September 6, 2023 • 46 mins
Join host Matt Weitzel in this enlightening episode of "The GSE Podcast" as he travels to Windsor, Connecticut, to visit TLD's North American headquarters. Nestled in a picturesque New England setting, this episode dives deep into the world of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) with industry expert Jeff Barrett.
With over five years at TLD and a rich history with Textron, Jeff Barrett shares his unique journey from the automotive and golf sectors to the dynamic realm of GSE. His transition, marked by leadership and innovation, has been instrumental in shaping TLD's vision for the future.
The episode is nostalgic as Jeff reminisces about his early days at TLD, highlighting the company's collaboration with Amazon Air. Jeff provides a firsthand account of Amazon Air's meteoric rise in the cargo space from its infancy to its current stature.
As the conversation shifts gears, the focus turns to the future of GSE - electrification. Jeff delves into TLD's impressive lineup of electrical products, from baggage tractors to cargo loaders. The highlight? The JET-16 electric bag tractor and the innovative hybrid solutions bridge the gap between traditional and electric GSE.
Telemetry, a game-changer in the GSE industry, is also discussed. Jeff elaborates on how TLD's telemetry system, linked with its warranty system, ensures quality and efficiency from the production floor to the tarmac.
"Electrifying the Future: A GSE Evolution with Jeff Barrett" is a blend of personal narratives, industry insights, and a glimpse into the electrified future of GSE. A must-listen for those keen on understanding the next phase of ground support equipment. Available wherever you get your podcasts! Dive in as we navigate the electrifying journey of GSE with TLD.
Xcēd ground Support Equipment Leasing, your trusted partner for GSE solutions, proudly sponsors this episode of The GSE Podcast. Discover Xcēd GSE's unparalleled offerings and their latest inventory at xcedgse.com. Stay tuned and immerse yourself in these captivating discussions, available wherever you get your podcasts!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matthew Weitzel (00:16):
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(00:39):
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(01:05):
All right, well, welcome to theGSE Podcast. I'm in Windsor,
Connecticut at TLDs, NorthAmerican headquarters with Jeff
Barrett. How's it going, Jeff?
Jeff Barrett (01:15):
Great. Good to see you, Matt. Thanks for joining
us.
Matthew Weitzel (01:18):
Yeah, not a problem. Man had an easy flight
up on frontier today fromOrlando in here for the day and
just got a tour of the facility.
Very nice.
Jeff Barrett (01:27):
Thank you. Yeah, it's great. We're, we're pretty
proud of facility and prettyproud of the things we do here
for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (01:33):
Yeah, it's a little bit spread out. And it's
like in a neighborhood. We've,
Jeff Barrett (01:37):
we've grown along with the community I would get,
I guess, I would say,
Matthew Weitzel (01:41):
yeah, it's a beautiful drive in here. You
kind of go to this, you know,like I said, like this little
neighborhood and then all of asudden there's TLD, one of the
the well, the largest GSEmanufacturer.
Jeff Barrett (01:51):
Yeah, that's That's very true. So welcome to
New England, right. Yeah. Imean, it's beautiful, beautiful
state.
Matthew Weitzel (01:56):
Yeah, you're gonna take me out for crabcakes
later. Yeah. You never know.
Okay, I don't need that thing uphere. Or is that not
Connecticut? Oh, well,
Jeff Barrett (02:03):
I mean, we're on the shoreline, right. The
weather's Rhode Island or, orNew York, you're close enough to
get some good, good freshseafood. So
Matthew Weitzel (02:09):
yeah, good.
Well, we'll have to getsomething for lunch. But so how
did you make your way to groundsupport equipment and to TLD? So
great
Jeff Barrett (02:19):
question. I joined a little over five years ago, so
been in the industry with TLDfor five and a half years. Prior
to that it's been 18 years withTextron, one of our peers in the
industry. And in those 18 yearswith Textron, I started in
Michigan, in the industrialspace with them doing automation
(02:40):
for the automotive industry, itwas was handpicked to go through
some training at what they calltheir corporate kind of
initiatives around advancementin in leadership, and was able
to get partnered up
Matthew Weitzel (02:56):
with a new talent, which is what happened.
That's what you wanted to say,talent and they wanted to get in
there.
Unknown (03:04):
Yeah. Well, if you say so. Okay. All right, good. But
no, it was great. Because beingable to grow with the company
and in leadership, I would saythey put me on the right plan to
get to where I am today. And soI went through that leadership
program got partnered with somefolks from EZGO. So I had three
options. I think at the time, itwas Bell Helicopter, Textron
(03:28):
Cautex, which does gas enginesystems, and fuel tank systems.
And then it was easy go and I'mlike, I know, golf. I think I
can I could do this, right.
Yeah, golfer I paired, ofcourse. Yeah. You do. But I got
partnered up with a great group.
We did our week long Ohio Stateprogram and did some project
(03:52):
work. And, at the end, gotrecruited out of the automotive
automotive side of the Textronbusiness into the golf side and
spent 12 years with EZGO down inFlorida, in varying degrees of
sales roles started in a localregion in the Orlando Central
Florida territory, worked up tonational accounts at one point
and then ran the southeast salesdivision for them, which happens
(04:15):
to be one of their largest.
Yeah, I
Matthew Weitzel (04:16):
bet there's some golf carts in Florida here.
Jeff Barrett (04:19):
There are quite a few. There are a few issues. So
it's a good place to be. Yeah,that
Matthew Weitzel (04:24):
was so so then, then you got recruited by TLD.
At that point, yeah. So
Jeff Barrett (04:29):
I spent those 12 years, loved every bit of it
have a lot of great friends atTextron, including the the GSE
side of the business, just youknow, we kind of infiltrated
varying degrees of aviation andGSE and happen to have recruiter
that came knocking on the doorand he was kind of coy about the
location. He said, you know,somewhere between New York and
(04:51):
Boston, I'm like, well, that'snot very big, but it is kind of
big, be aware, and he's like,Well, it's just outside of West
Hartford and you know, And thenI quickly picked up on it
because at that time Textron wasgetting into the GSC space. Oh,
okay. They made someacquisitions and kind of dip
their toe in the water. But Iwould tell you that, you know,
we moved the family up here andhave a look back, man, we've
(05:15):
been super happy, greattransition for the boys. You
know, the the oldest time was asophomore in high school. So not
an easy time for a teenager. Buthe adapted pretty well with a
good friend group. And
Matthew Weitzel (05:29):
so this is more like the Michigan weather that
you had growing up growing up inMichigan. Right. So you're kind
of used to this.
Jeff Barrett (05:35):
Yeah, well, exactly. I mean, I think when I
tell people I moved fromFlorida, they're like, you know,
what are you thinking? You know,I'm like, You got to remember
where I came from Michigan.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Some harshweather. Oh, for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (05:45):
And then you'll be back. Yeah, go back to
Florida. Listen, it's alwaysthere. Right? Yeah, it's always
there. And as you get older,you're gonna be like, I'm done
with this cold. And you're gonnado what I did and moved to
Florida?
Jeff Barrett (05:56):
That's right.
Yeah. It's not a bad flow state.
It's a beautiful state. Yeah. So
Matthew Weitzel (06:00):
normally, at this time, during the podcast,
what we do is we ask for astory. So do you have a good GSE
story that you're willing toshare? That is more of the PG
rated?
Unknown (06:10):
Yeah, so I mean, I'm trying to think, yeah, a story.
So I would tell you, I cameinto, you know, TLD, you know,
knowing a lot about sales, youknow, management, right? Yeah.
And not a lot about aviation.
And so I was, I was pretty naiveto what I was getting into.
Well, I liked aircraft andwatching, you know, things about
(06:34):
planes, and, you know, on TV,etc. I didn't know much about
GSE. And, you know, when Istarted, we were in some
conversations with pretty bigcargo company. And, you know, at
the time, it was in the infancyit was Amazon, and the fact that
at that time, they were justselling online. And, you know,
(06:56):
everybody was doing their thingfrom what they started as, you
know, the little book company,you know, and what they evolved
to today selling everythingunder the sun. And, you know,
they had these these broadvisions, and, you know, they
were thinking big as one oftheir their standbys are in,
they basically said, you know,we're gonna build this airline,
and I'm like, Whoa, these guysare gonna come out of the, out
(07:18):
of the blue, and they're gonnabuild their own airline, like,
alright, so maybe we wereflying, you know, Amazon air at
some point, it's alright, youknow, it didn't put two and two
together until, you know, a fewmonths later, when I realized,
okay, they're going to, they'regoing to do their own
transportation and the cargo andhandle that, you know, as it
evolves and get to the, to thefront, front doorstep. So I say
that, because it was certainlyeye opening for me as a, you
(07:40):
know, new guy coming into theindustry. And I got the exposure
to see from the start of theinfancy of Amazon air all the
way through today, you know,five and a half years later,
where, you know, they'rebasically number three, number
four, now they're big. In justcargo space. Yeah. The
Matthew Weitzel (08:00):
big company.
Yeah, maybe
Jeff Barrett (08:01):
biggest in the world, I think. Yeah, no,
Matthew Weitzel (08:03):
man, that's crazy. So. So you came in and
got Amazon right away, huh.
Which is the reason you're stillemployed, I guess? Well, sure.
Certainly not hurt,
Jeff Barrett (08:13):
it did not hurt.
And that's great. It was a good,good win for TLD. We fought
hard, you know, obviously, somegood competitors out there. But
we had a good suite of productsthat fit the profile of what
they're looking for. And, youknow, here we are today.
Matthew Weitzel (08:27):
I mean, I would say you have a large suite of
products. We do. We made the themost vast range of GSE products
of any manufacturer, some wouldsay,
Unknown (08:36):
Yeah, I think I think that's pretty safe to assume.
Yes, point. So yeah, we coverthe full gamut from baggage
tractors, the cargo loaders,belt loaders, everything, except
for deicers in the motorized GSEspace. So
Matthew Weitzel (08:49):
yeah, well, you know, I think what we should
start talking about now, andthanks for sharing that story is
electric. That's where theindustry is headed. That's what
people are mostly interested in.
So I've heard a lot of goodthings from a lot of different
people that TLD has some reallygreat electric options. People
are really excited about it. Solet's hear about let's hear
(09:11):
about the electric bag tractorsthat the JET-16
Unknown (09:15):
The JET-16 Is, is our forward cab electric baggage
tractor. So something that'smore similar I think until
recently in Europe, but now inthe US is becoming more of a
standard. I will tell you forthe electric evolution for
baggage tractor, so jetsixteenths are produced in three
of our factories around theworld. So we have a factory in
Sherbrooke that manufactures itup in Canada and Quebec. We have
(09:38):
a facility in France and SandlinFrance in central France. And
then we have another factory inShanghai, China that
manufactures as well. Soredundant factories building for
the local local area, but youknow, the electrification you
know, it started a long time agofor TLD so we we got a long you
(09:59):
know, his screen that worldstarted out with lead acid. Of
course, you know, lithium wasn'ta thing. Fast forward to today.
And we're doing lithiumphosphate batteries in a
solution that's like a Lego, soto speak, that is called our IBS
system. And so every one of ourpieces of equipment, whether
it's a towbarless, tractor, or abelt, loader, passenger stairs,
(10:21):
they're all based around thedesign of the IBS battery. And
that lithium battery pack givesour engineering team the freedom
to design and develop, you know,advanced equipment without
having to go to a secondarysource. And so it's nice to have
that bandwidth and brain trustwithin the to the world to be
able to provide a singlesolution to the customer.
Matthew Weitzel (10:43):
Yeah, and then you would think that a customer
would like that as well, justbecause they can buy a couple
battery packs have laying aroundjust in case of something
happening. And they can choosethe configuration that they need
to fit. Right. So that makes alot of sense for a customer as
well.
Unknown (10:58):
And you know, the one thing that you know, is still in
evolution with lithium batteriesis the sustainability. What do
you do with the product? How doyou recycle it lead acid
batteries have been aroundforever, right? Yeah, we all
know how to break down lead acidand recycle it. For lithium,
it's a little bit more just kindof happened in real time, we're
not really sure where it's goingto go. But what TLD feels very
(11:22):
strongly about is at leastwithin the profile of the GSE
space, it's almost like a pieceof gold, you're buying ahead,
and you can reuse that and ithas a value in the long term
because you can start in baggagetractor, you can then go to more
of a moderate intermittent use,like a belt loader, and then
maybe it can go to a passengercar where it's very
(11:42):
intermittently used and doesn'tget the runtime that a baggage
tractor would. So it gives agood sustainability story. Yeah,
that is nice for the lithiumbatteries.
Matthew Weitzel (11:54):
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's a it's a reallygood idea. And it's nice that
that, you know, somebody canjust make an order from you guys
and only have to order from youall and not have to go to some
third party battery provider,which is, which is makes it
simpler for everybody. I
Unknown (12:07):
would think there's only I mean, if you think about
it in terms of even a diesel GPUor a gas bag tractor, I mean,
you still have a secondarysource of that engine. And with
this, you really only have oneone person that you can point
two for any questions orconcerns that you might have. So
it's it is a unique position tobe in. That's for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (12:29):
So there's the jet 16. And then what's your you
have another baggage fracturethough?
Jeff Barrett (12:34):
We do? So the rear cab design, if you will, like
Yeah, it's the jst and thatcomes in diesel Gas and Electric
as well. Okay. So, but like Isaid, you know, I think you
know, covering the gamut. It'sup to the customer to tell us
what they prefer certaincustomers like rear cabs,
certain customers like forwardcabs. So we've got both options
(12:57):
based on what, what the customerreally wants.
Matthew Weitzel (12:59):
And then you got electric belt loader. Yep.
Do both electric and
Jeff Barrett (13:04):
gas and diesel belt loaders in multiple
factories. We do main deck andlower deck cargo loaders in our
TX cell line. That was a longterm acquisition out of
California, the company by thename of Lantus that came on
board and now is producedprimarily up in Sherbrooke, but
also in another factory in Chinain Wushi, and then we get into,
(13:28):
oh, geez, you can test my
Matthew Weitzel (13:29):
Well, I mean, I think we should dive into the
cargo loaders real quick andkind of talk about how you can
get different configurations. SoI get to visit the Sherbrooke
facility, as well as thisfacility this year. So I've been
to both of them, which is great.
And then, but you all wereshowing me the cargo loader, and
how you can have differentconfigurations based on the
customer's needs. So whetherthat be a hybrid, or an electric
(13:52):
fully electric or a hybrid, orjust you know, your your
traditional diesel engine,however, but all those can be
converted to eventually becomeelectric. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Unknown (14:05):
So at the Paris show for the GSE Expo last year at
Laborde j, we came out and madea bold statement that we're
going to go all electric drivelines by 2024. So it might be
the end of 2024 but we'repushing like crazy to put a
stake in the ground and saywe're gonna go all electric Now,
what that means is everythingpast the the engine from the
(14:28):
profile of the design is all onthe electric platform. So from a
cargo loader standpoint, wedon't have infrastructure in a
lot of cargo areas in theairport, they may not have the
charger infrastructure yet, butif you're buying a four or
$500,000 piece of equipment, andyou're gonna buy it for a 15 to
20 year lifecycle, you know, atsome point more than likely,
(14:52):
you're probably going to want togo electric. So what the hybrid
solution allows you to do is tomake it plug and play so it's
already designed aroundElectric, like I mentioned, but
then you can put in a littlegenset that basically will
charge the batteries in theoperation, when you run from,
let's say, the storage facilityout to the ramp location to do
(15:12):
the work that's running on thatlittle genset. And then once it
gets there, it runs on allelectric on the batteries. And
then let's say you getinfrastructure from the airport
authority in 10 years, andyou're able to go all electric,
you just pull that little gensetout, and you put another battery
pack in and you're, you'rebasically all electric, so
you're already buying for afuture state that is ready to
(15:35):
go, instead of trying topreemptively buy a diesel today,
to solve this problem. And thenin the future, you got, you
know, a diesel that may or maynot be a value, because who
knows where we're gonna go with,with diesel engines in the
future? But, you know, I think,you know, you have to, again,
back to my comment, you got toprovide solutions to every
customer, right? Yeah. And, youknow, we have certain customers
(15:58):
that are slowly evolving towardselectric, but they're just
getting started. So they'restill going to kind of wait and
see what happens. And you know,that's fine. You know, I mean,
we understand that's just partof the evolution. So we want to
be able to bridge that gap for alot of people.
Matthew Weitzel (16:11):
Gotcha. Yeah.
And then. So it looks like thatyou guys are going to go
electric GPU as well. Yeah,something that we're looking at.
I think I saw one. Yeah, youwere going through the facility.
Just
Unknown (16:24):
yeah. So we've had an electric GPU, we're going
through what I would call themark two, redesign, just kind of
making it not the inside, youknow, product development side
is not changing more the outsideexterior, kind of some of the
aesthetics and some of thedesigns of it. But yeah,
electric air starts are coming.
So you'll see at the show comingup here in Vegas, in a few
(16:46):
weeks, that will have anelectric AirStart. So more of a
concept around how we can docertain things with the electric
lithium batteries that we justtalked about, will also have an
electric maintenance towtowbarless, high speed tow. So
that's a unique animal, beingable to do position toes for
aircraft or maintenance toesback to the hangar with
(17:10):
electric. Today, it's not aseasy. So we'll have a tractor
there at the show that willallow people to see that. Yeah,
it's, it's really available. Andso
Matthew Weitzel (17:22):
so you got a electric GPU, you got an
electric air start, you have anelectric towbarless you're gonna
bring to the show or those whomade it three units you're
bringing
Jeff Barrett (17:30):
and then we've got an electric push back. 350 UTM x
350. Oh, okay. We'll have thereas well. That'll be nice. Yeah.
And we'll have one of the hybridbelt loaders there as well. So
Oh, wow. So we'll be able toshow kind of the different
gamut. Yeah, to me a lot ofequipment is a lot of equipment.
Not much room to walk around.
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna havestuff in the demo area. We won't
so Okay, we're gonna be right,kind of on the corner when you
(17:52):
walk in. So you'll, you can'tmiss us. So yeah, typical
fashion to the market. That'sawesome. Market the brand pretty
well, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (18:01):
we're looking forward to the show, I think
it's going to be a really goodshow, always, always, always a
good show, telemetry, does thatcome on your units like out the
door?
Jeff Barrett (18:11):
It does. For certain products, I would tell
you for complex machinery. So weown a partnership with a company
called X apps. And so the X UPSbrand, for TLD is a link product
is what we call. And so the linkis a standard for any complex
machinery. So it's an air startor cargo loader or something
(18:33):
like that, it comes for a twoyear under the warranty coverage
that allows people to see whatthat looks like on the
dashboard. You know, if you'reputting a baggage tractor fleet
into operation, you could buythat that's non complex
machinery, but we could we couldadd that as an option. Okay. But
we see it as you know, in time,you know, telemetry not only
helps our customers, run theiroperations and be more
(18:56):
efficient, but it also helps ourservice team. And so from a
service perspective, you know,being proactive, instead of
reactive is certainly a changein the dynamic, you know, and
today, you know, it's much morethe phone rings and with email
comes in, and you know, we tryand get people out there, take
care of it. But if you can bekind of ahead of the curve and
(19:17):
know, hey, you got that faultcode that popped up, and we know
that's tied to that sensor. Andyou know, that's a weak link in
the design, we need to go get anew sensor and release the
service bullets and, hey, we canmaybe do it ahead of time and
get that part ordered and haveit coming to you you know,
before we even get thenotification that it's it's out
of warranty.
Matthew Weitzel (19:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's another thing I wanted to
cover was your warranty system.
So is the telemetry kind of tiedin with your warranty system as
well.
Jeff Barrett (19:42):
It's the the idea is it's tied to the serial
number. So the the equipmentrecord once the unit gets green
tag with TLD. Then it has itsown DNA speak. So we turn on the
telemetry. It's tied together.
And yeah, anything Communicatingwith that unit is always back to
the dashboard for the serviceteam or for the
Matthew Weitzel (20:05):
sofa. And the moment that it's assigned a
serial number on the shop floorto be in there on the production
floor to be built. Everything isdocumented from every part that
goes on to that unit, make meknow that everything has been
done, specifically the way youknow the TLD way that you all
assemble, correct, yeah. Andthen And then throughout its
(20:27):
lifetime. So if I order newbrake pads from you guys, like
it'll, it'll be in the system asthis serial number got new brake
pads, or whatever.
Unknown (20:37):
Yeah, it goes back to what you just said, right on the
production floor. So we have asystem that's been internally
developed with our team that'sfocused around being quality
first, right on the factoryfloor. And so they can see a
roadmap of how to assemble allthose products, you know, all
the bolt patterns, all theelectrical wiring harnesses,
(21:00):
everything tied to theequipment, and that's, that's at
every TLD factory around theworld, all 10 of them. And then,
after you get screen tagged andproduced and shipped to the
customer, it then becomes, youknow, a platform that just just
pulls data in. So if you open aticket for a service
perspective, and like you said,you needed a brake, pedal or
(21:23):
brake, drum or something likethat, that was an issue, you
know, we could tie that back tothat serial number, and we do
and that becomes a history andtime, that then becomes
researchable. So over a 10, 15,20 year timeframe, we can look
back at every which way, youknow, we've used the break
pattern in the system. And thenif we've identified a supplier
(21:48):
issue are a component issue, andwe need to go make a retroactive
change down the line, we can dothat immediately with that the
PIO system that you saw on theshop floor. Yeah, as well as a
service bulletin campaign forthe folks that have it out in
the field. It's very userfriendly for our team, from our
engineering perspective, ourservice guys.
Matthew Weitzel (22:08):
Yeah, but the service guys love, they love it.
And they can be out in the fieldand see exactly what's happened
to that unit ever since. Eversince the customer. The end user
got it.
Jeff Barrett (22:17):
Exactly. And it's, I would, dare I say, a pretty
unique differentiator for TLD.
And the customers, I would say,
Matthew Weitzel (22:24):
yeah, it's the most advanced system that I've
seen so far. You know, as far asbeing able to track warranty
claims and just, you know, beingable to see everything that's
ever been done to a serialnumbers, just crazy. You know,
the you all pulled it up. We'reSherbrooke. Yeah, to kind of
show us one of our units, andyou can see where it was and
everything that ever been doneto it. It's, it's pretty nuts.
(22:46):
Yeah,
Jeff Barrett (22:47):
it is. It's a good, good tool to have. And I
give credit to, you know, thefounders of this organization.
You know, we've got a lot ofgreat bright minds on the team
here with TLD and a lot ofengineers that you have some
some super Brainiac ideas thatbring bring it to real life,
it's it's pretty impressive.
Matthew Weitzel (23:07):
I mean, so yeah, it seems like you all own
a lot of your own. You know, theyou're not using third parties
for batteries or telemetry,those are all kind of those are
all, you know, companies thateither like you all have
acquired, or you've developedthe technology yourself,
Jeff Barrett (23:22):
we want to have a lot more control over it. And we
feel like we've with ourcapability and our drive for
innovation, it gives us thatnext step forward a lot quicker
than if we're relying on otherthird parties.
Matthew Weitzel (23:34):
So yeah, so remind me what is your telemetry
system called?
Unknown (23:38):
It's called link for D.
And then they they also have nowyou know, external X Ops version
that they sell as well, if youwanted to go like full blown
fleet.
Matthew Weitzel (23:48):
That's what I was gonna ask you. So that is
possible. So I love I love mylink so much. Right. I wanted
on, you know, another unit. saythat's not a TLD. Correct. I can
put I can have you guys put thaton there.
Jeff Barrett (24:01):
That's right. And then that would not be through
the TLD. World. That would bexometry. Yeah, exactly. The X
apps guys do that.
Matthew Weitzel (24:08):
Okay, so that is a possibility. It is a
possibility. All right. I justwanted to make sure. Yeah,
there's clear things up here.
Absolutely. Let's talk about thetaxi bot. I thought that was
pretty cool. We got to see thatin Sherbrooke is a big unit huge
unit. I decided not to drivethat when they were like you
want to drive it? And I'm like,No, there's no way I'm driving
this thing. Especially I'm nottrying to parallel park that
(24:30):
thing. It's a big unit. But whydon't you explain what that is?
Just for people who haven'theard about it. It's a it's a
pretty cool concept. Yeah.
Unknown (24:39):
So just being a part of the Alvest group. And you know,
I think we're very focused onbeing leaner and greener in the
industry and helping the GSEspace and the aviation world be
more sustainable. And so you cando that in a lot of different
ways, you know, mobile GPUsplugging in at the gate with a
(25:03):
mobile aircon keeping the APUoff helps, right? You know, you
wouldn't think running a dieselwould help but you're you're
you're burning less jet fuel bynot having that APU run. And so
a lot of our airline partners,you know, always keep a close
eye on that APU time, rightabout the pilots love it because
they can flip a switch and keepeverybody cool and the avionics
Iran and etc. But we want to besmart about it. And you know,
(25:25):
one of the concepts that we'vecome up with is the taxi bot,
like you said, and that's withinour smart airport systems group
when the Elvis family and thetaxi bot basically is a, for
lack of a better word, a largetoolbar towbarless like tractor
that connects to landing gear,much like a towbarless does has
(25:48):
a little cradle in there. Andit's got redundant systems. So
it's actually FAA certified. Soyou got dual engines, dual
hydraulic systems, etc. And ittethers directly to the cockpit,
allowing the pilot to thenoperate just like you would
normally as he taxis out fromthe gate to the taxiway. With
(26:09):
his controls in the cockpit,normal, he'll never feel the
difference even though it'sconnected to an aircraft, but
his engines aren't running. Sothe beauty of that is its engine
off, just like APU off it's notrunning the engine, it's not
running the fuel, jet fuel. Andit's saving that, you know, for
sustainability reasons for ourcustomers, as they taxi out to
the runway, and the disconnectsgot a cab in the front of the
(26:33):
the tractor, the guy sits in thetractor. The only reason he's
there is basically to drive itback after the disconnect, to go
get another aircraft and take itback to the next time. Next
taxiway.
Matthew Weitzel (26:44):
Wow, that's incredible technology. It is. So
where is do we do we have one inthe world? Yeah.
Jeff Barrett (26:51):
Oh, really? Yeah, there's a bunch in Schipol is
probably at Schiphol I guess ishow you pronounce it. I'm from
Michigan State.
Matthew Weitzel (26:57):
That's all right. No, it's okay. Yeah,
that's alright. That's the way Iwould have pronounced it coming
from Kentucky. Alright, so goahead.
Jeff Barrett (27:04):
No, yeah, we see an evolution coming. It's all
driven by, you know, the cost offuel. And so we had cheap fuel
for a lot of years. And itwasn't a major issue. But now,
you know, fuel is creeping upagain. And it's becoming a lot
more popular. So we do see atimeline where this will be in
the US and, and we've we've gotseveral active projects that
(27:28):
we're working on that as well.
So in time, you know that thatproduct will become electric. So
back to back to thatsustainability standpoint, it
runs on these two diesel enginesright now. But if you can do
that with electric, wow, nowyou've taken not only the jet
engines and turn them off, butyou've taken the diesel engines
and turned them off. Right.
Yeah. And so having thatcapability to do it with the
(27:49):
lithium battery packs. And, youknow, the engineering team, at
our factory in Germany, Franceis pretty special.
Matthew Weitzel (27:56):
Yeah, so that product is manufactured in
France exclusively the voice.
Yes. Yep. Nice. And then, fromwhat I understand, so you're Can
you kind of explain like how thefactories are kind of separate
from each other? I think that'spretty interesting and unique.
That is something that TLD has,
Jeff Barrett (28:11):
yeah, it isn't.
unique system. I mean, yeah, asI mentioned earlier, I come from
a manufacturing background. SoI've got a lot of experience
with with different factories,if you will, in the way that TLD
is designed our production istrying to be smart on the local
support at the point of usage.
(28:32):
And so if you think about it interms of, I think I referenced
the let's go belt loader thistime. So belt, blue belt loader,
right? Yeah, there's a lot ofbelt loaders around the world
that are used. It's prettystandard, you know, part of our
gate sets. And that belt loaderis manufactured in Sherbrooke,
Quebec, is manufactured in inFrance, and it's manufactured in
China. And we do that withredundant factories for a lot of
(28:55):
products around the world. Andallows us to be not only smart
about the local support, butalso from a sustainability
standpoint. So you're notproducing product in Sherbrooke,
that's being shipped all overthe world and having to, you
know, put it in a cargocontainer and put it on a
freighter and ship it over toyou know, China. Yeah, that
wouldn't make sense, right. Andso the fact that we have the
(29:17):
locally controlled production inthe local region, makes very
nice. And, you know, honestly,with the rebound we've seen in
the GSE space, it's, it's alsounique from a production
standpoint, right? So if we haveone factory that's full with
orders, and we can pivot toanother factory that might have
some capacity. That's, that'spretty unique and allows us to
(29:39):
be pretty nimble and how weoperate to support our
customers.
Matthew Weitzel (29:44):
Nice. Yeah, that's I was really cool. Being
able to see you know, like Isaid a bit about them this year.
See in Sherbrooke, and what theybuild there. They have a lot of
big units coming out of thatfacility, whereas this is GPUs
air starts air conditioners. Andoh, and you changed your your
name and the design of your airconditioner. We haven't gone
(30:05):
over that yet. You're right. Sowe went from an ACU 302. Yep. to
Now we're a cool 10
Jeff Barrett (30:11):
Cool 10 And a cool 15. So we're building a profile
product profile that is basedaround the cool design. It is
cool, by the way, yeah, I
Matthew Weitzel (30:21):
know, it sounds.
Jeff Barrett (30:24):
But, you know, we acquired lib rune
airconditioners ran around 2019,I guess right before the
pandemic. And with thatacquisition brought some
evolution in our engineeringdesign. And you know, TLD here
in Windsor, which washistorically called ACE is the
product. Okay, that's been asteady product that was
(30:46):
manufactured for many, manyyears. But LeBron had a
different way of developing anddesigning their hair
conditioners. And so we tooksome of the benefits of our
Windsor product and some of thebenefits of our lab room
product. And designed codesigned together with an
engineering team out of Belgium,in here in Windsor to come up
with the cool 10 And the cool15, which are replacing the 302
(31:07):
that had been historicallyaround for quite a few years,
we'll still build the 302 formilitary applications, and
certain things that just arerequired. But for the most part,
the evolution gets a betterproduct, more fuel efficient,
much better cooling temperature,and you know, you're putting
more people on the plane thanever today, you know, and those
(31:29):
planes need to stay cool whenyou're down in Houston, or
Myrtle Beach, or wherever itmight be.
Matthew Weitzel (31:33):
So this is going to be a step up, this
product is gonna be a step up asfar as engineering maintenance,
I think I think I remember themsaying that maintenance is going
to be a lot easier on this unitas well. Much easier to
Jeff Barrett (31:45):
troubleshoot. And, you know, at the end of the day,
you know, you're not going todevelop and design a new product
that that doesn't bring morevalue to exactly and so you're
gonna get a colder airtemperature coming out much more
efficient design. It's it's ondemand, you know, cooling and
heat for that matter if you ifyou
Matthew Weitzel (32:03):
know, yeah, you gotta have that you gotta have
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's theway we order Emily's. Yeah. And
then 70 years, 70 year, youknow, that's, that's, I've seen
that around the industry onLinkedIn posts. I've seen it in
magazines. So I meant to startedthe podcast that way, which is,
congratulations on the 70 years.
Looks like you all are y'all aredoing great. And yeah,
(32:24):
celebrating 70 years TLD
Jeff Barrett (32:29):
it's, it's pretty cool to have, I think, that
historical knowledge in thegroup, you know, when I talked
about the group, the TLD groupor the Elvis group, there's a
lot of of tenured folks thathave helped get us to where we
are today. But to celebrateseven years in look back at some
of the pictures of some of thestuff that we designed a long
time ago to, to help develop thethe jet engine here with Pratt
(32:52):
and Whitney and in Hartford.
Boy,
Matthew Weitzel (32:55):
we've come a long way. The GSE pictures from
back in the day are hilarious.
They are I mean, it's I mean,there's still some of that
running around on the airfield.
Right? And that's the reasonthat you're still in business.
And and so are we, becausepeople are still trying to
replace this stuff. But it'samazing. You know, how far how
far you know, TLDs come in theindustry has come as far as
(33:17):
designing and make this stufflook look a lot nicer. And yeah,
in more full fuel efficient andelectric. We got it all going.
I've always
Jeff Barrett (33:25):
said that, you know, we're not the sexiest
industry in the world, but youcan't run an airline without us.
Right. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (33:30):
that's That's true. Yeah. But I mean, you
know, you do have some sleeklines on your GPU. Yeah, I mean,
it's like, you know, I mean,maybe I got a brochure I can
give you Yeah, it looks nice,you know, put a picture up in my
house or something of the well,at least me the cool 10 There
you go. That's a good lookingunit. Pretty, pretty cool. Yeah,
(33:50):
that'd be awesome. So all right.
What else do we have here? Wehave autonomous. Talk to me
about autonomous. Yeah. So it's,it's mania that's coming? Yeah,
Unknown (34:01):
I think it's common, right. But I think also, maybe
not in our generation. I don'tknow you. But you know, I think
in time, it will be here in alot around how we're designing
stuff is to get there. And yeah,in the future state of, you
know, what started out as ASD,when you approach an aircraft
and you know, the touch point ofa builder, right, making sure
(34:21):
that that's, that's in place,and then go to an ASD plus that
kind of takes the controls awayfrom the operator so that it
then automates that approachsystem, to maybe an autonomous
cargo loader that you know, isrun by a joystick that basically
says, Hey, I'm going to take avideo camera of the actual door
(34:43):
frame of the cargo and be ableto identify height and location
of steering to get it properlyaligned. And, you know, I think
that's just steps in the grandscheme of things to get us to
the capability to do automationand in time You know, at some
point, there will be a controlroom at JFK, or one of these
(35:05):
airports that takes a leap offaith that says, you know, what,
we're having difficulty gettingoperators, we're having
difficulty, you know, with withroom on the ramp, and we're
gonna go autonomous, and we'regonna have the capability to
basically orchestrate how theGSE is on the ramp, supporting
those airlines. And it's not farfetched. I mean, when you think
(35:29):
about it, when you've been on aramp, and you know how crazy it
is out there and chaotic, youknow, that automation, you know,
technology wise, is there isjust getting over the hurdle of
the design and development tokind of get there. But we've got
an autonomous back extractortoday that is running, and you
know, something that, you know,is giving us a lot of
(35:50):
engineering development aroundhow we go forward. A step in
that direction is, we're goingto a two man turn. So we're
remote control towbarless. Soyou can basically have to man,
you know, instead of having toon the wing to wing walkers and
one pushing the, the push back,you can have one with a remote
(36:11):
control, we Walker and when onthe other side. So it eliminates
that and you're controlling thepushback with remote control. So
we're trying to be forwardthinking and really more
advanced because labor shortagesis not going away anytime soon.
And it's definitely somethingthat if we can be mindful of you
can control your safety, you cancontrol your, your usage, you
(36:32):
know, all the certain thingsthat customers worry about, you
know, you got a lot bettercontrols of so yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (36:37):
And then speaking of labor shortage, you
were kind of telling me aboutthis academy, that you all
decided to do kind of postpandemic or during, during the
pandemic that I thought wasreally interesting that you kind
of talked about if you wantedto, yeah, no, that's
Jeff Barrett (36:51):
great. You know, I getting people in, in the trades
world, whether it's doingassembly or even people out, you
know, doing maintenance for our,our service team. It's not easy,
and I think everybody wouldshare in that opinion. But the
manufacturing academy that wedeveloped at both this facility
and up in Sherbrooke was basedaround bringing talent into the
(37:16):
industry that didn't have anyexperience. So you could be a
bartender, late night at a bar,you could be a hotel, person
that just didn't like working,you know, the hours that they
were working, it will bring himin, we'll teach them about what
wrote righty tighty means andwhat lefty loosey means and, and
how to read a schematic andyoung how to pull wires and all
the stuff that you need to do onthe shop floor to build our
(37:39):
equipment. And you know, ourretention rate, consequently,
has been much higher. So we'vehad a very good retention rate
on those folks that have comethrough the manufacturing
Academy, to the point where atfirst it was kind of a bolt on
ancillary thing that, you know,we just brought certain people
that were inexperienced in Yeah,that now 100% of our new hires
(38:01):
go through the manufacturingAcademy. Oh, that's great. And
even, you know, our spare partsteam. So the folks that are on
the calls, you know, answeringcustomers request for spare
parts, you know, they don't knowwhat a widget or doodad is. But
if I can get them through themanufacturing Academy for a
couple of weeks and get themexposed to what goes into those
products, it helps theirevolution, it makes them
smarter, you know, moreconfident, you know, when
(38:23):
they're talking to the customer.
So it's been a very good win forus.
Matthew Weitzel (38:26):
Yeah, that's awesome. It was really good is a
really great story to hear. AndI just thought we'd share it.
Yeah. How's it going with supplychain? Are you seeing it get
it's getting better?
Jeff Barrett (38:34):
Yeah, good question is stabilized, I guess
is probably the word I woulduse, you know, not say we're out
of the woods, on every product,there's always going to be
hiccups that happen, you know,from time to time, but it's
definitely more manageable todaythan it has been. So now, I
would tell you that the backlogthat we've gained, it's very
(38:56):
fortunate to have, you know, oneof the healthiest backlogs that
we've ever seen in our historywith DOD. And the fact that, you
know, we've got such a healthybacklog is, you know, we got to
produce as much as we possiblycan and get it out the door to
bring those lead times down andbe be more reactive to the
marketplace. But you know, it'sa good story. And, you know, I
(39:17):
think I think we're past theworst of it, I guess, is what I
would say so,
Matthew Weitzel (39:21):
so are you going for longest drive or
closest to the whole at the GSEExpo golfing?
Jeff Barrett (39:28):
Man? I don't know.
I'm just out there to have alittle fun. I do enjoy my round
of golf every once awhilethough.
Matthew Weitzel (39:33):
Okay. So not so closest to the pin on a par
three or longest. Okay, you'regonna you're gonna meet Oh,
yeah,
Jeff Barrett (39:40):
I mean, come on.
Matthew Weitzel (39:41):
Okay. All right.
Jeff Barrett (39:42):
Why stop with one?
Matthew Weitzel (39:43):
Yeah, why not?
I mean, listen, I was just Ijust wasn't, I was curious more
on like, you know which one youfelt like you had a better
opportunity to win. But itsounds like you're pretty
confident that maybe I don'tknow you win both. You never
know. You never know. Okay,well, let's just put that out
there. Everybody's gonna want tohear that. I like that. Any
other plans for Vegas for theGSE Expo that you haven't kind
of covered that TLD is going tobe? You're going to be outside
(40:06):
yet. We'll be outside. You havetons of equipment. Yeah, there's
there's gonna have like anythingcool in the booth that people
can come by and see or is itJimmy Lou? I mean, well,
honestly, let's go. Right. Yeah,exactly. Jeff, so now's Kyle is
going to be there. Right? Yeah,you got plenty of plenty of
stuff to come and see,
Unknown (40:26):
ya know, I think, you know, for us, this is a very
important Expo, you know, we sawI happen to be fortunate enough
to sit on the IML. Board, weseveral other peers, members,
and thank you for being amember, not a problem, man. It's
it's a good story. You know, thefact that our industry controls
our two biggest shows is prettyspecial. Because now that we
(40:50):
have control of the Europeanshow, and the show here in the
North American market, you know,we're trying to make those two
biggest pillars for all of ourindustry. So yeah, doing these
shows is expensive. And, youknow, I mean, just your bottom
line, you know, to spend dollarson marketing and all the things
that you have to do from traveland entertainment, and
(41:11):
everything that comes with thoseshows, it hits everybody in the
industry. Want to be smart. I
Matthew Weitzel (41:16):
got a lot of steaks, and I'm out there. It's
awful. Jeff, please. Thank youfor bringing all that up. Yeah.
It's it's something I have todeal with. It's a tough life.
Tough life
Unknown (41:25):
to be entertained.
Yeah. But no, it's, you know,it's a pretty special thing to
say that we own those shows.
And, you know, for TLD, youknow, we're one of the founding
members, I email. And so wethink, you know, we're always
pushing as, as one of theoriginal, you know, founders to
help help push that along.
Because it's an important partof our industry.
Matthew Weitzel (41:46):
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's It's great. So yeah, we've
been I think we've been, I thinkit's our fourth or fifth year.
Okay. Then party by humans. Soyeah, yeah, it's good. And I
think it's definitely aworthwhile thing. And, and we're
excited. I think we're going totry to go to Portugal, Portugal.
Unknown (42:05):
Yeah. Come see us and Lisbon. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (42:07):
yeah, exactly.
So are you going to be at theGHI annual event? So we in
Lisbon,
Unknown (42:14):
somebody from our team will be there. Certainly.
Matthew Weitzel (42:16):
So Jeff will not be the Jeff will not be.
Unknown (42:19):
I make an appearance.
Ah, I Americas.
Matthew Weitzel (42:21):
Okay. Yeah, you did? Yeah. Saw you down there
and Punta Cana, we had a goodtime. Yeah.
Unknown (42:25):
Always, always good to get connected with all of our
peers. Yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (42:29):
So recently, I've been asking people because
this is going to come out beforebefore we go to the yeah, in
Vegas. And I asked everybody,you know, what's a hidden gem of
a restaurant that I should tryto go to? So? So what do you
recommend?
Unknown (42:45):
I try and stay as far away from Vegas as possible. I
definitely go every other yearto the GC Expo for for good
reasons. But my favoriterestaurant is typically the one
that I see at the airport on theway home.
Matthew Weitzel (42:56):
So you're more of a Michigan guy than a than a
Vegas. Yeah, just you know,
Unknown (43:01):
you can only take so much Vegas, but yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (43:03):
I agree. I remember. So I've got a good
story. So I was first, you know,GSE Expo, I don't think it was
called that when, when I firstwent back in like 2007, or
whatever it was. But I was atthe Mandalay Bay. And so I go to
check in at the Mandalay Bay.
And I say, you know, last nameWeitzel. And, and she goes,
Okay, I see you. And she stopsand she's like, she goes, you're
(43:27):
here for for seven days? And I'mlike, yeah, and I'd never been
to Vegas before. And she goes,good luck. And I thought, What
in the world is this womantalking about? Good luck. And
then after two days, I was like,Oh, I think I know what she was
talking about. So yeah, that wasmy first experience of Vegas was
(43:47):
her you know, saying good luckto me. And she couldn't have
been more right. Seven days.
There is a lifetime. It is it isit is seriously a lifetime, but
it'll be fun. It's always a goodtime. But it's yeah, I'd say
after day two, everybody's kindof everybody's kind of worn out.
That Thursday starts getting alittle bit dicey. So anyways,
(44:10):
but it'll be a great time. Itwill be Yeah, so anything else?
I think,
Jeff Barrett (44:14):
I think you know, for me, I just like to thank the
exceed team for putting thistogether. I think it's a great
space for us to share bestpractices and just you know,
talk about the industry. Youknow, I was told a long time ago
when I started you know that GSEgets in your blood and it's hard
to get it out of your blood andyet nobody leaves this industry
they always right they alwaysmake their way back eventually
(44:34):
if they do but you know, it'swe're we're pretty special breed
and you know, a lot of very goodquality people and I'm very
privileged to work with you,Matt. Appreciate that. See team
you guys you know coming tovisit us at the two factories
this year has been phenomenal.
We really love hostingcustomers. So anytime, you know
our doors are open. You want tocome to France or China.
Matthew Weitzel (44:54):
Yeah, that you know that. That was one thing I
was going to bring up is whenI'm when am I going to be
invited to France.
Jeff Barrett (44:59):
Let's go Well, I mean, I mean, come on, anytime.
It's always a fun trip to goover there and drink red wine.
And yes, I can do that has somegood crepes. And there's always
been I mean, come on, man. Nowyou're
Matthew Weitzel (45:13):
talking.
Alright, so that's my nextthing. Well, I appreciate you
saying that. Obviously, we wevalue the partnership with TLD.
We we have a ton of yourequipment that we offer out to
our customers. And it's a greatpartnership and I and we really
appreciate it.
Jeff Barrett (45:27):
Agreed. Same on our side, we
Matthew Weitzel (45:29):
really appreciate the friendship.
Awesome, man. Well, thank you somuch, Jeff. I really appreciate
the time and thanks to TLD. Andthat'll be it for Matt and Jeff,
the GSE podcast. Thanks, cheers.
All right.
That's a wrap for this episode
Unknown (45:40):
Thank you. Thank you.
at the GSE podcast. A big thankyou to Jeff for sharing his
invaluable insights with ustoday. If you're as passionate
about the ground supportequipment industry as we are,
(46:02):
please hit that subscribe buttonand share this episode with
fellow GSE enthusiast. Yoursupport means the world to us
and helps us bring more of theseenlightening discussions to you.
Now, for those of you attendingthe GSE Expo from September 26
to the 28th. Here's anopportunity you won't want to
miss. Visit Xcēd at booth 617and take the mic. That's right,
(46:26):
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knows? You might just hear yourown voice in one of our upcoming
episodes. Thanks for tuning inand see you on the next episode.
This episode of the GSE podcast is brought to
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(01:05):
All right, well, welcome to theGSE Podcast. I'm in Windsor,
Connecticut at TLDs, NorthAmerican headquarters with Jeff
Barrett. How's it going, Jeff?
Jeff Barrett (01:15):
Great. Good to see you, Matt. Thanks for joining
us.
Matthew Weitzel (01:18):
Yeah, not a problem. Man had an easy flight
up on frontier today fromOrlando in here for the day and
just got a tour of the facility.
Very nice.
Jeff Barrett (01:27):
Thank you. Yeah, it's great. We're, we're pretty
proud of facility and prettyproud of the things we do here
for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (01:33):
Yeah, it's a little bit spread out. And it's
like in a neighborhood. We've,
Jeff Barrett (01:37):
we've grown along with the community I would get,
I guess, I would say,
Matthew Weitzel (01:41):
yeah, it's a beautiful drive in here. You
kind of go to this, you know,like I said, like this little
neighborhood and then all of asudden there's TLD, one of the
the well, the largest GSEmanufacturer.
Jeff Barrett (01:51):
Yeah, that's That's very true. So welcome to
New England, right. Yeah. Imean, it's beautiful, beautiful
state.
Matthew Weitzel (01:56):
Yeah, you're gonna take me out for crabcakes
later. Yeah. You never know.
Okay, I don't need that thing uphere. Or is that not
Connecticut? Oh, well,
Jeff Barrett (02:03):
I mean, we're on the shoreline, right. The
weather's Rhode Island or, orNew York, you're close enough to
get some good, good freshseafood. So
Matthew Weitzel (02:09):
yeah, good.
Well, we'll have to getsomething for lunch. But so how
did you make your way to groundsupport equipment and to TLD? So
great
Jeff Barrett (02:19):
question. I joined a little over five years ago, so
been in the industry with TLDfor five and a half years. Prior
to that it's been 18 years withTextron, one of our peers in the
industry. And in those 18 yearswith Textron, I started in
Michigan, in the industrialspace with them doing automation
(02:40):
for the automotive industry, itwas was handpicked to go through
some training at what they calltheir corporate kind of
initiatives around advancementin in leadership, and was able
to get partnered up
Matthew Weitzel (02:56):
with a new talent, which is what happened.
That's what you wanted to say,talent and they wanted to get in
there.
Unknown (03:04):
Yeah. Well, if you say so. Okay. All right, good. But
no, it was great. Because beingable to grow with the company
and in leadership, I would saythey put me on the right plan to
get to where I am today. And soI went through that leadership
program got partnered with somefolks from EZGO. So I had three
options. I think at the time, itwas Bell Helicopter, Textron
(03:28):
Cautex, which does gas enginesystems, and fuel tank systems.
And then it was easy go and I'mlike, I know, golf. I think I
can I could do this, right.
Yeah, golfer I paired, ofcourse. Yeah. You do. But I got
partnered up with a great group.
We did our week long Ohio Stateprogram and did some project
(03:52):
work. And, at the end, gotrecruited out of the automotive
automotive side of the Textronbusiness into the golf side and
spent 12 years with EZGO down inFlorida, in varying degrees of
sales roles started in a localregion in the Orlando Central
Florida territory, worked up tonational accounts at one point
and then ran the southeast salesdivision for them, which happens
(04:15):
to be one of their largest.
Yeah, I
Matthew Weitzel (04:16):
bet there's some golf carts in Florida here.
Jeff Barrett (04:19):
There are quite a few. There are a few issues. So
it's a good place to be. Yeah,that
Matthew Weitzel (04:24):
was so so then, then you got recruited by TLD.
At that point, yeah. So
Jeff Barrett (04:29):
I spent those 12 years, loved every bit of it
have a lot of great friends atTextron, including the the GSE
side of the business, just youknow, we kind of infiltrated
varying degrees of aviation andGSE and happen to have recruiter
that came knocking on the doorand he was kind of coy about the
location. He said, you know,somewhere between New York and
(04:51):
Boston, I'm like, well, that'snot very big, but it is kind of
big, be aware, and he's like,Well, it's just outside of West
Hartford and you know, And thenI quickly picked up on it
because at that time Textron wasgetting into the GSC space. Oh,
okay. They made someacquisitions and kind of dip
their toe in the water. But Iwould tell you that, you know,
we moved the family up here andhave a look back, man, we've
(05:15):
been super happy, greattransition for the boys. You
know, the the oldest time was asophomore in high school. So not
an easy time for a teenager. Buthe adapted pretty well with a
good friend group. And
Matthew Weitzel (05:29):
so this is more like the Michigan weather that
you had growing up growing up inMichigan. Right. So you're kind
of used to this.
Jeff Barrett (05:35):
Yeah, well, exactly. I mean, I think when I
tell people I moved fromFlorida, they're like, you know,
what are you thinking? You know,I'm like, You got to remember
where I came from Michigan.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Some harshweather. Oh, for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (05:45):
And then you'll be back. Yeah, go back to
Florida. Listen, it's alwaysthere. Right? Yeah, it's always
there. And as you get older,you're gonna be like, I'm done
with this cold. And you're gonnado what I did and moved to
Florida?
Jeff Barrett (05:56):
That's right.
Yeah. It's not a bad flow state.
It's a beautiful state. Yeah. So
Matthew Weitzel (06:00):
normally, at this time, during the podcast,
what we do is we ask for astory. So do you have a good GSE
story that you're willing toshare? That is more of the PG
rated?
Unknown (06:10):
Yeah, so I mean, I'm trying to think, yeah, a story.
So I would tell you, I cameinto, you know, TLD, you know,
knowing a lot about sales, youknow, management, right? Yeah.
And not a lot about aviation.
And so I was, I was pretty naiveto what I was getting into.
Well, I liked aircraft andwatching, you know, things about
(06:34):
planes, and, you know, on TV,etc. I didn't know much about
GSE. And, you know, when Istarted, we were in some
conversations with pretty bigcargo company. And, you know, at
the time, it was in the infancyit was Amazon, and the fact that
at that time, they were justselling online. And, you know,
(06:56):
everybody was doing their thingfrom what they started as, you
know, the little book company,you know, and what they evolved
to today selling everythingunder the sun. And, you know,
they had these these broadvisions, and, you know, they
were thinking big as one oftheir their standbys are in,
they basically said, you know,we're gonna build this airline,
and I'm like, Whoa, these guysare gonna come out of the, out
(07:18):
of the blue, and they're gonnabuild their own airline, like,
alright, so maybe we wereflying, you know, Amazon air at
some point, it's alright, youknow, it didn't put two and two
together until, you know, a fewmonths later, when I realized,
okay, they're going to, they'regoing to do their own
transportation and the cargo andhandle that, you know, as it
evolves and get to the, to thefront, front doorstep. So I say
that, because it was certainlyeye opening for me as a, you
(07:40):
know, new guy coming into theindustry. And I got the exposure
to see from the start of theinfancy of Amazon air all the
way through today, you know,five and a half years later,
where, you know, they'rebasically number three, number
four, now they're big. In justcargo space. Yeah. The
Matthew Weitzel (08:00):
big company.
Yeah, maybe
Jeff Barrett (08:01):
biggest in the world, I think. Yeah, no,
Matthew Weitzel (08:03):
man, that's crazy. So. So you came in and
got Amazon right away, huh.
Which is the reason you're stillemployed, I guess? Well, sure.
Certainly not hurt,
Jeff Barrett (08:13):
it did not hurt.
And that's great. It was a good,good win for TLD. We fought
hard, you know, obviously, somegood competitors out there. But
we had a good suite of productsthat fit the profile of what
they're looking for. And, youknow, here we are today.
Matthew Weitzel (08:27):
I mean, I would say you have a large suite of
products. We do. We made the themost vast range of GSE products
of any manufacturer, some wouldsay,
Unknown (08:36):
Yeah, I think I think that's pretty safe to assume.
Yes, point. So yeah, we coverthe full gamut from baggage
tractors, the cargo loaders,belt loaders, everything, except
for deicers in the motorized GSEspace. So
Matthew Weitzel (08:49):
yeah, well, you know, I think what we should
start talking about now, andthanks for sharing that story is
electric. That's where theindustry is headed. That's what
people are mostly interested in.
So I've heard a lot of goodthings from a lot of different
people that TLD has some reallygreat electric options. People
are really excited about it. Solet's hear about let's hear
(09:11):
about the electric bag tractorsthat the JET-16
Unknown (09:15):
The JET-16 Is, is our forward cab electric baggage
tractor. So something that'smore similar I think until
recently in Europe, but now inthe US is becoming more of a
standard. I will tell you forthe electric evolution for
baggage tractor, so jetsixteenths are produced in three
of our factories around theworld. So we have a factory in
Sherbrooke that manufactures itup in Canada and Quebec. We have
(09:38):
a facility in France and SandlinFrance in central France. And
then we have another factory inShanghai, China that
manufactures as well. Soredundant factories building for
the local local area, but youknow, the electrification you
know, it started a long time agofor TLD so we we got a long you
(09:59):
know, his screen that worldstarted out with lead acid. Of
course, you know, lithium wasn'ta thing. Fast forward to today.
And we're doing lithiumphosphate batteries in a
solution that's like a Lego, soto speak, that is called our IBS
system. And so every one of ourpieces of equipment, whether
it's a towbarless, tractor, or abelt, loader, passenger stairs,
(10:21):
they're all based around thedesign of the IBS battery. And
that lithium battery pack givesour engineering team the freedom
to design and develop, you know,advanced equipment without
having to go to a secondarysource. And so it's nice to have
that bandwidth and brain trustwithin the to the world to be
able to provide a singlesolution to the customer.
Matthew Weitzel (10:43):
Yeah, and then you would think that a customer
would like that as well, justbecause they can buy a couple
battery packs have laying aroundjust in case of something
happening. And they can choosethe configuration that they need
to fit. Right. So that makes alot of sense for a customer as
well.
Unknown (10:58):
And you know, the one thing that you know, is still in
evolution with lithium batteriesis the sustainability. What do
you do with the product? How doyou recycle it lead acid
batteries have been aroundforever, right? Yeah, we all
know how to break down lead acidand recycle it. For lithium,
it's a little bit more just kindof happened in real time, we're
not really sure where it's goingto go. But what TLD feels very
(11:22):
strongly about is at leastwithin the profile of the GSE
space, it's almost like a pieceof gold, you're buying ahead,
and you can reuse that and ithas a value in the long term
because you can start in baggagetractor, you can then go to more
of a moderate intermittent use,like a belt loader, and then
maybe it can go to a passengercar where it's very
(11:42):
intermittently used and doesn'tget the runtime that a baggage
tractor would. So it gives agood sustainability story. Yeah,
that is nice for the lithiumbatteries.
Matthew Weitzel (11:54):
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's a it's a reallygood idea. And it's nice that
that, you know, somebody canjust make an order from you guys
and only have to order from youall and not have to go to some
third party battery provider,which is, which is makes it
simpler for everybody. I
Unknown (12:07):
would think there's only I mean, if you think about
it in terms of even a diesel GPUor a gas bag tractor, I mean,
you still have a secondarysource of that engine. And with
this, you really only have oneone person that you can point
two for any questions orconcerns that you might have. So
it's it is a unique position tobe in. That's for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (12:29):
So there's the jet 16. And then what's your you
have another baggage fracturethough?
Jeff Barrett (12:34):
We do? So the rear cab design, if you will, like
Yeah, it's the jst and thatcomes in diesel Gas and Electric
as well. Okay. So, but like Isaid, you know, I think you
know, covering the gamut. It'sup to the customer to tell us
what they prefer certaincustomers like rear cabs,
certain customers like forwardcabs. So we've got both options
(12:57):
based on what, what the customerreally wants.
Matthew Weitzel (12:59):
And then you got electric belt loader. Yep.
Do both electric and
Jeff Barrett (13:04):
gas and diesel belt loaders in multiple
factories. We do main deck andlower deck cargo loaders in our
TX cell line. That was a longterm acquisition out of
California, the company by thename of Lantus that came on
board and now is producedprimarily up in Sherbrooke, but
also in another factory in Chinain Wushi, and then we get into,
(13:28):
oh, geez, you can test my
Matthew Weitzel (13:29):
Well, I mean, I think we should dive into the
cargo loaders real quick andkind of talk about how you can
get different configurations. SoI get to visit the Sherbrooke
facility, as well as thisfacility this year. So I've been
to both of them, which is great.
And then, but you all wereshowing me the cargo loader, and
how you can have differentconfigurations based on the
customer's needs. So whetherthat be a hybrid, or an electric
(13:52):
fully electric or a hybrid, orjust you know, your your
traditional diesel engine,however, but all those can be
converted to eventually becomeelectric. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Unknown (14:05):
So at the Paris show for the GSE Expo last year at
Laborde j, we came out and madea bold statement that we're
going to go all electric drivelines by 2024. So it might be
the end of 2024 but we'repushing like crazy to put a
stake in the ground and saywe're gonna go all electric Now,
what that means is everythingpast the the engine from the
(14:28):
profile of the design is all onthe electric platform. So from a
cargo loader standpoint, wedon't have infrastructure in a
lot of cargo areas in theairport, they may not have the
charger infrastructure yet, butif you're buying a four or
$500,000 piece of equipment, andyou're gonna buy it for a 15 to
20 year lifecycle, you know, atsome point more than likely,
(14:52):
you're probably going to want togo electric. So what the hybrid
solution allows you to do is tomake it plug and play so it's
already designed aroundElectric, like I mentioned, but
then you can put in a littlegenset that basically will
charge the batteries in theoperation, when you run from,
let's say, the storage facilityout to the ramp location to do
(15:12):
the work that's running on thatlittle genset. And then once it
gets there, it runs on allelectric on the batteries. And
then let's say you getinfrastructure from the airport
authority in 10 years, andyou're able to go all electric,
you just pull that little gensetout, and you put another battery
pack in and you're, you'rebasically all electric, so
you're already buying for afuture state that is ready to
(15:35):
go, instead of trying topreemptively buy a diesel today,
to solve this problem. And thenin the future, you got, you
know, a diesel that may or maynot be a value, because who
knows where we're gonna go with,with diesel engines in the
future? But, you know, I think,you know, you have to, again,
back to my comment, you got toprovide solutions to every
customer, right? Yeah. And, youknow, we have certain customers
(15:58):
that are slowly evolving towardselectric, but they're just
getting started. So they'restill going to kind of wait and
see what happens. And you know,that's fine. You know, I mean,
we understand that's just partof the evolution. So we want to
be able to bridge that gap for alot of people.
Matthew Weitzel (16:11):
Gotcha. Yeah.
And then. So it looks like thatyou guys are going to go
electric GPU as well. Yeah,something that we're looking at.
I think I saw one. Yeah, youwere going through the facility.
Just
Unknown (16:24):
yeah. So we've had an electric GPU, we're going
through what I would call themark two, redesign, just kind of
making it not the inside, youknow, product development side
is not changing more the outsideexterior, kind of some of the
aesthetics and some of thedesigns of it. But yeah,
electric air starts are coming.
So you'll see at the show comingup here in Vegas, in a few
(16:46):
weeks, that will have anelectric AirStart. So more of a
concept around how we can docertain things with the electric
lithium batteries that we justtalked about, will also have an
electric maintenance towtowbarless, high speed tow. So
that's a unique animal, beingable to do position toes for
aircraft or maintenance toesback to the hangar with
(17:10):
electric. Today, it's not aseasy. So we'll have a tractor
there at the show that willallow people to see that. Yeah,
it's, it's really available. Andso
Matthew Weitzel (17:22):
so you got a electric GPU, you got an
electric air start, you have anelectric towbarless you're gonna
bring to the show or those whomade it three units you're
bringing
Jeff Barrett (17:30):
and then we've got an electric push back. 350 UTM x
350. Oh, okay. We'll have thereas well. That'll be nice. Yeah.
And we'll have one of the hybridbelt loaders there as well. So
Oh, wow. So we'll be able toshow kind of the different
gamut. Yeah, to me a lot ofequipment is a lot of equipment.
Not much room to walk around.
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna havestuff in the demo area. We won't
so Okay, we're gonna be right,kind of on the corner when you
(17:52):
walk in. So you'll, you can'tmiss us. So yeah, typical
fashion to the market. That'sawesome. Market the brand pretty
well, yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (18:01):
we're looking forward to the show, I think
it's going to be a really goodshow, always, always, always a
good show, telemetry, does thatcome on your units like out the
door?
Jeff Barrett (18:11):
It does. For certain products, I would tell
you for complex machinery. So weown a partnership with a company
called X apps. And so the X UPSbrand, for TLD is a link product
is what we call. And so the linkis a standard for any complex
machinery. So it's an air startor cargo loader or something
(18:33):
like that, it comes for a twoyear under the warranty coverage
that allows people to see whatthat looks like on the
dashboard. You know, if you'reputting a baggage tractor fleet
into operation, you could buythat that's non complex
machinery, but we could we couldadd that as an option. Okay. But
we see it as you know, in time,you know, telemetry not only
helps our customers, run theiroperations and be more
(18:56):
efficient, but it also helps ourservice team. And so from a
service perspective, you know,being proactive, instead of
reactive is certainly a changein the dynamic, you know, and
today, you know, it's much morethe phone rings and with email
comes in, and you know, we tryand get people out there, take
care of it. But if you can bekind of ahead of the curve and
(19:17):
know, hey, you got that faultcode that popped up, and we know
that's tied to that sensor. Andyou know, that's a weak link in
the design, we need to go get anew sensor and release the
service bullets and, hey, we canmaybe do it ahead of time and
get that part ordered and haveit coming to you you know,
before we even get thenotification that it's it's out
of warranty.
Matthew Weitzel (19:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's another thing I wanted to
cover was your warranty system.
So is the telemetry kind of tiedin with your warranty system as
well.
Jeff Barrett (19:42):
It's the the idea is it's tied to the serial
number. So the the equipmentrecord once the unit gets green
tag with TLD. Then it has itsown DNA speak. So we turn on the
telemetry. It's tied together.
And yeah, anything Communicatingwith that unit is always back to
the dashboard for the serviceteam or for the
Matthew Weitzel (20:05):
sofa. And the moment that it's assigned a
serial number on the shop floorto be in there on the production
floor to be built. Everything isdocumented from every part that
goes on to that unit, make meknow that everything has been
done, specifically the way youknow the TLD way that you all
assemble, correct, yeah. Andthen And then throughout its
(20:27):
lifetime. So if I order newbrake pads from you guys, like
it'll, it'll be in the system asthis serial number got new brake
pads, or whatever.
Unknown (20:37):
Yeah, it goes back to what you just said, right on the
production floor. So we have asystem that's been internally
developed with our team that'sfocused around being quality
first, right on the factoryfloor. And so they can see a
roadmap of how to assemble allthose products, you know, all
the bolt patterns, all theelectrical wiring harnesses,
(21:00):
everything tied to theequipment, and that's, that's at
every TLD factory around theworld, all 10 of them. And then,
after you get screen tagged andproduced and shipped to the
customer, it then becomes, youknow, a platform that just just
pulls data in. So if you open aticket for a service
perspective, and like you said,you needed a brake, pedal or
(21:23):
brake, drum or something likethat, that was an issue, you
know, we could tie that back tothat serial number, and we do
and that becomes a history andtime, that then becomes
researchable. So over a 10, 15,20 year timeframe, we can look
back at every which way, youknow, we've used the break
pattern in the system. And thenif we've identified a supplier
(21:48):
issue are a component issue, andwe need to go make a retroactive
change down the line, we can dothat immediately with that the
PIO system that you saw on theshop floor. Yeah, as well as a
service bulletin campaign forthe folks that have it out in
the field. It's very userfriendly for our team, from our
engineering perspective, ourservice guys.
Matthew Weitzel (22:08):
Yeah, but the service guys love, they love it.
And they can be out in the fieldand see exactly what's happened
to that unit ever since. Eversince the customer. The end user
got it.
Jeff Barrett (22:17):
Exactly. And it's, I would, dare I say, a pretty
unique differentiator for TLD.
And the customers, I would say,
Matthew Weitzel (22:24):
yeah, it's the most advanced system that I've
seen so far. You know, as far asbeing able to track warranty
claims and just, you know, beingable to see everything that's
ever been done to a serialnumbers, just crazy. You know,
the you all pulled it up. We'reSherbrooke. Yeah, to kind of
show us one of our units, andyou can see where it was and
everything that ever been doneto it. It's, it's pretty nuts.
(22:46):
Yeah,
Jeff Barrett (22:47):
it is. It's a good, good tool to have. And I
give credit to, you know, thefounders of this organization.
You know, we've got a lot ofgreat bright minds on the team
here with TLD and a lot ofengineers that you have some
some super Brainiac ideas thatbring bring it to real life,
it's it's pretty impressive.
Matthew Weitzel (23:07):
I mean, so yeah, it seems like you all own
a lot of your own. You know, theyou're not using third parties
for batteries or telemetry,those are all kind of those are
all, you know, companies thateither like you all have
acquired, or you've developedthe technology yourself,
Jeff Barrett (23:22):
we want to have a lot more control over it. And we
feel like we've with ourcapability and our drive for
innovation, it gives us thatnext step forward a lot quicker
than if we're relying on otherthird parties.
Matthew Weitzel (23:34):
So yeah, so remind me what is your telemetry
system called?
Unknown (23:38):
It's called link for D.
And then they they also have nowyou know, external X Ops version
that they sell as well, if youwanted to go like full blown
fleet.
Matthew Weitzel (23:48):
That's what I was gonna ask you. So that is
possible. So I love I love mylink so much. Right. I wanted
on, you know, another unit. saythat's not a TLD. Correct. I can
put I can have you guys put thaton there.
Jeff Barrett (24:01):
That's right. And then that would not be through
the TLD. World. That would bexometry. Yeah, exactly. The X
apps guys do that.
Matthew Weitzel (24:08):
Okay, so that is a possibility. It is a
possibility. All right. I justwanted to make sure. Yeah,
there's clear things up here.
Absolutely. Let's talk about thetaxi bot. I thought that was
pretty cool. We got to see thatin Sherbrooke is a big unit huge
unit. I decided not to drivethat when they were like you
want to drive it? And I'm like,No, there's no way I'm driving
this thing. Especially I'm nottrying to parallel park that
(24:30):
thing. It's a big unit. But whydon't you explain what that is?
Just for people who haven'theard about it. It's a it's a
pretty cool concept. Yeah.
Unknown (24:39):
So just being a part of the Alvest group. And you know,
I think we're very focused onbeing leaner and greener in the
industry and helping the GSEspace and the aviation world be
more sustainable. And so you cando that in a lot of different
ways, you know, mobile GPUsplugging in at the gate with a
(25:03):
mobile aircon keeping the APUoff helps, right? You know, you
wouldn't think running a dieselwould help but you're you're
you're burning less jet fuel bynot having that APU run. And so
a lot of our airline partners,you know, always keep a close
eye on that APU time, rightabout the pilots love it because
they can flip a switch and keepeverybody cool and the avionics
Iran and etc. But we want to besmart about it. And you know,
(25:25):
one of the concepts that we'vecome up with is the taxi bot,
like you said, and that's withinour smart airport systems group
when the Elvis family and thetaxi bot basically is a, for
lack of a better word, a largetoolbar towbarless like tractor
that connects to landing gear,much like a towbarless does has
(25:48):
a little cradle in there. Andit's got redundant systems. So
it's actually FAA certified. Soyou got dual engines, dual
hydraulic systems, etc. And ittethers directly to the cockpit,
allowing the pilot to thenoperate just like you would
normally as he taxis out fromthe gate to the taxiway. With
(26:09):
his controls in the cockpit,normal, he'll never feel the
difference even though it'sconnected to an aircraft, but
his engines aren't running. Sothe beauty of that is its engine
off, just like APU off it's notrunning the engine, it's not
running the fuel, jet fuel. Andit's saving that, you know, for
sustainability reasons for ourcustomers, as they taxi out to
the runway, and the disconnectsgot a cab in the front of the
(26:33):
the tractor, the guy sits in thetractor. The only reason he's
there is basically to drive itback after the disconnect, to go
get another aircraft and take itback to the next time. Next
taxiway.
Matthew Weitzel (26:44):
Wow, that's incredible technology. It is. So
where is do we do we have one inthe world? Yeah.
Jeff Barrett (26:51):
Oh, really? Yeah, there's a bunch in Schipol is
probably at Schiphol I guess ishow you pronounce it. I'm from
Michigan State.
Matthew Weitzel (26:57):
That's all right. No, it's okay. Yeah,
that's alright. That's the way Iwould have pronounced it coming
from Kentucky. Alright, so goahead.
Jeff Barrett (27:04):
No, yeah, we see an evolution coming. It's all
driven by, you know, the cost offuel. And so we had cheap fuel
for a lot of years. And itwasn't a major issue. But now,
you know, fuel is creeping upagain. And it's becoming a lot
more popular. So we do see atimeline where this will be in
the US and, and we've we've gotseveral active projects that
(27:28):
we're working on that as well.
So in time, you know that thatproduct will become electric. So
back to back to thatsustainability standpoint, it
runs on these two diesel enginesright now. But if you can do
that with electric, wow, nowyou've taken not only the jet
engines and turn them off, butyou've taken the diesel engines
and turned them off. Right.
Yeah. And so having thatcapability to do it with the
(27:49):
lithium battery packs. And, youknow, the engineering team, at
our factory in Germany, Franceis pretty special.
Matthew Weitzel (27:56):
Yeah, so that product is manufactured in
France exclusively the voice.
Yes. Yep. Nice. And then, fromwhat I understand, so you're Can
you kind of explain like how thefactories are kind of separate
from each other? I think that'spretty interesting and unique.
That is something that TLD has,
Jeff Barrett (28:11):
yeah, it isn't.
unique system. I mean, yeah, asI mentioned earlier, I come from
a manufacturing background. SoI've got a lot of experience
with with different factories,if you will, in the way that TLD
is designed our production istrying to be smart on the local
support at the point of usage.
(28:32):
And so if you think about it interms of, I think I referenced
the let's go belt loader thistime. So belt, blue belt loader,
right? Yeah, there's a lot ofbelt loaders around the world
that are used. It's prettystandard, you know, part of our
gate sets. And that belt loaderis manufactured in Sherbrooke,
Quebec, is manufactured in inFrance, and it's manufactured in
China. And we do that withredundant factories for a lot of
(28:55):
products around the world. Andallows us to be not only smart
about the local support, butalso from a sustainability
standpoint. So you're notproducing product in Sherbrooke,
that's being shipped all overthe world and having to, you
know, put it in a cargocontainer and put it on a
freighter and ship it over toyou know, China. Yeah, that
wouldn't make sense, right. Andso the fact that we have the
(29:17):
locally controlled production inthe local region, makes very
nice. And, you know, honestly,with the rebound we've seen in
the GSE space, it's, it's alsounique from a production
standpoint, right? So if we haveone factory that's full with
orders, and we can pivot toanother factory that might have
some capacity. That's, that'spretty unique and allows us to
(29:39):
be pretty nimble and how weoperate to support our
customers.
Matthew Weitzel (29:44):
Nice. Yeah, that's I was really cool. Being
able to see you know, like Isaid a bit about them this year.
See in Sherbrooke, and what theybuild there. They have a lot of
big units coming out of thatfacility, whereas this is GPUs
air starts air conditioners. Andoh, and you changed your your
name and the design of your airconditioner. We haven't gone
(30:05):
over that yet. You're right. Sowe went from an ACU 302. Yep. to
Now we're a cool 10
Jeff Barrett (30:11):
Cool 10 And a cool 15. So we're building a profile
product profile that is basedaround the cool design. It is
cool, by the way, yeah, I
Matthew Weitzel (30:21):
know, it sounds.
Jeff Barrett (30:24):
But, you know, we acquired lib rune
airconditioners ran around 2019,I guess right before the
pandemic. And with thatacquisition brought some
evolution in our engineeringdesign. And you know, TLD here
in Windsor, which washistorically called ACE is the
product. Okay, that's been asteady product that was
(30:46):
manufactured for many, manyyears. But LeBron had a
different way of developing anddesigning their hair
conditioners. And so we tooksome of the benefits of our
Windsor product and some of thebenefits of our lab room
product. And designed codesigned together with an
engineering team out of Belgium,in here in Windsor to come up
with the cool 10 And the cool15, which are replacing the 302
(31:07):
that had been historicallyaround for quite a few years,
we'll still build the 302 formilitary applications, and
certain things that just arerequired. But for the most part,
the evolution gets a betterproduct, more fuel efficient,
much better cooling temperature,and you know, you're putting
more people on the plane thanever today, you know, and those
(31:29):
planes need to stay cool whenyou're down in Houston, or
Myrtle Beach, or wherever itmight be.
Matthew Weitzel (31:33):
So this is going to be a step up, this
product is gonna be a step up asfar as engineering maintenance,
I think I think I remember themsaying that maintenance is going
to be a lot easier on this unitas well. Much easier to
Jeff Barrett (31:45):
troubleshoot. And, you know, at the end of the day,
you know, you're not going todevelop and design a new product
that that doesn't bring morevalue to exactly and so you're
gonna get a colder airtemperature coming out much more
efficient design. It's it's ondemand, you know, cooling and
heat for that matter if you ifyou
Matthew Weitzel (32:03):
know, yeah, you gotta have that you gotta have
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's theway we order Emily's. Yeah. And
then 70 years, 70 year, youknow, that's, that's, I've seen
that around the industry onLinkedIn posts. I've seen it in
magazines. So I meant to startedthe podcast that way, which is,
congratulations on the 70 years.
Looks like you all are y'all aredoing great. And yeah,
(32:24):
celebrating 70 years TLD
Jeff Barrett (32:29):
it's, it's pretty cool to have, I think, that
historical knowledge in thegroup, you know, when I talked
about the group, the TLD groupor the Elvis group, there's a
lot of of tenured folks thathave helped get us to where we
are today. But to celebrateseven years in look back at some
of the pictures of some of thestuff that we designed a long
time ago to, to help develop thethe jet engine here with Pratt
(32:52):
and Whitney and in Hartford.
Boy,
Matthew Weitzel (32:55):
we've come a long way. The GSE pictures from
back in the day are hilarious.
They are I mean, it's I mean,there's still some of that
running around on the airfield.
Right? And that's the reasonthat you're still in business.
And and so are we, becausepeople are still trying to
replace this stuff. But it'samazing. You know, how far how
far you know, TLDs come in theindustry has come as far as
(33:17):
designing and make this stufflook look a lot nicer. And yeah,
in more full fuel efficient andelectric. We got it all going.
I've always
Jeff Barrett (33:25):
said that, you know, we're not the sexiest
industry in the world, but youcan't run an airline without us.
Right. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (33:30):
that's That's true. Yeah. But I mean, you
know, you do have some sleeklines on your GPU. Yeah, I mean,
it's like, you know, I mean,maybe I got a brochure I can
give you Yeah, it looks nice,you know, put a picture up in my
house or something of the well,at least me the cool 10 There
you go. That's a good lookingunit. Pretty, pretty cool. Yeah,
(33:50):
that'd be awesome. So all right.
What else do we have here? Wehave autonomous. Talk to me
about autonomous. Yeah. So it's,it's mania that's coming? Yeah,
Unknown (34:01):
I think it's common, right. But I think also, maybe
not in our generation. I don'tknow you. But you know, I think
in time, it will be here in alot around how we're designing
stuff is to get there. And yeah,in the future state of, you
know, what started out as ASD,when you approach an aircraft
and you know, the touch point ofa builder, right, making sure
(34:21):
that that's, that's in place,and then go to an ASD plus that
kind of takes the controls awayfrom the operator so that it
then automates that approachsystem, to maybe an autonomous
cargo loader that you know, isrun by a joystick that basically
says, Hey, I'm going to take avideo camera of the actual door
(34:43):
frame of the cargo and be ableto identify height and location
of steering to get it properlyaligned. And, you know, I think
that's just steps in the grandscheme of things to get us to
the capability to do automationand in time You know, at some
point, there will be a controlroom at JFK, or one of these
(35:05):
airports that takes a leap offaith that says, you know, what,
we're having difficulty gettingoperators, we're having
difficulty, you know, with withroom on the ramp, and we're
gonna go autonomous, and we'regonna have the capability to
basically orchestrate how theGSE is on the ramp, supporting
those airlines. And it's not farfetched. I mean, when you think
(35:29):
about it, when you've been on aramp, and you know how crazy it
is out there and chaotic, youknow, that automation, you know,
technology wise, is there isjust getting over the hurdle of
the design and development tokind of get there. But we've got
an autonomous back extractortoday that is running, and you
know, something that, you know,is giving us a lot of
(35:50):
engineering development aroundhow we go forward. A step in
that direction is, we're goingto a two man turn. So we're
remote control towbarless. Soyou can basically have to man,
you know, instead of having toon the wing to wing walkers and
one pushing the, the push back,you can have one with a remote
(36:11):
control, we Walker and when onthe other side. So it eliminates
that and you're controlling thepushback with remote control. So
we're trying to be forwardthinking and really more
advanced because labor shortagesis not going away anytime soon.
And it's definitely somethingthat if we can be mindful of you
can control your safety, you cancontrol your, your usage, you
(36:32):
know, all the certain thingsthat customers worry about, you
know, you got a lot bettercontrols of so yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (36:37):
And then speaking of labor shortage, you
were kind of telling me aboutthis academy, that you all
decided to do kind of postpandemic or during, during the
pandemic that I thought wasreally interesting that you kind
of talked about if you wantedto, yeah, no, that's
Jeff Barrett (36:51):
great. You know, I getting people in, in the trades
world, whether it's doingassembly or even people out, you
know, doing maintenance for our,our service team. It's not easy,
and I think everybody wouldshare in that opinion. But the
manufacturing academy that wedeveloped at both this facility
and up in Sherbrooke was basedaround bringing talent into the
(37:16):
industry that didn't have anyexperience. So you could be a
bartender, late night at a bar,you could be a hotel, person
that just didn't like working,you know, the hours that they
were working, it will bring himin, we'll teach them about what
wrote righty tighty means andwhat lefty loosey means and, and
how to read a schematic andyoung how to pull wires and all
the stuff that you need to do onthe shop floor to build our
(37:39):
equipment. And you know, ourretention rate, consequently,
has been much higher. So we'vehad a very good retention rate
on those folks that have comethrough the manufacturing
Academy, to the point where atfirst it was kind of a bolt on
ancillary thing that, you know,we just brought certain people
that were inexperienced in Yeah,that now 100% of our new hires
(38:01):
go through the manufacturingAcademy. Oh, that's great. And
even, you know, our spare partsteam. So the folks that are on
the calls, you know, answeringcustomers request for spare
parts, you know, they don't knowwhat a widget or doodad is. But
if I can get them through themanufacturing Academy for a
couple of weeks and get themexposed to what goes into those
products, it helps theirevolution, it makes them
smarter, you know, moreconfident, you know, when
(38:23):
they're talking to the customer.
So it's been a very good win forus.
Matthew Weitzel (38:26):
Yeah, that's awesome. It was really good is a
really great story to hear. AndI just thought we'd share it.
Yeah. How's it going with supplychain? Are you seeing it get
it's getting better?
Jeff Barrett (38:34):
Yeah, good question is stabilized, I guess
is probably the word I woulduse, you know, not say we're out
of the woods, on every product,there's always going to be
hiccups that happen, you know,from time to time, but it's
definitely more manageable todaythan it has been. So now, I
would tell you that the backlogthat we've gained, it's very
(38:56):
fortunate to have, you know, oneof the healthiest backlogs that
we've ever seen in our historywith DOD. And the fact that, you
know, we've got such a healthybacklog is, you know, we got to
produce as much as we possiblycan and get it out the door to
bring those lead times down andbe be more reactive to the
marketplace. But you know, it'sa good story. And, you know, I
(39:17):
think I think we're past theworst of it, I guess, is what I
would say so,
Matthew Weitzel (39:21):
so are you going for longest drive or
closest to the whole at the GSEExpo golfing?
Jeff Barrett (39:28):
Man? I don't know.
I'm just out there to have alittle fun. I do enjoy my round
of golf every once awhilethough.
Matthew Weitzel (39:33):
Okay. So not so closest to the pin on a par
three or longest. Okay, you'regonna you're gonna meet Oh,
yeah,
Jeff Barrett (39:40):
I mean, come on.
Matthew Weitzel (39:41):
Okay. All right.
Jeff Barrett (39:42):
Why stop with one?
Matthew Weitzel (39:43):
Yeah, why not?
I mean, listen, I was just Ijust wasn't, I was curious more
on like, you know which one youfelt like you had a better
opportunity to win. But itsounds like you're pretty
confident that maybe I don'tknow you win both. You never
know. You never know. Okay,well, let's just put that out
there. Everybody's gonna want tohear that. I like that. Any
other plans for Vegas for theGSE Expo that you haven't kind
of covered that TLD is going tobe? You're going to be outside
(40:06):
yet. We'll be outside. You havetons of equipment. Yeah, there's
there's gonna have like anythingcool in the booth that people
can come by and see or is itJimmy Lou? I mean, well,
honestly, let's go. Right. Yeah,exactly. Jeff, so now's Kyle is
going to be there. Right? Yeah,you got plenty of plenty of
stuff to come and see,
Unknown (40:26):
ya know, I think, you know, for us, this is a very
important Expo, you know, we sawI happen to be fortunate enough
to sit on the IML. Board, weseveral other peers, members,
and thank you for being amember, not a problem, man. It's
it's a good story. You know, thefact that our industry controls
our two biggest shows is prettyspecial. Because now that we
(40:50):
have control of the Europeanshow, and the show here in the
North American market, you know,we're trying to make those two
biggest pillars for all of ourindustry. So yeah, doing these
shows is expensive. And, youknow, I mean, just your bottom
line, you know, to spend dollarson marketing and all the things
that you have to do from traveland entertainment, and
(41:11):
everything that comes with thoseshows, it hits everybody in the
industry. Want to be smart. I
Matthew Weitzel (41:16):
got a lot of steaks, and I'm out there. It's
awful. Jeff, please. Thank youfor bringing all that up. Yeah.
It's it's something I have todeal with. It's a tough life.
Tough life
Unknown (41:25):
to be entertained.
Yeah. But no, it's, you know,it's a pretty special thing to
say that we own those shows.
And, you know, for TLD, youknow, we're one of the founding
members, I email. And so wethink, you know, we're always
pushing as, as one of theoriginal, you know, founders to
help help push that along.
Because it's an important partof our industry.
Matthew Weitzel (41:46):
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's It's great. So yeah, we've
been I think we've been, I thinkit's our fourth or fifth year.
Okay. Then party by humans. Soyeah, yeah, it's good. And I
think it's definitely aworthwhile thing. And, and we're
excited. I think we're going totry to go to Portugal, Portugal.
Unknown (42:05):
Yeah. Come see us and Lisbon. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (42:07):
yeah, exactly.
So are you going to be at theGHI annual event? So we in
Lisbon,
Unknown (42:14):
somebody from our team will be there. Certainly.
Matthew Weitzel (42:16):
So Jeff will not be the Jeff will not be.
Unknown (42:19):
I make an appearance.
Ah, I Americas.
Matthew Weitzel (42:21):
Okay. Yeah, you did? Yeah. Saw you down there
and Punta Cana, we had a goodtime. Yeah.
Unknown (42:25):
Always, always good to get connected with all of our
peers. Yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (42:29):
So recently, I've been asking people because
this is going to come out beforebefore we go to the yeah, in
Vegas. And I asked everybody,you know, what's a hidden gem of
a restaurant that I should tryto go to? So? So what do you
recommend?
Unknown (42:45):
I try and stay as far away from Vegas as possible. I
definitely go every other yearto the GC Expo for for good
reasons. But my favoriterestaurant is typically the one
that I see at the airport on theway home.
Matthew Weitzel (42:56):
So you're more of a Michigan guy than a than a
Vegas. Yeah, just you know,
Unknown (43:01):
you can only take so much Vegas, but yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (43:03):
I agree. I remember. So I've got a good
story. So I was first, you know,GSE Expo, I don't think it was
called that when, when I firstwent back in like 2007, or
whatever it was. But I was atthe Mandalay Bay. And so I go to
check in at the Mandalay Bay.
And I say, you know, last nameWeitzel. And, and she goes,
Okay, I see you. And she stopsand she's like, she goes, you're
(43:27):
here for for seven days? And I'mlike, yeah, and I'd never been
to Vegas before. And she goes,good luck. And I thought, What
in the world is this womantalking about? Good luck. And
then after two days, I was like,Oh, I think I know what she was
talking about. So yeah, that wasmy first experience of Vegas was
(43:47):
her you know, saying good luckto me. And she couldn't have
been more right. Seven days.
There is a lifetime. It is it isit is seriously a lifetime, but
it'll be fun. It's always a goodtime. But it's yeah, I'd say
after day two, everybody's kindof everybody's kind of worn out.
That Thursday starts getting alittle bit dicey. So anyways,
(44:10):
but it'll be a great time. Itwill be Yeah, so anything else?
I think,
Jeff Barrett (44:14):
I think you know, for me, I just like to thank the
exceed team for putting thistogether. I think it's a great
space for us to share bestpractices and just you know,
talk about the industry. Youknow, I was told a long time ago
when I started you know that GSEgets in your blood and it's hard
to get it out of your blood andyet nobody leaves this industry
they always right they alwaysmake their way back eventually
(44:34):
if they do but you know, it'swe're we're pretty special breed
and you know, a lot of very goodquality people and I'm very
privileged to work with you,Matt. Appreciate that. See team
you guys you know coming tovisit us at the two factories
this year has been phenomenal.
We really love hostingcustomers. So anytime, you know
our doors are open. You want tocome to France or China.
Matthew Weitzel (44:54):
Yeah, that you know that. That was one thing I
was going to bring up is whenI'm when am I going to be
invited to France.
Jeff Barrett (44:59):
Let's go Well, I mean, I mean, come on, anytime.
It's always a fun trip to goover there and drink red wine.
And yes, I can do that has somegood crepes. And there's always
been I mean, come on, man. Nowyou're
Matthew Weitzel (45:13):
talking.
Alright, so that's my nextthing. Well, I appreciate you
saying that. Obviously, we wevalue the partnership with TLD.
We we have a ton of yourequipment that we offer out to
our customers. And it's a greatpartnership and I and we really
appreciate it.
Jeff Barrett (45:27):
Agreed. Same on our side, we
Matthew Weitzel (45:29):
really appreciate the friendship.
Awesome, man. Well, thank you somuch, Jeff. I really appreciate
the time and thanks to TLD. Andthat'll be it for Matt and Jeff,
the GSE podcast. Thanks, cheers.
All right.
That's a wrap for this episode
Unknown (45:40):
Thank you. Thank you.
at the GSE podcast. A big thankyou to Jeff for sharing his
invaluable insights with ustoday. If you're as passionate
about the ground supportequipment industry as we are,
(46:02):
please hit that subscribe buttonand share this episode with
fellow GSE enthusiast. Yoursupport means the world to us
and helps us bring more of theseenlightening discussions to you.
Now, for those of you attendingthe GSE Expo from September 26
to the 28th. Here's anopportunity you won't want to
miss. Visit Xcēd at booth 617and take the mic. That's right,
(46:26):
you can record an intro or anoutro for the GSE podcast. Who
knows? You might just hear yourown voice in one of our upcoming
episodes. Thanks for tuning inand see you on the next episode.
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