January 17, 2024 • 32 mins
Get ready to deck out your rig with the most unexpected trinkets, as Mike and Jo take you on a road trip through truck stop America, uncovering the quirky side of these roadside havens. From alligator heads to cheese ornaments, we explore how these eclectic finds become part of the heavy equipment family, where Berkshire Hathaway is steering the Pilot Flying J ship, and explore some of the great con/ag tech on display at the CES show in Las Vegas. All this and the Cleveland Browns, too, on this ... the very first HEP-isode of 2024!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Whether we're exploring the latest in trucking
technology, talking about thetrends that propel the industry
forward, or uncovering storiesabout the dedicated individuals
who keep the wheels of Americaturning, this is where the roar
of the engines and pulse ofprogress come together.
It's sublime, it's surreal.
This is the Heavy EquipmentPodcast with Mike and Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome back to the Heavy Equipment Podcast.
This is our first episode ofthe new year.
I'm your host, joe Boris, here,as ever, with Mike Switzer.
How you doing, man.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hey, we're doing good .
Everybody's been sick.
Everybody's getting over thecold.
It's sweeping througheverywhere and everybody that I
know.
Everybody's just getting sick.
You get through the holidaysand we were going to record
before, but it just we were alldying.
And then you went to CES.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And then I went to CES in Las Vegas.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But you know what, Mike?
As we talk about January andeverybody getting out of the
holidays and the doldrums thereand the darkness outside, there
is a light at the end of thetunnel.
Sure is, the Flying J FishSandwich is coming back February
1st.
You know that's a sandwich,Michael.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It looks like one.
My question is, I wonder, if itpasses a 100 mile test.
If you eat that, are you goingto make it 100 miles down the
road without having to stop you?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
won't make it 100 yards.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Which is fine.
Well, yeah, if you don't makeit 100 yards, you're back in the
.
I mean, you're still on site,so that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You're on site, it's not a problem.
You just got to plan the trip.
You got to eat the sandwichfirst and then do your business
and then get back on the road.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
We lost them a few years ago.
But you remember, you know BertReynolds.
He had that crazy run.
I just see people running withRunning through the lot.
They're just trying to find ashady place that they can crouch
down.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Man, oh you know, but there's no reason for that,
though, because the Flying JStalls are actually quite nice.
They had a lot of nice meetingsin there.
We're not talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Okay, listen, we're not talking about the Flying J's
facilities, because we all knowthat they are top quality in
this nation they are.
What I'm saying is is that, yes, everybody's sick and they're
all doing that, and you want toenjoy the new fish sandwich that
comes out February 1st and thencombine that with all the other
stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I don't know, One of my favorite things about going
into the pilots and Flying J'sis they really are kind of
different, like the ones inFlorida are different from the
ones in Indiana or Wisconsin.
Oh yeah, it's a subtledifference, but you'll get
alligator heads or something inFlorida and then you'll get
(02:58):
weird cheese ornaments inWisconsin.
It's cool.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, they all have that.
I mean even loves and thoseother guys.
I mean they all have those whenyou walk in.
It's just variations of thesame stuff, but what they are
are different really.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's regionalized.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, you know what I guarantee you.
There are trucks out theregoing up and down the road and
there's heavy equipment too,that those are all dangling in
the back like trinkets, justswinging as the stuff gets moved
around.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's like the old 70s bead curtain, but it's all made
up of weird chotchkeets fromFlying J and pilot.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Exactly.
You got the cheese wedge andthen you got the alligator head
and you got a spur.
You've been down in Texas andyou get some cacti because
you're out in the Southwest, andthen I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I think it's great.
I think that'd be phenomenal.
I'd do that.
Somebody's got that on anInstagram or an OnlyFans
somewhere.
We'll be able to check it out.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, I mean listen, I mean guys hang all kinds of
chotchkeet stuff in theirexcavators and then wheel
loaders and stuff they're inevery day.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's true.
Why wouldn't they do that?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I don't know if this is something we want to talk
about, but you know, pilotFlying J that group has always
had a couple of different owners, but now Berkshire Hathaway you
know, Berkshire Hathaway is nowthe sole owner of that.
That's, of course, WarrenBuffett's company.
So it's kind of interestingthere, because they've owned a
big chunk of that since about2017, but now they own 100% of
(04:26):
it.
So that's going to change howthose profit and loss reports
are put out, how the P&Lreporting goes.
That's going to change quite alot of it, but I don't really
understand why they would dothat.
So Warren Buffett's philosophyand Berkshire Hathaway's
philosophy has always been toinvest in something that is
(04:47):
resistant to trends and, likethey're very famously invested
in Coca-Cola Like, am I going todrink a Coca-Cola 10 years from
now?
Absolutely Right, and that'skind of how they make their
decisions.
So that's kind of a long-termvote of confidence that these,
you know, these service stations, these service plazas, aren't
going anywhere.
And you know, I always comefrom this world of
(05:07):
electrification and EVs in myother life and I have to say I
think that these companies likeFlying J, Pilot Loves they are
perfectly suited for people onroad trips and electric cars
because they're set up forpeople to spend some time there.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
You know, if they have the charging infrastructure
, at least you have a good spotwhere you can stop and in most
places it's safe and charge yourcar and go hang out for a
minute, eat some lunch and thentake off again.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, and they're already set up to be 24-7 for
the truck drivers.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We were actually we were just talking about this
this week.
You know, some places come andsome places go and then you go
buy one day and they're boardedup and you know, like man, that
place was really good but PilotFlying J Loves they're going to
be around for a long time, youknow, and Berkshire Hathaway
buying them.
That's a great move.
(05:59):
There's very few staples outthere, you know, and I'm sure
they have a long-term play withit and I'm sure electrification
is part of it and maybe themovement towards hydrogen, that
they're going to start workingon infrastructure.
I'm sure that's a big part ofit as well.
I want to know if they're goingto buy the Browns, because I
think they should.
It could be the BerkshireBrownies.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I don't think that's going to happen though.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I know yeah, because the guys in the dog pound.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's all they're screaming, the guys in the tunk.
It is at the end of the, at theend of the stadium.
It says the dog pound and thenyou go you sit in there and it
is wild.
If you don't watch you're goingto get just levitated down and
dropped into the field byaccident.
They're field side, likethey're on the ground level by
the time you get down there andI'm telling you so wild.
(07:11):
There's just stuff everywhereand at the end of the game
you're like was somebodysweeping the field when we
weren't watching when all thisstuff come from?
Where did this happen?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You're sitting there, who would throw an entire hot
dog onto the field?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That's Astro Turf, that's sterile yeah.
And then I'll tell you thestory while we're doing this
While we're recording.
Yeah, so I was at this game onetime and a guy standing next to
me.
We're all screaming andhollering and everything, and
basketball game.
There's a point where the cowsare going to lose and basketball
gets stuck in the backstop.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Like in that basket right Between the just wedged
itself in there.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Next thing, you know game changer, right Guy standing
next to me.
We're up Not very like real far, but we're halfway up in this.
He yells and throws his arm forit and the cup just left his
hand and sails on down into thecrowd.
Oh no, and we were just frozenfor, like you know, a good two
(08:18):
seconds because you're waitingfor somebody to yell upwards.
The whole place was so crazyand going so loud and so hard.
We never heard anything.
We just got more drinks.
We thought for sure that cupwas coming back up 20 something
rows empty with a fist in it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That'd be quite a thing.
That'd be quite a thing.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Oh yeah, it was.
He just went like that and thenit, that was it.
20 ounces Miller light whensailing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Oh, that's like $13 here in Chicago Talking about
it's more net here in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
You guys always talk about oh, here in Chicago, this
is expensive.
Come back to Cleveland.
Cleveland's the new Chicago.
Everything's more money now.
Yeah, you guys still have themafia too.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Kind of it's called the.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You can say I thought it was the Ohio State Patrol or
that one dude was in his trunkof his car, shot nine times and
they ruled it as suicide afterthey cut.
After the fire department putit out, we're going to let this
burn itself out.
Set there watching it burn foran hour, I could believe that.
I think it's out, it's fine.
(09:30):
Oh man, that's wild stuff.
But speaking of the mafia, Iwas in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You gotta cut out the whole thing that that can't be
on there.
Why you can't have that onthere?
Because we work for them.
Sorry, you gotta cut that out,it's so good, I'll beep it out.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It'll be like you can't have that on there.
They'll just be like what arethese guys saying?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
But I mean the recording the troubles.
We are Yep and I must go.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Speaking of the mafia .
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was recently in Las Vegas for the consumer
electronics show, the CES show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And there were people out there.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Oh, a lot of 180,000 people.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I think we all got some kind of virus.
There was that weird orgy inthe Tesla tunnel run.
That was kind of fun, but man,it was a rough show.
I got lost.
I was in the wrong buildinghalf the time but there was a
ton of really, really neat heavyequipment stuff and autonomous
stuff.
And you know, one that I didn'tsend you was John Deere.
(10:52):
They had one of theirautonomous combines and
harvesters, yeah, and it's setup in Austin, texas.
It's got cameras and droneoperators and everything there
and you can control it from youriPhone.
You can literally just put yourfinger on the map and push it
this way and that and move itaround.
And they had it set up so youcould play with that thing from
the show floor.
And I immediately crashed it.
(11:13):
Sure, it's doing it.
I was like what's wrong with it?
They're like, oh, it's anemergency stop, you must have
hit a root or something.
I was like, oh, root, who knows?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
This thing's a little sensitive, careful when you
move your thumb, exactly youknow what?
What kills me is a lot of thefarming equipment still has an
identity between the variousbrands, right.
So you got Kase, you got JohnDeere.
They kind of hold their owndesign and appearance right.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, you can tell a deer from a New Holland or
something, even if it's notpainted the right colors.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Exactly, and that's my whole point.
They still hold their ownidentity with all that stuff and
I think they've always done areally good job marketing wise,
all having their own look, andthat goes back into the fifties
and the forties, you know andthe trucks though today and some
of this other stuff that keepscoming out.
and CES had the Peterbilt FutureTruck.
(12:17):
That was.
That was out there.
You know, tesla's had theirtruck of the future,
freightliner had their truck ofthe future.
That was out there.
They kind of look the same theydo, and a lot of that central
cab, central seating stuff, alot of it is the same looking.
I'm kind of disappointed in alot of that and some of the
(12:38):
stuff that I was looking at fromCES.
I'm like guys put somecharacter into it.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's hard because keep in mind farm equipment, ag
equipment, constructionequipment it really don't need
aerodynamics.
The point of it is notaerodynamic.
When you start getting intolike the Super Truck 2 and like
the hyper truck and Tesla semiand everything is about
aerodynamic efficiency therereally is a best way to go
(13:07):
through the air and most ofthese guys are getting real
close to that.
It's the same thing whathappens in Formula One, in
Indycar, where you look back 40,50 years and there was all
kinds of different ideas beingtried out because they really
didn't know Right.
And we know we understand thescience and all of it kind of
looks the same, except for thestickers on it.
(13:28):
And we're coming to that withtrucks.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, but you know, somehow when you watch Star Trek
all those ships look different.
They all have their ownidentity.
The enterprise looked like theenterprise.
It really did.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It went to the saws separation, which is really cool
.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We all lean forward in our seats and we all watch
that.
But going back to what we'retalking about now, they got to
do something to the spices.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
accept a little bit, you think they need like a
saucer separation, like thewhole top of the cab just hovers
off like a drone.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, but I think we just got to come up with like
its own identity.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I think you're right and I think you're going to
start to see that.
But I think what you're going tosee is very similar to what
we've seen in other markets,which is this like push towards
retroism.
There's going to be the guysthat have that conventional
vertical cab, you know, verticalgrill and they're willing to
give up a little bit ofefficiency to have that look.
(14:27):
You're going to see that fromthe owner operators.
You're going to see that fromguys who really identify, that
are not truck drivers for apaycheck but who identify as
truckers.
They identify with that cultureand they're going to be willing
to spend a little bit extrabecause ultimately, that's what
it is.
It's spending a little bit morebecause if you can say, look
(14:48):
this truck and this truck, theyhave the same price, but this
one's going to cost me, whateverit is $11 a day less in fuel
over the course of whatever,however many days of operation.
If you're a corporate fleetbuyer, you're not going to take
a second look at that truckbased on what it looks like.
You're just going to look atthe efficiency numbers and that
means you're going to get anoptimized bullet truck.
That's how it is.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Well, you know a lot of us fleet managers.
We talk about that stuff allthe time.
You know equipment managers,fleet managers, directors,
whatever you know, whatever ourtitle is where we're at.
We joke about that becausethere are fleets out there that
you know they look at somethingand if it's $11 a day different
and they have 10,000 units onthe road, if you got 12, we
might go the cool route.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh, I got totally yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Exactly, that's what I'm saying, because you know.
I mean, do the math, you knowif it was $12 a day and you got
12 trucks, $144, you know what Imean.
Like $144 a day, the guy don'tlike what he's driving, he's
going to waste more than thatand what he breaks off the
inside of it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, that's true, I mean.
I think there's a big componentto this also of being satisfied
in your job and being able toretain your drivers by keeping
them happy.
Maybe that's worth $11 or $12 aday to have someone experienced
who enjoys driving the machinethat you have them in.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
In a fleet that can afford it.
I think it is.
I mean and this carries on intoconstruction equipment, I mean,
if you're looking at the stuffthat was at CES, I mean, look at
what Hyundai's got, theelectric excavator, you know AI
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That thing is so flipping cool.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
It is.
It's got four tracks.
They've changed the look of theboom.
They've added somefunctionality for left to right
swing on the boom.
You know, that's the stuff thatI look forward to in the future
.
You're always going to have theconventional excavators, you're
always going to have theconventional wheel loaders and
then you're going to have theones that are out there like
that.
And you know what, if thatworks for a fleet, have at it.
(16:45):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
You know, the thing that I really thought was
impressive when Hyundai came outto the CES show, they had a see
through bucket or a see throughdozer blade that would allow
you to see what was in thebucket by using kind of like
sonar sensors and cameras.
So you lift the thing up and itprojects onto the screen, like
(17:11):
the windshield of the cab isreplaced by a translucent OLED
screen, and you could actuallysee what was in there.
And as you're going into theground, it's showing you like
hey, this is what the load lookslike, this is what the rocks
and dirt and everything lookslike, and it enables you to like
, really keep everythingbalanced and stable.
I thought that was really cool.
I don't know how you know, Idon't know how useful it
(17:34):
actually is in practice If it'snot going to let you see gas
lines or electrical lines, but Ithought it was really really
neat.
And they also had their littlerobot autonomous bulldozer there
that they showed first twoyears ago to show how far
they've come in just two yearsfrom this, you know, big four
track autonomous excavator tothis weird little thing that
(17:55):
looks kind of like Johnny five.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It's tremendous how quickly these things are
changing, that's really coolproject and they've come such a
long way with that, like yousaid, in a very short amount of
time.
I was, you know, we were.
We're going over some of thestuff earlier, but the you know
the electric mining equipmentfor underground mining, you know
that has come so far.
It's so purpose built.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You know, kat, there's a, there's a couple
other brands, you know, but yeah, kat was the one who showed up
at CES with like a full suite ofelectrified mining products.
I mean, their whole thing atthe CES show was all about
mining.
They had this giant electricunderground dozer.
They had an electric miniexcavator that was still hooked
(18:40):
up with hydraulics.
They had, you know, just allkinds of underground charging
equipment.
It was really neat.
They had a generator that was.
They called it a multi fuelgenerator and it could run on
hydrogen, it could run onpropane, it could run on diesel
and it would be enough and runclean enough in that like tier
five environment to be able to,you know, produce power for the
(19:04):
excavator and for the mining rigand everything else.
And I thought it was a reallyneat setup for them.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I mean it is a neat setup and we actually just got a
string of work that is 100%electric.
You have to have electricequipment if you're gonna work
in.
There Could be a forklift, manlift, scissor lift, whatever.
It's gotta be all electric And-.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Is that because of the company's goals, or is it
like a regulation thing?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
No, company's goals and it's some of the first of
the private projects thatcompanies are releasing, but
they're putting the criteria onthere that you need to be
electric, and it's justreinforces that.
You're gonna see more and moreof this as time goes on.
Yeah, and yeah, sometimes whenyou're inside, there's
alternatives to electric, or ifyou're doing some stuff and
(19:52):
we've already ran into that,where they're like no, we know
there's alternatives, we wantyou to be electric, that's it.
We just had a project reviewthis week and I was reaching out
to a few other industry peoplethat I know in the country and
they said the same thing.
They're like it was like 2024,we switched over the calendar
and then clients started saying,hey, we know there's
alternatives out there, butbring your electric gear.
(20:13):
Yeah, so it's common, it'scoming quick.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, and I think it's such a visual thing right,
like if you're a company and youhave an ESG goal, whether
that's because of yourshareholders, whether that's
because of PR thing or someother element that's driving
that right.
Maybe it's a cost savings thing, but at the end of the day it's
really tough for a company tosay, look, we're going to talk
(20:39):
the talk when it comes toenvironment or electric or
whatever else.
And then you've got all thesebig heavy diesel machines
outside breaking up concrete andmoving dirt Exactly.
It's so easy for a critic tojust point at that and go what
are these things doing here?
Then?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Well, same thing with the underground mining.
I mean, look at how far we'vecome with underground mining.
This is where I'm saying itcomes full circle, from small
equipment up to mining equipmentthat's underground.
You know, you're talking aboutdays of the old coal lanterns
and coal lanterns and they godown underground and black lung
and everything else.
And here we're trying to minewith ultra filtration on the cab
(21:16):
, all kinds of safeguards thatare put into all that.
Plus it's electric, you know,trying to make a move towards
electric vehicles.
And then there's all kinds ofliterature out there.
Now I get it thrown at me allthe time which is skewing
everybody's deal, where they'relike hey, I get to mine all that
coal to generate the power tothen turn around and charge the
battery, to charge the vehiclethat you're gonna mine the coal
(21:38):
for Did that for years withdiesel fuel, though.
We did that for years withdiesel fuel.
What?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
do you mean it just wasn't a?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
direct, linear.
It just wasn't a direct pathwhere, yes, we were digging up
fossil fuels and we weregenerating power with it, but
whether you have natural gascoming out of the ground, you're
burning coal or you're usinguranium to have a controlled
fusion, you're gonna createelectricity.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Right, that's what we do.
Well, that's right.
And the other aspect of thatand the coal is kind of maybe
not the best example of that,but we've talked about this
before with diesel, where itdoesn't matter what you're
burning because you're notwasting any of the energy at
idle 100% of the electric thatyou generate goes into work,
(22:25):
goes into moving, the vehiclegoes into moving, the boom arm
goes into moving, whatever it is, you're not sitting there
spending idle time burningenergy, so it's definitely more
efficient.
I mean, I don't care if everyEV is powered by coal, it's fine
, it's just what we're doing now.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Right, when you get into a weather event and stuff
like that and you're having ahard time charging stuff, that's
a whole other level.
But it's where we're going.
People that are just gonnafight it are just gonna get left
behind.
I mean, we keep saying thisover and over again Hydrogen's
gonna have its place, electric'sgonna have its place, the
market's reflecting that and allthe OEMs or anybody that says
(23:05):
no, that'll never happen.
Look at what's coming out.
Everything that's coming out iselectric.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But those are the same guys, the guys that are
saying it's never gonna happen.
Those are the same guys thatyou know, back in the 90s, said
I'm never gonna carry a cellphone with me, I'm not gonna
give my wife a leash that shecan always hold on to.
And then, when the iPhone comeout, they were saying I'm never
gonna buy that.
$1,000 for a phone isridiculous.
My phone does everything I need.
These are the same guys overand over again.
(23:33):
A hundred years ago they weresaying I'm gonna stick to my
horse, I'm not gonna put somecrazy fire explosion thing
underneath my seat.
These guys are always aroundand they always get left behind.
It just is what it is Totally.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
And you know CES is great because that's becoming
more and more and more equipmentbased.
You always have con expo right.
That once every three year megaevent.
It always comes around, it's agreat time, but CES is the
annual event and the turnoutfrom the vendors at CES was
incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, and you're gonna see more and more of that,
you know we've already talkedabout.
John Deere.
We've talked about Hyundai.
We talked about Caterpillar.
I wanna talk a little bit aboutBobcat.
Bobcat really brought some coolstuff.
They have this like BladeRunner Apocalyptic sort of claw
dozer robot thing that's ahundred percent remote control.
They did a great job showingaugmented reality.
(24:27):
Now what that is is they kindof overlay all the utility lines
and power cables and everythingover the windshield so that as
you're operating this littlemini excavator you can see what
you're digging into.
And on the show floor in theconvention center they had this
thing up and running and youcould see where all of the
(24:48):
electrical and gas and waterlines were literally underneath
you.
And I just thought that was socool.
I've never seen anything likethat.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Now that's a huge push in the market today is
getting yourself set up whereyou can do self testing to find
utilities.
But have it be accurate.
I mean Ridge Tool and Milwaukeeand those guys like.
There's a few people out therethat have really mastered as
much as you can with the giventechnology we have finding
utilities under the ground,right With the handheld devices,
(25:17):
and integrating that into amachine so you can look at
something and go, no, there'ssomething under there.
Yeah, I may not know exactlywhat it is, but there's
something there.
Yeah, that's.
That's a daily occurrence onall kinds of job sites.
You're digging along oops, hasbeen there, they've been out
there, they've marked it andthen you dig up some mystery
(25:38):
line that no one knew was there.
They didn't even notice where,they couldn't even see it with
the gpr.
So, bob, can't though Bob, kidsalways come out with stuff.
I haven't, I've had of thatI've had, I've ever yeah, there
are you're?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
doing that space and there's still the only ones that
have a full electric Excavatorand a full electric dozer.
What I mean by that is itdoesn't use hydraulics at any
point in the arm, it's usingelectric motors and actuators.
Yes, I Myself don't thinkthat's a great idea, because
Bobcat stuff now only works withBobcat.
(26:11):
You can't go and get thosehydraulic hammers and everything
else like the.
You know that was the decisionthat Volvo and Kubota and
Caterpillar made with theirlittle mini excavators and
dozers and things like that Wasto still maintain hydraulics so
that they could use legacyimplements and, you know,
aftermarket stuff.
(26:32):
But you know Bobcat's beingpretty brave and just saying
like, look, we're building thisthing all electric.
You're not gonna have to sitthere for a half hour and heat
up the oil and get it up tooperating temperature.
You're not gonna have to worryabout leaks and drips on job
sites, we're gonna just makethis thing fully electric.
And I got a hand it to him.
That's a bold move.
It's kind of like the Applestrategy where, like, the Apple
(26:54):
chargers only work with Appleand the Apple headphones only
work with Apple and otherwiseit's useless.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So you know, hopefully it pays off for him at
least a decade ago, bobcat cameout where where they still had
hydraulic attachments but theelectric interface Between the
machine and the attachment whichdid the control.
So when you move the buttonsaround the joystick and actually
moved what you wanted it tomove for on the attachment, that
(27:21):
became proprietary and as theymove towards True can bus
connectivity between the boom orthe arm of the machine and the
attachment that you had they.
They started that down thatpath a long time ago.
A lot of people criticized themfor it.
However, many fleetsStandardized on Bobcat used
(27:43):
Bobcat entirely machine theattachment.
We used the parts system, thedealer network and it worked.
The same people that criticizedthat a lot of them in my
circles, were the same peoplethat love caterpillar and Use
the entire caterpillar network.
So yeah it's.
What I'm getting at is it's abig pick, your poison.
(28:04):
None of it's perfect, but picka plan and stick with it.
The guys that really get leftout on the cold.
To the ones that want to dabblein one thing and Dabble in
another and then complain thatnone of it works with each other
Well, you set yourself up forthat.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, but sometimes that happens.
I mean, you know you've got amixed fleet, I think to some
degree, don't you have scenarioswhere, like, you have to have a
certain thing and this is theguy you know, some telehandler
or some vacuum pump or whateverit is, and it's just not made by
the guys that you prefer.
So you have to go kind ofoutside the ecosystem well, I
get what we did and Wasn't myidea.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I mean I was.
I had this ingrained in me atan early age in the industry
when I took this fleet over.
We, we went out of our way tostandardize it.
So every excavator of a givensize uses all the same buckets,
the hydraulic couplers, grab,all the same attachments, all
the Hydraulic hammers work onthe same size, class and machine
(29:03):
.
We are a hundred percentuniversal.
I didn't happen overnight, butthe fleet had gotten to that
where you know, unit number Xhad to have all these
attachments drag, drug with iteverywhere that it went because
the stuff was different and whathappened was over, like it took
three years and over three,three years plus.
We standardized everything andjust found those oddballs.
(29:27):
I mean I had worked for anothercompany, with the, with another
big fleet, and that that wastheir legacy from Many decades
before I started, where they hadsaid listen, we're gonna do
this universally.
It takes time, it takes effort,takes forethought, but you, but
you need to do it and I don'tcare what brand you use,
(29:49):
everybody has a good solution.
John Deere has their way,caterpillar has their way,
bobcat has their way, and youget into the very large
equipment.
You know you have Hitachi nowit was broke off on their own.
John Deere's out there as theybroke off on their own, they
just separated some of theirNorth American deal with John
Deere.
We've talked about that in thepast.
If you follow the plan,especially today, it works.
(30:10):
Yeah, everybody's kind ofpigeonholed themselves into
their own little thing, orthere's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I don't think.
I think that's fine as long asthe fleet's doing what you want
it to do, and I think it's agood matters now.
Think it's a good segue herethat you know if you find a
piece of equipment that looksinteresting, you're not sure if
it's gonna do the job for you.
Maybe you rent it.
Give it a try there.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Hey, we do it all the time.
We re-rent a lot of stuff.
We try it out and if we get toa point we're running it all the
time, we look at buying it andif it, if it makes sense and the
pencil works, we buy it.
It's how it works.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah Well, that's enough of a plug for that.
Who won't even mention them?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
No, we're good.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Sponsoring the show.
We don't even say your nameanymore.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Now you know who you are, and we know who you are,
and really that's all thatmatters, and we know that, you
know that.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
We know who you are.
That's right.
That is right next week for thenext exciting episode.
And how do you want to closethis one off?
I was thinking of theSilverhawks theme song.
That's one we haven't heard ina while.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Toon in next week for more heavy equipment podcast on
Spotify, apple podcast, googleor wherever you find podcasts.
Whether we're exploring the latest in trucking
technology, talking about thetrends that propel the industry
forward, or uncovering storiesabout the dedicated individuals
who keep the wheels of Americaturning, this is where the roar
of the engines and pulse ofprogress come together.
It's sublime, it's surreal.
This is the Heavy EquipmentPodcast with Mike and Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome back to the Heavy Equipment Podcast.
This is our first episode ofthe new year.
I'm your host, joe Boris, here,as ever, with Mike Switzer.
How you doing, man.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hey, we're doing good .
Everybody's been sick.
Everybody's getting over thecold.
It's sweeping througheverywhere and everybody that I
know.
Everybody's just getting sick.
You get through the holidaysand we were going to record
before, but it just we were alldying.
And then you went to CES.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And then I went to CES in Las Vegas.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But you know what, Mike?
As we talk about January andeverybody getting out of the
holidays and the doldrums thereand the darkness outside, there
is a light at the end of thetunnel.
Sure is, the Flying J FishSandwich is coming back February
1st.
You know that's a sandwich,Michael.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It looks like one.
My question is, I wonder, if itpasses a 100 mile test.
If you eat that, are you goingto make it 100 miles down the
road without having to stop you?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
won't make it 100 yards.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Which is fine.
Well, yeah, if you don't makeit 100 yards, you're back in the
.
I mean, you're still on site,so that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You're on site, it's not a problem.
You just got to plan the trip.
You got to eat the sandwichfirst and then do your business
and then get back on the road.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
We lost them a few years ago.
But you remember, you know BertReynolds.
He had that crazy run.
I just see people running withRunning through the lot.
They're just trying to find ashady place that they can crouch
down.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Man, oh you know, but there's no reason for that,
though, because the Flying JStalls are actually quite nice.
They had a lot of nice meetingsin there.
We're not talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Okay, listen, we're not talking about the Flying J's
facilities, because we all knowthat they are top quality in
this nation they are.
What I'm saying is is that, yes, everybody's sick and they're
all doing that, and you want toenjoy the new fish sandwich that
comes out February 1st and thencombine that with all the other
stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I don't know, One of my favorite things about going
into the pilots and Flying J'sis they really are kind of
different, like the ones inFlorida are different from the
ones in Indiana or Wisconsin.
Oh yeah, it's a subtledifference, but you'll get
alligator heads or something inFlorida and then you'll get
(02:58):
weird cheese ornaments inWisconsin.
It's cool.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, they all have that.
I mean even loves and thoseother guys.
I mean they all have those whenyou walk in.
It's just variations of thesame stuff, but what they are
are different really.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's regionalized.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, you know what I guarantee you.
There are trucks out theregoing up and down the road and
there's heavy equipment too,that those are all dangling in
the back like trinkets, justswinging as the stuff gets moved
around.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's like the old 70s bead curtain, but it's all made
up of weird chotchkeets fromFlying J and pilot.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Exactly.
You got the cheese wedge andthen you got the alligator head
and you got a spur.
You've been down in Texas andyou get some cacti because
you're out in the Southwest, andthen I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I think it's great.
I think that'd be phenomenal.
I'd do that.
Somebody's got that on anInstagram or an OnlyFans
somewhere.
We'll be able to check it out.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, I mean listen, I mean guys hang all kinds of
chotchkeet stuff in theirexcavators and then wheel
loaders and stuff they're inevery day.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's true.
Why wouldn't they do that?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I don't know if this is something we want to talk
about, but you know, pilotFlying J that group has always
had a couple of different owners, but now Berkshire Hathaway you
know, Berkshire Hathaway is nowthe sole owner of that.
That's, of course, WarrenBuffett's company.
So it's kind of interestingthere, because they've owned a
big chunk of that since about2017, but now they own 100% of
(04:26):
it.
So that's going to change howthose profit and loss reports
are put out, how the P&Lreporting goes.
That's going to change quite alot of it, but I don't really
understand why they would dothat.
So Warren Buffett's philosophyand Berkshire Hathaway's
philosophy has always been toinvest in something that is
(04:47):
resistant to trends and, likethey're very famously invested
in Coca-Cola Like, am I going todrink a Coca-Cola 10 years from
now?
Absolutely Right, and that'skind of how they make their
decisions.
So that's kind of a long-termvote of confidence that these,
you know, these service stations, these service plazas, aren't
going anywhere.
And you know, I always comefrom this world of
(05:07):
electrification and EVs in myother life and I have to say I
think that these companies likeFlying J, Pilot Loves they are
perfectly suited for people onroad trips and electric cars
because they're set up forpeople to spend some time there.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
You know, if they have the charging infrastructure
, at least you have a good spotwhere you can stop and in most
places it's safe and charge yourcar and go hang out for a
minute, eat some lunch and thentake off again.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, and they're already set up to be 24-7 for
the truck drivers.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We were actually we were just talking about this
this week.
You know, some places come andsome places go and then you go
buy one day and they're boardedup and you know, like man, that
place was really good but PilotFlying J Loves they're going to
be around for a long time, youknow, and Berkshire Hathaway
buying them.
That's a great move.
(05:59):
There's very few staples outthere, you know, and I'm sure
they have a long-term play withit and I'm sure electrification
is part of it and maybe themovement towards hydrogen, that
they're going to start workingon infrastructure.
I'm sure that's a big part ofit as well.
I want to know if they're goingto buy the Browns, because I
think they should.
It could be the BerkshireBrownies.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I don't think that's going to happen though.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I know yeah, because the guys in the dog pound.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's all they're screaming, the guys in the tunk.
It is at the end of the, at theend of the stadium.
It says the dog pound and thenyou go you sit in there and it
is wild.
If you don't watch you're goingto get just levitated down and
dropped into the field byaccident.
They're field side, likethey're on the ground level by
the time you get down there andI'm telling you so wild.
(07:11):
There's just stuff everywhereand at the end of the game
you're like was somebodysweeping the field when we
weren't watching when all thisstuff come from?
Where did this happen?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You're sitting there, who would throw an entire hot
dog onto the field?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That's Astro Turf, that's sterile yeah.
And then I'll tell you thestory while we're doing this
While we're recording.
Yeah, so I was at this game onetime and a guy standing next to
me.
We're all screaming andhollering and everything, and
basketball game.
There's a point where the cowsare going to lose and basketball
gets stuck in the backstop.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Like in that basket right Between the just wedged
itself in there.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Next thing, you know game changer, right Guy standing
next to me.
We're up Not very like real far, but we're halfway up in this.
He yells and throws his arm forit and the cup just left his
hand and sails on down into thecrowd.
Oh no, and we were just frozenfor, like you know, a good two
(08:18):
seconds because you're waitingfor somebody to yell upwards.
The whole place was so crazyand going so loud and so hard.
We never heard anything.
We just got more drinks.
We thought for sure that cupwas coming back up 20 something
rows empty with a fist in it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That'd be quite a thing.
That'd be quite a thing.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Oh yeah, it was.
He just went like that and thenit, that was it.
20 ounces Miller light whensailing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Oh, that's like $13 here in Chicago Talking about
it's more net here in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
You guys always talk about oh, here in Chicago, this
is expensive.
Come back to Cleveland.
Cleveland's the new Chicago.
Everything's more money now.
Yeah, you guys still have themafia too.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Kind of it's called the.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You can say I thought it was the Ohio State Patrol or
that one dude was in his trunkof his car, shot nine times and
they ruled it as suicide afterthey cut.
After the fire department putit out, we're going to let this
burn itself out.
Set there watching it burn foran hour, I could believe that.
I think it's out, it's fine.
(09:30):
Oh man, that's wild stuff.
But speaking of the mafia, Iwas in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You gotta cut out the whole thing that that can't be
on there.
Why you can't have that onthere?
Because we work for them.
Sorry, you gotta cut that out,it's so good, I'll beep it out.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It'll be like you can't have that on there.
They'll just be like what arethese guys saying?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
But I mean the recording the troubles.
We are Yep and I must go.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Speaking of the mafia .
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was recently in Las Vegas for the consumer
electronics show, the CES show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And there were people out there.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Oh, a lot of 180,000 people.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I think we all got some kind of virus.
There was that weird orgy inthe Tesla tunnel run.
That was kind of fun, but man,it was a rough show.
I got lost.
I was in the wrong buildinghalf the time but there was a
ton of really, really neat heavyequipment stuff and autonomous
stuff.
And you know, one that I didn'tsend you was John Deere.
(10:52):
They had one of theirautonomous combines and
harvesters, yeah, and it's setup in Austin, texas.
It's got cameras and droneoperators and everything there
and you can control it from youriPhone.
You can literally just put yourfinger on the map and push it
this way and that and move itaround.
And they had it set up so youcould play with that thing from
the show floor.
And I immediately crashed it.
(11:13):
Sure, it's doing it.
I was like what's wrong with it?
They're like, oh, it's anemergency stop, you must have
hit a root or something.
I was like, oh, root, who knows?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
This thing's a little sensitive, careful when you
move your thumb, exactly youknow what?
What kills me is a lot of thefarming equipment still has an
identity between the variousbrands, right.
So you got Kase, you got JohnDeere.
They kind of hold their owndesign and appearance right.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, you can tell a deer from a New Holland or
something, even if it's notpainted the right colors.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Exactly, and that's my whole point.
They still hold their ownidentity with all that stuff and
I think they've always done areally good job marketing wise,
all having their own look, andthat goes back into the fifties
and the forties, you know andthe trucks though today and some
of this other stuff that keepscoming out.
and CES had the Peterbilt FutureTruck.
(12:17):
That was.
That was out there.
You know, tesla's had theirtruck of the future,
freightliner had their truck ofthe future.
That was out there.
They kind of look the same theydo, and a lot of that central
cab, central seating stuff, alot of it is the same looking.
I'm kind of disappointed in alot of that and some of the
(12:38):
stuff that I was looking at fromCES.
I'm like guys put somecharacter into it.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's hard because keep in mind farm equipment, ag
equipment, constructionequipment it really don't need
aerodynamics.
The point of it is notaerodynamic.
When you start getting intolike the Super Truck 2 and like
the hyper truck and Tesla semiand everything is about
aerodynamic efficiency therereally is a best way to go
(13:07):
through the air and most ofthese guys are getting real
close to that.
It's the same thing whathappens in Formula One, in
Indycar, where you look back 40,50 years and there was all
kinds of different ideas beingtried out because they really
didn't know Right.
And we know we understand thescience and all of it kind of
looks the same, except for thestickers on it.
(13:28):
And we're coming to that withtrucks.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, but you know, somehow when you watch Star Trek
all those ships look different.
They all have their ownidentity.
The enterprise looked like theenterprise.
It really did.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It went to the saws separation, which is really cool
.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We all lean forward in our seats and we all watch
that.
But going back to what we'retalking about now, they got to
do something to the spices.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
accept a little bit, you think they need like a
saucer separation, like thewhole top of the cab just hovers
off like a drone.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, but I think we just got to come up with like
its own identity.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I think you're right and I think you're going to
start to see that.
But I think what you're going tosee is very similar to what
we've seen in other markets,which is this like push towards
retroism.
There's going to be the guysthat have that conventional
vertical cab, you know, verticalgrill and they're willing to
give up a little bit ofefficiency to have that look.
(14:27):
You're going to see that fromthe owner operators.
You're going to see that fromguys who really identify, that
are not truck drivers for apaycheck but who identify as
truckers.
They identify with that cultureand they're going to be willing
to spend a little bit extrabecause ultimately, that's what
it is.
It's spending a little bit morebecause if you can say, look
(14:48):
this truck and this truck, theyhave the same price, but this
one's going to cost me, whateverit is $11 a day less in fuel
over the course of whatever,however many days of operation.
If you're a corporate fleetbuyer, you're not going to take
a second look at that truckbased on what it looks like.
You're just going to look atthe efficiency numbers and that
means you're going to get anoptimized bullet truck.
That's how it is.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Well, you know a lot of us fleet managers.
We talk about that stuff allthe time.
You know equipment managers,fleet managers, directors,
whatever you know, whatever ourtitle is where we're at.
We joke about that becausethere are fleets out there that
you know they look at somethingand if it's $11 a day different
and they have 10,000 units onthe road, if you got 12, we
might go the cool route.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh, I got totally yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Exactly, that's what I'm saying, because you know.
I mean, do the math, you knowif it was $12 a day and you got
12 trucks, $144, you know what Imean.
Like $144 a day, the guy don'tlike what he's driving, he's
going to waste more than thatand what he breaks off the
inside of it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, that's true, I mean.
I think there's a big componentto this also of being satisfied
in your job and being able toretain your drivers by keeping
them happy.
Maybe that's worth $11 or $12 aday to have someone experienced
who enjoys driving the machinethat you have them in.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
In a fleet that can afford it.
I think it is.
I mean and this carries on intoconstruction equipment, I mean,
if you're looking at the stuffthat was at CES, I mean, look at
what Hyundai's got, theelectric excavator, you know AI
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That thing is so flipping cool.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
It is.
It's got four tracks.
They've changed the look of theboom.
They've added somefunctionality for left to right
swing on the boom.
You know, that's the stuff thatI look forward to in the future
.
You're always going to have theconventional excavators, you're
always going to have theconventional wheel loaders and
then you're going to have theones that are out there like
that.
And you know what, if thatworks for a fleet, have at it.
(16:45):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
You know, the thing that I really thought was
impressive when Hyundai came outto the CES show, they had a see
through bucket or a see throughdozer blade that would allow
you to see what was in thebucket by using kind of like
sonar sensors and cameras.
So you lift the thing up and itprojects onto the screen, like
(17:11):
the windshield of the cab isreplaced by a translucent OLED
screen, and you could actuallysee what was in there.
And as you're going into theground, it's showing you like
hey, this is what the load lookslike, this is what the rocks
and dirt and everything lookslike, and it enables you to like
, really keep everythingbalanced and stable.
I thought that was really cool.
I don't know how you know, Idon't know how useful it
(17:34):
actually is in practice If it'snot going to let you see gas
lines or electrical lines, but Ithought it was really really
neat.
And they also had their littlerobot autonomous bulldozer there
that they showed first twoyears ago to show how far
they've come in just two yearsfrom this, you know, big four
track autonomous excavator tothis weird little thing that
(17:55):
looks kind of like Johnny five.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It's tremendous how quickly these things are
changing, that's really coolproject and they've come such a
long way with that, like yousaid, in a very short amount of
time.
I was, you know, we were.
We're going over some of thestuff earlier, but the you know
the electric mining equipmentfor underground mining, you know
that has come so far.
It's so purpose built.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You know, kat, there's a, there's a couple
other brands, you know, but yeah, kat was the one who showed up
at CES with like a full suite ofelectrified mining products.
I mean, their whole thing atthe CES show was all about
mining.
They had this giant electricunderground dozer.
They had an electric miniexcavator that was still hooked
(18:40):
up with hydraulics.
They had, you know, just allkinds of underground charging
equipment.
It was really neat.
They had a generator that was.
They called it a multi fuelgenerator and it could run on
hydrogen, it could run onpropane, it could run on diesel
and it would be enough and runclean enough in that like tier
five environment to be able to,you know, produce power for the
(19:04):
excavator and for the mining rigand everything else.
And I thought it was a reallyneat setup for them.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I mean it is a neat setup and we actually just got a
string of work that is 100%electric.
You have to have electricequipment if you're gonna work
in.
There Could be a forklift, manlift, scissor lift, whatever.
It's gotta be all electric And-.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Is that because of the company's goals, or is it
like a regulation thing?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
No, company's goals and it's some of the first of
the private projects thatcompanies are releasing, but
they're putting the criteria onthere that you need to be
electric, and it's justreinforces that.
You're gonna see more and moreof this as time goes on.
Yeah, and yeah, sometimes whenyou're inside, there's
alternatives to electric, or ifyou're doing some stuff and
(19:52):
we've already ran into that,where they're like no, we know
there's alternatives, we wantyou to be electric, that's it.
We just had a project reviewthis week and I was reaching out
to a few other industry peoplethat I know in the country and
they said the same thing.
They're like it was like 2024,we switched over the calendar
and then clients started saying,hey, we know there's
alternatives out there, butbring your electric gear.
(20:13):
Yeah, so it's common, it'scoming quick.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, and I think it's such a visual thing right,
like if you're a company and youhave an ESG goal, whether
that's because of yourshareholders, whether that's
because of PR thing or someother element that's driving
that right.
Maybe it's a cost savings thing, but at the end of the day it's
really tough for a company tosay, look, we're going to talk
(20:39):
the talk when it comes toenvironment or electric or
whatever else.
And then you've got all thesebig heavy diesel machines
outside breaking up concrete andmoving dirt Exactly.
It's so easy for a critic tojust point at that and go what
are these things doing here?
Then?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Well, same thing with the underground mining.
I mean, look at how far we'vecome with underground mining.
This is where I'm saying itcomes full circle, from small
equipment up to mining equipmentthat's underground.
You know, you're talking aboutdays of the old coal lanterns
and coal lanterns and they godown underground and black lung
and everything else.
And here we're trying to minewith ultra filtration on the cab
(21:16):
, all kinds of safeguards thatare put into all that.
Plus it's electric, you know,trying to make a move towards
electric vehicles.
And then there's all kinds ofliterature out there.
Now I get it thrown at me allthe time which is skewing
everybody's deal, where they'relike hey, I get to mine all that
coal to generate the power tothen turn around and charge the
battery, to charge the vehiclethat you're gonna mine the coal
(21:38):
for Did that for years withdiesel fuel, though.
We did that for years withdiesel fuel.
What?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
do you mean it just wasn't a?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
direct, linear.
It just wasn't a direct pathwhere, yes, we were digging up
fossil fuels and we weregenerating power with it, but
whether you have natural gascoming out of the ground, you're
burning coal or you're usinguranium to have a controlled
fusion, you're gonna createelectricity.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Right, that's what we do.
Well, that's right.
And the other aspect of thatand the coal is kind of maybe
not the best example of that,but we've talked about this
before with diesel, where itdoesn't matter what you're
burning because you're notwasting any of the energy at
idle 100% of the electric thatyou generate goes into work,
(22:25):
goes into moving, the vehiclegoes into moving, the boom arm
goes into moving, whatever it is, you're not sitting there
spending idle time burningenergy, so it's definitely more
efficient.
I mean, I don't care if everyEV is powered by coal, it's fine
, it's just what we're doing now.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Right, when you get into a weather event and stuff
like that and you're having ahard time charging stuff, that's
a whole other level.
But it's where we're going.
People that are just gonnafight it are just gonna get left
behind.
I mean, we keep saying thisover and over again Hydrogen's
gonna have its place, electric'sgonna have its place, the
market's reflecting that and allthe OEMs or anybody that says
(23:05):
no, that'll never happen.
Look at what's coming out.
Everything that's coming out iselectric.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But those are the same guys, the guys that are
saying it's never gonna happen.
Those are the same guys thatyou know, back in the 90s, said
I'm never gonna carry a cellphone with me, I'm not gonna
give my wife a leash that shecan always hold on to.
And then, when the iPhone comeout, they were saying I'm never
gonna buy that.
$1,000 for a phone isridiculous.
My phone does everything I need.
These are the same guys overand over again.
(23:33):
A hundred years ago they weresaying I'm gonna stick to my
horse, I'm not gonna put somecrazy fire explosion thing
underneath my seat.
These guys are always aroundand they always get left behind.
It just is what it is Totally.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
And you know CES is great because that's becoming
more and more and more equipmentbased.
You always have con expo right.
That once every three year megaevent.
It always comes around, it's agreat time, but CES is the
annual event and the turnoutfrom the vendors at CES was
incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, and you're gonna see more and more of that,
you know we've already talkedabout.
John Deere.
We've talked about Hyundai.
We talked about Caterpillar.
I wanna talk a little bit aboutBobcat.
Bobcat really brought some coolstuff.
They have this like BladeRunner Apocalyptic sort of claw
dozer robot thing that's ahundred percent remote control.
They did a great job showingaugmented reality.
(24:27):
Now what that is is they kindof overlay all the utility lines
and power cables and everythingover the windshield so that as
you're operating this littlemini excavator you can see what
you're digging into.
And on the show floor in theconvention center they had this
thing up and running and youcould see where all of the
(24:48):
electrical and gas and waterlines were literally underneath
you.
And I just thought that was socool.
I've never seen anything likethat.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Now that's a huge push in the market today is
getting yourself set up whereyou can do self testing to find
utilities.
But have it be accurate.
I mean Ridge Tool and Milwaukeeand those guys like.
There's a few people out therethat have really mastered as
much as you can with the giventechnology we have finding
utilities under the ground,right With the handheld devices,
(25:17):
and integrating that into amachine so you can look at
something and go, no, there'ssomething under there.
Yeah, I may not know exactlywhat it is, but there's
something there.
Yeah, that's.
That's a daily occurrence onall kinds of job sites.
You're digging along oops, hasbeen there, they've been out
there, they've marked it andthen you dig up some mystery
(25:38):
line that no one knew was there.
They didn't even notice where,they couldn't even see it with
the gpr.
So, bob, can't though Bob, kidsalways come out with stuff.
I haven't, I've had of thatI've had, I've ever yeah, there
are you're?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
doing that space and there's still the only ones that
have a full electric Excavatorand a full electric dozer.
What I mean by that is itdoesn't use hydraulics at any
point in the arm, it's usingelectric motors and actuators.
Yes, I Myself don't thinkthat's a great idea, because
Bobcat stuff now only works withBobcat.
(26:11):
You can't go and get thosehydraulic hammers and everything
else like the.
You know that was the decisionthat Volvo and Kubota and
Caterpillar made with theirlittle mini excavators and
dozers and things like that Wasto still maintain hydraulics so
that they could use legacyimplements and, you know,
aftermarket stuff.
(26:32):
But you know Bobcat's beingpretty brave and just saying
like, look, we're building thisthing all electric.
You're not gonna have to sitthere for a half hour and heat
up the oil and get it up tooperating temperature.
You're not gonna have to worryabout leaks and drips on job
sites, we're gonna just makethis thing fully electric.
And I got a hand it to him.
That's a bold move.
It's kind of like the Applestrategy where, like, the Apple
(26:54):
chargers only work with Appleand the Apple headphones only
work with Apple and otherwiseit's useless.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So you know, hopefully it pays off for him at
least a decade ago, bobcat cameout where where they still had
hydraulic attachments but theelectric interface Between the
machine and the attachment whichdid the control.
So when you move the buttonsaround the joystick and actually
moved what you wanted it tomove for on the attachment, that
(27:21):
became proprietary and as theymove towards True can bus
connectivity between the boom orthe arm of the machine and the
attachment that you had they.
They started that down thatpath a long time ago.
A lot of people criticized themfor it.
However, many fleetsStandardized on Bobcat used
(27:43):
Bobcat entirely machine theattachment.
We used the parts system, thedealer network and it worked.
The same people that criticizedthat a lot of them in my
circles, were the same peoplethat love caterpillar and Use
the entire caterpillar network.
So yeah it's.
What I'm getting at is it's abig pick, your poison.
(28:04):
None of it's perfect, but picka plan and stick with it.
The guys that really get leftout on the cold.
To the ones that want to dabblein one thing and Dabble in
another and then complain thatnone of it works with each other
Well, you set yourself up forthat.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, but sometimes that happens.
I mean, you know you've got amixed fleet, I think to some
degree, don't you have scenarioswhere, like, you have to have a
certain thing and this is theguy you know, some telehandler
or some vacuum pump or whateverit is, and it's just not made by
the guys that you prefer.
So you have to go kind ofoutside the ecosystem well, I
get what we did and Wasn't myidea.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I mean I was.
I had this ingrained in me atan early age in the industry
when I took this fleet over.
We, we went out of our way tostandardize it.
So every excavator of a givensize uses all the same buckets,
the hydraulic couplers, grab,all the same attachments, all
the Hydraulic hammers work onthe same size, class and machine
(29:03):
.
We are a hundred percentuniversal.
I didn't happen overnight, butthe fleet had gotten to that
where you know, unit number Xhad to have all these
attachments drag, drug with iteverywhere that it went because
the stuff was different and whathappened was over, like it took
three years and over three,three years plus.
We standardized everything andjust found those oddballs.
(29:27):
I mean I had worked for anothercompany, with the, with another
big fleet, and that that wastheir legacy from Many decades
before I started, where they hadsaid listen, we're gonna do
this universally.
It takes time, it takes effort,takes forethought, but you, but
you need to do it and I don'tcare what brand you use,
(29:49):
everybody has a good solution.
John Deere has their way,caterpillar has their way,
bobcat has their way, and youget into the very large
equipment.
You know you have Hitachi nowit was broke off on their own.
John Deere's out there as theybroke off on their own, they
just separated some of theirNorth American deal with John
Deere.
We've talked about that in thepast.
If you follow the plan,especially today, it works.
(30:10):
Yeah, everybody's kind ofpigeonholed themselves into
their own little thing, orthere's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I don't think.
I think that's fine as long asthe fleet's doing what you want
it to do, and I think it's agood matters now.
Think it's a good segue herethat you know if you find a
piece of equipment that looksinteresting, you're not sure if
it's gonna do the job for you.
Maybe you rent it.
Give it a try there.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Hey, we do it all the time.
We re-rent a lot of stuff.
We try it out and if we get toa point we're running it all the
time, we look at buying it andif it, if it makes sense and the
pencil works, we buy it.
It's how it works.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah Well, that's enough of a plug for that.
Who won't even mention them?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
No, we're good.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Sponsoring the show.
We don't even say your nameanymore.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Now you know who you are, and we know who you are,
and really that's all thatmatters, and we know that, you
know that.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
We know who you are.
That's right.
That is right next week for thenext exciting episode.
And how do you want to closethis one off?
I was thinking of theSilverhawks theme song.
That's one we haven't heard ina while.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Toon in next week for more heavy equipment podcast on
Spotify, apple podcast, googleor wherever you find podcasts.
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