were they? What were theybuilding? So I'm guessing
pushbacks and air starts andthings like that.
Billy Ash (06:41):
Push backs, air starts, and GPUs, okay, that's
it all,
Matthew Weitzel (06:45):
right. And then at some point, tug, or, well,
Stuart and Stevenson bought tug,correct,
Billy Ash (06:50):
yes, okay, Stevenson bought tug, and then they moved,
took the GSE from Houston, andsince tug had the property in
Kennesaw, moved everything toGeorgia, okay?
Matthew Weitzel (07:02):
And then at what point then did, I guess,
Stewart and Stevenson wanted tosell off their product? Yep,
Billy Ash (07:09):
they sold it to
Mark DiMaria (07:11):
Jacobs, yeah, the airline industry, or the airline
proportion of their company,yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (07:16):
and that's when I came on, is right after that?
Yeah, okay, technologies, okay?
And then they kept around. Well,so what happened to the GPUs?
Because at some point we well,tug bought davco, right? So
where did the GPUs go that yousaid that steward Stevenson was
building, they
Billy Ash (07:33):
just discontinued it, okay, matter of fact, it rolled
over to tug technologies, butthen they phased it out because
wasn't profitable. They couldn'ttug. Wanted to build everything
on assembly lines, yep, andGPUs, air starts tough to do.
They were their Bay builds,right? Yeah. So when they had
the needed the room and otherstuff, Mark probably knows more
(07:55):
about now. I mean, he's there. Iwas still in Houston, because
they never made me move, becausetravel, yeah. So they just
wasn't profitable, so theydiscontinued it. Well,
Mark DiMaria (08:04):
Stuart and Stevenson had a special area
where they built all their ownwire harnesses. And they
actually used to build theircards for the GPUs, the
electronic Oh, wow. Boards,okay. They had a separate
section that did all that. Sowhen they moved the factory from
Houston to Kennesaw, they didn'tmove that part of the factory.
(08:26):
So there was, it just didn'tmake sense anymore to to
continue building them, becausethey required all that pre
assembly stuff.
Matthew Weitzel (08:34):
Yeah. So then they just got rid of the GPU
line, and then at some point,tug got Dave CO and then now
that's been sunsetted as well,right? Okay, awesome. And then
Billy, at what point, so wereyou working always remotely,
doing like a travelingtechnician? Because we haven't
told the audience here thatdoesn't know you. I'm sure a lot
of people in the GSE industryknow you, but you're a traveling
(08:57):
technician for Textron GSE, andyou have been a traveling
technician for a very long time.
At what point did you start thatportion of your career?
Billy Ash (09:05):
Well, at Stuart and Stevenson, I worked on in the
test cell. We built GPUs, webuilt air starts, we built the
push back so they needed theyhad a test cell. They'd send it
down there. We would test it,fix all the little issues, ship
it. So I was in that apartment.
We had a guy, this older guy,and he was doing the traveling,
he got hurt, and they come to meand they said, Hey, we need you
(09:26):
to go to Abu Dhabi. I said, Idon't know where Abu Dhabi is
at. I've never been out of thecountry, right? Oh, we're gonna
get you everything. We're gonnaget you a passport. We're gonna
do this, and we're gonna get youeverything, and we'll show you
how to do it. And I'm like,Cool, let's do it. Got me to
passport, sent me to training. Iwent to Detroit training,
learned how to tune in just theDetroits, and they sent me to
(09:48):
Abu Dhabi, and I did my job, andI came back and they said, you
want to go to California? Isaid, Yeah, I'll go to
California. Been doing it eversince.
Matthew Weitzel (09:57):
So do you have an estimate on how many kind.
Trees you've been to throughoutyour career?
Billy Ash (10:02):
No, around the world.
I've been around the world 27times, complete trips. That's
incredible. I can't tell youwhich way that way, yeah, I know
the numbers 27
Matthew Weitzel (10:16):
so what kind of status? What kind of status are
we talking about here on theairline of your choice. I was
Billy Ash (10:22):
global service on United for a while. Okay, now
I'm 1k because I don't traveloverseas much anymore. Okay,
yeah, let the young kids dothat. Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (10:31):
So, so mark where, at what point in time did
you move from the broom closetback over stateside? It
Mark DiMaria (10:39):
was, I want to say, around 2000 2001 so I was
in Amsterdam a year, okay,territories Europe, Middle East
and Africa. So I was constantlytraveling. So then I moved to
Houston for about a year beforethey transferred everything to
Georgia. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (10:57):
so you were actually at Stuart and Stevenson
in Houston, in Houston. Oh,okay. And then you moved at some
point to to Georgia, yeah.
Mark DiMaria (11:05):
So I moved in less than three years. I moved from
Saudi to Amsterdam, Amsterdam toHouston, and Houston to Georgia.
Matthew Weitzel (11:13):
That's incredible. So what was your
title? Then, when you moved overto Stewart and Stevenson and
then eventually to tug.
Mark DiMaria (11:21):
I was a manager for the European office. When I
moved to Houston, they didn't,they weren't quite sure where I
was going to fit in. And thenshortly, they made me the
service manager.
Matthew Weitzel (11:32):
Okay, so. And then when I came on in 2007 I
think you were, you were theservice manager, right over
warranty and repaired all thatkind of
Mark DiMaria (11:41):
stuff. I've been doing that pretty much since
2001 I guess, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (11:46):
yeah. And then you, you have now ended your
career at tug, right?
Congratulations.
Mark DiMaria (11:52):
I have almost 25 I was a week shy of 25 years.
Matthew Weitzel (11:56):
That's an incredible career, yeah. So what
were your biggest takeaways overthese 25 years, I
Mark DiMaria (12:02):
guess over the last few years, the technology
has really changed. I mean, itwas for a long time the
technology just stayed prettymuch the same. And then I would
say, over the last maybe six orseven years, when EPA, you know,
engine regulation, startedchanging, the technology just
really started
Unknown (12:22):
changing, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (12:24):
and the engines started getting larger, and
then, obviously,electrification. But
electrification is not new byany stretch of the imagination.
Billy, I'd love for you to getyour opinion on this whole
thing, because even though wehave more of a focus on
electrification now, we've been,you know, dealing with electric
equipment forever. And GSE,right,
Billy Ash (12:44):
yep, the PLC, when the PLC came out and took all
the relays away, yeah, took alot of mechanics away, yeah. So
now you got to have a laptop todo everything. You carry a
laptop. You do everything with alaptop. If you don't have the
software to connect to thesePLCs, you can't fix it.
Matthew Weitzel (13:01):
Yeah, it's all it's all there. So I mean, was
it a hard transition for you togo from working on mechanical
to, you know, the PLCs and allthat kind of stuff?
Billy Ash (13:12):
I wouldn't say it was hard. I would say it was a
training experience. You eitherdid it or you stayed behind,
yeah, so you move forward, oryou stay you stay behind. A lot
of people don't like the newtechnologies, and they didn't
want to do it. Yeah, I bang akey on a computer. So I like
learning new stuff. So it wasokay with me. Do you do the
(13:32):
hunting pack? Is I do? Oh, youhave two fingers. But really, I
love the enter key. Oh, yeah,that's your favorite download,
the program enter and yeah,exactly,
Matthew Weitzel (13:42):
yeah. It works a lot of times. I mean, I don't
know that that's true or not,but I mean, sometimes that's the
fix, right? Is updating thesoftware, sometimes,
Billy Ash (13:50):
sometimes the software, tweaking the software,
you can find emissions, likeMark said, it's crazy, you know,
depth fluid came out, and oncethe emissions came through, you
know, we rely on Deutsch andCummins and everybody. Sometimes
we can't rely on them becausewe're there. Yeah, we have to
have their software. We have tohave the ability to do what they
can do. And Mark was great,because he always wanted us to
(14:13):
have the best equipment for aservice guy. If I call mark and
say, Hey, I need to come insoftware, I can't call Cummins
in here get it done, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (14:22):
yeah, because Mark understood it, right? He
grew up kind of in the same waythat you did with this whole
thing, right? So Mark came frombeing a service guy into then,
you know, kind of leading ateam, and so he understood what
was what was required, right?
Billy Ash (14:36):
You couldn't ask you when you got somebody who's been
in it and traveled and done it,yeah? When he I call him Mr.
Mark, I got a problem with thiselectrical drawing, I don't
think it's right. Yeah, I thinkengineering done, maybe made a
mistake or something. He satthere and work with you, you
know, until you hold it, yep,it's here. Let me go talk to
this guy, because he's there.
Yeah, go talk to me. Call meback. Say, yeah, you can do it
(14:56):
this way. Let's see works.
Unknown (15:00):
Yeah.
Mark DiMaria (15:00):
So yeah, I'm a firm believer have the right
tool for the job. So it's whenthey were out there. And I'd
say, just get it. Get what youneed. Let's do it.
Matthew Weitzel (15:08):
Yeah. And you all have known each other since
what year was that that you allmet? I'm sorry.
Mark DiMaria (15:12):
Well, it's funny, my son we we met when my son was
a year old. He's 35
Matthew Weitzel (15:18):
that's incredible. So before you all
well, I mean, I guess you youwere working for Stuart and
Stevenson, right? But youweren't yet, so, and
Mark DiMaria (15:26):
that's funny, you know, we're at the house having
a few beers, and I told him, Isays, I might be your boss one
day. And he says, Well, I don'tcare. Four years later, I was
his boss.
Billy Ash (15:36):
Been a great boss.
Yeah, good,
Matthew Weitzel (15:38):
good. That's awesome. What's the one service
call Billy that you remember themost? Like, what is the one that
sticks in your mind that maybewas couple weeks long, you
couldn't figure it out,whatever? Just a funny story
about one that just you couldn'tget it, and then it was just
having to come along, orwhatever. You have a good
service story. For me, therehave been a ton of, yeah, you
(16:00):
pick your favorite one? I youknow, everybody listens this
podcast. They love a good story.
So
Billy Ash (16:06):
I was in El Salvador.
Shouldn't have been there. Theyflew me over from Puerto Rico,
took me off a plane, fixed thefixed the machine, put me in a
room for five hours until theycan get me back out, brought me
food, and a security guardstanding outside the door I
couldn't leave, said, No, yougotta stay here until, until the
(16:27):
plane leaves, we'll put you backon it and send you back
Matthew Weitzel (16:31):
out. This was in El Salvador. Yeah,
Billy Ash (16:35):
Syria. I've been to Syria. I've been all over the
Middle East, China. Were there
Matthew Weitzel (16:39):
a ton of places that you felt unsafe. Syria,
Syria, Yeah. Syria, like, Yeah.
I bet that was not a good one.
Yeah.
Billy Ash (16:48):
We were in Syria starting an aircraft, and we
didn't have headsets, so we werelike, Okay, we're gonna tell the
pilot when to throw the fuel tothe plane, right? So we're
spooling the engine over. Hethrows the fuel. We don't tell
him fuel's running. All aboutback out the engines. I mean,
fuel is just dumping. Everybodytakes off running. I'm standing
by the airstart. The hell am Igonna do? Gotta run too. Yeah.
(17:12):
So we got it shut down, andeverything's okay. It didn't
blow up or nothing, but it wasscary.
Matthew Weitzel (17:16):
Oh my gosh, Mark. Mark, what's your favorite
service story?
Mark DiMaria (17:22):
I don't know if I have a favorite service story. I
know I've had some good trips.
Matthew Weitzel (17:26):
All right, let's talk about a trip. Then,
Mark DiMaria (17:29):
when I worked oil research, I was in China, and I
happened to go to the Great Wallon my birthday. 30 years later,
on my birthday, I was on a tripin China with Billy, and we got
to tour a lot of differentareas. We we took trains and we
went through multiple cities. Itwas awesome. And I was used to
(17:50):
be married to a Thai so I loveThai food. We love beer and we
like music. So we were in thislittle town. I don't I can't
even remember the name of it,but we, we walked by this
restaurant. It was Thai food andcraft beer. Oh, check this out.
So we went in there. Sureenough, Thai food is good, craft
(18:10):
beer, all kinds of differentcraft beers. And then they had a
big screen TV, and they wereplaying the 2010 guitar
Crossroads Festival on thescreen. So it was awesome. I
mean, we're out in the middle ofnowhere in China, some little
town, yeah, and eating Thaifood, drinking craft beer and
watching a great concert. So Isaid it's like, you know, where
(18:33):
else can you this happen? Yeah,exactly. That was a good trip.
We I hit more cities in or wehit more cities in China than I
had ever done before. It was, itwas cool.
Matthew Weitzel (18:44):
So, I mean, I guess Stuart and Stevenson and
tug and Textron had equipmentall over the world, right? I
mean, and a lot, a lot in theMiddle East. I mean, hey, you
spent a lot of time in theMiddle East. Is that correct?
I've
Billy Ash (18:57):
spent years in the Middle East, yeah, Dubai, Qatar,
Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi,all of them. No,
Matthew Weitzel (19:04):
were you the guy who would fix those huge
were they the ACU eight, ohfours? Were they the 80513434
not the 805134, I'm sorry,somebody else. I know that's
somebody else. I don't know whyI got that in my head. News,
yeah, it's 5134, the truckmounted. AC, yes,
Unknown (19:22):
me, that was you that's mixed
Billy Ash (19:26):
a bunch of them.
They're still working. Though,you know they're, are they
really? They're still goingQatar has got them. Dubai's got
them. Emirates has them. Qatar,they're in Oman, they're still
working. Still going strong.
That's incredible. Philippines.
I just worked on one inPhilippines. I just got, I was
there, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (19:44):
you still do a little bit of international
travel. It's just not what itused to be.
Billy Ash (19:48):
It's not what it used to be, yeah, I still do it,
yeah. And something comes up andthey need my certain
information, or some informationthat I have, I can do it. I
still do it,
Matthew Weitzel (19:59):
yeah, yeah. So, you know, we went out to lunch
before this. So just a littlebit of background in case, you
know, we have a listener forthat, for some odd reason,
hasn't listened to every singlepodcast. I used to work for tug
and Textron GSE, so I've knownyou guys since 2007 but you
know, we went out to lunchbefore this, and we're talking
(20:20):
about training, right, and howtraining is so important. And
Billy, I just kind of wanted togive you, like, a little bit of
a forum here to to discuss, youknow, kind of your thoughts on,
on how we can, you know, helpmove the industry forward,
really, via training.
Billy Ash (20:39):
I think the internet, if we can do more YouTube videos
of fixing equipment and get itout there on a YouTube channel,
like cars, yeah, hook stuff oncars all the time. My daughter
brings me her new car. You know,the CX five never worked on them
as the CX five, I good. I Googleit, pull it in the shop, put
(20:59):
brakes on it fixed, if we canget into that more. And I think
a guy, a technician, hasn't beentrained because he hasn't had it
yet, he can Google that and say,hey, I want to work the
conveyor, on the conveyor, betand see what's wrong with it. If
it's there, it'd be great.
Matthew Weitzel (21:17):
Oh, the housekeeping is here, so we're
going to take a little bit of abreak and we'll be right back,
all right. Well, we are backafter we had house housekeeping
come in here, yeah, so that wasthe first time for that. And,
yeah, that was interesting. Sowe were kind of talking about
training and how there's kind ofa lack of information out there
(21:38):
for new techs, and how you knowYouTube would be a great I mean,
I know, for me, if somethinggoes wrong in my house, and
especially nowadays, you can'tafford to hire a handyman or
anything like that. It seemslike it costs a ton of money. It
didn't used to but now it does.
So I try to do everythingmyself, and the first thing I do
is go to YouTube. That's great.
Mark DiMaria (21:56):
Yeah, I think YouTube snippets on all kinds of
different things would be reallyuseful. Because even in the the
support side, somebody calls in,you just tell them, you just
send them the link and say,Here, watch this. If you have
any more problems, call back andand do that. So I think more of
those little YouTube snippetswould be, you know, really
advantageous for for everybody.
Matthew Weitzel (22:17):
Yeah. I think we just started a new business
guys,
Billy Ash (22:19):
yeah. And I think we could do it at the factory,
because, you know, we got totest the machine before we put
it on our truck. But you know,when it comes off the line,
there's guys there who actually,okay, we have this, this, boom,
that won't go up, come here ifthey did it then and say, Okay,
this is what we've done, andthis is how we fixed it. That's
a start.
Matthew Weitzel (22:38):
Yeah. So, I mean, how many times you show up
to these service calls. So acustomer calls in, they say,
Yeah, my belt loader, the Boom'snot raising. You fly out to, you
know, San Francisco. I mean, areyou there? And the people just
have no idea what they're Imean, like, what does that
situation look like? Yeah,
Billy Ash (22:58):
but I rent a car because I'm a lot my stuff in
the trunk.
Matthew Weitzel (23:02):
Yeah, we do need to have a public service
announcement about this. If yougo to San Francisco, please,
please rent a car and not anSUV, and lock your car and don't
leave any valuables in it. Yeah,we know about that. Yeah, yeah,
you and I know very, very,almost too well about that,
yeah.
Billy Ash (23:19):
So yeah, they when we go on a service job, we kind of
have a mechanic with us, so wekind of do training in the
repair at the same time. Okay?
So we show the mechanics alwayswith us, because we have to have
an escort because we're on theairport without bad so we try to
always do a little trainingwhile we're there to do the
repair. So training, to me is, Ithink it's essential you, if
(23:41):
you're if you've got a goodcrew, and you train them, I've
been doing a lot of training forUnited on their air starts, it's
cut our calls down. Oh, a
Mark DiMaria (23:53):
ton. We've hardly ever get a call from and if they
do call, it's something odd,very strange. You know that we
wouldn't normally catch that.
So,
Matthew Weitzel (24:03):
so how does that come about? So let's say
that I'm a major airline, andI've never contacted Textron
about setting up training for mytechs. Is that something that
that Textron GSE will do? Andthen, if so, like, how do I go
about getting that training thatmaybe a United has has gotten?
Mark DiMaria (24:21):
Yeah. I mean, pretty much. Just contact the
service department and set itup. You know, tell them what
they want, give them all thedetails. Where, how many people
you know, what type of training,what level of training, and
they'll work with you to set itup.
Matthew Weitzel (24:36):
Do you think that's something that's
underutilized? Oh, yeah, yeah,
Mark DiMaria (24:39):
definitely underutilized. I
Billy Ash (24:41):
like it when a customer buys a piece of
equipment and adds it to thesale. Yeah? Like, if you, if you
call one of ourselves, Brad,say, Hey, Brad, I want these
units, but I want training withthem. It's done, yeah,
commissioning
Mark DiMaria (24:55):
and training. And they do that in some with in the
contract, where they'll say, ifa new. Piece of equipment is
going to a station that theydon't have that equipment there,
then you know, you'll havesomebody on site to do training
the first time. Yeah?
Matthew Weitzel (25:08):
And especially if they're buying something new,
like they've never had theTextron GSC air start in their
fleet, that's super important,right? Because the mechanics
don't know how to work on italready and stuff like that, or
Billy Ash (25:19):
what we were talking about earlier, with smart sense,
yeah? So if you get, you gotunits, you don't have smart
sense, you're going to get twoor three. Yeah, you need
somebody to come train on theuse of it. Train on what could
go wrong, the repairs, opticalsensors, stuff like that. This
is how it works. It makes them ahuge, huge difference.
Mark DiMaria (25:40):
In some cases they they may operate it and think
it's there's something wrongwith it, but it's actually the
way it's supposed to befunctioning. So a lot of that is
just familiarization andoperation training.
Matthew Weitzel (25:51):
Yeah, that's really interesting. I hadn't
really thought about that. And Ithink that's, you know, I think
in in 2025 for sure, I'm goingto start doing more interviewing
service providers, right, andtalking to them about service,
because I think it's such animportant part of ground support
equipment, and we kind of onlygo over like the sales side,
usually. And there's this hugeservice side, you know, behind
(26:11):
all of that, and things thathappen once that that
equipment's delivered. And Iwas, I was texting, uh, Brad
Compton, uh, before I came here,and, you know, he was saying, he
goes, Oh, I'm so glad thatyou're interviewing mark and
Billy, because I wouldn't behere without those guys. And
what he meant by that was, andI'm sure, is, that you all have
supported him and made him lookgood in front of customers his
(26:33):
entire career, right? You know,going back and doing the hard
stuff, right? Like the easystuff's doing the sale, right?
It's, backing up that sale afterit's done, making sure the
proper service is done. And thenwhen we have a unit down
situation, when I worked therewas always call mark, and then
Mark's gonna reach out to Billyor Chris Solis or and they were
(26:54):
gonna go and fix it. And that'show we made our name, right? Was
standing behind our product andhaving the service levels, you
know, the high service levels, Iguess, is what I'm trying to
Billy Ash (27:06):
say. And especially with a demo. If Brad demos a
piece of equipment, I go withBrad. Yeah, he said, he says,
Hey, man, who you got free tosit with me, because I'm gonna
demo this piece of equipment,and I want somebody there.
Something happens. I want itfixed while I'm there. I'm not
going to be there by myself. Andstuff happens. You know, the
trucks beat this stuff to death.
We truck it across the country.
(27:30):
You put it on a truck, and itjust beats it up. So you it's,
you got to go through it again.
Matthew Weitzel (27:36):
It is amazing, like, I just had a unit show up
at a customer's location, and itturns out that there was damage
that happened during the somewhether it was the loading of
the unit or the unloading orwhile it was on the truck. I
mean, stuff like that happensall the time. And I think the
customer thinks, oh, it justshowed to me, didn't work. I
mean, a lot of times it can bedamage in transportation, right?
Mark DiMaria (27:57):
Oh, yeah. There's a lot of a
Unknown (27:59):
lot that can happen. I
Billy Ash (28:01):
think the funniest ones, the one we shipped an
airstart to Miami, and theynever got it, and they still
ain't got it, it disappeared.
Remember that somebody stole it?
It's gone, really, yeah, likeour backpack? Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (28:18):
that airstart disappeared. Oh, wow, that's
incredible. Yeah, I rememberwhen I pulled I think it was the
one of the first times I pulledinto that Kennesaw parking lot
and I bottomed out because, Iguess somebody had left, you
know, like, I don't know, as aGT 50 or GT 110, sitting in the
parking lot. Do you rememberthis sinking into the ground,
(28:39):
into the ground, and there was,like, two, like, you know, huge
swells in the, in the in theconcrete there i and that is the
first time I realized that, youknow, not all concrete is built
the same,
Mark DiMaria (28:50):
yeah. Oh, that was an asphalt Park. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (28:52):
well, that's, that's why, yeah, I just sank
right
Mark DiMaria (28:55):
in. Sank right in, yeah. So,
Matthew Weitzel (28:57):
what do you see, Billy, let's go back to
electric really quickly. So doyou think, do you see less
repairs in electric than you dointernal combustion?
Unknown (29:06):
Yes, I see less repair on the electric. Okay, so it's,
go ahead,
Billy Ash (29:12):
it's easier. I mean, there's not as much to it. It's
all electric, but you got tohave special trained technicians
to work on it, because you gotto be able to connect to the
controller to see what thecontroller is doing is, you
know, it's not tweaking. Youcan't tweak something on all
electric, yeah, raise the RPM,lower to rpm, you know, change
the pressure. Do this. It's alot more,
Mark DiMaria (29:35):
um, fixed kind of cut and dry,
Unknown (29:37):
cut and dry.
Matthew Weitzel (29:39):
So do you see it as an issue with new
technicians, as far as notknowing how to work on electric
equipment. Do you see,eventually we're going to have
some, some issues because peoplejust don't know how to work on
it. We're
Billy Ash (29:51):
already having them issues that people don't know
how to work on because they'rethey're this coming, you know,
it's there, and we just okay,we're going to buy you a.
Electrics, but they don't train.
You didn't got trained onelectrics, yeah? So it's a whole
different ball game, and it'sdangerous. You need the
training, yeah? So I have peoplewho call me wanting me to help
them fix stuff, and I make sureI have to be really careful.
(30:13):
Mark stressed this a lot, yeah,be really careful what they
know, know what they know beforeyou send them in there, you
know? Because it's, you know,you get shocked by it, and it
can be bad, you know, you hitthe battery, gets the metal.
It's, it's worse, yeah, it'llweld. And it's a welder. So,
yeah, it's very dangerous,especially
Mark DiMaria (30:34):
with a lot of the newer, higher voltage stuff
coming out, almost like over theroad, highway type systems. It's
you got to really know whatyou're doing and know, know
where the disconnects are, andknow all that. So it's just a
different animal altogether.
Matthew Weitzel (30:49):
But so the technicians that are out there
today, they're, they're goodwith internal combustion stuff
for the most part, but they justdon't, they don't have the
training to go in there and workon that, on that kind of
equipment, right?
Billy Ash (31:01):
They, you know, we learn by what we do, yep. And
then you throw something new atthem, and then sometimes it
works, sometimes it don't, yeah,yep. The forklift
Mark DiMaria (31:13):
industry has been electric for a long time, so
there's a lot of thosetechnicians which are going to
transition. They've been workingon that on electrics for years,
so they may have a little bit ofan advantage. So you're going to
probably see some people indifferent industries migrate
over because they have thatexperience. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (31:30):
yeah, for sure.
So what do you what do you seeas far as when you go to these
airports, infrastructure wise,do you see airports like
starting to get moreinfrastructure. Is it? Is it
going pretty slow, or do you seeit ramping up like you're out
there in the field all day? It'sgoing really
Unknown (31:47):
slow. Yeah, really slow to do what
Billy Ash (31:51):
we want to do, to replace a lot of gas powered
equipment, diesel poweredequipment, and go straight
electrics. Yeah, it's goingreally slow. We're not there
yet. We're not there yet.
Mark DiMaria (32:02):
And it's not just the airport. It's actually the
power to the airport. Okay, theydon't, you know, the they don't
have the, the grid, the capacityyet to change over to all
electrics. That's going to takesome time, yeah, and, and a lot
of investment. And then then thequestion is, who's going to pay
(32:23):
for the investment, or who'sgoing to pay
Unknown (32:24):
for it? Yeah, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (32:26):
that's interesting. I see a lot of
people they're investing inelectric, and then I've see
other people that are investingin electric, and it's sitting
there because, you know, theyhave, like, a yard now where
they can't even get the stuffout. They have it new, but
there's no there's not enoughinfrastructure for them to even
put those units in service.
That's
Mark DiMaria (32:45):
why you're seeing the mobile charging stations
where you have a dieselgenerator or something else,
exactly, powering a
Matthew Weitzel (32:52):
Yeah, yeah.
We're gonna, I mean, it'll beinteresting to see, because all
these companies have these ESGgoals, right? You know, whether
it be a ground handler andairline and they're mandated to
buy a certain amount of electricequipment, but then there's no
infrastructure, then you'regonna have to go to these mobile
charging solutions, whether itbe like an amp cart type thing
that has actually, like a Genset on it, or whether it be
(33:13):
something that connects to thegate power. Are you starting to
see that kind of stuff out inthe field or not really yet.
It's It's coming.
Billy Ash (33:21):
It's getting there.
It's airports that are expandingtoday. So they're adding GPUs on
the jet bridge. Air conditionson the jet bridge. Air start in
the ground. It's on newairports. It's coming. You
haven't heard about the airstarts in the ground. Oh yeah.
Thing is that, yeah, it's lookat Dubai. Okay, yeah, they've
done it. Their start comes outof ground, really? GPU comes out
(33:43):
of ground,
Matthew Weitzel (33:46):
yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Okay, so are
you seeing that in, like, inNorth America, or is that mainly
overseas, mainly
Billy Ash (33:53):
overseas Europe and Dubai and Middle East. Qatar is
looking at it. They're going forthat. Okay,
Mark DiMaria (34:00):
yeah, I haven't, I haven't seen it in North
America. Me neither. Okay,
Matthew Weitzel (34:04):
all right, but no, but I know about that, so
that's great. This is, I mean,this is fantastic. So I'm
learning something today, so Iappreciate that. So is that I'm
that must be a lot ofinfrastructure changes on the
airport, though, right? Theycan't just snap your fingers,
that's done. It's,
Billy Ash (34:20):
it has to be on an airport, I think, where you're
adding a terminal, or you'redoing something from ground up,
yeah,
Mark DiMaria (34:26):
it's a new build.
They're not, it's
Matthew Weitzel (34:27):
not, yeah, yeah. You're not retrofitting
that kind of stuff, right? No,that's not happening, okay? But
that's still really interesting,all right, yeah. So what other
stories do you have? Billy, doyou have any other good stories
that we can tell on the podcast.
Yeah,
Billy Ash (34:42):
I was sitting in a terminal in Japan, yeah, waiting
for a flight back to the States,and a guy comes up to me, Billy,
yeah, said, Man, I got a tractordown here. It's broke. I need
you to look at it. So he walksme down through customs, out of
customs, back down, all the wayback down under the airplane.
And it's setting on airplane.
And, yeah, I had to fix it.
Mark DiMaria (35:05):
So he mentions Japan. So, yeah, do you know?
Have you ever watched the LittleLeague World Series where the
Japanese teams go out and theypay homage to the little
figurine out there? I've not.
Okay, you got to see that. Okay.
Well, that's what the Japanesedo when Billy shows up for Jose.
I mean, they pay homage to him.
He is like, yeah, he's, he's agod for GSE when he goes to
(35:28):
Japan, yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (35:31):
I mean, some would say he's a god of GSE
anyway, but, yeah, butespecially in Japan, I guess
Billy Ash (35:36):
4343 years, you better learn something. So
Matthew Weitzel (35:40):
I've heard that the G and then this is, like,
completely rumor, but I've heardthat the GSC in Japan looks
like, perfect. That's perfect.
Oh, it's perfect. I mean, it'slike, pristine condition. You
Billy Ash (35:51):
know, you've been in a piece of equipment around, you
know, everywhere, yeah, youknow, they eat in it. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (35:56):
yeah, they're, you don't see that. They don't
care. They're hitting stuff withit. Yeah, not in Japan. Have
Mark DiMaria (36:01):
you? Have you ever seen operations in Japan? No
Unknown (36:04):
different group. They all wear different color
Mark DiMaria (36:07):
uniforms. So it's like the ground handlers, you
know, the ones that are dealingwith baggage will wear green,
the ones that are doing fuel andwear blue, the ones that are, I
mean, you can actually see andit, it's, it's an orchestra, or
it's, amazing out there. The waythey do it, and that equipment
is, is spotless. They they don'ttolerate people, you know,
messing with stuff and all that.
It's, it's respected, and theyreally take care of their stuff.
(36:30):
You're not
Billy Ash (36:32):
finding a coffee cup and an aircraft pushback trying
to
Mark DiMaria (36:36):
drop or burritos stuffed under a seat, you know.
Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (36:42):
It's not happening. That's hilarious.
Yeah, I don't think that theoperators here in the United
States, I would say, have quote,unquote, respect for the
equipment.
Mark DiMaria (36:52):
So if you want to see something spectacular,
though, like when I was in Saudithe air starts where the gas
turbines, yeah, and they weretruck mounted, and they used to
have a safety device in therewhere, you know, you'd have to
put the hose in there, and ifthe hose was out, you couldn't
drive the truck. Well, they usedto put a coke can in there and
bypass that. And at night, theyhad an air start connected to an
(37:18):
aircraft, and it was running,and someone got in the truck,
and they had that bypass. Someguy got in the truck and took
off. And you know, when the 50foot hose got to its end, it
yanked that gas turbine off theback of the pickup truck. And
when it hits the ground, and itkind of explodes at 42,000 RPM,
(37:39):
it's, it's pretty spectacular.
So, yeah, we,
Billy Ash (37:44):
we had one in Saudi too, that, uh, the guy was
saying, Man, something's wrongwith this air. Start, it stinks.
I'm like, Man, I don't knowwhat's wrong with it. And, uh,
cat had got up in there, and itshot the cat up into the
airplane. Oh, my God.
Mark DiMaria (38:00):
And, yeah, that cat had been there a while.
Billy Ash (38:03):
Yeah, apparently that's when we started putting
screens on the end of thehouses. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (38:07):
okay, there you go. There's a reason for
everything. We fix that, yeah,
Billy Ash (38:11):
to break before you figure out, wait a minute, they
need to put a screen. Imaginethat smell going into the air.
Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (38:18):
I can't even imagine it was horrible. I
remember my dad got like a birdstuck in his like, I don't know
it's like a radiator orsomething like that in his car,
and they in the airconditioning. It was horrific.
For weeks, and we couldn'tfigure out what it was. Oh, it
was bad, yeah. So I can onlyimagine what that was. Time to
sell a car, yeah. Oh, we got ridof that thing. That was a
(38:40):
Sundance. It was a fancy car.
You know, you remember thosedeals, all those things were
terrible, but they seen it herenor there. So I had one, one
last good question for you, butit has since left me because of
my, my Sundance car thing. Sowe'll, we'll, we'll think of it
here in one second. But Mark,what else do you have for us?
Mark DiMaria (39:01):
Um, no, I agree.
Like Billy, you know, trainingis going to be the biggest
thing, and electrics are goingto take off more once they start
really figuring out how much themate how much they're saving on
maintenance cost and the, youknow, telematics, I think we're
still way far behind on thetelematics, and I think that
connected direct to themaintenance systems. You're
going to really figure out whatequipment is costing, and you
(39:24):
know your maintenance savings onelectrics versus internal
combustion, and I think that'swhat's going to really help
drive the conversion toelectrics a little bit higher
speed. So
Matthew Weitzel (39:38):
do we see Billy a move towards telematics and
being able to remotely diagnoseand fix a lot of the equipment
remotely. Is that something thatcan happen now? Or is that
something do you think thatwe're going to eventually be
Billy Ash (39:54):
able to do that's happening now? We can do it on
an alpha four, okay, yeah.
Matter of fact, again. Guy in LAhas a problem. Had a problem
with his album four. He has theapp on his phone. I can go,
clicked on it. It called ourengineers. They went through it,
found the problem, had him fixit, done. It's there. Yeah. I
think it's gonna be more andmore and more. And I think it's
(40:15):
a great feature to sell. Aselling feature, yeah, hey, we
don't need to send our guy. It'sgonna and it's been there, you
know, they started on theloaders, you know, yeah, and
it's been around a while, butit's getting better and better
now that you got an app on yourphone, you just connect, and it
calls somebody, and the engineerlooks at, oh, I got a call here.
(40:36):
Let me look at it. And they lookat it, and then they say, oh,
yeah, here's your problem. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (40:42):
because it's like you said, a lot of this,
lot of the stuff that you'refixing now is with a laptop,
right? So why couldn't you justdo that remotely? You can
connect
Billy Ash (40:48):
to it? Yeah? Alpha three, alpha four,
Mark DiMaria (40:51):
yeah. And communication infrastructure is
getting better, so it's going toget a lot better.
Billy Ash (40:56):
Yeah, we're not there yet, but we're getting there.
We're getting, I think it'sgetting closer and closer to
being that the app on your phoneis, I mean, that's crazy. It
works great. I've used it. I gotit on my phone, yeah. And every
mechanic that calls me, I said,Man, get this app on your phone.
It's 75 bucks. Yeah. I mean, whynot? Of course, Mark approved
(41:19):
mine. So, yeah, exactly. My 75bucks. But, uh, they, they're
willing. The mechanic in LA waswilling to pay for this his
self, just to get it done. Justto get it done. Yeah, he got it
on his phone. He said, Man, thisthing, this is great. What kind
of app is this? I mean, is thislike a software app? It's the
company that builds the softwarefor the Alpha four. Oh, okay,
(41:39):
it's their app. Nice, ourmechanics control it. And, yeah,
it's tied to our system, and itworks great. Yeah, it's a
Matthew Weitzel (41:47):
great selling feature. So how many I remember,
what I was going to ask you now,how many days in a year, and it
could have varied or whatever,but I mean, how many days a year
were you out traveling as atraveling technician,
Billy Ash (42:00):
the most of was out at one time was four months
steady, gone for four months,three months, two months. But
so,
Matthew Weitzel (42:07):
I mean, out of 307 days a year, you're looking
at like maybe 200 200
Unknown (42:13):
of it or more. Yeah, he's incredible, yeah, yeah. Now
the wife says, when you leaving?
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (42:21):
what are you doing here? I just got home
Friday. Yeah, she's like, she'slistening this podcast going, I
hope they don't make thosetechnology advancements, or else
he's going to be around sittingon the couch remotely diagnosing
things. Yeah, we don't wantthat.
Mark DiMaria (42:34):
Yeah, time for you to leave. Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (42:37):
That's awesome.
Well, yeah, I mean, I, I wasactually thinking about doing
this podcast. It brought it gotbrought up the first day that I
did. So my first podcast that Iever did was with Brad Compton,
and we did it at my house, at akitchen table. And we get, we
get done with the podcast, andhe goes, you know, who you
really need to have on is Billyash and Mark di Maria. And he's
(43:00):
like, they've got all thestories they they've supported
all these customers. That's thepeople that they want to hear
from, and all this stuff. Sothis has been a long time
coming, because I agree withhim. I'm like, if I get those
two on, it'd be amazing. And Ireally appreciate you all coming
on today and talking to me aboutabout GSE and just about what
you've seen and your stories andMark, I'm sad to see you go, but
(43:22):
hopefully we can continue towork together. And you want to
kind of tell everybody whatyou're doing now in your
retirement.
Mark DiMaria (43:31):
So yeah, it's even though I've retired, I've just
kind of switched careerscompletely. I am now in
promotional products, businessand embroidery and, and
something with marketing,nothing, nothing to do with GSE,
although we do have a lot of GSEcustomers that it's my wife's
company. She's owned it for 28years. And, yeah, it's, it was a
(43:53):
great opportunity, perfecttiming, you know, GSE was a
wonderful ride 35 years and, butnow it's, you know, turning the
page and and looking forward tothis new, new endeavor.
Matthew Weitzel (44:05):
Yeah, exactly.
And if they need your servicesand they need some apparel or
promotional products, wherewould they reach you? Just on
LinkedIn. Aimpromos.com.
Mark DiMaria (44:14):
LinkedIn. We're getting ready to to do our redo
the page and all that. But aimpromos,
Matthew Weitzel (44:19):
so you've got, how many years now? 4343 How
much longer are you planning ongoing down this road?
Billy Ash (44:27):
I don't know. I enjoy it. Number one, I enjoy what I
do and enjoy who I work for. AndI work for a great company,
great people. They give you whatyou need to do the job. They
give you the time off you needwhen you need it, yep, until I'm
tired and say yeah, I don't wantto get on the airplane no more.
Yeah, I'm gonna be around alittle while longer. Nice,
Matthew Weitzel (44:47):
all right? 43 years. That's incredible. I
can't even imagine. So this isI've only done it 17 years, so
I'm way far behind you. I've gotsome I got some time to go so,
but any other closing, parting.
Words of wisdom from either ofyou. No,
Mark DiMaria (45:02):
I mean, it's great industry. It's the people you
meet and the relationships thatyou get along
Unknown (45:07):
the way. Yeah, I
Billy Ash (45:09):
know people that's known me all my life down there,
since I was in this business.
Yeah, you know, that's
Matthew Weitzel (45:15):
crazy. Yeah, it is. I was thinking this morning
as I was on a plane here abouthow, you know, we have this text
group going. And I'm sure a lotof people in the industry don't
know this, but tug was like afamily. I mean, obviously, you
know, like old tug, right? Likebefore Textron GSE. I'm not
saying anything bad aboutTextron GSE, I'm just talking
(45:35):
about tug Technologies was, waslike a family, right? We're
really close knit, and we have atext group that goes, you know,
on and off occasionally, andthen we get together and stuff
like that, that, that Lynn beardput together. And, I mean,
that's how close this little GSEfamily is, is that they, we
still get together and do thingsI haven't got a chance to go to
them. I'm sure you all have,right? Yeah. And it's
Mark DiMaria (45:57):
usually around Christmas, or, you know, some
kind of a holiday, but, yeah,the old tug group gets
Matthew Weitzel (46:02):
together, yeah?
And, I mean, it was, I mean, youknow, it was like, just, like, I
said, like, a big family, and
Billy Ash (46:07):
Stevenson did that for a long time, yeah, long
time. We would always gettogether, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (46:12):
it's in, I'd say the we just had a podcast
that I record in Toronto, andeverybody was talking about how
it's just a big community,right? And then we have this new
guy starting at exceed, and hisname's Jake. And I was telling
Jake, I was like, You're gonnalove the industry. Never been in
the industry before, becauseeverybody's so welcoming, and
it's like the nicest group ofpeople you'll ever meet. We have
(46:34):
an industry unlike any other, Ithink, in my opinion, and so
anyway, so it's a great industryto be a part of. I've enjoyed
knowing both of you for so long,and I really appreciate you all
coming on. No, I appreciate it.
Yeah. So all right. Well, thishas been Billy and Mark and Matt
for the GSE podcast. Talk to youlater. Thank you for tuning in
to this episode of the GSEpodcast. We hope you found it
(46:57):
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(47:19):
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more at exceed gse.comthis is Brad Compton. This is
(00:56):
Luke brown. This is JeffBarrett. This is Tessa Fauci,
and you are listening to the GSEpodcast. I am here with Mark di
Maria and Billy Ashe. Mark diMaria, formerly of Textron and
Billy Ashe, a current Textronemployee, and Mark, I will, I
will start with you, and I justwant to hear a little bit about
(01:20):
your career and how you startedin the ground support equipment
industry. I want to go the wholeway back.
Mark DiMaria (01:28):
Okay, I started off where I was working
overseas, and I came back to thestates to live and I wanted to
get overseas again. So a friendof mine says, Have you ever
tried the airline industry. AndI was thinking, why would the
airline industry want a dieselmechanic? Had no clue. So I
applied for Saudi ArabianAirlines, and I ended up getting
(01:52):
a job in Saudi Arabia as atechnical instructor for GSE,
and that was back in like 1990so it's a couple years back. So
I went to Saudi Arabia, and Iworked there for close to 10
years as a training on GSEmechanics.
Matthew Weitzel (02:13):
So you were, were you working in diesel, I'm
guessing, like, Where does yourcareer start, before ground
support equipment, then indiesel engines?
Mark DiMaria (02:20):
Yeah, just diesel in general. I work for an oil
research company right out oftech school. And funny enough, I
didn't work on many dieselengines. At first in the oil
industry, I worked on everythingelse, really funky machines, and
then I ended up working onremote crews, like in Egypt and
Dubai, on all types ofequipment.
Matthew Weitzel (02:43):
So you started out stateside, and then, and
then got this opportunity out inSaudi Arabia.
Mark DiMaria (02:49):
Well, I worked international for oil research
on a ship, Spain, Ireland,Norway, New Foundland, and then
went to Egypt for on a landbased crew, went to China on a
crew up there for a little overa year, and then went to Dubai.
Here. What was Egypt, Dubai? Andthen China went back to the
states for about three years.
And that's when this opportunitycame up to go to Saudi Arabian
(03:13):
Airlines. Wow,
Matthew Weitzel (03:17):
that's incredible. So then, so you're
at Saudi Arabian Airlines, andthen does this tug at that point
are Stuart and Stevenson, like,who gets a hold of you at that
point from and then, how did youmake your transition from Saudi
Arabian Airlines to, you know,landing at the tug slash
Textron? Well,
Mark DiMaria (03:34):
Bill o'conn and Ben Reeves came to Saudi to do
some training, but it happenedto be during one of the Saudi
holidays, so no training wasgoing to happen. So Ben asked,
Hey, would you like to go out todinner? Well, I was playing on a
men's softball league So, and wewere short people, so I just
told them. I said, Hey, look, Ican't go to dinner, but you guys
(03:57):
would like to come out and watchsome softball and eat some hot
dogs we'd love to have you. BenReeves popped up. Yeah, they
came. And I picked them up atthe hotel. We came out to the
compound, and while we'replaying softball. And after the
after the games, he was talkingabout they wanted to open up an
office in Europe, and was wantto know if I'd be interested in
(04:19):
being a manager for the Europeanoffice. And I said, yeah,
definitely interested. A fewmonths later, he sends me an
email. He says, if you're stillinterested, I'd like to take the
talks to the next level. And Ijust sent him back an email and
said, welcome to the next level.
And next thing I know, I gothired and went to work for it
(04:39):
was when Stewart and Stevensonhad just bought tug, okay, and I
went to work in Amsterdam.
Matthew Weitzel (04:48):
And is this the broom closet? The infamous,
Mark DiMaria (04:51):
the infamous broom closet, okay, at klm, you know
the equipment services, yeah,that was,
Matthew Weitzel (04:57):
I've heard a lot about that broom closet.
Yeah. Yes, it
Mark DiMaria (05:01):
was, it was, it was small that
Matthew Weitzel (05:03):
That's hilarious. Let's get billion on
this conversation. I
Billy Ash (05:07):
met Mark in the late 90s, and we did air
conditioners. Stewart andStevenson bought Lear Sigler,
okay, and so we built the airconditioners, and I was over
there doing some repairs. Markwas doing the training. So we
got together. He invited me tohis house.
Matthew Weitzel (05:25):
So, Billy, how did you start your career? Did
you grow up in Texas and thensomehow start working for
Stewart and Stevenson? Or howdid all that work?
Billy Ash (05:32):
I grew up in Tennessee. Okay, graduate. As
soon as I took off to Texas,because I had some friends down
there in Houston working in theconstruction business. I went
down there, moved in with them,started working, walking to the
store, guys. GTO was broke down.
I said, Hey, can I help you?
Said, Yeah, ma'am, I put oil inthe car, and now it won't start.
(05:55):
It's all lights on. I said,Okay, let me check it. Checked
all he had overfilled it. Oh,and I said, Man, you put too
much oil in he said, Man, theoil lights on. I put oil in it.
I said, Man, it's too much oil.
It's not going to turn over. Canyou fix it? I said, Yeah, I fix
it. So I towed his car to hishouse next day. I fixed it. He
said, You need a job. So I got ajob, but I'm always looking for
something else. He said, Well,I'm the personnel manager for
(06:16):
Sherman Stevenson, so if youcome see me Monday morning. I'll
put you to work, and I'll payyou good I want to work for
Stewart and Stevenson. That is
Matthew Weitzel (06:25):
the craziest story. No idea that's that's the
the Billy ash origin story. Justgot lucky. That is, that is so
funny. I love that. So Stuartand Stevenson at that time, what
were they? What were theybuilding? So I'm guessing
pushbacks and air starts andthings like that.
Billy Ash (06:41):
Push backs, air starts, and GPUs, okay, that's
it all,
Matthew Weitzel (06:45):
right. And then at some point, tug, or, well,
Stuart and Stevenson bought tug,correct,
Billy Ash (06:50):
yes, okay, Stevenson bought tug, and then they moved,
took the GSE from Houston, andsince tug had the property in
Kennesaw, moved everything toGeorgia, okay?
Matthew Weitzel (07:02):
And then at what point then did, I guess,
Stewart and Stevenson wanted tosell off their product? Yep,
Billy Ash (07:09):
they sold it to
Mark DiMaria (07:11):
Jacobs, yeah, the airline industry, or the airline
proportion of their company,yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (07:16):
and that's when I came on, is right after that?
Yeah, okay, technologies, okay?
And then they kept around. Well,so what happened to the GPUs?
Because at some point we well,tug bought davco, right? So
where did the GPUs go that yousaid that steward Stevenson was
building, they
Billy Ash (07:33):
just discontinued it, okay, matter of fact, it rolled
over to tug technologies, butthen they phased it out because
wasn't profitable. They couldn'ttug. Wanted to build everything
on assembly lines, yep, andGPUs, air starts tough to do.
They were their Bay builds,right? Yeah. So when they had
the needed the room and otherstuff, Mark probably knows more
(07:55):
about now. I mean, he's there. Iwas still in Houston, because
they never made me move, becausetravel, yeah. So they just
wasn't profitable, so theydiscontinued it. Well,
Mark DiMaria (08:04):
Stuart and Stevenson had a special area
where they built all their ownwire harnesses. And they
actually used to build theircards for the GPUs, the
electronic Oh, wow. Boards,okay. They had a separate
section that did all that. Sowhen they moved the factory from
Houston to Kennesaw, they didn'tmove that part of the factory.
(08:26):
So there was, it just didn'tmake sense anymore to to
continue building them, becausethey required all that pre
assembly stuff.
Matthew Weitzel (08:34):
Yeah. So then they just got rid of the GPU
line, and then at some point,tug got Dave CO and then now
that's been sunsetted as well,right? Okay, awesome. And then
Billy, at what point, so wereyou working always remotely,
doing like a travelingtechnician? Because we haven't
told the audience here thatdoesn't know you. I'm sure a lot
of people in the GSE industryknow you, but you're a traveling
(08:57):
technician for Textron GSE, andyou have been a traveling
technician for a very long time.
At what point did you start thatportion of your career?
Billy Ash (09:05):
Well, at Stuart and Stevenson, I worked on in the
test cell. We built GPUs, webuilt air starts, we built the
push back so they needed theyhad a test cell. They'd send it
down there. We would test it,fix all the little issues, ship
it. So I was in that apartment.
We had a guy, this older guy,and he was doing the traveling,
he got hurt, and they come to meand they said, Hey, we need you
(09:26):
to go to Abu Dhabi. I said, Idon't know where Abu Dhabi is
at. I've never been out of thecountry, right? Oh, we're gonna
get you everything. We're gonnaget you a passport. We're gonna
do this, and we're gonna get youeverything, and we'll show you
how to do it. And I'm like,Cool, let's do it. Got me to
passport, sent me to training. Iwent to Detroit training,
learned how to tune in just theDetroits, and they sent me to
(09:48):
Abu Dhabi, and I did my job, andI came back and they said, you
want to go to California? Isaid, Yeah, I'll go to
California. Been doing it eversince.
Matthew Weitzel (09:57):
So do you have an estimate on how many kind.
Trees you've been to throughoutyour career?
Billy Ash (10:02):
No, around the world.
I've been around the world 27times, complete trips. That's
incredible. I can't tell youwhich way that way, yeah, I know
the numbers 27
Matthew Weitzel (10:16):
so what kind of status? What kind of status are
we talking about here on theairline of your choice. I was
Billy Ash (10:22):
global service on United for a while. Okay, now
I'm 1k because I don't traveloverseas much anymore. Okay,
yeah, let the young kids dothat. Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (10:31):
So, so mark where, at what point in time did
you move from the broom closetback over stateside? It
Mark DiMaria (10:39):
was, I want to say, around 2000 2001 so I was
in Amsterdam a year, okay,territories Europe, Middle East
and Africa. So I was constantlytraveling. So then I moved to
Houston for about a year beforethey transferred everything to
Georgia. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (10:57):
so you were actually at Stuart and Stevenson
in Houston, in Houston. Oh,okay. And then you moved at some
point to to Georgia, yeah.
Mark DiMaria (11:05):
So I moved in less than three years. I moved from
Saudi to Amsterdam, Amsterdam toHouston, and Houston to Georgia.
Matthew Weitzel (11:13):
That's incredible. So what was your
title? Then, when you moved overto Stewart and Stevenson and
then eventually to tug.
Mark DiMaria (11:21):
I was a manager for the European office. When I
moved to Houston, they didn't,they weren't quite sure where I
was going to fit in. And thenshortly, they made me the
service manager.
Matthew Weitzel (11:32):
Okay, so. And then when I came on in 2007 I
think you were, you were theservice manager, right over
warranty and repaired all thatkind of
Mark DiMaria (11:41):
stuff. I've been doing that pretty much since
2001 I guess, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (11:46):
yeah. And then you, you have now ended your
career at tug, right?
Congratulations.
Mark DiMaria (11:52):
I have almost 25 I was a week shy of 25 years.
Matthew Weitzel (11:56):
That's an incredible career, yeah. So what
were your biggest takeaways overthese 25 years, I
Mark DiMaria (12:02):
guess over the last few years, the technology
has really changed. I mean, itwas for a long time the
technology just stayed prettymuch the same. And then I would
say, over the last maybe six orseven years, when EPA, you know,
engine regulation, startedchanging, the technology just
really started
Unknown (12:22):
changing, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (12:24):
and the engines started getting larger, and
then, obviously,electrification. But
electrification is not new byany stretch of the imagination.
Billy, I'd love for you to getyour opinion on this whole
thing, because even though wehave more of a focus on
electrification now, we've been,you know, dealing with electric
equipment forever. And GSE,right,
Billy Ash (12:44):
yep, the PLC, when the PLC came out and took all
the relays away, yeah, took alot of mechanics away, yeah. So
now you got to have a laptop todo everything. You carry a
laptop. You do everything with alaptop. If you don't have the
software to connect to thesePLCs, you can't fix it.
Matthew Weitzel (13:01):
Yeah, it's all it's all there. So I mean, was
it a hard transition for you togo from working on mechanical
to, you know, the PLCs and allthat kind of stuff?
Billy Ash (13:12):
I wouldn't say it was hard. I would say it was a
training experience. You eitherdid it or you stayed behind,
yeah, so you move forward, oryou stay you stay behind. A lot
of people don't like the newtechnologies, and they didn't
want to do it. Yeah, I bang akey on a computer. So I like
learning new stuff. So it wasokay with me. Do you do the
(13:32):
hunting pack? Is I do? Oh, youhave two fingers. But really, I
love the enter key. Oh, yeah,that's your favorite download,
the program enter and yeah,exactly,
Matthew Weitzel (13:42):
yeah. It works a lot of times. I mean, I don't
know that that's true or not,but I mean, sometimes that's the
fix, right? Is updating thesoftware, sometimes,
Billy Ash (13:50):
sometimes the software, tweaking the software,
you can find emissions, likeMark said, it's crazy, you know,
depth fluid came out, and oncethe emissions came through, you
know, we rely on Deutsch andCummins and everybody. Sometimes
we can't rely on them becausewe're there. Yeah, we have to
have their software. We have tohave the ability to do what they
can do. And Mark was great,because he always wanted us to
(14:13):
have the best equipment for aservice guy. If I call mark and
say, Hey, I need to come insoftware, I can't call Cummins
in here get it done, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (14:22):
yeah, because Mark understood it, right? He
grew up kind of in the same waythat you did with this whole
thing, right? So Mark came frombeing a service guy into then,
you know, kind of leading ateam, and so he understood what
was what was required, right?
Billy Ash (14:36):
You couldn't ask you when you got somebody who's been
in it and traveled and done it,yeah? When he I call him Mr.
Mark, I got a problem with thiselectrical drawing, I don't
think it's right. Yeah, I thinkengineering done, maybe made a
mistake or something. He satthere and work with you, you
know, until you hold it, yep,it's here. Let me go talk to
this guy, because he's there.
Yeah, go talk to me. Call meback. Say, yeah, you can do it
(14:56):
this way. Let's see works.
Unknown (15:00):
Yeah.
Mark DiMaria (15:00):
So yeah, I'm a firm believer have the right
tool for the job. So it's whenthey were out there. And I'd
say, just get it. Get what youneed. Let's do it.
Matthew Weitzel (15:08):
Yeah. And you all have known each other since
what year was that that you allmet? I'm sorry.
Mark DiMaria (15:12):
Well, it's funny, my son we we met when my son was
a year old. He's 35
Matthew Weitzel (15:18):
that's incredible. So before you all
well, I mean, I guess you youwere working for Stuart and
Stevenson, right? But youweren't yet, so, and
Mark DiMaria (15:26):
that's funny, you know, we're at the house having
a few beers, and I told him, Isays, I might be your boss one
day. And he says, Well, I don'tcare. Four years later, I was
his boss.
Billy Ash (15:36):
Been a great boss.
Yeah, good,
Matthew Weitzel (15:38):
good. That's awesome. What's the one service
call Billy that you remember themost? Like, what is the one that
sticks in your mind that maybewas couple weeks long, you
couldn't figure it out,whatever? Just a funny story
about one that just you couldn'tget it, and then it was just
having to come along, orwhatever. You have a good
service story. For me, therehave been a ton of, yeah, you
(16:00):
pick your favorite one? I youknow, everybody listens this
podcast. They love a good story.
So
Billy Ash (16:06):
I was in El Salvador.
Shouldn't have been there. Theyflew me over from Puerto Rico,
took me off a plane, fixed thefixed the machine, put me in a
room for five hours until theycan get me back out, brought me
food, and a security guardstanding outside the door I
couldn't leave, said, No, yougotta stay here until, until the
(16:27):
plane leaves, we'll put you backon it and send you back
Matthew Weitzel (16:31):
out. This was in El Salvador. Yeah,
Billy Ash (16:35):
Syria. I've been to Syria. I've been all over the
Middle East, China. Were there
Matthew Weitzel (16:39):
a ton of places that you felt unsafe. Syria,
Syria, Yeah. Syria, like, Yeah.
I bet that was not a good one.
Yeah.
Billy Ash (16:48):
We were in Syria starting an aircraft, and we
didn't have headsets, so we werelike, Okay, we're gonna tell the
pilot when to throw the fuel tothe plane, right? So we're
spooling the engine over. Hethrows the fuel. We don't tell
him fuel's running. All aboutback out the engines. I mean,
fuel is just dumping. Everybodytakes off running. I'm standing
by the airstart. The hell am Igonna do? Gotta run too. Yeah.
(17:12):
So we got it shut down, andeverything's okay. It didn't
blow up or nothing, but it wasscary.
Matthew Weitzel (17:16):
Oh my gosh, Mark. Mark, what's your favorite
service story?
Mark DiMaria (17:22):
I don't know if I have a favorite service story. I
know I've had some good trips.
Matthew Weitzel (17:26):
All right, let's talk about a trip. Then,
Mark DiMaria (17:29):
when I worked oil research, I was in China, and I
happened to go to the Great Wallon my birthday. 30 years later,
on my birthday, I was on a tripin China with Billy, and we got
to tour a lot of differentareas. We we took trains and we
went through multiple cities. Itwas awesome. And I was used to
(17:50):
be married to a Thai so I loveThai food. We love beer and we
like music. So we were in thislittle town. I don't I can't
even remember the name of it,but we, we walked by this
restaurant. It was Thai food andcraft beer. Oh, check this out.
So we went in there. Sureenough, Thai food is good, craft
(18:10):
beer, all kinds of differentcraft beers. And then they had a
big screen TV, and they wereplaying the 2010 guitar
Crossroads Festival on thescreen. So it was awesome. I
mean, we're out in the middle ofnowhere in China, some little
town, yeah, and eating Thaifood, drinking craft beer and
watching a great concert. So Isaid it's like, you know, where
(18:33):
else can you this happen? Yeah,exactly. That was a good trip.
We I hit more cities in or wehit more cities in China than I
had ever done before. It was, itwas cool.
Matthew Weitzel (18:44):
So, I mean, I guess Stuart and Stevenson and
tug and Textron had equipmentall over the world, right? I
mean, and a lot, a lot in theMiddle East. I mean, hey, you
spent a lot of time in theMiddle East. Is that correct?
I've
Billy Ash (18:57):
spent years in the Middle East, yeah, Dubai, Qatar,
Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi,all of them. No,
Matthew Weitzel (19:04):
were you the guy who would fix those huge
were they the ACU eight, ohfours? Were they the 80513434
not the 805134, I'm sorry,somebody else. I know that's
somebody else. I don't know whyI got that in my head. News,
yeah, it's 5134, the truckmounted. AC, yes,
Unknown (19:22):
me, that was you that's mixed
Billy Ash (19:26):
a bunch of them.
They're still working. Though,you know they're, are they
really? They're still goingQatar has got them. Dubai's got
them. Emirates has them. Qatar,they're in Oman, they're still
working. Still going strong.
That's incredible. Philippines.
I just worked on one inPhilippines. I just got, I was
there, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (19:44):
you still do a little bit of international
travel. It's just not what itused to be.
Billy Ash (19:48):
It's not what it used to be, yeah, I still do it,
yeah. And something comes up andthey need my certain
information, or some informationthat I have, I can do it. I
still do it,
Matthew Weitzel (19:59):
yeah, yeah. So, you know, we went out to lunch
before this. So just a littlebit of background in case, you
know, we have a listener forthat, for some odd reason,
hasn't listened to every singlepodcast. I used to work for tug
and Textron GSE, so I've knownyou guys since 2007 but you
know, we went out to lunchbefore this, and we're talking
(20:20):
about training, right, and howtraining is so important. And
Billy, I just kind of wanted togive you, like, a little bit of
a forum here to to discuss, youknow, kind of your thoughts on,
on how we can, you know, helpmove the industry forward,
really, via training.
Billy Ash (20:39):
I think the internet, if we can do more YouTube videos
of fixing equipment and get itout there on a YouTube channel,
like cars, yeah, hook stuff oncars all the time. My daughter
brings me her new car. You know,the CX five never worked on them
as the CX five, I good. I Googleit, pull it in the shop, put
(20:59):
brakes on it fixed, if we canget into that more. And I think
a guy, a technician, hasn't beentrained because he hasn't had it
yet, he can Google that and say,hey, I want to work the
conveyor, on the conveyor, betand see what's wrong with it. If
it's there, it'd be great.
Matthew Weitzel (21:17):
Oh, the housekeeping is here, so we're
going to take a little bit of abreak and we'll be right back,
all right. Well, we are backafter we had house housekeeping
come in here, yeah, so that wasthe first time for that. And,
yeah, that was interesting. Sowe were kind of talking about
training and how there's kind ofa lack of information out there
(21:38):
for new techs, and how you knowYouTube would be a great I mean,
I know, for me, if somethinggoes wrong in my house, and
especially nowadays, you can'tafford to hire a handyman or
anything like that. It seemslike it costs a ton of money. It
didn't used to but now it does.
So I try to do everythingmyself, and the first thing I do
is go to YouTube. That's great.
Mark DiMaria (21:56):
Yeah, I think YouTube snippets on all kinds of
different things would be reallyuseful. Because even in the the
support side, somebody calls in,you just tell them, you just
send them the link and say,Here, watch this. If you have
any more problems, call back andand do that. So I think more of
those little YouTube snippetswould be, you know, really
advantageous for for everybody.
Matthew Weitzel (22:17):
Yeah. I think we just started a new business
guys,
Billy Ash (22:19):
yeah. And I think we could do it at the factory,
because, you know, we got totest the machine before we put
it on our truck. But you know,when it comes off the line,
there's guys there who actually,okay, we have this, this, boom,
that won't go up, come here ifthey did it then and say, Okay,
this is what we've done, andthis is how we fixed it. That's
a start.
Matthew Weitzel (22:38):
Yeah. So, I mean, how many times you show up
to these service calls. So acustomer calls in, they say,
Yeah, my belt loader, the Boom'snot raising. You fly out to, you
know, San Francisco. I mean, areyou there? And the people just
have no idea what they're Imean, like, what does that
situation look like? Yeah,
Billy Ash (22:58):
but I rent a car because I'm a lot my stuff in
the trunk.
Matthew Weitzel (23:02):
Yeah, we do need to have a public service
announcement about this. If yougo to San Francisco, please,
please rent a car and not anSUV, and lock your car and don't
leave any valuables in it. Yeah,we know about that. Yeah, yeah,
you and I know very, very,almost too well about that,
yeah.
Billy Ash (23:19):
So yeah, they when we go on a service job, we kind of
have a mechanic with us, so wekind of do training in the
repair at the same time. Okay?
So we show the mechanics alwayswith us, because we have to have
an escort because we're on theairport without bad so we try to
always do a little trainingwhile we're there to do the
repair. So training, to me is, Ithink it's essential you, if
(23:41):
you're if you've got a goodcrew, and you train them, I've
been doing a lot of training forUnited on their air starts, it's
cut our calls down. Oh, a
Mark DiMaria (23:53):
ton. We've hardly ever get a call from and if they
do call, it's something odd,very strange. You know that we
wouldn't normally catch that.
So,
Matthew Weitzel (24:03):
so how does that come about? So let's say
that I'm a major airline, andI've never contacted Textron
about setting up training for mytechs. Is that something that
that Textron GSE will do? Andthen, if so, like, how do I go
about getting that training thatmaybe a United has has gotten?
Mark DiMaria (24:21):
Yeah. I mean, pretty much. Just contact the
service department and set itup. You know, tell them what
they want, give them all thedetails. Where, how many people
you know, what type of training,what level of training, and
they'll work with you to set itup.
Matthew Weitzel (24:36):
Do you think that's something that's
underutilized? Oh, yeah, yeah,
Mark DiMaria (24:39):
definitely underutilized. I
Billy Ash (24:41):
like it when a customer buys a piece of
equipment and adds it to thesale. Yeah? Like, if you, if you
call one of ourselves, Brad,say, Hey, Brad, I want these
units, but I want training withthem. It's done, yeah,
commissioning
Mark DiMaria (24:55):
and training. And they do that in some with in the
contract, where they'll say, ifa new. Piece of equipment is
going to a station that theydon't have that equipment there,
then you know, you'll havesomebody on site to do training
the first time. Yeah?
Matthew Weitzel (25:08):
And especially if they're buying something new,
like they've never had theTextron GSC air start in their
fleet, that's super important,right? Because the mechanics
don't know how to work on italready and stuff like that, or
Billy Ash (25:19):
what we were talking about earlier, with smart sense,
yeah? So if you get, you gotunits, you don't have smart
sense, you're going to get twoor three. Yeah, you need
somebody to come train on theuse of it. Train on what could
go wrong, the repairs, opticalsensors, stuff like that. This
is how it works. It makes them ahuge, huge difference.
Mark DiMaria (25:40):
In some cases they they may operate it and think
it's there's something wrongwith it, but it's actually the
way it's supposed to befunctioning. So a lot of that is
just familiarization andoperation training.
Matthew Weitzel (25:51):
Yeah, that's really interesting. I hadn't
really thought about that. And Ithink that's, you know, I think
in in 2025 for sure, I'm goingto start doing more interviewing
service providers, right, andtalking to them about service,
because I think it's such animportant part of ground support
equipment, and we kind of onlygo over like the sales side,
usually. And there's this hugeservice side, you know, behind
(26:11):
all of that, and things thathappen once that that
equipment's delivered. And Iwas, I was texting, uh, Brad
Compton, uh, before I came here,and, you know, he was saying, he
goes, Oh, I'm so glad thatyou're interviewing mark and
Billy, because I wouldn't behere without those guys. And
what he meant by that was, andI'm sure, is, that you all have
supported him and made him lookgood in front of customers his
(26:33):
entire career, right? You know,going back and doing the hard
stuff, right? Like the easystuff's doing the sale, right?
It's, backing up that sale afterit's done, making sure the
proper service is done. And thenwhen we have a unit down
situation, when I worked therewas always call mark, and then
Mark's gonna reach out to Billyor Chris Solis or and they were
(26:54):
gonna go and fix it. And that'show we made our name, right? Was
standing behind our product andhaving the service levels, you
know, the high service levels, Iguess, is what I'm trying to
Billy Ash (27:06):
say. And especially with a demo. If Brad demos a
piece of equipment, I go withBrad. Yeah, he said, he says,
Hey, man, who you got free tosit with me, because I'm gonna
demo this piece of equipment,and I want somebody there.
Something happens. I want itfixed while I'm there. I'm not
going to be there by myself. Andstuff happens. You know, the
trucks beat this stuff to death.
We truck it across the country.
(27:30):
You put it on a truck, and itjust beats it up. So you it's,
you got to go through it again.
Matthew Weitzel (27:36):
It is amazing, like, I just had a unit show up
at a customer's location, and itturns out that there was damage
that happened during the somewhether it was the loading of
the unit or the unloading orwhile it was on the truck. I
mean, stuff like that happensall the time. And I think the
customer thinks, oh, it justshowed to me, didn't work. I
mean, a lot of times it can bedamage in transportation, right?
Mark DiMaria (27:57):
Oh, yeah. There's a lot of a
Unknown (27:59):
lot that can happen. I
Billy Ash (28:01):
think the funniest ones, the one we shipped an
airstart to Miami, and theynever got it, and they still
ain't got it, it disappeared.
Remember that somebody stole it?
It's gone, really, yeah, likeour backpack? Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (28:18):
that airstart disappeared. Oh, wow, that's
incredible. Yeah, I rememberwhen I pulled I think it was the
one of the first times I pulledinto that Kennesaw parking lot
and I bottomed out because, Iguess somebody had left, you
know, like, I don't know, as aGT 50 or GT 110, sitting in the
parking lot. Do you rememberthis sinking into the ground,
(28:39):
into the ground, and there was,like, two, like, you know, huge
swells in the, in the in theconcrete there i and that is the
first time I realized that, youknow, not all concrete is built
the same,
Mark DiMaria (28:50):
yeah. Oh, that was an asphalt Park. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (28:52):
well, that's, that's why, yeah, I just sank
right
Mark DiMaria (28:55):
in. Sank right in, yeah. So,
Matthew Weitzel (28:57):
what do you see, Billy, let's go back to
electric really quickly. So doyou think, do you see less
repairs in electric than you dointernal combustion?
Unknown (29:06):
Yes, I see less repair on the electric. Okay, so it's,
go ahead,
Billy Ash (29:12):
it's easier. I mean, there's not as much to it. It's
all electric, but you got tohave special trained technicians
to work on it, because you gotto be able to connect to the
controller to see what thecontroller is doing is, you
know, it's not tweaking. Youcan't tweak something on all
electric, yeah, raise the RPM,lower to rpm, you know, change
the pressure. Do this. It's alot more,
Mark DiMaria (29:35):
um, fixed kind of cut and dry,
Unknown (29:37):
cut and dry.
Matthew Weitzel (29:39):
So do you see it as an issue with new
technicians, as far as notknowing how to work on electric
equipment. Do you see,eventually we're going to have
some, some issues because peoplejust don't know how to work on
it. We're
Billy Ash (29:51):
already having them issues that people don't know
how to work on because they'rethey're this coming, you know,
it's there, and we just okay,we're going to buy you a.
Electrics, but they don't train.
You didn't got trained onelectrics, yeah? So it's a whole
different ball game, and it'sdangerous. You need the
training, yeah? So I have peoplewho call me wanting me to help
them fix stuff, and I make sureI have to be really careful.
(30:13):
Mark stressed this a lot, yeah,be really careful what they
know, know what they know beforeyou send them in there, you
know? Because it's, you know,you get shocked by it, and it
can be bad, you know, you hitthe battery, gets the metal.
It's, it's worse, yeah, it'llweld. And it's a welder. So,
yeah, it's very dangerous,especially
Mark DiMaria (30:34):
with a lot of the newer, higher voltage stuff
coming out, almost like over theroad, highway type systems. It's
you got to really know whatyou're doing and know, know
where the disconnects are, andknow all that. So it's just a
different animal altogether.
Matthew Weitzel (30:49):
But so the technicians that are out there
today, they're, they're goodwith internal combustion stuff
for the most part, but they justdon't, they don't have the
training to go in there and workon that, on that kind of
equipment, right?
Billy Ash (31:01):
They, you know, we learn by what we do, yep. And
then you throw something new atthem, and then sometimes it
works, sometimes it don't, yeah,yep. The forklift
Mark DiMaria (31:13):
industry has been electric for a long time, so
there's a lot of thosetechnicians which are going to
transition. They've been workingon that on electrics for years,
so they may have a little bit ofan advantage. So you're going to
probably see some people indifferent industries migrate
over because they have thatexperience. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (31:30):
yeah, for sure.
So what do you what do you seeas far as when you go to these
airports, infrastructure wise,do you see airports like
starting to get moreinfrastructure. Is it? Is it
going pretty slow, or do you seeit ramping up like you're out
there in the field all day? It'sgoing really
Unknown (31:47):
slow. Yeah, really slow to do what
Billy Ash (31:51):
we want to do, to replace a lot of gas powered
equipment, diesel poweredequipment, and go straight
electrics. Yeah, it's goingreally slow. We're not there
yet. We're not there yet.
Mark DiMaria (32:02):
And it's not just the airport. It's actually the
power to the airport. Okay, theydon't, you know, the they don't
have the, the grid, the capacityyet to change over to all
electrics. That's going to takesome time, yeah, and, and a lot
of investment. And then then thequestion is, who's going to pay
(32:23):
for the investment, or who'sgoing to pay
Unknown (32:24):
for it? Yeah, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (32:26):
that's interesting. I see a lot of
people they're investing inelectric, and then I've see
other people that are investingin electric, and it's sitting
there because, you know, theyhave, like, a yard now where
they can't even get the stuffout. They have it new, but
there's no there's not enoughinfrastructure for them to even
put those units in service.
That's
Mark DiMaria (32:45):
why you're seeing the mobile charging stations
where you have a dieselgenerator or something else,
exactly, powering a
Matthew Weitzel (32:52):
Yeah, yeah.
We're gonna, I mean, it'll beinteresting to see, because all
these companies have these ESGgoals, right? You know, whether
it be a ground handler andairline and they're mandated to
buy a certain amount of electricequipment, but then there's no
infrastructure, then you'regonna have to go to these mobile
charging solutions, whether itbe like an amp cart type thing
that has actually, like a Genset on it, or whether it be
(33:13):
something that connects to thegate power. Are you starting to
see that kind of stuff out inthe field or not really yet.
It's It's coming.
Billy Ash (33:21):
It's getting there.
It's airports that are expandingtoday. So they're adding GPUs on
the jet bridge. Air conditionson the jet bridge. Air start in
the ground. It's on newairports. It's coming. You
haven't heard about the airstarts in the ground. Oh yeah.
Thing is that, yeah, it's lookat Dubai. Okay, yeah, they've
done it. Their start comes outof ground, really? GPU comes out
(33:43):
of ground,
Matthew Weitzel (33:46):
yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Okay, so are
you seeing that in, like, inNorth America, or is that mainly
overseas, mainly
Billy Ash (33:53):
overseas Europe and Dubai and Middle East. Qatar is
looking at it. They're going forthat. Okay,
Mark DiMaria (34:00):
yeah, I haven't, I haven't seen it in North
America. Me neither. Okay,
Matthew Weitzel (34:04):
all right, but no, but I know about that, so
that's great. This is, I mean,this is fantastic. So I'm
learning something today, so Iappreciate that. So is that I'm
that must be a lot ofinfrastructure changes on the
airport, though, right? Theycan't just snap your fingers,
that's done. It's,
Billy Ash (34:20):
it has to be on an airport, I think, where you're
adding a terminal, or you'redoing something from ground up,
yeah,
Mark DiMaria (34:26):
it's a new build.
They're not, it's
Matthew Weitzel (34:27):
not, yeah, yeah. You're not retrofitting
that kind of stuff, right? No,that's not happening, okay? But
that's still really interesting,all right, yeah. So what other
stories do you have? Billy, doyou have any other good stories
that we can tell on the podcast.
Yeah,
Billy Ash (34:42):
I was sitting in a terminal in Japan, yeah, waiting
for a flight back to the States,and a guy comes up to me, Billy,
yeah, said, Man, I got a tractordown here. It's broke. I need
you to look at it. So he walksme down through customs, out of
customs, back down, all the wayback down under the airplane.
And it's setting on airplane.
And, yeah, I had to fix it.
Mark DiMaria (35:05):
So he mentions Japan. So, yeah, do you know?
Have you ever watched the LittleLeague World Series where the
Japanese teams go out and theypay homage to the little
figurine out there? I've not.
Okay, you got to see that. Okay.
Well, that's what the Japanesedo when Billy shows up for Jose.
I mean, they pay homage to him.
He is like, yeah, he's, he's agod for GSE when he goes to
(35:28):
Japan, yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (35:31):
I mean, some would say he's a god of GSE
anyway, but, yeah, butespecially in Japan, I guess
Billy Ash (35:36):
4343 years, you better learn something. So
Matthew Weitzel (35:40):
I've heard that the G and then this is, like,
completely rumor, but I've heardthat the GSC in Japan looks
like, perfect. That's perfect.
Oh, it's perfect. I mean, it'slike, pristine condition. You
Billy Ash (35:51):
know, you've been in a piece of equipment around, you
know, everywhere, yeah, youknow, they eat in it. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (35:56):
yeah, they're, you don't see that. They don't
care. They're hitting stuff withit. Yeah, not in Japan. Have
Mark DiMaria (36:01):
you? Have you ever seen operations in Japan? No
Unknown (36:04):
different group. They all wear different color
Mark DiMaria (36:07):
uniforms. So it's like the ground handlers, you
know, the ones that are dealingwith baggage will wear green,
the ones that are doing fuel andwear blue, the ones that are, I
mean, you can actually see andit, it's, it's an orchestra, or
it's, amazing out there. The waythey do it, and that equipment
is, is spotless. They they don'ttolerate people, you know,
messing with stuff and all that.
It's, it's respected, and theyreally take care of their stuff.
(36:30):
You're not
Billy Ash (36:32):
finding a coffee cup and an aircraft pushback trying
to
Mark DiMaria (36:36):
drop or burritos stuffed under a seat, you know.
Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (36:42):
It's not happening. That's hilarious.
Yeah, I don't think that theoperators here in the United
States, I would say, have quote,unquote, respect for the
equipment.
Mark DiMaria (36:52):
So if you want to see something spectacular,
though, like when I was in Saudithe air starts where the gas
turbines, yeah, and they weretruck mounted, and they used to
have a safety device in therewhere, you know, you'd have to
put the hose in there, and ifthe hose was out, you couldn't
drive the truck. Well, they usedto put a coke can in there and
bypass that. And at night, theyhad an air start connected to an
(37:18):
aircraft, and it was running,and someone got in the truck,
and they had that bypass. Someguy got in the truck and took
off. And you know, when the 50foot hose got to its end, it
yanked that gas turbine off theback of the pickup truck. And
when it hits the ground, and itkind of explodes at 42,000 RPM,
(37:39):
it's, it's pretty spectacular.
So, yeah, we,
Billy Ash (37:44):
we had one in Saudi too, that, uh, the guy was
saying, Man, something's wrongwith this air. Start, it stinks.
I'm like, Man, I don't knowwhat's wrong with it. And, uh,
cat had got up in there, and itshot the cat up into the
airplane. Oh, my God.
Mark DiMaria (38:00):
And, yeah, that cat had been there a while.
Billy Ash (38:03):
Yeah, apparently that's when we started putting
screens on the end of thehouses. Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (38:07):
okay, there you go. There's a reason for
everything. We fix that, yeah,
Billy Ash (38:11):
to break before you figure out, wait a minute, they
need to put a screen. Imaginethat smell going into the air.
Oh,
Matthew Weitzel (38:18):
I can't even imagine it was horrible. I
remember my dad got like a birdstuck in his like, I don't know
it's like a radiator orsomething like that in his car,
and they in the airconditioning. It was horrific.
For weeks, and we couldn'tfigure out what it was. Oh, it
was bad, yeah. So I can onlyimagine what that was. Time to
sell a car, yeah. Oh, we got ridof that thing. That was a
(38:40):
Sundance. It was a fancy car.
You know, you remember thosedeals, all those things were
terrible, but they seen it herenor there. So I had one, one
last good question for you, butit has since left me because of
my, my Sundance car thing. Sowe'll, we'll, we'll think of it
here in one second. But Mark,what else do you have for us?
Mark DiMaria (39:01):
Um, no, I agree.
Like Billy, you know, trainingis going to be the biggest
thing, and electrics are goingto take off more once they start
really figuring out how much themate how much they're saving on
maintenance cost and the, youknow, telematics, I think we're
still way far behind on thetelematics, and I think that
connected direct to themaintenance systems. You're
going to really figure out whatequipment is costing, and you
(39:24):
know your maintenance savings onelectrics versus internal
combustion, and I think that'swhat's going to really help
drive the conversion toelectrics a little bit higher
speed. So
Matthew Weitzel (39:38):
do we see Billy a move towards telematics and
being able to remotely diagnoseand fix a lot of the equipment
remotely. Is that something thatcan happen now? Or is that
something do you think thatwe're going to eventually be
Billy Ash (39:54):
able to do that's happening now? We can do it on
an alpha four, okay, yeah.
Matter of fact, again. Guy in LAhas a problem. Had a problem
with his album four. He has theapp on his phone. I can go,
clicked on it. It called ourengineers. They went through it,
found the problem, had him fixit, done. It's there. Yeah. I
think it's gonna be more andmore and more. And I think it's
(40:15):
a great feature to sell. Aselling feature, yeah, hey, we
don't need to send our guy. It'sgonna and it's been there, you
know, they started on theloaders, you know, yeah, and
it's been around a while, butit's getting better and better
now that you got an app on yourphone, you just connect, and it
calls somebody, and the engineerlooks at, oh, I got a call here.
(40:36):
Let me look at it. And they lookat it, and then they say, oh,
yeah, here's your problem. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (40:42):
because it's like you said, a lot of this,
lot of the stuff that you'refixing now is with a laptop,
right? So why couldn't you justdo that remotely? You can
connect
Billy Ash (40:48):
to it? Yeah? Alpha three, alpha four,
Mark DiMaria (40:51):
yeah. And communication infrastructure is
getting better, so it's going toget a lot better.
Billy Ash (40:56):
Yeah, we're not there yet, but we're getting there.
We're getting, I think it'sgetting closer and closer to
being that the app on your phoneis, I mean, that's crazy. It
works great. I've used it. I gotit on my phone, yeah. And every
mechanic that calls me, I said,Man, get this app on your phone.
It's 75 bucks. Yeah. I mean, whynot? Of course, Mark approved
(41:19):
mine. So, yeah, exactly. My 75bucks. But, uh, they, they're
willing. The mechanic in LA waswilling to pay for this his
self, just to get it done. Justto get it done. Yeah, he got it
on his phone. He said, Man, thisthing, this is great. What kind
of app is this? I mean, is thislike a software app? It's the
company that builds the softwarefor the Alpha four. Oh, okay,
(41:39):
it's their app. Nice, ourmechanics control it. And, yeah,
it's tied to our system, and itworks great. Yeah, it's a
Matthew Weitzel (41:47):
great selling feature. So how many I remember,
what I was going to ask you now,how many days in a year, and it
could have varied or whatever,but I mean, how many days a year
were you out traveling as atraveling technician,
Billy Ash (42:00):
the most of was out at one time was four months
steady, gone for four months,three months, two months. But
so,
Matthew Weitzel (42:07):
I mean, out of 307 days a year, you're looking
at like maybe 200 200
Unknown (42:13):
of it or more. Yeah, he's incredible, yeah, yeah. Now
the wife says, when you leaving?
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (42:21):
what are you doing here? I just got home
Friday. Yeah, she's like, she'slistening this podcast going, I
hope they don't make thosetechnology advancements, or else
he's going to be around sittingon the couch remotely diagnosing
things. Yeah, we don't wantthat.
Mark DiMaria (42:34):
Yeah, time for you to leave. Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Weitzel (42:37):
That's awesome.
Well, yeah, I mean, I, I wasactually thinking about doing
this podcast. It brought it gotbrought up the first day that I
did. So my first podcast that Iever did was with Brad Compton,
and we did it at my house, at akitchen table. And we get, we
get done with the podcast, andhe goes, you know, who you
really need to have on is Billyash and Mark di Maria. And he's
(43:00):
like, they've got all thestories they they've supported
all these customers. That's thepeople that they want to hear
from, and all this stuff. Sothis has been a long time
coming, because I agree withhim. I'm like, if I get those
two on, it'd be amazing. And Ireally appreciate you all coming
on today and talking to me aboutabout GSE and just about what
you've seen and your stories andMark, I'm sad to see you go, but
(43:22):
hopefully we can continue towork together. And you want to
kind of tell everybody whatyou're doing now in your
retirement.
Mark DiMaria (43:31):
So yeah, it's even though I've retired, I've just
kind of switched careerscompletely. I am now in
promotional products, businessand embroidery and, and
something with marketing,nothing, nothing to do with GSE,
although we do have a lot of GSEcustomers that it's my wife's
company. She's owned it for 28years. And, yeah, it's, it was a
(43:53):
great opportunity, perfecttiming, you know, GSE was a
wonderful ride 35 years and, butnow it's, you know, turning the
page and and looking forward tothis new, new endeavor.
Matthew Weitzel (44:05):
Yeah, exactly.
And if they need your servicesand they need some apparel or
promotional products, wherewould they reach you? Just on
LinkedIn. Aimpromos.com.
Mark DiMaria (44:14):
LinkedIn. We're getting ready to to do our redo
the page and all that. But aimpromos,
Matthew Weitzel (44:19):
so you've got, how many years now? 4343 How
much longer are you planning ongoing down this road?
Billy Ash (44:27):
I don't know. I enjoy it. Number one, I enjoy what I
do and enjoy who I work for. AndI work for a great company,
great people. They give you whatyou need to do the job. They
give you the time off you needwhen you need it, yep, until I'm
tired and say yeah, I don't wantto get on the airplane no more.
Yeah, I'm gonna be around alittle while longer. Nice,
Matthew Weitzel (44:47):
all right? 43 years. That's incredible. I
can't even imagine. So this isI've only done it 17 years, so
I'm way far behind you. I've gotsome I got some time to go so,
but any other closing, parting.
Words of wisdom from either ofyou. No,
Mark DiMaria (45:02):
I mean, it's great industry. It's the people you
meet and the relationships thatyou get along
Unknown (45:07):
the way. Yeah, I
Billy Ash (45:09):
know people that's known me all my life down there,
since I was in this business.
Yeah, you know, that's
Matthew Weitzel (45:15):
crazy. Yeah, it is. I was thinking this morning
as I was on a plane here abouthow, you know, we have this text
group going. And I'm sure a lotof people in the industry don't
know this, but tug was like afamily. I mean, obviously, you
know, like old tug, right? Likebefore Textron GSE. I'm not
saying anything bad aboutTextron GSE, I'm just talking
(45:35):
about tug Technologies was, waslike a family, right? We're
really close knit, and we have atext group that goes, you know,
on and off occasionally, andthen we get together and stuff
like that, that, that Lynn beardput together. And, I mean,
that's how close this little GSEfamily is, is that they, we
still get together and do thingsI haven't got a chance to go to
them. I'm sure you all have,right? Yeah. And it's
Mark DiMaria (45:57):
usually around Christmas, or, you know, some
kind of a holiday, but, yeah,the old tug group gets
Matthew Weitzel (46:02):
together, yeah?
And, I mean, it was, I mean, youknow, it was like, just, like, I
said, like, a big family, and
Billy Ash (46:07):
Stevenson did that for a long time, yeah, long
time. We would always gettogether, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (46:12):
it's in, I'd say the we just had a podcast
that I record in Toronto, andeverybody was talking about how
it's just a big community,right? And then we have this new
guy starting at exceed, and hisname's Jake. And I was telling
Jake, I was like, You're gonnalove the industry. Never been in
the industry before, becauseeverybody's so welcoming, and
it's like the nicest group ofpeople you'll ever meet. We have
(46:34):
an industry unlike any other, Ithink, in my opinion, and so
anyway, so it's a great industryto be a part of. I've enjoyed
knowing both of you for so long,and I really appreciate you all
coming on. No, I appreciate it.
Yeah. So all right. Well, thishas been Billy and Mark and Matt
for the GSE podcast. Talk to youlater. Thank you for tuning in
to this episode of the GSEpodcast. We hope you found it
(46:57):
informative and engaging. Ifthis episode resonated with you,
please share it with yourcolleagues and peers in the
ground support equipmentcommunity, your support is
invaluable to us. We'dappreciate it if you could take
a moment to rate and review ourpodcast. Your feedback not only
encourages us, but also helpsexpand our reach within the GSE
community. Keep an eye out formore episodes as we continue to
(47:19):
explore the dynamic world ofground operations, bringing you
the latest trends, insights andstories from the industry. Thank
you for listening to the GSEpodcast until we meet again.
Stay grounded and keep pushingforward. You.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.